Artplaying
On the weekend I went across to Artplay on Birrarung Marr in Melbourne. This time we got to do some t-shirt making! I thought this was my chance to actually make a crafty t-shirt without having bits of paper fall off it! I would like to give you a quick look at my design. It is for my band ‘Lord of the Phoenix’ (I play the drums and Dad is on electric guitar).
Thank you to Artplay. It is the best!
Vist the Artplay website for fun stuff for kids
Maha madness!
You know, I’d really like to tell you about a fabulous place I have never been to before. It’s called ‘Maha’ and it is a Middle Eastern restaurant.
When you get there, you start with a Welcome Drink. It is a red Egyptian Hibiscus Tea. When I tried it, I loved it. It is quite sweet in taste and it feels really tingly and rich on the tongue. I wish I could try it again!
We also learned to say ‘Saha’ which means ‘Cheers’.
A nice waiter will come across to you and ask which type of menu you’d like. We went with the five course ’soufra’ but you might try something different like the ‘Sultan’s Feast’. At the same time the waiter took our drink order. There is a lovely traditional drink called ‘Jallab’ which I had. It includes grape juice, lime and rose water.
After that, the first course will arrive – soup. The waiter will hand out some plates with a dollop of white beans in it. I wasn’t expecting this! But then the waiter did something different. He brought out a pot from behind his back and poured some Jerusalem Artichoke soup in my bowl. Cool!
The second course is bigger than the soup. It is actually a tasting plate! My favourite part was the lovely, superb spinach dip and Middle Eastern bread. The thing I liked about the bread was that it was fresh and soft.
The third course was where I met an old friend of mine. The Maltese Raviloi is my favourite type of pasta and I absolutely love how they did it a Maha!
The fourth course included salad with smoked roasted almonds, I loved how the lettuce did a loud and noisy crunch between your teeth!
The final course was dessert. We had a HUGE plate which included sweetcorn cream, caramel and popcorn in a cup, doughnuts with Turkish Delight in the middle and chocolate clay with berries and more chocolate! Phew … that’s a big dessert.
Well after all that Maha also gave us some cute tubes of Middle East seasoning we will use at home in our cooking.
The full vegetarian menu we had:
White Bean & Jerusalem Artichoke Soup
Meze-
Felafel in a special glass
White beans
Spinach dip
Cabbage
Lentils (yum)
Fetta and Dill Borak
Greens with Smoked Almonds and Chickpeas
Maltese Ravioli
Braised Lentils with Maltese Cheese
Iceberg Lettuce Salad
Special Rice
Sweetcorn Corn with Caramel and Popcorn
Maha Doughnuts with Turkish Delight filling
Chocolate Clay and Milk Cream with Pomegranate Jelly
Maha
21 Bond Street
Melbourne Victoria
03 9629 5900
http://www.mahabg.com.au/
Special tubes of Middle East seasoning from Maha
Japanese Cats!
I love Japan. I love its food, its people and …. its cats. So, I decided to make up some stories about Japan and its cats. The Japanese Cat series started off as a quick sketch in my notebook one night, sitting in bed. Then I started to think about what country this story could be set in. Once I had all my ideas down, I started writing.
A few days later when I had finished my story, I showed it to Mum. After I read it to her she said “Maybe we could get this published?”. So I spent the day working on the illustrations and the page layout (thanks Dad!) and then a quick dash to Kwik Kopy in Geelong.
Now, I wasn’t happy with just one book, so I decided to make another three more books using the same process. At the very end, I was tired. I decided to make ‘Japanese Cats Love Drumming’ as the last book. Then, when everything was over I write the blurb and Mum helped wrap the books and blurb up in twine. Then I sent it out to some friends of mine.
The Japanese Cat series
Japanese Cats Love Fencing
Japanese Cats Love Irish Dancing
Japanese Cats Love Bike Riding
Japanese Cats Love Drumming
NAPLAN breakfast poem
Lots of kids had the NAPLAN tests last week. Eating a healthy breakfast is really important!
If you want a tasty snack
to take the NAPLAN off your back
Miso soup does the trick
and potatoes with an egg gives you a kick
But if you want something spicy
beans and toast is very nicey
Smothered with some mustard seeds
these red beans do good deeds
But if you are an Englishman
You may not enjoy Indian
so maybe try some banana porridge
It will give you a lot of courage
with stewed apples and seeds galore
What could an Englishman ever want more?
Ripping, smacking and ever more
these kinds of breakfast are never a bore!
NAPLAN breakfast #1 : Cannellini beans and chickpeas in tomatoes with mustard seeds. La Madre olive bread!
NAPLAN breakfast #2 : Porridge with stewed apples and plums, banana, almond meal, linseeds and maple syrup
NAPLAN breakfast #3 : Japanese breakfast with miso soup, new potatoes, rice and fried egg sprinkled with nori. Yum!
My cute breakfast bowl is made by Jedda at Ekko Creatives in Geelong. Jedda is really clever.
Hot school lunches!
Foogo containers are so fantastic. These round cylinder objects keep food warm for lunch time. All you need to do is put hot water in them for a few minutes, pour it out and put the hot food in. You can put almost anything in there (except sandwiches – they get a bit squished in a circular shape!).
One the first day I tried this container, I had some soup, and the broth warmed me up for the rest of the day.
You can also put curry in it. It doesn’t matter which country the food is from, whether it is savoury or sweet, just pop it in and away it goes.
The Foogo containers are made from the same company as Thermos. But the Foogo is shorter in size. You also have the choice between which colour you want. Pink and purple, blue and yellow. It’s all up to you!
My Foogo with last night's left overs ready for school lunch ... eggplant, potato and chickpea curry
Songs to People
Songs to People is a cool kids workshop that involves first writing secrets you really want to let out in the world, but don’t really want to say! Then some very talented singers make up a song to tell your secrets!
This was held at Artplay in Melbourne and I was in it. I made up a secret about Regene (pronounced Re-Ga-Knee), my stuffed poodle. There was a really cool guy called Russ, and he made up a song about Regene.
Not to forget the rest of the group. Ben, with his excellent helicopter hat, and two other gorgeous girl singers.
I’ve always wanted to let out secrets but I’m sometimes too embarrassed to tell them. I thought this was a really good opportunity to do that, but in a fun way!
Here’s a link to my song/secret about Regene!
Mr Edamame (a biography of my favourite Japanese snack)
Mr Edamame has a top hat on his head,
But every time he takes it off, when he goes to bed
Mr Edamame is a lovely shade of green,
He polishes his hat every night just to make it clean
Mr Edamame is a bad tempered bean,
He yells at innocent pumpkins, and is very mean
They say that he should stop it, and he makes a big fuss,
Then Mr Edamame leaves and take a Japanese bus
When he gets to Japan, he decides to make his fortune,
By making chocolate Crunky and Mango Soda Ramune
But then he ends up stranded in a hotel,
he meets a wicked witch, then decides to a make a spell!
“Oh, make, make, make me an Otamatone” he shouts,
“A musical instrument that brings no pouts”
And, he finally makes his money, but gets robbed by some spies,
So he goes and gets his Otamatone, and put on it’s highs
Then he gets his money back and finds a website
It’s name is ‘Strapya World’ and it’s full of fun sights
He spots his Otamatone, and he cries with joy,
Now if you see Mr Edamame, he’s a very happy boy!
Cool website link
You can get these mini edamames and Otamatones from Strapya World
My big edamame pillow!
My cute mini keyring edamame
Groovy little music instrument called an Otamatone - you press on the stem and he sings