PappaRich at Macquarie

Macquarie is starting/continuing to have everything from shopping to food. Things you used to find in the city are now also in Macquarie. From Snag and Stand, Chefs Gallery, and soon Ippudo (they turned on their lights today, which means it's opening soon), and many more different places to eat. Still getting lost in this shopping centre with it's continuous expansions.

Second time at Pappa Rich, first time was at Parra. Didn't have their roti this time, but opted for a stir fried dish, since it had chilli, it also meant that it was an excuse to try one of their many dishes. From memory, the prices at Maquarie are slightly more expensive than Parra, or maybe their prices have just increased across the board since last year.

Pappa Char Koay Teow: flat noodles w/ prawns, fish cakes, egg, bean, sprouts and chives-$13.90

Matcha Rocks-$7.50

The dish was on the spicy side for me (I can hardly eat spicy stuff), but is was a nice spicy and bearable. The dish obviously doesn't look like it does on the menu. They do give you 3 prawns as pictured, but the fish cakes were super shredded. It's actually not a massive dish for the price, nor was there a lot of toppings. It was definitely filling for one person with a drink, but more on the expensive side for something stir fried. Didn't turn the plate around to take this photo, which is kind of annoying.

The drink itself wasn't too sweet, but was expecting a bigger matcha/green tea hit which I didn't get. The red beans weren't that sweet either, but I prefer these types of drinks not overly sweet or else it feels like you're drinking sugar.

Watched Minions after dinner, and they are super cute! There is a story line, so I guess the movie was better than I expected it to be since minions can't really talk, but you still can kind of understand them.

vegetarian roti-$7.90, roti canai single-$5.50, teh tarik (iced)-$4.20

Took my mum here the next day since she hasn't had the roti from here before. Can't really see them make the roti like the other places...They said it would take around 15mins, but luckily it was lunch and they weren't super busy, so it took less than that. The single piece of roti is quite expensive considering you add around $2 for some curry sauce and a slightly bigger piece of roti. We still didn't manage to finish the sauces even with another piece of roti. Also, that red sauce was way too spicy for us, but the other curries were a nice spice level. The teh tarik was slightly on the sweeter side and not as heavy on the tea flavour. It was a super quick lunch stop from all the shopping since we were planning to go somewhere else for our second lunch of the day.

Gloria Jeans Coffee

So today is the last day of June, and also EOFY. didn't find many sales this year ):

but this month of June, Gloria Jeans had free coffee between 2-3pm since the 2nd year of the Sereno blend. It's quite a mild coffee, and not a lot of coffee flavour, but couldn't really taste the passionfruit/citrus/fruity flavour in it as it was really subtle. i actually never drink gloria jeans, and despite exams this month, i managed to still get 8 cups of free coffee, in between work or after exams.

prices do vary, so where I live it's $3.70, Carlingford is $3.75, and town hall is $3.85. sometimes if i'm not in a hurry, i ask for a mug and if the person is nice, they give it even though mugs are bigger than a small takeaway coffee and they're the same price.

I think I like my local Gloria Jeans the best, people are friendly and it's cheaper than other places

mugs, caps w/ choc powder and cinnamon 

snapchat photo because i forgot to take a proper one lol

Burger Project

Super quick lunch after a morning exam while waiting for my hourly bus back home to arrive. Always wanted to try this place by the celebrity chef Neil Perry at World Square, even though other people have said it's not that great.

quite a lot of seating inside, but the seats are more tightly placed together

packaging in a paper bag

Classic burger: beef, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion, special sauce-$8.90

On first appearance, it looks like the infamous Shack Shack burgers from New York with it's fancy leafy lettuce.  The beef itself is indeed very keen and good quality, and cooked to medium rather than the overcooked patties from Maccas. However, when you're eating a burger, it's already unhealthy, so I guess I would have preferred the beef to be a bit more juicy and have slightly more seasoning. It's not cheap for a burger of this side, and was very filling without any sides. The 'special sauce' was more on the tomatoey side, which I'm not a massive fan of tomato sauce in burgers. There was probably more onion than I would have liked. The bread was soft but nothing special. Also, the paper bag was bigger than the actual burger itself, making it hard the 'push' the burger out of the bag to eat it without touching it. Decided to not go with the cheese since it was an extra dollar. Overall it was nice, but not the best burger out there. 

Look at the perfection of these burgers from Shake Shack in America! Never got around to doing a proper American food posts, but these burgers were so soft and milky, with super juicy patties yet without being too fatty. The greaseproof paper is the perfect size for holding onto the burgers they look deceivingly small and flat, but are surprisingly so filling on a cold winter NYC day! plus, they were relatively cheap :)

Lobby Lounge Take 3

Carrot cake is probably my least favourite cake, but when I saw it on Masterchef, I knew I had to try it before exams started. 

anna polyviou's carrot cake-$8.50

carrot cake, apricot insert, rice bubble disc, carrot cake crumble, praline cremeux, caramel glaze w/ graffiti, candy carrot strips, baby celery leaves

the layers

It was the 2014 dessert of the year, but that included a cream cheese foam and a carrot sorbet. This cake is decent for the price, but doesn't include those two elements. Loved how there wasn't too much carrot flavour in the cake. However, the caramel glaze gets quite sweet halfway through, and I have a sweet tooth which is saying something, so if there was the sorbet there, it would definitely have helped to cut through the sweetness. You could definitely taste the layers there, and loved the crack of the tempered chocolate. Can't wait to see what else Anna creates!

