The Hungry (Greedy) Hippo

Home-Made Singapore Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodles

I had huge cravings for Singapore Hokkien Prawn Mee one day, and decided that I had to make my own since it was so difficult finding the Singapore version in Melbourne. I put together my own recipe after trawling through various internet recipes, and was pretty pleased with the outcome.

All the recipes highlighted the importance of the stock. I used chicken frames and pork bones boiled with an onion.

The prawn stock was made by frying prawn heads and shells, adding water, and then extracting the liquid. I threw that all in for additional boiling, and also boiled a slab of belly pork and cuttlefish in the stock, and added some palm sugar.

The prawns, cuttlefish and belly pork pieces were sliced up and put to one side.

Prior to boiling the belly pork, I sliced off the skin and deep-fried it to get a semblance of lard. This appeared to be a less guilt-inducing option compared to using the fat directly.

First, I scrambled two eggs and then added stock, before adding the bee hoon to soak in the stock flavours.

After 5 to 10 minutes, I added the yellow Hokkien noodles and the pork skin bits, and left the pan to simmer further.

After that, I added the prawns, cuttlefish and pork belly strips and fried it for a minute or two more.

The final product was pretty amazing, tasting exactly like what we get at the hawker centres although with considerably less lard. My one mistake was to use cuttlefish instead of squid, but it was more to do with the visuals rather than the flavour. I even made sambal belacan to go with the noodles, and this was perhaps one of my proudest culinary moments.

Another view - the stock had settled below the noodles, which were super moist and tasty. Surprisingly they weren't too soggy, which was my main concern. I daresay I did well :)

Fiji - Less Food More Fun

The husband and I decided on a last minute getaway to Fiji after there was a change in his roster, with the thought that after moving back to Asia there wouldn't be much opportunity to head back to this side of the world. It was one of the best impulsive decisions ever, with the non-edited photos speaking for themselves.

The view from our plane upon descent

One of the islands we passed during our day tour of the offshore islands off the western coast.

The offshore corals at Mana Island, where an Australian tourist died tragically last week after a boat collision.

We booked a cruise on this yacht called Seaspray. It came with a bbq lunch and free flow beer, wine and soft drinks. Since the scenery was so much better than the food, I decided it wouldn't be worth posting those pics although in all fairness the bbq lunch was pretty good!

We stopped off the shore of Modriki island, where the movie Castaway was filmed.

There was around an hour of snorkeling, with fish and corals of many different colours visible as shallow as 1m off the beach.

I wouldn't have recognized the scenery from the movie, but it did look familiar.

Amazingly clear waters.

We stopped at another island to tour a village and participate in a cava ceremony. On the way back to the boat, we saw this fisherman tying up his catch of the day.

The water at the beach around our hotel was also super clear, although with less colourful fish.

Sunset at our hotel behind gospel singers

Crazy beautiful sunset

One of the restaurants where we had dinner also had a Samoan fire dance show. Pretty cool stuff.

We also booked ourselves on a fishing charter hoping to get some big game fish.

No marlin or tuna despite trawling for them, so we headed to the reef.

Super beautiful scenery out there.

The husband helped to bring in this red bass

Which turned out to be a super unlucky passer by; it didn't even bite the lure, but got hooked as it swam past.

This bluefin trevally at least paid the price for its greed. It wasn't as large as the red bass, but still quite a fighter to bring in.

This long nosed emperor was apparently the yummiest fish of the lot. We didn't know what they tasted like since we gave them to our happy taxi driver.

Super amazing scenery.

The most memorable meal was at a seafood restaurant near our hotel, with lobster in butter sauce and crab in coconut curry costing us less than A$100 for the entire meal.

Super fresh lobsters in garlic and butter sauce

And the crab curry was fabulous with rice.

It was our best trip this year, with wonderful memories and lovely friends made during our short stay there.

Brunch in Melbourne: Part 2 - Top Paddock and Chez Dre

Two other cafes that we tried a number of times, and really liked, were Top Paddock in Richmond and Chez Dre in South Melbourne. We went to Top Paddock around 3 times in a month, tried different things, and left satisfied each time. It's always busy on a weekend, but thankfully the queue moves pretty fast.

Only half the queue - the other half was loitering on the grass lawn.

Their eggs benedict with ham hock has to be one of the best I've had in Melbourne in recent times.

Another view of the dish- the ham hock was tender, and the hollandaise sauce perfectly seasoned. The poached eggs were, as expected, superbly done.

The omelette with mushrooms and chilli was not too bad. Quite decent, but probably not a dish to order again if there were other more interesting things on the menu.

This was the Top Paddock- you know it's gotta be special when it's the signature dish. It came with chorizo, fried green tomatoes, onions, relish and poached eggs. Perhaps a better lunch than breakfast dish, given the rather heavy flavours. Overall it was well-executed, albeit on the complicated side.

This was the gin and lime cured ocean trout with beetroot and goats curd. Although well-executed, it was also a better lunch than breakfast dish, given that the fish was served rare.

Super fresh though. Not an easy dish to pull off, with the different flavours and textures coming together really nicely

What the menu looked like some months back

They serve excellent coffees though. Even though Five Senses isn't our favourite, the barista does a pretty good job.

Their steak sandwich was a Kobe 9+ with tempura baby leeks and horseradish. Everything about the description in the menu screamed EAT ME. It's one of the best steak sandwiches in Melbourne, we reckon.

Seared perfectly on the outside.

The soft shell crab burger with chilli and lime mayonnaise.

Fennel, dill and other micro greens on a brioche bun roll. Super yummy but I dare say Hammer and Tong's version had just a slight edge, plus H and T's is also a few dollars cheaper.

The steak sandwich, however, was in an entirely different class of its own. Possibly perfect.

Chez Dre in South Melbourne was another place that we enjoyed immensely. The first time we were there was after I got off the red eye flight that signaled the beginning of our year long stint in Melbourne.

Classically good coffees.

The braised mushroom ragu with parmesan polenta was the standout dish for me. The truffle oil helped, of course, but I couldn't help thinking it would have been a tad more elegant to have omitted it altogether and let the mushrooms shine in their own right. Possibly one of the best breakfast dishes in Melbourne I reckon.

The glazed pork belly with a corn polenta cake and avo purée was excellent too. Writing this now makes me wonder why we haven't gone back more frequently than twice.