Street Art in Melbourne: Carlton

I have seen some interesting Carlton street art recently.  So I have dug out some old Carlton street art photos, dating back to 2015.  Some have been replaced at least more than once such as the above 2019 artwork on Elgin Street on the side of the Clyde Hotel on the corner of Cardigan Street.

This is the picture that is currently where the top photo used to be.  It is sort of gross but the burger is quite cute.  Sylvia tells me the long pink shape is his colon because it will no longer fit inside once he has stuffed that burger in.

In the same laneway is this odd picture.  The phone looks like a brick from the 1990s and the kitty cat headphones or ear muffs looks ridiculously cute.  I wish I knew the faces but I don't.  Please enlighten me if you do.

Also in the laneway is this cynical anime character.  She is probably most displeased at being out the back with the bins.

With a tram terminus for many of Melbourne's tram lines in Swanston St, it is no surprise to find this artwork of a tram in an alley off Lygon Street between Faraday and Grattan Streets.  When I took the photo in 2015 it was in better condition than it was last time I saw it.

The artworks above and below are from North Carlton - somewhere near Canning Street but 2017 is a long time ago.

 I meant to post these years ago but didn't!

This artwork on a house near the Princess Hill section of the City Circle bike path was seen in 2020.  Back then when we were in the midst of covid lockdowns, it was comforting to see a the writing "home is where the heart is".  Recently I saw that the same house is now a blank wall.

I do not remember this street art from 2021 but it was there in my photos with the young man on a mobile phone, seemingly oblivious to the demolition of a building - the Corkman Hotel perhaps?

Now we arrive at this year's photos (2024).  This cheerful bird is on a signal box by University College on College Crescent.  Those who know the area know that this is actually Parkville but  I could claim it is de facto Carlton as it was originally Carlton in the days when Carlton was so full of slums that the University of Melbourne preferred a Parkville address!

In the courtyard of the North Carlton Library opposite Curtin Square is wall of artwork about sustainability.

Off Park Street near the corner of Nicholson Street.

I love the green hues of this street art of bicycles on the wall of Velo Cycles at the corner of Park and Nicholson Streets.

I was surprised to see this political piece of artwork on a lane off the North Carlton shopping strip on Nicholson Street.  It is a picture of former LNP conservative Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison who was voted out in 2022.  Maybe it is still there because he notoriously took a lump of coal into Parliament to tell people not to fear it.  Now the LNP Opposition leader is claiming that nuclear power is Australia's solution to climate change, despite Australia is a perfect place for solar energy and has a ban on nuclear power.

These last three pieces of street art are from a small lane behind Nicholson Street.  I loved how this picture had a bride with kangaroos (or wallabies) and birds, like a modern day Australian version of cinderella.

This wall has a tree with birds and a question: "where have all the birds gone?" All I could think that there were no trees in this little lane.

Although no trees in the lane, there are still trees in some backyards.  And love on fences.  That will have to do for now!


More inner north Melbourne street art on Green Gourmet Giraffe blog:

• Street Art in Melbourne #8 miscellaneous 
• Street Art in Melbourne: Brunswick - Manallack and Saxon Streets  
• Street Art in Melbourne: Collingwood
• Street Art in East Brunswick (OConnor St and Piera St)
• Street Art in Melbourne: Aboriginal art (4) for NAIDOC Week  

My Monthly Chronicles: June 2024

We had a busy month in June.  Despite the cold, we have been out and about a bit.  We went to Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula for the long weekend, celebrated the Winter Solstice at CERES with a bonfire, and had a panna cotta teddy in a drink when we caught up with friends at Zero Mode cafe.  I've enjoyed some nice bike rides, joined the local historical society, failed three times to get a covid vaccine, and have tried to keep up with elections news out of the UK and USA.  More can be read about the month in companion post: In My Kitchen June 2024.

Helping Hands Mission Op Shop, Preston
We have done a bit of op shopping lately.  Above is a gorgeous display at the Helping Hands Mission Op Shop in Preston.  I bought my mum a cake tin for her volunteer lunches with refugees.  Sylvia is always drawn to the cheap jewellery.  E meticulously checked over the books and CDs.  I had my eye out for items for our current backyard project.  I hope to tell you about it soon.

