Henry Lee's

I wanted to try out this cafe mainly for the drinks, since they looked and sounded good on paper. Weather was perfect for trying out this courtyard style cafe, loved the vibes here. It wasn't really busy on a Thursday morning.

food spread

   

courtyard

Pleasantly surprised when I walked into this cafe, and to be honest, wasn't expecting it from a cafe in Redfern. It's set in a courtyard which has some covering so even when it rains, most tables won't get wet, but also has natural lighting which comes through. Although if you do sit on a table in the sun, those dots on the ceiling are going to cast heaps of 'dot' shadows over your table...

cute menu

Apparently they don't really have a popular dish since everything is popular. A lot of the dishes though are sourdough topped with something, or have similar ingredients but in a salad form/different presentation. I guess it really depends on what you feel like on the day.

White Lavender Hot Chocolate: white Belgium chocolate infused w/ lavender & served w/ your choice of milk-$6

I just decided to go with normal milk, since I wanted to try the 'og' version, well more like try the actual hot choc without the milk flavour altering the taste. Really loved this drink since you can taste the lavender without it being too overpowering. I love floral flavours in drinks. I'm not a big fan of white choc, but luckily it wasn't too sweet here. 

Aztec Chili Iced Chocolate: Dark Belgium chocolate infused w/ cayenne pepper & served w/ vanilla bean ice cream & your choice of milk-$7

Went with coconut milk in this one (50c extra). I don't think I could really taste the coconut in it, but I could actually appreciate the chilli in this drink which gave it a nice kick, then balanced but the smoothness of the dark choc. Again, this drink isn't on the sweet side either cause of the chilli. 

super big wooden square board

Tangier: Tagine baked soft eggs in mild spicy rancheros sauce w/ pumpkin topped w/ crispy kale, Mexican guacamole, Persian feta & served w/ crispy tortillas-$21

I actually didn't have any baked eggs during winter, which is normally one of my fav go to brunch winter dishes. Then again, I wasn't here much this winter, and when I was here it wasn't even that cold...The main difference in this one is that the yolk was still quite runny compared to others which are generally cooked through. They also added bits of pumpkin which helped reduce the amount of sauce in the dish, so it wasn't too salty or spicy. I could actually tolerate the spice, so pretty much wasn't spicy at all. Wished there was more tortilla to mop up the sauce, since they only gave one pieces (and on the menu it's plural lol).

Henry’s Dream: Sourdough topped w/ nasturtium & pine nut pesto, avocado, heirloom tomatoes, radish, lemon zest & whipped ricotta then sprinkled w/ za’atar w/ poached egg-$21

#yolkporn

I actually try to avoid having avocado toast at cafes (because I'm trying to save for a house deposit-jks). It's cause I can make avo toast at home, but just nowhere as pretty. I did cut into an unripe avo since I had a sudden avo craving the day before, so thank goodness for ripe avo on this toast. Loved how they added edible flowers to the dish. Wished there was more pesto in it, since I couldn't really taste it. Same with the za'atar since I found the herb/spice was quite subtle even though you could see it. I couldn't figure out what the black smear/sauce is...some slightly acidic/tangy sort of sauce..? The sourdough crust was quite hard to cut into even with a sharp knife. Yay for a nice runny yolk to soak up with the toast.

I also liked how they have bigger tables as well, I guess cause their actual plates are quite big. Would recommend to come here even just for the drinks.

its amazing how the other day i woke up at 11am, but today i got up at 6am. 8am starts D= but it's worth waking up early to practice.

optom is so fail. one of the pre-requisites for enrolling was "PHSL" but someone put in "PHPH" and that course doesn't exist, so now no one can enrol, apart from the people who repeated, and the people who actually realised th typo and told the enrolling person, before all 100 of us spammed her email. my email probs got pushed to the button, so my desired group is probs all taken. also another subject had pre-requites which we is actually not required, so that person is going to have so much fun manually enrolling all of us.

