[Leftover] Coconut Fried Rice

Published on by Vanessa Gregoria2 Comments

I didn’t expect to be posting a recipe today, since I been so busy with the baby. The last thing on my mind has been recipe creation. However, I whipped this up earlier today and it was pretty darn good, so I just had to share.

I love coconut rice and I haven’t yet perfected it at home. Occasionally I order it from my local Thai takeaway. It’s just so decadent and delicious. Last night had a night alone with the baby and picked up a Veggie Green Curry with Coconut rice to compliment. I only had the rice left, so today used it to make this quick and easy lunch for Marco and I, with some ingredients I had on hand.

For this dish, you can add any vegetables you like. I would probably have added more if I had anything left in my fridge. If you not a fan of coriander, I do recommend still trying it in this recipe. My partner hates it and he didn’t notice it. Its also kid’friendly, if you omit Sriracha sauce and use less ginger if they are sensitive. I only had half a container of coconut rice for this recipe, but if you have more feel free to double the recipe.

Ingredients:

coconut or avocado oil

2 garlic cloves, diced

1 knob of ginger, diced

1/2 green capscium, chopped

big handful of green beans, chopped

handful of cashews

2 large eggs

1-2 tbsp chopped coriander, more to serve

1 cup leftover coconut rice

1 tbsp of tamari or more to taste

Sriracha sauce to serve

Method:

Heat a nonstick pan or wok on medium heat with 1 tablespoon of oil. Then add the garlic, ginger and green capsicum. Saute for a couple of minutes until start to brown.

Add the green beans and pinch of sea salt. Continue to saute for a few minutes, until they are tender. Add splash of water if they stick to much to the pan and let it evaporate.

Add the cashews and saute for another couple of minutes, so that they are toasted. Turn off the stove and remove all the ingredients from the pan and put in a bowl the side.

In a small bowl, beat two eggs, add chopped corriander and pinch of sea salt.

Heat pan on medium heat and add another tablespoon of oil. Then add the beaten eggs. Fold the eggs until they are scrambled and cooked. This should only take a couple of minutes. Then remove the eggs from pan and place on top of the vegetables you have on the side.

Now add the leftover coconut rice to the pan on a medium heat. Gently break any large pieces with your wooden spoon if its a bit sticky. Add a splash of water if it sticks too much. When its nearly finished heating through add the vegetables, eggs and tamari, so that its all combined.

Serve fried rice with more chopped coriander and sriracha sauce.

*Serves 2

10# Life update: Welcoming to the world

Published on by Vanessa Gregoria2 Comments

Hi all, it has been a while since my last post. Life has been so busy the past few months. Like most parents, I was homeschooling my daughter in the first term of this year. I was anxious about having a baby during this turbulent time and how I would continue to home school at the same time. However, the situation improved in my state of Queensland. So my preppy got to return to school for Term 2 and my baby decided to come early as well. We are now at the end of second term holidays and the past 2 months have been a bit of a blur.

I would like to introduce you to my new baby boy, Lucius Maximus. He is currently 13 weeks, but these photos were taken when he was 26 days old. They were taken by the amazing photographer Kelley of Rule of Thirds Photography.

Lucius is a lot larger now and is doing really well. He originally was meant to arrive at the end of May, but he decided to move out of his breach position the night before my scheduled ECV at 37 weeks and 5 days. My early labour contractions started the next morning, but things didn’t get serious until the afternoon. I was later rushed to the hospital and he made his way out around 9 pm that night. It was a relevantly quick but extremely painful natural birth. Partly because I didn’t know how bad late-stage labour could be, but also apparently because quicker births can be a bit scarier. Luckily all was well, so we were able to go home after only 6 hours after his birth. He’s been a pretty good baby for the most part. Definitely more easier to manage than my first child. As long as he eats and his held constantly hes relatively happy and will sleep. He has been colicky at night, so I learning how important getting all that gas out of his system has been, to avoid hours-long crying.

Having a newborn 5 years after having my first has not been entirely easy as I thought it would be. Breastfeeding was still painful and difficult. Sleep is a constant war than can never be won. And having the patience to soothe a screaming baby when you having sleep isn’t easy. But I also have much more confidence that things will be ok and can only get better, which is what I hold onto when I feel like I may lose my mind. What I wasn’t expecting was that my first love would go from a sweet little girl to an unruly, defiant little person. I am not sure if it because there is a new person taking up my attention or because shes grown up so fast in her first year of school. I have less patience, but I have to remind myself that she’s still a little girl trying to navigate her own emotions.

