Cloud Thief

Didn’t have this at night noodle markets last year since I knew they would have a permanent store after the markets finished, and it’s not as overpriced compared to the markets. It’s still pricey for a a bao since in theory it’s just plain flour and water, but I guess you’re paying the the technique in which they can make the baos so light and fluffy.

Left- Beer Battered Barramundi: Beer battered Barramundi fillet, Cloud Thief’s Asian tartare sauce, crisp iceberg lettuce, red radish and wasabi pea and seaweed crumb-$6.50

Right-Peking Duck: Crispy skin Peking duck, crisp cucumber, shredded iceberg lettuce with spring onion and our signature Peking sauce-$8

The fish was cooked so well, and loved the flavours in it. This was our favourite since it was something a bit different. 

Wasn’t going to order the duck originally, but they didn’t have the pork (?) on the day and the other normal ones didn’t sound that interesting, so went with a more ‘premium’ option. There was a decent sized portion of duck which wasn’t too fatty. 

The Cuban Place

First time having cuban food, although I’m not really sure what Cuban food entails. It's sort of like Mexican but not really. You actually go upstairs to go to the entrance, which had surprisingly quite a lot of seating and relatively expansive for a CBD restaurant. Thanks Dandelion for booking the group dinner. It was a ‘surprise’ location for dinner, and she took us here since they had 50% everything from a Dimmi deal, and it’s also nice to try something different (this post is more than 2 months delayed...)

food spread

 

entrance

Didn't realise this restaurant was just behind the QVB on the other side of the road.

Can't bribe me to give 5 star reviews. also, it's only a draw to win, you don't even get a voucher if you give 5 stars. only honest opinions here.

I think we sort of over ordered since it's half price and we wanted to try a few things. Didn't take a photo of the menu at the time, only a photo of the receipt.

Drunk crab taco-$14

It's not cheap for a taco, but you do get a whole soft shell crab. The crab was deep fried well, and the taco (tortilla?) was nice and soft. Paired well with the guacamole and tomato.

Toastadas de camaronês-$16

This was a prawn and octopus (?) on top of a tostada. This was quite nice as well, but expensive since you only get 3 pieces.

Linguine with tomato and quinoa sauce, okra, parsley & a duo of Parmesan and Manchego cheese-$16

The linguine was pretty average. It didn't have much flavour, not much sweetness from the tomato and under seasoned, just like my mum's 'healthy' and bland cooking. I also think Dandelion could make a better pasta with her mad cooking skills.

Pescado varadero:Sustainable fish of the day with Varadero sofrito confit, kipfler potatoes and crispy leek-$34

They didn't say what fish it was, but we figured it was barramundi. It was just on the tad bit overcooked, but I liked how it was garnished with crispy leeks. There was a decent amount of potatoes hidden under as wel..

Quesadilla chorizo-$22

Loved the toasted wrap/bread stuffed with cheesy chorizo, one of my favourite dishes from the night. The chorizo wasn't overly salty either.

Lamb-$32

Lamb was booked well and not dry. From memory, it was well seasoned and tomatoey in flavour.

Pork ribs cuba libre-$36

These ribs were just a tad bit dry, but they did come with a pesto/mint sauce. Meat would have been cooked with more marinade.

Yuca chips-$8

Had to Google what yuca was. It sort of tastes like taro and polenta but without the grainy texture, and it's quite light inside. Tasted quite healthy with a good crunch and not drenched in oil.

dessert

Lava Galleta: white chocolate and macadamia cookie with guava ice cream-$15

Wish the scoop of ice cream was bigger, since we ordered this dessert mainly for the ice cream. The guava flavour was subtle but quite nice. The cookie was too sweet.

Cafe y Caramelo: coffee and chocolate mocha dome with candied peanuts, sweet peanut roll and salted caramel ice cream-$15

This dessert was also overly sweet, and couldn't really taste the coffee in the dome cake. We shared this between 5 people and still found it sweet. The ice cream was already melting when it got to our table, and had more caramel than salt which didn't help with the sweetness. Candied peanuts weren't;t really necessary.

