Chur Burger

chur burger was one of those places which were "inspired by my instagram feed". instagram is nice to look for good food (: and just look at food in general (:

we went after 2, so it wasn't crowded. we got a round table, except it was pretty high. the other round tables weren't as high.

sweet potato chips and lamb burger.

this is a pretty bad photo, but i wanted both of the items, no people in it and only one photo. (whenever i eat out, i try to keep my iphone snaps between 1-2 photos to save space and have more food photos (: ), so you can't really see the mint and feta inside the burger....why did i choose lamb? because a good lamb burger isn't found on every menu. this one was good (: and it had aioli! i have a thing with baked eggs and aioli, if i see it on the menu, i most likely get it.

some of the sweet potato chips had burnt bits which were quite tasty, but it's still burnt and cancerous =/ also, don't have it with tomato sauce since it destroys the natural sweetness and makes it taste like normal potato chips.

before the burger, i also got a free bbq and pizza (: #win

missed my first lecture today, already. not a great start to sem 1. getting that feel that skipping is ok. what is happening to me? used to never skip....well the first half of sem 1...

Welcome Back Day

nooooooooo. i missed ozharvest free food yesterday ))): i remembered the project mentioned it earlier in the year, and i remembered roughly it was around the middle of the year, but i didn't put it in my diary/register in my head that it was yday, and i had plenty of time! why did i choose to go to a hip cafe...

we had a farm at uni today, well i petting zoo. didn't touch any, but it's kinda cool have animals on campus. they also had this bull where you ride on and it tries to throw you off (onto the inflatable stuff). got a free bbq, but couldn't be bothered to line up for popcorn.

so many people went melbourne last week to watch soccer. mcg looks bigger than scg. next time i go melbourne, i will go to a few of george's restuarant and gary's boathouse, which is on masterchef tmr....and the people who use oasis dating site in melb, how lucky, (i think) they all got a free meal of masterchef food. these few weeks until it finishes (and if uni doesn't get too hectic, which is a joke in itself...), i'm watching masterchef online. hate those ads online.

slowly compiling my list to go places for next break. hopefully i'll find a job, since when you cafes and you buy something decent with a coffee, it costs at least 20 (and completely trashes my whole less than 10 dollar thing). but i must go soon! looking at food, and prices from last year to this year for almost all "hip" cafes have gone up $1-3, for the same, if not smaller portions.

instagram has given me "inspiration" on where and what to eat. i can only day dream since i have no moneys ):

Element 6. sem 2, day 1

woke up later than i should've, so was late 5min to lecture, which was ok since they just did an intro lesson for phys. i know i will get mind blown with phys this sem.

as expected, visn got straight into teaching. seems to be more people this sem, probs because i people repeating....i never mentioned this, but last sem when they posted up supplementary exams for visn, firt years had about 10 people, 2nd years had about 20, third years had around 30, and they don't have many people in their year, only around 80, so there's almost a 50% chance you almost failed one of the exams and have to re-do it. ahhh, must work hard. that's what i say, but doesn't really reflect what i do...

went to Element 6 for lunch today! it's a "hip" cafe at West Ryde, nice decor. heaps of church people said it was nice, but like all hip cafes, it's overpriced imo. i have yet to go circa, need to go there before they increase prices, but parra is such a trek to get to. without a car, and with a car, parking is bad. element 6 also had clipboard menus like the Baron and circa, but The Baron didn't have weekly specials. my cousin went on sat, and she ordered this big plate/frying pan of stuff, except they didn't have that today...

cappuccino-$3.50, honeybee smoothie (banana, cinnamon, honey, yogurt, milk)-$6.50.

they made it into the good food guide. i know what bad coffee tastes like, but i can't say that this was good. it was not too strong, froth was good, but the coffee wasn't hot enough (and i have a low-heat tolerance). i've always wnated to drink out of a cute jar. this smoothie was a nice consistency, not sweet (compared to other smoothies), strong fresh banana flavour, not enough cinnamon though. (oh, the other day i found a packet of ground cinnamon =D. more baking next break).

top: bacon and egg roll w/ pumpkin, salad and aioli-$9. bottom: chorizo baked eggs w/ roast potatoes, tomato relish and gremolata.

i prefer the baron's Bacon and egg roll since it has avo and the egg had grounded pepper (element 6 has no pepper on the table/they don't put it on), but they have salt flakes in a mini container. this one had really good aioli and pumpkin was nice. the baked eggs take 15-20 to cook. this was pretty expensive for a dish of its size. it kind of reminded me of lasgana, but heaps less fattier. it wasn't overly oily, i thought there would be heaps of oil/cream. still feeling fat after dance tonight...it was good, but they should have given more of that flat bread to soak up more of the tomatoey goodness instead of just spooning it. oh, they don't have spoons on the tables cutlery tins...

"specials" menu.

free mini desserts! saved up my card (buy x amount of cakes, get some free stuff). from top left: pina colada, pear and almond, mocha hazulnut, blueberry flan, lemon meringue (my favourite!), cheesecake

just had a look at the good food guide on sydney's best desserts. i've had about 3/11! the watermelon cake is easily accesible, just have to find time. Sweetness the Patisserie, they have the best marshmallows! they're not the typical supermarket ones, they have this light fluffy texture, nice flavours and not heavy on the sugar (: we bought this bag once, but it expired before we finished it and it actually went off since someone shoved it at the back of the pantry ):

lol, tonight's pressure test, you can go to her shops and buy the ingredients which are pre-measured, it probs cost at least $50. for one component, they used at least 10 metal bowls-i don't even have that many metal bowls at home! most of the ingredients you have never even seen. same with the messina cake, you can look at the 25+ steps, but you probs won't even have a tenth of the ingredients in your pantry/most you can't buy in normal shops. if you want, a masterclass for that cake is $260 pp. you know in the 1st season, they only had one blast chiller, and it was only in "special episodes".

