Author: Bunny Eats Design

How to make Chinese Soup

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I grew up with a bowl of Chinese soup before dinner. Chinese soup is a clear broth full of nourishing goodies. The Chinese love their soup and many Chinese families make a healthy brew to enjoy every day. These soups not only nourish, but are prized for properties such as clear skin, healing, cooling, warming as well as many herbal and medicinal ingredients which all have their uses. A happy home is a Chinese soup home. Chinese believe in daily soup to prevent illness while the West often serves soup to cure illness. I’ve been craving Chinese soup this autumn and when I found out that The Koala also loves Chinese soup, I started planning my first Chinese soup. There is a whole aisle of dried soup packs at my local Chinese supermarket, but apparently you only really need these if you want to make a medicinal or herbal soup. Dried ingredients for soup are really cheap at just a few dollars each so it’s ok to experiment without having to squint at your bank balance. …

Glaze a ham

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First thing crossed off the Bunny Eats Design Autum/Winter To Do List. Oh yeah! The Koala’s Mum had sourced a ham for our family lunch. She provided everything and I did the honours of decorating and glazing. Using tropical fruit, cloves and an apricot sauce for a glaze, this ham provided many yummy meals over the weekend. We even made crackling with the ham skin. The ham was paired with a greek salad, peas, roast potatoes and pumpkin. Easter lunch was finished off with Mum’s individual pavlovas with berry compote and whipped cream. Yum!

Lyttelton lives on

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For Easter we visited Kelvin’s family in Lyttelton, Christchurch. We weren’t prepared for the sights of post-quake Lyttelton. We thought there would be a few shops closed. TV coverage had shown Christchurch CBD cordoned off, but nothing about Lyttelton, so we thought it was ok. Lyttelton fared just as bad. You can’t drive through the main street. It is cordoned off and instead of a few shops closed, it’s a few shops open. 2 shops. The dairy and a restaurant called Fisherman’s Wharf. But Lyttelton lives on and Lyttelton will be rebuilt. As will Christchurch. We went for a walk around Lyttelton on Sunday morning. The community gardens lives on. I spotted some toadstools I spotted under a birch tree by the police station. Some people have mushrooms growing in their damp earthquake damaged homes. These were not that kind. A yellow digger sits on the remains of The Empire Tavern in the heart of Lyttelton. A few of our friend stayed here during our wedding in 2009. The backpackers where the rest of our friends …

Semi-Permanent and We Can Create

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For the past 8 years, Semi-Permanent has been THE design conference to go to if you live in Auckland. Originating from Australia, it’s been going strong since I was a first year design student all those years ago and I’ve been to so many I’ve lost count. I know I’ve missed at least one but it was with a very reluctant, heavy heart. SP began as a one day event of creative industry speakers from around the world, but now it’s ballooned into a two day event with a myriad of side events (art exhibitions, after parties, subtle mobs) running alongside the conference. It’s a super inspiring event and one that no creative should miss. I swear I come home super charged and ready to explode with things to explore/make/research. This year, the New Zealand organisers of SP, The Church have branched off from SP to do their own conference called We Can Create. The two design conferences are 2 weeks apart. SP is 12-13 August and WCC is 26-27 August. With limited WCC earlybird …

We have a winner!

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Random.org gave me the number 51, but since I didn’t have 51 comments in the virtual barrel, I counted through the entry comments twice. Comment number 51 was made by Delaney. Congratulations Delaney! The Om Nom Nom painting will be on it’s way to you one day soon. Thanks to everyone who participated and better luck next time.

Looks like poo, tastes like awesome.

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I did my best to make this look pretty, but there’s no two ways about it, stewed fruit and melted chocolate looks horrible. I made this recipe up based on what I had on hand. No reason why you can’t do the same. By all means, experiment! And eat the evidence. Feijoa  (pronounced fee-jo-ah) can be replaced with berries or stone fruit. Feijoa Custard with Chocolate and Cointreau Makes 2 Ingredients 12 feijoa 1 tablespoon sugar 1 shot of Cointreau 12 chocolate buttons plus 4 extra for garnish 1 cup of custard (chilled) Preparation Cut feijoas in half and scoop fruit out and into a small sauce pan. Add sugar and Cointreau. Simmer for 5-10 minutes. Stirring with a wooden spoon and breaking up the fruit as you go. When the fruit is all broken down and resembling baby food, drop in 12 chocolate buttons. Give the mixture gentle mix and divide into 2 ramekins. Top with custard and make a butterfly garnish on each dollop of custard using 2 extra chocolate buttons.