Total price of food was $208, so after half price for 5 we paid around $20 which is cheap for dinner and the amount of food we had. Full price, I wouldn't go again since the food wasn't amazing.

Book of Mormon Musical

Yay, 7th musical and first time going to the Sydney Lyric Theatre. I had no idea what it was about (didn't even know Mormon was a religion until I booked the tickets). Didn't help I woke up with a sore throat for no reason, maybe not wearing enough clothes at home...at least I'm not the one singing haha. 

the set

my typical ticket and set photo shot

looks modern whilst keeping the 'grand/old' feel

the speaker was blocking the gold stature thing at the top

The musical was better than I thought, super hilarious. However, it's also super crude, rude, lots of sexual innuendos and swearing. Mocking of some religions and races. So many parody's of stuff in there, whilst keeping it 'modern' but including Star Wars stuff, iPhones, and also current 'political/ethical' issues. I guess a lot of deep stuff if you really think about it, but my brain doesn't really think of those stuff deeply, and I just enjoyed the jokes and the singing.

The demographics watching there were mostly Caucasian retirees. Not many people in 20-30, and I only saw one teen. Defs not for children. So glad I went with BW because it would be impossible to interpret this to my mum afterwards...

I love watching all the sets move even if they were simple, and people so talented at singing and dancing. They even had a bit of a tap dance as well. The conductor also played the keyboard for some songs, and the drummer (?) guy played flute. So the band isn't huge since people played around 1/2+ instruments each.

Maybe cause it's not a huge production, and the theatre here is a bit smaller and less production set stuff, tickets are a bit cheaper. Sat at the top for $60. Cause it's a smaller theatre, it's high up, but distance wise you're not that far away, compared to other threader's I've been to in London where cheap tickets you can't really see...well you can see the probs and see them dancing just not there faces lol. 

You could try your luck to see if you get drawn for the daily $40 tickets in the first row, but seeing the amount of retirees who come to watch, and actually have time to line up for this stuff, yeah ceebs. Like you can line up over 2 hrs and not be drawn. $60 front and centre of the grand circle isn't too bad anyway.

I guess musicals are good in a way to help boost the economy. Like so many people eating dinner at The Star fancy food court, and people getting Messina at the end. I ended up getting a 50% off Zumbo almond croissant, mainly because it's the first time I've ever seen Zumbo have a sale lol. Their macarons are now $3, since when? Last time I bought some on Zumbaron day and the times I walked past (because I like looking at cake but it's not economically viable to buy a slice of $10 cake every week), macarons were still $2.80 each. I miss the $2.50 day each.

Apple Pie → iPad 6th Gen

When BW said he'll bring apple pie I was like yay food. Turns out to be an iPad lol (yeah, I'm pretty gullible at times...) The best surprises are really the ones you aren't expecting at all. It's not even my birthday 😅 I'm still confused/mindblown/shocked. Thanks BW!

iPad 6th gen

I never, ever thought I would won an iPad, because I'm like, what do I even need it for? I can do everything on my laptop and just print stuff out #oldschool. The new iPad supports Apple Pencil so don't have to get a Pro. Even though I can't draw, I do find it's very cute and good for scribbling. I really like watching people do time lapses of drawings on their iPad Pro. It's a pretty good stylus, like when you tilt it to shade on pencil mode, it shades like a real life pencil haha. The iPad is a gold colour, but it's definitely more rose gold. Like all Apple stuff, the iPad is nice and sleek.

iPads are confusing, since they initially had a 12.9 inch iPad pro, then second gen 9.7 inch, but now they come in 10.5 and 12.9, whereas the normal iPad comes in 9.7 now with pencil compatibility, but all the normal iPad cases don't have a pencil holder. It's also 0.5mm wider and 0.4mm thicker than the 9.7 iPad Pro. It's funny how 0.5mm in a case actually makes a bit of a difference trying to use the case. Speaking of cases, can't believe there's already a mini dent on my tde case ): I don't really get how the Pros cost so much, apart from a faster processor, better camera and touch id...like wouldn't you just get a computer? I guess graphic designers need to draw...

