To my two fans of the blog, sorry for the late update. I injured my hand last week, and everything took twice as long to do. But it might be a moot point anyway since I will backdate the post. But first, Happy New Year, Happy Pongal (Tamil New Year), Happy Lunar New Year, and Happy Slytherin Year!
Highlights
🎉 ━ We had a New Year’s Eve PJ party at Anjali’s. We started the new year eating biryani, playing beer pong, and smoking weed. Hands down, one of the best starts to the new year I’ve had in Melbourne.
🎮 ━ For the rest of New Year’s Day, I restarted my Story of Seasons game because I realized—too late, just one day into the marriage—that I didn’t want to be married to Gustafa.
☀️ ━ I also did New Year rituals, including jumping over a broom, having Janus bless the house key, and sharing cake and ale with fellow witches afterwards. I pulled cards for the vibe of 2025 and my energy in 2025 and got The Magician and Knight of Wands. Meanwhile, my 2025 card is Strength. I’m looking forward to seeing how all of them work together and how the year unfolds.
🎾 ━ We went to the Australian Open on a thunderstormy Sunday and spent half the day drinking, eating, and watching Zheng Qinwen play and win in the women’s singles. It was so fun—I’m looking forward to doing it every year.
🎑 ━ I’ve been learning more about Pongal, the Tamil New Year celebration. It wasn’t something I was familiar with or celebrated as an Indonesian Tamil, but I am determined to change that from this year onwards. This year, I marked the occasion with a kutti Ganesha and a large bubble tea.
Read, Watched, And Browsed
📚 ━ The Anthropologist is the first book I got this year—from my beloved Paperback Bookshop. I read and loved Meik Wiking’s The Little Book of Hygge (Danish) and The Little Book of Lykke (Oslo), as well as Melbourne. I’m also savouring Tiny Joys by Nigel Slater and Katie Vaz. Next on my reading list is Orbit, which has been highly popular.
📹 ━ Despite telling everyone that I have no time for anything but studying, I’ve somehow clocked in an embarrassingly high amount of TV time. I binged The Rig S1 (S2 is bad), Fisk, Abbott Elementary S4, Grey’s Anatomy S21, and Paradise. I also recommend Apartment 7A and Rifle Club.
⛩️ ━ I’m missing Japan, and as usual, my way of seeking solace is by reading everything I can about it. This month, I’ve been deep in a rabbit hole of the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage and Henro. My only question now is whether I can convince Fafa to do it with me next year.
🎙️━ Have I recommended Underfoot or Nigel Slater’s podcast here before? I feel like I have—but if not, you’re welcome. Also, 33 Ways To Lead A More Adventurous Life is worth checking out.
🐍 ━ I have been reading up on Snake Year luck. It’s supposed to be a really good year for my Eastern zodiac. I am looking forward to all the fun adventures and blessings! 🙂
Foodie Guide-Y
🍚 ━ It’s a tradition to start the first and, therefore, most important meal of the year with rice. This time, I had Biryani only an hour into 2025, followed by a plethora of Indonesian sambal and rice at Sambal Special later in the day.
🍣 ━ I’m on a Japanese cooking kick, and so far, I have made Onigiri, Tonkatsu, Miso Salmon, and Tempura. Alongside these, I also made Kerala Beef Fry, Sri Lankan Green Bean Curry, and White Pepper Chicken.
🥪 ━ I went on a food tour on Australia Day, hosted by Harvard Wang, and discovered several dishes and places I had never tried, despite having been in the vicinity thousands of times. Maybe I’ll save the details for a blog post instead.
🍛 ━ As for eating out, Fafa and I visited our beloved Hopper Joint, but they removed my favourite dish—the spicy prawn curry—and replaced it with a good, but not as good, non-spicy coconut prawn curry. They claimed it was due to summer, but Fafa thinks they made the adjustment to cater to the South Yarra market. Oh well…
🥗 Speaking of summer, I also made repeated visits to Pochana this month because, as I’ve said before, Thai food is a summer cuisine. The first time was with Liz and Summer, and then again with Fafa. I had Thai-style Chicken Feet Soup (my first time), Spicy Som Tum, Crab Rice, and a whole Thai Barramundi—twice.
🧋 ━ One hot afternoon, my team manager took us to try a TikTok trend involving a protein shake and 7-Eleven Black Iced Coffee. It tasted way better than I expected for something that came from TikTok. I’ve been wanting Fafa to try it, but the drink is always sold out at Woolies.
