Monday, May 29, 2017

Kakawa Chocolate

Sydney (and Aus) is always a few years late to the trends worldwide, but we finally have decent ice cream sandwiches! It's in a tiny shop which also does hand made chocolates and other edible gifts in a slightly newer side of Sydney where new restaurants have emerged.



   
Black sesame ice cream Sandwich-$6

You could taste the sesame flavour without the ice cream being too sweet. I loved how the biscuits were soft and thin but still held the ice cream together without being too messy to eat. The biscuits weren't too buttery or sweet, but towards the end you could feel yourself a little bit bloated from the butter in the 'bread' biscuit. It's so nice and sleek, or clean cut, and just a nice little snack, other more on the expensive side.




~$3 a piece of chocolate

Kakawa Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Tonight was a good night to see the Southern Lights (after seeing some people's fb posts). I'm just over a 2hr flight away unfortunately...Clouds are the bane of my existence one thing always in between the Northern or Southern lights.

I've decided there are just way too many cafes, dessert and cake places popping up everywhere, and it's impossible to try them all. Really have to be selectively these days. Like even for Vivid, they had a dessert market this weekend, but then I thought I don't really need all that sugar in me since I'm still a tiny bit sick. I'm the sort of person who hardly gets sick but once I do I take forever to get better...They also have other dessert places throughout Vivid, but I don't know why those cakes, ice creams and donuts don't really appeal to me at the moment.

The idea of full time food bloggers getting paid to eat and also eat for free seems amazing, but  don't they get sick of eating out everyday? I'm just thinking of all the fat stored inside the bloodstream...more chances of more complications in the future...It may seem like I eat out a lot (relatively), but I do try to space them apart...Yeah that doesn't apply to holidays. Literally just eating as much as I can because you can't bring all those street food and desserts back in Aus.

The house is oddly quiet after having up to 12 people living in our house at once, but now back to 4.

Those feels when you close at 4pm, but then 2 customers open the closed door to come in...

I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I actually love referencing. Well, more that I love End Note which make referencing a million times easier so it doesn't actually take me 3 days to do.

Friday, May 26, 2017

No 1 Bent St

I always love to find good deals around, and when I saw Dimmi offer half price dinner for a more fancier dinner place, I booked it even without looking at the menu. As a uni student who loves exploring new places, always need to be mindful of how much things cost since no money to eat at fancy places regularly. Prices below are for a la carte. The set dinner menu is $80pp. It's not cheap as the plates of food to share aren't big, but you can definitely tell the quality of the produce is top notch. I love the idea of a sharing menu, since sharing means you can try more variety. 

I love restaurants this side of town, with all these sandstone buildings.


menu

Open kitchen


bar  (didn't get any drinks cause no money lel)


love their long tables. was a bit too keen and first ones to arrive for the night



Chicken liver pate, four spiced salt-$4pp
Mike’s sourdough, cultured salted butter-$7pp


Even though there's high fat content, I still love pates. This chicken pate lacked that distinct taste and fragrance in a duck pate, but it was still delicious. It was smooth and not grainy, well seasoned and went well with the bread. The butter was more creamier and super smooth. Sourdough not too sour, but crust was a bit hard/chewy.


Blackened leek, jamon Iberico, romesco, almond-$21


I always associate blackened/charcoaled food as cancerous, so I didn't end up eating the skin of the leek. I could appreciate how the char on the leeks just made a boring leek into something with more dimension, and it was really soft as well.

Pressed tofu, cucumber, crispy chicken skin, Szechuan chilli sauce-$18


Hands down the crispiest chicken skin ever! It was wafer thin but so crisp that the table two down from us turned their heads my way when I cracked into it. Of course you need some special equipment to dehydrate (?) then somehow crispy it up. This was actually a cold entree with firm tofu, and thin cucumber slivers. I think my chilli tolerance is increasing because I just managed to have Szechuan sauce. Without the heat, the tofu is quite bland. I did have to drink a few glasses of water afterwards. It is definitely spicy for me, but a good spicy (I can't believer I just said that lol).


Ash baked eggplant, puffed rice, edamame, sesame sauce-$18

I actually hate eggplant, but this dish with their sesame sauce made me love eggplant. I didn't eat the skin because it was a bit too ashy/black for me, but I loved the puffed rice for a bit of texture and the edamame and coriander to keep the dish light. I wished I new that special recipe sauce, there was a bit of miso in it as well which made the sauce even better.


