Not a Newsletter: Aug24 Edition

Happy almost-end of August which means Virgo season, baby!!! Let’s dive in ━

Highlights

👩🏻‍🤝‍👩🏽 ━ The best thing of this month was my high school best friend, Peth, reaching out through Instagram and us hanging out while she visited Melbourne. We went to Higher Ground, walked around the city, and a few days later, we met again for Thai BBQ and HK dessert. I was so excited for Peth and Fafa to meet for the first time 🙂 We now have to return the favour by visiting them in Bandung when we visit my parents in Jakarta.

🏡 ━ I went for dinner at my colleague-turned-friend-turned-neighbour’s beautiful new home last Saturday. She served the most beautiful grazing plate. We played Jenga and Uno. She served us homemade Indonesian Gado Gado. It was such a good night, and the fact that we are neighbours was a bonus. I am ready for a repeat!

👽 ━ Last Sunday, Liz and I were supposed to go to Mornington Peninsula, but the weather forecast was so shit that we postponed it for a day in South Yarra instead. We started with late brunch at Oppen – a Scandi wine bar in Windsor, followed by Alien: Romulus at the iconic Jam Factory, where we continuously drink (Liz treated us with Gold Class tickets). The evening ended at hers with an elaborate Chinese cuisine feast made lovingly by her parents, and Fafa joined us. The elaborate menu includes Mapo Tofu, Yangzhou Fried Rice, Green Beans, Pickled Fish Soup, Prawn and Veggies Stir Fry, Beef Stew, and Kung Pao Chicken. This was my second time eating their lovely cooking, and I was glad Fafa got to try it for the first time. She sent us back with Tapau of the soup, her home-baked (and my absolute fave) cornflake biscuits and her mom’s homemade Moon Cakes with Oreo fillings.

🀩 ━ My colleagues and I went to the QVM Winter Night Market on a random Wednesday. It has been a while since the last time I checked it out. The Winter Night Market has evolved, but I’m glad my fave stall, mulled wine, still stands. We also scored some secondhand clothing items from the stall in the String Beans Alley.

💇🏽‍♀️ ━ This month, KultureKween, the blog, turned 12 (if we go by the day I took a sickie from work to start my travel blog – Trav4l Geek before it morphed to Foreign Geek), or 15 (if we go by the time I started dipping my toe into blogging after being inspired by my BFF – Vi), or 7ish (if we go by the time I change my travel blog name to KultureKween). This blog has been an expanding creative outlet, one of the constant things in my life, and a treasure of mine. For all those reasons, I am so grateful and proud of it.

💇🏽‍♀️ ━ I got a haircut last Friday from someone who referred to themselves as Punk, and I love it—both the name and the haircut. A good haircut is truly life-changing!

Culture Chat

💍 ━ Meenakari art and jewelry a Jaipur heritage

🐦‍⬛ ━ I have been spotting Pam the bird all over Melbourne these days, especially in the WeFo.

🥘 ━ Google Doodle on 21 August was about celebrating Rendang – a rich Indonesian stew made of coconut milk and love

🇯🇵 ━ 6-stamp Daruma postcard at Katsuoji Temple, Osaka – the home of Daruma dolls.

🥘 ━ A colleague brought homemade Rocky Roads to the office one day. Here’s to me getting a step closer to fully immersing into Australian culture, one treat at a time.

Found and Love

☕ ━ Do you remember the Sunday Currently series? I am back on this kick and have written three volumes so far (I’m keeping it private as we already have this NoNe series going). If you feel like writing but are unsure what, Sunday Currently could be a prompt. Also, it’s a nice and easy way to record your life happenings publicly or just for yourself.

After years of being on the fence about Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith, I finally took the plunge after watching the video above. I got the mini version—WTJ Everywhere—as an early birthday present for myself. I’m torn between taking it on my trip or keeping it as a Melbourne adventure WTJ.

I’ve added Ancora in Ginza, the customized fountain pen heaven, to my Japan travel list—and I don’t even know how to write with a fountain pen.

Read, Watched, and Browsed

🚗 ━ I saw the famed A Streetcar Named Desire play at Arts Centre Melbourne. The acting was top-notch, but the story wasn’t for me. I even thought about leaving halfway through the show, but didn’t because $. This was one of those times when I wondered if it was just too cultured for me.

🤾🏽 ━ Did you watch the Olympics? First, congratulations to the three Indonesians who won medals, including the weightlifting champion and the women’s singles badminton bronze medal winner. Aside from that, some of my favourite moments were the US “Golden Girls” gymnastics team, Tara Davis-Woodhall winning and hugging her husband Turkish pistol shooter memes, and Imane Khelif winning and then suing J.K. Rowling and Raygun’s representation of Australia in breakdancing, which divided the internet. Side note: I have been trying to make “getting Raygun-ed” a saying, but it hasn’t taken off so far.

📚 ━ August is Poetry Month in Australia, and I celebrate it by reading A Gentle Reminder by Bianca Sparacino. Unfortunately, it was the only book I read this month.

🐻 ━ I watched The Bear, seasons 1 to 4. What a show! I love all the food creation, the “Every Second Counts” storyline, the snippets of friendship peppered throughout the seasons, the scene-by-scene of Marcus in the Copenhagen episode, Carmy’s Japanese knife and illustrated notebook, and how parts of him remind me of myself.

📺 ━ This month, I watched and recommended the Russian movie Colors of Evil: Red and Under Suspicions. I also watched The Truman Show (finally!) and Indian 2 (for shits and giggles).

