Rengaya

You know you’re getting old when your whole fam plays ‘scissors, papers, rock’-loser has to drive and can’t drink. Came here for Dad’s annual work dinner last year. I think this is my fourth time here. I think for Sydney standards, they do decent quality wagyu beef here, with around 8 different cuts, plus other protein and Jap side dishes to choose from.

They know have an all you can eat for 2hrs ~$80pp, where you can order things from an iPad then bbq it yourself (with the usual disclaimer if you don’t finish your food you’ll be charged). If children are over a certain height, they would be charged as adults. Food doesn’t take too long to come out. The drinks looked colourful but were average, and cost $15-$20 for a cocktail. I think since it was a big table, they got some orders confused, but in the end, we were super full. 

Some photos of some meat from the night.

 

interesting drink where you mix and make your own

cocktail on the right tasted like cordial...

sashimi

 

green tea ice cream

Jang Ta Bal and Square Cafe

I'm actually not a huge fan of kbbq since you're essentially eating a lot of fat, and bbqs in general aren't healthy or good for the skin. They are good to for catchups though since you can slowly cook and talk. Love going to Korean restaurants for the sides. My chilli tolerance has increased ever so slightly since I can handle kim chi spiciness. 

food spread

meeeat

This place gives a different sort of vibe when you step in, as the actual seating is at the back, sort of like an open garage and half outdoors, with stools only and large communal tables. Doesn’t feel like you’re actually in Sydney. Ordered quite a bit from different sets/platters, to individual meat dishes. Food arrives pretty quickly, and service was ok. They were willing to change the mesh if you asked, but really meshy/wire ones have the meat stuck to it really easily. All up we paid around $30pp. 

Bing soo is always a good idea after KBBQ. This medium size was ~$32 each. They have the nicer milky ice here rather than the hard flavourless ice. The fruit was nicer than than mochi/almond one . It is overpriced ice, but it’s sometimes fun to eat stuff out of a massive jug with friends. Can’t really make this stuff at home unless you have an ice machine.

West Ryde Hotel

Apparently this place used to be $10, but with all things, prices do go up. It's a fun concept of cooking your own meat without the need to clean your own BBQ if you were at home. You can opt for them to cook it, but then your meal would cost $20+ and just takes away from the novelty of it. Even on a weeknight, this place was packed with heaps of families. Once you paid for your piece of meat, you cook it then go back to get roast veggies or salad and chips.

Rump steak w/ roast veggies-$15

Cooked mine medium-rare since rump can easily get tough. Roast veggies were decent, but chips were a bit soggy. If you go earlier in the evening, I felt that portions were larger looking at other people's plates, and lines weren't so long. It's a good family place to go out to eat, without the need to prep things or clean the BBQ after. 

The Bulgogi

Dad's work dinner this year was Korean. Last year they had Chinese (which I missed), year before was French, and have had Japanese, and more Chinese, but first time Korean. Normally I put prices, but didn't look at the menu since other people ordered...

sides (they didn't refill, but we had enough food ordered already to even finish the sides)

The main thing I noticed when I first stepped in was that it was quite clean, and there was only a subtle kbbq smoke smell. When we got seated, the exhaust thing was super close to the bbq, not even enough room to put tongs under, but that closeness really helped to not make you stink afterwards. We all got back home smelling normal surprisingly, haha

Seafood and a selection of meats

 

Wagyu sample for 2, seafood pancake

The meat is pretty decent, and the seafood was fresh, particularly loved the squid.Had different types of wagyu, which were very tender. Seafood pancake was decently sized (unlike a previous encounter) with a generous amount of seafood. Also had japchae (sweet potato noodles) which I haven't had in a while, and were super delicious and not too oily. 

For drinks, we ordered plum wine but they gave us raspberry wine (which is more expensive). It is quite sweet for wine, but can still taste the alcohol. Korean beer with soju really helps to quench thirst in kbbqs. 

Service was decent, as good as it'll get with a busy Sunday night. 

Charcoal Mine BBQ House

Korean is one of those cuisines that I don't know much about, and hardly have a chance to eat. Lovely catch up on this night with old high school friends at a KBBQ. I guess the good thing about KBBQ is that it's quite a social thing, so you can talk while you eat/cook.

