Author: Bunny Eats Design

Bunny Eats Design thanks you for 10,000 Hits!

Published by

After over half a year blogging, Bunny Eats Design is close to reaching 10,000 hits. I’d like to thank everyone that has dropped by this blog in the last 7 months. 10,000 kind of snuck up on me this week with 2 high traffic sites featuring some of my posts. I thought I had weeks to go, but it turns out it’s only days away now. It’s all very exciting and I’d like to celebrate with a giveaway just like the giveaway we had when we reached 1,000 hits. To enter, simply share any Bunny Eats Design post or leave a comment on any post between now and Easter. Entries close on Tuesday 26th of April. You can enter as many times as you like and each comment will be counted as an entry as long as you’re not sending through canned, spiced ham. I will draw the winner using a random number generator and the winner will be contacted by email and announced on this blog. Entry is open to everyone. I am busy painting something …

Tofu Tuesday: A Rabbit’s Résumé

Published by

Everyone should have an up-to-date résumé up their sleeve — you never know when that next big opportunity will present itself. Personal Details First Name: Tofu Surname: Removed for privacy reasons Contact details: Removed for privacy reasons Date of Birth: August 2007 Class of rabbit: Broken Sable Point Lop Nationality: New Zealand Gender: Male Diet: Herbivore Profile Well presented, friendly and easy-going lagomorph with excellent social skills. Intuitive worker with a passion for pellets, carrots and apples. Excellent jumping skills, enjoys the outdoors and has a talent and enthusiasm for organic methods. Great listening skills and has the ability to calm others. Plays well with cats and humans. Soft face. Charismatic. Work Experience Position: Cotton Ball August 2007 – November 2007 Duties: Eye makeup and nail polish removal. Toe separation during painting assignments. Position: Whac-A-Mole Employee February 2008 – February 2008 Duties: Entertainment sector. Primarily mallet dodging, but also lunging, surging, charging, flinching and evading required. Occasionally getting hit. Basic first aid training. (Early contract termination due to personal difficulties) Position: Easter Bunny March 2008 – Present (seasonal …

Vientiane: Crickets, Mystery Meat and other Eats.

Published by

Our first dinner in Laos was in Vientiane at Khop Chai Deu. Our Intrepid Travel guide, Golf chose this large restuarant/bar not far from the Mekong River for our group dinner. Local dish of steamed fish with banana leaf sounded good to me and The Koala got a butter chicken masala. Some of the others got deep fried crickets. I gave it a whirl and to be honest, it just tasted like nachos. Especially when eaten with a salsa chili type sauce. Is anyone offended by the taste of nachos and a spicy salsa? So, if you can get over any mental or visual phobias of eating deep fried crickets, the taste isn’t something to worry about. As much as we loved eating local foods, we were really craving a standard New Zealand style flat white. We found these coffeeas at JoMa Bakery Cafe (across the road from Khop Chai Deu). These roast vege wraps were good too. The bill for 2 coffees and 2 wraps came to 86,000 kip / $13.70 NZ / $10.70US which is …

Eating laap in Laos

Published by

Laap, also spelled larb, larp or laab, was my absolute favourite dish during our epic South East Asia adventure. Laap is made with ground meat, ground sticky rice, fish sauce, lime juice, fresh chili and lots of herbs like mint, coriander and spring onion. The locals eat it with their hands and with sticky rice and raw vegetables. I totally fell in love with this fresh, zingy, savoury dish. Crossing into Laos On a cold mid January morning, we get up early, have a buffet breakfast at our hotel in Vinh, Vietnam and get on a 6am private bus to Laos. It is cold, grey and misty. We take Ho Chi Minh Trail which is a windy path through the mountains and you can see how it could have been used in war against a foreign enemy. The mist is so thick in places you can’t see across to the other side of the valley. Looking out into the heavy mist it’s easy to think that the mountains are on the edge of the world. …

The Flavor Thesaurus and a poll

Published by

The Flavor Thesaurus: A Compendium of Pairings, Recipes and Ideas for the Creative Cook by Niki Segnit. My mum gifted this book to me as belated birthday present. Yay! The book has a beautiful hard cover,  silver foil embossed title, pretty pink edged pages and is a surprisingly lightweight tome. If you are a print geek like me, it will make your eyes widen and your heart flutter. The entries read like you’re reading a friend’s letters or notes on food. A knowledgeable friend for sure, but it’s a far cry from any thesaurus I’ve ever read (none, actually). It’s easy language to digest and not too different to reading entries from a foodie’s blog. I didn’t think it would be a book I would read from start to finish, but more like a cooking companion or resource book to inspire. But here I am with a bookmark in the thesaurus, attempting to read it from front to back. I can see this being particularly helpful when you have an overabundance of a certain ingredient. Using …

We don’t have feijoas coming out our ears.