i've slept a lot these holidays, more than post-hsc break...

manage to complete most of my "to-go places to eat". some left, hopefully i can go to them this week before next week gets hectic.

not looking forward to uni. 9am start tomorrow. ceebs. receiving emails about some hand in assignment thing needs to be due on thurs. we haven't even learnt anything yet.

i get to dissect stuff this sem! i thought that would be the first thing i did when i got into uni....but excited for dissecting stuff (:

love looking at food/cakes on websites, but ceebs going places to buy a cake for my birthday, like it would melt/slant when i'm going on/off buses, and people might bump into you in the city esp during after work peak hours, and it's too dangerous to bring a nice cake back home.

they say a textbook is prescribed, but last sem i bought one textbook and hardly touched it.  have not bought any books/course packs/textbooks. yep, totes prepped up.

PLUS Outing with Johnny's Pizza

the title of this post isn't a reflection of what i ate today.

breakfast: toasted wholemeal bread with avocado and some chunks of cream cheese with chives. just missing my tomatoes and we just ran out of sourdough, but outside it would cost $7+.

lunch: toasted croissant with honey roasted leg ham and tasty cheese. outside at cafes it would cost $6+ this was accompanied by sweet potato fries and a fresh coconut drink. in restaurants it would cost $5/6+, at the shops it is normally $3.50, got it for $1.50 on special (: it was also really fresh and the inside was refreshing whilst the flesh was fun to scrape and eat.

had PLUS (uni youth group) girls' outing at friend's house
before dinner. junk food.

dinner: pizza

the bottom pizza, thai sea, was 11inches. a quick google search told me the "big pizza" is 25 inches, heapsss bigger than costco. we made it have 4 quarters, so the big pizza had 4 flavours; ham and pineapple, four seasons, mexicano (it had chilli and i survived it guys!), and something else. 

i always get their menu's in the junk mail, but finally tried it out today. it was alright, nothing that special.

dessert: fondue. chopped up some strawberries/banana/pear/apple and dipped in milk and dark melted nestle cooking chocolate. pretty good (: no wonder why they always have candles underneath the chocolate since it does harden up pretty quickly.

so unhealthy today D=

did more make-up shopping today, and buy "shopping" i mean trying things in store, then whatsapping to tell my aunt what i want (figured this out after i realised the thing i bought this week is so much more expensive in aus than in hk, luckily i got a free gift with it or else i would've felt even more ripped off....) like mac lipstick in aus is 36, in hk, even if the dollar has dropped, it's 20. i don't mind the dollar dropping, but it better rise when i go back overseas (hopefully america) at the end of next year. need to make the most of every dollar. i have quite a lot of aunts, so having a "make-up" aunt is good. last time she was like "so sorry Elisa, can't take you out for make-up shopping, will do so next time you come". well, she's "retiring" this year to assist with her children's homework/monitor her son's work/exams to go into high school. yeah, asian countries competition into high school/uni is more competitive than aus since they have more people, and they're all asian. 

Creme Brulee

first time making creme brulee. used the masterchef recipe, and it's so good! they have a video for it (wow, you can really see that george has lost some weight this series), and the measurements are better than other sites. they use 6 egg yolks, and i decided to try it out and make half the recipe, so it was easy to have 3 egg yolks. some recipes use 5 egg yolks, and how do you get 2.5 egg yolks? also, masterchef's one uses the less sugar.

it was so simple making it! the hardest part was probably washing the whisk (and the sugar crust on top...will get to that later). no fancy equipment needed. i decided to not use my precious vanilla beans since i was halving the recipe/testing this recipe out. instead of using paste, i used essence. it still worked out pretty nicely (: the vanilla flavour was there (: couldn't be bothered to get rid of air bubbles because you need a blow torch, or else you put it in a ziplock bag, then pour it into the ramekins-ceebsss.

it burnt... ):

the sugar layer on top was thick. that shouldn't have been a problem if i had a blowtorch since the heat is more intense and you can control where the heat goes, and the crust would have had more of a "crack". i have three ovens at home: the one which comes with the kitchen, a mini oven and a round convection oven, all of which are capable to grill. i decided to go with the mini oven and see how the grill is on it, since i never grill stuff. after about a minute, it started to caramelise, nek minnit-it's black ): next time i'll put less sugar on it, and not use that grill. that mini oven is getting really old, like the heating tube thing is starting to "bend" on the right, resulting in the right side being hotter than the other side, thus it came out blacker. maybe caster sugar would've been better than brown since it caramelises slower...i would love to invest in a blow torch (even though you can get it for less than 20 bucks), but i would rather buy more macarons with that money. or i could just borrow someone's...i don't know anyone who has one though. otherwise, they still tasted fine.

every time i've made something from masterchef, it actually turns out better than expected. this series george/gary's stuff are super complicated, like most of the time, you can't buy their ingredients in coles (they used to claim that everything they made came from coles, but as the show progressed, dishes get harder, and not everything came from coles). now that matt's cooking this series, his recipes are simpler for the super duper amateur cook, and they're healthier. when they all made mousse, matt's one had the less sugar, chocolate and no cream, and it was the simplest method. even his mash potatoes yday had no cream or butter! will try that mash when if i get a chance to buy that types of potato...

i've been looking at a lot of food lately. that simon guy on urbanspoon-where does he get all the money to go out and eat? he's been everywhereeee. i think food blogs are cool, but i don't have the money to go out to eat (apart from during the breaks since i don't go out during semester). 

uni starts next week, and i still have unknown locations for some lectures/tutes/labs. noooo, biological chemistry and taught by half chem and half babs staff. noooo babs, worst subject. all that bio chem we didn't have to know for chem, but did for babs, well we have to do more deeper chemy-bioey stuff. chem itself is alright, but mixed with bio =/

side note: 

-finding the perfect bright red lipstick is harder than i thought it would be.