Unbelievably Easy Feijoa, Chocolate & Custard Pastries

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Tofu the bunny has been eating feijoas (pronounced fee-jo-ahs) and I have to check the lawns every day so that he doesn’t over eat. I toss any half eaten feijoas into the worm bin. The uneaten feijoas get turned into all sorts of yummy things. I made these babies for Natahma’s baby shower last week. It was the first baby shower I’ve ever been to and it was mostly just eating yummy food, talking about girl stuff and drinking champagne and feijoa wine. We didn’t play any silly games and the experience didn’t put me off having babies for life. These pastries are really easy to make and if you have a heavy feijoa tree in your yard, this is a good way to get rid of some. If you don’t have feijoas, I’m sure you could experiment with other fruit. I considered using plums and maybe still will at a later stage. I made something similar over a week ago but the latest ones are much, much better because they have chocolate in them. …

Baked fish and chips with coleslaw

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Happy Easter everyone! Hope you all have some feasting and chocolate eating this long weekend. We have both Mondays and Friday off for Easter. Is that the same the world over? I thought it fitting to write about fish today since Good Friday is traditionally a day when you abstain from meat, but apparently, fish is fair game. Personally, I don’t morally differentiate between eating fish and meat, but hey, I didn’t make the rules. If you don’t eat meat on Good Friday, you don’t eat meat on Good Friday. We don’t eat fish and chips very often. It’s not one of our regular takeaway choices – it’s a summer treat reserved for afternoons spent at the beach. Fish and chip shops here can be a bit hit and miss. Fresh fish comes at a price. The fish and chip shops by us are either too greasy or too expensive so it’s easier just to go without. Our too greasy local was to be just around the corner from our Sandringham flat and their “number …

Cabbage soup with meatballs and duck stock

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Autumn weather is in full force and we’ve brushed the cobwebs off the hot water bottles and have been snuggling up to them in bed. The heater hasn’t made it’s debut yet, but in an old villa, it won’t be long. We had Peking Duck on Sunday at Canton Cafe and I took the duck carcass home. I remember when we ate Peking Duck in Beijing, the duck carcass was taken home to make soup. So I figured I would boil up the bones and make a rich duck stock to form a soup base. Cabbage soup with meatballs and duck stock Soup Ingredients 1.5 cups soup mix (pearl barley, yellow split peas, green split peas, red lentils) Quarter of a large cabbage 1 tablespoon of oil 5 potatoes Duck stock 1 duck carcass (meat removed for another meal) Meatball Ingredients 500g beef mince 1 tablespoon ground chilli seasoning* Salt Half an onion, finely chopped Half a cup of breadcrumbs 1 egg, beaten 2 tablespoons Worcester sauce Preparation In a large pot, heat the oil …

Balloons over Vang Vieng, Laos.

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Every sunrise and sunset, a white or a yellow hot air balloon can be seen floating low across the sky in Vang Vieng. On our final morning in Vang Vieng, the yellow balloon was ours. It was the first time any of us had been ballooning and what a way to say goodbye. We got off to a scary start as the balloon threatened to tip over, but once the 12+ men let go, we shot straight up into the air. We were in the air for about an hour total and about 15 minutes into the ride, the sun rose over the mountains…Pictures are better than words right? Ballooning Highlights: Watching the sun pop up over the mountains. Ballooning Tips: Just do it! Take a camera.