Luthers Scoops, Brunswick
It seems crazy that in a cold month we were at Luthers Scoops again but their ice cream is so good.  I had the apple buckwheat crumble ice cream and Sylvia had two half scoops of dulce de leche with coffee ice cream and redcurrant orange sorbet.  We both enjoyed ours but did not envy the other.  Sylvia is not enjoying the aftereffects of buckwheat and I don't know why anyone would add coffee flavours to anything (ok I do understand some like coffee but I just don't understand it).  My apple crumble ice cream was quite interesting with lots of texture from the crumble and lovely apple flavour.

Krispy Kreme doughnuts
When Sylvia saw an online advertisement for free OG doughnuts for National Doughnut Day at Krispy Kreme she was determined to be there.  I am less of a fan but took her anyway!  There was nothing about the free doughnuts in the shop so it felt like we were after an forbidden alcoholic drink during Prohibition.

Death of Michael Mosley: I was among the fans waiting to hear about what happened to charismatic BBC medical communicator, Michael Mosley.  It was so sad to hear he had died in such tragic circumstances on the Greek island of Symi.  Like many, my predominant memories are of him promoting the 5:2 diet.

Kings Birthday long weekend
On the Kings Birthday long weekend, I was still not feeling great thanks to a cold triggering my asthma and was sad that I had to cancel my plans to do volunteer work at the National Celtic Festival.  I was glad I was well enough to drive to Geelong to stay one night at my parents' home.  We had a good weekend of it visiting the Sirens seaside kiosk and the National Celtic Festival as well as a pleasant brunch at Van Loons Nursery Cafe before heading home.  

On the Saturday night, after fish and chips for dinner, my mum poured me a lovely glass of Altina Sparkling Sansgria.  That is not a typo.  Although it is described as sangria, the name is spelled "sansgria".  I much prefer a non-alcoholic beverage these days and am heartened at how much better alcohol free wine has become.

Olmates, Thornbury
I had lunch at Olmates (779 High Street, Thornbury) with Sylvia and E before op shopping (see top of post).  It describes itself as a sandwich cafe and was pretty laid back.  Sylvia had the Roast Cauliflower Toastie: roasted spiced cauliflower, date + tamarind chutney, pickled red onion, provolone cheese, and green chilli sauce on sourdough. ($16).  I had the Vegan Chickpea Salad Sandwich: crushed chickpeas with tahini vinaigrette, pickled jalapeños, beetroot, carrot, cucumber, onion, lettuce with alfalfa, on fresh sourdough. ($16).  E had the Egg Fritatta Muffin: House made egg frittata with chipotle mayo and American cheese. ($7.50).  We were all very happy with our choices and I was interested in playing with the ReFlex conversation cards while we waited.

Eureka Tower
I went to an end of centre function for my former workplace.  It was nice to see familiar faces and catch up with a few people.  I was very happy to see a graphic recording of the end function by the same person I had organised to record our launch.  The spectacular view of Melbourne from Eureka tower was too cloudy to see the sunset but some of the geeky members had fun with a competition to guess the time of sunset on the 89th floor of the tower (highest event space in the Southern Hemisphere) which is different to the sunset time on the ground!  And the finger food was very good - dumplings, ravioli, arancini, brownie and Greek doughnuts.

Melbourne night skyline
It was lovely to be in Melbourne CBD on foot at night.  Usually we are home by the time it is dark or driving through on the way home at night.  The view of the skyline reflected in the Yarra River was stunning.  

Blog header updated and blog reflections: I have updated my blog header.  It has been good to play with online design programs (especially Fotojet) and had a little more time for blogging lately.  In fact I just noticed that by the end of June, I had published as many blog posts as I did for the whole of the previous year.  The increase is partly due to the spike in my Europe trip posts but, as life continues to change, my time on the blog goes up and down.  More change is ahead so I must enjoy the blogging while I have the time.

Industry Beans, Fitzroy
We visited Industry Beans (70-76 Westgarth Street, Fitzroy) on a busy weekend morning when we were thwarted in our attempts to have the monthly special at Lune (see below).  It was a lovely modern cafe with such interesting food and drink.  Sylvia had the Matcha Blueberry Latte with wattleseed panela syrup  and I had Yuzu Cascara Punch.  I'd never even heard of cascara before but loved that it was a refreshing non-alcoholic drink that is neither alcohol or caffeinated.  To eat Sylvia had the porcini nest and I had the Quinoa and Pomegranate Salad.  They were both more amazing than they sound.  I hope to write more about our visit soon so will not go into too much detail here.

