Yum Cha at Granville and Yogurtland Take 2 + Hot Pot

all i've done today is eat. literally. woke up and ate a tiny bit of brekkie, than read. oh, the book i'm reading is so ridiculous. easy read, finished the 2nd book in a day. the author puts his name as the "ruling elder" and he is some mythical legend. lol, what author uses their own name in their own books as a character? and the font is horrible. there's at least 3 different fonts to show different character voices. i swear that was something we were told not to do, same thing with present tense. it's so colloquial as well. the plot of the first book was alright, but hen the 2nd and 3rd was kind of repetitive (yet i still read it since i wanted to know more...). how handy, i have the first 3 books with me from the library, and now the fourth (and possibly final) book comes out in august, which means that by the end of year break, hopefully there still isn't a queue of people reserving (unlike inferno...probs have to wait till next break to read that without reserving as well)

family outing today. usually we have it after our church anniversary (tmr), but decided today was better.  i think it's the first time this year that my whole family has been in the same car at one time. so rare these days. 

yum cha at granville today. it's relatively cheaper than other places, servings are bigger, and pretty good, but pretty packed. got there at about 1.30, waited over half an hour. last time i went on a weekday and half the restaurant was full, so the long wait was expected. it's not small inside either.

7 people, we had about dishes. was sooo full. also, i hardly go yum cha in aus, less than 5 times a year since it's not worth it in aus. i like yum cha, but not a massive fan, so i don't really mind if i hardly go in aus. (have it almost everyday in hk that i get sick of it).

since we were at granville, i told family friends and my family to go yogurtland opening at parra. waited for a but over 30mins, which is pretty good (compared to 1 hour for $2.50 froyo at unsw moochi-totes not worth it). but this one was heaps worth my time! seriously, self serve is so much mroe efficient. 16 machines, 16 people at once. line was a bit shorter than george st and there was entertainment at parra with people break dancing etc. and they have more seating at parra (since rent is cheaper i guess).

i have improved guys! $9.25 right here! again, i didn't want to make it too high, but i made sure i didn't have random gaps. i shall master this next time (if there is another store opening...). they had some different flavours this time like dutch chocolate, mango, korna coffee bean, frosty vanilla (they also had french vanilla, but the frosty one just has sugar), coconut, guava grapefruit (which ran out quickly after i got 3cm worth). i also tried plain tart this time, their plain is pretty good. i've changed my mind, their pistachio isn't good. and i mix swirled it with coconut, so together they tasted like mint =/ wowcow pistachio tasted like pistachio. and tried the chocolate one, except it just tasted like normal choc yogurt, can't distinguish it to be "dutch". korna coffee had a weird coffee taste, don't know how to describe it. it wasn'r espresso coffee, or normal coffee, or even tiramisu, it was a different coffee taste =/ this time i got heaps more sorbet, to get a real taste of it. in small portions like last time it was good, but this time i got too much and it was too sour. my bro got about 10cm worth of sorbet, but then ended up transferring some to my dad's cup (which he ended up chucking). mango flavour wasn't strong enough.

on second thoughts, yogurtland tastes less natural than other stores. i mean, there's no such things as natural sugars from ny cheesecake/red velvet cake batter, so they defs added sugar to it. (disclaimer, they only claimed natural sugars for their fruity flavours), but idk, yogurtland is different to other places, so you should try it and judge for yourself. they had cheesecake and brownie toppings there, which is different! i just managed to shove a piece of cheesecake in my froyo...the brownie's were pretty big pieces, but not a massive fan of them, so didn't get it. 

Elisa's tips on maximising free self serve froyo:

- for a flavour you haven't tried before, put a tiny bit in. lick it to see if you like it, if yes, then put more of it in, or you lick it since it will create more space for other flavours while you wait for people in front of you to move on to the next flavour. only works if froyo is free (or else you are "stealing" by eating something you have yet to pay for)

- if you're like me and want to try every flavour, then keep banging the cup against you hand so it flattens out more. 

- for flavours you know you'll like,  swirl the froyo by keeping it close to the edge, and keep a steady stream so it's easier to control where your froyo will end up in the tiny cup.

- do not make those fancy points that other stores give you. it is a waste of space!

i have yet to try this, but next time i will:

- to pile it super high-layer it. spiral from the edge to the center. once one layer is complete stop the flow of froyo and start a new layer. if you keep on putting more into the center, you only get a peak (like a cone) but we all know that a cone is a third of a cylinder, so you have potentially 2/3 of wasted space.

- once you reached a desirable height, start to swirl on the edges and keep tracing the circle. this should create a hollow "hole" for you to put the toppings in.

- do not get chocolate as a topping. it's not worth it, even if it's free (and takes too much space). pearls are good since they are easier to shove in the "hole" (or random gaps).

- quickly eat the froyo above the height of the cup before it melts. use serviettes to hold on to the cup so that if the froyo is spilling over the rim, your hand won't be as messy.

bro on left, he got $13+ (but he didn't finish it all, since we were super full from yum cha), and friend on right, he got about $12. i saw this guy with $15, and then i saw this other guy with a tower of about 20cm froyo in the tiny cup. would have taken a photo, but my hands were too starting to get a tad sticky...

over 70 bucks right here. for freeee! my mum got the least with $8.20 (she went for the "pretty" froyo finish approach with a peak, but it still beats my $6 from the other day. why didn't i get more on wed!?)

first hot pot of the season:

with other family friends, but we were still full from yum cha and froyo from earlier that day. i hardly have hot pot, hardly. at home, i am 100% sure, as just one fam, we have had it less than 10 times in my whole life living in this house. i don't even think our stove works anymore. last year, we had people over, and i think my dad ended up getting our camping gas stove/gas container to connect it to our super old stove with an empty can of gas, so it was just him cooking meat since the whole pot had to be perfectly balanced on the gas container thing. don't think we'll invest in a fancy electric induction stove thing (like the one above) since we hardly ever hot pot. my mum hates all the washing heaps of veggies before hand...

the thing is, going out with people to eat hot pot is dangerous. some people are really clumsy and jusy chuck things in, and boiling water splashing over the place, and then there's the whole cross contamination things. even if going out to eat hot pot is about $20 in syd, i still don't think it's worth it. i'll rather go hk to have more hot pot. i like hot pot, but not a massive fan since you can get scarred from that water. 

whole day with the fam. even in hk i hardly went out together with just the four of us. (only in overseas trips we do. it's that point when i'm getting old...but most go to america whilst i'm still "young"!)

so tomorrow is my break from eating and will resume on monday haha.

i have no idea who the players are in the women finals. worst wimbledon ever. and i hope murray loses, or else it really is the worst of the worst.