Restaurant Review - Aria

I've been to Aria a few times - I used to go there for the pre-theatre dinners when we used to subscribe to the Opera.  However, it's been a number of years since I went, and since then it's still kept its hatted status as one of the great restaurants of Sydney.

A group of female friends decided we would do some fine dining and try Aria out again.  We went with the tasting menu, and 2 of them had the matching wines with their food.

King salmon confit with horseradish, brook trout caviar, apple and dill

2012 Peter Zemmer ‘Punggl’ Pinot Bianco, Alto Adige Italy 

Wagyu beef cured and smoked with pickled cucumber, dijon mustard and rye bread 

2012 Golden Ball ‘Cherish’ Rosé, Beechworth Victoria 

Roasted scallops with Coorong pipis, calamari, celery and hazelnut oil 

2013 Jauma ‘Blewitt Springs’ Chenin Blanc, McLaren Vale South Australia 

John dory with mascarpone, fennel, verjus and semi-dried salted grapes 

2009 Cotes d’Auxerre ‘Biaumont’ J-Hugues & Ghislaine Goisot, Burgundy France 

Kipfler potato poached in butter milk with brioche, shaved truffle and roasted onions 

2009 Barolo ‘Blagheur’ Cascina Ghercina, Piemonte Italy 

Moran’s Family lamb loin with salt baked celeriac, sunflower seeds, lemon aspen and saltbush 

2005 Zitta ‘Greenock’ Shiraz, Barossa Valley South Australia 

Black sesame seed parfait with passionfruit jelly, yuzu and almonds 

 2013 Top Note Semillon Rosé, Adelaide Hills South Australia

I think the food was very well done, but the service was a little lacking.  Usually the waiters come and tell you about your meal, but for at least 3 of them they just put the food down and didn't tell us what was in it. The menu was next to us, but I do like them to tell us as well!  The salmon was great, and I always love scallops!  The Dory was also very tasty, and the lamb was done well.  the presentation of the dessert was nice, and I quite enjoyed that, but I think he lamb was the most memorable dish for me.

The ladies quite enjoyed their wines too!

But be prepared for a hefty bill - harbour views and 2 hats don't come cheap!

Pets - A third rat joins the family

I'm not sure what got into me, but I had the urge to own another rat. Back I went to Gumtree looking for baby rats, and I found a breeder that had a couple of gorgeous mink champagnes and I really wanted to have one!

My other choice of rat - the one at the front

So I went to her place and looked at all her babies and they were so cute! There were two I had my eye on - one had a great stripe down her back and the other was runt of the litter.  I ended up taking the runt, as she was so tiny and cute, and I named her Elsa.

I brought her home with a new cage in case she didn't get along with Diamond and Tyrael, but I didn't need to worry - they weren't aggressive to her at all, and she ran around the cage exploring and eating her little heart out from my home made food hopper - yep, using those McManus cubes!

Diamond and Tyrael are 4 months now, and the size difference between them is amazing - they look like giants compared to Elsa!  But after one night at her new home, her little belly was full of food and I don't doubt she will grow quickly.

The toilet training is NOT going well.  I tried keeping a litter tray of material different to their other stuff, but they seem to enjoy digging in it and tipping it out more than using it!  Perhaps what I should do is keep a litter tray that has litter in it, and everywhere else have NO litter.  I have been lazy with litter training lately, so I might have to start doing it again.

I ended up buying the McManus cubes and the rats think they're great - the one drawback is that the lot is infested with moths and their larvae so I keep having moths flying around in the bathroom, and inside the food bag.  I might have to look at it next time before I buy it, but it's lasting a while.  Like my little food hopper?  I got the idea from google - it's a great way to put the cubes so that the rats don't take them all and hide it all over the cage.  I spent a couple of hours weaving some wire into a lid for it so the rats didn't get in from the top, and its all going rather well!

The Autistic child - First diagnosis

This is a post copied from my other blog, which has relevance more to this blog.  I've put it here so I can track the progress of our journey with the diagnosis of Autism.

----------------------

I have the urge to let out the bevy of emotions that have run through me this past few months. I have two lovely children, and like most children seem to be, despite being brought up the same, they are the complete opposite of one another.  The only thing they did similarly was walk at the age of one.