Dights Falls mural
After our lunch at Industry Beans we went to Dights Falls to walk beside the Yarra River.  I really liked the 90 metre mural along the walkway.  It had lots of local flora and fauna.  I liked that the artist, Tom Civil, paid tribute to significance of the place to the indigenous Wurundjeri people who were here long before Europeans invaded.  The artwork is really lovely but a bit worn given it was painted in 2014.

Dights Falls walk
I loved the walk from Dights Falls in the glorious winter sunshine surrounded by the river and the interesting trees under a blue sky.  It was a busy place with walkers, joggers cyclists and even a man in a kayak.  Sylvia was not as keen as me but I really loved finally seeing this part of Melbourne that is so green and peaceful.  A lot of work has been done to clean it up since the Yarra River was polluted by industry in the 1880s.  Even now the walk is overseen by midrise flats, graffiti covered walls and concrete bridges where cars cross the area.

Pancake Parlour, Preston
While everyone else is complaining about how cold it has been this winter, the accountant at the Pancake might be disliking it for another reason!  We were fascinated when we read that the Pancake Parlour (Northland Shopping Centre 2 - 50 Murray Road, Preston) was charging half price for items on the Winter Menu every time the temperature falls to 10°C or below!  So in a week when the temperature did not get above 13 C and often dipped to 1 or 2 C at night, we planned our meal at the Pancake Parlour.

It was very cold so we were looking forward to a warm meal.  For drinks we had the Biscoff Hot Chocolate ($9.90) and Sylvia had the cold Milo Swiss Malt ($13.90).  Mine was nice with the spiced hot chocolate but too much cream on top.  We ended up sharing this and could have probably done without the Malt.  To eat I had the Mediterranean Cheese Pancake ($29.90).  I often like the Cheese and Potato Pancake and eat half with salad and half with butter and maple syrup.  This version of that pancake had olives, feta cheese and semi-dried tomatoes, as well as the salad and a scoop of sour cream rather than whipped butter.  It was really good but not suitable for maple syrup.  Sylvia went to the specials menu for her Chocolate Chip pancake ($24.5) - not on the Winter Menu but also half price.  It was vanilla ice cream, hot fudge sauce and choc chips on two buttermilk pancakes and just what she was after.  The prices I have given are the full price ones.  I was glad to only pay half price for each.

At the Cinema: IF: After the Pancake Parlour we went to the cinema to see IF.  I enjoyed it for its whimsy and magic.  The he plot was a bit conrfusing but it was fun to watch all wonderful Invisible Friends (IFs) antics, as well as the poignancy of the ending.

Lune Bakery, Fitzroy
Sylvia was very keen to visit the highly regarded Lune Bakery (119 Rose Street, Fitzroy) to sample the June special of the Honey Joy Croissant ($15.50) that filled the bakery with a warm fragrant aroma.  It was an indulgent towering twice-baked croissant  with cornflake frangipani, topped with more frangipani, honey joys, honey cream and honeycomb sugar.  (Honey joys are an Aussie childhood treat.)  I went a more savoury route and had the mushroom and blue cheese danish: a traditional Kouign Amann shaped danish filled with mushroom duxelles, bechemal sauce, sauted mushrooms and blue cheese.  It was amazing like all of their baking.  No wonder it was so busy that there were none of the honey joy croissants when we visited around lunchtime on a weekend.  We had better luck during the week.

The Boot Factory, Coburg
I met my friend Jo for a walk to the Boot Factory (19 Pentridge Boulevard, Coburg) after first admiring her fantastic Merri Creek inspired curtains.  She had the raw Jaffa Cake and I had a raw Snickers Slice.  My slice was wonderful with a thick layer of peanut butter filling.  Jo had tea and I had peach kombucha.  It was great to catch up in a favourite local cafe.

Reading: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Tara Reid. I read this book until 4am one night because I wanted to find out what happened.  The story of a hollywood star was interesting for being able to recognise ambiguities in characters rather than black and white judgements. 