Even before Lucius arrived I did find it difficult to blog, colour, read or multitask in general. I found the closer I get to my due date the more my brain feels scrabbled and unmotivated. The only thing I have been interested in doing is cooking large batches of food, cleaning my kitchen and watching other people prepare food and organised their kitchen. Since he arrived, I haven’t had then time to do much for myself, since he’s always attached to me. But as my sleep is improving I found time to do a bit more reading and make more contact with the outside world.

I have a couple of colouring book reviews to put together, more Tasmania travel posts and some recommendations of some great food and mummy Youtube channels I discovered during lockdown to recommend. So please be patient with me and I will try to get focused and find someone to hold this baby. Typing with one hand is a lot more difficult then you think. Catch up with you soon!

Tasmania: Queenstown (day 2-3)

Published on by Vanessa Gregoria1 Comment

Our next destination on our Tasmania road trip is the historical town of Queenstown. This was probably one of our longest journeys on this road trip. Under normal circumstances, it would have taken about 3 hrs and 45 minutes to drive. However, we did hit a bit of snag in our last hour due to car sickness. So we did arrive a little late, but we still managed to do quite a bit on our first day. We did have to leave early the next day, so I have been able to give you a snapshot of what you can do for free.

Queenstown is a small country town with a rich mining history. In the early 1900s, it was the third-largest town in Tasmania and had 14 hotels. However, today the population has dwindled and it has become quite a sleepy town. It does offer quite a few historical attractions, has an amazing street art scene and there are various nearby natural attractions to explore. Queenstown was probably one of the highlights of this trip and I was surprised how much I enjoyed our stop here.

Along the way to Queenstown, we made a rest stop at the Tarraleah Power Station on Nive River. It is located near the Tarraleah Falls and takes just under two hours from Hobart to reach. It is a great place to stop and stretch your legs, use a bathroom and learn a bit of history. This hydroelectrical power station was the largest when it was built in 1938. It played a significant part in expanding the Tasmanian industry after WWII and gave labour opportunities to migrant workers from Germany and Japan. It later also employed many migrants from other countries, such as Poland, Italy, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, which in turn brought new foods and cultural influences to the region.

So after our rest stop, we had just under two hours drive to go. On the way, we travelled on some incredibly winding dirt roads. Our daughter was getting restless, so we thought we would let her use the Ipad and didn’t attach it to the back of the headrest. This was the biggest mistake we could make because all of that looking down it made her car sick. She didn’t say anything and then all of a sudden threw up all over herself. We had to stop, change her clothing and wipe down seat beat. We thought she would be ok after that and she had a bit of a nap, but about an hour later she threw up again. This time it was even worse and it got all over the car seat, car interior and on the Ipad. So again we had to change her and wipe everything down. Now if your parents you may have had this happen many times. We, however have not. Our daughter has never thrown up in the car and only twice at home on the tiles. So we were not expecting or prepared for this. We were also driving a rental car and praying we would find a washing machine at our accommodation and a car detailing service. Although since we were heading away from the main cities we were unlikely to find anyone to clean the car professionally. By the end of the trip it all worked out, but from here we would spend the rest of the week trying to fix our smelly car and stressing how much we would be charged by the rental company.

Because of our delay, we didn’t make a stop along the way to Nelson Falls, which is about 30 mins from Queenstown. It is a 45 min return walk, which takes you to an amazing waterfall and is great for young families. We also drove past Iron Blow Lookout or Horsetail Falls. However, we did come back to see these two sites since they are very close to the centre of town. The only stop we did make before checking into our accommodation was Queenstown tourist stop. It is located off the highway as you enter the Queenstown region and had some information boards that tell of Mt Lyell mining history. You can’t quite see them unless you get our of your car because they face the view.

