Baking at Better's

finally went to better's house! thank you so much for you hospitality and generosity. the flavoured water was real interesting/nice. loved your pasta and lasagna, need to get myself some of that sauce.

i actually didn't make much. even though i was looking forward to this day, i wasn't in the mood to bake-was way too hot.

tiramisu

looks pretty good (didn't help make, only helped to eat). the tia maria flavour was definitely there. i think i'm pretty decent with alcohol, but the mod worrying thing was that if i get a RBT, and since you can taste the alcohol in it, well then gg. it's different from when you cook with wine since it gets reduced, but this just gets mixed. i don't make these kind of things by myself since it requires too many ingredients which aren't easily found at home.

chocolate macarons! (didn't pipe this batch)

totally underestimated the power of better's new hand mixer. with my one, it takes about 10-15mins to get a glossy finish/peak for the egg whites, since my mixer overheats an then you have to wait for it to cool. her one was so powerful, didn't keep my eye on it, nek min nit, it was over beaten. luckily it didn't split. thus, over beaten egg whites result in a crunchy/crispy shell, but the inside was still soft. we were going to make a salted caramel filling, but ceebs. i've found some easier salted caramel filling recipes without too much effort, haha. i shall attempt some macarons from scratch one day. almond meal was on special last week on coles. my mum rain checked me some, need to remind her to buy it for me (:

Wet and Wild Sydney

had a really bad day today-everything that could've gone wrong went wrong ):

like my brother ditching me, and when i went, all the rides needed to have at least 2 people. there was a whole tower of rides with only 2 people. some were 2,3,4, others were 3,4,5, then only one towers of single riders. i.e., i couldn't go on many. i don't understand how a single child will survive growing up and going on holidays. like if you go on family holidays, who do you have fun with? like as parents grow older, they're les likely to go on roller coasters with you, and you can't always have friends with you on holidays....so glad i have my brother (except for today) to go to theme parks with. my dad used to go on roller coasters with us, but now he's just ceebs.

wasn't going to go, but my mind was set on going to the preview day, and even though it was still quite humid in the arvo, it was good weather to go since there wasn't a lot of sun, not burning hot=less uv rays and no tan. 

entrance

it's really clean, as you would expect. the water and the pools are sooo perfect (for now). same with the toilets, nice and clean. there's actually not much shade there. they have these private cabanas which are from $90 hire per day, but they were free on preview day! did not know until later...but i wouldn't have used it..

since i went to the 5-10pm preview session, it was quite packed with school kids/workers. went around 7.30ish to take photos, but didn't take many in the end. they said the preview days had 1/5 of what they're expecting, but the thing is, i went on a more popular one and it took over 30mins, so when it opens normally, the wait will defs be over an hour per slide...you could see how long the line would be, since for some rides, i already walked up half way to the top, and still had to wait 30mins. from the bottom of the stairs, there are theses fences to the entrance on the line, and the line has a lot of potential to increase in length...

didn't go on much. went on the T5 (tornado something), the green and yellow one. it's pretty fun, and it was pitch black inside, and a few hidden surprises. also went on the 360 rush, but two of them broke when i went. same as gold coast, but the sydney one has this board where you wear it as a back pack so you can slide smoother i guess. i prefer the gold coast one, since it's a more real feeling where you don't need anything to aid you to slide 360. the guy next to me was too light and had to go out through the escape ride. the h2go racers are quite fun. don't know how to make myself go faster. maybe it's just my slow reaction time...

the land (or the amount of empty space) is quite big, but it takes more time to walk from on tower of slides to the other. i like GC since you can run to the other slides/waste less walking time. it feels like GC has more rides since it's more compact. the lights are quite nice at night.

i do have to commend WnW Syd with their My Bands. paperless tickets, cashless money etc. you can scan it to hire a locker/pay for food etc. food is about $20 for a burger, chips and coke-obviously not worth it. you can scan your band before your ride and it links to photos/info on how many times you went on a ride. defs heaps more convenient than a laminated card like in the GC.

so glad i got a season pass. it would probably take me 3 whole days to go on every single ride since there are just so many people. did you know, when i went to the GC, we managed to do one world per day. sea world was for half a day, and then we drove (actually my dad) straight back to syd. 