Rosemary statue in Victory Park, Ascot Vale
We had some time to spare in Ascot Vale and spent it exploring the playground and statues of Victory Park.  This statue known as Rosemary was erected by the Women Caring for Veterans of War Association in 2015 in memory of woman who cared for veterans of World War II in 2015.  I assume it is to complement the War Memorial that was erected in the park in l922 that lists the local men who went to wars since the Boer War.  (It took almost a century to acknowledge the women's role in war!)  Rosemary was stolen 6 months after she arrived.  (Why would anyone steal a statue?  Was it by people who hate such woke acknowledgements?)  The local council replaced her with a sturdier replica.

Burrito Bae, Ascot Vale
We didn't get to Burrito Bae ( 413 Mt Alexander Rd, Ascot Vale) until our second attempt.  On our first time, we discovered the hard way that it was not open on Mondays.  It is quite a small eatery with a small menu and dining area but great vegan and gluten free options.  We shared the Jalapeno Poppers and the Churros with cinnamon sugar and chocolate sauce.  Sylvia and I shared a vegetarian cheese and bean burrito comprising Beans Mix , Brown rice , Vegan Cheese, Pico Di Gallo,  and Vegan Chipotle Mayo wrapped in a Flour Tortilla.  We chose the Load It option of including Guacamole & Corn Chips inside the Burrito.  E had a meat burrito.  It was all very good.  I loved the bits of crunchy corn chips in the burrito.  Having half each worked well to leave room to enjoy the excellent poppers and churros. 

Welcome to Thornbury
I have read about and driven past Welcome to Thornbury (520 High Street, Northcote)  a few times but I could not understand the concept until we visited recently.  I had expected it to be an outdoor place with food trucks.  Rather it was more like a huge rambling pub with indoor and outdoor spaces with meals ordered from the food trucks in an undercover space.  When we arrived, my concerns about eating in the open on a grey, wet day were unfounded.  It wasn't easy but I resisted the temptation of the warming mulled wine.

Welcome to Thornbury: Oh Boy It's a Food Truck and CDMX Taqueria
We ended up eating on a comfortable couch in the indoor area with toasty warm heaters nearby.  Sylvia had been very keen to go when Oh Boy It's a Food Truck was there.  She loves their food.  She ordered the poutine (chips and curds in gravy) to take home and had the roll inside the pub.  

I went to the CDMX Taqueria food truck and ordered a vegetarian Gringa Quesadilla: a corn tortilla filled with grilled marinated shitake mushrooms, house salsa, pineapple, coriander and onion - gf as well.  There was only a meat Gringa on the menu but I asked for a veg version with the mushrooms and they obliged.  I am not sure if they usually do this or if it was because we were there so early that it was really quiet.  You can see it above on the right hand side after I started eating it so it doesn't look so attractive.  I would have loved some guacamole yoghurt served with it, especially as it was quite spicy.

Fitzroy Mills Market
We went to Fitzroy Mills Market in Rose Street because I had promised Sylvia we would after I used her Bumi Botanicals business card in a craft project.  This is the Bumi Botannicals stall.  They do beautiful flower and plant arrangements with a focus on native Australian flora.  Unfortunately they did not have any business cards left so we might have another outing ahead of us.  We enjoyed browsing other stalls - crocs shoe charms, candles, dried fruit, baking and crochet flowers.

In the news: So much in the news, especially in the last week of June.  Here are a few items of note:

• The outcome on the Greg Lynn trial was followed by fascinating insight into how the police put together a case when the supposedly murdered bodies were burnt to ash.  
• Our Australian conservatives in opposition led a ridiculous discussion on their proposal of nuclear power to address clime change.  
• Former USA president Donald Trump was the first USA President to be given a criminal conviction when he was found guilty of 34 counts of falsification of business records.  Though the Supreme Court has called the conviction into question with the ruling on presidential immunity.  
• Julian Assange of WikiLeaks was finally a free man after years of fleeing conviction and doing time in prison.  
• Australian Senator Fatima Payman attracted a lot of attention in crossing the floor to vote in favour of recognising the state of Palestine.  
• Meanwhile Joe Biden's dismal performance at the first USA presidential debate has created doubts about his suitability to run for president. 
  

Articles of interest:

"Australia can fix its broken prison system like Norway did. But first, we must face up to the facts" by Linton Besser, following up the 4 Corners tv program, ABC News, 4 June 2024.

"The silence of the bland" a critique of Australian politics and media by Ronnie Salt in The Shot, 7 June 2024.

