Ippudo Sydney

this post is exactly 2 weeks overdue.

went up to meet with some friends the day before my bray-thanks for coming guys (: i actually ate a lot during the day, so i was surprised i could fit in a bowl of ramen. then again, i had ramen cravings (and currently have ramen cravings right now).

free froyo!

just made it to the line before they cut it off, and only waited 15mins which is pretty good. haven't had free froyo in a while. mine's the ugly one of the right. i did a blog post about how to maximise space, but when it's raining and you're holding other stuff, it's hard to create it delicately. the one of the left is nancy's pro froyo skills.

ended up sitting outside at Ippudo...but at least the lighting was good (:

Ippudo Pork Bun: Steamed bun with braised pork and Ippudo original sauce-$4

i remember seeing them at the Good Food and Wine Show where they had a food truck, but they sold it for $5/6...it was convenient, but i decided to wait to get it at the restaurant since it's a bit cheaper. these buns are so soft unlike your Chinese buns, and the meat is just so yum

Akamaru Shinaji: IPPUDO original tonkotsu broth enhanced with special blended miso paste and fragrant garlic oil. Served with thin noodles, pork belly, black mushroom and shallots. $16

i would say this is slightly pricey compared to other places, but it was just so good. the broth is rich in flavour and the pork is so tender. the ramen itself was also enjoyable to eat (: i don't think i need to add anything else.

Kurogoma Panna Cotta: Black sesame custard with creamy sauce $8

shared this between 4 people, since we were all super full. i used to hate black sesame as a kid, but this is really nice. not too creamy, and it was different in that it had a slightly icier texture on top.

too other news, since Cathay Pacific was awarded top airline or something again, they had a massive "Fan Fare" i.e. cheap tickets for premium econ and business class for only $100HK! that is super duper crazily cheap, only around $14AU for business class!!! it excludes taxes, which i'm guess is probs about $300AU since HK taxes seem to be a bit cheaper...but there's a limited amount of tickets, and apparently there were 130 000 people trying to fight for super limited number of tickets. my relatives were quite disappointed they didn't manage to get any. it reminded me of unsw timetable servers. but the difference here is that for these airline tickets, you need to restart your router before you purchase them, and you need to keep refreshing. my uncle's friend managed to get ticket's to Kaula Lumpur, and apparently last year he got ticket from Hk to Italy for only $50HK, which is only around $7AU! how people have such luck with internet servers, i do not understand...

had work training and skipped dancing yday. quite regret it since yday felt like a lecture, with 'lecture' notes printed out. at least it was in colour.

so happy today, spent the best $5 ever on a pair of branded pants which were originally $60 (((:

also for once, zara had sale stuff for under $20. most of it were really big sizes, but were decent for Australia, i guess.

everyone is finally coming down under! by everyone, i mean H&M, too bad they're only going to Melb, but they said they were going to make a special Aussie collection and make it "affordable fashion". i doubt it, the clothes prices inflate whilst they ship stuff down. i love H&M, especially in HK where it's affordable, and during sales the stuff is really nice, cheap and come in your sizes (: i feel like Miranda Kerr is being downgraded from David Jones, Victoria Secret now H&M and other smaller stuff. but i've never really liked Kerr. apparently stores like Uniqlo are coming as well, but i've never bought anything from there, even though i was forced by relatives to get something from the store since it's quite popular there-it's just not my style. i still can't imagine Myer and DJ merging together...

