Not a Newsletter: Mar25 Edition

Eid Mubarak! Fafa and I celebrated today by enjoying good food and bingeing on the Lebaran cookies Jik sent for Eid. With it, March flew by, with me alternating between being sick and stressed out. In short (or shorter) terms, it was March Madness in my part of the world.

Highlights

🦤 ━ I don’t think I have shared this online, but since I’ve already told people IRL, why not share it here too? I have a soft spot for backyard birds—you know, the ones that just hang out in the yard, on top of houses, etc. Usually, these birds are pigeons. My Appa loves birds, and after a fortune teller once told me that the birds visiting me symbolize my Patti (which I immediately adopted as the absolute truth), I started caring for them. By that, I mean I feed them bird seeds I got from Amazon and talk to them as if they are my Patti and her friends. Weird, I know, but not that weird in the grander scheme of things with how the world is right now.

But my highlight isn’t about my Pigeon Patti; it’s about a brown, chubby bird that has been semi-regularly visiting our backyard. It seems to be less scared of me compared to my Pigeon Patti flock, as whenever I walk into the backyard, it doesn’t fly away. Instead, it just pauses for a bit before eating the seeds I left for my Patti pigeons and hangs out in the backyard for the longest time. This fat, lazy brown bird, which I thought was just another bird, turned out to be a quail! I named it Qun Qun (pronounced “Gun Gun”), and it has become a tiny joy in my life and the highlight of our days.

🌶️ ━ Another backyard-related highlight: my habanero plant is fruiting! It’s still green at the moment, but I’m already dreaming of no longer needing to add habaneros to my weekly grocery list and saving $3.80.

🍲 ━ My stressed mind has been consistently saved by a hotpot game app on my iPhone. In it, I run a hot pot restaurant called “Joy Pot,” and it’s giving me joy.

💌 ━ On an especially stressful day when I was feeling completely overwhelmed, I got a surprise stationery package from Jik. Inside were letters and stickers, and it honestly made me stop crying. That same week, Fafa got me Onigiri stickers. I think my loved ones have cracked the code to keep me sane—stationery and stickers.

🖤 ━ We recently had a session of the Resilient Project at work, and I loved it so much! If your workplace hasn’t had it yet, I highly recommend it. It’s well worth the investment for your mental health and happiness. We were also given the Resilient Project journal, which I’ve set aside to start filling out in May.

✍🏽 ━ The first-ever Footscray West Writers Festival! Fafa and I attended the If These Streets Could Talk group reading—my favorite was the “chicken lady,” Fiona Scott-Norman, while his favorite was Sean Fallon’s reading. The next day, I went to Growing Up West, a conversation between Shu-Ling Chua and Saanjana Kapoor—I loved it (and these two)! The last event I attended was the most fun: Shit Drawing, a workshop with Gorkie. Next year, I’ll invite Jik and Liz to join. Also, a massive congratulations to Rem, the owner of The Chestnut Tree Bookshop, for winning the 2025 Enterprise Maribyrnong Innovative Business Award!

Read, Watched, And Browsed

📚 ━ I’ve been meaning to replace my Kindle and originally planned to get the Matcha Kindle, but I ended up going a different route and got myself a white Kobo instead. I named it Kowl (Kobo Owl). Before buying it, I knew almost nothing about Kobo, except that it had the page-turn buttons I loved on the Kindle Oasis (which I had planned to get before it was discontinued). So far, I’m really enjoying it.

📚 ━ The first book I read on it was Stanley Tucci’s What I Ate in One Year. I loved his writing so much that it made me want to: make my own pasta sauce, eat all the food he cooked in the book, eat all the food he ate in the book, eat the rest of the food he mentioned in the book, Go to Italy, watch his TV show, Start a Substack about eating along with Stanley Tucci, write a diary about eating along with Stanley Tucci, write an email or letter to Stanley Tucci and become his friend – so he would invite me to his house and feed me pasta.

👻 ━ Despite claiming to be busy and stressed out, I managed to watch a lot of horror movies this month—Here’s the ones I remember: Heretic, Delivery: Found Footage, Devil’s Due, The Dead Thing, The Watchers, Control Freak, Jagged Mind, The Clock, The Missing, Night’s End, Appendage (weird but good), Wanita Ahli Neraka, Vision, The Butchers and Sinister 2.

📺 ━ Favorite TV Shows: I’m really into The Residence (I’ve been recommending it to everyone I love!). I’m a fan of all Shonda Rhimes’ TV shows—she’s magic. My favorite scene was the Uluru-Kangaroo part. I also love how Detective Cupp is into birding, loves canned fish, and keeps and draws in her notebooks. Speaking of which, I also loved the part in Zero Days where the president kept a journal in a Moleskine notebook—TV representation! I’m also watching High Potential, Grey’s Anatomy, and Loudermilk on the side.

🍿 ━ I’ve also been extensively side-watching videos with Meghan Markle commentaries, as well as the Justine Baldoni vs. Blake Lively drama. Paying for YouTube Premium has been so worth it.

🔖 ━ The Best Places to Eat in Melbourne During Ramadan.

🔖 ━ My friend Shiv started a blog called Boundless and Unflittered, where she writes about travel, food, and exercise—check it out!