👻 ━ I paid for and loved watching Death of a Vlogger on Prime. I also paid to watch the much anticipated The House of Mansfield Street: Evil Next Door, but I didn’t like it as much ━ could be because I had high expectations for it. Meanwhile, I still discovered plenty of Found Footage Horror on YouTube, including Horror in the High Desert and Deadware.

🗽 ━ Here are some travel journal prompts if you are into both.

🔖 ━ I recommend Something To Eat and Something to Read – you can either listen to it or read the Substack if you are like me 🔖 Prune: The profoundly personal minimalism of “Perfect Days” 🔖 Little rituals for a cosy life 🔖 Why I Explore the World as an Early Riser 🔖 Ideas For Taking Your Life in Extraordinary Directions 🔖

Foodie Guide-y

🦀 ━ After living in Melbourne for almost a decade, I finally went to the famous Higher Ground with my best friend and her husband. Unfortunately, the food was a hit-and-miss. My Spanner Crab Benedict was too fishy, though Peth loved her Wagyu Brisket. The place was beautiful, though, and worth checking out if you’re visiting Melbourne, staying in the CBD area, and looking for an Instagrammable spot.

🥭 ━ I have a new go-to restaurant for semi-fancy Asian dinners in Melbourne CBD: Thai Tide. I can’t wait to go back and try different things from the menu while sticking to the Mango Sticky Rice cocktail.

🍛 ━ I invited my teammates for dinner over the weekend, thus completing my 2024 goal of feeding all my friends based in Melbourne. I served them watered-down Kerala Chicken Curry, Malabar Prawn Curry, and Raita, which we paired with store-bought Paratha and Onion Pakora. We also drank copiously that evening, including mulled wine, spiced cider, Raki (Turkey’s unofficial national drink – 40% alcohol content), and Umeshu.

🦪 ━ I celebrated my Freedom Day with a dozen oysters, half raw and half cooked (a mix of Kilpatrick and Garlic Butter). Every single one of them was as divine as my freedom. Oh, also, here’s a fun fact for you: oysters taste creamier during summer and sharper in winter.

🪙 ━ I had been wanting to try Pistachio spread since I found out it existed. While visiting Queen Victoria Night Market with my colleague, I got to try something even better: Korean Gold Coin Pancakes with pistachio cream filling (a new green treat has been unlocked).

🍛 ━ I served my last (for now) Butter Chicken to our friends who came for dinner and kindly brought an unnamed Beef Curry. Since then, my Butter Chicken saga has come to a halt as Fafa refused to indulge me anymore, and I see no point in just cooking it for myself. Maybe I can share it with my neighbour or my friend Aina, who is practically our neighbour now.

🍚 ━ We had a Teishoku lunch date at Cafe L’arome in Footscray. I had high expectations for the place as it’s one of the few Japanese restaurants in the West serving Teishoku. But the taste and location didn’t match the price tag, so it’s been removed from my ever-growing Melbourne Eats list. SOT is another place we tried but don’t plan to return to, as the food taste didn’t match the great location, atmosphere and service.

🍜 ━ I finally made one of the viral recipes for Buldak instant ramen (yes, I know I’m eons late to the trend) with my tweaks, and I am calling it self-care-noods. It was good but also way spicier than I thought, so I understand why Denmark banned it! 😛

🍴 ━ Other meals from this month that I remember include the air-fried steak Fafa made and the Beef Massaman Curry from Palm Sugar Thai Cafe on Collins Street. I wanted to try this place for years, and the BMC didn’t disappoint. Lastly, Shiv served Punjabi Chicken Curry at a dinner gathering at hers. It was love at first taste. Yummy!!

Kulture Kween

I wrote about going to Truffle Tour in QVM, Kumano River World Heritage River Pilgrimage Route, A Korean Slow Food Evening with Chae at Books for Cooks, Thai Tide An Array of Regional Thai Cuisine in Melbourne CBD.

Tiny Joys

Card games and board games ❤ Ditching the to-do list to soak in the bathtub instead ❤ Cancelled appointments ❤ Free found footage movies on YouTube ❤ Store-bought Onion Pakora ❤ Melbourne weather getting warmer ❤ Food made by Fafa ❤ Surprising Fafa with his favourite Watermelon Cake from Blackstar Pastry, which has since closed its store in Melbourne ❤ Hunting in second-hand and antique stores ❤ Sunday naps ❤ Doing nothing on Sundays ❤ Shokupan with pandan dip ❤ Magic coffee in the afternoon ❤ Indo meatballs from Tambo Ciak ❤ Warm Arancini ❤

Time Machine

Read more about last year’s happenings.

Thank You, Next!

📅 ━ Next month is my milestone birthday, and I have many things I’ve dreamed of and planned for almost the entire month ━ #NormalizeBirthdayMonth. One of these plans is to establish a birthday tradition that I intend to repeat every year.

🛫 ━ Speaking of the above, we are off to Europe today ━ or more like now, NOW!!! More on it after we are back 🙂

🍶 ━ The September card of the month is the Magician. The Magician is one of my favourite tarot cards. For me, the Magician represents willpower, venture, and creation with some magic. Traditionally, it’s about the potential and manifestation of desires. If this is what September is offering me, I am all YES!!

🥟 ━ At the end of the month, I’m going for a Newari lunch and a Tamil movie girl date with my Nepalese friend.

Follow me on Instagram @KultureKween for more recent updates.

💙 ━ KK.