Twice cooked goats cheese soufflé with rosemary-$21


inside



Wood fired lamb rump, ratatouille & tapenade-$38




The most tenderest lamb ever. It was perfectly cooked with pink throughout. It's not cheap for 4 slices of lamb, but you can definitely tell this is super good quality and cut of lamb. The tomato-ey flavour from the ratatouille wasn't too strong either so the lamb flavour shone through. This was my favourite dish of the night. 

salad


Love the addition of fresh dill to the salad which was lightly dressed and super fresh. Going to add dill into everything now lol.




Rice pudding with sugar plum jam and honeycomb-$14

We actually waited around 20mins before I asked them where our dessert was and they said it was coming. I found it odd they have us another steak knife then later placed another lamb on our table. We told them we already had the lamb and they said were we sure. I wouldn't mind having a second plate for free, but I'm not greedy like that lol. I think they took it back out to the kitchen then back to another table. It didn't look as pink as our dish though... Then 5 minutes later they finally brought out the dessert, which had obviously been prepared beforehand.

I normally go to restaurants for their desserts, but I guess if I were to come here again, it would be for savouries rather than sweets. Personally, I thought the rice pudding was a bit boring. It was a bit thick and creamy, and probably just too heavy to end the night with. It doesn't take much skill either to make rice pudding. The plum jam was very sweet, but it went well to add sweetness, and the honeycomb had that nice slightly bitter flavour which added a good crunch. 

Would I pay full price? Probably not since it's not cheap as each dish is shared, but if I was to go again, I would go for the lamb.

No.1 Bent Street by Mike Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Brewtown Newtown

I hardly frequent this side of town, so I did make an effort to come to Newtown for this cafe (after the whole hype of fake cronuts, or now they call Brewnuts here, since as  I've mentioned a million times, Cronuts is trademarked by Dominique Ansel). There weren't any Brewnuts here, so my streak of not having fake cronuts continues (which is a good thing)


food spread

  
Lemon Meringue Cruffin-$6


inside

It's a cross between croissant and muffin. It sort of flaky like a croissant, but a bit denser and taller in shape, like a muffin. I actually quite like this since if you don't want a muffin since they're normally cakey, then go with a cruffin I hiss some it's lighter. There was a nice lemon curd inside, topped with a fluffy meringue.

Sweet Earl Grey Tea-$6

It sounded nice on paper, but this drink tasted really odd. It's not sweet or bitter like earl grey tea. It just tasted off like medicine or a flat, flavourless soda water. Would not recommend.

  


Brownout French Toast with sour cherry and watermelon compote, white chocolate cream cheese and freeze dried fruits-$16

It's very small in size for the price. The cream cheese is quite sweet but balanced well with the sourness from the sauce. It was more of a cruffin that was french toasted. 


Coffee rubbed beef brisket with hummus, roasted beetroot, mushrooms, poached eggs on toast-~$18


inside

It sounded interesting on paper so decided to order it. First time have coffee flavoured beef. It sort of had an Asian flavour too it. Didn't fully taste like coffee, but more the aroma and bitterness from it in the beef. The hummus was smooth and love the mushrooms, but not much beetroot and the piece of toast was quite small in comparison to the toppings, ended up running out of bread...


 
cakes

I guess this cafe is alright, just not worth the hype, or maybe I missed out on the better dishes during the hype...

Brewtown Newtown Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Monday, May 22, 2017

I think I may have said this before, but I sort of understand those people who can have a decent income + freebies through just by posting photos mainly on Instagram, or blogging, or youtubing. Those things are actually quite time consuming, and I guess if they make good content, companies like it and will pay you. I do all these things for a hobby, but I wouldn't have that extra creativeness or skills even if it's to keep up a proper food blog. If I was to do a proper food blog post, it'll take around 2 hrs (incl procrastination), normal place 30min-1hr since it takes a while to go through and upload pics. Like I still have over 15 places to blog about, and never ended blogging about travels because selecting the photos to upload, going through photos/receipts to see the prices of what I ate, well I kind of ceebs, even though I'm not full time uni, somehow research has become full time...Haven't been this stressed about uni for a while...

