Eating in a box

I took the Missus for her birthday dinner over to Aqua Dining . It was located right off the water on the north side of the bridge next to Luna Park (literally). I was so delighted with the meal I had to share. Aqua is located in same building as the North Sydney Olympic Pool. It's got a great breath taking view of the harbor bridge and opera house. It's situated over the main pool, I'll say it's a little weird having dinner overlooking a bunch of people in their speedo's doing laps it's a very busy pool. Since you're sitting above the pool it kind of fades into the background, eye level is the harbor view. The staff were very attentive (our waiter noticed the table was wobbly and brought over cork shims to immediately rectify the problem) and did a great job of checking on us without being intrusive. Normally this isn't worth calling out, but in Sydney service is a bit less attentive than what you might be use to in the US. On to the food: I

One of my friends gathered all of us expats and folks that formerly resided in North America to celebrate an early Thanksgiving dinner. It's kind of weird having Thanksgiving where the day before was 108F and there aren't turkey's at the grocery stores. But I was thankful to be able to celebrate with new friends. It was a great dinner, very healthy and vegetarian friendly as turkey day dinner goes. We had (from the left): Tomato mac and cheese, Sesame sautéed green beans, Tofu Turkey, Smoked turkey, Cornbread stuffing, Lemony Brussel Sprouts, Shiitake truffle quinoa pilaf, Mandarine Spinach salad with vinaigrette,  and Carrot and Cauliflower mash. For dessert, pecan pie squares and pumpkin pie (like from a real pumpkin not the can.) What a delicious meal! The only thing we were missing was a football game on the television so we could pass out from all the food. It was a great way to quell that homesick feeling from being away for the holidays. Happy Thanksgivin

I've been working on easy to cook lunches that I can put together during the week. Usually my bentos are made during the weekend when I have a bit more time to shop, prep and cook. I like this particular bento because a lot of the work is set and forget and doesn't require a lot of active prep time which gives me more time to unwind after work. I've made Hainanese chicken in the past  (wow it's been 5 years) it's basically a poached chicken. I say "basically" but that description doesn't do the humble dish justice, it's got a lot of flavor and a great simple protein meal. Certainly, such a dish can easily be done sous vide couldn't it? After a bit of searching there were lots of different variations so apparently I wasn't the first to come up with the idea. Oh well. As I said the ingredients are simple. The top for the poaching packets: Green onion, ginger, salt and chicken breast. The bottom picture is the sauce: rice wine, soy sauc

Sorry for the short post. Had to put something together for lunch, nothing special. Corned beef with Sauteed zucchini, shitake, king oyster mushroom and steamed broccoli. Longer post to come on Hainanese Sous vide chicken breast.