The Little Snail

quite a few times i have been so close to buying the group on vouchers for the little snail, luckily i didn't have to waste money. i always walk past it when i walk to The Star. it's because it's entrance isn't on the side facing darling harbour. but it's literally across the road from harbour side shopping centre.

the whole night went by so fast. their mise en place was sooo quick. usually when you have dinner in a western restaurant, their service takes some time, since you'd slowly eat the first course and enjoy/savour it. i eat relatively fast compared to people when i go out, but here, i felt like i had to gobble down my plate since they came quickly to collect plates, and then they handed out the next course quickly as well. everyone ate so fast as well. maybe because i actually had lunch before so i wasn't super hungry...as i result, i didn't have much time to take a nice photo of every plate of food. it was packed, even on a sunday night, but i'm pretty sure most people there had vouchers.

we were on the 2nd level next to the window (:

mocktails-$8.50

i don't remember the names, but the one on the left had a mixture of stuff. the middle one was mango, but it was way too sweet (and i can take more sweet stuff compared to other people), some organic white wine, approx $75 a bottle. i bet the actually price is around 50, but restaurants always up the prices of alcohol. actually not only alcohol, but coke cost $4. i actually didn't have any soft drinks this  year at dad's xmas dinner.

                                                 

"a gentle kiss" cocktail on left-$15, cocktail on the right. it's the same as the one in the previous pic, but this looks nicer with the layers. bro with a strawberry cocktail in the background.

this cocktail was alright, but i prefer wine over cocktails. sometimes cocktails are heavy on the alcohol, but just tastes sweet (luckily this one wasn't). you might as well drink flat soft drink.

                                     

more drinks, hehe.

i calculated that i had at least $50 worth of drinks. the boss was probably eyeing us, ordering so many expensive drinks. that's why i like western restaurants, the drinks menu is more extensive than asian places. on the other table they ordered a jug of this cocktail which looked exactly like oj but with some fruit punch. this kid whose 5 years old thought it was juice and took a sip, and he immediately got drunk and crashed! haha, he actually fainted... such responsible parents....i always think cocktails have more alcohol than normal wine, since they mix it with who knows what....i told my dad before he could tell me that i was going to drink tonight, so he couldn't have as much since he needed to drive. i think i'm ok with alcohol. on quite a few occasions, i've had about 4 drinks and didn't look red and felt clear minded etc. my mum can't, she went to this function when my uncle came over with unlimited drinks, and she couldn't think/walk straight...

snails has been a lifelong thing i've wanted to have, but never had the chance. i remember when my cousin was still in high school, she shouted my mum french and my mum had snails, but i wasn't there to try. after 19 years, i have finally tried snails!

Escargot de Bourgogne
Dozen snails marinated in herb-infused court bouillon, oven baked in garlic butter

the texture kind of reminds me of mussels/sea food, but not as chewy as i imagined. don't know how to properly describe them. they're actually really nice! probably because it's cooked in heaps of herby butter. 

Salt and Pepper Squid
Lightly coated in panko, fried, with petite mesclun and capers and cornichons aioli

my brother doesn't know how to order. i told him not to get this, and he doesn't listen to me. only 4 pieces of squid (they were initially stacked in one tower). not worth it. the aioli was alright, and it was quite light, but still not worth it.

Salmon Roulade
filled with herb cheese mousseline, served with potato nest and passion fruit dressing

only had a little bite of the salmon roulade since there were only three. it was alright, the herb flavour in the cheese wasn't very prominent but it wasn't too heavy either, which was good.

Paté Maison
Armagnac flavoured duck liver pate with marinated champignons, date chutney and port vinaigrette

ordered this for mum since i wanted to try something different to normal day food. when i went to aria, i also chose this duck or goose liver dish, but it was served in this pastry tube thing and really fancy. this was just a cylinder of liver. even though the sauce is pretty, i don't think there was enough. it was served with slices of garlic bread and normal bread, but i think the serving was too big to make it a pleasant liver dish. it had a slight grainy texture. it looks small on the plate, but the plate was massive, so the liver pate in a big portion wasn't that good.

didn't take photos of sides (waste of memory space on my phone). had this chilli, garlic and honey bread. it was so nice! some nice spiciness, herbiness and sweetness. the garlic bread was alright. the fries were really hot, in terms of temperature. the mash wasn't as buttery as other places, but had heaps more garlic, and more creamy.

Magret de Canard
Crispy skin duck breast fillet with wok tossed spinach served with cassis and raspberry sauce

i had the duck, i was looking forward to crispy skin, but mine wasn't so i was disappointed ): maybe because i had to take photos of everything first, and they put the sauce over the skin, so after taking photos of food with both my cameras, the skin would have lost some crispiness. the actual duck meat was good. a nice solid serving. the spinach was alright. the sauce was different but nice.