originally $3.90, now $2.15

they have a looney tunes promotion now so they have different flavours, cups and spoons to collect. the "special" flavours were: bugs bunny carrot cake-couldn't really taste the carrot in it but i'm not a fan of carrot cake to begin with, daffy duck's decadent dark choc orange-i normally don't like choc orange things but this one was quite nice-maybe because of the dark choc, (first day today). key lime tart which was slightly sour but was alright. other flavours i tried: peanut butter-it had some sweetness which is weird for peanut butter, almond mocha-tasked like chocolate more than coffee (it looked exactly like the other choc one, so maybe i just blended the two together), matcha green tea-not enough of the matcha powder flavour, key lime tart which was slightly sour but was alright and raspberry tart which had a good balance of sweet and sourness. too bad i missed out on free froyo at rouse hill on the weekend ):

speed skating is the most intense winter sport to watch. it has the most false starts (like that aussie person who represented russia this years but false started twice and couldn't skate, i've already seen 3 double faults...), and people falling which usually isn't your own fault, and people who you expect to lose win. like some of the relays tonight, a team was coming dead last but the 2 teams ahead fell on top of each other and the 2 teams behind skated past. then in one of the women's finals, after the first bend ie. 2 seconds, 3/4 people fell. in that one, the british was penalised since she kinda pushed the others, so the other 3 won medals. but sometimes people fall and at speed skating speeds, you can't dodge the tangle of people in time and imo sucks. sports like downhill skiing and snowboarding when people fall it's their own fault, not someone who tripped you up...

guys always seem to repeat costumes for figure skating, whilst the girls get different ones each time.

Rhodes Phoenix and Bloo Moo

i don't like rhodes carpark. i was looking at the parking ticket and it stated that each car can only have 3 hours free parking per day, and sure enough, printed on the ticket is your car's number plate. some new technology thing where you can't go out and repark. that's why i love towers-free parking, no boom gates, unlimited time.

i've been rhodes phoenix a few times for dinner, but first time for yum cha. we went at around 1.30ish, so pretty late but still had to wait for a table, and if you've been there, the restaurant is pretty big. only problem was that most of the good stuff was "sold out". i think it's more that they want to save it for tomorrow since public holiday surcharge, so a lot of the stuff was deep fried =/ and i'm still not fully recovered and had to avoid heaps of stuff...rhodes phoenix is more expensive than parra, and parra is already expensive compared to normal places since they target non-asians business.

personally, i don't think ikea wows me anymore. i used to love that place and how they had the kids thing downstairs, but now it's furniture etc are just average imo. 

thanks nancy for overloading this! $5.80, normal around $10. original, chocolate, mango and coconut. twas quite jam packed with froyo (:

first time having bolo moo...it's ok, definitely not as sweet as the others. the flavours of the mango and coconut were really subtle. i liked how the original was a bit sour like real yogurt. chocolate was very chocolatey. but couldn't really enjoy it because of parking limit. made it out of the carpark with just 5mins left.

dayuum, that chem mc test was tricky AND hard, well harder than the sample test/tutorials/lecture stuff/textbook level.

guessed wayyy too much. ok, on the positive side, it's only worth 7%, but stillll, i want chem to pull me up. argh, can't believe i put "can't be determined" for a question. and even all the smart chem people, who put in "pop quizzes" on the fb page, which is super nice and considerate of them and their time, they all have diff answers, like "should there be a negative sign!?" let's just hope over 50%.

got to uni at 8.15 today. it actually feels good to arrive early, but my sleeep =/

mum came back yday with so much food and samples (: can't wait till tomorrow.

last week my brother was sick. i managed to not see him for 42hours even though we live under the same roof.

also had spontaneous froyo last week, with my free three oz voucher from yogurtland.

random flavours, flavours i didn't have last time were pecans and praline and chocolate milkshake, white choc macadamia. 

tbh, these flavours all together were quite sweet/kind of tasted the same, even though i got some sorbet, the acidity wasn't as strong as i remembered. also this time it melted faster/felt softer in your mouth. yogurt world still wins on consistency and everything else apart form price.

the person there was really nice, i asked her how much 3oz was, and i got $1.45 the first time, then added more in, then it turned out to be $1.75 so i paid 10c. 3oz is not much froyo. the guy before me paid for his froyo, then saw the choc/caramel sauce and added heaps onto it, and the person didn't charge him...

soo screwed for next week, but i do love my food (:

feels like summer already ))):