My eldest, a girl, was a reserved child, and didn't show much affection until she was about age four.  She was very shy, but very intelligent, and could sing the Australian National Anthem by the age of two.  She loved to learn numbers and the alphabet.

My son, on the other hand, was affectionate from an early age.  He was a slow talker, in fact, around the age of three when he still wasn't putting three words together, I decided to take him to speech therapy.  He hated books, and would run screaming when I pulled one out.

My daughter loves vegetables, and says she doesn't like eating meat, because she has to chew it a lot and "it hurts my teeth".  My son, picks out all his vegetables and loves to eat meat.  My daughter loves to sleep in; my son loves to get up at the crack of dawn.  My daughter can't help but look, even if it's scary; my son runs from the room and peeks out from behind the wall, or covers his ears and squeezes his eyes shut.  Kids! Such funny little things!

But this story is about my son.

As I watched him growing up, and not quite reaching the same level as his sister in terms of speech and comprehension, I had a lot of people telling me things like:
"Oh, he's a boy, boys are always slower when it comes to speech."
"His sister is talking for him, that's why he's not talking."
"My son did that, but after three he really picked up."

So I thought I would wait.  One of the girls at work had a son a few months younger than mine, and when he was two, she told me she was taking her son to speech therapy.  I asked her why.  She said that he only could say 50 words and he wasn't very intelligible.  I thought to myself, "Gee, my son can only say 25 words," and I thought it was a bit early so I thought I'd just let it be and keep trying at home to get him to say more.

My parents said that it was environmental.  I wasn't spending enough time teaching my son, I was too busy at work, and because they had spent more time looking after my daughter at an early age, that was the reason why he was so behind compared to her, as they spent a lot of time teaching her (my parents are both teachers).  I had some guilt that I wasn't nurturing my son's intellectual needs, compared to my daughter, though I wasn't sure if there was much more that I could do.

It wasn't until we went to a party at a friend's house after he turned three, that one of my friends said that she was really concerned about him.  Her son was younger, but he was so much more advanced than my son in terms of speech and comprehension, that she sent me an email encouraging me to do some interventions because she had a friend who had similar issues to my son and they left it a bit late.

Around that time I had a spate of children who were having grommets put in their ears for hearing difficulties and "language delay" and EVERY single one of those children, younger than my son, were more advanced than he was.  If these kids were delayed, then why wasn't I doing something about my own child?

I didn't want to be a paranoid parent. Worse, I didn't want to be a paranoid DOCTOR parent.  Both my husband and I are doctors, many of our friends are doctors, and every medical professional has their own opinion about how we should bring up a child.

Even my husband didn't think there was anything wrong with my son.  He would grow out of it, and catch up to the rest of the kids, he said.  My son was intelligent - he can make breakfast for himself, use the Nespresso to make coffee for dad in the morning, and follow routines.  He was a stickler for routine though, and disrupting his routine would make him very upset.  Perhaps, that was an early warning sign.

And so, early last year I took him to speech therapy.  After a year of speech therapy, he improved a fair bit, but he was nowhere near any of his peers.  At age four, I still couldn't have a conversation with my son - I could only ask him simple questions with a yes/no answer. I mean, he knew his name, because he would come when called and if I pointed to a picture of him he would say his name, but if I asked him what his name was, he couldn't tell me.  Just a few months before he turned four, he only just grasped the concept of colour.  It was like a light had switched on.

The subject of autism was broached my speech therapist mid last year, and I took him for further testing.  I had already checked his hearing formally (which was perfect), but I sent him for some visual tests, which he passed with flying colours. I kept batting on with his speech, doing our homework at home, and worrying to myself about how he was going to go to school if he couldn't answer his name or understand instructions.

One of the Otolaryngologists (Ear, Nose and throat surgeons) that I work with regularly has three sons, one of which has been diagnosed with autism.  I had talked to him a lot about my son, and he recommended that I speak to one of the developmental paediatricians at our institution.  Interestingly, the surgeon's brother, was the head of paediatrics at that same institution, but he was not a great believer in the diagnosis of autism, which I found amusing.  After all, the two brothers had a lot of autistic traits themselves, and they both became doctors.

