A night at the zoo!

The National Zoo and Aquarium in Canberra has been around since the early eighties and they have offered overnight stays at Jamala Wildlife Lodge for about ten years. I'd always wanted to spend a night at the zoo and was very lucky to stay there on Sunday night as a birthday treat. The package included lunch, tours, dinner, accommodation and breakfast. It was a spectacular experience. Here are some pics ...

Light lunch on arrival

And from the self-guided Sunday afternoon tour:

Our luxurious room, which had a lemur enclosure on one side and an expansive view of lion habitat on the other:

Lemur-viewing window

Yawning, snuggling lemurs!

Dinner:

Assorted canapes

Madagascan vegetable and tofu curry with coconut rice

Creme brulee

Mischka the white lion snoozed next to the room where we ate dinner and was still slumbering there when we reconvened for breakfast the next morning :-)

Breakfast:

Vego eggs benedict

We expected to be in a group for our guided tour on Monday morning but the other participants didn't show so Andrew and I received a very personalised tour with our knowledgeable guide, Lucy. Some highlights:

We were allowed to pat the rhino!

We had access to our room for one more hour between finishing the walking tour and checking out ...

... which meant we could watch our lemur friends enjoy breakfast

Such am amazing experience. Delightful and delicious and educational.

A Dubai-style chocolate experiment

When my friend Jacqui mentioned Dubai chocolate to me in July 2025, I was quite late to the party. Apparently the flavour/texture combo (chocolate + pistachios + crunch) had been around since 2021. Suddenly I started seeing it everywhere. The first block I bought was from the gorgeous Turkish Delight store in Adelaide, and variations are available in supermarkets and Asian grocery stores. Of the types I've tried, the Adelaide version tasted best, as it was not so sweet as the others, but I'd prefer an even less sweet option. This particular style of chocolate is also very expensive – ranging from about $125 to $150 per kilo – so I've been pondering how to create something similar at home.

My first thoughts were to combine Chang's Fried Noodles with pistachio paste, then coat it in melted chocolate. However, all three brands of pistachio paste/spread I found had sugar as their main ingredient (unlike, say, peanut butter which can be made of 100% peanuts) so I decided to use whole pistachios instead. The ingredients:

I melted the chocolate, then mixed in the noodles and nuts, and spread the mixture in a silicone loaf mould. (More usually used to bake things like date loaf and banana bread, but also perfect for shaping chocolate blocks, it seems!) The result:

Andrew and I taste-tested the chocolate and we liked it! These ingredients achieve the qualities I was seeking but without being cloyingly sweet (though, if I try it again ... I may use milk rather than dark chocolate). The mixture was also much cheaper than commercial versions, with the ingredients costing $20.10 for 410 grams (so about $49 per kilo). Nom nom. 

Chocolate cheesecake re-re-engineered

Chocolate cheesecake just got even easier to make! I've tinkered with this recipe over many years, removing the sugar from the base (it's sweet enough without it), halving the sugar in the topping then deleting it altogether, deleting the egg whites and increasing the amount of chocolate. It works well.

First, make the base

200 grams plain, sweet biscuits [I like to use Malt or Digestive biscuits]
100 grams butter

Crush the biscuits. Melt the butter and combine well with the crushed biscuits. Press the mixture onto the bottom of a foil-lined springform pan and chill.

Next, make the cheesy topping

250 grams cream cheese
200 grams chocolate [milk, dark or white]
300 ml pouring cream

Soften the cream cheese a little and beat well. Melt the chocolate over a bowl of hot water or in a microwave. Allow the chocolate to cool slightly, them combine with the cream cheese mixture. Whip the cream. Combine the chocolate and cream mixtures well, and pile on top of the base. Decorate with extra cream, grated chocolate, or fresh fruit. Refrigerate until ready to eat.

New Zealand: the 2025 edition

Every second year or so Andrew and I go to New Zealand to catch up with my family. This time we went in late May and early June, and have made a mental note to go earlier in the year next time, as several tourist attractions had closed for the winter already. Anyway, there's not much to report. Apart from spending time with family, the trip was largely about eating, drinking, and walking. Some highlights:

Wellington coffee @ Lazy Juan

Chilli oil eggs @ Kind Wish Café, Kelburn

Whanganui River (at a rare, non-raining moment)

Tram ride! Whanganui

Virginia Lake, Whanganui

Lunch @ Tasty Indian Restaurant, Whanganui

Double decker bus in Whanganui

Dinner @ Tasty Indian Restaurant, Whanganui (yes, we went there twice)

Coffee @ Jolt Coffee House, Whanganui

OMG! Deconstructed lemon meringue pie @ Union Square

Bistro & Bar, Martinborough. A revelation :-)

Nasi lemak @ Little Penang, Wellington

More Wellington coffee!

Lunch @ Curry Heaven, Newtown, Wellington. We used to go to

their CBD branch but it closed so we tracked them down to the suburbs

The Wellington Cable Car (funicular railway)

Thanks to Andrew for (most of) the pics. He thoroughly documented the trip.