"Debating whether Julian Assange is a journalist is irrelevant. He changed journalism forever" by Margaret Simons in The Guardian, 29 June 2024.

"Muddled answers and outright lies: what the Biden-Trump debate says about the dire state of US politics" in The Conversation, 28 June 2024.

"Fact Check signs off today after 11 years at the ABC. Here's our guide to being your own fact checker", in ABC News, 28 June 2024.

In My Kitchen June 2024

I am as amazed as anyone that we are at the start of July and halfway through the year.  But so much has happened and changed so far that it seems a lifetime since the start of the year.  June has seen ill health, work on our outdoor plumbing, new verandah awnings, a long weekend, the winter solstice and the end of Term 2 of school.  The weather is very wintery but I am enjoying going for bike rides with my fingerless mittens that I brought home from Scotland.  At home we are enjoying more soups and stews.  Fruit here is less plentiful with mainly mandarins and frozen berries.  More on my activities last month is in My Monthly Chronicles.  I continue to tinker with my blog header.  I am still not sure if it needs more work.  I have also updated the introduction to my Recipe Index.  And on it goes!

Above is a Chipotle Black Bean Bake, which was nice and lasted a few nights.  It was a dump and bake recipe on From My Bowl website but it took quite a bit of time to prepare the vegies.  We added kale and fresh corn as well as substituting some of a freekah and barley mix for some of the quinoa.  It was lovely with some tacos on the first night.

We've had some savoury baking this month.  Sylvia was determined to bake English muffins.  They are not technically baking.  After she kneaded the dough and left it to rise, she patted it out and cut it into stars to "bake" on the frypan.  We loved them but she saved some dough for the next day and that was a bit doughy so success seems a matter of getting the heat right.  I have also baked a Spinach and feta slice and a batch of Cheesy broccoli, carrot and corn muffins that I posted this month! 

I sometimes wish I liked eggs when they look so pretty.  Sylvia recently made some Ramen eggs.  The marinade was made by boiling soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar.  She mostly ate them with rice but I only photographed the ones she ate with toast.  She was very pleased with her work.  Meanwhile we had a ziplock bag of eggs in marinade in the fridge for a few days looking like some alien spawn.

My lemon and lime trees are hanging in there.  We have had some healthier lemons since the manky ones I posted last month.  The citrus leaf miner (CLM) seems to have abated somewhat.  No more silver trails.  Only a handful of curling leaves.  There is still less fruit on the lime tree but if it can have a period without CLM maybe I can then let the new growth flourish.

It is so satisfying to have lemons, parsley and dill from our small garden when cooking dinner.  The dill is a recent addition to the garden and is mostly thriving.  When we changed to a bigger netting cover in the original pot, the dill thrived.  But the dill that we moved to another pot has not grown so well.

I picked the lemon, parsley and dill to used in this Lemon Dill Quinoa Casserole we found on From My Bowl.  We made changes by substituting some freekah and barley for the quinoa.  I had soaked overnight after I had too much for the below stew.  

I also made the suggested Green Goddess Dressing to serve it with.  I substituted some raw cashews for two thirds of the tahini.  The tahini still was a dominant flavour.  We drizzled some on our casserole but had plenty over to use as a dip.  The green colour of the parsley and spring onions was delightful but did not photograph well!

I made this stew to use up the vegetables left in the fridge when we went grocery shopping.  It was so satisfying to have an empty crisper.  It was so satisfying to have a delicious stew rather than adding to the compost.  I also finally used a freekah and barley mix of grains.  It was freekahing amazing.

In the past I have found too many grains (in leftover stews and soups) soaks up the liquid and I wanted to avoid that.  I was really pleased the morning after cooking that the stew wasn't too stodgy.  Although I soaked the grains for about 20-30 minutes in boiling water while I chopped and fried the bulk of the vegies (celery, onion, carrot, cabbage, potato) before adding 2 tins of tomatoes, soaked grains, 3 tins of legumes, vinegar and seasoning.  The final addition was the kale.  It was so good

When I went out to an evening work function, Sylvia made Creamy Mushroom Gnocchi with added spinach.  We were both happy that there was plenty leftover.

In my draft folder were my notes of making Delia's Oven Roasted Ratatouille in 2018.  I finally made it again.  Delia Smith is a much loved British author and this is a genius way of making ratatouille that I had previously made on the stovetop.  It took a while to salt the eggplant and zucchini but it was worth the time.  I used tinned tomatoes rather than fresh tomatoes but the vegies were still roasted to crispy edges.  I would like to include this as a regular winter warmer.