And so this year rolled around. Next year my son is supposed to be going to kindergarten, and I was very anxious about how he would cope at school. His speech therapist again broached the subject of autism and so I agreed to have formal testing done.  I had already resigned myself to the fact that he had autism spectrum disorder of some sort, and was trying to figure out how best to help him.  However, so many people poo-poo'd that idea, saying that he was very social and interactive, and autistic children are withdrawn.  It would be expensive - about $650 for a few hours of testing in the presence of a speech pathologist, occupational therapist and a psychologist.  Fortunately, my son seemed to cope ok with that, since he was familiar with the speech path already and I waited a few weeks for the results.

In the mean time, I went to chat to the developmental paediatrician and she gave me a good article to read from the Lancet September 26, 2013, titled "Autism".  This table about the behavioural characteristics of autism caught my eye.

My son had a number of these characteristics, but not all of them.  Hell, people I know now have some of these characteristics!  The paediatrician listened to me describe my son and she agreed he had some marked delay, and she would be interested in seeing the report when it was done.  I pored over the article, and resigned myself to the fact my son was probably in the autistic spectrum somewhere.  The article talked about diagnosing early, and early intervention - earlier than when I had started doing something, and I felt that twinge of guilt again.  But I was the only one who wanted to do anything about it, so if I had left it any longer, it would have been worse off, I thought to myself.

So today, they wanted to discuss the results of the assessment with me.  The director of the team sat me down in her office and started tell me how hard it was to say this, but based on their review, my son had mild-moderate autism.  The psychologist had visited him at daycare, and the carers there had noted that my son would often play by himself, not answer to his name, and need to be called multiple times.  He would often not be interested in group activity or story time, and sit with his back facing the group.  The occupational therapist had said that his fine motor coordination was also poor (but his gross motor was ok) which didn't surprise me as I rarely saw him hold a pencil and draw anything more than line or two.  In terms of speech and comprehension, he functioned at the level of a two and a half year old.  None of this surprised me.  I already knew he was talking like a two year old, and it was a little bit of a relief that there was a diagnosis of some sort made, because now I felt I could focus on how to manage him, how to help him to function normally.  Did this diagnosis mean I had to send him to a special school?

In Australia, if you have the diagnosis of autism made by a professional body, then you are able to access a vast variety of resources.  There is a government allowance every year till the child turns six that can be used for their therapy and teaching, and I also entitled to a carer's allowance, none of which is means tested.  Not that I needed the money, mind you, but it does help a lot with the extra things I needed for my son.  Now he has to attend occupational therapy, and also social skills classes and I was more worried how I was going to fill out the paperwork with this diagnosis, than I was with the diagnosis itself.  The director was concerned because she thought I would be in one of the earlier stages of grief (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance) rather than in the acceptance stage.  I told her that being medical, it was something I had been expecting and I just want to focus on helping him as much as I can.

I told a few people about the diagnosis, and the responses were varied:
"Well, I always thought there was something a little bit funny about him, that will explain why he doesn't listen."
"Oh, what does that mean, will he be autistic for the rest of his life?"
"Maybe he'll get cured later, and everything will be ok."
"Is it hereditary?  He didn't get that from our side of the family, surely..." (!!!)
"I know two people at work with kids with autism, and they are doing really well with interventions."

It wans't until after raid tonight that I went backwards a little and got a little bit teary about the diagnosis. My son is a happy child, though a naughty one at times, full of cuddles, kisses and excitement about things such as planes, garbage trucks and cranes. I worried that when he got to school, because he couldn't understand what the other children said, that they would make fun of him, and he would hate school and then start to act up and then not learn at all.  My son would go from my sweet child to a problem one, and I wanted to avoid that at all costs.  Is that not what every parent wants for their child?