I used to not be picky when uploading photos on Insta, but then I realised it's kind of fun just slightly editing photos (I am still against filters though...). I also learnt what a pod on Insta is, never knew they existed lol.

Although one day I do hope to post more travel stuff haha, maybe in the summer holidays LOL. In a non realistic world, getting paid whilst getting freebies is #goals.

Yes, struggling to finish this literature review in time. Don't judge, I have somehow preoccupied myself that I don't have time to watch full eps of MasterChef some days...

Also, just discovered End Note today. Why did I not know about this? Why did they not teach or tell us about this in first year uni. I feel like my life referencing assignments has been a lie all this time. It took me a few hours to actually get it working on my Mac, but damn is it useful. I feel like this is going to be me and SPSS later this year...Difference is that they did teach us SPSS, just no one understood it.


Sunday, May 21, 2017

Hakiki Turkish Ice Cream

This ice cream place has been on my list to go for well over a year. Turkish ice cream is definitely different due to the way they make it and the way they freeze it. It's quite hard to scoop but once in your mouth it's not ice cold and melts easily. It generally has a sticker sort of texture but still creamy. One of those things you just have to try for yourself. I love ice cream which doesn't melt as fast-less pressure to take a quick photo lol.

Dondurma: Melon and feta, Baklava-2 flavours $7

I quite liked the melon flavour with the refreshing fruit. Couldn't really taste the feta in it, but it did help to cut down a bit of the sweetness of the melon I think. The baklava was quite sweet like the actual pastry. I did like how they include pistachios in it for some extra texture.

  
so hard deciding which flavours

Hakiki Turkish Ice Cream and Baklava Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Friday, May 19, 2017

FREE CONTACT LENS TRIAL and GIFT VOUCHER

If you want to try what contact lenses feel like, please feel free to contact me!

Yes, I'm in need of a lot more participants, even though not many people read this blog, or you can let your friends know if they're interested in trying contacts. No idea how we will be able to recruit our minimum target. We have to recruit around double the amount of people in a 'normal' 5th year research. You don't even come in for that long, and you get paid pretty decently as well.

Sort of drowning already even though this is our first week. If I had normal clinic, no way would I be able to do our research project. I bet ours is the most time consuming, even compared to ortho-k. It's quite difficult to schedule multiple appointment times and make sure the room is free, participant is free, and both of us are free.

Once we book someone in, we need to calculate how many days before we need to prepare the contact lenses: 1 day, 10 days or 30 days. 30days are the trickiest, because we have to prepare it and hope that the participant can come back in 30 days, if not....well, we will have to re prepare it.

Once we decide what day to start preparing/soaking the lenses, the solutions have to be changed everyday. So much pipetting. Pretty much it's like research is a full time job. We're dealing with around 540 lenses if we get enough participants. So for a 30 day lens, we have to change the solution every single day. Luckily we have someone helping us for a bit with changing solutions, but it's still a struggle to calculate what day we should start preparing the lenses whilst juggling when the participant is free to come in, as they are the number one priority. Aiming for 270 appointments, which is a lot, considering we're not at uni everyday.

In hindsight, we sort of regret choosing this project. Actually, our supervisor didn't know how much work was actually involved until we started. We wanted some lab work and clinic skills since we don't get patients this year which is good, but just didn't realise the actual prep is more time consuming than seeing the participants. And if we don't get enough, we don't finish our project...

Sometimes I wish I was more extroverted and had a bunch of friends to call upon. But friends aren't like databases and I'd prefer to have a few closer friends than heaps of non close friends (but for research that would be super helpful).

Slowly feeling better, but was still pretty dead this week. Been sleeping before 9pm this whole week. I even missed most of MasterChef because I didn't have the energy to stay up and watch it-that's pretty serious considering some season I've never missed an episode. Celebs catching up since research has become more like a full time job. I can truly  appreciate the efforts PhD students put in. Some of them even stay at uni till 1am almost 7 days a week...No time to even blog about Tassie....

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Not a great start to the week. First time ever in my life being this sick. Ended up sleeping around 46 hours in 2 days...also made a pb: vomited 6 times in one night...what's worse is that I can't eat anything and feeling so weak...I know understand why anti-vomit pills exist. I've hardly ever thrown up in my life, until 2 nights ago....No energy to even do any work. I actually was feeling sick on Day 2 in Tassie...somehow I'm always sick Day 2 of every trip...like my Europe trip Day 2 was in Iceland and I got sick then as well...I love the colder climates, but the trend seems to be me getting sick on holidays....