-where does everyone buy there ink from? it seems like getting a new laser printer is cheaper than buying the ink cartridges ): 

800-Mother's Crepes, Chat Thai, Pho Pasteur

i've been eating out all day except for my avo toast in the morning, and all i've had to is rice noodles, but i love rice noodles, so no problem today (:

day started off with walking to "thai town" the chat thai closest to Capitol. same dishes but cheaper than   Westfield by about 3/4 dollars for almost most dishes, turns out they were renovating ):

so we walked back to world square and decided to have dessert first (twas a good decision)

used group on vouchers, $2-crepe w/ ice cream, sauce and drink, pretty cheap. last time i had crepes was a long time ago.

left to right: crepe with green tea ice cream and blueberry sauce, i had crepe with baileys ice cream and chocolate (hershey) sauce), orange and mango soda, pink grapefruit soda.

the green tea had a soft seve texture, and it looked nice visually, and tasted pretty nice. baileys was pretty good, although i would have preferred it to have more alcohol (but obviously they can't put more in or else it would go over the limit of how much an underage person can consume alcohol in foods i guess...). ice creams in both crepes were generous servings. the orange and mango was kind of sweet, but the slight sourness of the orange balanced it. the pink grapefruit was more sour than sweet, and didn't have much "grapefruit" flavour. these sodas were more sodary than normal soft drinks. bad thing is that it's all take away, so you have to find a table in order to take a photo of both stuff. the crepes had this plastic packaging on the outside which is good since sometimes the ice cream goes/leaks through the crepe. mine didn't, but my mum's did....i would never buy crepes full price in aus. 

chat thai at The Galeries-Raadt Naa-$11.90 and Padt Thai-$10.90

chat thai looks good if you get the expensive stuff, but it's overrated imo. the galeries don't have much seating since it's in a food court, so the few dollars you save comes at a cost of a least pleasant dining experience compared to Westfield, but at my stage, i don't really care about ambience, i just care about food. we went after peak hour, during peak hour they have those ropey lines, and have lines of about 20 people from about 12-2. 

servings were very small compared to my last thai experience at pennant hills. luckily we filled ourselves up with dessert before. the raadt naa had very fat/thick noodles, thicker than chinese ones. the sauce had this sweetness but salty at the same time and not as thick as how chinese people do it, but there wasn't a lot of noodles, and after a while, you crave water. this pad thai was again, smaller than The Seat by a half. no joke. there wasn't a lot of peanuts, so you don't get that crunch/texture whilst having the noodles. the flavouring was less than my last padt thai, but this also had less oil which is a plus. 

trekked to parra at night for outing dinner. went to pho pasteur. nice seeing fellow bloggers (:

rare beef pho and sides (for 4 people)-$11.50

not rare enough. i remember in hk when i had pho, it was so delicious and big and tasty and cheap and the beef was actually rare when they gave it out, and the soup was hotter than the one above so it still cooked fine. this soup wasn't as hot, and servings was smaller than Thai Riffic when i had rice noodles in soup. there were a lot of sides though, and the broth wasn't overly flavoured, so it was drinkable to an extent (i try not to drink too much broth since it's really unhealthy). it was alright. i have yet to go cabra and have pho there.

i would have loved to stay longer, except i don't drive to parra since I don't know where to park and traffic is bad around westfield, and the last bus back home was at 7.25. last time i trained it from parra to penno, took 3 trains, and it took over 2 hours. it's supposed to be a 30ish min drive/40/50ish min bus ride depending on traffic, and my dad went on a business trip today, and my mum doesn't no how to drive to parra, so busing it was my only option...how was the cake? haha.

i've broken my "less than $10 a meal/plate/drink/item" today. personally, i think city food is cheaper than castle hill/parra. their cafes are so expensive, even if they're just normal cafes. like 13 for only a sandwich at a cafe in towers, and it was pretty basic. so yeah, if you know where to look, city food is "cheap". ie for day-to-day lunches/dinners, not including high class restaurants. there's this new thai place i walked past today, 6.90 for a curry/meat with choice of sauce with rice, and they were pretty big dishes. i had my mind set on chat thai, but should've gone there (even though out of the 10 things on the menu, only 1 thing had no curry or chillies)

re-watched masterclass online and NOT A SINGLE AD DURING THE WHOLE EPISODE. i've missed masterchef the whole week this week and have been watching it online at like 11pm, and every ad break they have on tv, online they have 3 minutes of ads. last year it wasn't like this, they sectioned off the episodes so you could quickly skip the middle talking parts, and there were way less ads. people always comeback, except in professionals when they said there was no second chances, and no one actually came back.

you know the fam of will, kate, and george, they have really generic names. boost has their name game tomorrow for those names. and wow, kate looks no different facially before and post-preganancy, and she still has retained her skinniness in her legs etc. i wonder what they feed her to be so healthy and able to wear heels at 7+months and also a day after she gave birth. you know what i wonder, do they bother to do her hair/make-up when she was giving birth...?

updated my zumbo's post, so if you would like to know what i thought about the other half of the box of zumbarons, well scroll down (:

The Baron

finally went to The Baron in Castle Towers today. i've literally walked past there for years but never went inside.

tbh, i think those "cute/hipster" cafes are overpriced, but i hardly go, so it's ok i guess. when i got my SMH Good food/cafe guide, the baron was the only one in castle towers. coffee was good, still no expert in describing coffee, but it was nice and silky and the coffee taste came through despite it being a  latte (which are usually mild).

latte $3.50, bacon and egg roll:double smoked bacon, free range eggs, avocado, housemade aioli & tomato relish-$10.