Time to learn how to use an iPad. It's like an iPhone, but not haha. I don't think I'll have time to transition from hard copy to soft copy of notes since I'm just too used to the tactile feed of my notes, and remembering which parts of info belong to which section in the paper. It will be useful for long plane trips watching movies and reading ebooks on it. Typing stuff is still easier on laptop, esp all these reports I still am procrastinating. I like how you can run two apps at the same time.

easy set up

3 days ago he gave me this iPad mini first gen, which I gave to my dad since he loves watching Youtube. That was our first iPad in the house, and now we have 2. 

I am also more excited about a free taxi ride than a free plane ride this week, because I've only ever been in a Sydney taxi like once in my life before. I initially thought this was some tag when it arrived with the clothes lol. Lucky didn't chuck it out.

Finally got the itinerary for next week, and everyday seems so busy and not really a holiday...Hope to get some experience though. 

Ms G's

This place has been on my places to visit or a while, so finally decided to make the trek to this side of the city. There’s a lot of fusion dishes here, where they take the ‘basics’ of cuisines such as Viet, Thai, Korean, Chinese and Western food and literally mix them up. Being on this side of Sydney, dishes are more pricier than your average dinner.

Tables are small and it’s quite crowded inside with dim lighting, so if you’re after a quiet dinner to chat, this isn’t the place for you. Ended up using iPhone torch light to take photos, and other people around turning heads #noshame

food spread

Cheeseburger spring roll-$6

inside

This sounded pretty interesting on paper, and it was really good. Tasted exactly like a cheeseburger with the beef mince, melty American cheese, and pickles wrapped in a spring roll. It was deep fried well with a good crisp and not too oil.

Squash, peas, butterbeans with pickled radicchio, mint, yuzu and white miso ranch-$18

The salad sounded interesting with a yuzu sauce, but I wouldn’t order it again since I don’t think it’s worth the money. The yuzu was quite subtle, and the actual salad was average.

Vietnamese pork and prawn pancake 'Korean style'-$24

The pancake had more toppings than actual batter and was quite oily. There was a nice crunch from the shrimp heads without being too salty, and still interesting to try. It’s just nothing like your Korean pancake as there was a lot of air in between this pancake, and only bits of batter sticking the toppings together.

Tom yum fried rice with snow crab, kaffir lime & crispy wonton skin-$29

Our favourite dish was the fried rice. I didn’t realise you could buy those Thai Tom Yum paste in grocery stores. I still remember when I went to Thailand around 9 years ago that the Tom Yum soup was way too spicy to drink. The fried rice was cooked well with that dry sort of rice texture without being dry, and there was just the right amount of spice for me to enjoy. Would recommend this dish as well.

red lighting=not ideal for food photos

The Wizard's Brunch

I saw the Wizard's Brunch on fb whilst scrolling earlier in the year, and I'm not a massive Harry Potter fan, but I still enjoy HP stuff, like going to Universal Studios, watching the movies and some merch (but I've only read the books once lol). They can't use HP names since it's all trade marked and unaffiliated with Universal Studios, but a company decided to make a 'Great Hall' banquet themed brunch and dinner. I went for the brunch since dinner I would have work the next day. Finally had the time to post this a week after the event.

I used to want to go USyd just for the sandstone buildings, but that really doesn't make sense, and the inside of the rooms are quite old. It has probably the best architecture in Aus for something that resembles Hogwarts, so made sense for them to use their old halls and make something different. There were so many people dressed in HP gear. Here are some pics from the day.

The Great Hall

Usyd but Hogwarts for the day

 

They had some characters dress up as wizards/witches from another wizarding world. I forgot what each house meant since didn't really read the info the sent before.

 

I love this shot of the staircase, feels like in the movie changing different floors on the moving stairs.

