Wrong Timings?

Recently I've been thinking a lot of what ifs and if onlys. 

If only I was born 2 years earlier so I wouldn't have to compete with people to get a job. Or if I was born 4/5 years earlier where employers gave good pay and were looking for people to work, not the other way around. Or not even better pay but just better work conditions. Or if I tripped up a year earlier then I would get that Masters name chucked into the same degree I'm doing now but in the older degree name. Or what if I didn't trip up at all, then can still work within Sydney even without being at the company before and work near home. Too bad other people have taken it up before I can who haven't worked in the company before, and they will be there when people are going on mat leave. They don't really care about 'loyalty.' Or if people go on mat leave after my first year out then it would open up positions. Or if all the HR people/rostering people/people who I sort of know didn't all resign middle of last yr and this yr, and everything goes into a mess behind the scenes. Like why all within the past year...What if there wasn't so much competition. What if I'm not competing against time. If only I didn't fail...What if I just did a 3 year degree and then already will be earning my third year of income this year compared to people I graduated high school with...and pretty much guaranteed a job somewhere in Sydney...What if I could just start the next chapter of my life without all these worries/conflicts/internal disappointments/stress/annoyed at other people...

favourite colours

thankful for surprises 

more flowers from The Grounds

'Love you to the moon and back' cake

Purple cake to continue on my purple themed photos here. If I have time, may do another post on The Grounds. I've been there at least 4/5 times now, but the prices have definitely gone up.

Also, how is it already March tomorrow? Time does somehow fly as we get older.

I know the things on this earth is temporary, but it's still hard not to think about the future/jobs/finances etc etc. I don't like comparing myself to others, but yet I can't help it. I know I shouldn't worry about the future because God is in control. I can continue to trust but sometimes I just don't see how when I feel so conflicted about a multitude of things....

Auvers Cafe

I’ve been wanting to come to this cafe for over a year, and finally decided to come here on the weekend. Since it’s generally a place I hardly pass by, decided to order 3 dishes between 2. Took a while to finish it since the portions here are a good size and not too pricey, but we managed.

food spread

Taro latte-$3.80

The black sesame latte ($3.80) has been highly recommended by Dandelion multiple times, so of course I had to order it. It definitely did not disappoint. The black sesame was finely ground so hardly saw any of it, but it had a nice intense black sesame flavour and was quite aromatic. The taro latte was more on the sweet side, and I would have preferred more taro flavour. 

Auvers' Pancakes: matcha pancakes, premium matcha glaze, sponge, red bean paste and raspberry sorbet-$18

inside

The pancakes still had a lot of steam when it came to the table and you cut open them. They aren’t super fluffy (or maybe I’m just a bit spoilt having tried really good pancakes overseas), but they were really soft and not too dense. The standout was the raspberry sorbet on top, good amount of sourness to cut through the sweetness from the pancakes and matcha sauce. The matcha sauce was more on the bitter side which I like since and was generously lathered over the whole dish. If it was a sweet matcha sauce, then that would be way too sweet for the amount of sauce they gave.

Egg nests corn fritters: corn fritters, smashed avo, herb and garlic mushrooms, caramelised pineapple, nori sour cream, onsen egg, alfalfa and snow pea tendrils-$20

#yolkporn

This was the dish I was thinking of not ordering so we would only have 2 dishes, but so glad we ordered these corn fritters. They were filled with heaps of filling esp corn rather than just batter and drowned in oil. I loved the onsen egg with a nice runny yolk. The salad at the bottom was really refreshing, and the flavour combos worked well together.

 

Salmon terrine: salmon terrine, puff pastry, yuzu avocado, caviar, green peas, pomegranate, nori crisp, alfalfa and mango-$22

inside

I liked the plating of the salmon and how the seaweed gave the dish some height. I found there was a bit too much filling/cream cheese inside the salmon, which made it really filling, I guess that’s a good thing if you did order a dish per person. 

interesting lighting

They have art and bits of handmade stuff around the walls which you could purchase. I think it gives it a more modern feel and makes it a bit different to other cafes. Seats were not the comfiest since half of them were stools so you couldn’t lean back. Wouldn’t mind trying their matcha latte, juices or coffees if I ever come here again next time since they looked pretty interesting. 

Din Tai Fung

Decided to come here to claim my free mango pudding voucher which I got from Night Noodle Markets after having the giant xiao long bao and returning the steamer. First time going into this one in World Square, and it's surprisingly big and quite clean. It is targeted more for non Asians, unlike Ding Tai Fung in Taiwan, locals also go to eat and line up for over 30mins. Since it's quite big, you don't have to wait for seating here.

Mango pudding-$6

Tasted like any mango pudding, but would have preferred less whipped cream on top.

Pork and chive dumplings-$10.80

Sort of felt bad so decided to order another dish between he two of us. The skin is nice and thin and decent amount of filling and not too salty.. Although I'm Asian, I'm no dumpling expert, it is pricey for dumplings, but I can't make these from scratch since I have no skills.

