I’ve had a number of colleagues in New York tell me that they cannot get over the idea of how jarring a summer Christmas would be — they say they want a white Christmas, that cold is what they think about when they think of Christmas. “Have you adjusted to a summer Christmas?” I am often asked. Honestly, how does one need to “adjust” to being warm?!

One of them has a fiance who is originally from LA, and she said she’s sick and tired of spending Christmas in LA, where it’s always warm and sunny. I told her she can do whatever she wants, but I’m perfectly happy being warm in a sunny place with Santas in trunks and on surf boards; I fully embrace warmth any time of the year. The only time I want to see snow is when I’m warm inside with a hot drink in my warm apartment. I’m over the snowmen and the snow ball fights completely. When people think of a snowy and white Christmas, they immediately forget how disgusting it can be when it’s piled up on the streets and mixed with mud, dirt, and dog pee and poo. They forget the salt everywhere ruining their shoes. They forget how slipper and dangerous it can be walking on black ice. I do not romanticize ANY of that in my head. I hate it all. But, I tolerate it because it’s only for a couple months, and it’s not like we get constant, steady snow in New York City.

Another thing I love about spending Christmas in Australia is how fun and festive it is everywhere. The Rudolph red noses, antlers, and tinsel on cars, people walking around on the street with Santa and elf hats, girls walking around with Santa and reindeer bouncy headbands, and people wearing “elf” T-shirts always cracks me up. On Christmas Day, families everywhere here will be snapping their Christmas crackers to unveil their paper crowns, which everyone is happy to wear, young and old. I also join in on the fun by totally acting my age and wearing the bouncy Santas headband myself. You can be quirky and whimsical here as an adult, and no one will think you are being childish. It’s just getting into the Christmas spirit.

Everyone’s allowed to have a preference. But my preference is warmth year-round. Who doesn’t want to be warm?

Sydney siders and Melbournians can be quite competitive in the same way that San Franciscans and Los Angeles residents can be. One of the biggest complaints I tend to hear from those who either live in Sydney or are from Sydney originally is that the weather in Melbourne is cold, unpredictable, and flat out schizophrenic. Here is an example of the weather pattern in the next five days here in Fahrenheit:

Friday, 20 Dec: 110 degrees

Saturday, 21 Dec: 83 degrees

Sunday, 22 Dec: 69 degrees

Monday, 23 Dec: 67 degrees

Tuesday, 24 Dec: 72 degrees

I think if you were to ask anyone, going from 110 degrees all the way down to 69 degrees in just two days is… quite extreme. It also makes getting dressed more challenging in the morning. From the perspective of someone who loves warm weather, I did not find this pleasant to see and plan out my next few days of clothes for, either. Then again, I have little to complain about since today in New York, the high was 18 degrees F. I’d take this schizophrenic weather over New York’s horrible winter any day, always.

While staying at the Midnight Hotel in the heart of Canberra, we were given complimentary a la carte breakfasts at Braddon Merchant, which is a restaurant that shares the same space as the hotel. All of the food was fresh and beautifully presented (so many local components; I love places that support local producers!), but funnily enough, the biggest standout item for me while having breakfast here both mornings was their porridge. I generally love Chinese porridge/congee/jook, and I’ve had many different version of oatmeal/porridge in my life across many cities and homes. But this porridge was just so different in terms of its flavor layers and textures. The description on the menu was: steamed millet porridge, golden fig jam, muscovado sugar, and fried thyme. The nuttiness of the millet and the fine bite of it was amazing, as was how the sight sweetness of the jam and muscovado sugar complemented the savoriness of the fried thyme. I would never have though to add an herb like thyme into porridge before this meal!

I purchased millet at home this year to mimic the vegan lemon coconut millet loaf I had while in Vancouver last year, but now I can use it to experiment with porridge now, too, since this dish inspired me. I never would have thought any porridge would excite me this much, but here we are, still thinking about the best porridge I’ve ever had right here in Canberra.

We used points to purchase our two-night hotel stay in Canberra. Originally, Chris had booked another hotel in another hotel group on IHG points, but he checked a couple months ago to see if anything else had come up in Canberra under the Marriott group, which we are also loyal to. He found out that this new hotel had just opened called the Midnight Hotel, which is an autograph collection hotel under Marriott in the heart of the city. Because the hotel was only about a couple months old, we didn’t have much information to go off of, but we ended up being pleasantly surprised when we first arrived in the front of the hotel and immediately found the service on par with some of the best hotels in Asia. The entire staff, from the moment we walked in, was friendly and kind, and truly tried to go above and beyond. They gave us free breakfast a la carte for both mornings at the incredible Braddon Merchant restaurant, which shares the same space as the hotel, told us about their fully free mini bar, which I’d never heard about in my entire life at any hotel in any city in the world, and even gave us free refills on the mini bar, which included things like hyper local wine from the Canberra area, San Pelligrino blood orange drinks, and even locally made milk! They also gifted us a sample box of Enigma Fine Chocolates, a local chocolatier who hand makes chocolate just a few blocks away from the hotel.