Eating in Vang Vieng #3

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The following day was we continued to celebrate M’s birthday at a local Thai restaurant for breakfast. We had Tom Kha Gai and pineapple fried rice and enjoyed an amazing view. Overnight, the river was stained a terracotta colour. The locals said it was the first time it had it had happened and the rumour was that some construction upstream had caused it. In any case, we were glad that we weren’t tubing in the river that day. A shop in town carved figures from stone and also personalised them with a stamp on the bottom. We got our company logo carved into an elephant figure for only about $20 including the personalisation. He carved the logo backwards from a sample of our business card and it was ready to pick up later in the day. What a legend! Lunch was only ok, but at least the view was good. My laap was way too spicy and the green chillies were finely chopped and resembled the green beans which were also finely chopped. The Koala got …

Eating Vang Vieng #2

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The morning of the second day in Vang Vieng we get a breakfast of an omelette and an American breakfast around the corner from our guesthouse. The bread in Laos is amazing. I’m not a huge fan of bread, but I like this. It’s hard on the outside and beautifully fluffy on the inside. When you break it open, steam rises from it. Tubing in Vang Vieng is not to be missed. Think of it as a pub crawl in the sun, on the river, between limestone mountains. Everyone on our Intrepid Travel group are up for tubing and The Koala and I also meet up with an old friend O, and his girlfriend, M. It was M’s birthday and what better way to celebrate than by tubing. We begin at a shop in town where we hire a tube each and go by tuk tuk to the starting point on the river. Then it’s up to you to float down the river back into town or if you don’t make it by the time …

Eating in Vang Vieng #1

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We left Vientiane in mid/late January and our group shared a large bus with another group of tourists. The 4 hours bus ride to Vang Vieng was pretty easy as the countryside is really picturesque. Rice paddies, cows, goats, children playing. At one point we drive past a long line of young monks. They are called novice monks when they are still learning and the procession was for a funeral. Vang Vieng is home for the next 2 and a half days. It can be lovely and peaceful and the surrounding limestone mountains can be seen from every part of town. This was the view from our guest house Kham Phone. One of the first sights we saw when we got to Vang Vieng was a herd of cows strolling through the town. They ate every potted plant in their path until they were chased away by unimpressed plant owners. Our first meal in Vang Vieng I had a yummy mango fruit shake and a chicken lao noodle soup and The Koala got a a bbq mix …

Pork dumplings with prawns and pasta

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I always make enough dumplings to feed a gang of rowdy cats, so there is always plenty to freeze. When faced with no fresh food in the house, at least I’ll have a bag of frozen prawns, frozen home made dumplings and some dried pasta to work with. Pinch a few basil and spring onion leaves from the pots on the deck you got yourself an easy dinner.

Vientiane: Buddhas and Temples

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Vientiane Attractions We didn’t spend the whole time in Vientiane eating. Honestly, we didn’t. After sorting out our Thai visa at the embassy in the morning, The Koala and I spent the rest of the day apart from our group, touristing around on our own. Haw Phra Kaew or Temple of the Emerald Buddha have lovely grounds and is now a museum of buddha relics. A 45cm jade Buddha figurine was housed here for a time many, many years ago but now resides in a temple in Bangkok, Thailand. Wat Si Saket is just across the road. Come here to see buddha figurines and a temple. How cool is this leaning chair? Then we hopped onto a jumbo. A jumbo is like the Thailand tuk tuk but with 2 benches so that the passengers face each other. They can comfortably fit 6 although you could cram 8 or 9. Tuk tuk seats face forward and comfortably seat 2 adults, although you could cram in 4. Our driver didn’t speak a word of English, but he had …

Vientiane: Joy Restauant on the Mekong Promenade

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In the city of Vientiane, the Mekong Promenade is wide, the river being very low during dry season and during the day the promenade is peaceful and quiet. You kind of wonder where is everyone? But come sunset, pop up bars and restaurants line the streets and finding a good spot to watch the changing sky is easy. Just before another pink sunset, we find ourselves at Joy Restaurant on the Mekong Promenade. The colourful display of food entices us and after a Beer Lao or two, we choose a few dishes by physicall pointing instead of choosing from the printed menu. It’s so much better to be able to select from a kitchen rather than trusting translated menus. This allows you to order dishes that look good on that day rather than picking your usual favourites. The wiggling bits coming out of the shells told me that the cockles are still alive. The prawns looked particularly plump. The Koala had never tried cockles before and it’s a novelty to get them at all let alone fresh …