December in Port Moresby

The last couple of months in every year is extremely humid in Port Moresby. November is a dry month but December usually has a lot of summer showers. December also marks the annual migration of the expatriate community in Port Moresby to their home countries and all flights would be booked 3 months from the flight date. PNG students who go to Australia return for their school break and the flights from Australia-PNG are also packed and for domestic flights, Port Moresby-Rabaul would be hard to book as hordes of PNG Chinese go back to their families for the holidays.

Retail establishments prepare for the onslaught of shoppers and the frenzy peaks at around the 23rd. Christmas day is very quiet and on boxing day, you would see families having a barbeque in their backyards or lounging by their pool sides.

Starting last year, the National Capital District government has been holding a music / entertainment festival at Jack Pidik park on 5-mile. This lasts for 23 days. The area would be jampacked with onlookers and merry makers every night. They are there to socialize, to watch the Christmas holiday lights and to enjoy the night's entertainment.

Hotel restaurants such as Bacchus and Clubs such as the Royal Papuan Yacht Club organise special dinner menus for the holidays. Clubs like the Gold Club also prepare special events.

All in all, Port Moresby becomes a different place during December. Unfortunately for me, it's time to go and spend time with family so this will be my last post for 2011. I shall return in the 3rd week of January. Until then, I shall leave you with some interesting photos from Port Moresby.

happy buai seller.

we have a mosque! it's at hohola.

moresby is quite foggy in the mornings. airplanes have trouble landing in the mornings at times and it's not unusual for a plane to turn back.

paintings like these are everywhere around the city. tourists love them!

ela beach from togouba hill.

town from burns peak.

town from the edge of the yacht club.

bird of paradise sculpture close to parliament.

get a pet crocodile from croc sellers!

Happy Christmas and may you have a Prosperous New Year! Ciao!

Chicken Mushroom Risotto

Rice dishes come in all forms. Risotto is an Italian rice dish that is cooked slowly and labouriously as you'll soon see. I decided to cook this today as I wanted to eat more rice in my diet and I thought making risotto would be delicious. Mind you this is my version without the alcohol as what most recipes out there would call for.

The ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of arborio rice (or any other starchy rice)
• 1 litre of chicken stock
• 200 grams chicken cubes
• 1 onion
• 3 large button mushrooms (they ran out of brown mushrooms so I'm improvising)
• strong flavoured cheese (i used blue and cheddar, most recipes call for parmesan)
• butter

Get your stock and simmer it. Now in a saucepan, saute in butter your mushrooms and onions. Once these are browned, take them out and saute your chicken in butter. Once the chicken is half-cooked, put back the mushrooms and onions and pour in your rice then pour enough chicken stock to just reach the level of the rice. Let the rice absorb the stock then pour more stock. Remember, you have to constantly stir the rice or it will stick to the pan and burn. After you have reduced the stock about 4 times, put in your cheese and mix it well to let the cheese melt in the rice. Now pour in more stock and reduce again. Keep on doing this until the rice is soft and chewy and becomes sticky creamy. Now serve!

the ingredients. well, some of them.

slice the onion and mushrooms.

simmer your stock and saute your mushrooms and onions.

cook your chicken.

chop up your cheese.

put the rice in.

pour your stock in.

constantly stir your rice while reducing the stock.

after several reductions, put in the cheese and let it melt.

keep on adding more stock and keep on reducing it.

once the rice has become sticky creamy and chewy, serve!

lunch is served with strawberry mlik!

Ciao!

Rust Photography

I do not know if I am alone in my fascination of the natural process of oxidisation in metal objects. I find it absolutely wonderful how the process creates these brown-reddish colours with various textures. Of course, all this is caused by sodium so the frequency of rust is more common around coastal areas which is why rust is often seen on boats and piers.

Since 2010, I have been taking photos of rusted objects whenever I come across them. Here are a few photos.

That's it for tonight. I've been on medication lately as it is flu season here due to the change in weather. I've been taking these:

Good night folks! Ciao!