Pretty sure Usyd peeps fees go into maintaining these sandstone buildings and cleaning stainless windows

They were saying something about opening a portal

inside

I chose the red house cause I have a Gryffindor scarf lol

drink station

dining tables

stage

cauldron with occasional smoke machine stuff coming out

 

menu

 

table deco

Other parts of the table had cake pop in a snitch shape, jelly beans, apples, toffee apples. My section didn't only had an encyclopaedia (which are only useful as props these days), but luckily I took a photo of these cupcakes before other people had it. These are defs HP characters, but cause they actually didn't name them so they didn't technically break trademark rules.

 

props to them putting up candles in the ceiling

drinks

They put effort into the first batch, but then there were too many people and it was a bit of a mess. 

Wizard's Buttered soda: mix of a toffee on ice base, melted ice cream in ginger ale, plus whipped cream on top. Depending if they put more of the liquid toffee, it tasted nice, or else just felt like you were drinking a spider drinks cause of the ice cream. They also gave up putting cream on top. Sort of tasted like Butterbeer, but the real thing is a whole lot nicer. 

Liquid Luck cocktail: didn't taste any alcohol, and it reminded me of a lemony soft drink without the fizz.

 

They had these wire cubes to put food on top sort of like a banquet style, but the food didn't come out fast enough, and was like one dish shared between 12 people, so you couldn't really reach the other dishes and relied on people passing the food around. People were nice enough the pass the food around, but couldn't really take photos of everything. Food was average, and not really hot when it came out since I think they couldn't really cater for the amount of people in the small kitchen on the side.

They initially served this on top of a dish of liquid nitrogen to give a smoky/magical effect, but after the first 4 coming out of the kitchen, they ceebs.

tarts

veggie puffs

half dug in lamb

not enough guacamole

I couldn't really here what they were saying since we were seated in the middle but their PA system wasn't good, so I missed out on the whole storyline. There were some magic tricks which were fun

dessert

They said only one per person, and not gonna lie, I was disappointed. I pay over $200 and only get one tiny piece of cake? I trapped the scarf cake pop and the tart before other people could take it.

matches my scarf

chocolate mud cake plus fondant scarf

The ingredients are pretty cheap, but it takes skill/effort to make the scarf, hence why people feel these for over $5 each. I don't really like cake pop since it's essentially crumbled cake, then remixed with a load of icing to make it dense and shapeable. I just like looking at them more than eating them lol. The lemon/passion meringue tart was quite nice, but the pastry didn't hold itself together.

so cute!

I saw a table had people leaving so I grabbed one of their cakes. I like how they added some rose petals on top. It was a bit sweet with the cream cheese icing plus white choc. The owl is cute which I kept. I also took home 4 apples, yeah, making the most of my ticket price haha (and cause I'm Asian).

Jellybeans in the middle of the table.

caramel mud cake pop

Another table left so I also grabbed this and took this home to try. This one was nicer than the choc mud cake one.

The night event was inside a different hall, with no windows and more paintings on the side. Also they had bigger screens on the front and looked like they had more food. I like the natural lighting through the windows and easier to take photos as well. Alcohol was on the table since night was for 18+, where as for lunch waiters would come around with red or white wine, which was also average. 

At $231pp it's definitely not cheap, I think even more expensive than my most expensive degustation meal at Quay for my 21st birthday (farewell Snow Egg). I wouldn't go again cause I don't think it's worth the price, and the food was below average for something which is a catered event. Maybe I'll go if it was $100, but not over $200 since I'd rather go fine dining. Like families with multiple kids coming here, I wouldn't pay to come here unless I was old enough to pay for myself cause it's so expensive, and I find when you're a kid, you aren't as appreciative of stuff. Like you'll take travel as granted whereas when you're older, you have a better memory and know stuff like that doesn't come without hard work. 

I guess you pay for these things if you're like me to experience something unique, and probs won't come back again. It was an enjoyable day and loved the overall atmosphere there (just not the price lol).