Cote de Veau
Veal tenderloin with champignon and chardonnay beurre blanc, served with potato croquette and seasonal greens

bro ordered the veal. i told him not to. when it came, he was all like: it has mushrooms!? obviously he didn't read the menu. so he gave it to mum. the veal was average, but the sauce so really good! not too overly creamy. the croquette had such a satisfying crunch! i only had a little bit, but the crunch was prominent. 

Fillet of Beef Tenderloin
Served with potato millefeuille and red wine jus

this was dad's but since the veal had mushrooms, my bro had this. there was quite a tiny piece of steak on it, but then it was very thick. it was cooked to medium as we requested, but i don't think there was enough jus. i finally have tried a proper millefeuille-not bad.

Kangaroo Fillet
(recommend rare) On garlic pommes puree with a Dijon mustard and honey bordelaise sauce

this was my mum's but she gave it to dad. i don't mind rare meat, so eating kangaroo cooked rare was quite enjoyable. kangaroo can easily become very tough once cooked past rare. good serving of sauce and it was really flavourful. 

Classic Crème Caramel

i know this is a very simple dish in terms of technique, but i was really craving a classic french dessert. too bad they didn't have creme brûlée. then again, i was super full at this stage-everyone was. it's probably because the french use a lot of butter in their cooking. or maybe because at this stage, i've had 4 drinks. or maybe because i've had about 3 pieces of largish pieces of bread filled with butter and garlic etc. this dish was just like i expected. of course it's sweet. i can't bear to make it at home since you need cups and cups of sugar. i know the whole dish is full of sugar, but eating it when someone else made it feels better than you making it and seeing in front of you the amount of sugar you put in.

Belgian Chocolate Gateau
With pineapple and coconut candy

this was my dad's but my bro wanted to swap (see what i mean-everything he ordered he saw it and didn't like it). the menu didn't say this had sorbet in it, but my bro is a massive sorbet fan, so once the dish came, he took it off my dad. the gateau reminded me of zumbo's fondant bar, but not as dense. that pineapple candy was very interesting. sorbet quite nice (: not too sweet.

Chef Churned Hazelnut and Praline Ice Cream
On sable breton and Grand Marnier caramel

loved the presentation. got this for mum since she likes those types of biscuits/pastries. the ice cream was really good! the hazelnut bits were candied so it gave more texture.

Warm Sitcky Date Pudding

With butterscotch and French vanilla ice cream

bro originally ordered this but gave it to dad. the butterscotch was too sweet, the vanilla ice cream was also super sweet, and so was the pudding. not enough date flavour and not dense enough to be a pudding imo. this dish overall was very sweet, dad couldn't finish the pudding, and i couldn't help him either... neither could my bro and he is known the have a sweet tooth, well he was super full, he hd heaps of juices and mocktails etc.

chai tea. look at that colour....sooo strong and bitter. it smelt good, but i think the bitterness from the tea overpowered the spices. it wasn't served with milk, but i was so full i couldn't even finish this tea.

after dinner it was handing out christmas presents time ie. the women get some gift and the children get money, hehe. the men don't get anything though =/

harbourside carpark is the weirdest carpark i've been to so far. first time going, but my dad even thought it was weird as well. there is an entrance for cars right next to the restaurant, but that take you to the third level. other entrances takes you to different levels. the carpark is definitely a few hungered metres long. it's not wide, but sooo long. the problem? there is only one lift, and the lift is in the middle pot the carpark. so it you parking on the very far side of the varpark, it would take quite a few minutes to get to the lift. also, the lift only takes you to level four-level of the bridge which goes to harbourside shopping centre. to go back to level 5/the streets outside on pyrmont side, you have to walk up this longish ramp and through the exit where cars come in. 

i guess this place is alright. i was just most excited about the snails and they didn't disappoint!