I’m not used to service this good or attentive in Australia, or really anywhere in the western world, so I was really surprised and excited that we got the opportunity to stay here. It definitely set a whole new standard for us for Australian service and hospitality overall.

Chris and I were visiting the Parliament House during our quick trip to Canberra today, and it was interesting to see how the new Parliament House in Australia has been build into the actual hill; it’s as though this structure has been fully incorporated into the natural environment that it’s in. Chris kept remarking how Frank Lloyd Wright-esque it was. I didn’t quite appreciate it much while looking at it from the ground level; it was only until we got to the top of the roof and looked down at the grass and hill that I really got the full impact of the building and the way it was built into the earth (also, can you believe you can so easily even go into the Parliament House and just walk in as you’d like in Australia? That’s like just walking into the Capitol Building in the U.S. at your leisure, which would be completely unheard of!).

Another fun thing that happened today (that Chris would not agree was fun) was being able to see cockatoos in their natural habitat. We spotted a whole group of galahs, or pink and grey cockatoos, wandering around and picking at insects along the lawn in front of the Parliament House today. Cockatoos are native to Oceania, which means that you can see endless cockatoos throughout Australia. During all my visits, I most vividly remember seeing cocktatoos in Hamilton Island, Perth, Adelaide, and in the Dandenongs in Melbourne. We also recently saw rainbow lorikeets in the St. Kilda area of Melbourne. Because I once owned and took care of my own parakeet (or budgie, depending on where in the world you are from), I have always loved birds (just not pigeons or seagulls — the worst and most disgusting birds on earth) and have been especially fascinated by tropical birds in warm climates. Birds like cockatiels, cockatoos, and parrots are so incredibly smart, and the colors you get to see here in Australia are so bright and vivid. It’s amazing that colors like this exist in nature. I could watch cockatoos interact with each other and eat for hours in the same way that I could watch elephants, koalas, or pandas roam around and play. Koalas and pandas aren’t too smart, but elephants and these birds certainly are.

One of my very favorite noodle soups in the entire world is bun bo hue, a Vietnamese noodle soup that originates from Hue, formerly the capital city of Vietnam when the Nguyen Dynasty seized control of the country and ruled from this central city. Because of the royal history of Hue, many “upper class” dishes, such as banh nam, banh bot loc, and banh it tran (the main theme of all three? All are EXTREMELY laborious and time-consuming to make!) originate from here. In addition, bun bo hue, likely the most famous dish of them all, originated here. Bun bo hue is definitely one of the spicier noodle soup dishes you can get in Vietnam; it is rich both from being flavored with shrimp paste as well as pork and beef bones, but also gets its bright red color from the anatto seeds that are used to further flavor it. Lots of garlic, shallots, and to me, its biggest key fragrance, lemongrass, are all added and contribute to this multi-layered, extremely complexly flavored broth. Round, thick rice noodles are added to the broth, along with slices of beef pork, pork hocks, and cubed pork blood. Banana flowers are used as a unique garnish (you would never see this served with pho).

You always know from the smell of a bowl of bun bo hue whether it’s going to be good or not. The first scent that should hit your nostrils absolutely needs to be lemongrass with a mix of long-cooked meatiness; if you don’t smell lemongrass, then it is definitely game over. And sadly, so many of the bun bo hues I have had over the years have been like this. They want to be bun bo hue, but they simply fail.

This morning, Chris and I went to Springvale, a Melbourne suburb with a large Vietnamese population, for some filming as well as to get a quick bite to eat before going over to his aunt and uncle’s house. We randomly passed a place called Nam Giao Bun Bo Hue, which looked promising from the outside. Despite walking along this street each time we have visited over the last seven years, I’d never really noticed this spot until Chris pointed it out to me this time and suggested we go in. I realized after doing some reading afterwards that they had remodeled recently and also reopened. We popped in to share a bowl of bun bo hue and a Vietnamese iced coffee, and as soon as we walked in, a strong, pungent smell of lemongrass and bone broth hit me, and I knew that this bowl of noodle soup had to be promising. They took great care to put together a bowl with all the ideal ingredients and even placed each item in carefully (I knew this because when I went to use the bathroom behind the kitchen, I watched as workers in the kitchen were arranging bowls to serve); the staff was extremely friendly, much more than the average Vietnamese spot back in New York or San Francisco. They even checked to make sure that we really wanted “everything,” as in the pork hock and the cubed blood. Yes, I confirmed, we wanted everything.

