I have limited space in my apartment, so whenever summer visits, I hide my winter jackets and heat-techy attire in a box, and swap out my ‘summer’ box.

For the last two weeks Melbourne has been hit by La Niña - wind, rain, hail, so now I have both winter and summer clothes scattered everywhere on the floor. It’s a messy vomit of cotton.
Like this picture of my desk.

Mentally I’m no different.
Lockdown is over - we are FREE, yet cautious.
Liberated, yet also kinda upset.
It’s like the morning after thanksgiving/reunion dinner when everyone wished they could take back all the drunken, passive-aggressive, backhand, pedestrian comments, insults, and actions.
But no, we just have to drink this awkward cup of tea and move on, or pretend it never happened.

As adults, you realise you cannot redo many things in life, the best is to find a window of opportunity, and apologise.

Sorry to the 20 new readers that have yet to receive an delivery confirmation. They’ve been ‘in transit’ for the last 2 weeks and last I heard the company went on a strike. Although I said the book would make a good Christmas gift, I’m not sure if Santa can make it this year for the readers outside of Australia.

And sorry for not writing any sooner. Or any more. Or any better.
I’m actually surprised to see a high click rate from my last post on Stephen Chow. I do have a plan of action for the upcoming migration to Substack.

For example, my writing process, food photography tips, and the ultimate guide to Queen Victoria Market, exclusive to paid subscribers.

My daughter Hana is starting primary school next year and I am taking her out to as many weekday dates as possible. Sushi trains, zoo, bookshops, library. I had the same breakdown when she went to kindergarten last year, so I think I’ll get over this eventually.

If you’re also my client, sorry - I’m processing your photographs right now. I’ve updated to a new laptop last week and trying to sync all my workspace. The week before, recovering a massive HDD failure.

Sorry Melburnians, I have yet to organise a get-together, because during weekdays I have food shoots and during weekends, wedding / family portrait sessions. It reminds me of the current food industry: the customers are all back, but workers (in this case my work ethic) have yet to show up.
(In fact, if you’re free for brunch Monday - Friday, hit me up. That timeframe works better for me.)

Everyone is the same, no?
Muscles all gone after the cast was removed, and now learning how to retrain our socialising fibers again.

Let me get through this, and I’ll find my rhythm at some point.

Sorry.

This is the part where I act like a typical Aussie employee:

I just gave you a wall of excuses about why I couldn’t do my job properly, but check out my food adventures on Instagram!

Our recent vacation!

You know what, forget the vacation, let’s cut straight to the last day.

Everytime we travel south east, be it Gippsland, Venus Bay, Walkerville, we’d stopped by Springvale for lunch on the way home. Specifically, for the (allegedly) best pho in Melbourne.

Here’s how I embarrassed myself the first time visiting Pho Hung Vuong - I asked for spring rolls, like a white man. The lady just pointed to the menu - pho and drinks only.

Since then I’ve learned my lesson eating here.
Always ready to share a table, in and out, no chit-chat.

The reason ramen isn’t as ubiquitous in Australia, compared to say, Japan, even China or the rest of South East Asia is because pho is more ramen than ramen.

Affordable, down-to-earth, convenient, and most importantly, authentic.

Ramen came to Australia as a luxury import, but not pho. Pho has brought comfort to so many people that a shop with a 14-item menu attracts a queue, or a 40-minute drive from the CBD.

There’s even a bit of ‘wabi-sabi’ attitude to it. Depending on the weather, the stock, noodles, protein, can be a little inconsistent. But it’s ok, like mum’s cooking, we let it slide. We complain mentally but always return the next time.

I’m sure my Vietnamese friends will be retaliating with their own ‘best’ pho recommendation, and here’s the funny thing. It’s not even my culture, my childhood.

But because of this ‘last day of holiday’ ritual, it’s part of Hana’s childhood now. I’m really interested to see if she will pick pho or ramen as her comfort food when she grows up.

(Most likely, it’ll be spaghetti bolognese.)

Hi there! If you’re new here, thanks for buying my book.
You can access all the previous newsletters here.

On 20th November I’ll be migrating my emails to Substack. No action is required from your end (I think). Hopefully, by then you’ll be enticed to buy me a coffee a month for our virtual catch-up.

At the moment I see myself as a father, then photographer, then a writer. I believe I can juggle all three, once this emo La Niña goes away.

For the time being, I’m just writing short bursts of restaurant review/self-therapy on my phone whenever I have 15 minutes of free time in the bathtub.

Sometimes, I think this sub-conscious writing, limited by word count is much better than my usual try-hard ones.

I’ll see you on the other side.