Published by

Really we don’t. Our tree is giving us a respectable 3 to 6 fruit a day. Totally manageable. This week, I learned that feijoas (pronounced fee-jo-ahs) thrive in our sub tropical climate and also don’t have any natural pests here. Every day, I check the lawn under and gather up any fallen fruit. Although Tofu doesn’t seem to be interested in feijoa this autumn, he could just be trying to trick me into nonchalance. I’ve caught him hoeing into them in other years so I’m not so easily fooled. I’m still squirreling away all the macadamia nuts that are dropping onto our lawn. I haven’t bought a macadamia nut cracker yet so I’m just collecting and collecting. The only way I can get them open right now is using a brick and smashing the nuts on concrete. But it’s not pretty and kind of caveman like to be honest. I hope my neighbours don’t see me smashing bricks and nuts in the backyard…and eating the results. The nuts have a great flavour, but aren’t crunchy. I’ve already …

Creamy Tomatoey Chicken

Published by

My local Chinese supermarket now offers boneless thigh! I prefer the texture and flavour of thigh over breast meat. Boneless thigh is the same price as breast meat so I guess I’m not going to be buying breast ever again. I cooked up some the chicken for me and the boys*. Some cream, some tomato, some spices like garam masala and curry powder. Whip up some rice and some vege and you got yourself some tasty nutrition. The boys gobbled it all up. * By boys, I’m really referring to men. I don’t have any offspring.

Halong Bay: The Beauty & The Eats

Published by

On our second day in Vietnam, we spend the morning on a bus to Halong Bay. We didn’t think were would go to Halong Bay as we only had 2 and half free days in Hanoi, but after 1 full day in The Old Quarter, we decided we’d had enough of the hustle and bustle and booked ourselves onto a Halong Bay tour. Halong translates to Descending Dragon and thousands of limestone peaks jut out from the green sea in an area of about 1500km2. Two million years in the tropical climate have created these unique formations. It is a tourist destination, but for good reason: it really is beautiful. Pick up from our hotel is early and every seat on the bus is accounted for. They have those aisle seats that fold down so that when all bums are on seats, there are no aisles at all. If someone in the back row needs to get out, all 4 aisle row seats need to get up, fold their chair up and get out in order …

Japanese Art Festival photos

Published by

The Japanese Art Festival over the weekend was a great success with the new venue of Aotea Centre and increased publicity. On Saturday, there were speeches, nibbles and drinks as well as a half hour Taiko drumming demonstration at Aotea Square. The drumming was phenomenal and the acoustics in the square were amazing. There was a great turn out and got lots of people interested in the exhibition inside. On Sunday I took my family through the exhibition and also participated in a live art demo in the afternoon. The bunny and origami drawing I did was quite popular with the young, female audience and after a bit of a bidding war, fetched $61 for charity. Here are some photos from the festival… (click on the thumbnails for a larger view)

Eating a snake and drinking cat poo coffee

Published by

Friends of snakes, look away now. Killing and eating a snake was always going to be an interesting experience. I’d read about it online and I had a fair idea of what to expect. We talked to our hotel owner and receptionist about it and they called a taxi for us. Unfortunately the taxi driver hadn’t been briefed and “Le Mat” which was the snake village didn’t seem to ring any bells. It was only after I drew and showed him a picture of snake while we gestured eating motions that he got it. “Ahhhh La Maaaat!”. All good. He drove us to a restaurant and he communicated to us that he would wait outside while we ate. It’s quite normal in SE Asia countries for taxi drivers to wait outside for you. Something that is unheard of in New Zealand unless you’re using an ATM or something super quick. Taxis are very cheap in Vietnam and our return trip including the hour wait while we ate,  cost only 94,000VND / $6NZ / $4.50US. I’d read about …

Delicious Vietnam: Eating In The Old Quarter, Hanoi

Published by

Before our epic SE Asia holiday, I had read a few  blogs to inspire my appetite. One of the best was A Food Lover’s Journey by Ahn in Melbourne. Mouthwatering and easily relatable, Ahn is a Vietnamese expat and reading her blog is enough to make anyone crave Vietnamese food. The monthly Delicious Vietnam blogging event conspired by A Food Lover’s Journey and Ravenous Couple was never something I thought I would participate in. When I saw their reminder this month, I realised that it was just about time I wrote about Vietnamese food and our time in Hanoi. Vietnamese food in Auckland There is a lack of Vietnamese restaurants in Auckland, but one of my favourites is Hansan Vietnamese Restaurant. One of those places with cheap, fresh and delicious food, but severely no frills service, my review can be found here. The other Vietnamese place worth mentioning in Auckland is Banh Mi. Who do great filled rolls and all the classic Vietnamese dishes as well. Anticipation “”Well,” said Pooh, “what I like best — ” …

