Coco Cubano and The Chocolate Room

today was such a good day.

mum got new glasses, and the manager chose branded frames, and all these expensive lenses. there are so many lenses, but she picked the best (and most expensive ones). rrp, the multifocal glasses cost $889, but she gave a good discount, and after claiming the health fund, there was still a largish gap (compared to going to Asian optometrists with small stores where they have cheaper frames/lenses and not as good quality but no gap) to pay. but still, the gap was less than the actual frames, and the glasses looked so much better than her old ones (which were so, so ugly).

decided to look for new sunnies today. agh, i don't know what to choose! should i choose the cheaper ray ban with polarised lenses, or should i go with the more fashionable (but more expensive) burberry sunnies? the problem is that i have a small face, so the extravagant sunnies don't fit me ): and tbh, big sunnies on small faces don't look good. the shine finish cost $40 more than the matte finish for the ray bans. they're actually not cheap either, but $100 cheaper than the burberry. i love the burberry! except they have a super thin frame with a "cloth" material around it with their signature pattern. they look a bit better on me, but they're not polarised, and i wouldn't go to the beach with them, since it'd get damaged more easily. the cloth thing on the side damages easily...so technically the ray bans are more practical for chucking around (i.e. i won't be super sad if sand touches it etc..). put both on hold, i'll think about it again tmr...

finally got my name badge today! 

yay, saw tess today (: tonight was so fun, just chatting (: so glad i made the trek to parra. it took me about 15mins to get into a carpark, since i wanted to find the cinema one, but i kept missing the hidden entrance street from this other street. and thanks guys for walking to my car. defs would have gotten lost. and then when i came out, the car in front of me turned right, but i turned left since it said church st, and i know i needed to get onto, but once i turned, i knew i was on the other end of church st, so did a massive loop to u-turn and go back to the correct direction on church st. also, there was rbt on the other side of the road on windsor rd, outside baulko library, and then those undercover police cars catching speeding cars...

first time going to Coco Cubano, even though unsw has one. the logo reminds me of Thomas Sabo

lemon lime mint iced tea, banana mango iced granita large-$7, citrus berry iced granita, and an iced bounty couverture choc

Dandelion and i had the banana mango. i thought it would be really sweet, but i was surprised since it was a tad bland, probs because they needed to use heaps of ice. tried a bit of Happy Apple's citrus berry. again, wasn't sweet, but a really interesting combo of flavours. Better's bounty did taste like the chocolate, but obviously a much icier version.

Calamari with chilli salt and roasted garlic sauce-$12.90

not chilli at all. quite nice, and i loved the garlic sauce.

mini quesadillas-$11.90, garlic mushrooms-$9.90

the quesadillas were quite delicious, and not spicy. they used large mushrooms instead of button mushrooms like Encasa. definitely not as garlicky as Encasa, and was a bit disappointed, but then again, Encasa is known to produce top notch Spanish food (in sydney) for a decent price. i guess these ones today felt healthier without so much butter/garlic.

beef nachos-$15.90, oven baked eggs-$13.90

nachos were alright. felt like some breakfast food so got some baked eggs. their bread isn't bad, it's just that their baked eggs were smaller. then again, tapas are smaller, and their prices for their baked eggs are cheaper than other places. the chorizo here tasted fattier, and didn't have enough spice, but it was pretty nice overall. like their smashed avo is about $11, whilst the grounds is around $17.

group w/ food! interesting decor around the cafe.

we were going to go san churros for dessert, but i'm so glad we didn't. crossed the road to go to The Chocolate Cafe. always walk past the one in the city, but it always seems empty-ish. the parra one was pretty packed when we went (then again, it's not as big). this place was surprisingly really good, good selection of desserts and not as expensive as other chocolate places!

thanks again Better for the shout (:

it looks camouflaged

warm dark choc pudding w/ cream-$6.50

so nice and warm. even though it was dark choc, it was quite rich (but not overly sweet), so this was good to share. didn't fully ooze out, but the presentation of the fudgy chocolatey stuff made it look so good, and it was yum

tiramisu icecream-$6

we were all mind blown by this dish, but i think Dandelion was the most in awe, haha. we thought it was tiramisu with ice cream, since on the picture, it had a slice of tiramisu. then we thought it wasn't really worth it having another piece of cake which wasn't that big in terms of serving size. then when the waiter came over, he explained it was tiramisu ice cream shaped in a slice of a cake! and this was soo good. you have the novelty of it and the taste (: not sure if gelatissimo tiramisu is better or this.

