Mixing it up in Queensland

It has been a bit quiet this week on the cooking front, but we have still had some nice meals

One was mixture of Asian inspired dishes:  pickles, beans, sweet potato, stuffed bean curd with wasabi:

 Grilled salted mackerel:

 Fried eggplant:

 

 This last dish was learned at a cooking class at Miss. Vy's School of  Cooking in Hoi An, Vietnam.  It is based on the little eggplants, usually called Thai eggplants, that you can sometimes find.

Ingredients:
6 Thai eggplants
1 bowl cold, salted water
1 pot boiling water
 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 teaspoons light soya sauce
1 teaspoon brown sugar
3 sliced spring onions
12 teaspoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1 teaspoon chopped red chilli

Method:
Thinly slice the eggplants but not down to the base.  Then, turn the eggplant 90 degrees and repeat.  The top threequarters of the eggplant should now be gridded.
Soak the eggplants in the cold water for 30 minutes.
Remove the eggplants, then place in boiling water for 7 minutes, weighing them down with a plate.
Remove the eggplants from boiling water, and place between two plates.  Squeeze the plates to drain off excess water.
Saute eggplant in 1 tablespoon  hot oil for 2 or 3 minutes on each side until brown and crispy of the outside.  Place on a serving plate.
Mix soy and sugar together.
Mix garlic and chilli together.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil and fry spring onions or 2 or 3 minutes, then add fish sauce.
Pour onion mix and soy mix on eggplant.  Serve garlic mix as a side accompaniement.

We also had a seafood marinara:

 

and smoked salmon and greens slice:

 

My other half made me peppered steak with tacos and salad:

 

 and  Lime Delicious Pudding.  (The top got a little bit burned beacause we couldn't tear ourselves away from the latest episode of "Game of Thrones").

Every week,when I can, I try to make a cake, slice or tin of buscuits for my husband to take to work.  This partly because I love them all dearly, partly because they eat everything I cook and never complain, and partly because I miss cooking for a large family.  This week's offering was Canadian Lemon slice - an old favourite:

As for eating out, this week we ate at an old favourite, Elixir.  I also discovered a new favourite for Italian cakes, gelati and coffee, Dolci Sapori, in Clayfield.  And, I got taken out to lunch with the "Ladies who Lunch" at  Riverbend Books in Bulimba.There, I had a very filling mixture of ricepaper rolls: prawn, beef and chicken

 while my fellow diners had  mashed avocado, tomato and fetta on bread

and a watermelon and proscuitto salad.

All were voted a great success.

This weekend we visited the Toowoomba Show. Why is the food at shows so awful?  We had a passable steak and salad roll outside Sideshow Alley, but most people seemed to be stuffing themselves with absolutely revolting looking concoctions.  I think they were frankfurt suasages impaled on a stick, dipped in a thick orange batter and deep fried, then topped with a large quantity of artificially red ketchup .  I think they are called Dagwoods, or Pluto dogs or corndogs or something.  Another crowd favourite was something that looked like slices of potato on a stick which have been deep fried - with an equally unnatural colour.  Tornado Fries? YUKKKK!  Do these people have no taste buds or sense of healthiness? What would Jamie Oliver say?  Reminds me of when my son was boarding at Dookie and was offered deep fried steaks, sausages, etc and suddenly realised he liked healthy, well-cooked meals - not heart attack specials.

On the good side, we discovered a new vegetable at the vegetable section: spiny cucumbers

I wonder if they taste any good?
And I renewed my acquaintance with the ornamental corns that I used to grow in Melbourne:

( I reckon mine were better!)