Afterwards, we checked into our accommodation at the Comfort Inn Goldrush Motor Inn. The room was very simple and outdated. However, it was also incredibly clean, so I can’t fault it too much for the reasonable price we paid. Now the first thing we had to do was sort out our little car dilemma and find something to eat. So we used the washing machine facilities at the motor inn, which unfortunately weren’t great. The washing cycle and detergent combined cost $8 and it only ran on a for 20 minutes cycle. So it didn’t really get the smell out of the car seat cover or our daughter’s clothes. We did go into town to find some cleaning supplies and some lunch. Unfortunately, Cafe Serenade closed at 2 pm on a Sunday, just as we arrived. I was disappointed we didn’t get to try one of their house-made pies, since I was starving by now. The only place that was open in town at this time was the IGA General Store. They didn’t have much in the way of cleaning supplies or ready to eat food (for a pregnant lady). But we bought some cleaning vinegar and some fresh fruit to snack on before dinner.

Afterwards, we went back to the Iron Blow Lookout in Gormanston. This is about 11 minutes drive from the centre of Queenstown. This was the earliest major mining venture at Mount Lyell and during the mining boom for the Queenstown region. The lookout allows a vertigo-inducing view of the open cut mine and the Linda Valley. When gold was discovered on hills of the Linda Valley in 1883, Iron Blow was founded and the site was descendent upon by miners who sort copper. They stripped the land bare and then deserted the area, leaving Gormanston and Linda as ghost towns. The over-mining and copper smelting has left a eerie, yet beautiful landscape which epitomises man’s greed.

Next, we drove a couple of minutes down the highway to Horsetail Falls Track. Horsetail Falls is a large seasonal waterfall that falls of Mt Owen onto Moore Creek. During the summertime it’s only a slow trickle, so its best to see the misty cascade during winter. To get the best view of the falls, you need to walk the Horsetail Falls Track. This is a boardwalk staircase along Karlon’s Gap and gives a panoramic view of the mountains to the south, ocean to the west and side view of the falls. The return walk is only 1 km and takes 30 minutes. It’s a relatively easy walk and I managed to do it pregnant. However, I did have to take quite a few breaks, since I have been struggling to walk on elevated ground. If you have a child just be careful because some parts of the side rails are open. I didn’t think I would make it all the way up, but it was an amazing view and worth the trip.

Next, we went back into the heart of Queenstown to have a look around before dinner. It was a bit of a ghost town, but it gave us a chance to get orientated. We found only a few restaurants, including a couple of pizzerias, an Asian restaurant and the Empire Hotel. Attractions we noted were the Eric Thomas Gallery Museum, The Paragon Theatre (old movies, dinner and tours), Q Bank Gallery, Armel Wall Memorial Plaza, Miner’s Siding Monument and Queenstown railway station (museum and steam train tours).

For dinner, we went to the historic and iconic Empire Hotel. It is known as the ‘Grand Old Lady of the West’ and was built in 1901, during the wealth of the mining boom. This hotel has accommodation, a restaurant and a bar. It also has a National Trust listed staircase, which leads to the guest accommodation. It was made of Tasmanian Blackwood, that was shipped to England to be carved and resent to be installed in the hotel. Unfortunately, you can’t go up the stairway unless you’re a guest, so I wasn’t able to see the paintings on the second floor. The restaurant has a small dining room, so I recommend arriving just before opening to get a table. It was quite busy the night we visited, which was surprising because I didn’t see anyone else walking around before. The menu features pub food including grilled steak, protein mains, pasta, salads and burgers. We found the prices were a little high for the quality and the service wasn’t great. You actually order and pay in the bar area and the servers bring out the food when it’s ready.

For dinner, I order the Hasselback chicken (stuffed with zucchini, eggplant and tomatoes) with white wine cream sauce and buttered potatoes. Marco had the Gourmet Bangers (Devonport beef sausages) and Mash, with peas and house onion gravy and O had the Kids ‘homemade’ chicken nuggets, chips and salad. My dish was ok. I really didn’t like the sauce at all, as it didn’t taste like the cream had been cooked. I had scrap it all off. The chicken was tender and the potatoes were nice and crispy. Marco’s dish wasn’t bad but average. It was also very odd that it came in a bowl rather than a plate. As for O’s, I really don’t think those nuggets were homemade and the chips were also average. Afterwards, we thought we would try the Berry Pavlova and Sticky date pudding for dessert. They were nice and probably the highlight of the meal.

