Saturday, December 29, 2007

My first xmas eve meal at home after so long...

Christmas has once again come and gone in a flash! The first Christmas after many years away from sydney, that I finally didnt have to join the mad rush of passengers flying between airports. The first "stress -free" Christmas from packing and jostling to buy presents at the last minute.

So instead, it was a nice leisurely trip to the markets to grab and stock up some food over the festive hols since most shops are closed over christmas and most worthy restaurants are closed all the way till 8th-10th Jan 2008. Yeah, its almost like a shut down period all the way till early jan.

Christmas is huge in sydney. It is comparable to how chinese celebrate Chinese New year. The crazy mad rush, the over stocking of food, the rush to beat the shops closing... Its just christmas isnt it?

I had my first christmas eve dinner at home, instead of crappy airplane food after 5 years of flying. So to me it is every cause worth celebrating to!!! To mark this milestone, I treated myself to huge lobster and oysters !!! I didnt like bacon, so I decide to bake half of my fresh oyster with ham and cheese instead, while leaving the other half fresh. They tasted as good as it looks! ;p




The cooked lobster that was destined to be on my dinner plate on xmas eve, was large, meaty and juicy and sweet, worth every A$45 each. It was so fresh that I didnt want to eat it with other sauce except to dip it with self mixed of mayo and chilli sauce. I never knew it was possible but I was truely stuffed and bloated by the time i was through my whole lobster!


After that, it was a drive the next day to Newcastle for another christmas feast with the rest of the family. Meaty spring rolls, king bone pork etc.. If my tummy skin was to stretch any further from over eating, I will never be able to have it stretch back nicely without any marks! Of course, again, this marks another year of solo effort in resisting the shark fin soup that was (sad to say) made with mum's much love and hard work. Yet, my conscience of the poor sharks struggling to balance and live without its fin left me struggling with what was right and wrong.

Killing sharks was just as morally wrong as killing whales. So I made my choice to skip the shark fin soup and while 7 grown adult munch happily away before me, since I reckon I shouldnt impose my food beliefs on others, I shall only hope that one day this tasteless habit will stop.

After lunch, while everyone else fell into afternoon siesta, I was left in the company of 2 children watching "Dora the explorer". My plans for a quiet read on my new book was quickly shattered when Zacky boy discovered I was a good "playmate" to defend against his pillow "fight"...After 1 hour of non stop action, I call it quits, shooed him back to his mum in a FLASH when she was back from her snooze and by 10pm, I was totally knocked out.

Ok, next year christmas, I really got to stop this lazy boring cycle and do something different!

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