Japanese Art Festival starts today

Published by

The Koala and I have been busy this last month with the lead up to the Japanese Art Festival. We’ve done all the graphic design for the festival, a 30+ page prospectus for one of the event sponsors and have been working on brand new paintings to exhibit. It has been a real work work work month. Well, the work has all paid off because the festival starts today. It’s free and it’s on from today until Sunday so if you’re in Auckland this weekend, come down to Aotea Centre and check it out. Saturday lunch-ish is the best time to go as there will be Taiko drumming and live art. There will be collection for Japanese earthquake relief and many artists will be donating full or percentage of sales. The Koala and I will be donating 50% of our sales to the Japanese earthquake relief. So please come! I leave you with a teaser from my pieces…

Batu Caves, Monkeys and street art in Kuala Lumpur

Published by

We were only in Kuala Lumpur for a day and we only had 1 destination on our itinerary. Everything else was just spontaneous, unplanned, getting lost in a new city. Batu Caves was worth a visit and the KL train system is really good. The return trip from KL Sentral to Batu Caves was 3RM or about $1.30NZ. There is no entrance fee to the caves and the food out there is cheap too so it makes or a cheap way to spend a morning. Perhaps on of the cheapest activities you can do in KL. We arrived a few days shy of the big Hindu festival called Thaipusam so there was a bit of preparatory work going on. The Long-tailed Macaques weren’t aggressive when we were there, but they are quick and love people food. A monkey made off with someone’s drink. We had a curry while were out there. Vegetarian and quite spicy but look how it’s presented on a pretty leaf. I’d seen a food programme where they folded the leaf over when …

Lamb and Pinot Noir Meatballs

Published by

I still had a little pinot noir leftover from the other day when we all needed a BFGOW after work. So I got half a kilo of lamb mince in a bowl, added a good glug glug of the wine, some chopped garlic, chopped basil, salt, pepper, some breadcrumbs, no, more breadcrumbs, no, still more breadcrumbs and rolled up 60 little meatballs and baked them for about 15 minutes in a hot 200°C oven. Then I made this light sauce to go with it. If it wasn’t a school night, I might have cooked this sauce for longer, but I’d already laboured over the meatballs and hey, a light sauce is good too. Chop up 2 red capsicums, 2 sticks of celery, 1 onion and brown in a hot pan with a little oil. Add 2 cups of water and boil for 20 minutes. Drain most of the water out. Work some voodoo magic with a stick blender and then put it back on the heat and add salt or bouillon as you wish. Serve with …

The Secret World of Private Kitchens in Hong Kong

Published by

Before our super epic trip, I’d mentioned to my cousin Charing that I wanted to dine at a private kitchen. From Wiki: Speakeasy, also termed private kitchen in Hong Kong (Chinese: 私房菜), is a term in modern Hong Kong referring to an unlicensed, restaurant-like establishment for eating. Some of the perceived problems with running a restaurant in Hong Kong—high rents and the common practice of landlords extracting profits from restaurants through clauses in tenancy agreements—have led to the establishment of this type of eatery. Owners also have the additional benefit that many government regulations concerning restaurants can be avoided. A typical speakeasy will be based in an ordinary apartment in a block of flats. Customers gain access by ringing the bell before the door is opened from the inside. Inside, the flat will be set out as a simple restaurant. Usually, it provides not only quality home-made food and drink, but a sense of being at home. Advertising is usually by word of mouth—it’s often not possible to have prominent signs outside to advertise the business’ presence, as with a normal commercial establishment. She knew …

Cabbages and pears

Published by

Just another mid week dinner. I read Citrus and Candy’s braised cabbage recipe the other day and was inspired to pair cabbage, balsamic and a fruit too. I didn’t have granny smiths and I don’t really braise during the week, but I had a pear and I’ve cooked cabbage in a frying pan a gazillion times before, so frying pan and pear it was. I’m trying to make extra these days so we can have lunch the next day. Lunch can be so expensive and cooking a bit extra doesn’t cost much at all. Intrinsically, this is chicken, cabbage and potato. I have a microwave at work, The Koala is on the road. So I’m taking chicken and cabbage for lunch tomorrow to heat, The Koala is taking chicken and potato salad to have cold. Hopefully his new insulated lunch box will keep it cool. Cabbage and pear with balsamic A side dish to pretty up any plate. Ingredients Quarter of a red cabbage 1 pear About 2 tablespoons of butter A glug of balsamic vinegar A …

Eating Borneo #8 – New Years at Mañana

Published by

New Year celebrations have always been epic for us. Many businesses are closed during this time in New Zealand so we holiday like there’s no tomorrow. It’s a time when we leave the city and flock to beaches all over the country to get absolutely trashed with their friends. There’s good food and good times to be had and the celebrations often last a week. I saw in last New Years with The Koala, my friend A, my sister Joey, her boyfriend D and the guests and staff at Mañana Borneo. Mañana is a small resort on a private beach about an hour north of Kota Kinabalu in the Sabah north of Borneo Island. It’s not on a separate island but this beach is only accessable by boat. No cars. No shops. No power during the day. Just a private, sheltered beach, snorkeling, swimming, books, hammocks, monsoon every afternoon (mandatory downtime). It was heaven. We stayed in 3 private villas with our own outdoor bathrooms. The menu here was limited but that was fine, it meant …