Citrus

One thing I really love about Perth is that so many people have citrus trees in their yards. I love walking around our neighbourhood, in this, the 'dead of winter' (read: more like a Massachusetts spring), and seeing enormous lemon trees laden with fruit everywhere.

We aren't so lucky: our house doesn't have a citrus tree, but generous friends and family have shared lemons (regular and Meyer), key limes, oranges, and a mystery citrus fruit. The mystery fruit is orange-skinned, but tart like a lime. I think I would describe it as more floral than regular lime juice. Here's one of the mystery fruits:

My internet research had almost convinced me that they were rangpur limes, but the fruit did not have the green seeds that rangpurs are supposed to have. Maybe they were bitter oranges?

I was a bit overwhelmed and not quite sure what to do with a bounty of mystery fruit, so these guys ended up zested and juiced and stashed in the freezer.

What we've been eating

This blog has been pretty quiet of late. We've been busy finding our way in our new city, not to mention dealing with some pretty flaky internet service at our hotel. But now I bring you some food highlights of the past couple of weeks:

1. Indo Mie brand mi goreng. There was something of a mania for these instant noodles in my family a few years ago. We were all addicted, and I guess I still am: when I saw this packet I think I started to drool a little bit. Inside there's five little packets of things to season the noodles, one of which the packaging calls 'seasoning powder', but which is obviously crack.

2. Surprisingly vegan dim sum treats we found in Northbridge: these are Chinese doughnuts (deep fried dough wrapped in rice noodle).

3.  Laksa and Malaysian/Nyonya-style food generally. We enjoyed the laksa at Utopia, and yesterday had a great lunch at Sri Melaka. Today I made this laksa-ish soup for lunch (curry paste from a packet, coconut milk, water, carrot, mushroom, napa cabbage, fried tofu, sprouts, yellow mee).

Being vegetarian in Perth is like being vegan in New England