After dinner, we explore the street art around the town. This was probably the last place I thought we would find so much art. Many of the works were by artists we had seen in Hobart laneways and a few new ones. You can actually do a self-guided Street Art Tour. I didn’t know about this map at the time or about the Q Bank Gallery, which has an artist-in-residency program. I did find the QBar, but it wasn’t open when I came across it. That is within the 1-story building you can see below and looks to be a gallery. The Q Bank Gallery is located behind it.

The next morning we headed to the Queenstown railway station to see the steam train leave the station and to have breakfast. This track is part of the West Coast Wildness Railway and travels between Strahan, Cradle Mountain, Devonport, Hobart and Launceston, with various stops in between. We didn’t have the time to take on of these trips and I did find the ticket prices were a bit expensive for all of us to travel. However, it seems to be quite a popular attraction for many tourists.

So before I had a chance to see much more of of the station we stopped for breakfast at the Tracks Cafe. They offer breakfast and lunch menus, as well as a kids menu, vegan and vegetarian options and the prices are quite reasonable. I ordered Scramble eggs with toasted sourdough and a hash brown to share my with angry daughter and Marco ordered the Egg and bacon roll. My eggs were very fluffy but a bit bland. The bread and hash brown were also soggy. So kind of wished I ordered something else. Marco’s breakfast roll was actually really tasty and his coffee also wasn’t too bad.

While I was waiting for breakfast, I went to have a little look in the tourist shop to see if they had the Tasmania devil my daughter had been hounding me about. They did have quite a few toys, but didn’t have the one in stock that she was after. I also came across the Railway Museum inside the station. It is only a small space, but it has a combination of information boards and authentic objects, which tell the story of the original construction of the Railway. It is free to go in and look around.

After breakfast walked 30 seconds down the road to the Miner’s Siding Monument. It features sculptures by Stephen Walker and tells the story of the mining history in the Lyell district. It is quite impressive, so I tried to get a photo of each sculpture if you want to follow their story through the years.

We had to leave quite early from Queenstown, to get to our next destination of Cradle Mountain. I will feature this amazing place in my next post. Below is just the stop, Henty Glacial Erratics State Reserve, which we came across 15 min out of Queenstown. It shows the geological transformation that took place, due to multiple periods of glacial activity. There is a walking track you can do from here. The photo I took is just of the rock from the opposite side of the highway.

I hope you enjoyed seeing a bit of Queenstown!

Tasmania: Hobart (day 1-2)

Published on by Vanessa Gregoria1 Comment

Hi all, a bit over a month ago I went on holiday to Tasmania with my little family. This was the first time any of us had been to the tiny island state of Australia. We did an 8-day road trip to celebrate my Babymoon and O’s new start to the school year.

For this trip, I designed a road trip, which began and ended in Hobart. This took us to Queenstown, Cradle Mountain, Devonport, Launceston, Campbell Town, Oatlands, Richmond and Port Arthur. We stayed in different accommodations every night and saw a variety of different landscapes. Although this is only a snapshot of what Tasmania has to offer, this itinerary gave us a pretty good overview in a short time with a child in tow.

I really didn’t know much about Tasmania before planning this trip. I didn’t know what the landscape would look like or what the climate would feel like. We were travelling in January during the hottest time of the year in Australia. But I had heard from others that it can get pretty cold here. So we just packed everything.

Our first stop was Hobart, which is the capital city and the most populous place in Tasmania. It was founded in 1804 as a British Penal colony and is the second oldest capital city in Australia. We arrive at the tiny Hobart airport just after midday. After picking up our rental car and we made our way into Hobart. This was our first impression of Tasmania. It looked quite rural and relatively flat. The climate was quite a bit cooler than where we came from and very windy.

It took about 20 minutes to get to our accommodation, located in the suburb of Lindisfarne on Hobart’s Eastern Shore. It’s only about 6 km from the centre of the city, but you do need a car to travel across the water. This suburb didn’t seem very affluent, as the homes were quite small but they did have amazing views of the River Derwent.

We stayed in the Honeymoon Suite at the Possums Spa Apartments. It was quite private and relatively clean. For the price and it was quite reasonable, but it was a little dated. The bed was extremely comfortable, so I can’t complain too much.

