My Life as McDull is such a cute cartoon for adults and children. Then there’s “The Promise” – visuals look amazing, famous director. I shall be enjoying at least one myself.

See this?

That was utterly delicious and better yet – it was made from soya. Soya “meat” is the Buddhists’ greatest invention to pacify a vegetarian’s childhood tastes for meat. Highly recommend this dish: schweinsribbchen (at first I thought it was a mistake in the menu to have that listed under “vegetarian dishes”) What was also nice was the side dish called “zongzi”. It’s a little sweet rice/bean/peanut clump wrapped and steam in lotus leaves – one of my favorite flavors. I think I saw them on the running sushi line too.

Should we cancel?
No, I said. We’ll try per-ordering some real Chinese food. They’re Chinese, I thought, they MUST know how to cook decent food.

Ordering an appetizer, entrée and a dessert individually is a typical Western way to have dinner. For Chinese banquets and even family dinners, the meal is traditionally made up of several dishes to be shared by everyone, a bowl of rice on the side.

I called them and asked in my broken Mandarin if we could do so. Of course, they said. And they invited me to come over to pick out the menu. We sat together over a pot of jasmine tea, and put together an 8 course meal, plus extra dessert and appetizers, for under €10 a head.

A vegetable soup
Pork & vegetable dumplings
Veggie spring rolls
Chicken with mu-er mushrooms
Chinese sweet & sour spare ribs
Ma-por Tofu
Ginger-garlic Chinese cabbage
A prepared whole fish
Fried and white rice
Fried banana & chestnut “tasche” for dessert

The owners are from Zhejiang, China – as most Chinese in Austria are from. Their cook: Chinese Malaysian. I definitely recommend booking group dinners there.

Yokko
“Singaporean & Japanese Restaurant”
11:30 – 15:00 & 17:30 – 23:30 Kein Ruhetag
Steinbergstrasse 14 (take the #7 tram to Wetzeldorf)
Telephone: 0316/58 53 28

I love the ball culture here. And being masked made it much more mysterious. Waltz, jazz, Sicilian folk music. Fantastic hor d’oevres. Only thing missing was a good dose of salsa.

Date: Saturday, March 24th, 2007
Time: 19:00
Location: the office pub
Cost: €5 (proceeds go to the Styrian Children’s Cancer Society)
Description:
Speed-Friending is a fun variation on the “speed dating” model with the intentions of simply meeting new friends in Graz!

We’re just looking to support the International community of Graz – Austrians and others alike. Find a pal to play tennis with, a mate to go for movies with, or just widen your network of friends!

With support from the Anglo-Austrian Circle

How does it work?
You check in with registration, and then we assign you a random starting station number as a Mover or Stationer. That will also be your raffle number. Until we fill all the stations, you can chat with your first speed-friend buddy, mingle around and grab a drink. Once we’re ready to start, we’ll ask everyone to go back to their stations.The bell will signal for Movers to move to the next station – quick! Then you get four minutes to chat it up with your new buddy.

The idea is to just have a short conversation with each person. You’ll get a sheet of paper with the station numbers to “take notes” on your chat buddies. When the Speed-Friending is over, you can continue your conversations at the bar and hang out all night!

Throughout the game, we’ll also be drawing station numbers for raffle prizes. You could win a pair of tickets to the movies or a show, or free time at a sports center – all prizes you can share with your new found friends.

Afterwards, we’ll send out an email with everyone’s first name, original station number & email address from registration. (Of course you have the option not to release your information if you choose.) Easy enough!

Pre-Registration
To help us plan to accommodate you and your friends for Speed-Friending, send us your name/email to speed-friending’at’hotmail.com. For more detailed information and our flyer click here to download it as pdf-file!

It’s our first time doing this, so we cannot make any guarantees. Be sure to arrive early!

Bharati is definately worth it if you can get tickets for Tuesday night. Really fun, uplifting for your heart and musically astonishing! If only Austrians could enjoy dancing more!

It really made me miss India, what a country!

Two weekends ago, I left Hebalm exhausted from lugging all my equipment up the bunny slope because the lifts were turned off, and covered with bruises with my hard falls. Not to mention sweaty & muddy as well.

Living on the top floor means my thighs stay rather in shape, and I’m huffing and puffing by the end of the trek. It’s relatively cheap for me to live here. There’s no urgency for shopping (nor are the shops open at convenient times to do so), people do not tend to eat out so often. Rent is very reasonable. I just wish we had a terrace like our neighbors.