Flower Quickly Fading

Well what a week it has been. Finished off internals rotation 1 already. These 6 weeks have literally flew by. I tell myself to study something after uni, but I somehow don't end up studying stuff. Internals was pretty good since you actually don't start at 9am everyday. Didn't have that many px since uni isn't officially opened, but still glad they got some px's booked in. Quite a few days where you turn up to uni and don't get to see anyone, but can't do much. I guess I will miss internals because of how everything you do at uni is the gold standard method, and so much imaging equipment involved unlike outside in the 'real world' where you do like 10% of what you learn at uni, and not much equipment is available. There's also less pressure to sell glasses at uni, unlike outside where all the CEOs and shareholders and bosses just want that profit. 

Next 6 weeks are back to work, and no, I didn't organise it myself. Good thing is it's close, but bad thing is I might work for free. Hopefully I will be allowed to practice and do stuff...guess we'll see, but that means not going to be in the city as often and can't pass by to get freebies or cafe hopping. At least can avoid 2+hr bus journeys to uni. Traffic in the arvo is not too bad. The morning will get worse once uni officially starts, so I already avoided a lot of being trampled/fighting going on buses going to and from uni.

Thanks BW 💜

 

stems so long

petals

Since it's my blog, I'm allowed to spam photos here lol. Me being stingy purposely requested nothing crazy expensive tbh. Flowers are already expensive, and prices do go up for Vday. Bouquets are nice to look at, but I would rather eat the 3 figures worth of money rather than have flowers which are temporary. Yes food is temporary, but you can't eat flowers (apart from those edible flowers).

Saw some influencers on Insta who had a bunch of roses, and they were $500, quite a few dozen of roses in a hemisphere shape...but really $500 for something that will die in about a weeks time? $500 can buy you half an iPhone, or quite a few expensive meals. I guess some people are willing to pay that much, but I don't think I could even accept something so outrageously expensive.  

Interesting flavour

There's quite a bit of meringue and lemon curd in it, so there's actually not much ice cream. It does melt quite fast since it's softer in texture. It's not too sweet since the lemon curd helps cuts the sweetness.

Thank goodness for honest people because I almost lost my $600 lens yesterday. Didn't realise the supervisor didn't put it back in my case. I took back the case but the next day someone said they had my lens. Nts: check lens is in it's case before finishing packing up. Since I'm not back at uni for ages, and a new group is starting internals, then I would've freaked out if I opened my case on Monday to find a missing lens. 

Hokkaido milk and matcha latte, yuzu sorbet-$3.90 each

The hokkaido milk could be a bit more milkier, matcha latte wasn't as strong in matcha since it's a latte I guess. Yuzu was more on the sweet side rather than the citrusy side, but could still taste it. It wasn't a very smooth sorbet, bit more on the icy side but still melted quite quick.

Free chatime at Castle Towers: green tea, grapefruit, no sugar, no ice, with coconut jelly-$5.70

I normally don't ever but this stuff since the grapefruit flavouring is still sugar in a diff form, so only drink this stuff if it's free or I'm overseas. This one was ok, couldn't taste much green tea since the grapefruit covered it, but grapefruit could've been more sour. The coconut jelly wasn't very coconut flavoured either. Waited around 20mins for this so not too long. It took about 10mins to get into the car park and 5mins out since so many traffic jams around the shopping centre. They also closed off some entrances for maintenance or something. Nts: don't go shopping centres in middle of day in weekends. There's pretty much same amount of traffic as peak hour time. Since they implemented paid parking, finding a spot wasn't too hard.

Greek gyros: lamb and halloumi 

Greek food for lunch because why not?

 

2 days later

3 days later. I like the tallness of the long stems

Lyrics from Who Am I

Normally no one replies to Insta stories, but funnily 2 people replied this time. One also suggested to hang a rose upside down in the dark to dry them, so yolo and going to try. This song has been in my head the past week. Reminder that everything on earth is temporary.

Booked flights for parents so they can fly back to HK for grandfather's funeral. I guess I am pretty lucky to have reached my age where all 4 grandparents are alive, and now just 3. I guess I'm not as affected since it's sort of expected when people get old, their bodies just don't function as well. 

Ended up having French food on CNY eve. I guess we didn't really have a lot of food either at home since parents didn't feel like celebrating cause of fam...I am Asian but not Asian enough to celebrate, even though it is my year. It's cute how people post photos of their dogs.

Pablo

First time I had Pablo was in Tokyo last June, and it was amazing with the melted cheese inside. Japan also has heaps of flavours as well, where as the Sydney was mainly 3 flavours plus a special. They only do the cheesecake version in the bigger cakes instead of selling individual portions. Got the 3 mini tarts: matcha, original and white choc raspberry Christmas special.

 

Matcha-$4.50, original-$4.20, white choc raspberry-$4.50

display

look at that gap between the filling and the tart

 

The pastry is so ridiculously thick compared to Japan. I never got around to doing a Tokyo food blog post (since 6+meals a day would take me like 6 years at this rate lol), but I can guarantee Japan's once are a lot better in terms of technique and flavour, at least it's not like 0.5cm of pastry.

could have more matcha flavour

The inside didn’t have that ‘melting’ effect for the original flavour and the pastry is also a lot thicker than Japan. Normally if something from overseas comes to Aus, it’s generally not as good, like Tim Ho Wan with ridiculously thick pastry and close to no filling for Sydney BBQ pork buns.

The Pablo cheese tarts in Sydney just didn’t have the same taste or feel compared to overseas. They are ok, but not worth the $4+ price tag. Worth trying once in Sydney but multiple times (if I had time) in Japan. 

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