What reminds you of your nationality?

Spring has come to Australia.

But i dont feel it's Spring - it's like Summer.
It has been over 30 degree in the day time recently.
But when I jogging in the evening, it isn't hot and we can feel a comfortable wind.

When I felt the wind for the first time, it reminded me of Sakura (Cherry blossoms).
And I thought I want to have a Hanami Party.

I don't know why, but when it's Sakura season, all Japanese seem to be very happy.
Maybe it's like X'mas for Christians?

We often check the weather forecast to know how long Sakura will last.
Also we sometimes finish work early and go to the place where we can see Sakura.
We buy drinks and bring food for each other.
Everybody chats, laughs and sings.

When we are tired, we have a nap under the Sakura tree.

It's not cold but not very warm.
We can smell sweet and fresh scent from Sakura.


I remembered everything about Sakura once I felt the spring wind here in Australia.

I haven't seen Sakura for 7 years though.

And I am aware Japanese are Japanese even when we are away from Japan.

What reminds you of your nationality?

Handmade Tzatziki

I'm into Greek food recently, and I made Tzatziki.

Can you pronounce this?

I can't imagine how difficult Greek is, but this recipe is really easy.

Grate garlic, chop cucumber finely, add piched salt, olive oil and mix strained yoghurt.
The original recipe needs more ingredients, but mine was tasty enough and easy.

I had it fresh avocado, which I got from my friends, and steak.

Since I made too much I cooked tandoori chicken with it another day.

It was yummy but I couldn't taste of Tzatziki.

Handmade Dumplings and Pizza

I've started preparing to move little by little. I want to consume my food.

I decided to finish the flour this time.
I cooked dumplings and pizza.

I usually make dumplings very well but I failed this time.
I didn't think about the humidity in Australia.

And I think Australian flour is not as fine as compared to Japanese, so the surface was dry and rough.

I even broke some of them.
But the taste was good.

 

And the pizza was perfect! 

 

It is necessary to mix plain flour and bread flour to make a pizza dough. 

And I have only plain flour so I substituted potato starch.

 

I made three types of pizza.

 

1. Pizza Margherita

2. Avocado shrimp with sauce aurore

3. Anchovy tomato sauce

4. Tuna and corn with Mayonnaise

 

The best one was Tuna and corn with mayonnaise.

It's the cheapest and easiest but it was really delicious !

 

 

 

 

 

Peaceful Sunday

   I asked my boss to take me fishing since I was dying of boredom.

 

   Although I had a hang over since I drank too much the night before, I was so excited.

   We went to Brisbane River. It took about 40 minutes from Gatton.

   We took a small boat with an Engine.

 

  It was the first time that I had been river fishing, since I usually go to the sea for fishing, and I aim at the fish that live at a depth of 35-50m in the sea.

  But this time, the depth is about 3 m, and I aim at the fish in the middle.

   It was difficult for me because when I go sea fishing I aim at the sea floor.

 

 

   Anyway, I threw the bait and just left it.

   I caught 3 fish, of which 2 were bass and one was a yellow belly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   We waited for the fish to grab the bait in the silence.

   We only heard birds singing. And we found Pelicans.

    I saw they flying and they were like small air crafts.

    The wings were big and they were very graceful.

 

 

 

 

 

     I saw wild koalas as well and they were a mother and a child. 

  

   They were so cute and I couldn't stop smiling.

    But my boss said that wild koalas are not so friendly and they will groan if we draw too close to them.

 

 

   We had the fish with his family.

   I thought the freshwater fish is not tasty but it was very delicious. 

 

 

   It was a peaceful Sunday. 

Greek style lunch

I made sandwitch for my lunch with avocado, Feta cheese and "vegie smoked slices" by Sanitarium instead of bacon because I just like it.
I'm not a vegetalian but I sometimes buy this brand since my vegetalian friend gave it to me.
It tastes like original bacon and I don't feel too much full of my stomach and kind of heartburn when we take meat fat.
Also I haven't found tasty sausages and bacon here so far. I don't know why Australian sausages are different from others. The skin is very hard to bite, it is like still raw. And the meat inside is like minced meat and lack of smoke flavor. Is this Australian favorite taste? Otherwise what I had were just not good.

Besides I had salad that I cooked at last night.
I like to eat this kind of salad after keeping a half day or more.
I squeezed water of cucumber and red onion.Then mixed all ingredients just added olive oil and flaxseed oil. I could tast salt from Feta and black olive.

Arabian seafood with couscous

Most French people I meet here often cook couscous.
I decided to try it.
Although I've never cooked before, I've had it when I went to Moroccan restaurant in Jakarta.
I tried to remember the tast and texture.

I made fried fish with Indian spices. I mixed couscous together with shrimp, tomatoes, mushrooms and black olives. I wanted to add with fresh Italian parsley but I could not find it so I substituted fresh rocket. I used the perfect amount of each ingredient, and it was delicious.

My small dream will come true soon

Since I've come to Gatton, I've felt like playing golf.
I think it's becasue Gatton is in the country side and covered with green and it reminds me of golf.
And I've been looking for golfing equipment and someone to play with.
Finally I found both last Sunday. I met one fatherly gentleman who gave me new golf balls.
And we are going to play golf in the middle of Aug. I am so excited to play in Australia.
But I'm a little nervous because I haven't played in almost 1 year and especially putting will be disaster.Besides I don't know the person I will be playing with very well and I'm afraid if I won't be able to understand his English. And another problem is that I can't practice at all until I play since I don't have my own club and there isn't a good driving range here. Anyway, let's see how many times I will hit the balls!