Mamma Mia!

How close did Grace get to Colin at the Mamma Mia premiere at Melbourne Central this week?

OK, maybe not that close. But close enough to take this with her very own camera:

And the lovely Meryl as well, of course.

Franky et Napinette down under!

Wow! Les torontois en Australie!!!

Regardez - la page couverture d'une brochure touristique:

Mona Lisa dans notre cafe:

La Tete a Claques en personne!

Une montagne de cadeaux!!!

Le tonneau d'or!

Un bain de soleil:

La bonne bouffe:

The Birds (doo doo doo doo doo):

Motel Belle Vue!

L'enfer sur terre:

Ou sont les baigneurs?

La capuche!

1. Terry dessine un coeur dans le sable pour Francesca...

2. ... mais la mer ne le lui laisse pas!

Le pilote!

More random photos of food

What I like most about autumn is that it's quince season, and what I like most about quince season is that you can have a bowl of quinces prettying up the house.

Meanwhile, it's been a while since I updated this blog, but we've eaten a lot of food during that time, believe it or not. When we got back from Malaysia, we salved our grief at no more roti canai by frying up some zucchini flowers, making some potato and mint ravioli and a big bowl of lentil soup. The lentil soup was a startling green and absolutely delicious, but the photo looked godawful, so it's not pictured here.

Fresh pistachio season also came and went! I bled from under the fingernails to enjoy it, but it was so lovely. We made some into ice cream (mm!) but the rest was just scoffed.

And I think this was how we dealt with a surfeit of watermelon:

And boy, I love roasting chicken.

Malaysia - part 3 (the rest)

It wasn't all about the roti canai, really. It just seemed like it.

This was a particularly good one in KL with Mei Ling.

And this is the roti man at the market. I like his hat!

We were only in Taiping about four days, but Jason became a regular at one particular roti shop - this would be why:

Meanwhile, apart from the roti, we were in Malaysia for the wedding of my lovely cousin Tyng Yee. Here is groom David, as tradition dictates, begging to be let into the bridal room. The bride has the right to demand whatever she likes in exchange for entry, which meant David had to sing a song, do some pushups (he contracted these out to various male relatives) and eventually gather the boys around him to try and force his way in, in the process finding out that the various small female attendants inside were a lot stronger than they looked.

But he made it inside, and why wouldn't he want to, with Tyng Yee looking this gorgeous inside (don't worry, we weren't there at the time).

Erm... some random final photos. A really huge prawn!

The first breakfast upon arrival - a plumptious plate of chicken blood.

And Lake Gardens looking serene.

Malaysia - part 2 (the food)

Best meal of the trip? Debateable, but this is the one Jason remembers - chicken taugeh with Ipoh hor fun in Ipoh.

'Chicken skin that melts in your mouth like butter' quoth my father blissfully, for at least the entire three hours before we got to dinner.

And silky silky noodles! My favourite bit.

As were these - special plump little Ipoh beansprouts, like nowhere else in the world. Apparently it's the padang water.

The aftermath:

But mostly Jason went back for the teh tarik:

And the nasi lemak:

And the durian, even though it wasn't the season - my mother practically leapt for the steering wheel from the back seat to get us back to this stall, the only one we saw for our entire trip.

Stinky goodness.

And there was crab. Lots of crab.

Fingers shiny with deliciousness!

And beautiful, beautiful oyster pancakes.

And otak otak.

And curry mee.

And roti canai, but so much of that it will need its own entry.