I finally bit the bullet and purchased a new cast iron 27cm "Chef Pan".  I love my 25cm frypan so much but it sometimes is just a bit too small.  The Pyrolux cast iron at our local kitchen shop is a reasonable price.  However I am not quite clear why my frypan I have used so much has a very smooth cooking surface and while the new pan is more rough.  It has been fun to make meals with two cast iron pans in action.

I love my cast iron because it is so indestructible.  I wish I could say the same of my old Willow non-stick bakeware that used to be sold in supermarkets for a song.  Now so much of the metal baking tins and trays are non-stick.  Even good non-stick kitchenware does not last as long as these older ones.  The non-stick coating will eventually start to peel off.  I wish I could still find the Willow tins and trays but for now I am just trying to keep them suitable for use.  

So I was upset when this 20cm cake tin, which is like the ones I grew up using, got a rusty ring from drying against another dish.  I had worried it was the end for the tin.  Then I cleaned it with some heavy duty steel wool and a generous squirt of dishwashing liquid (because too much scrubbing without can leave a stain but the dishwashing liquid seemed to prevent that).  It is now looking back to its usual condition and should last a while longer.

Every now and again Sylvia requests her favourite Tofu Nuggets.  She would happily eat these every night.  Then she saw people posting about dino nugget volcanoes.  They looked pretty cute on mashed potato volcano with gravy lava and broccoli trees.  So we bought some dinosaur cookie cutters to shape the tofu nuggets.  It did not work because it seems that home crumbing does not look as neat as the ones made in a facory.  And the cookie cutters leave odd shaped tofu in their wake.  Not to despair.  I am sure they tasted better than the packaged ones but we wont be making dino tofu nuggets again.We might try some dino potato parsley shapes or pastry shapes or biscuits at some stage.    Although they did taste delicious!

We shared this amazing cauliflower, blue cheese and pickled onion danish from the Ovens Street Bakery (19 Ovens Street, Brunswick).  They describe themselves as a micro bakery.  Sylvia says it is a hole in the wall with some seats and a small but decent lunch menu including toasties and pizza.  She speaks very highly of them so I hope to get there some day.  Especially after tasting this wonderful savoury danish.

These purchases were probably about packaging as much as the substance.  I loved the name Tofu Tots.  Although we don't use the term Tater Tots here, it is pretty cute and then is a riff on it.  I also liked the sound of the miso mushroom flavour.  I really liked them but Sylvia was not so keen on the flavour.  The Golden Gaytime was bought because it was my favourite ice cream when I was a child and now they keep coming out with new flavours to tempt me.  Honestly, I don't love Golden Gaytimes as much as I used to and I don't rate the Strawberries and Cream flavour among their best.

We did a scan of the British food in the Aldi centre aisle.  Strangely enough they had a packet of Smiths Cheese and Pickles Crisps.  Smiths is an Australian company that does not usually sell this flavour.  It is a far more common flavour in the UK.  I though the Aldi British specials were about British brands.  We enjoyed them.

This Walkers Shortbread bus in the Aldi aisle was more British and seems more likely to be direct from the UK.  It is pretty cute with the people on the bus and some Scottish icons like puffins and castles.

We have been big fans of Melbourne Kebab Station (451 Sydney Road, Coburg).  It is an unassuming kebab shop that only takes cash payments (unless you order on UberEats) and does fantastic food.  After grocery shopping we were lacking energy and bought a large Vegetarian meal to share.  It has falafels, rice, salad, choice of two dips, and Turkish Bread.  I have had this meal a few times before but it was Sylvia's first time having the Vegetarian meal.  She loved it as much as she has loved the other food like pides and bread that she has had from here.

We bought these mini mushroom bao dumplings from an Asian supermarket in the CBD.  Sylvia had tried steaming dumplings in the microwave but found they got soggy bottoms.  I improvised with the dumplings resting on chopsticks over small tubs of water in a large enough tub that I could seal the lid so they steamed without being soggy.  They were delicious.  Perhaps I need to buy a microwave steamer container!  It would be a good investment given how much we love dumplings in our place.
 

 I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event. If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to visit more kitchens and her gorgeous hand drawn header.