Whenever I go to Parra, I always drive past this place/never knew it existed. It's not in the Parra CBD, so best to drive there and park on side streets (free parking after 6pm on the usually metered-streets during the day). On a Friday night, it was packed, with some tables leaving and more people come in/2nd seating. It's priced at $35pp buffet style for Fri night, I guess it's the average price these days.

There's not a lot of variety compared to previous experiences I've had. Some of their meat was marinated but would have preferred more flavour, particularly with the Bulgogi. I guess that does mean less sodium, so slightly healthier...They also have unmarinated meats as well. The food started to come out slowly but more batches came out throughout the night. They didn't change the pan thing a lot in the beginning until later in the night as well it was changed a bit more...Would have liked to see some more Korean food/side dishes available.

meeeeat

Christmas~

remembering the birth of jesus (:

christmas was good this year, even though i wasn't overseas with relatives who have an annual kris kringle and money raffle and people who give out way too many gifts.

this year was again filled with traditional turkey and ham, raw salmon/herby salmon/smoked salmon, oysters, prawns, scallops and bbqs of every type of meat and also heaps more food, and gingerbread (had about 4 types) and other desserts. then there's the home made lemonades, beers, various wines, ciders, juices etc. i don't actually take many photos of food during xmas-just enjoying time spent with family and friends (: christmas is like feast week. continuous eating (: and then the leftovers for another week!

spent boxing day with some of my dad's colleagues family, thought it would be awkward at first since we only see them at the annual xmas dinner, but we actually got along really well! somehow we all have mutual friends. i guess that's because of church. totally satisfied my monopoly deal yearning. played this card game called: the game of mao. it's like uno with additional rules, and you have to figure what the rules are, and if you don't, you get given more cards. i managed to get the rules after 3 rounds! and then silently laughing/face palming at those who couldn't. it's quite a mind-blowing game (:

wasn't expecting much from boxing day sales. only got steak knives lol.

but today i managed to find two perfect pairs of black flats! it's really hard to find flats for me since i have small, narrow feet and my heel at small =/ somehow i always manage to find a good pair of flats at castle towers david jones, and then another pair in a store i wasn't expecting. one was 60 down to 15, this other pair 50 to 25 (: so comfy and satisfied (:

i saw some alright bags/clothing/wallets but then thought, do i really need them? not really. saw some super cheap gifts that i could buy for people next year, but what if their taste changes, or people get group gifts etc...

also, the only thing i bought from t2 before christmas was the only thing in the store discounted after christmas! they don't say it's discounted, but i remembered the price and they also changed it's location. feeling ripped off. i just bought the same thing again, this time half price.

so many people at towers, even more than monday 23rd. managed to find parking quicker this time round. also, was going to go flight centre at towers, until i realised that was the store typo replaced.

thank you dear friends for your prezzies! all so useful and delicious (:

managed to receive less than 10 boxes of chocolates this year-new record! finally a year where we don't have over 10 boxes. maybe will actually finish this lot before next year christmas.

woke up at 11.30 today, twas such a bad idea. then appointments and appointments. i'm such a proble child. all these "issues" which can lead to bigger problems...also went acupuncture today, argh more needles.

still have at least 3 appointments to go to, 2 which i have yet to book. not looking forward to getting stuff cut out/more anaesthetics. i thought the only time i would get anaesthetics would be for more teeth...btw, i only got 2 wisdom teeth taken out last time, i hope the other 2 stay put...

had a bbq at plus (uni group at church) today. ate so much =/ but i made sure to not eat brekkie/snacks and only a small lunch. btw, no matter how i cook the meat from Parlour Burger, the middle still stays pink =/ played taboo, but lost count of how many cards people got. some people are so good at it! didn't play jungle speed, but it sounds interesting. played this games where you sit in chairs and try to throw the ball around the room to your respective goals. it was quite fun until a guy chucked the ball at a light, and we have these new fluorescent lights installed just recently, but the lid thing came off =/ so then we stopped after. bbqs are so fattening =/ also, i should stop getting baked eggs and opt for poached. the worse/fattening things are deep fried, fried, baked, then poached/steaming things are the healthiest.

