#Day230 #365JosHappyDays – Fresh juicy strawberries from a farm by the road

We were coming back from our mini Road trip to Yanchep when my friend Floor’s eagal eye’s spotted a sign for strawberries she quickly asked “shall we stop?” before I could say yes we were turning in and it was one of the best decisions I’ve never made Haha. 

Things don’t get much better and more satisfying than spontaneous fruits stops straight from the source!  These were big, red, juicy strawberries and some were almost the size of my fist!

Now I don’t really suffer from homesickness but maybe it’s the little nostalgic treats like these that is my cure. As with just a taste it can bring me back home to a happy memory my friends fruit farm in the hills of Devon. 

Who knows maybe when I make it back home to the uk my first strawberry will take me back to this awesome day,  I do enjoy how our minds make such associations.  It really was a great day too look out for my posts coming soon of Yanchep National Park where we got real lucky with some animals sightings

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#Day233 #365JosHappyDays – Only Asians would think of such a food concoction!

So I was very nicely invited to 50th wedding anniversary where I met lots of lovely extended family and friends along with a real tasty 11 course banquet dinner!  And this I where I met this friendly food combo pictured above; This is crispy almond and seafood topped with chicken skin,  yup real chicken skin. Like I said only Asians come up with these kinda funky fusions haha but I can reassure you it works, it works well, adds a nice taste and crunch along a with a mild bit of confusion. 

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#Day69 #365JosHappyDays – Hawker centre and chatting with Lu

First was a trip out to a hawker centre for dinner, these places are great.  It’s essentially and big square of tables surrounded by Loads of little stalls all cooking up fresh, cheap, tasty and probably clean food.. aha.

I’ve actually been over indulging allot lately so I didn’t explore all it had to offer, was really happy with my salt fish fried rice. But if you’re after variety I don’t think you will ever meet someone who’s eaten everything here.

Found ourselves in a coffee shop and had a good chat ranging from the naughty to the nerdy. Was a nice evening thanks Lu

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#Day72 #365JosHappyDays – Got hands on an ‘Oily Devil’

So this is essentially the Chinese version or a donut without the sugar, two long strips of dough get deep fried to make this damn tasty stick of unhealthy greatness. I’m not sure of the real name but my family always calls them oily devil’s and I fairly sure that’s near enough the translated name too.

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#Day102 #365JosHappyDays – Guinness pork

Yup Guinness pork! I can’t say it brings back any memories of chugging down a real pint of Guinness but it certainly has a great unique taste.  Once cooked it gives the pork a perfect blend of sweet, sticky and an almost slightly smokey flavour.

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#Day89 #365JosHappyDays – Thirst quenched by some watermelon

Yep definitely glad this fruit exists, watermelon is the perfect thirst quencher on a hot day.

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#Day93 #365JosHappyDays – Hot cross buns

This was a very welcomed find by my brother ; Some hot cross buns in Malaysia. They tasted spot on even when I slightly burnt them but that may have been down to the hefty lashings of butter that are simply a requirement in our family!

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#Day50 #365JosHappyDays – Chinese new year with the family.

Well this is definitely my favourite Chinese new year celebration; for one we’ve made it to Malaysia and two we’ve got all the family together. Haven’t had this size reunion for around 10 years so you can imagine how many times I got the classic “aww when I saw you last, you were only thisssss tall!”. Well I can safely say I don’t think I can get any taller so there will be no chance of that happening next time. Since we have some new lil editions to the family looks like I can being the one doing it, maybe il evening throw in a cheek pinch to be the best annoying uncle haha.

But that aside it really was lovely to see everyone and the smiles continued off camera aha

So as with most Asian traditions it’s revolves around the food and my auntie cooked up a feast of delicious dishes, look how many there are!

One of my favourite dishes is Yee Sang, it’s a kind of salad thats had before the meal. Everyone gets in with their chopsticks to mix it together and wish prosperous things upon each other and I’ve been told the higher you go the more prosperous it becomes! I do love to play with my food but it also tastes great too, it’s that cleansing citrus taste that means I’m usually the one scooping off the very last bits.

I couldn’t exactly tell you wants in it other than shredded veg, salmon, grapefruit, sesame oil,   syrup, then red bits, green bits, crispy bits and much more..  All about those crispy bits though! Mmm.

Sadly this dish is only eaten one time of the year but at we had it with every relative we met for dinner of that period so I had it maybe 3 or 4 times! 😀

#Day43 #365JosHappyDays – Finding some fiery street food – Cheap Eats!

So today I left the comfort of the hotel pool in attempt to find some lunch. It didn’t take long at all (5 minutes walk)  before I came across maybe 8 street food or hawker stalls lining the edge of the road. They looked pretty permanent with big water tanks boosted into the jungly trees above and sinks set up bellow. Clearly this is not one of the cleanest establishments I’ve eaten at but If you’re a true foodie it’s never about stars but all about taste *(and ideally it not killing you, but you got to toughen up somehow).

So I went right in at the deep end of risky food with a spicy seafood dish that had probably been cooked sometime morning. Tasted pretty good but it won’t stop my search for better and fresher! What did the trick was I’ve been longing for some chilli after the lack of it in all Japanese food. So when the women sensed I was foreign and quite kindly started picking out the chilli’s I had to stop her there and ask her for more haha 

For anyone that does get affected by chilli’s quickly you might want to note the drink I had ‘ice lemon’ will first be served boiling hot with ice to kill any impurities, so let it cool a bit first before you go for that refreshing gasp.

Oh and finally you can’t complain at 6 ringgit for a meal and a drink, that’s about £1.10!  + it didn’t kill me either or make me ill for that matter. 

#Day39 #365JosHappyDays – Matsuya – Cheap Eats!

Matsuya –  I walked by this place and saw their menu last night and thought I couldn’t go wrong with a beef meal set for just 500yen that’s like £3! I went in and had the large and ever so slightly more expensive chili dish at 550yen which was just a big bowl and some miso soup but it was so good (and cheap) I came back for lunch the next day to try the regular meal set.  Which was actually even better,  it came with soup, salad, rice and the meat and 80yen for kinda sour and spicy dish of kimchi (that lil red dish of veg). They all come with unlimited access to cold water or hot tea too. 

The beef dish is called Gyudon and just means beef bowl, to me some flavours tastes familiar to my mums cooking so I would say it maybe has, onion, garlic, ginger and yellow bean paste. I loved it taste and it’s nothing weird so I’m sure any westerner would too.  It’s a safe bet and definitely worth a try and with there stores being all over Tokyo it shouldn’t be hard to find especially with Google.