Yoli

accidentally woke up really late today. last week, i woke up at 11, then got out of bed by 1, and in those 2 hours i was just contemplating life since i had no motivation/energy to do anything. today, i just woke up super late.

went to get froyo at castle hill. yes, i said no more froyo, and no, i didn't go out of the house just to get free froyo. this store is run by an indian guy. it's not great, no offence or anything.

normally $3.50. i got taro, lychee and watermelon-look at that artificial colouring! 

it melted straightaway as soon as i stepped out of the store, which means it doesn't have enough yogurt/milk and too much ice. it was pretty watery, and saying they had to give out heaps at one time was no excuse. first time didn't have to line up for free froyo. their formula and machines are just not up to scratch. yogurtland gave out heaps of free self serve froyo, and their ones didn't melt as fast. 

flavour wise, all of them were pretty sweet and you could hardly taste the flavour. lychee was the most decent, watermelon tasted like artificial watermelon and taro-could hardly taste any of it. also got my mine to get a cup. i tried her mango, nup just tasted sugar.

finally bought some hairspray! and it was half price so win (: every time my dance teacher tells us to "groom ourselves" for eisteddfods, i bet she was telling me off haha. finally returned my library books, but not enough time to borrow more. 

so much has changed at towers.

More Noggi and Chanoma

went to uni this morning. again. pretty cool getting paid to fill in random stuff and click random stuff. was asked to drink 3 cups of water. couldn't finish the third. actually felt sick. 

was going to go norita, but turns out they recently closed (since some other friends went earlier this year...). i was so looking forward to board games, but tbh, i think it's a waste of money. i have heaps of board games at home, defs over 10, so if you really want, someone can bring over their coffee machine, i can make coffee, and people can play board games for free haha.

finally used my noggi voucher. NTS: don't ever go george st noggi again. only 4 flavours. compared to moochi which has heaps of flavours for their george st store. i was so pumped to try blood orange from noggi. tried their cappacino (they're supposed to swap to cherry this week...) and it wasn't good. even though i said earlier in the year that their green tea wasn't good, well it was pretty tasteless this time, only paid 40c extra this time. at least their packaging it newer.

so on the left, regular original (better than expected) and biscotti (again) with mochi, strawberry pearls and blueberry. fresh blueberries are expensive, but these ones weren't fresh. some of them weren't defrosted properly, so were a bit icy =/ 

on the right, mini green tea with passionfruit, strawberries (which actually looked fresh) and mango pearls. all Dandelion and i could taste was the passionfruit, it fully overpowered the green tea (which hardly had any flavour to begin with)

no more froyo for me for a while! except yogurt world/yogurtland. i have about 4 yogurtland vouchers which said first 3oz free, which is about $1.80, so when new flavours come in, i'll get a tiny bit, and hopefully it's just 3oz so it'll be free (:

yeah, sick of asian froyo. haven't had yogurberry this year, don't plan to, but does anyone know what spoons they have their? haha

walked a lot today, but it's good to be out after a week trapped inside my home. my left side is still a tad swollen (well on the inside it's still kinda annoying), but it looks normalish from the outside.

finally went to chanoma today (sorry for dragging you guys). i've always known it was overpriced, and for me, it was one of the places where you go once and don't go again (or for a very long time). i had the matcha shiratama float, apparently it's the 2nd best seller. got ripped off. it's not even full! it was nice, but not worth the price, and personally, i think this place is over hyped and it wasn't the best green tea drink i've had. you can taste the strong matcha powder they used, but it wasn't as wonderful as people said it to be. not worth $6.90. hardly got any ice cream, and they put in so much ice that i felt even more ripped off.

so all i've had today was all liquidy stuff. screw lunch for today (even though there are so many places i want to eat and trying to save money at the same time...). all that water and liquid kept me full even through dinner.

got scratched by a dog yday, and the scratch mark is still there/hurts. out of all my friends, i only know one dog which doesn't scratch/have toe nails. can't stand pain from a dog's toenails. like how do people survive in summer is they wear shorts and the dog keeps on trying to go on your lap/stand and they scratch your leg?

and knees are so bruised from dance tonight....