Ocular Therapy Clinical Skills and Lindt Cafe Take 4/5

guys, i don't get out of my way just to get free stuff. i was going to past it/come close to it anways, so i went again.

this time on george st, the person asked for my name, maybe to make sure i won't go back. at george st lindt cafe, you get a free lindor for every hot beverage purchase, but my coffee was free and i still got one (:

mocha

no layers.

i didn't specify dark or hazulnut or whatever mocha, just mocha, but this one didn't have as much dark choc. again, each barista has a different touch, so i guess there isn't any "quality control" over their coffee. this didn't have froth by itself and choc sprinkled on top, but hey incorporated colour into it. it's pretty in it's own way. saw a person eat the dome cake (at 11 in the morning...). i don't get the logic behind it. you pour hot chocolate onto a hard choc case to melt it just to get to the ice cream. like if it was tempered choc it would taste different, but using chocolate to melt other chocolate...?

purple snail

main part of the day. went to uni to help out this post grad clinical skills day since they needed eyes to test on, so i basically opened my eyes for four hours and getting stuff shoved. ok, it wasn't that bad, it was actually pretty cool to get paid to sit and open you eyes and to also eat. it was pretty good pay, i'd say about double the average of what my friends earn per hour (: too bad it was only for a day. should've gone to the lecture in the morning, apparently it was easier to understand than our super disorganised visn1101. ocular therapeutics is a post grad one year course, you don't have to do it, but as a practicing optometrist, a lot of people do to learn more skills/do more stuff in your practice. 

some people i talked to had their own practice for over 13 years. some were about 50-ish, and there were more females as well, i guess the trend still continues. learnt some stuff as well. also, i have a lot of iris processes (no idea what is was), which occurs in about 30% of the population, and may be cause by trauma to the eyes. well i don't remember anyone bashing my eyes, nor any family history. i have a deep field of view, which is pretty good, but then i have inward growing eyelashes, so it was in the way of people checking for gonio. they put these mirrors on your eyes to see different angles of the lens inside your eye. some people were so steady, but there were other optometrists who were so shaky =/ must learn to be steady.

stuff is so expensive. i heard them say stuff like a pair of tweezers they bought were around $150. then they talked about the metal stick which they use to flip your eyelid fully. that must be like 300, even though it's literally a metal stick only about 5cm long. they're both not electronic! can't imagine how much other stuff like lenses/hand held eectronics/big machines would cost.

eyes felt so tired after, one of the test they did was trying to get oil out of our eyes. i was put in that station twice, and the latter group found it difficult, most likely because all my oil was already drained out. at the end of the day, the supervisors checked our eyes to see if it wasn't too badly damaged lol.

free lunch!

it was hard to take a nice photo standing up. but the food was so good! about 6 types of gourmet sandwiches, 2 types of quiches, 3 types of sushi, 3 types of skewers, 3 types of bagels (which were slightly hard), spring rolls, fruit and other stuff. the sushi ran out fast ): i couldn't eat a lot since i was so full form the coffee, but i still stuffed myself =/ i already avoided the biscuits etc. also took home a plate of sanwiches since they were going ot chuck it out. so happy (: 

went again to martin place. different day, completely different staff. this time the person didn't even bother to scan my phone. 

this is the mocha macchiato-$5.90. this is what i had last time! they only have this at martin place. last time i asked for a dark choc mocha, but got this and didn't know this was the mocha macchiato. i only saw signs which said "new" but didn't have any names. this is my favourite! better than the dark choc mocha.

not as pretty this time-layers aren't as distinct, and the choc shot at the bottom isn't as high as last time. also the piece of choc on top seems smaller/fell through the froth more. didn't bother scooping out all the chocolate, since i was stil super duper full from lunch.

i was so looking forward to going on a tram to family friend's house. turns out they had track work to start taking off the monorails, do they just had buses ): they didn't even check for tickets, and i remember last time i went on a tram, they made sure everyone paid/had a tickets.