It's a year till he goes to school, though enrolments will probably start around May for placements in 2015. My head is buzzing about whether I need to talk to my daughter's school principal to see if it's appropriate for my son to go there, or whether he has to go to special school of some sort.  My husband wants him held back a year, but I would rather he went to school so he could get as much help as possible. Every day since I've thought he might have autism, I have been trying to make everything he does a learning opportunity. Look at those cars, what colours are they?  Using flash cards in the car for ABC.  Trying to get him to understand the concept of boy/girl by using everyone he knows as examples.  But it's not all learning, I do let him play games as well.  He plays a lot of computer games, and Reading Eggs is a great source of games for him (when I hide the iPad from him so he can't get to Temple Run, Bad Piggies, or this new Mickey Mouse game my husband downloaded).  I've found that with books, he likes books about movies he likes to watch, like Peppa pig, Tinkerbell, Toy Story, so that's a start.  I use his love of cars to do counting and colours (because we seem to have a hell of a lot of matchbox cars).  And in the last few weeks, he has been able to answer me (even though it's probably a parroted learned response) when I say "What's your name?" and he replies "My name is Nicholas*."  Each step is small, and hard earned, and I don't know what our future will bring, and I am sure there will be more tears to come as I struggle with his learning at a school level, but for now I don't ever want to forget my son as he is now - the one who thinks there is nothing wrong with his world, and that everyone around him loves him for what he is, and he is none the wiser.

*name changed

New additions to the family

My daughter asked me for a pet goldfish, and I didn't want to get her a pet goldfish because they're not that fun to play with, having kept fish.  However, at the pet store I saw some rats and I used to keep rats before I had the kids and remembered how great they were as pets.  But, I wanted rats that were friendly, well socialised, and I didn't know if these ones from the pet store were friendly.  That, and they were all lumped together, so if there were co-sex mingling, I didn't want to bring home a pregnant rat.

So I went online to look for baby rats.  There were a few on Gumtree and after a few sms enquiries, I got one positive response, and decided to go look the same day.  The pet store they were kept in had girls separated from the boys, and there were only 2 left.  I put my hand in the cage to handle them to see what they were like and they were both friendly so I bought them both, and a new cage and a water bottle and set of home.

My daughter held the shoe box reverently for most of the way, and we stopped at one of the pet stores and I opened the shoe box and placed the box in their new cage whilst we went in to try and buy some litter.  When we came back to the car, both rats were out of the cage - they were still quite small and managed to slip through the bars and were walking on top of the cage, much to my children's delight.  I cringed a little as I saw their little hands trying to pick the rats up and though I put them back in the cage and set off home, they were soon out of the cage again, wandering around the car seats and keeping the children entertained.

I used shredded paper to line their cage as I didn't get the litter, and attached their water bottle, but I was unsure if they knew how to use it - my previous rat had difficulty learning how to use it so I hoped they would be ok.  I gave them some dry bread to snack on whilst they got used to their surroundings, and the children spend the next hour looking at them and trying to pat them.

They are both blue hoods, with imperfect pale markings on their heads - my daughter named one Diamond, and the other I named Tyrael  Tyrael has a large white patch on her head whereas Diamond's pale patch is much smaller and less noticeable.

The next day, hubby bought them a wheel, a cloth hammock tunnel and a strawberry house, and they seemed to take to that very well.  He also got the kitty litter, a paper based one, and used it to line the cage. I wanted to start toilet training them so he set aside a takeaway container and put the paper that they had from the cage before in it, and I moved all their droppings there - but they prefer to SLEEP in their toilet than poo in it!

I will go do more research on toilet training rats!

Frozen - WARNING Spoilers!

When I went to Disneyland in California in November, there was a lot of hype about Frozen there - without giving away any storyline.  So I didn't know anything about it except there were two princess sisters, one of whom had the power of ice.  And that, was probably a good thing.

So our family outing included a movie, and people had who had seen Frozen had good things to say.  I purposely didn't read any reviews, and wanted to see if I would be pleasantly surprised.

In fact, I was more than pleasantly surprised.  I was amazed, and thrilled that this movie shows that Disney can move away from the classic princess storyline and give this amazing tale that appeals to children and adults.

I went to read about Frozen after I watched it, and found that it was co-written and co-directed by Jennifer Lee who also worked on Wreck-it Ralph.  I am not sure if that is why this movie is more feminine in its ideas and dialogue but it really shows and it is a REALLY good change.

Essentially the story is about two sister princesses - Elsa, the elder, has powers to control and create ice, and the younger, Anna is injured by Elsa in an accident when they were playing with her powers of ice.  The King and Queen rush to see the mountain trolls whom by magical means erase the memory from Anna's memory and cure the cold injury and the King and Queen decide to deal with the problem by hiding from the world and trying to get Elsa to control and conceal her powers.  A few years later, the King and Queen die in a sailing accident, and the two girls whom were very close as children are no longer as close, as Elsa hides on her own in her room in isolation to avoid hurting anyone else, much to Anna's dismay, as she attempts to engage her elder sister in games and play.