waffle wonder-$12.50

i wanted some dessert waffles, since the waffles i had w/ ice cream the other day were those home-machine types, not the more cafe style types. these waffles weren't that big (considering the price is was ok), but it was beautifully presented with vanilla ice cream sandwiched between the waffles. well personally, i've never had waffles stacked like this before. the waffles were chewier than other waffles and was sweeter than i would've liked. i think the waffle shouldn't be as sweet, so you can focus on the chocolate flavour (since we are in the chocolate room). this choc sauce was a bit sweeter than that choc sauce with the pudding. the vanilla ice cream was by far the sweetest thing here. the chocolate is rich, but not sugar-sweet. the vanilla ice cream was just caster and icing sugar like sweet.

i definitely have a big sweet tolerance. tonight's dessert were sweet, but i've had even sweeter things before...sorry for taking pictures of photos of food together. it saves space on my phone, so instead of taking 3 individual photos, i just take one photo of all 3 foods. once i post the photos, i usually delete the individual ones off my phone. yay for food and friends (:

Encasa

i really should stop worrying. it's not good for your health if you worry to much, knowing from experience...but my head still hurts from thinking. i think when i go out, i put on a facade, but deep down i'm still worrying and can't enjoy things. but what's done is done. my path has already been planned, so i should enjoy life. i guess the only positive thing is that if i ever repeat a year, i get 3 more months of holidays/travelling time before you get stuck into the whole full-time adult life with no discounts etc. slept in way too much today. usually i would start filing stuff the day after exams finish, but i don't feel like i can atm...

went out to dinner with my cousin, uncle and mum. my cousin always thinks she knows best, since she has been everywhere, so when i suggested mamak, she immediately turned down my suggestion since she thinks it's "too plain". it's because she's only ever eats out/doesn't cook at home, so her palate has become over seasoned.

anways, went to a spanish restaurant in haymatket, and according to urbanspoon, it's reviews were decent. i have to say, the service was so good! we chatted for about 15mins before actually ordering anything, and they explained how you had to wait at least 45min for the paella. they also changed our dishes and gave an extra dish for shells when we had the paella. they also kept changing our serviettes/keep on giving us new ones. like they saw my tissue was dirty from peeling prawns and they changed it pretty quickly. i don't think i've ever had authentic spanish food in sydney before, and this place is pretty decent and not too expensive with nice service (: my only comment is that they had dim lighting, but luckily the iPhone still can take decentish photos in super dim ambient lighting without flash. also spanish food is good since it's not spicy, and it's actually not over seasoned, like compared to korean food/chinese places with heaps of msg etc.

Vieiras en Azafrán - Scallops in the shell with saffron, shallot and cream sauce   13

i thought it would be super creamy and rich, but luckily it wasn't and the scallops were nice and soft 

Champiñones al Ajillo - Sizzling garlic mushrooms   9.5

good balance of garlic. didn't have the garlicky after taste, but could still taste the garlic 

Catalana Spinach · Pine nuts · Onion · Garlic · White Wine · Cream -14.5

Chorizo a la Sidra - Spanish sausage poached in apple cider 11

the pasta was alright, not super creamy, but could have been more flavourful with the garlic and pine nuts. the chorizo wasn't spicy at all, and the cider was quite interesting in it.

Paella Valenciana
Saffron rice with chicken and seafood 25.00pp

this was a minimum order for 2 people, so the above was $50, but it was massive! rice was good, and the seafood was cooked nicely, but the prawns were cooked in their shells so it was hard to peel them without getting my hands dirty. my uncle/cousin eat out almost everyday, so the can unreel a prawn with a knife and fork. everything was quite "natural" and distinct/clear in terms of flavours.

sangria.

it's a spanish red wine, and apparently they cook/stew it with some fruit. it has a little bit of fizziness, and it's supposed to "hit you" after a while. we ended up having 2 jugs, so i had about 4/5 drinks, but i still felt fine. this was expensive though, around 30 a jug. 

definitely a good spanish place with super good service. jamies was around $20ish for lunch, but this was around $30ish pp since we had drinks. uncle shouted again (:

