Happy festive season! I hope you’ve been having the best time with your loved ones—whether that’s food, pets, people, or all three. I’ve been working throughout this holiday season, with trips to Bunnings, playing Story of Seasons (the main reason the blog has been quiet this month), onigiri hunting, and squeezing in some day drinking here and there. I’m so thankful for 2024 and ready to embrace 2025 with peace, practice, and curiosity.
Christmas Highlights
🥂 ━ Our office Christmas party was epic! There was a great food spread, Bad Santa with the latest AirPods thrown into the mix, tarot readings, endless limoncello, karaoke, and a photobooth. I enjoyed every minute of it and was bummed that I had to leave early for the Writing Club Christmas party on the same evening at a pizza place on Barkley Street. But the later party turned out to be as fun, with writing retreat in 2025 plan being brewed.
🎄 ━ On Christmas Day, I woke up, journaled, and took a little walk around the neighborhood. Along the way, I saw a bucket filled with free-to-take rosemary (a key herb for Christmas cooking) hanging on a fence. The sight warmed my heart. For lunch, we went to Sambal Special for a plethora of sambal dishes. We didn’t hold back—it was Christmas, after all! From there, we walked to Beku for some Asian-inspired gelatos (I got Black Rice, and Fafa got Paan). We then headed to my favorite inner-city park in Melbourne, Argyle Square, where we sat for a while, ate our gelato in peace, took selfies, and chit-chatted It was easily one of my favorite Christmas memories in Melbourne.
🏩 ━ On Boxing Day, we treated ourselves to a staycation at the newly opened StandardX Hotel in Fitzroy.
My self-imposed staycation rules have always been simple: new food, nap time, and light reading.
For the “new food” part, we dined at the hotel’s restaurant, Bang, which served Thai cuisine. We ordered a Blue Swimmer Crab Donut, which I thought would be a winner, but since it was served cold, it was just okay. The Oxtail Spring Roll turned out to be the winner, while the Octopus Skewers were meh, and the Broccolini Stir Fry was absolutely delicious. The biggest disappointment was the dessert, misleadingly called “Mango and Rice.” It wasn’t mango sticky rice. To be fair, it was our fault for not reading the menu properly, but we were still a bit loopy from the delicious naps we had just before heading down to dinner.
For the “light reading” part, I ended up catching up on some bookmarked online pubs, as I had forgotten to pack my Kindle. Overall, it was a fantastic staycation—10/10, would repeat!
🛏️ ━ We also did another, mini-version staycation at home by pulling the guest room mattress into the living room to sleep in front of the TV. I know Fafa doesn’t really enjoy this and only does it because I love it, and I’m truly grateful for that. Thanks, Fafa—let’s do more, please!
Read, Watched, And Browsed
🕊️ ━ I binged on the subtly Christmas-themed Black Dove on Netflix ━ I want everything Keira Knightley wears in the show. I also watched Law and Order Season 25 and got curious about Liv’s compass pendant.
💅🏽 ━ Speaking of wanting to copy people on TV, my Christmas nails were a direct replica of JVN’s from the latest Queer Eye season. This season has been delightful—easily my favorite of Queer Eye. And yes, I will always be Team Bobby, but man, Jeremiah really is the MVP. He has such a wholesome personality.
🌸 ━ Fafa also got me to watch two movies, both of which I highly recommend: Lucky Bhaskar on Netflix and Bougainvillea, which you might need to torrent.
🧑🏻💻 ━ One lousy night, I asked WhatsApp AI for a found footage movie recommendation and got The Den (2013). Not bad—both the movie and the AI recommendation. Another thriller I loved was Promising Young Woman.
📚 ━ Things I started but haven’t finished yet: the movies Bird Eater and The Accursed, and the book Theory & Practice.
Foodie Guide-Y
🥘 ━ The best cooking advice I got this year was from Amma (no surprise there): Cooking is about preparation, refrigeration, marination, and lastly, moderation. I also did a Spotify-style “yearly wrap” of my routines and rituals for the year, and the only thing I am proud of is my cooking journey. I cooked 38 new recipes!