The day of coronation comes, and as feared, Elsa's powers are revealed leading her kingdom's followers and neighbouring kingdoms to fear her and she runs away.  The incident is precipitated by the sheltered Anna declaring her love to a neighbouring prince and they seek marriage after knowing each other less than a day, which Elsa tells her sister is foolish.  Elsa heads to the far north snowy mountains, not realising she has plunged her kingdom into an eternal winter.

Anna now understands why her sister has been so isolated and with an ice farmer, Kristoff, she goes to find her sister, leaving her fiance, Prince Hans, to run the kingdom, which he does rather admirably in her absence.  They meet a magical snowman, Olaf, who was created from Elsa's magic, a throwback to their younger days when they were the best of friends, building snowmen together.

As she confronts her sister and urges her to return with her, Elsa's powers explode in an emotional outburst, and Anna is struck in the chest with an ice bolt, which Elsa does not realise she has done. Kristoff takes her to see the mountain trolls, and they tell her that her heart is now frozen and without an act of true love, it cannot be melted.

Meanwhile, Prince Hans sets off to find Anna and Queen Elsa and they manage to subdue Elsa and return her to the kingdom with her hands enchained to attempt to contain her.

Anna and Kristoff think this means that she needs Prince Hans to kiss her, as he is her true love. But it is evident that Kristoff also loves Anna, and when Anna returns to kiss Hans, he reveals that he is only after the kingdom as being the 13th son, he would have never had a kingdom to rule.  His plan was to leave Anna to die a frozen death, and kill Queen Elsa for treason against her people.

Kristoff realises that he loves Anna and returns to try to save her.  Anna is looking for Kristoff, realising she loves him and he loves her.  Elsa escapes and is escaping along the ice and Hans is out hunting Elsa to kill her.  Anna suddenly sees Kristoff and they try to reach each other, and then Anna turns and sees Hans about to kill Elsa who is absorbed in her fear and grief from the powers she cannot control.  She runs to her sister, and shields her sister with her body as she is turned to a glittering statue of ice, and Hans' sword breaks as it strikes her statue.  Elsa and Kristoff are distraught as they realise what has happened.

That is the moment I realised what a tremendous film this was.  Because, that moment, I realised that for the first time, neither a prince nor a male hero, had saved the day.  Anna, when she went to sacrifice herself for her sister, in an act of pure love, melted her frozen heart.

And they lived happily ever after.

I doubt that children will realise this step from Disney.  I am truly impressed that finally, Disney is moving away from the females need men to save the day - and that females on their own can be heroines, in their own right.  If the feminists of the world are not celebrating this movie for not only flawlessly incorporating this into mainstream animation and a popular movie, then they really need their heads screwed on.  As a parent with a daughter, she enjoyed this film and begged to see it agian, and much to my relief, there was no mention of her needing a prince to save her.  I hope that she will grow to be a young lady who believes in herself, not one who grows up believing she needs to find a man (to marry) to solve her problems, as I think THAT is the message that I want her to grow up with.  And to value friendship, and ask for help when needed (after trying by yourself), no matter whether the friend be male, female, animal or inanimate.

I didn't watch this in 3D and I am not sure it needed to be.  It still plays very well in 2D and the ice is so beautiful and believable in all its shapes and forms, including the amazing castle on the mountain that Elsa created as her fortress of solitude.

The music has a more Broadway feel about it than previous Disney films - especially the song "Love is an Open Door".  I like musicals, and so does my daughter and husband, so everyone was running around the house singing "Do you want to build a snowman?" right after we watched the movie.  The words are engaging and the tunes catchy, and though at first I thought the bursts into song were too frequent, as the movie progressed I hardly noticed them amongst the dialogue.

9/10 in my opinion!

Restaurant review - Momofuku seiōbo

Momofuku seiōbo is one of the hardest restaurants to book in Sydney - it is difficult to book, as you can only book 20 days in advance and it's like a first to login best dressed situation.  Some people probably found it easy to book, but I often found that the days I wanted to book were always booked out.

Finally, we got a reservation for my birthday! And I was excited to see what all the fuss was about.