19. Birthday Free Food Haul (Elisa's Guide to Free Birthday Food)

19. i can't believe it's been a year already! today's date somewhat has a pattern (: i don't like the number 19. it's prime and ugly, 17 sounds and looks better, but 19 is =/ doesn't feel like it's my birthday. from primary to high school, i used to be like, guess what!? it's my birthday in two weeks! and then remind people. now i think i'm at the stage where i'm like meh, not as excited as i used to be/don't want people to know how old i am. i bet my face can still pass as a 14yo.

it's mostly because i didn't have a party that it felt like it was my birthday. it kind of feels good not organising any parties, although i would love one, i don't have the moneys. i have to pay for some of my 21st if i have one. then again, i would rather not have any parties and save it all for my wedding. yes, i'd rather go all out on my wedding than have a few parties here and there.

before uni, there wasn't a lot of chances to go to the city, but since uni started, i go city everyday. i figured this year is the year to go after free food, since next year uni will be super busy (more on this later). such nice sunny weather today (: i've always loved august (totes no bias here lol) since it starts to get warm, not a lot of rain, and not too hot (:

Lowenbrau Keller

first time having a proper German meal. originally we were only going to share a free meal, but that seemed to cheap, so we got two plates. everyone ordered a massive pork knuckle (signature dish), but the crumbed skin of the pork knuckle would make my face even worse...lol.

this place is a must to go on your birthday! just make sure you book. the restaurant is massive inside. you can choose any single plate on the menu.

top: lunch special of haus-made sausage, mash potato, some special onion with some sauce-$14.50. bottom: Original Zwiebelrostbraten, Char-Grilled 300g Sirloin Steak with Cheese Spätzle, Apple Onion Confit & Red Wine Glaze

being asian, i tried to maximise my free meal, so i got the steak. it's $35 (on the website it says $38). i asked for medium, but the sides were a bit chewy. the apple things on top was quite interesting, so was the floury things. it reminded me of gnocchi, but more flavourless, so you needed to have some sauce with it. this flour was a bit dense-ish, but it was nice in its own way. i didn't actually hear the proper name for the lunch special, but for 14.50, that wasn't too bad. the sausage was sooo good! meaty, not overly flavoured, didn't feel like there was a skin on it, big, no fattening/oily feeling. no wonder why during aroma festival, hordes of people lined up to get a super duper long hot dog for $10. the mash here was pretty nice, onions had this sourness to it, and the sauce was good. i've had a lot of sausages from various butchers before (still have yet to go snag and stand), but this one is one of the best!

coffee was 3.50 and was decent (i had a chai for 3.50 at uni earlier, and it hardly had any spices and the cinnamon was just spooned on top of the milk-disappointed). btw, hot water here cost $1.50 (also at uni in that cafe i went to, hot water was 1.00. ridiculous).

walked past the Masterchef pop-up restaurant. literally pop up as it was a tent/marquee. probs heaps fancy inside. kinda like our exam centres, where it's actually nice inside. the place around the site smelt of fertiliser/sewage, i walked past at around 4-ish, and today is the opening night, so no idea how they would get rid of the smell on time. their bar wasn't opened yet, so couldn't see what the bar menu was ): no time to trek to the rocks again.

walked to darling harbour since free shuttle bus ended at 3.30. i guess that makes sense since if i was a paying customer, i would be so angry at those free shuttle buses causing even more congestion during school zone/peak hour. anyways, we were super full, so a good half hour walk was pretty good.

San Churros

person was nice and said she didn't have to check ID. she didn't even look at my voucher properly. i made two emails, so got two vouchers, so i could have gone the day before/after my bday.

churros for two: 6 churros w/ dark and milk chocolate dipping sauce-$15

dark was soo much better than milk. looking at other tables, most people finished more of their dark than milk. the dark choc had a more intense/not as sweet flavour, and a richer smell.

was looking forward to this since i've never had them before. tbh, they weren't that great. the centre of the churro was still a bit doughy, yet at the same time, the whole churro itself didn't have enough dough and was skinny. it didn't have the lightness of what a churro should be. maybe it's because it was free so they didn't cook it properly...MOVIE WORLD CHURROS ARE THE BEST! no jokes.