why did we have to go someone's house for dinner? you know one coffee can last me throughout the day of uni without eating. i had two and a massive lunch, and then bbq for dinner which had steak and lamb cutlets! i literally couldn't fit anymore food into myself ): only ate a tad of each thing. the past few days i've only been eating a little bit of meat/dinner to compensate for all that chocolate in drinks, but today just failed. had sparkling red wine today, wow, it's so carbonated, even more than soft drinks =/

gta 5 is pretty cool. you can fly big planes/do sports. watched now you see me, it's pretty good (:

Magnum Pleasure Store

i've actually walked past the Magnum Pleasure Store a few times during the 6 weeks, but everytime i thought it wasn't worth buying. most of the time the lines weren't that long, but when i wanted the magnum yday, the line was horrendous.

then came friday evening and i suddenly had a massive urge for a custom made magnum. you see, if i don't have a particular type of food, i can't study. (like during the hsc, i saw zumbo's packet mix first hitting the shelves, and saw the sale in the catalogue, and i just had to get my mum to buy it, or else all i could think about were his packet mix macarons and not what i was supposed to be studying).

so i woke up early today (before 9am on a saturday) to go out to the city just for ice cream. ice cream for breakfast! i've never gone out to the city just for one thing. i hope this doesn't happen again. it wasn't a massive waste of time since i got home before 11am. 

so good getting there at 9.30ish, when the store just opened. there was a line, but it was super short, about 10 people ie, you could stand behind the counter. originally there was only one person making it, and one person at the cashier, but in 10mins of the store opening, they got another guy. 

dipping of the magnum.

drizzle

vanilla magnum with dark chocolate coating, rose petals, rose praline, pistachio, crumbled meringue and white chocolate drizzle-$7

look how colourful it is! i wanted to contrast the different colours (:

yummm

the side. you can also the bottom. when they sprinkled the toppings, they sprinkled most of the meringue to act as as base to place the magnum on top.

it was sooooo good! it surprisingly wasn't sweet. maybe it was because i got dark choc, but the ice cream itself wasn't as sweet as normal (maybe they're cutting the cost of sugar), but i liked it that way to accentuate the flavour of the toppings. so why did i choose those toppings? not because of the colour, because they're one of the most expensive option. definitely needed to choose at least a type of nuts, and pitachios are my favourite out of the options (: and the green complements the pink. i love rose petals! i love any edible flower tbh. i've never had rose praline before, so i chose that. you could taste the rose and the nuts, and i think this was sweeter than the ice cream itself, but it was sooo good. also added some crunch (the pistachios were finely crushed so didn't have a big crunch). i also love meringue! and this was another interesting texture, since some of the white choc melted on it, and it gave a pleasant chewy texture.

i don't understand why people put choc sprinkles/more chocolate stuff and they already coated it with milk choc, and also a milk choc drizzle. it's just the same flavour throughout, and also it doesn't even look nice in a photo if everything is brown. i should've asked for a milk choc button, so i could have tried all three flavours, but the white looks nice. i have so many photos of it on my phone, don't know which ones to delete lol.

the coating did set, but it wasn't hard, and was slightly chewy. it didn't have the crack a normal magnum have. whenever i eat a normal magnum, it's hard to eat it without dropping some of the coating. i guess it's ok here because a cracked coating with toppings would be too awkward to eat. since i went in the morning, i managed to get a magnum chair and chilled there for quite a while (: surprisingly, a lot of people also went buy themselves.

i finally caught a double decker bus today in sydney! i was surprised to see one in off-peak weekend time. i saw the front seat was empty and literally ran to it.

such a nice and different view (: so empty compared to weekdays.

it got too sunny, so i ended up sitting in the 2nd row, haha. 

went to friend's house in the inner city for bbq later at night. ate soooo much meat. actually, i could've eaten more, but if you scrolled down at what i've eaten the past week. i'm trying to eat less. my dad kept asking me if i had my licence, so he could drink. of course,  always carry it around with me. when i was going to pick my bro up from rice (since friend's house is just 10min from city), turns out there were no green P plates in the car! so someone else picked him up, while my dad drew two green P's with a marker and wrapped it around L plates (they only had L's in their house).

my parents and cousin who has an international licence all drank at least 5 glasses of wine, so i guess i had to drive. ended up leaving at 12am. only did about 3 hours of work, and those hours they were "slow paced" trying to work out stuff. a super unproductive day ):