🔖 ━ My latest favorite binge-read on Substack: Milk and Cookies.

Foodie Guide-Y

🥘 ━ Liz invited me to Marmelo to celebrate her birthday. I checked out the menu and decided to look forward to eating food I had never heard of or knew how to pronounce. Aside from the basic B cockerel, every single Portuguese dish we had there was absolutely delicious.

🍛 ━ We went to Kata Kita for Eid dinner. We shared a plate of grilled prawns, super spicy Indonesian fried rice and a Babi Guling rice set.

🫔 ━ At the beginning of this month, I made Vietnamese Chicken, Tamil Rasam, and Indonesian Ikan Teri. But then I pivoted to Woolies brand frozen meals, rotating between Butter Chicken, Thai green curry, and Chili Con Carne—gulped down within 10 minutes because work has been hella hectic lately.

🥙 ━ Fafa and I tried a new lunch spot in Sunshine called Kababi, which I think could be SalamTea’s sister shop. I had mushroom rice set, and he had a similar set with meat instead.

🥡 ━ I’ve been eating so much Indonesian food—mostly as comfort during sickness, stress, or just being me. I had nasi bakar, soto Betawi, oxtail soup, green chili fried rice, a spread from SS Sambal, tahu isi, tempeh, and of course, martabak manis.

🦪 ━ I thought of celebrating my 9th year in Melbourne with Dosa but changed my mind when we reached Dosa Hut. Then I decided on Pho on Barkley, but the place was closed, so we ended up at Roti Road instead. I had Phi Phi served with a side of Chinese donuts and Bandung.

🫕 ━ We had a few company dinners this month. The first one I attended was at Saint & Rouge, and the last one was at George on Collins, where I shared Asian fusion dishes (Betel Leaf, Sticky Mekhong Lanb Ribs, Prawn Toast, Kingfish Ceviche, Green Chicken Curry, Pork Belly, Black Pepper Wagyu, Roti peanut satay sauce and Mini Golden G dessert), while listening to a colleague’s inspiring story about his six-month sabbatical journey around the world.

🍚 ━ I kind of want to gatekeep this, but hey, why not share? My current favorite rice is the Royal Umbrella Thai HOM Mali Rice, which you can get at most Asian stores. It’s the creme de la creme of non-Japanese white rice. Enjoy!

🧆 ━ I’ve made a mini resolution to try new cuisines—or at least new-to-me foods—at least once a month. This isn’t hard at all if you live in Melbourne, so it’s more of an indulgence than a resolution, I guess. This month, I tried South Indian Ragi Mudde—a dough made from finger millet flour, eaten with some kind of gravy (I had it with spicy chicken curry). I’m not a fan of the look and texture (it resembles brown porridge—the one I UberEatas didn’t come as balls like the ones I saw on Google). I could see myself eating it when I’m sick, but otherwise, probably not.

🍘 ━ Our neighbor made sabudana vada and shared some with us yesterday. It was fresh, warm, and delicious. After so many days of frozen meals and UberEats, it tasted like a blessing.

🍲 ━ Speaking of being sick, I’ve been repeatedly craving hearty chicken soup whenever I’m unwell (which happened again this month), but I don’t have a go-to recipe. I think I need to make it when I’m healthy so I have it ready for the next time I’m sick.

🥐 ━ Fafa introduced me to Sogeum-ppang, and I’m hooked! He also brought me leftovers of Chongqing chicken and pickled fried rice, which I devoured close to midnight like a gollum.

🍖 ━ I learned about the concept of velveting meat from Pam’s Substack.

Kulture Kween

This month, I wrote about Pints and Pizza at Berlin Beer Garden Das Lemke 🖋️ Molecular Gastronomy of Indonesian Cuisine at Namaaz Dining 🖋️ Mabu Mabu: A Taste of Indigenous Food in the Heart of Melbourne 🖋️

Tiny Joys

Korean brand body wash called Bouncia, and it reminds me of the soap I used in Japan and Korea ❤
Photo booth session in Chinatown ❤ My colleague coining a new term that I love: “Double Enjoy” your weekend ❤ Nikki got us coffee after being inspired by the Resilient Project ❤ Fountain pen helps me slow down and be more mindful ❤ Purple shoes that Fafa got for me ❤ Poke Bowl ❤ Tony Cavallaro Cannoli ❤ International Woman Day celebration cupcakes in the office ❤ Fancy Black Sesame Chocolate ❤

Time Machine

🌴 ━ the happenings of this time last year.

Thank You, Next!

🎂 ━ We’re celebrating Fafa’s birthday—and Fafa in general—in April!

🧅 ━ I pulled the Ten of Swords (Onion in the MPT deck) for April. Yikes! But hey, at least it’s not the Nine of Swords. I get it, though—the Ten of Swords is about exhaustion, and I’m gearing up for it over the next two weeks. But it also means that it will be over soon. Rest is coming, and more importantly, a new dawn is on the horizon—which I plan to commemorate with a tattoo.

✈️ ━ So yes, April is going to be a big month: a birthday, an exam, some travels, a tattoo, and a wedding—all squeezed in before coming home right in the thick of the audit. Thinking about that last part, I don’t need an onion to make me cry…

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