26!!

My birthday went well. It rained the whole weekend which ruined our plans to visit the zoo (my favorite birthday tradition) and the weather was equally nasty in Katoomba, so no hiking either. But staying home and reading all weekend was just as good. Reading. And eating. We had some good food that weekend! Jeremy took me out to a Vietnamese restaurant in Surry Hills called The Red Lantern which I've been dying to try for sooo long!

It all started about a year ago when I was casually flipping through channels on the TV and settled on a cooking show with Luke Nguyen. He's the founder of The Red Lantern and happened to be traveling through Vietnam--north to south--studying the street food, culture and history of the people while teaching viewers how to make some truly awesome dishes. Ever since, I've been dying to go because you know, I'm really Vietnamese under all this pasty skin!

To top it off, he bought me the cook book he wrote from that trip which is absolutely beautiful and full of stories about the food and the people who taught him to make it. It also has amazingly high quality paper and photos inside--two things I greatly appreciate in books. Especially the paper. There's nothing like thumbing through thick pages!

We also went to a Latin Dance Festival which conveniently happens on my birthday every year. We went last year too but only had enough money for the churros. Well! This year we were prepared and brought money for the churros and lunch! I got some delicious tamales authentically wrapped up and cooked in their corn husks! Mmmm!!! It's hard to find real Mexican food here. Sure, you can find the odd taco or burrito if you know where to look but churros, tamales and fajitas? Forget it!

As I said, it was a weekend for food and we also celebrated with one magnificent piece of white chocolate cheesecake. Jeremy claims to be a cheesecake hater but I think he's coming around because he ate at least half of it! The things I do for humanity... 

We didn't do anything "great" with out three days off (Australian Labour Day), but it was nice to just be together. 

So long 25 and hello 26!! And thanks to all of you who wished me happy birthday!