Baskin Robbins

 now this was a "waste of stomach space". you see. by now i'm quite full and full of sugar, but i signed up to the club. i've never seen a non-asian run baskin robbins before (if you do, please tell me). that asian lady didn't even care about customers. what if we were paying customers? would you still continue to look at your phone and ignore people who want to be served? sooooo stingy these people, even more than towers. when i tried the red velvet, the man only gave me a tiny bit ie a speck of rice. how do i frikken taste it? all i tasted was plastic. then i showed my voucher and id to the woman. she fully stared at the voucher and my licence, sructinising every single detail up close. literally. she put the paper close to her eyes, then scratched her head (which is super unhygenic, esp when you're serving food WITHOUT gloves). i felt like she memorised everything on my licence. after about a full 5min, she says "you can only choose the flavours was the spoon" ie the crap flavours. i didn't want anything chocolate/caramel after the churros. 

Candy Stripes.

i got candy stripes which was orange and white choc mousse. sooo flavourless. it was served in the smallest, cheapest soft serve cone, even maccas cones are better. the scoop of ice cream was the smallest scoop of ice cream ever! seriously, not worth your time going to the Harbourside one. such stingy people. and they were the only people who didn't say "Happy birthday". every other place said it at least once. their attitude is horrible. never ever going to this one again. no idea what this is worth, i think it's worthless because even for kids cones, they don't serve ice cream in it, only soft serve ice cream. i didn't bother to argue with them to get a waffle cone, after the first contact i made with them for the tasting, i just wanted to leave baskin robbins.

Boost

my all time favourite place to go! i love boost. just join their vibe club. boost has really good members discounts time to time, and you really do feel good after drinking it!

Skinny Dip-$6.40 (or 6.90, there was only a sign of this flavour, but no actual price). it had apple juice, strawberry sorbet, yogurt, raspberry, banana, and probably heaps of other stuff.

the guy was so nice, he's like "don't worry, you'll definitely get an original". the one in harbourside opened recently, and so far, they're the only store to still other 3 sizes, other places only have medium and original. he was also very generous with the sorbet, i counted 4 scoops. normally i think it's 2/3. so refreshing and a ncie way to finish all that food. (i actually didn't finish the boost, splitted it with my mum). not enough time to see if i could get a free boost at other stores, but i don't think i can since their card is electronic.

Nando's

never have a bought Nando's full price. what's good about this is that you can get a member club without purchasing anything (unlike sumo salad). got takeaway since it was getting late/i needed to go dance. they let you have a "birthday meal"-how generous of them! you can choose any regular item, any side and and drink. too much choice!

lemon and herb half chicken, peri peri chips and tropical juice-$17.45

i think this chicken wasn't as freshly grilled compared to my last experience. they probably half cooked it, then grilled it more to make it warm when someone ordered it, since we only waited 5min, and last time at towers it was a 10-15min wait (according to my mum). i guess it makes sense since you need to serve heaps of people quickly in the city. chicken was quite burnt on the other side. the peri peri chips actually weren't spicy (maybe they didn't put enough spice in it).

Subway

got this the day before since i knew i would be too full today.

6-inch steak and cheese sub ($7.20) and coke (no idea how much bottled coke costs these days).

the unsw doens't participate in these deals/offers, so i had to walk outside. this wasn't toasted/warm enough and i think this 6-inch was more like 5 inch. oh wells, free lunch, can't complain. also, my bro came home with a $5 meatball subway w/ drink. it was supposed to be 6-inches, but the guy misheard, and gave him a footlong but he let my bro still pay $5.

birthday cake from zest patisserie-tiramisu.

this was a mousse and sponge cake, with super cute chocolate coffee mousse cups on top. it's not made on site, it's made in the other franchise in rozelle, but they deliver cakes to cherrybrook at around 6am in the morning. i've had over 10 cakes from here, so i've basically tried everything i've wanted. this tiramisu cake was good, except it wasn't as nice as the other cake there. i think the sponge may have been soaked in too much liquer, and i don't think our fridge is cold enough since the mousse isn't firm enough. this was a medium sized cake (didn't need a big one unlike pervious years), and i couldn't fit all 19 candles without all the candle conjoining together, BUT I LOVE MY CANDLES, so we lit 13, then blew them, then lit 6, then blew them. #firstworldproblems.

all in all, over $80 worth of free food. probably will do some place again next year, but other places are a no-go. i had at least 2 other places to go to, but not enough time.

my present of food has been satisfied. didn't have a proper birthday dinner since i was sooo full. what i really want for my birthday is one of those "money can't buy" things. ...

thank you Dandelion for the cake. it was good, and it survived in one piece after i walked around for the whole day!  as always, it's the thought that counts (: