Adelaide Sightseeing

We had a few days to wander around Adelaide and do interesting stuff - it was a great holiday and the family had a great time chilling out and doing different things in various places.

Down at the beach watching the sunset

Wine tasting at D'Arenberg, McLaren Vale

 The view at Lloyds Olive Farm - the lavender smelt heavenly

Hot chocolate at Bracegirdles, which has taken over the 190 shop along the main street of McLaren Vale

The most sinful chocolate brownie

 

 The husband's raspberry and chocolate cake

The most amazing iced chocolate - a meal in itself

Back at the beach during the day time

 

Wine tasting at Leconfield

Lunch at Hahndorf - smoked pork hock and sausages with a pork chop and mashed potatoes - great with dark beer

Smoked pork hock with sauerkraut and a pretzel - we really enjoyed this lunch

 Strawberry picking at the Beerenberg Farm

The view at Victor Harbour - absolutely stunning. 

CNY 2013 Down Under

CNY this year was a bit different, with my family taking a trip to Adelaide instead of staying here for the festivities. Like every good Asian family, each day was surrounded with good food starting from the eve of CNY at my cousin's place. 

The cousins put together an amazing cheese platter to tide us over while waiting for dinner.

 Fresh oysters : )

We had fried whitebait - great with beer

Snapper fish head with Thai curry, waiting to go on the bbq

 

Swordfish being marinated

Snapper waiting to go on the grill

Smoked trout

Sashimi sliced by another cousin - this was tuna

 

 Another type of white fish but had no idea what it was

Can't have CNY without yusheng

They also had leftovers from Hahndorf - pork knuckle and sausages

 King crabs on the bbq

One of the curry snapper heads done, and ready to be eaten. This was amazing - the head cost only $2, and was extremely fresh

Oh the crabs were absolutely wonderful after being barbecued. A hot favourite.

The next day, we headed down to the beach

 

Again, there was plenty of food

A deconstructed caprese with smoked salmon and prosciutto

Outside, the men were at it with the bbq with meat and seafood

Sausages ready to go

Chicken kebabs waiting to go on the grill

Squid tentacles all done - these were really nice

 

 Steaks all nicely charred on the outside

 

 Chef at work

Squid, Swordfish, Sausages

 The entire spread

The cousin also made lambs brains fried with some crumbs...didn't touch this

Drinks to go with our food

That trout from the night before all mashed up with sour cream and capers - absolutely delicious

Chicken kebabs all done

One of the most interesting CNYs ever : )

Xu Jun Sheng (Long Ji) Reprise

We headed back to Xu Jun Sheng one weeknight with a very old friend who was deeply interested in trying this old favourite family haunt, especially the cold crabs. They didn't disappoint us - but just in case, I decided to ring up to reserve 3 crabs, which worked out to 1 crab per person : )

Check out the vermillion-hued roe

We ordered a pork trotter with more meat less fat

Their hae chor is probably one of the best in Singapore

Otak was really good too - the right combination of lemak + spiciness, and not too soft and soggy.

Minced pork with salted fish - terrific with white porridge

We ordered tua tow which was slightly too fishy. Otherwise the black bean sauce was great

Sweet potato leaves with sambal - this was fairly ordinary, but still good

The lala was outstanding - the clams were fresh, and the sambal+taucheo+garlic+chinese wine sauce was so good we were drinking it straight

All that, for 3 people plus 1 bowl of muay each, came up to just over $100. And we managed to finish everything, down to the last clam. We did extremely well, I reckon.

And we headed off to One Twenty Six for peach lambic and dessert.

Xu Jun Sheng is at 121 Joo Chiat Road. Somehow the vibe at lunch is much better than at dinner time, but the food is just as good no matter what time of the day.

Post publish edit: Their closure was reported in Apr 2014 - a very sad day for all fans of real Teochew food and Joo Chiat residents.