Exam Treats ft. Bourke St, Zest Patisserie, Cosmo Coffee

my uncle came the week before and during stuvac. super inconvenient since it meant i missed out on heapsss of delicious food. the only dinner i went out to was in my last food post-Home Thai.

they also went to a cafe in surry hills, which isn't currently on my list to go, so it was ok not going (for now, if that makes sense...), but since they were there it meant they could bring me back stuff! originally i wanted some cake, but that cafe didn't really have nice cakes, then i thought, what better than treats from Bourke Street to fuel me to study? (i think i got more distracted, but enjoying the tarts took more than a few minutes).

i asked for the rhubarb one and a croissant, since i haven't had them before, but also for the ginger creme brûlée tart since the last time i had it-it was amazing! first new about it when i told people i was going to unsw, then they were like, you have to go bourse st bakery in surry hills to have their ginger brûlée tart, and the fist time i had it last year-it didn't disappoint.

they came back after they went out to dinner quite late-ish, so i guess the tarts did kind of survive (: had the lemon curd one last time as well, which is really nice and not too lemony. first time have the rhubarb one-it's ok, but the pastry is a lot thicker than the other tarts. the lamington has layers of jam inside and not too overly sweet likely the typical supermarket ones. i'm not a huge laming ton fan, but my uncle loves them, and i guess this satisfied my floury-cake craving. the croissant is a bit different, not too flaky compared to other places. i guess it depends on what you like, since this one is more "sturdier" and i guess incorporated the butter differently. it was still really good though (:

raspberry. almond, pistachio, coconut cake.

my uncle and mum also went out for coffee and cake one day, and brought me back a slice from my local patisserie. also requested that they take back some yum cha food for me since i didn't have time to go.

more cousin works in north sydney, and she also came up for dinner with my uncle at home and brought home this!

chocolate tart, more ginger creme brûlée and strawberry meringue tart.

chocolate one is chocolatey without being overly sweet. it's easy to cut up and divide since it's more solid. this ginger one had more ginger flavour compared to the bourse st one from a few days ago. usually the original store is the best, since the north syd ones are delivered from the other kitchens...i guess the other not as gingery one was just that batch....the strawberry meringue tart is so magical! it's my second favourite, after the ginger. you keep eating it, and the meringue and mousse-like filling inside is just super light, that you don't realised you've finished eating it until you look at it and see it's gone. sooo light and delicious. meringue again isn't too sweet and the strawberry has some slight sourness, and it's just so magical (:

shout out to Dandelion and Iced Trees from taking time out of your study to visit me! too bad that when i was coming back home, there was another accident on the m2=massive traffic during peak hour, so i just missed you guys... (there's been so many traffic accidents this past year compared to last year-be careful guys!) so blessed to have such thoughtful friends <3

and thank you for the snacks! i love this type of study food snacks! and yay variety, haha. 

how did i forget to mention this? WE WERE GIVEN AN ASSIGNMENT FROM OPTM SUBJECT DURING FINALS. everyone was super angry. like, how could they give us an assignment right before finals, then DURING finals when i had four exams left? didn't think you could do that, but apparently you can. well, the course convenor is our main lecturer, so people complained to her and asked for extensions but nup. part of her explanation was: 

"Probably, had I known that you had another exam on Thursday I would have been happy to make it Thursday night as a deadline, but, UNSW no longer gives me access to when your other course exams are on, and I would have had to chase around for that info which just takes time that I no longer have.  But on the other hand, that would have committed me to working on my Friday off in order to get the marking done in time for the UNSW-imposed deadline next week

After giving it a few hours thought and asking around what is fair, I have decided 'NO', the original deadline will stand."

oh boo hop, you have to come to work on Friday. and that exam on Thursday was our visn exam, and that lecturer's office is just two doors down from hers, and they're like besties since they always talk/share info etc. so she can't spend 1 minute asking what day our visn exam is, but she can spend a few hours pondering if she should give us an extension, even though though she said before "just takes time that I no longer have" my mum called me when you guys came over, but i was on the bus madly typing so i missed her call telling me you guys dropped by....

yes, so much stress. i can't think of a single person's course during 2nd year who has finals worse than optom students. if so, tell me so i know we just not the only ones dying.

also went out for breakfast at Cosmo Coffee at towers. that wasn't the intention of going outside my house, had to do something there...anyways, shared with mum since i'm trying to "save money"

cappuccino, large-$4.20

a regular is 3.50, which i think it's ok priced for towers, some cafes charge around $5. this coffee was really hot to touch, and more hot than i would've liked to be drinking temp, but my mum likes it hot so she didn't mind. coffee was alright, would've preferred more foam.

big breakfast-$17.90 hash brown, sausages, eggs, spinach, mushrooms, bacon, tomato and turkish bread.

yep, it's pretty expensive compared to other places. towers generally is expensive. the eggs were cooked nicely and runny, sausage was nice and lean. the only problem was that the hash brown was a tad over fried since it's a bit brown not golden, and i think there isn't enough potatoes in it. it was actually filling to share this breakfast between two. the cafe was quite full in the morning, wow, people are willing to take their kids out for some brekky. i would love to do that as well (if i had the money...) then again, it would be pointless for my dad to take my bro and me out for food since he's fat inside...

they made the entrance thing for castle towers train station, and put up this big ugly wall, making it more "secretive". (right now the wall it grew to blend into scenery i guess, but the other day it was grey or cream/brown or something).

ate so much snacks, and food which i'm not supposed to it, but then i always tell myself when i'm eating food whilst i'm studying-my brain needs energy to study as well.