I still have no idea how to recruit so many participants for our research project....

Time to go over photos.

Sunday, May 14, 2017

Things people DON'T tell you about Tassie

First time in the 'forgotten state.' For those who don't follow me on Snapchat, I did a spontaneous trip with relatives to Tassie for 3 days. Spontaneous as in everything was booked only about a week ago. Travelling with a 1 year old and 90 year old isn't easy, with some really slow people, and everyone knows I like to pack my itinerary rather than take it easy and yolo each day. There's actually heaps to do in Tassie, but I only had a limited time and needed to really cut down on what we could physically do with young children and elderly but still have at the same time. You have to factor in like 30min toilet breaks-not even joking. I might actually do a short blog spot about my trip if I have time...(oh the irony, somehow I don't have time these days...Missed a few emails and other paper work stuff...)

On to the main topic because in my half a day super quick internet research and reading other people's blogs, I didn't find any info about this. Well obviously, since travel bloggers post nice travel pics, and food bloggers just focus on food.

- Hobart has no night life. Everything closes before 5pm, they don't open Sundays even the CBD, and on Saturday everything closes at around 4pm. It's like a shortened Sydney Sunday on a Saturday then shortened again. Not sure how people survive...to used to the city life...(relatives already found Sydney shops closed early...)
- They don't even have office buildings in their CBD.
- They have 'voucher' parking, mainly pay by coins and no change given. Most pay parking only limits you to 2 hrs. Even disabled parking have time limits of 1 or 2 hours. In Syd I think parking is more expensive, but disabled parking is untimed...
- Everything feels like it closes at 3pm. Did not see any person when driving through small towns in the middle of the day.
- Most of the small towns their restaurants close before 8pm (i.e. last orders at like 7pm). Like in Sydney even in the suburbs on a weekday, they open till like 10pm.
- They charge for plastic bags, just like in Northern Territory. It's only in NSW where you have the 'luxury' of plastic bags, but we are the most behind in trying to be more conservative and environmentally friendly. I forgot if they charge for bags in QLD and VIC.
- They don't accept Woolies Everyday Rewards Cards 'it's Tasmania.' They also don't have save 4c/L at Caltex. I guess us NSW peeps really do get more value for money
- Need to purchase a National Park Pass if you're planning to go see the major sights i.e. Cradle Mountain and Freycinet National Park. The money helps to maintain the place, and rangers do check the parking lots regularly. The toilets are also ok and not too dirty.
- Everything is expensive, just add $5-10 to any normal Sydney dish (I actually knew this before but just saying...)
- Tiny, tiny airports at both Launceston and Hobart (with super overpriced food)
- Heaps of rental cars though. You can't experience Tas without self driving. The main reason we drove was cause asian tour places charged min $500 for 3 days not including flights or food, or day tours to see Cradle Mt $120 even though you only need to buy a park pass or your vehicle, so prices for tours are crazy inflated.
- They have visitor's registration for hikes, in case you get lost where you sign in and out. Only discovered this after my two shortish hikes/walks. Next time when I do the longer 3-5hrs hikes I'll register...really did not know this until I left lol
- Some places limit the amount of water you can get at the beginning of the hike, and they also have signs it's not 100% safe to drink.
- Inform accommodation of your check in/out times. They were surprised we checked in late and checked out early. Well I like to maximise my day...
- Reception only exists in the city, and small towns.

- Hobart reminds me of Queenstown. A cute little town with a lake and a mountain by the side overlooking the town. Just Queenstown's mountains are nicer with the snow capped peaks and are more pointy, where as in Hobart, fog/clouds cover the peak most of the time.