Farewell, NZ. See you next time.

Snickerdoodles!

We kept hearing snickerdoodles mentioned on American TV shows. What are snickerdoodles?! A little bit of googling suggested that they're soft, fluffy cinnamon cookies. The recipe I tried is here:

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/soft-thick-snickerdoodles-in-20-minutes/ 

Turns out they're both easy and delicious. Enjoy!

Tasting Singapore with Singapore Foodsters

We recently spent four nights in Singapore, at the conclusion of our Java tour, and signed up for a five-hour walking tour of several foodie neighbourhoods before we left Australia. (In hindsight, maybe this was a bit ambitious? We ate a LOT of food in Indonesia!) Anyway, the tour was run by Gerry from Singapore Foodsters, and it was the second time we'd done one of his tours. They're a great introduction to the many, varied cultures and cuisines of the city.

We were collected from our hotel and the group's first wander was around a fresh food market in Little India:

Followed by generous tastings at an Indian restaurant …

… and in a hawker centre in Chinatown:

We also enjoyed gelato and coffee (not pictured, forgot to take a photo) in Kampong Glam. Our tour (on foot, MRT trains and a double-decker bus) took us to various fascinating places and Gerry's informative commentary explained many aspects of Singapore's history.

Since our previous trip to Singapore in 2018, a bunch of huge murals had appeared!

An excellent way to explore Singapore with a local. Recommended.

Battle of the egg tarts

I really like Chinese egg tarts. They're hard to find in Canberra, which is handy, as otherwise I would eat far too many of them. After our recent journey through Java Andrew and I spent four nights in Singapore. We've been there lots of times in the past – it's one of our favourite cities – but hadn't been back since 2018 due to the pandemic. On our final full day in Singapore we set ourselves the frivolous task of tasting and ranking various different local versions of egg tarts. Having googled 'best egg tarts in Singapore' we set off on the MRT in search of our snacks.

According to the internet, the best egg tarts in Singapore were at Tong Heng Confectionery in Chinatown. By the time we arrived they'd almost sold out of egg tarts so we tried one egg tart and one coconut tart.

The next taste test was a bit random … we spotted a Hong Kong-style bakery on our way back to the MRT station. I think it was called Leung Sang and they offered both traditional flaky and 'Western' style egg tarts. We opted for the traditional version :-)

Our third taste test came from Tai Cheong Bakery in the basement of Takashimaya in Orchard Road. They had both egg tarts and pandan tarts so we tried (shared) one of each!

All three were on this list of the best egg tarts in Singapore. The ones we tried were numbers 1, 5 and 2, respectively, on the list. And our favourite of the three we tried? The middle one! The pastry was ambrosial. But all were delicious. Thanks, Singapore!

Salted caramel ice cream

Nom nom! We discovered this recipe a couple of years ago when some rellies made it for Christmas Day. Super easy and super delicious. We've been having some unseasonably hot weather lately in Canberra – it should be autumn [fall] but feels like summer – so I made a batch of salted caramel ice cream earlier today.

600 ml fresh cream (or 500 ml plant-based alternative *)
380 grams caramel filling
salt, to taste

Whip the cream until firm. Mix in the caramel and salt. Freeze. Enjoy!

Here are some other flavours of home made ice cream you may like to try (no fancy devices required):

avocado, lime and ginger
Bailey's and macadamia [or other nuts]
basil, lime and honey
banana and cacao nibs
brandied fruit and nuts
chilli chocolate
coconut and cacao nibs
coffee and cardamom
green tea
Kahlúa and pecan [or other nuts]
rocky road
strawberry

Happy (southern) autumn.

* Today I used Flora 100% plant-based thickened cream instead of dairy cream. I'm a bit torn about this stuff. On the one hand, it is dairy-free, so suitable for people with physical or philosophical intolerances to dairy products. On the other hand, it's a bit of a chemical cocktail and is imported from Germany. Taste- and texture-wise, though, it is indistinguishable from cream. 

If you are trying to avoid dairy products, you could make most of the ice creams listed above with plant-based cream and coconut-based condensed milk.

Sri Lanka was delightful!

Sri Lanka had been at the top of my bucket list since I was seven. It was the mid 1970s and, while living in a grim, grey little town in New Zealand, I started corresponding with a penpal in Colombo. Sri Lanka sounded like everything New Zealand was not: colourful, spicy, exciting. The country remained a fascination for the next few decades and I started making plans to visit several years ago. The COVID-19 pandemic and an economic crisis meant that I booked, then rebooked, then rebooked the trip, but it finally went ahead last month. And it was fabulous!

I went on a 16-day bus tour organised by Bunnik Tours, who specialise in small-group touring. Everything about the trip met my needs. The staff were excellent, the tour group (14 people including me) nice, the food AMAZING, the scenery and archaeology and wildlife beautiful and fascinating. Just wanted to post a few pics from the adventure …