💮 ━ Liz and I celebrated the festive season with an early Christmas dinner at Flower Drum. We had their Summer Tasting Banquet. It began with an appetizer of abalone served on a bed of mung bean noodles, followed by fish fillet with shiitake mushroom sauce. The mini main course was Peking duck wrapped in a pancake with a side of plum sauce, followed by the MAIN main: sautéed eye fillet—so tender and juicy. Next came a small bowl of truffle fried rice. For dessert, we had mango pancakes, though we both preferred the almond cookies served on the side. Overall, the food was delicious. To quote Liz: “It was so umami my eyebrow fell off.” The service, however, could have been better. It might have been a one-off issue with the waiter who tended to our table, but it did put a slight damper on the experience for me.
🍛 ━ We hosted Christmas dinners at our place. For my ex-colleagues-turned-besties, I made Indian Paneer Butter Masala and Indo Fried Chicken. Aina brought us homemade apricot jam from their own garden, while Jen gifted us hard-to-pronounce but delicious Christmas cookies. A week later, for our neighbor, I repeated the Indo Fried Chicken and added Gado Gado, Prawn Tauco, and Mushroom Rendang to the menu.
🌭 ━ Another Christmas feast was at Peko Peko in South Melbourne with my workmates. I’ve been to this place a few times (always with the same group) and have loved everything I’ve tried. I need to take Fafa there next for their delicious volcano chicken and sausage fried rice.
🥡 ━ For our anniversary dinner, we went to Lee Ho Fook because Fafa wanted Chinese food. We started with apricot tea (on the house) and ordered pickled mussels and their famous crispy eggplant as appetizers. We also shared mud crab rolled rice noodles, Singapore-style prawns (which I’ve ironically never had in Singapore), and porridge-like Fujian fried rice which was my least fave. For dessert, I tried their famous jasmine tea-infused custard caramel. The food was good, but it made me question my preference for dining at well-known restaurants. Maybe I’ll write about this in more detail if I manage to organize my thoughts on paper.
🍤 ━ I finally got to experience a very Aussie tradition: Prawns for Christmas, kindly shared with us by our neighbors on Christmas Day—along with delicious enchiladas.
🥧 ━ We had a potluck street party, and I had no time to prepare anything (plus, CBF to cook for who were, at the time, strangers), so, I grabbed another Aussie favorite: mini sausage rolls from IGA, heat them up (not a proud moment, believe me) and brought them to the park with a side of Indo chili sauce. I met many interesting characters and learned even more fascinating stories about their lives and the street we live on. Another highlight was the post-party briefing at the same neighbor’s house who shared prawns for Christmas. This time, they made Maharashtrian Chicken Curry, home-made Chapati, Paneer Curry, and the most delicious Shish Bebabs with fried green chili. I love my street!
🍜 ━ Other noteworthy food experiences this month:
- Chicken udon at Ilza when I felt a cold coming on.
- Returning to Simbashi for a delicious bowl of Soba in Fitzroy.
- Over-ordering at Galbi, a KBBQ place opposite QVM that we’d been wanting to try.
- Chai boba at Chesnut Tree Bookshop.
- Oyster dates with Fafa on Friday evenings.
- Filipino halo-halo.
- Uber-Eating a prawn sando and sharing it with Fafa.
Kulture Kween
This month, before I discovered the joy of Story of Seasons and became unable to focus on anything else for the rest of the month, I managed to write about Stamped Love from Papershop Helsinki 🖋️ Papetri Paperworks A Stationery Temple in Budapest 🖋️ Finding Atlantis Books: A Sacred Sanctuary in Santorini
Current Obsession
👨🏻🍳 ━ I got myself Chef Adam Liaw’s spatula for Christmas, and I’m obsessed with it. I’ve been using it for all my cooking and including it in every cooking photo and video I’ve shared with my Amma. I wanted to get it as a Christmas gift for Jik and Liz, but I discovered it a bit too late and worried it wouldn’t arrive by Christmas. Maybe it’s not a bad idea for a Lunar New Year gift instead?