Wisdom Teeth: Part 1

i know right? part one. turns out i have to get the 2 upper ones pulled out as well, when they pose a problem.

i thought i would be teeth pain free and problem free after getting 4 teeth out for braces, but no, got 2 wisdom teeth taken out. the painnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

yes, it's even more painful. and horrible. i shall describe the horrific experience. so glad i never even thought about being a dentist. i have no problem with blood since i used to get super long nose bleeds, but teeth and blood is different.

so one of my wisdom teeth was there since you could see it from the xray, but didn't emerge from the gum. i went to the dentist not hospital to get it pulled out since he said they weren't that bad. so horrible. feeling the needle going into you mouth (i had to get an extra needle like last time since it didn't feel numb enough) and then argh, i pretended i "went under" with drugs. you could hear him sawing my tooth in half and then all those other dentisty noises. my other teeth was half emerged and not as slanted, so it didn't need to be sawn in half. then you could see the string and getting stitches. first time ever getting stitches, and what's worse is that it's inside your mouth where you can easily get infections and right now, i can't even open my mouth properly, nor do i want to, don't want to see bloody gums with stitches.

luckily i stuffed myself with food the past few days, since i hardly ate any dinner. hellooo congee and mashed up stuff for the rest of the week.

used the noggie voucher before i got my wisdom teeth pulled out. tried the cherry, and it wasn't that nice. anyways, i'm banned from eating glacier cherries, if you still don't know, the cherries in sugar/syrup produces worms, and it's not only in china/us, it's also in aus.

got taro and biscotti with lychee pearls, kiwi and mochi (which is pretty nice). i was thinking of getting strawberry, but they didn't looked fresh, you know the colour they turn if you put them in the fridge for too long, yeah that colour, which is why "gourmet"froyo like yogurt world is the best, you can see them cutting up fresh strawberries/other fruits. they are so cunningly deceiving. the voucher was for $10 worth of stuff. the maxi was 7.50, the next size up was $14+ so either we lose some value or have to put in extra. they had honey butter bread for 9 but they said it wasn't available at that time (nor would i even eat that stuff at froyo place) same with over price $8 one waffle. you can get nicer waffles for that price/make them yourself. so we just got maxi w/toppings included and a green tea latte and ended up paying an extra dollar. it was so bad. too much matcha (and it tasted like bad quality matcha), we forgot to tell them to not add sugar, so it was super sweet, and milk was not frothed enough. yeah, pretty bad latte. also, the green looked like a leafy green =/ 2nd time having noggi, and it's not that great. 

i still have one more voucher. i didn't expect from the time i bought the voucher to next week (the expiry date) that i would have had 5 free froyos and 2 other discounted froyos. i think i'm sick of froyo, so if anyone wants to buy the $10 voucher for $5 for george st off me, tell me! or else i would probs have to force myself to eat it. and if i do end up going, i would calculate the prices with different sizes and not have toppings like my 1st time, and get as close to 10 bucks as possible. i thought 10 bucks would get me a massive bowl/pyrex jug, turns out they cost 19.50. rip off. apart from yogurt world this year, i've onyl bought 1 full priced froyo, and i would like to keep it like that (again, yogurt world doesn't go into this exception, since their froyo is actually good and worth the price tag)

also, their packaging has gone cheaper since march. their logo on their cup isn't as green as it used to be, and their serviettes are just normal ones, they used to have their logo printed on it. everyone's cutting back on costs these days. so am i. staying at home for the whole week, which means i also don't have to waste expensive petrol going to places.

feeling so out of it from all the pain etc that i accidentally knocked over a cup, and it was a new one. my dad accidentally broke one as well, so now we only have 2 cups left form that set. can't even talk.