🍙 ━ This year, I’m doing an Onigiri Crawl (check out my Chai Crawl post). So far, I have an ugly, almost unreadable draft from two places—one of them might just top the list once I’ve done more research (by eating). The place is called Chooka’s, and I loved it so much that I went back just a couple of days later. This visit also kickstarted my Onigiri Crawl project. Stay tuned.
🍅 ━ Our neighbours have been growing vegetables in their garden and recently shared some freshly picked tomatoes with me, which I turned into a delicious salad. Eating your own (or your neighbour’s) produce is such a delight that I recently restarted my own planting journey. As you know, I am planting pumpkins to compete with my colleagues, and I am also growing different types of chilli. So far, my Sweet, Heirloom, and Bird’s Eye chillies are showing strong signs, while I’m still waiting for the Bhut and Scorpion to show me the same kind of respect I have been showing them by showing up every day. I also have mint, coriander, and rosemary in the side garden, as well as some habanero on a raised bed, which have already started to flower.
🍨 ━ Some other memorable eating experiences this month: sharing Taro Bingsu at Humm with Liz, having a falafel kebab at Miznon with my team, sipping a Pink Spicy Margarita at Leonard’s House of Love, trying the newly opened grilled fish place called Tanyu Lab in Emporium with Fafa, taking a nap after gulping down an XL-sized Banh Mi over the weekend, and discovering my love for nectarines—cut into squares and sprinkled with diamond salt.
🧄 ━ A Review of Every Supermarket Garlic Bread in Australia
Found and Love
🖋️ ━ For New Year, I got myself a Sakura fountain pen from Lamy and a pressure cooker from the Indian grocery store for the house.
🏃🏽♀️ ━ If you need extra motivation to run, I recommend the Conqueror Virtual Challenges. This is my third year using it, I’ve collected the Mt. Fuji and Nakasendo badges and am currently virtually running on the Silk Road route.
💮 ━ My toxic Millennial trait is buying limited edition stamps, thinking they will be a good investment in the future—like the Beanie Babies the Baby Boomers had. This time, I got the Lunar Edition stamps from the post office.
👕 ━ Another Millennial thing: buying merch from my favourite places—places I have good memories attached to. Years ago, I got a t-shirt from Madras Bros, the only South Indian restaurant I loved in Melbourne. Unfortunately, they closed down during COVID, making the t-shirt even more valuable to me. Recently, Fafa and I went to Leonard’s House of Love, our favourite hangout spot from our previous life in South Yarra. When I saw their merch, I grabbed a tee without much thought—maybe I can turn it into a collection of food memory t-shirts someday.
Kulture Kween
This month, I wrote about Finding quiet luxury in Helsinki 🖋️ Geeking on Moleskine in Amsterdam 🖋️ embracing my mid-palate 🖋️ Falling in love with Polish cuisine 🖋️
Tiny Joys
❤ Surprise bubble tea delivery ❤ My workdays flying by ❤ Super-cleaned Le Creuset ❤ The dual-color rugs we put in the living room ❤ Blooming flowers ❤ Hanging out with Manda ❤ Reading old journals ❤ New experiences ❤ Lychee and miso ice cream ❤ Journaling in the cafe ❤ Samosa bun
Time Machine
🌴 ━ Last January, I started the year in Bali, did a lot of behind-the-scenes work on the blog, and went on a road trip. This year, I started January in WeFo, didn’t write as much as I had hoped, and stayed in most of the month because I’m currently studying. But that’s okay—it’s what Jik would call a “good problem to have”.
Thank You, Next!
🍻 ━ My February card is another Three—the Three of Cups—Iced Tea from the Magic Pantry deck.
Every time I pull the Three of Cups, the first thing that comes to mind is a social gathering with lots of drinking, which seems to reflect how my February is shaping up.
🍕 ━ Next week, I have a pizza party, a Lunar New Year celebration, a fancy work dinner, and a Hibachi grill dinner at our friends’ place. Then, we’re celebrating Valentine’s with a dinner in town, followed by a meat-filled feast with our neighbour.
Okay, so the Three of Cups makes sense—at least at the beginning of this month. But if that’s the path it’s leading me down, so be it, as long as I can keep practiing my daily routines and rituals.
💗 ━ I’ll leave you with early Valentine’s and Galentine’s wishes. I hope your February is filled with love, and if you think you don’t have anyone special to celebrate with, just look in the mirror 🙂 You got you boo!
Follow me on Instagram @KultureKween for more recent updates.
Firstly , great pic for the post , love it ! Secondly fact check , you went to Pochana for the first time with me 🙄.
Thank you – also, fact is correct – I went with Liz first this month.