Mmm… stuff my dreams are made of.

1 kilogram of live clams. 6 live oysters.

Here’s to a fantastic weekend, everyone! *pretentious air kisses*

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

First, I had a bout of the ‘flu three weeks ago. I have also been working late because we are rushing to get a report done. Then, another bout of the ‘flu started this week. Due to the workload, I have been unable to take any time off to catch up on my sleep.

So, on my way home from work yesterday, I fell asleep on the train.

When I woke up, my head was on a lady’s shoulder.

And I was woken up by my snoring.

On this rather sad day, I have finally sold Minty.

I patted her on her bonnet and said goodbye…

And then I sat in her for one last time…

And waved to her as she was driven away…

*sobs* My first car, paid for by my own money. We have spent good long years together, pelting up and down the motorway during my auditing days.

It is indeed, the end of an era. Me sad.

So, as I was working from home today, I decided that today is sushi day.

The entire order process was done online (well, you could call) and 30 minutes later, these items showed up at my front door…

1) Flying fish roe gunkan

Presentation was excellent, taste was above average.

2) Spicy tuna temaki

Presentation and taste – average. All I tasted was chilli with a mild hint of fish.

3) Sea bass sashimi

Presentation was below average (questionable knife work) but taste was excellent. The fish was very fresh and delicate.

4) California uramaki

Presentation and taste – poor. The rolls fell apart too easily and tasted really bland.

5) Vegetable tempura uramaki

Presentation and taste – excellent. This was the surprising one of the lot. I didn’t expect anything from it, but it was definitely the best dish of the meal. The tempura vegetables were still warm when it got here and the batter was crunchy and light.

So, would I order from them again? Yes, but only when I have a huge craving for sushi with no other way to get any.

You see, I was mid snuggling up to him in bed last night and he suddenly started thrashing around against me.

Muks: Moof!
Denty: Itchy.

To celebrate this day, Denty and I decided to cook pulled pork.

Day 1

The cooking process started yesterday morning, when I mixed up a dry spice mix of cumin, garlic powder, salt, pepper, sugar, paprika, hot chilli powder and cayenne pepper.

After that, I made up a brine solution (salt, sugar, water and 1/3 of the dry spice mix) and plonked an entire pork shoulder joint in it.

The pork shoulder in brine went into the fridge to sit for the rest of the day and at night, I took it out to warm up to room temperature.

Day 2

This morning, my alarm went off at 7am (eek! can you believe that Denty didn’t volunteer to do it?). Sleepily, I took the pork out of the brine solution and patted it dry. Then, I poured the rest of the dry spice mix I made yesterday to rub all over the joint (some ended up on the floor. Too sleepy.) and I popped it in the oven at 110c. Then, I went back to bed.

10 hours later (after having woken up the second time and did many other things in between), I turned the oven off and let the joint sit in the oven for an extra hour or so. Once the joint had enough of sitting, Denty and I took it out and shredded the pork into tiny pieces. The meat was so tender, juicy and flavourful that Denty kept pinching them off the plate and went nyom nyom nyom.

Anyway, we nyommed it in the time honoured way. Pulled pork in a lovely and fluffy bap. I had mine plain but Denty had his with various sauces. We made the baps with the help of Denty’s Christmas present – the breadmaker.

This is seriously the best meat dish we have ever cooked. It was MAGIC and we will definitely do it again. Well, by we, I mean Denty will definitely encourage me to cook it again. Denty didn’t stop rhapsodising about it throughout dinner and after that. Good thing we have four portions of leftovers so…

Well, if you are interested in the recipe I followed religiously the one written by “Kevin and Amanda“.

I think this augurs well for the year . Like the pulled pork, this year will be juicy, flavourful, tender and extremely hammifying. Good night and God bless you all.

Well, we cranked up the bread maker and made pizza! Can you guess who had which pizza?

Home made pizza for new year’s eve. Denty and I are so rock and roll.