🐍 ━ Speaking of Christmas gifts, Fafa got me a Slytherin* House Harry Potter fountain pen, and I absolutely love it! I’m planning to start using it in the new year, along with the CIAK journal he got me as well. *I want to set the record straight that I’m in my Ravenclaw era. The Slytherin House pen has a snake engraved on it, which feels more connected to 2025 being the Year of the Snake.
📹 ━ Every December, I work on a solo film photography project. This year, it didn’t turn out so great—maybe because I didn’t put enough soul into it. Still, above is a photo I loved from the roll.
🍚 ━ I listened to the Wildy Podcast, where tarot is referred to as an accessible form of therapy, which reminded me of Liz’s words of wisdom: “Every woman needs her shrink. A fortune teller is the second best thing.” Also, I’m in love with the Magic Pantry Tarot deck. If you’re into food and tarot, I highly recommend getting this deck. My favorite card from the deck is the Ace of Pentacles, depicted as a bowl of rice.
Tiny Joys
The beautiful pasta bowl Liz got me for Christmas ❤ Moleskine tower ❤ Jacaranda blooming ❤ Succeeding in making Dosai ❤ Booking flights for fun trips ❤ Cadbury chocolate-coated almonds ❤ PJs from Fafa ❤ The Indian grocery store ❤ Decorating the Christmas tree ❤ Welcoming New Year’s Eve with friends ❤ The black cat Christmas ornament I got from The Chestnut Tree Bookshop, which I named SoyJoy Boba ❤ Reading on the train ❤ Nikki’s birthday drinks at QT ❤ Completing the Nakasendo Trail virtually, albeit a year later than my actual Kumano Kodo pilgrimage ❤ Free book samples downloadable to Kindle ❤ Finishing a journal and ❤ Starting a fresh new journal ❤
Time Machine
Last year, I wrote this series from Bali. This year, however, I had to squeeze in the draft between workdays and holidays, all while battling major FOMO as I watched my family celebrate Christmas together like a happy family—without me. I almost bought a flight ticket home on Christmas Day but then remembered I didn’t have my passport with me. Haiz! Lesson learned: next December, I am going home! or somewhere for fun. Read more about last year’s happenings.
Thank You, Next!
🍻 ━ The card I pulled for January is the Three of Pentacles from the FOB (Fresh off the Bakery) Out of Hand deck I received this morning. This card symbolizes collaboration and teamwork on the path to mastery. For me, it perfectly aligns with the word of the year that came to me during my New Year Intention Setting Yoga: Practice.
🎃 ━ I’m planting pumpkins and competing with my colleagues to see who can grow the biggest one by the end of April. I got some seeds for the “Pumpkin King,” and one of them has already sprouted! I’m so excited that I’m considering starting an Instagram account for this project, naming it the Pudgy Pumpkin Planting Project — or P3 Project for short.
📷 ━ I finally got the TikTok-famous (or poor people’s Leica) Fujifilm XV100VI camera which I ordered in May. Determined not to make this a millennial cliché, I’ve taking FUFUsan for a photowalk with Harvard, who is currently offering the class through his Substack, Soy Sauce, Sugar, Mirin – I stumbled upon it while Googling the difference between omakase and degustation.
🎾 ━ It only took us a decade to decide it’s time to embrace Australian culture and attend an AO game this month. Stay tuned for updates — most likely tipsy ones.
🎉 ━ We are off to a PJ party to celebrate New Year’s Eve and New Year at a friend’s house on the other side of Melbourne tonight.
And I shall end it there for this year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, you guys! Catch you next year 🙂
Follow me on Instagram @KultureKween for more recent updates.
Fufusan!!! 😂😂😂😂 I love it
hehehehe iya… dia like u.