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. 

Yogurtland

walked by yesterday and say free froyo. so glad i got there 15mins before opening time. that was the line in front of me, the line behind me was two times that length, all the way to Bathurst st. and according to their fb page, the line right now (at night) is still that long.

IT WAS SO EXCITING. why? because it was freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. unlike other grand openings where it's half price, or cheaper, this is better since it's self serve, free, and free toppings. THE FLAVOURS THEY HAVE ARE ALL SO UNIQUE! just looking right now at their website, oh wow, so many flavours that weren't there in store. they have 52!! there were about 15 flavours today, and they gave us a "mini" sized cup. i didn't want to make it too high since it would topple over and you'd end up getting froyo hands. heaps of people had really messy hands.

i think i managed to fit about 12 flavours inside. you see that gap on the right hand side? it was so hard to control the self serve since if you pull it down then quickly release it, you still end up getting about 5cm froyo ( i wanted a smaller size to sample all the flavours).

from memory, i got: red velvet cupcake, pistachio, taro, french vanilla, madagascar vanilla bean, new york cheesecake, cookies and cream, strawberry, strawberry lemonade sorbet, guava grapefruit sorbet, hazulnet latte, peach. i avoided the chocolate ones since i didn't have enough space. i think it's impossible to try all their unique flavours. really like yogurtland because of their unique flavours (((:

my favourite? i think ny cheesecake. it actually tasted like cheesecake unlike moochi (sorry). red velvet was pretty nice. also, their taro was white, and tasted better than the taro i had yday. sorbet not bad, but i would obviously go to an ice cream shop for sorbet. i think out of all of the ones i tasted, strawberry tasted artificial, like you could kind of tell it didn't taste like real strawberries...not a big fan of toppings, but since it was free, i got some pearls, tried to shove it in the gaps, but they had big spoons, so it was hard to put the toppings through the gap without the spoon touching the froyo. there was a topping called "delish" and it looked/texture was like mochi, but the pink one was super duper sweet i think it ruined the froyo. so if i go there again (probs will since they gave out vouchers for "your first 3oz free"), defs not get toppings. 

texture wise, it wasn't bad (yogurt world is still better). not too yogurty. except it melted pretty quickly, but that was expected, since they have to church so much froyo in such a short time span.

also, they measure the mass in oz. i think 60c per oz, something like that. they made us measure it. the above was $6.15, so aww yeah, totes worth my time! i only waited for about 15mins.

just looked at their page again. grand opening at parra. am i bothered to trek there early? possibly.

they have stores in sydney already, but i think george st would be the most popular (for obvious reasons). went on a froyo liking spree on fb. must keep up with that free/discounted froyo (:

"Hunger and Dining Experience"-Guinea Pig Take 2.

uni has more people during break compared to exams. actually, there's just heaps of kids running around, and heaps of tourist/asians taking photos.

easiest 10 bucks made today. getting paid to eat. the view was also pretty good, could see the planes flying off/beach etc. apparently in the end, she told me they were actually researching how much a person weighs and how much they eat, not to see if we were hungry and how much we ate, trippy. i had two massive cookies, they were alright, not the best. oh wells, it was real money, unlike when i helped out with this other thing and they gave us gift vouchers. it was a pretty easy job scanning stuff, so i shouldn't complain. i don't go grocery shopping anymore, so just gave it to my mum in exchange for going out to eat this break. i'm on a roll, everything (except for the yum cha thing i had last year) has been $10 or less from groupon. yay more food adventures to come (:

since i was already in the city, i decided to get my third and last free moochi. i've had all the flavours except peach, salted caramel and chocolate from moochi now. tbh, i think moochi has the worst flavour and texture out of the places i've been so far, but i have been there the most. why? because it's the cheapest, and i've managed to go to a few grand openings and i have had many free froyos from there.