Driving: the main topic tbh

- THE ROADS THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS ARE THE CURVIEST AND TIGHTEST ROADS EVER.
- I have to say my driving experience increased exponentially even though I've had my full's for almost 3 years now (or 7 yrs driving experience incl L's).
- To drive around Tasmania, you have to go up and down mountains to cut from West to East.
- To go on mountains the curves are super tight. I though driving through Blue Mountains to Bathurst  to roads were curvy, which are one or two lane and newly paved. THIS IS NEXT LEVEL CURVY. Even my dad who's had heapsss of driving experience from taxi's, motorbikes, vans etc and driven heaps of places interstate, Tassie wins for curviest and tightest roads.
- All roads are 100km/h though the mountains. Highways mainly 110.
- Since there aren't that many people, most roads in the mountains are one lane, so gg if car is coming at you fast. If another car is coming, kind of have to touch the mountain side, and other car is just almost on the cliff edge...
- There are 'barriers' on the side, but just those wooden pickets, sometimes just a thin wire, and then it's a cliff drop down the  mountain. If you veered a tiny bit to one side, well goodbye, off you roll down the mountain
- Elephant pass road is the bendiest imo. Having a Ferrari or Porsche would be cool to drift on the multiple bends, but also a high chance you'll fly off the mountain since you're going so fast...
- There are trucks which go on the mountain as well. If you're unlucky you go at 40km/h and just add another 30min to your trip since you can't overtake.
- They even have those signs which advise you on recommended speed limit when making turns. Normally in Sydney if I'm going at 60 and it says 30, I can still go at 60 since the car is stable enough. Here we got a decent car, but the max is 100 and it says 15, I actually had to go at 15 just in case I fly off the mountain/road when doing those tight curves.
- It's actually impossible to go 100 in the mountains, or even know flat roads, since the flat roads are sooooo frisking bendy.
- See roadkill every 5 minutes. Literally. From just knocked, to decapitated, to skinned with fresh raw flesh, to bones to dead for a few days. Mainly possums and some wombats (?). Managed to only hit one which is pretty impressive after driving around 16 hours on the trip since it's impossible to stop when you're going at 100 at night. I saw it then felt the wheel go over....Like why couldn't it run out half a second later so it goes after the wheels...
- NSW is actually pretty nice in having warning signs for speed cameras, and they are on relatively fat poles. In Tas, there are quite a few cameras on the thinnest poles in between trees and no warning signs so not that great if you're a tourist since you don't know where the cameras are...so just don't speed
- Mountains can be super foggy, so if a car is in front of you, try to stick with it
- Also need to take extra care esp when raining on a curvy mountain. Normal straight roads and it's raining I do take extra care but can still stick to speed limit. Not here...from 100 down to like 50.
- Use 4wd on the mountains (I only did it on the 2nd day lel). Don't cheap out and hire a small car. You won't really make it up the mountains without slowly down considerably.
- Did I mention street lights don't exist? Well only in the CBD, and the CBD is tiny.
- It was pretty fun though driving through mountains, just more concentration and skills needed.

Saturday, May 13, 2017

Wooden Bowl

On a hot summer's day, cold Korean noodles are perfect to help cool down (it's now Autumn, and I love the colder months→ kbbq and hot pot!)

Soybean cold noodle soup+peanut butter-$13
Special black bean sauce noodles-$11
Japchae: potato noodle with beef and vegetable-$29


I was disappointed there were only 3 sides and it didn't seem like they offer refills. The soybean was very interesting, first time having something like that. I'm not a big fan of the soybean taste which has a bit of saltiness to it. Completely different to a soybean drink. The black bean sauce noodles were the highlight-love that sauce which wasn't overly seasoned. It tasted like black bean but better than the black bean Chinese paste. I found the Japchae to be lacking beef, and was more on the small side for the price. Probably a bit too many veggies than noodles. I can have veggies at home, but when I order this I want more noodles pls.

  
Original fried chicken (half)-$18

The chicken came with the other salt/spice to dip in, but I found that the chicken itself was already heavily salted. It didn't have the crunchy batter compared to other KFC (korean fried chicken). Chicken was a tad dry in parts, probably below average (not that I've had many KFC before since I actually try to avoid deep fried meats because it's so unhealthy).

Wooden Bowl Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Kürtosh

Finally tried a Kurtosh! I've had cakes here before, but never had enough people to share this with. 
(Those who follower this blog will know how long ago this post is lol)




Pistachio Kurtosh-$8.50

It was doughier than I expected, and quite filling. I don't think I'm a big fan of this sort of pastry, so it was below expectations. It wasn't overly sweet since we opted for pistachios, but at times it felt like eating so doughy bread+nuts.




cakes



 
Raspberry cheesecake, tiramisu-$4.50 ($4.90 for 100g)

I don't know if their prices have increased, but they do their cakes but weight. I've had the strawberry one before which was quite light. The cheesecake here is quite dense, but not as dense as NY cheesecakes. Sort of off because I like my cheesecakes to be fluffy like Jap ones or just dense yet silky like NY style. The tiramisu lacked coffee flavour and a lot more cream than mascarpone. Maybe I just chose the wrong stuff this time...