damn, on the website, the bacon and egg roll was $9, so i went at a bad time when they increased prices. better to go now than later...it was good (: the egg was cooked nice and runny and not over salted, same goes with bacon-wasn't too salty, avo nice and fresh, if there was a bit more sauce, it would've been even better.

elvis slider (the kings dirty little secret) - crunchy peanut butter, double smoked bacon & aioli-$5.50

this brioche was tiny, smaller than an orange, but it was the cheapest thing on the menu (apart from the sides). it was actually really good. somehow, peanut butter and bacon matches perfectly! next time i have some peanut butter in the house (we almost never do since the nuts themselves go off quite quickly), i shall pair some bacon and peanut butter. the peanut butter wasn't as thick as the jars, it was slightly liquidy and became another sauce. i'm not a big fan of peanut butter, but this one was good.

wasn't full from that, so i don't understand how big grown men are full from this type of stuff. this was probs their second lunch or they were going to go somewhere after as well.

went make up shopping today. as most of you know, i don't bother with make-up. forgot how expensive good quality foundation is. i don't think i'll go back to "cheap" make-up like revlon, even though it's cheaper, the quality is not as good as "bigger brands". a tiny bottle for so much money. well i did get the person to do a two moisturising creams, two different foundations, powder, blush, this other non-reflective powder (forgot what it was called), then tried other creams. also, they gave us free hand cream since we spent over X amount and the cream itself was $25 (even though we have heaps of cream at home), so i guess the one item i got wasn't too hard on the wallet.

i finally bought a super slim kitchen scale! yay $12 from kmart (: cheaper than ebay.

Zumbo

I'VE FINALLY BOUGHT SOME ZUMBARONS! so happy (: i've been wanting them since i first saw them on masterchef in 2009. first time buying macarons from a patisserie which featured on masterchef (: 

i earned some money today helping with some psych research, and i paid them with my own money, so it feels even more satisfying! 

the star wasn't as far as i thought it would be, it's just next to darling harbour. i never knew there was a patisserie there until about 2 years ago. maybe back in '09 he didn't have as many patisseries, so i used to think, how do i get to Balmain?

i was so scared to cake would melt/macarons would crack before i got home. 

didn't realise how pixelated my touch camera is, oh how i love retina display on iphone. don't like to spam my phone camera, and my normal camera has better focus/better at night, so i still use it.

yum! i didn't notice before (as in a few years ago), but he trade marked "zumbarons"

macarons are still $2.50, just like they were 4 years ago.

from left to right: almond and pear, blackcurrant, salted butter popcorn, caramelised banana and balsamic vinegar, bread and butter pudding, finger bun

so colourful! at the same time, they're not fakely coloured like i've seen some cafes/shops which have neon coloured macarons...

i was going to get salted caramel on toast, but i already have something salted and something bread-ish, so i guess i can imagine the flavour. didn't get passionfruit/salted caramel since i've had the packet mix flavours before and i presume it would be something similar since it's the same brand. bitter said the lcychee and coconut had a very overpowering coconut flavour, so didn't get that. not a massive fan of chocolate, pecan danish looked nice and pineapple seems kind of plain-even though it's my favourite fruit, so i settled for the above flavours (: 

i've only had three, i don't want to have them all in one go, and when i mean "have three" i eat half then the rest of my family shares the other half, since my dad is internally fat ie can't have buttery/fatty foods, my bro doesn't have a lot of interest, and my mum loves them, but it's late-ish at night and she didn't want too much sweet stuff. texture wise, they could have a tiny bit more of a "crunch", it did have a crunch, don't get me wrong. 

wanted to try the banana and vinegar the most. yeah bitter, i couldn't really taste the banana, it was there in the biscuit, but super subtle. the ganache was the most butteriest, but the balsamic vinegar balanced it out, luckily there wasn't a lot of vinegar since it was very strong.

then i had the finger bun, it was the biggest of the lot, so fat i accidentally squished a tiny bit when taking it out since i took it out at a weird angle. yes, it tasted like finger bun, except it would have been better if there was a tad less coconut. the biscuit didn't have a real distinct flavour, just a tiny bit of sweet stuff, but that ganache was good.

third for tonight-almond and pear. it was fat as well (: this one was the sweetest, but i didn't mind. you could smell the almond, but you could definitely taste the pear, and i really liked the pear. nice combination, and it had an almond inside (: 

FOURTH MACARON: bread and butter pudding. the ganache was so good! it reminded me of gingerbread, and it had cinnamon and other spices. the shell kind of tasted like bread, but it was super, duper subtle. again, the ganache was gooood.

blackcurrant had a hard jelly-like centre, so not a butter based ganache. it reminded me of this lolly. the layers of purple were quite pretty when you cut into it. the flavour was prominent. the shell was sweet and the filling was sour like a natural/un-ripened blackcurrant

last one-salted butter popcorn. yum! tasted exactly like it sounds. the ganache was very buttery, but hey, a good box of popcorn is heavily salted and buttered (even though its super unhealty. hk people like their pop corn sweet, we like it salty). it had the right balance of saltiness, and the pop corn on the shell was quite cute. 

favourite ones? i love all of them (:

i really liked the ganache/flavours he has to offer. another good thing is that he has boxes for 2, so you don't have to buy 5/6 macarons just to get a box. it's also good since if knew flavours come along, you can just buy 2 to satisfy those cravings (: (although i try my best to "spread out" my eating macarons from more "well known" patisserie experiences...)

wunderbar $9-sable biscuit, raspberry compote, pineapple cremeaux, vanilla creme fraiche mousse, fresh raspberry slices & red chocolate.