last time i had taro from george st it wasn't bad. today, argh. first of all, look at that serving (it was bigger than unsw opening but still...) different sizes. (scroll down a bit, and the 2nd free froyo i had was a decent, almost equal serving). THAT TARO TODAY WAS SICKLY SWEET. you could feel that sugar in your throat. (can still taste the sweetness left behind in my mouth =/). horribly sweet and yes, you could taste taro, but it was very subtle since the sugar overpowered it. green tea (which is naturally supposed to be bitter) wasn't very strong, and i was hoping that the bitterness would balance the sweetness form the taro, but it didn't. i don't really like wasting food, so i managed to finish that taro. which is why, as i have said many times, yogurt world is so much better/best i've had so far. there taro was pretty good, not overly sweet and tasted (and looked) natural. i've had moochi 6 times this year, and only once i had paid full price. time to use them noggi vouchers...

next week i will be in sooo much pain. did i tell you, next week was the optimum week for me to get teeth taken out. i had to balance it between: parties, dinners, church stuff, yum cha, lunches with people, outings etc.

Thai Riffic Noodle Bar, Yogurt World, Happy Lab

woke up before 10 today!

day started with trying to find a michel patisserie in the city. went to the westfield one, and that Italian guy was so stingy. he asked me 10 times if i used the voucher before, and off course i said no (lol, why would i say yes), and then he reluctantly gave me a cup. then we searched for another one, and turns out town hall square has one (i don't walk in that part of the building usually), and they were so friendly! they happily gave my mum a cup (i already had one, one coffee a day is enough for me). most michel patisseries are run by asians, and i thought asians were stingy...actually, the cherrybrook asian one is stingy, they say "they don't have this promotion" even though the website says it applies to all stores..

top shop clothing isn't that great. there was this dress which was alright, but my normals size didn't fit me since it was too big, and the other sizes left were massive. and after the whole thing about myer losing money, i realised they don't have the half price then further half priced things, and things don't even look that nice this season, and the shoes they have weren't that special. but i did get heaps of free perfume samples. (: so i didn't buy a single piece of clothing today. hk is good because there are more shops and more styles. also, all zara sales people are the same. they wear the same uniform/suit as the sales people in hk, and they hire all these good looking guys. i have yet to go abercrombie and fitch store in hk (there just wasn't enough time) where you get served by topless guys with abs, haha.

lunch at Thai Riffic Noodle Bar.

the group on voucher didn't allow any stir fries, and noodle soups were the only non spicy thing out of the things we could pick. i had thing rice noodles with chicken. pretty nice, the food came super quickly. there were massive pieces of chicken, and the broth was goood. didn't taste like msg/artificially flavoured. you could see the oil, but there wasn't this lingering oil feeling on your mouth and lips (last time i went to taste of shanghai, my mouth was full of oil :/ maybe shanghainese people like their oil) . 

group on is good, since it gives you the chance to try different foods for over half price (:

yogurt world tester! the spoon was so cute that i kept it. i had the mango one, and later tested the soy vanilla and honey. the soy froyo was better than i thought i would be. you could actually taste the soy! my mum had the mango, then chocolate, and i'm not a massive fan of choc froyo, but soy chocolate froyo is a different experience. the vanilla one i had was a bit on the sweet side though, probs because it had honey. their samples are heaps bigger than moochi's defs double the size.

this cost $3.05. and i shared it with mum, but we didn't want to look like the stingy asians who go back for 2nd samples (and i was already planning to have my free moochi froyo before..) nah seriously, we just wanted more good froyo. we calculated that the four samples we had would cost at least a dollar, since they were very generous with their samples. when i have time, i'm going to go there at lunch when they have the most samples given.

they don't have chai anymore ): but i got salted caramel (which is nice as always), watermelon and taro. i was surprised that it was white when it came out, since i was expecting the typical taro. real taro is more white than purple anyway, so it shows how yogurt world is more "real". seriously, yogurt world has the best texture and balance in flavours, and not artificially sweet. i also got another spoon to keep. i am now missing the yellow spoon, after that, my collection of different coloured froyo spoons will be complete! haha. (except i haven't been to yogurberry in ages, not sure what spoons they use...)

