internally crying right now. typical therapeutics uploading a lecture 3 days before finals. is this even legal? and the topic we wanted her to upload at the end of wk 13 hasn't been uploaded. inb4 new lecture 24hrs before exam. one week to study sounded a lot at first, but with 2 days to go, not much time left. the other subject is going to be 99% neglected. much yolo.

Leaf Cafe & Co

Quick lunch passing through this suburb on the way home. This place is a branch of other places in Sydney. It has some outdoor seating, but most seats are inside but with an open style cafe setting (so you're not actually sitting in the cafe, they just put tables out). Indeed it did have leaf as decor.

Chorizo prawn tapas: grilled chorizo and prawn, Spanish BBQ sauce w/ rustic loaf-$15

I always try to go for something on the menu which I can't make. There are plenty of sandwiches, burgers and salads available, but I opted for this since it was served in a cute over-style bowl. There were 6 king prawns and some chorizo. Prawns were fresh and cooked well, chorizo not too spicy or overly salty, but combined with the sauce, I think this dish was too salty. The sauce was quite oily, would have preferred something a bit thicker in consistency liked in baked eggs, but still soaked up well with the bread. The bread were perfectly toasted and not too buttered. I actually prefer minimally buttered toasted bread when you have some sauce to dip it in. The crust was perfectly crunchy and not too hard. Wish there was more greens, or just something to cut through all the garlic flavour in the sauce, and the chorizo. Probably a tad more on the expensive side for a dish this size. It did come out in less than 15mins which was a plus. All tables also have himalayan salt and organic black pepper as well.

small capp-$3.50

They use single origin here, coffee was average. A tad bit hot on my first sip, and no latte art ):

Manpuku

Ramen near uni is always good, especially if you have ramen cravings.

Gara Shoyu: soy based chicken soup, pork belly, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, shallots, seaweed sheet, homemade Manpuku original noodles-$13.50

Uni students also get extra noodles as well, but it didn't feel like this did have extra noodles, just felt like a normal bowl of ramen in terms of quantity. Also was hoping for bigger pieces of pork belly, and more toppings. Flavour wise it was good, could see the oil in the broth but it was clear. I think I prefer the original pork broth, since the chicken with soy sauce was a bit salty after a while. Ramen was a bit more on the al dente side. I think for ramen, I prefer it a bit softer. People there were really friendly, but this ramen is more towards the average side and not mind-blowing.

First exam done today, and now 12 days until the next one (minus 3 days of work in between), which leaves me 9 days to study 2 subjects, and one of the subjects the stuff you learn/study won't even be tested...so no idea what to expect...well the lecturer/doctor said if you didn't study you can still scrape a pass, but it's just a lot of management/work up/logic i guess...

Managed to recover so not sick during the exam. I wasn't actually that sick, but i hardly get sick, so any runny nose annoys me. 

today's exam was only an hour, which isn't good since there isn't enough time. i had so much more to write, just spent too much time thinking initially and didn't write fast enough. maybe i should've used my good pen...no time to even check calculations as well. the test itself wasn't super hard, it was just hard to get everything down within the time limit, and doesn't help that the professor marks hard...

now to study therapeutics...

my stuvac has consisted on having 3 cups a tea per day, while sleeping until 10am (sleep before 12am as well...). having avo on toast with ham, cheese on egg makes me happy, or even in a wrap. lunch at home isn't so bad, just can't plate it up nicely like cafes (or more like not bothered to try/no times). also, don't ever re brew lipton tea since it tastes worse than water. re brewing t2 is still ok

chanoma: azuki and matcha-$3.90

red bean was a bit on the sweeter side, and matcha not as strong as i remembered (or maybe i've just had too much bitter matcha that i'm used to it). soft serve more icy as well, but 10c cheaper than Aqua S across from it lol. they also have red cones as well, think that would look nicer but i didn't even notice until my friend asked for one. also went for lunch after to relax (need good food to study), but food was average (post about this place probably in a month's time at this rate). checked out the T2 DIY chai which is $40, calculated you save $6, so not sure if worth...but the tin is so pretty and the concept is pretty fun. although i can technically mix my tea's together and have my own homemade-DIY chai. only during exams/saturdays i have time to make tea/coffee/chai/matcha etc. normally on a uni day or when i work there isn't enough time.

and just for blogging purpose/keeping track of all the fat i've consumed... (already review these on Zomato)

Burgers Anonymous: Heisenburger-$7.50

They had a pop up in the city so half price, normally $15, but on the website they have it as $18...took over 15mins to get this, and missed my bus..not worth it. couldn't taste anything special in the bacon (apparently it's been double smoked, triple glazed), but there wasn't much either so couldn't taste it. the sauce was kind of a 1000 island dressing but sweeter and a bit mustardy...