it's really good. the sourness of the raspberry perfectly balanced the pineapple and vanilla mousse. the cremeaux and it had real bits of pineapple! mousse/cream was so good. it looks like cream (btw, i'm really picky with my cream, i don't like chinese cream/cheesecake shop cream/cakes which overdo cream), but this is mousse and creme friache, so it wasn't creamy at all, and not as dense as mousse, so good balance again. you could also see the vanilla beans! the red chocolate is just white choc, but hey, it's pretty (: you cannot cleanly cut the sable biscuit (it has some nuts in it) even if you got your sharpest knife, which means each biscuit had to be made individually, well i guess they used moulds. so it's not like they make a massive cake and cut it down to slices, doesn't work like that, which makes the $9 more worth it.

how could i not buy a slice after looking at his website? it's worth the money. like at lindt cafe, a slice of cake is 9.90, and it's just lindt chocolate, pretty boring tbh since you can buy their choc anywhere, and i bet they don't even make it themselves, probably from a different location, then delivered to their cafes. when i was there, i saw about 6 people brushing massive sheets of pastry with egg yolks, so i assume they do most/all of their cakes on site. also, many cafes these days have slices of cakes for at least 6 bucks, and they're pretty normal cakes which they probably didn't bake on site, so $9 isn't way too overpriced, especially if you rarely have this type of stuff, like me. the idea of the "dessert train" is cool, but i think dine in is $10 a slice, so i would rather take it home. with these more expensive slices, i prefer to share them, since i want to taste it, but not feel guilty for eating the whole thing which is kinda expensive. sharing is good.

that ice cream cake on masterchef, no idea what i had two years ago, but damn, i kinda regret not going with Bitter for her bday to try that cake. i still haven't had messina before. the first "bite" i want is from there mini cakes, so until they re-open then, i'll try to not have any of their gelato, despite passing it many times now.

what cake to buy this year? the choices are endless. only factor i'm scared that if i buy it far away, i'm scared it will melt. last year for my cake, i got it from my local patisserie which is about 2min drive, and i had to rush home (carefully) with the air con on since i was paranoid it would deform.

view from level 10, library.

Souffle

first time making souffles! i've never ate a proper one before. i've had frozen souffles, cake-like souffles, fondant-like souffles, fake souffles (places claim they're souffles but they aren't).

i've had the opportunity to have real souffles at higher end restaurants, but there were other desserts which were more appealing.

pistachio and vanilla souffles

they actually rose up like they do in pictures! except they deflated quicker than expected once they were out of the oven. the texture and consistency was what i imagined, however it tasted more eggy than i would have liked. the recipe said to use 1/4 cup and 1 vanilla bean to serve two. taking off the shells of the nuts aren't hard, it's getting rid of the layer of skin which took forever, so instead of using 1/2 cup, only had 1/4 cup. i don't have a mortar and pestle, so i improvised by jjust finding something hard and crushed the nuts against a chopping board. also, i don't think i infused the vanilla bean properly in the milk, so i felt like i wasted the bean. maybe i'll just add some essence next time. if i was to follow the portions, i would have to use 2 beans, which is a waste. maybe that's why people do savoury souffles since you have the eggy flavour there already. i didn't want to use chocolate because chocolate is boring.

Aroma Festival

first time going. wow, so packed, well more people went than i imagined.

i knew there weren't going to be many samples, but i didn't know that for all the coffee stands (and there were heapsss of them) there were at least 15 people. most coffee stands had 20-30 people lining, and even food stands had around 20ish, well it's really hard to tell since there are just heaps of people pushing/shoving/crowding around, and it's not even free. the mosaic was pretty cool. reminded me of the mole, one team had to a pixelated image of dame edna like the coffee mosaic except with paper of 5 different shades. coffee cups are so much cooler, but what if someone chucks something in the middle, or something falls into the middle, how would you get to it? couldn't take nice photos since the sun/shadows didn't match and lighting was weird.

ended up sharing a Chai latte with Bitter, the milk was frothed nicely, except that brand wasn't that strong, like Lipton packet chai latte is pretty weak, Tetley is the strongest out of packet chai lattes. there was this other brand, except their chai lattes came from tea boilers, so no freshly frothed milk.

got free nespresso coffee. i tried the intensity 4-volluto. it said it had some biscuit/fruit notes, but i could not taste anything. also, the milk frother took forever to froth the milk, and the milk wasn't even frothed/silky/hot enough compared to frothing it yourself/on other machines. i know i chose one of the milder coffees, i had it without sugar like normal, yet there was nothing special and kinda bland to what i was expecting. the flavours look so much cooler on the website, but i am turned off by nespresso machines for a while.

freebies: some tea samples, some ginger drinks samples which were pretty strong with ginger but quite nice at the same time-you're supposed to mix it with coffee/ice cream/ice to create your own drinks, a packet of fair trade tea bags, fake sugar (ie sweetener), bite sized treats (biscuits)-i realised where i've had them before! when i helped out at the easter show 2 years ago, our stands' boss made friends with the biscuits' boss, and they would trade their products, and then my boss would share the biscuits or i would sometimes take a few boxes home, yeah, i've had all their flavours (but i'm pretty sure in over two years they would have created new flavours that i have yet to try...). also, got a coffee cup =D yeah, i collect random things. i will do a proper list one day.

walking through the rocks today, i realised i've been to the La Renaissance cafe before and had a meal, but that was back in primary school where i didn't have a camera and i didn't associate the name with the cafe, but today i walked past and glimpsed how they had the seating at the back and i'm like yes! i remember what i eat (even as a kid), and i remember my cousin took my relatives/my fam and I to the rocks to eat, and even though it was a tad bit more expensive than other places back then (not sure about prices now), i remember it was a super good and satisfying experience, and their hot choc was sah good. might re-visit that place some time.

so far every plate i had has been $10 or less (except for chefs gallery but that was the week before break officially started and yum cha, where it's impossible to be super duper full with only $10). oh the irony, didn't want something fried or rice for lunch, but ended up getting that. ended up getting cheap $1 macarons from a place i don't even remember, so glad i only got 2. they were so small, and the watermelon tasted artificial and wasn't made properly. the rose one which had 2 different sized shells (which i couldn't see when looking at the display). baroque had a "special" today, 3 for 7.50 so you save 60c, but it was only coffee, chocolate, and salted caramel. coffee and chocolate by itself in a macaron doesn't appeal to me, so i would rather save that money for flavours i want.