Kürtosh Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Monday, May 8, 2017

Pink Diamonds

A week of spontaneity. I tagged along to get free coffee after uni since my uncle needed to pick up something, and because coffee at hotels cost 3x normal price, so I thought why not...Just something like coffee ended up with me coming home with a 4 figure invoice, but first...


I AM HOLDING A HOUSE IN MY FINGERS

  
I AM WEARING A HOUSE ON MY FINGER
 THIS RING IS $500 000+

I've never held/worn something so expensive in my life. Like can you imagine how much $500k would look like in cash? It's not even a deposit for a house, you can actually buy a house, well apartment these days in Sydney...

They even have a whole chart to grade all the different colours. They come in different tones and obviously the pinker it is and bigger the whole diamond, the more expensive it is. My uncle's friends diamond was quite a high quality of pink, in 2009 it was $7k, now 8 years later it has inflated to $31000+. I didn't even have a job back then so obviously could not invest in diamonds...

It was sort of a spur in the moment decision. They brought out this super simple yet classic pendant featuring one pink diamond, and it was beautiful. So I ended up purchasing a pink diamond in a necklace as an investment piece to wear. Mostly these super luxurious stuff end up being family heirlooms. 

I just can't believe how that diamond can jump 4x it's price in a short amount of time. My diamond was super tiny, and not as pink, but still a good level of pink, so it won't inflate as much. The main thing which pushed me is that the only place with natural diamonds in the Argyle Mine in Western Australia doesn't have many left, with the last diamonds to be found in 2018 and mines are going to close in 2020. 

You can fit a whole year's worth of pink diamonds that they mined in WA in the palm of your hands. So little but so valuable and time consuming. No other place in the world have pink diamonds, so it was really yolo and fomo. There literally is a limited quantity in the world, and majority have been hoarded by rich people and royals.

Natural pink diamonds are different since they think they were formed from the pressure of the earth forming. Cheaper pink diamonds which still aren't cheap but still not as expensive as real pink have colours from trace elements or they heat it so it's pink or it's just man made. The most expensive is red which you cannot buy since there are no more red diamonds left on Earth apart from family heirlooms which people will never sell. To put it into perspective, a 0.02 carat of decent pink 5P, cost $2000. It's literally a tiny speck. It makes Tiffany and Hermes jewellery seem cheap. Those elaborate Tiffany engagement rings aren't even custom made and are typically mass produced. Even if it costs $50 000 which is expensive it's still 'cheap' compared to one simple ring with a pink diamond.

Everything at Celleija is customer made, so I still have to wait for it since I wanted a slightly bigger diamond compared to the one they were selling at the shop. I was planning to spoil myself and invest in a handbag (cough, one famous canvas bag...LV...) but those still depreciate in value unless you get a Chanel (but $7000+) and you still have to take care of it even when you're not using it. Diamonds are a lot less maintenance, and even though my pink diamond is a speck, hoping it'll appreciate in value since there not gonna be any left in the world....unlike bags you can keep making....

FYI it's the most expensive thing I've purchased (actually only left a deposit, but still). It wasn't even a special occasion. It cost more than a return ticket to Europe and America. Pretty much 2 holidays, hence no more holidays at the end of the year...Quite a lot of my friends are already in full time work and pretty sure saving for a home deposit, then there's me saving some but spending more yet earning less...Tbh, if I can afford something like this, my full time friends must have loads of money in their savings....Time to not go out and eat to save that money.

 
57 yellow diamonds

 
black diamonds with 18carat gold (or something fancy). even black is so shiny

The same necklace with a black diamond is half the price of the pink diamonds. Diamonds also come in blue, violet (which are just as rare but still available to purchase, only at diamond exclusive events. Apparently for every 25million carat rough cut diamonds, only one single blue or violet diamond is produced. Then there's pink champagne and your typical white. 

Yes, I learnt a lot about something which wasn't even on my 'wish list' today.