Ichiban Boshi: Miso Ramen-$9.90

Missed my bus so got this (and missed it again). Ended up waiting 15min for a table, (arrived at 2), then another 15mmin for it to come. I thought this was mainly pre cooked, and they just use their super fast pots to cook the noodles...It was decent, not overly salty until the end, and noodles had a firm texture. pork was really good as well, but too cheap to pay for extra.

okay, enough procrastinating, back to study

wow what luck. my 7th set of final exams and i'm sick. never been sick for exams before, not even in high school. although other types of things happen, but never had a cold. your motivation to study decreases with your lack of energy. i think i got sick over the weekend at work, with the weather, other customers and probably didn't wear enough.

should stop watching so much tv...

finally had a dessert before it was shown on MasterChef-Anna's Mess. i remember it's pretty small irl, but still worth a try (:

El Burger

With this burger craze happening, going to new burger places is a great way to procrastinate. I used to always go past Winston Hills early in my high school days, but now anytime I go west I actually have to make an effort. When I first heard of this burger place inside a food court, I thought it wouldn't look that great. First time coming the the shops here, and this burger joint has quite a nice fit out. Quite spacious inside with 2 large tables and simple stool style seating. 

Fatties Box: burger, chips, shake-$15

El burger: beef patty, cos lettuce, cheese, pickles, spanish onion, tomato, el burger sauce ($9)

Cheesy Bacon Chips ($6)

Honeycomb Caramel Shake ($6)

The Fatties box available to FB members of the Fatties Burger Appreciation Society. It's not on the menu, but you can ask, and it's a pretty good deal if you have burger cravings.

I think with all these burgers I've been having recently, the burger here is average compared to other gourmet burgers (i.e. not fast food but cooked to order). It's still better than other food court food. The patty could have been more flavourful and thicker, but considering the price it's a decent portion. They included bacon for fatties as well, and loved the crispiness from it. Their sauce is a little sweet, kind of like a salad dressing without the acidity. Loved the fresh veggies to help make this burger not too heavy. I could actually eat this with two hands and fit it into my mouth without knives/forks. They have plastic cutlery, but it wasn't stacked too high to eat. The bread was soft, not as milky as other places, but not as oily either.

The chips were probably a bit too cheesy for my liking, but surprisingly the burger placed on top didn't soak up a lot of the oil from the cheese under it. The bacon bits were fun to eat. Actually my first time have 'loaded fries.' Fried here were soft crinkle cut, I prefer a crunch on the outside, but that's just personal preference. It didn't look like a big serving of chips, but the cheese covering it just made it look small. 

The shake was your average milkshake, and not too thick with enough flavour and not just milk.

inside

It wasn't as pink as I was expecting. Coincidentally on that day, there were new food law regulations about how a patty should be cooked all the way through and no pink to prevent any bacteria. It's quite stupid since gourmet burger places have been making burgers pink, juicy and moist for so long now and no one has actually died, but they put new laws in because of a burger craze uprising recently. I don't know of anyone who has had burger food poisoning, but plenty from KFC or random kebab places. Personally haven't experienced any food poisoning either, I think I would know how much 'raw food' my stomach can tolerate. 

Overall, it's above average for food court food. The burger itself isn't too rich that you can't finish it. Toppings well proportioned, just the burger itself could be more flavourful. Maybe because they just used beef instead of wagyu beef mince like I've been having recently...Still a satisfying cheap feed :)

can you believe it's already the end up the semester. i felt like i learnt nothing and learnt a lot at the same time. those deceiving 4-8hour breaks and too many online lectures. next sem back to 4 units, and not as long breaks.

got a free krispy kreme today before my lecture :) wanted to buy a gold foil donut since it's national donut day, but they ran out and were waiting on a delivery, but if i waited i would've missed my bus (again), so ended up walking around the city for an hour to 'exercise' while waiting for my bus. actually missed my bus buying a half price burger which wasn't that spectacular =/

first exam next friday, but working both days of the weekend. really need to use my study productively. it doesn't help when for one subject the exam isn't really based on the lecture content from all these guest opthals/registrars, and is actually just everything we've learnt but in real life situations plus 'general optom knowledge'. and all those MC quizzes online which we will never get a mark back, so no one knows how they're going in the subject...

a lot of optoms/opthals say optoms are generally underestimated for their knowledge since we know just eyes, but really there's so many systemic conditions involved. i guess it is useful learning about other systemic diseases, but with all these therapeutic management involved, i'm already freaking out and haven't started studying...tbh, i haven't stressed much at all this sem, apart from the our before seeing a px for clinic at the beginning of the exam.