The Seat and Panna Cotta

finally went to The Seat today! it's a south eastern/thai restaurant in pennant hills. everyone in my area said it was good and definitely worth going, so i decided to go with my mum today or else i'll never have time to go until after next sem.

we went at around 2, and there were still quite a lot of people dining in and take away. so glad their lunch special, which includes a drink and a dish for $10 also applies to weekends.

"house special drinks". on the left-lemon ice tea, on the right-thai style milk tea.

both drinks were really sweet, which explains why there was so much ice. since ice melts, after a while the drink doesn't become as sweet. couldn't really taste a lot of the lemon until some of the ice melted. with the milk tea, it actually is orange, the lighting was too bright so it washed out a lot of the colour. it's an interesting taste, but still sweet.

top-thai fried rice w/ beef, bottom-pad thai w/chicken.

the fried rice was pretty normal, couldn't really distinguish any "thai" flavours. the pad thai didn't use thin rice noodles, it used rice noodles but in a really thin cylindrical shape, so kinda like spaghetti but made out of rice noodles. this dish was pretty good, a lot of people around us also ordered it. there was a sweet chilliness and the acidity of the lemon balanced it well (: there also wasn't this lingering oil feel on your lips which is good. it doesn't look big, but the plate actually has depth, so we both didn't finish our plates and went back home with one filled take away box.

i think i took too many big bites, now my stitches are gone, and i think i ate the string, and i'm scared that it is more infection prone =/

going grocery shopping by myself is kinda wierd. yes, even though i've had my p's for ages, i don't buy groceries myself.

first time buying vanilla beans! my heart broke when i say the price: $10, and turns out there were only 4 beans. i earned the woolies voucher, so i let myself off this time and bought a packet. later i went to this other store, which stocked Spice and Co, and they had 2 beans for $4.50, and they were softer as well. no wonder why masterchef has ditched MasterFoods spices and gone with spices/herbs etc from Spice and Co.

cutting vanilla beans is not as easy as it looks on tv. on masterchef, their beans are straight and they have super small sharp knives for easier control. i only found a small sharp knife after i finished cutting it...and curved beans are very hard to cut/split in one go.

first time attempting panna cotta!

decided to use powder, since the leaves were even more expensive than the vanilla beans! like what!? there was some leaves in the fruit shop which were a bit cheaper, but i also saw that after i bought the powder. doesn't matter, powder lasts longer.

i know why the skin forms, but why does the vanilla seeds float to the top/bottom? i guess people serve it upside down so you can't see the skin...in some pictures, you see the seeds throughout the dessert, but in my one, you only see it on the outside....

they tasted pretty nice (despite it being half milk and cream). i only used a tiny bit of sugar, since i wanted to taste more of the natural vanilla taste rather than sweetness. served it with some passionfruit (: ceebs making a coulis, will do that tomorrow...i have yet to have restaurant quality panna cotta/souffle, but i used the Taste recipe, and it was exactly what i imagined panna cotta to be. should use my silicon muffin trays next time, according to the person who commented on the website, the desserts just slip out. couldn't be bothered to oil the glass ware. i also liked this recipe since it tells you to use the bean/pod. other ones tell you to discard it, but me being asian and hate wasting food, especially expensive stuff, i used it. (i also tried to eat the pod, unfortunately it's like a leaf).

came third again at dance eisteddfod with the same dance. this eisteddfod was made/created by my dance teacher, didn't know that was possible. i saw my old dance teacher since he was adjudicating. i really loved is dances.

i had two cakes, panna cotta, cheese on wafer crackers for dessert. feeling so unhealthy.

Baking Day

thanks Dandelion for hosting! hopefully we didn't trouble your dad too much (:

next time, we should defs get there earlier, and start baking earlier. the rainbow cake didn't have that vibrant colour, but the pastel colours looked so pretty. i haven't dealt with 1kg of butter at one time before. in our house, we never use butter in cooking (and only for baking if it's necessary). that rainbow cake was more than a half butter. ceebs uploading pics.

the zumbo cake actually turned out pretty good. too bad we didn't have time to do the "mirror glaze". i'll make another cake and use that on top hopefully before next sem starts.

i always want to make so much stuff, but half the time i don't have the equipment or the ingredients, so i just stick with basics since it's cheaper and i have basic equipment. really would love to attempt some cool stuff, but then i'll need kitchen scales, proper pastry brush, more moulds etc. so many things/holes that prevents me from making things. i guess i'll really have to think imaginatively and substitute stuff.

bought $10 worth of crepes from group on. i think i had mother's crepes once in Japan, even in Japan, they were kind of expensive.

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.

Cargo Bar and Lindt Cafe

yay for $10 steak! i've been looking at what other people have been eating, and then going "i want to eat that"

medium rare 150g rump steak, red wine sauce with mashed potatoes and salad. steak was good but not great, but you can't expect it to be superb for the price. on their website, they were saying how good they were...mashed potatoes were better than the chips. it wasn't too buttery (: i only got half a cherry tomato in my salad though. red wine sauce was nice. i tried some of my friend's mushroom sauce and it wasn't as mushroomy as hurricanes/riibs and rumps.

