2008 / 2009

Got my hair cut at 9:00 in the morning. Went home to have some breakfast, doing some laundry. The weather was lovely so I wanted to go swimming during the day. I usually go to an outdoor pool in the botanical gardens. But that I could forget. It was around lunchtime but it was already 1000nds of people cuing to get a good spot for the fireworks at midnight. I decided to head to the beach instead. I took a long walk to Bondi Juncion checking out the area at the same time, and a t-shirt printing place I had heard of (it was not as good as I hoped for though). Then to the bus the last bit to Bronte Beach. Mikkel and Gustav joined in eventually. It was a great day at the beach with big waves in the water. In the afternoon we went back into town. I met up with Kat and we had a few drinks at my balcony listening to some music. It was great. Eventually Gustav, Mikkel and Rajdarn came over and we had a late dinner at Chat Thai. There is allways a que there, no matter when you come. So we signed up and they would call us when our table would be ready. I the meantime we spent some time at the Japanese gaming arcade at World Square, taking silly photographs in Japanese photo booths (you get to decorate your photos aswell, add glitter and stuff). After having dinner we headed towards circular quay to watch the fireworks. Apparently Sydneys fireworks are very famouse. It was sure spectaculare, but would have been alot more enjoyable with about 1 million less people. It was hoords of people around there, and when it was all over it took ages to get back. I think that if I will be here another new year I will make sure to find someone with a balcony towards the harbour, get tickets to the operahouse or simmilar. Its hard to enjoy while being squashed by so many people.
Afterwards we had tickets to a venue fairly close to where I live. It was dead boring there. I dont like clubs much anyway. Got home about 3 at night. No hangover today, just a bit tired. Went swimming in the pool. Was very nice. ( managed to get plenty of good fireworks shots, but couldnt bother putting them all here. You can see the rest on flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/philipclevberger/ )

(Minnas Birthday) - Tutorial 3 - How to prepare the cooking facilities

Step 1.
Walk through the door, holding cooking utensil bag firmly.


















Step 2.
Open cooking utensil bag.


















Step 3.
Place on table.

(Minnas Birthday) - Tutorial 2 - How to make Wonton

Peter, another of the guests was Chinese. From Shanghai to be more precise. He contributed with Chinese Wonton dumplings. He promised to bring his mother, but she contributed with the filling instead. Peter wasn't 100% sure about everything that was going in there, but he thought it was pork and Chinese spinach and definitely rice vinegar wich is unique for the Wontons from Shanghai. What ever it was it tasted delicious. Different from the Gyoza skins these where much thinner, due to they where not going to be fried. Wontons are either served boiled or deep fried and sometimes in a soup. These kind of dumplings are common in southern china.

Step 1.
Take a square Wonton skin.












Step 2.
Add some filling.












Step 3.
Fold once.













Step 4.
Fold a second time.












Step 5.
Pinch both ends to seal.












Step 6.
Fold in the middle.













Step 7.
Apply some water with your finger and seal by pinching.




































Step 8.
When you are ready it should look something like this.













Step 9.
Boil them for about 5 minutes, and enjoy with some vinegar, and/or chili and soy.

(Minnas Birthday) - Tutorial 1 - How to make Gyoza

We where to make a lot of dumplings for Minnas birthday. As our hosts and quite a few of the guests where Japanese we where to make gyozas here is the tutorial. Yaumi had allready prepared the filling. I don't know all the ingredients, but it was Japanese Chive (Nirra), pork and ginger.

Step 1.
Take Round Gyoza skin (No its not a skin from an animal)












Step 2.
Add some filling












Step 3.
Centre filling if needed












Step 4.
Put some water around the edge with your finger, then pinch at one end to seal the skin.












Step 5.
Work your way around the edge, sealing the skin by making creases on one side, and pinch firmly to make it stick together.




































Step 6.
When you are done it should look something like this.












Step 7.
When you have done this for a while, it should look something like this.













Step 8.
Fry them on one side (do not flip them over) in some oil till the get a nice golden colour.












Step 9.
Add just a little water and put a lid on to steam the rest. Its done when water has evaporated.
(They will stay crispy on one side)












Step 10.
You enjoy them with Ponzu, which is a mixture of Soy sauce, rice vinigar and citrus juice.
(sorry for the photograph, they are not well presented here, I whish I had a better one)

Minnas Birthday at the dumpling factory

Today it was Minnas birthday (Minna is from Åland, situated in between Sweden and Finland. She also went to Hyper Island, (the same school as I) ). Ayumi organized a secret surprise lunch for her at her place. We arrived about 2,5 hours before Minna to prepare everything. We we where to make Japanese Gyoza, Chinese Wonton dumblings, along with some other dishes that I will tell you about a little later.

Yoshimi, Minna and Ayumi. Ayumi gave Minna a Japanese Kimono. And Both Ayumi and Yoshimi dressed up in Kimonos too for the occation.


















Our Hosts, Yoshimi and Ayumi (Yoshimi had to tie his kimono arms so he wouldnt dip them into the food while cooking)


















Yoshimi


















The Dumpling Factory












Handing over some of the delicious kimchi filled rolls we made from the left over dumpling skinns.


















Takoyaki in the making.












Ayumi making some Monjayaki













After dinner we tried Aymis new Playstation 3, and the new game Little Big planes. It was amazing. Refering to one of my older posts. There seems to have happened something in the gaming industry. Another game that is based on colaborated problem solving, and not on killing.
And it was very imaginative and differant aswell. Minna and Yoshimi playing. (But I was off course the best at this game, far better than everyone else :) (I was also a lot better than Ayumi on the card game we played, even though she won all the time, but I think that was because she was cheating when shuffling the cards :) , I just know I was alot better)).












My character in the game

Sunday with the fish.

After spending a good few hours working on my portfolio I went the Sydney Aquarium in the afternoon. I liked the jellyfish and the Dogons (I think they are the same as Manatee?) best.