questionable end

at the beginning of this semester i thought, yeah 3 subjects, i'm gonna have time to study everything and be confident i'm not going to get supps.

then after the beginning of my failed prac exam last week, it all went downhill.

i actually had a pretty good exam timetable for once, well better than all the other years, especially 2nd year 1st sem 8 exams in 2 weeks with a mid-year dance concert to perform. this sem was 4 exams over 2 weeks, with 5 days in between my 2nd and 3rd exam so kind of like a mini stuvac, well 4 days since i had work on a day. i thought with the relatively spread out exams i could fit in work as well without having to take time off since no one can cover me. my stuvac was kind of non existent since i still had work over the long weekend, and had to go uni to practice for a day, where i also got free ben and jerry's ice cream....

but this time after every exam, i just remembered all the things i did wrong, and know i failed it. i know my wam is going to massively decrease, but pleaseeeee let me pass this semester, or at least get a supp for a 2nd chance to redeem myself.

over 400 diseases to remember, and differentiate from each other, know what is its, causes, signs, symptoms, treatments. and then another million diseases which can stem from the eye to other parts of the body. and it's only the "anterior" eye which is supposed to be easier since things look a tad bit different compared to the posterior eye where everything looks the same. i worried about diseases the most because of the content. every week 4 hours of new material. think about it. a commerce course is only max 3 hours of week: 2 hours lectures then 1 hour tute to consolidate your knowledge. diseases itself is sometimes 7 hours a week, min 4 hours new material each week. it's literally double or triple other course contents. so much stuff to memorise. started studying for it around wk12, and still 4 weeks later to know everything was impossible.

even the smart people weren't sure of their answers ): one of my super smart friends only got 5 hours of sleep in 48 hours. so cray. i only got 5.5, and i was planning to just get 5, but normally if i don't have an exam in the morning, i'll sleep in and get 8-9 hours...yes, study time wasted but i need my energy. especially sitting through a 3 hour exam. haven't done that since the hsc...

realised to wrote a completely wrong answer for the optom paper. can't believe i ran out of time to do it properly.

and visn paper, wow, those questions were so hard, at least i wasn't the only one who thought so. too bad in optm they don't scale you, can actually calculate what score you got in the final exams once you know your whole course mark.

the sad thing is no one (well it's unheard of) to fail this semester of third year. but our year gets it harder. for diseases, we got a new lecturer, have to pass the finals worth 60% and his questions are super hard. like for example, we have some case studies to do, and even with everyone's knowledge and our notes in front of us, the max we got was 7/10. like what do you expect from us? just know he marks hard ): also the other exams are hurdles. visn wasn't last year but since everyone didn't study for it last year, they changed things up.

already receiving payment notifications welcome emails for a course for next sem. why you do this. the fake hope that we passed, but they will unenrol us and kick us out of the course if we fail this sem ):

oh, the look of repeating this sem is so high. so much sadness. going to relax over the next few days, and then probably start studying for supps. pleaseeee let me get a supp. please let me pass this sem.

halfway through but feeling so sad. i know i failed the practical on monday, and not even sure if i didn't fail too bad so i can get a supp/2nd chance.

now looking at diseases notes and about to cry. internally and physically. been looking at this for the past few weeks, and still not enough time to remember everything. and after a super failed mid sem, how to even get over 50% in a 3 hour final worth 60%.

internally dying.

fyi, back in 1st yr, we got an email saying a 2nd yr optom student committed suicide. probably other factors, but one contributing is the stress from optom, well people who are slow to learn like me. actually that girl was a friend's friend, and apparently was quite bright =/

but my point is i. am. so. screwed. please let me pass this semester. only until i screwed up my prac then the other exam which was super hard (and its optom so they don't scale), that i realised my doing 3 subjects this sem doesn't really equate to more time to study.

so much content. the struggle is real.

Winter!

so nice seeing everyone on Saturday (: even though I'm super screwed for exams ):

i actually had an MRI scan earlier that morning, so was super tired just from waking up early. it was part of a research thing i participated in 2 years ago, and back then i didn't have a job so decided to do it since you get reimbursed. now 2 years later, that money was not worth my time, but i decided to finish the testing anyways since it's a free scan, and i would hate participants not completing stuff myself if i was a researcher myself. they give all the boring jobs to the new PhD students, and all the main doctors don't even have to analyse the results lol.

thanks so much Shirley!

they're actually being sold at uni IGA for $2, which is kind a rip compared to the $1.50. online they sell 3 for $20...not many people like artificial banana, but i'm the weird kid who does (as well as cherry flavoured lollies, and other random candy)

btw, the salted caramel lindt lindor ball is really good! it's not sweet like the normal milk chocolates and not too creamy either so it doesn't feel as fattening. there's dark choc wrapped around the salted caramel filling, and there is definitely a noticeable amount of saltiness in there. caramel wasn't too sweet either (if it all since the salt kind of overpowered it), but i would rather more salt than sweetness in salted caramel if i had to choose. like heston's salted caramel was just on the sweet side.

is it weird? i find 90% lindt dark choc not as dark as 85%. maybe this time we didn't put the chocolate in the fridge...but 90% doesn't taste bitter or sweet or very chocolatey, it's just like a mild cocoa flavour.

skipped uni today (well skipped 1 hr of uni), but i caught up...except she turned off the recording towards the end =/ 

i should stop saying i'm screwed, and do some studying.