Rayban Adventures #2

it wasn't as chaotic as last week but i still don't have my sunnies. so another person cleaned them this time, first with this oil/lubricant which was fine, but then with this methanol solution and gg, the gloss finished faded. with pure eucalyptus oil, it was fine. that tree oil from last week apparently has 80% ethanol, so alcohol obviously has a reaction to that gloss finish. so i have to wait another week...

made chia pudding yday. i think it's super healthy-chia seeds and almond milk. it doesn't have any sugar naturally, but i added a teaspoon of manuka honey and a tiny bit of vanilla essence. people said to add 2 tablespoons of honey...my 1tsp wasn't really enough...so i just got some mango which has heaps of natural sugar, a super healthy brekkie (: i was hoping it would have a thicker consistency...maybe i used add some gelatine to it so it can be like mango pudding..

i need a smaller jar...

results were just as expected, horrible. at least i passed everything...my two bet subjects from first sen were my 2 worst this sen. and they were very, very bad...they didn't scale chem as much as i hoped... ): whilst in phys, so much scaling considering i only did 20% of the paper and i guessed the rest. 

people are right. mortal instruments movie was super bad. hardly stuck with the book, and the main character isn't as "hot" as the book describes, he's actually quite ugly. i would say hunger games movie kept with the book about 95% similarity, and they omitted things which weren't important, but mortal instruments is probs less than 20%.

ahh, my head hurts from planning...people are all so busy these days ):

Berry and Banana Smoothie

things which have no treatment or known cause or prevention are very disheartening. i hope that as modern technology progresses and also future doctors can learn more/discover stuff to solve current insolvable medical situations...

why is my skin so bad...my parents have good skin, but my bro and i....

bought my first thing from kikki k today! only joined their membership because of a $10 voucher. don't think i'll ever buy anything from there again.

so hot today, felt so dizzy.

mixed berries and banana smoothie with almond milk!

i actually started using my blender a few weeks before finals, since there was a period of super hot days. this is one of my healthier recipes (: no added sugar/honey, and since almond milk the one of the healthiest milks (better than normal milk and soy), i think it just adds to the healthiness. also, even if you find quantities on websites etc, they may not always work. think about it, each blender is different, and even 1 banana can range from small to super big. you just have to learn to blend stuff to your preferred consistency. i like my smoothies thick (: i used frozen bananas and berries as they help make it thicker and colder (:

bananas are the best in smoothies. they give a good consistency, and they're also good in milkshakes. btw, never add only banana, almond milk and cinnamon. if you want a banana smoothie, then use full cream milk, or else the almond taste is too dominant over the banana flavour (unless you have an over ripe banana).

i've made quite a few other smoothies, i just haven't been bothered to post them up since it was finals time. also, the amount of bananas or quantities in general also change the colour of the smoothie. more bananas over berries lead to a super pale beigeish pink colour...not the vibrant purple and pink you get form berries. i have stocked up on green smoothie ingredients and they're in the freezer. didn't feel like a green one today though.

in case you missed my snapchat, my collection is almost complete! well in terms of flavours they release to supermarkets.

also have a tub of cheap 4L vanilla ice cream for milkshakes. milkshakes need full cream milk or else you'll never have a good thick milkshake. the problem is, full cream milk and ice cream=fat and loads of sugar. 

plus today was good. we did that part before the crucifixion where judas/peter betrays Him. it's a sunday school story, but then we looked at details where i never paid attention to before. interesting (:

La Collina

helped out with my dad's work today since one of the office people resigned (right before christmas =/ ). bored to death, going to bring a book tomorrow. noo, haven't had time to go library yet ):

dinner with work people. went to an italian restaurant opposite castle mall, but on the further side not towers side. always past it, never pay attention to it. there's a reason why these restaurants are "quite" and far-ish. there were no other customers apart from 2 random people. if we didn't come, they would've not had business. heaps of restaurants there don't even open on monday night. 

food wasn't good, it wasn't worth taking photos of. garlic bread it had a crunch, but i could make it better. 3 trays of pasta. the carbonara wasn't creamy/rich, i've had better home made one. i thought there was only pasta so kind of filled myself up, but then there were alternating plates of meat. i got chicken, person next to be got veal, ended up sharing. but it was pretty basic. dessert was macadamia (actually not that sweet) and choc mint (which i hate) ice cream or profiteroles (they alternated again). i gave the choc mint away, and had the profiteroles which had warm custard and overly sweet choc sauce. had a hot choc as well. the foam on top was nice, but that was about it. it tasted like hot water with a tad of hot choc. trust me, i mixed it, but it didn't help. this place wasn't cheap either (had a quick glance at the chalkboard menu), and it was pretty bad quality for it's price. all castle hill things are expensive. i knew this place was cheap because of it's location, and my instincts proved right.

for the sake of photos, i just took a pic of ice cream.