The first spoonful of broth until the very last was incredible: this was likely one of the top two best bowls of bun bo hue I had ever had, with the other one being (funnily enough) in St. Louis, Missouri. Honestly, even the bowl we had in Saigon was not that great this past January when we were in Vietnam (unfortunately, we never spent enough time in Hue to have a proper meal outside of our day tour from Danang there to try it in its founding city). Here, the broth had a strong, unmistakable lemongrass flavor, a brilliant spiciness that was just enough (I added some extra Thai chilies to make it even more potent), and all the meat components were delicious, tender, and well executed. And the pork blood, as I had discovered three years ago, also in Springvale, was smooth, creamy, and actually pleasurable to eat. I really did not want this bowl of bun bo hue to end. Chris even remarked how much I was obsessed with this broth. I never do this even with the best chicken or beef pho.

Pho ga and pho bo (chicken pho and beef pho) are delicious and mainstream now, but they really need to move over and give bun bo hue the real spotlight to shine. When bun bo hue has become mainstream in western countries like the U.S., that’s when I will really know that people have gotten over their racist, xenophobic tendencies (well, at least towards southeast Asians) and have embraced people of other cultures with different foods.

Anthony Bourdain once famously noted that brunch was the worst meal to eat out, mostly because it was a ripoff based on his knowledge of actual food costs (plus the use of the week’s leftovers) vs. inflated menu prices, plus the fact that “access to unlimited mimosas seems to invite a crowd inclined to all varieties of douchery.”

After 11 years of living in New York, I do believe this is likely to be true: the cost of eggs, bacon, and toast, or even a fancy kale grain bowl, really is not as high as what you’d pay over brunch in the city — likely anywhere from $15-25 as crazy as it sounds. You are most definitely getting ripped off and I have never for a second doubted it. Brunch is more a time to socialize and get together with catch-ups with friends, family, and/or visitors and guests. It’s not as much of a time to really eat gastronomically life-changing dishes or even great food. A handful of restaurants in New York can be an exception to this, but overall, unless you are eating dim sum or non-traditional western style brunch, the value and quality are never high.

I’d say this general rule does not apply to Melbourne, or maybe even Australia in general. Overall food quality and freshness are very high here, and every time I have eaten out at a breakfast/brunch spot, I’ve been really impressed not just by the food we’ve ordered, but also just by the overall menus. At a typical New York City brunch spot, there may be one or two things at most that make me look over the menu and think, wow, that actually sounds creative or tantalizing; I want to order that and that. Usually, though, I end up resigning myself to the least worst thing and getting that. In Melbourne on a brunch menu I’ve reviewed, there’s usually at least 5-7 things I’d want to order and eat that sound fun, creative, and/or unique, and it’s a challenge for me to select just one, so I hope Chris will choose something off my short list so that I can try something else I want to eat, too. That’s another benefit of having a life partner: you can always share food. We always swap plates halfway through so that we can have more variety.

We had brunch at Town House in the Hampton suburb of Melbourne today with Chris’s friends, and this is a sampling of the dishes on the brunch menu. If you don’t think this sounds delicious or creative, you must either be really boring or just plain suck:

Knafeh French Toast: Brioche stuffed with sweet Arabian cheese and coated with kadaif, orange, and rose compote, charred grapes, lime mascarpone, and fresh berries

Lamb and cauliflower hash: Slow roasted lamb shoulder, roasted cauliflower, crispy kipler potato hash, charred corn, peas, pistachio, kale, pomegranate, tahini yogurt, fried eggs on toasted sourdough

Flamenco eggs: Andalusian baked eggs, sliced mushrooms, chorizo, pimento, braised chickpeas, almond pesto, feta, herbs, dukkah, poached eggs on toasted zaatar bread.

Drool. Just typing out those descriptions made me feel hungry and want to go back. There were about ten things on this menu (out of a total of 15 dishes) I could have easily wanted to order. I ended up ordering the Benedict because eggs benedict in Australia is always the best. And what made it different? It was the amazing crispy edged pork belly slices with a soft, melty center, apple-fennel mint salad, plus the delicious crusty sourdough it was served on. I always end up eating more bread in Australia because it’s just so good, crusty, and fresh here. Even the supermarket breads taste better than what we have on average in the U.S.!