that redness! =D

first time going to Lindt Cafe, at darling harbour. i've thought about it, and i wanted to have a hot choc the first time i went to a Lindt Cafe, but it was sooooo hot today, like well over 20 degrees, so i opted for an Iced Milk Chocolate for $8. i like it!!! it looks sweet since you can see the chocolate sauce. but it's not. they also didn't add ice, so i feel i've got more worth out of my money. chocolate wasn't too heavy/rich (: good balance, definitely try it if you haven't already. if you go to cafes, even in castle towers, a large ice choc is about $6, so $8 with good quality chocolate/ice cream/choc flakes is more worth it than heaps of ice and super sweet choc syrup. really nice today (: we literally sat at the cafe for 3 hours just chatting. luckily they had a lot of seats there so they couldn't force us to leave.

they had 2 macarons for $5, was going to get them, but their flavours weren't that interesting and they gave it to you in a plastic bag, so no protection for taking it home...

took sticker photos. it's been over 2 years. that machine was super fast =/

had dinner at 10. then dad brought home some sushi, so i had then at 11. i don't really like eating that late...

he also brought home cake!

i see the box in the background everywhere, and i really want to know where this cake came from (someone gave that cake to him...)

passed first sem.

i got a pretty bad mark for the "easier subject", but i've hated babs since the beginning, and even though the test was pretty straightforward, i probably guessed all the mc wrong.

on the other hand, visn and chem were my highest, so i didn't guess all the mc for chem wrong. they probably marked visn really nicely since i got a distinction for it. out year also got an "easier" exam compared to other years, and i circled the ones which i didn't attempt properly, so i had an idea of how many marks i lost, but yay for scaling! same with chem, some i didn't attempt properly, and my raw mark would be horrible, so scaling definitely came in.

just realised, babs and maths marks were about the same. chem and visn were the same...

so close yet so far...

so many bruises and legs hurt from two days of dance after a two week break =/

MRI Scan/ECG

i actually didn't read the info they gave me, just went with the flow.

actually woke up before 7am today. first ever hospital brain scan. it was pretty cool, apart from the whole lying still for an hour, but hey, i shouldn't complain, getting paid to lie down =D apart from the researchers, a radiographer is also going to exam the stuff, and let's hope my brain is functioning healthily. free brain scan and getting paid=win.

ecg was exactly what you think it would look like in those sciency/"mind reading" criminal shows. getting hooked up to various things while they test your brain function/monitor other things. the stuff they tested was kind of like those brain training games (my ds is super dusty after not playing it for over 2 years...) some of the tests were pretty interesting. 

boost has buy one get 2nd for $1 today and tomorrow! $1=almost free, since you can't even buy anything things days with a dollar. did you know, catching one stop during peak hour is $3.60! feeling so ripped off. going to city is only $5.00 peak hour for trains. (student and child are the same during peak hour). buses are better, only $3.60 concession whenever and whatever time. 

i got pavlova and all berry smoothie. i thought pavlova would be really sweet like a meringue, but it wasn't, you could taste and see the fruits, which is what boost is all about. easy way had free smoothies at wynyard today, but i haven't had easy way since yr 10, and plan to keep it that way for a while. their artificial flavouring sickens me. i've had all the smoothies, but not all the juices at boost. i used my gift card today! it's pretty cool. so yay for free boost (:

I KNOW WHAT I WANT FOR MY BIRTHDAY, (yep, i always think ahead for my birthday)-fine dining at Masterchef restaurant. wanted to go last year, and want to go this year.

ok, i've been looking at the website/thinking about it for over 2 hours. 

1. it's quite hard to get through ticketmaster, probably cause it's the first day for the public to buy.

2. it's super expensive. $115 for four courses. even though there's a well-known chef heading it, the actual restaurant has no awards.

3. no one willing to eat with me.

4. not everything on the menu appeal to me eg, their last item on the menu has vegemite. if i don't eat it, it would be a waste of money, but i don't want to force myself to eat expensive things. 

5. they have high tea for 42, but as i said before, you need to be in a place with meaning/history/renowned for it to be worth it, and unfortunately, even though it's masterchef renowned, deep down in my head i'm telling myself it's a pop up restaurant. maybe when i've been to some hatted/michelin restaurants when i'm older and can afford it myself and if masterchef is still around, then i'll go (or if they have the restaurant next year and i absolutely love every single item and i have a job lol)

since it opens on my birthday, i'll properly go to the bar and buy something there since you don't need a ticket to go in. masterchef food truck in parra this week. ceebs, and even though they have some of the contestants dishes, $12 for a piece (or two if they're generous) of "fast food" chicken isn't worth it. i'll wait for next week and see what they have, but i really want to try something before they jet off. it's like the environmentally friendly pop up restaurant they had in syd 2 years ago. wanted to try it, but by the time i knew about it and was going to go, they closed. turns out the guys now in perth (since masterchef went to his restaurant again, but it looks pretty permanent in perth ): ) 

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....

woke up before 12 today. finally went out of the house today.

got a second happy meal today! now i have a minion with 2 eyes and it makes a sound! went for the healthy options of apples and apple juice. the person put a packet of apples in the box, then when she gave me the juice, she gave me another packet of apples, so free packet! didn't have any of it except for the juice. i want to try macca's apple pie macarons one day.

had hot pot today! at family friends' house. had to cut up my food into tiny bits and eat on one side. i'm scared that if i have chunks of food in my mouth, it will rub/crash against the gums, and re-open the hole, and bleed and get infected...

did you know, one of my grandfather has no teeth. about 10 years ago, he had an infection/disease in his gums and they had to get rid of all his teeth to get to it. he can eat solids food though...quite amazing (just not rock hard haha)

buffet/macarons/high tea...

did you know centrepoint had $1 froyo today? as if i would trek out to the city just for 1 dollar moochi. even if it was free, i think i would pass.