do you know where they went for xmas dinner last year? ARIA! missed out, so sad. it's because apparently they made good money/heaps of profit last year, but this year they didn't make as much=cheap restaurant. fingers crossed they make more next year and hopefully it'll be back to fine dining. i can't wait for this sunday for good food!

something else that was sad. so the person i got for Kris Kringle works in two stores, and she had to give out two presents, but she only received one. there were about 2 other presents for her to receive, but everyone could only get one (since the person handing them out didn't know the person gave out two prezzies), so my expensive-ish was just packed into a bag with the other spare prezzies ): oh wells, it's better to be prepared with something, i hate going to events empty handed.

my first maxwell and williams cup and first set of wooden letters. i've always wanted the letter "E" but it's just one of those things where you want but have absolutely no purpose but it'll still be cool to it.

last time i didn't put earrings in for 3 months and had to force the earrings in. last time i took out earrings was last month, day of my concert, so my ears haven't had anything i them for a month, and guess what, it actually closed up in one month! ))): like the back part of the ear hole closed. spent half an hour pushing/forcing/manually remaking a hole for the earring to go through. blood everywhere =/ hope i don't get an infection. and this time i used thin earrings instead of thicker ones since i though it would be easier-i thought wrong. it hurt ):

oh, and i hate chasing people for money-even if it's ten bucks. i think people think i'm so stingy, but it's not my money, it's actually my parents...i just don't know how to ask people for money (which they probably forgot about) without sounding stingy =/

why am i so worried about my sunnies not arriving? maybe because i feel like i (well my parents) lost a massive amount of money. i need to worry less.

Ray Ban Adventures

so yday i put the sunnies on hold, and then decided to buy the ray bans today. they have this eucalyptus oil which them clean the sticky stuff from the price labels, but they ran out so they used tree oil. once the person used tree oil, it's supposed to polish it, but instead, it rubbed off the gloss finish on the frame. as i said before, the gloss is $40 more than the matte, but it looks heaps better imo. i already payed for it, and the frame kind of brook i guess, she checked that towers had one and we were headed there anyway and then she said they could do an IBT (internal branch transfer).

off to towers, and their store is so much bigger. sunnies are kept in boxes bundled together, instead of separately in trays. so much more staff as well, was supposed to see them tar, but ended up seeing them today =/ the computer said it had one, but they couldn't find it. then they said to go sunglasses hut and they could ibt to the towers store. found the sunnies at sunglasses hut (it also changed location) and turns out someone rang in earlier to hold that exact pair of sunnies and they would come in to pick it up later. then they told me to go myer and they could also do an ibt. the person there said they did have one earlier, but they just sold it! so sad, back to square one. the original person ended up doing an ibt with other stores far away (heaps of stores also sold out). the sad thing is that i'd have to wait a week for something i've already paid for ): and the ones i put on hold yday were new. like i took them out of their case and no one else touched/tried them on. but if i'm getting a pair from the other side of sydney, then it's not going to be new, new (if that makes sense). 

now i really want those ray bans over burberry. the burberry ones aren't polarised, and i'll probs used them everyday and then it'll be more prone to wear and tear of that special cloth on the frame. ray bans much more practical with the polarised lenses and so much demand for it. usually i try to not get the same thing that other people get, but who knew this particular pair was so popular!? exact tint, size, frame, finish. the more i keep typing this post, the more i really want those sunnies. 

i don't know how i should feel. if i was a regular customer, i would be pissed off. 

also did some christmas shopping. tried on over ten hand creams. surprisingly mixing up the smells weren't too bad. i love complimentary gift wrapping. however, since it's xmas, they don't have those deals where you spend a minimum and get a free product. and i bought i milk frothed! from aldi, haha. it has a two year warranty, but i'm expecting it to not work properly after a year. they re-opened build-a-bear at towers! maybe i can fulfil my childhood dream. i just need to go disneyworld first.

wow, i really hate australia transport (this doesn't have anything to do with today). i'm just comparing it to other countries, and sydney is just so damn expensive and crap.

so much food at church's monthly dinner. actually, there were a lot of potatoes, at least 6 massive trays/dishes people made. there was actually rice left over, usually there isn't enough rice to go around. didn't take any rice home though unlike some other people haha.

didn't get any supps. i either failed or just passed. i hope it's the latter...i know my wam this sem is going to be a depressingly low pass...sometimes you just have this feeling...

busy week this week.