We were eager to drive across to the centre of Hobart to see as much as we could before everything closed. We parked on Franklin Wharf car park, just adjacent to Elizabeth Street Pier. There are quite a few dining options here. We had a little look but then decided to keep walking towards the Salamanca Markets. We did duck into the Brooke Street Pier building. Inside there are a few small stalls selling Tasmanian produce and tourism operators. If you are wanting to go to MONA Art Gallery on the Berriedale peninsula, you can buy your tickets for the ferry from here. The ferry itself is highly recommended on Trip Adviser. However, the tickets for the ferry and the museum weren’t cheap, so we decided to give it a miss on this trip.

On our way to the markets, we crossed through the Parliament House Gardens. It overlooks the Parliament House of Tasmania, which is still used today and offers public tours on non-sitting days. The park itself is quite plush green space. Unfortunately, it didn’t have a playground, which would have been ideal for us. Between the gardens and the Salamanca Place, you can find the Tasman Memorial and Fountain (1988). It was designed by local sculpture, Stephen Walker and features a plinth of white rock with the Southern Cross overlooking a white concrete fountain with three bronze ships and a bronze sculpture of Abel Janszoon Tasman (1603 – 1659). Tasman was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, merchant and first known European explorer to reach Tasmania and New Zealand.

The Salamanca Market is located at Salamanca Place and operates on Saturdays between 8:30 am-3 pm. It is Tasmania’s most visited tourist attractions and features over 300 stalls of local Tasmanian fresh food and produce, handmade arts and crafts, clothing, antiques, beauty products, souvenirs and more. We didn’t have much time until closing, so we had a quite look around for some lunch. If you’re after something in particular you can see the Market map. We didn’t end up eating here today, but we did return for our lunch on our last day, which you will see in a few more posts.

Salamanca Place a precinct of Hobart and features a row of picturesque three and four-storey sandstone buildings and a square. These buildings were previously warehouses for the port of Hobart, but today it is home to a variety of restaurants, bars, shops, the Spacebar Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre and the Peacock Theatre.

For lunch, I had planned to visit Daci & Daci Bakers, which is where we headed next. It is only a few minutes walk from Salamanca market. They have an amazing array of sweet and savoury pastries, cakes, bread, etc. Most of the menu is on display in the glass cabinets, including the breakfast and lunch dishes. Since I was pregnant I wasn’t about to order any of those. So instead I order the Seasonal soup, which was Black bean and vegetable soup and it came with house bread and farmhouse butter. Marco and Octavia shared a Croque Monsieur. After a bit of a wait due to some mix up, we finally got our meals. They were both pretty nice. My soup was exactly what my body needed and a good healthy start to this holiday.

Next, we wanted to visit Hobart’s inner-city laneways, which have been transformed into works of art. They were an initiative by the city council, called Love our Laneways. Many of these laneways are short cuts, which allow people a more scenic route, as they cut across town.

The first laneway we found was Harrington Lane. When we first arrived we didn’t see anything there, but once we walked around the corner a bit we came to this amazing Batman mural. Besides that there was a brightly coloured bird-inspired piece. These artworks were done by Tasmanian street artist and UTAS alum Jamin. He has produced murals across Tasmania, Australia and Internationally and won countless awards.

On our journey, we came across the little cafe Pilgrim Pies. This little slice of heaven offers pies, doughnuts and coffee 24-hour a day. We weren’t too hungry so Marco and I shared an Apple pie and O got a Strawberry glazed doughnut. Since the cafe was full, we went around the back to sit In the Hanging Garden. This area amazing little block is a beer garden with outdoor dining, bar and live music. There are two little restaurants offering Malaysian and Basque-inspired food.

Next, we visited one of the most impressive laneways, Bidencopes Lane. It was previously a favourite place for street taggers but was transformed during the 2018 Vibrance Festival by over 20 different artists. Here you can find work by artists Jamin, Tom O’Hern, and Brain Foetus aka Laura McMahon, Tom Gerrard, Lukan Smith, Jonny Scholes, Seven, Sam Dobransky, Ling, Mimi, and Stormie Mills. This is probably the longest laneway I came across with the most work, so definitely one you should visit. I realized the following day that I hadn’t seen the entire lane when I came across the other end on Liverpool street. You can see the rest at the end of this post.