As an effort to start the new year off right I thought I should finish off some blogging from 2018.

Here’s a quick recap of my very short 10 day visit to Perth back in October-November.

Told primarily in the the most beautiful of all of the artforms, ‘The Selfie’. And featuring that most beautiful of all things- ‘Aussie Food’.

Apologies for the low quality of the images. It is the nature of the beast.

Let’s go!

Back in October I boldly boarded a Scoot Low-Cost airplane, arrived in Singapore, immediately got sweaty, met a couple of Merlions and got back on a plane for my home city. 

My first demand on arrival in Perth was for squid tentacles, a seafood claypot, and whatever other tasty morsels I could find. My family’s first demand was that I take a shower… After the food I immediately raided my sister’s wardrobe (because this is the Done Sister Thing), and ran around her house like an overtired toddler enjoying the nice swishing sound the fabric of her mustard skirt made, before collapsing in exhaustion on the couch. I also got to read a book from our childhood called ‘Gods, Men, and Monsters from the Greek Myths’, and made loud declarations about how much I pretty much look exactly like Athena.        

Day Two was all about family. In particular, Ariel arranged a housewarming which saw us meet up with most of our Perth family, and some of our closest family friends. There are about 8000 photos of the event already posted here, but just for your viewing pleasure, here is one of my and my cousin Ashleigh:

Aren’t we lovely?

After the family left I headed for the city, which included a look at the newly ‘linked’ central business district.

Perth city is basically 10 skyscrapers next to two pedestrian shopping malls,  plonked next to a river, a hill, and surrounded by suburbia that literally sprawls for a hundred kilometres. The recent ‘sinking and linking’, sunk the railway to connect the CBD and its quite beautiful southern riverfront with the more hipster (and tastier) suburb to the north. I have to say that the change is a massive improvement, and, especially with the addition of more small bars and restaurants, makes the whole area a much more pleasant place to interact. 

Anyway, my point of heading to the city was to meet up with friends Gem, Kylie and Emma. Gem and Kylie have both come to visit me in Germany and it was great to get to catch up with them in Perth. Of course, I was too busy chatting to take photos of them, but did manage to photograph the food.

My first rendang of the trip (TICK!), and some tasty tasty chicken satay.  

We talked until Gem had to leave to get her plane back to the east coast, at which point I wandered down the terrace (a major artery running into the city), and realised that, at 9 pm, I had just managed to miss both the last bus back to my sister’s and my parent’s house.

And thus, I felt that immediate ‘home’ feeling, of having to drive (or be driven) everywhere.

Morning Three began with me eating crumpets (thanks Ariel!) and wandering around my sister’s house in my grandmother’s dressing gown and my sister’s Ugg boots (when in Australia), before meeting up with my folks.

We hit up Carousel, the old, kinda bogan shopping centre where I worked (bread) retail as a university student. Except that apparently it’s fancy now. And has a whole lot of exciting looking food.

If only I had had more time and more meals!

After a quick Op-Shop (one of the few genetic predispositions I seem to have inherited from both family sides), we headed back to my folk’s house, for me to marvel at the new office-state of my childhood bedroom, and for me to wander around the house and garden with my sister’s cat.

One of us seemed to enjoy this more than the other:   

My parents have a pretty amazing garden, which is filled mostly with Australian native plants. I wrote about it a bit on my last visit to Perth, but didn’t have a lot of time to just chill and take shots this time around.  

Dinner was Korean- kimchi pancake, bibimbap, chicken bulgogi and some amazingly stretchy sweet potato noodles:

Day Four was a day of Jacob-cousins. First I visited Jacobs Cousin one for lunch…

… and then I headed back through the city, via a doughnut, too meet Jacobs cousin 2. 

We picked his daughter up from school and I got to hang out with her for a bit, before also getting cuddles with my cousin’s brand new baby son:   Of course there was also food- my cousin made ‘Kym’s meat’, a kind of slow-cooked beef that my granddad used to cook, which has since taken up my cousin’s name.

It tasted just like my grandad’s food!

Day Four ended with me hanging with the mother of the two cousins (my Aunty) at her house, with her many pets, before shipping back to my folks’ house for more ‘family food’.

Bacon Buns:

A.K.A Latvian Pierogi. A family favourite and recipe we inherited from my grandfather’s long-term partner.

They day also saw me get my eyes tested (Aussie Healthcare!), get my pap smeared (I assume this is correct), and get some blood taken for general health checks (turns out I am low on iron and vitamin D. Way to go you terrribly-dark and terrible-meat containing country, Germany).

Speaking of meat, I also ate a potato pie…     

As well as gobbling a mint flavoured kit-kat. Plus, I mocked the cat.

In the afternoon we headed to the beautiful port city of Fremantle, too meet up with my ex-in-laws, and to generally enjoy one of Perth’s most beautiful areas.         

By the way, if you are ever in Perth and looking for Souvenirs, this tiny shop has some of the most beautiful Aussie waresI have ever seen:

In the evening we once again ate- this time at our all-time favourite Japanese takeaway place, where I had a karage/agedashi tofu bento and takoyaki (sadly without bonito flakes), and Ariel had some darn good ramen.

 

Day Six was the day my sister took off work.

We started with mangoes. Proper, ripe ones. The kind that are not hard-as-rocks and also tasteless-as-rocks (take note current homeland). 

And then we made a family outing to the cat cafe. If you find cats even slightly cute you can find about 70043 more photos of that experience right here.

You know what else we did that day?

We Op-Shopped:

And then, after mulberry eating and a quick outfit change, Ariel and I hit up the bushland (find more shots here, including a LOVELY one of Ariel forcing sunscreen onto my face), before hanging out with our cousins-on-the-other-side in a massive wood-fire pizza making event.

That’s it for Part I. Hope you enjoyed the many photos of food and mah face.