free froyo no. 2. i got coconut and black sesame. coconut was alright. if you're not a sesame lover, than you won't like black sesame, since it does taste and looks like sesame. it's not as sweet as sesame ice cream, but i got sesame since it's new (apparently they rotate a flavour every fortnight, and apparently sesame is good for you). even though the texture of moochi is thicker than yogurt world, it also melts heappps faster than yogurt world. not sure why. method not as great i guess....

before moochi froyo, we walked around a bit more, and also went to happy lab. ended up staying there for an hour. so we bought stuff for some of my parents cell group's children who were doing their hsc this year. the stuff was over 50% off, yay for sales (: when we were lining up i realised people were showing their phones, which meant one thing, there was a deal going on, and sure enough, if you follow their instagram, you get to fill a box full of their gourmet confectionary for only $5. BARGAIN. how convenient, i just recently started to use instagram. their lollies are usually super expensive. last time i went, i got a small test tube of jelly beans for $3ish and it was only 30ish grams. hehe, that box. being the asian that i am, i got all the jelly beans on offer, and heaps of other weird and cutely shaped lollies. they had turtles and sombreros to name a few. didn't get the chocolate, since they were massive round pieces which won't fit nicely. ended up pushing the lollies in to make the lid close. some people only got those "meetos" which were just small bits of chocolate. won't you get bored just having chocolate? and then the guy stamped two stamps even though we spent less than 20 bucks, yay for being generous (: that stuff below, i estimate the rrp to be at least $40. there's probably a kilo of lollies there. and yes, in my household, we still have a million bits of chocolate and lollies to finish, half of which are probably expired, but who can resist a cheap box of lollies for $5? supermarket lollies these days aren't even that cheap.

had to eat some, or else the lid wouldn't fit properly.

and poor federer ))): his face was just ); 

definitely think the top 4 would be broken this year. like nadal gone in the first round, fed not being able to make the quarters...stupid 100+ ranked guy. and now it's probs going to be another djokovic and murray final. gross. never liked murray, never will.

i also wonder what will the future children think when they study australian politics. 

Grill'd

i finally went to grill'd today! everyone has been, and by everyone i mean my brother. i have a thing of going to places to eat/play before him.

yay for buy one get one free voucher from o-week campus tour bag. that bag had heaps of useful vouchers. i had a baa-baa burger and mum had the almighty. mine was eatable, but the beef one was really tall, so you couldn't really fit it in your mouth. it really does feel healthy! the meat is so much more meatier and leanier, and you don't have that oily feel after eating the burger, unlike macca's which is so oily and fatty and two times the kilojoules. macca's burgers are quite expensive, like an angus burger costs around 8 bucks now, so i would much rather a healthier grill'd burger for about 13 bucks. the bread is quite nice as well (: heaps of people there didn't finish their burgers/chips. what a wast of food

had moochi today, it's been almost 2 years...i think. green tea and biscotti. biscotti never really tastes like anything. a white person was serving me, and i heard the asian next to her say, "a bit too much" yay for more froyo. except i still think the froyo at moochi has a thicker texture, not as icy. also, since when was yogurberry 25c/10g?

i figured today that if i don't go to my bio lecture on monday arvo, I CAN SAVE OVER FOUR HOURS AND CUT DOWN TO 22 CONTACT HOURS! THAT'S A WHOLE DAY OF TRAVEL TIME! since i have to wait three hours for my one hour lecture ): there's always a risk of missing out important info/notifications. i told myself i wouldn't skip any lectures, but saving over four hours every week doesn't sound too bad...

i think my wisdom teeth are coming out =/ my right side back of the teeth hurt when i clench my teeth...

i have been watching so much tv. watched a movie last night, and watching one tonight, even though i have quite a lot to do =/