also kids eat free at the centrepoint tower buffet. i haven't been up there since they made the whole 360 degrees rotating restaurant and the sky walk thing. it's soooo expensive! mon-thurs lunch (cheapest) is $55, and fri/sat/sun dinner is $85+. and you only have 1.5 hours to stuff yourself. that's not enough time to enjoy the view, take photos and eat your money's worth. i was looking at the photos on their website, and i'm like hey, why does this seem familiar? THEN I REALISED. when i went to thailand, i went up to their tallest tower and enjoyed the view, and then also went to their sky buffet, and i'm pretty sure it lasted more than 1.5 hours and was cheaper. so i've experienced eating buffet high up in the sky before, just without the whole rotating thing, but you could walk around the whole restaurant back in thailand, so didn't even realise, but another things crossed off my bucket list (:

on monday when i went city, i saw laduree macarons are now $3.30! ridiculous! just over a week ago, they were $3.20. then i realised, STUPID NEW FINANCIAL YEAR. should've bought one the week before when it was 10c cheaper, and it's not like they've gone bigger this finanicial year. if you look closely at their macarons, quite a few (well more than expected) aren't perfectly made....their boxes have increased price from 40c to a few dollars. like their wedding box gifts (who is stupid enough to spend ridiculous amounts of money of macarons individually packed to give to their guests!? might as well give people a few more drinks or a few more dishes). last financial year they were $10 for a square box with 2 macarons. this financial year they're $12, mind you, the box/contents didn't get any bigger or fancier.

i still reckon it's a waste of money for people to have high tea at westfield, level 4. it's a shopping centre, so why would you waste money (it's actually quite expensive there) having high tea at a shopping centre. there was a time where i wanted to go high tea at t2, then i thought, that's a waste of money, since i bet they don't even make half their stuff themselves, and you're supposed to go there for tea, not food, and it's expensive considering their quality. 

my cousin said high tea at sheraton is better than qvb. they have a high tea buffet, but at $50pp, i'm not sure if i can afford it at this stage haha...usually the set menu at a high tea place and the tea is enough to make you really full, so high tea buffet...you probably won't eat anything before/after...

i would upload pics, but now i ceebs....high tea at qvb was worth it, since their tea is really good, crockery was traditional, and the building has some history to it. googling high tea places in syd, their one is considered one of the "cheaper" options. in hk, i had high tea at the 43rd level. the view was amazing. so were the bathrooms-i could wash my hands all day/night (there was hand cream as well). while you washed your hands, you could look over the harbour, and to your right was the mountains/ green stuff and an eagle flying at your eye level, yeah the view was superb. this other place i went to had a history to it, something about someone first settling/some first building (yeah, wasn't paying attention to what my uncle said), but there was also live music which you don't often find nowadays. i remember that place was the place were you had to line up at 12pm, for high tea at 3pm. yeah, i waited in line. only guests of the hotel could book a place. the line kept going until 5 ish, so if you went to the line late, you got a seat late, then you only had 1/2 to eat, and high tea is not something you should rush. you should sit there and take up the seat for as long as you can (unlike buffets)

yep, all of this is making me hungry. still can't open my mouth widely without some pain...

Day 3.

i know 12am showers are bad, as well as waking up at 1pm, but getting wisdom teeth taken out of you really does drain your energy/motivation to do anything.
yday my face was really swollen, now it died back down a bit. i guess i'm lucky since only one side of my face is swollen, but it's actually horrible. it's a massive inconvenience. the skin hurts inside and out, can't even wash my face properly since it hurts to touch. and it hurts to smile, so if something funny comes up, i'm clutching half my face trying not to laugh.
i gave up eating congee on the first day, and went for solid food cut into tiny tiny pieces/mashed potatoes. i still miss my greens/fruits. if i don't have them everyday, i feel weird, which probs explain why my sleeping pattern is horrendous. i'm still snacking on random junk foods even if i have to wait for it to "melt" in my mouth before i can swallow it.
can't believe i have to go through this again in the near future.

judy picoult's books are always about hospitals, family or law cases. i have yet to read one which doesn't involve those things. the one i'm reading right now has about 10 different voices in 10 different fonts. it's kinda annoying.

and it's been half a year, and i have about 500 photos on my phone, i'm trying really hard to delete photos. i need to stop taking photos of everything. at 2mb a photo, i'm not sure if i would have space for my phone to last me a few years, and i like to keep photos on my phone, so even if i do move them on computer, i like to browse them on my phone. this gets me thinking, people with phone cameras of 12mp+, how do they have enough space? you need space for all your apps etc, one photo alone would take up so much memory. same with dslr, a good quality image and then heaps of pics would take up so much space on your memory card/laptop/hard drive. but yeah, need to really stop taking pics of everything.

you know, for my uncle's birthday trip, he spent 2 weeks in new york, and bought heapsss of stuff there, and went to the rooftop of a hotel to watch ny's 8.30pm sunset. then he went back to hk for one night, then came down to aus, where he went to pink's concert last week in adelaide and also went to one of maggie beer's cooking classes and wine tasting down at the barossa, then flew to alice springs, then to melbourne and back to hk next week. he was saying how dinner in the middle of aus for $121 was cheap. (not for me, i'm currently averaging $10 a meal in the city. then again, i should be averaging $0 since i have yet to find a job) he's already been to america 5 times earlier this year, and heaps of countries already and it's only been 6 months! according to him, if you end up in the finance business/market, you should only do that for 9 years at most. yes, the pays good (well looking at him and his travels...) but it's super stressful so he's been only "working" for a few days each month and travels the rest of the time. he told me one of his friends got too caught up in the stress/business, he went to sleep one night and heart attack or something and died...

it seems everyone is going to europe. i guess there are times when i wish i was a rich kid. like my friends who's dad owns a business and only child, went to hk/thailand/japan for two weeks this break and stayed at 5 star hotels w/ room service/spa treatments/super yummy food. she has relos in hk, but she's rich and her parents can afford to stay in the best hk hotels. then again, money doesn't buy happiness all the time. what i'm trying to say is that i should be content with what i have (despite the pain, well more annoyance at how half my face is still swollen and preventing me to properly open my mouth)