Australia, for those who are wine connoisseurs, is quite famous for a number of different wine regions. Abroad, South Australia is probably the most famous, but other areas, such as the Yarra Valley right here in the Melbourne area, are also quite respected. The Yarra Valley is a famous wine region in Australia, and on top of having many amazing vineyards, they also have the Four Pillars Distillery, famous for gins that served as the inspiration for the Barossa Distilling Company’s shiraz gin (we visited this distillery last December and loved it; this is the distillery that really turned me on gin, as I was not previously someone who even remotely appreciated gin) . Chris and I visited Yarra Valley today for some gin and wine tasting, as well as a casual winery lunch of wood-fired pizza and pasta.

The most interesting and unique part of Australian gin is the botanicals that are used given that Australia has some of the most peculiar flora on earth. There are spices that are common to other parts of the world (and, well, Asian/South Asian cooking), such as coriander, cardamom, or cassia, as well as commonly known herbs and roots such as lavender or ginger, but then there are herbs that are extremely unique to Australia, such as Tasmanian pepper berry, lemon myrtle, or Angelica root. And of course, juniper berries are a given since this is gin. In certain gins that Four Pillars makes, whole oranges is used, which is noted to be quite unusual. It adds an even stronger aromatic quality to the gin and is better able to support stronger and spicier botanicals. Fresh finger limes are also used in some of the gins to give a Southeast Asian spin on taste.

There are always endless things to see and explore even though I’ve now visited the Melbourne area seven times. It’s been a fun and productive trip even though we’ve only been here now two days.

One of the traditions we usually do when we come back to Melbourne during the Christmas season is to go into the Central Business District and check out all the Christmas decorations. One of the Christmas traditions of Melbourne is the annual gingerbread village by Epicure. Each year, the gingerbread village seems to get bigger and bigger: this year, it’s located at St. Collins Lane and is the biggest one to date: it has over 600 kg of gingerbread, 460 kg of royal icing, and 200 kg of marzipan. All of the village is sculpted into a mini representation of Melbourne and some of its most loved and iconic landmarks. The personal highlights for me historically have been Luna Park, Federation Square, Flinders Street Station, and the Melbourne Arts centre, most recognized for its tall spire. This year, some new additions I really enjoyed include the Royal Botanical Gardens and the Osaka Castle (no, not because there’s an Osaka Castle in Melbourne, but because Osaka is Melbourne’s sister city). And there’s even a bit of a Christmas market in the form of food stalls this year with very Asian dishes being served, such as dumplings and ramen! Unfortunately the mini food representations did not match up (they only had hamburgers and hot dogs), but I still appreciated the effort to show how Asian Melbourne (and really, Australia) is. I also found that this year’s gingerbread village was by far the most fragrant and spicy of them all. As you walked through the village, there was absolutely no doubt you were surrounded by gingerbread.

The gingerbread village seeks to raise money for the Royal Children’s Hospital and has raised more than $195K AUD since opening. It’s been quite a treat to experience this nearly every year, and for next to nothing given they are purely operating on a donations basis. On the other hand back in the US, the gingerbread village available for viewing in New York City, said to be the largest in the world and located at the New York City Hall of Science in Queens, requires that you pay admission to the Hall of Science, which is $16 per adult and $13 per child. The Melbourne experience just feels a lot more accessible and inclusive to me, not to mention that it’s located in the heart of the city, so it’s easy to get to for everyone. Just love this tradition and getting the privilege to enjoy this beauty every year.

Flying Qantas, particularly business and first class, is truly a luxury experience. One of the little things that also happens when you are flying in premium cabins in the U.S. is that you will also often be referred to as Mr. or Ms. so-and-so. When you fly Qantas premium cabins, you are constantly referred to by name. They rarely ask you, “Would you like some champagne?” but rather, “Ms. Wong, would you like some champagne?” It’s a very personal experience. Service is taken extremely seriously. Oh, hey, U.S. airlines — you guys could take a hint from Qantas on improving your services and manners in flight. But, you probably won’t because you aren’t “incentivized” to do so.

When I first started flying regularly, that was to travel to and from college, and I mostly flew on my uncle’s Delta companion pass back in 2004. Then, I would oftentimes get upgraded to business class because of his seniority as an employee there. As such, I got in-flight meals, premium seats, and constantly got referred to as “Ms. Wong.” Back in the day, even into my mid-twenties, I did not really enjoy this. I found this formality far too formal, and it always made me feel a little uncomfortable to be referred to as Ms. anything. I realized, though, on this flight to Melbourne, that when repeated called “Ms. Wong,” I actually did not mind it; in fact, I actually found myself enjoying it to a degree. Maybe it’s a sign I am getting older or settling into my 30s. Or maybe it’s just a sign that formalities such as these are more of a normal thing for me now.