I started my day at the usual early hour, fed the cats, exercised and then ripped open a little package that had been sitting in my study for a few days – a birthday pressie from my sister and her hubby in Sydney. Two mocks, “sitting ducks” (which I call “ducky mock”) and space invaders, yay! Along with the mocks, there was a bunch of other mock-related bits and pieces – stickers, badges, lollipops… pretty cool!

My phone, ducky-mocked, which received a few birthday SMSes too, throughout the day!

For lunch, I met MK at Wagamama. Yes, some of you have already worked out the suburb in which I work. ;) We both ended up choosing the same item from the menu: “complete wagamama” ($20.00), which consists of yaki soba, three gyoza and a choice of juice or soft drink. MK chose the apple, lime and mint juice, while I chose apple, orange and passionfruit. They were served at a perfect drinking temperature – nicely chilled but not painfully cold; they were freshly made but without nasty pulpy chunky bits. They were lovely.

On the recommendation of our waitress, we also ordered a serve of chilli squid to share ($8.30). Considering they opened at noon and we were one of around four tables who all arrived at the same time (and had our food orders taken also around the same time), our food came out impressively quickly. I think it took longer for our order to get taken than for the food to arrive once we’d ordered it! Definitely less than ten minutes after we ordered, the squid arrived. The squid pieces were beautifully tender, fried in a light chilli seasoning/batter and served with a sweet, syrupy sauce. According to the menu, it was a lime dipping sauce. To be honest, I couldn’t detect the lime – but the sweet sauce was just perfect with the lightly spicy squid. MK loved this dish, even more than our main courses.

The gyoza were filled with (according to the menu) chicken, cabbage, chinese leaf, chinese chives and water chestnuts. They came with a chilli, garlic and soy dipping sauce. I thought the gyoza skin was a little on the dry, almost tough side, but I loved the crunch of the chestnuts. Next time though I want to try the duck gyoza, and the tori kara age.

The yaki soba are fried soba noodles with egg, chicken, shrimps, onions, green and red capsicum, beansprouts and onion, garnished with black sesame seeds, fried shallots and lots of red ginger. Very gingery and yummy. MK complained that there should’ve been more chicken. I think the squid was just too perfect for her – after eating it nothing else could be as good! Overall, we did enjoy our lunch at Wagamama, and I will definitely eat there again – maybe next time with Jac, who’s pretty keen to try it after seeing the menu. Lunch was MK’s shout – woohoo! I plan to shout her lunch for birthday, which is also this month.

And Jac made me hainan chicken rice for dinner – a delicious way to end a wonderful birthday.

And the leftovers the next day were soooo gooooood.