Momofuku seiōbo is Momofuku’s first restaurant outside of New York City. Reservations for the main dining area can only be made in advance through our online system. We also have a 5-seat bar that serves a limited bar menu. Bar seating is first come, first serve. In the main dining area, we serve a tasting menu that changes constantly. The menu is inspired by the bounty of Australian ingredients and Sydney’s diverse food culture. Seiōbo is the Japanese goddess of the west and her sign is the peach tree. Momofuku seiōbo has three hats from the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide.

- from the Momofuku website

The Star, Sydney's casino, is now full of great eateries, and Momofuku seiōbo is among them.  The staff were attentive and helpful, and the atmosphere was modern and relaxed. The bar seating allowed a view to the busy kitchen where we saw the chefs preparing our food.  Most people enjoy watching them laboriously and painstakingly preparing each course with care and delicacy, however, I am someone who prefers a bit of intrigue to mine.  I don't watch Masterchef or any of those cooking shows, but for those who do, I can imagine that

Smoked eel and apple - that was the description of this interesting starter.  It was lightly flavoured and got you looking forward to more.

Momofuku's pork bun was a lovely Asian start to the menu - they are like Taiwanese Gua Bao.  The dough was light and allowed you to appreciate the contents more rather than being overwhelmed and filled by the steamed rice dough.

Potato with roe, and parson's nose.  Who would have thought that a chicken's bottom would be so delightful!  This menu delights in constrasting textures and I am a big fan of salmon roe anyway.

Crab with chickpea and amaranth.  Amaranth is a grain, which was crispy here (I suspect it was similar nutritionally to quinoa).  A pleasant dish.

Wagyu beef cubes, radish and fermented beans.  You have to mix the dish and once mixed it doesn't look as beautiful as it did on presentation.  The contrasting crisp radish with the tender beef cubes was a delight to the palate and flavoursome.

Cauliflower with mushroom and smoked yolk.  Interesting flavour - but smoked yolk is probably not to my palate's high list.

Marron with seaweed and asparagus was well done and the meat was firm and not rubbery.

Deceptively simple looking peas with oxtail and custard - I liked this dish.  Peas were crisp and the oxtail was soft.  They really do love the crispy and soft combinations here.

Lamb with lettuce and violet mustard.  Lovely and tender.  I was getting rather full by this stage.

Curd with blackcurrant and mint.  A hint of sour softened by sweet.

I loved the presentation of this dish.  Sorrel with muntries and pistachio.  Sorrel added a really earthy flavour which I also found very different and interesting - yet I'm not sure that I found it to my liking.

Pear with jerusalem artichoke and sunflower.  What a lovely presented dish!  But alas for me, though the dish was sweet and it was beautiful to look at, I think the flavours were a little overwhelming.  More of the crunchy and soft texture combination.

An interesting end to the meal, was sweetened pork, which seemed an interesting end to a typical degustation.  It had a hint of Heston, adding a rather English flavour to the end of an otherwise Asian inspired meal.  I was so full by then I could hardly eat it anyway.

Overall, it was a culinary experience.  The flavours were definitely different, however, perhaps my palate is not as refined as I thought - some of the flavours were too earthy, too strong, which made them interesting but not necessarily tasty.  I think of it more like trying to look an original piece of artwork that is interesting and beautiful, but I wouldn't want to hang it in my house because I couldn't stomach looking at it everyday.  I am not sure that I would go again, but the restaurant had fantastic service, a good atmosphere and watching the kitchen certainly was entertaining, if you like those sorts of things.

Happy New Year - Taipei 101 fireworks

I debated whether I should go out and see the fireworks at Taipei 101 since it was my first time here during New Year's Eve, but I decided against it and watched it on TV instead.  It was impressive and succinct, and I thought was a lovely way to usher in the New Year.  Different from watching the Sydney fireworks every year!

Around 101, the shops stay open till 3am to allow revellers to shop and eat till the wee hours, which is a great idea for those shops!  The rest of the shops in Taipei open on public holidays at normal times - eateries open early (like at 530am) and the shops open for business (which make sense, because shops are everywhere here, and a lot of of family businesses - shops are downstairs and their homes are upstairs, so they can open till late because they only live so near, and also if they want to make money, they have to work so they might as well work).