tbh, i don't really care what group i get next year since they're almost equal, (unlike this sem where i can sometimes have a 4day week). i just need to pass! all these pracs are so tricky. another prac exam next week, and we only had 1 prac each to learn/master it. not enough time! i guess everyone's in the same boat (well people who didn't repeat). it's just that all the optm lectures have at least 90 slides per hour, with each slide jam packed with words/pictures/diagrams. going through one lec takes so long =/ so worried. i know i need to study harder. 

i am actually saying this, but please time go slower. wk 11 already almost over, not enough time to study D=

large, rose flavoured ice choc-$8

finally used my free coco cubano free drink voucher. figured i actually won't have time until next year lol. the person gave me a hot one, but i actually ordered an iced one, i guess that person ordering didn't hear, so the guy who first gave it to me was pretty pissed off. then another nicer guy came to give me the drink...it's not too sweet and not to heavy on the rose flavour, quite nice

nyc apartments

nyc buildings are already giants compared to sydney's, but with this new apartment block being the highest in nyc, our buildings will be midgets! people think america is cheap, but nyc is one of the most expensive places to live, even if you live on the outskirts of nyc, or the other boroughs. apartments are super small, majority smaller than hong kong's, hence why almost no one does their laundry in the apartments since there's no space for one (unlike hk, where they can at least fit in a washing machine). so those new apartments are crazily expensive. i bet the $8mil apartment itself is super small, but i guess it's the prestige of living in a famous building and on a rich street. 

it's also amazing how fast you can spend money. if i didn't go to the US, i can go to at least 5 other countries incl expenses. like back when i went to Japan it was still a bit expensive, but now i can say it's in the category of "cheap" places overseas since the yen has dropped. UK is still in the expensive category since the aussie dollar is also slowly dropping. but place such as spain are probably on the "medium" side. 

it took over 2 weeks for the "occupy central" protest in central HK to reside. apparently the protest were actually quite peaceful at times, with people collecting rubbish, handing out water etc. well, politics is politics, and it has unfortunately made a massive split in the family. too bad one of my cousins is getting married soon. i won't be surprised if the two outspoken people in the family end up strangling each other due to politics... they are so stubborn. just let the other person talk and stop retaliating. gave up reading their messages after the 2nd day. they actually right essays to each other.

feels like winter again (: just don't like the storms. it's crazy how blue mountains had bush fires last year, but snowing this year

some people are just so brave and words can't really say much. you know who you are <3

Oliver Brown

it's so weird when you first meet new people, and they tell you their life story.

spontaneous trip to Oliver Brown today in my own suburb! first time, and went with parents, bro isn't interested in this type of stuff. i said yday that i won't go out to eat, but today i went out to drink...so i'll say here i won't go out to eat or drink from now till end of finals.

iced milk chocolate-$7.50, iced dark mocha-$7.80, dark hot choc-$6

there were around 10 people working there, and it wasn't super busy, but we still had to wait for someone at the counter to come. more than half the people there were just talking/chilling, and you could tell most of them were new. who doesn't greet customers? and the drinks didn't come at the same time. also, the girl held the hot chocolate with 2 hands like how i would hold it-afriad that it will spill.

i had the iced milk choc. didn't come with a scoop of ice cream. it actually wasn't sweet, probs because they added a lot of ice. it was ok. nothing spectacular. the mocha was definitely more on the coffee side, and the dark choc was subtle. it suited my dad since he just wanted some coffee, but i told him when you go to a chocolate cafe, you have to at least order something with chocolate. the dark hot choc was the sweetest by far, we weren't sure if they accidentally gave us milk choc or not. you could taste some dark choc in it, but it was pretty sweet for dark choc.

last eisteddfod of the year today! came 2nd and 3rd. didn't bother waiting for the ribbons. was sooo stuffy in there.

did nothing today ):

Mum's Bday Food Adventures>Study

ok, this is another back post. in hind sight, i am never ever going out again before an exam. i don't care if it's my families bday or friends or even mine, despite how much i love birthdays. did so bad in the exam, shouldn't have gone out.

birthday cake: larme de gaugin from la renaissance at the rocks. a mixed berry mousse and sponge cake with a jaconde.

it's just as good the second time. first time was at Bitter's 18th, and her one had a strawberry mousse which looks nicer, but i think the mixed berry mousse tastes better as it has more of a punch. it depends on the chef i guess, since in store, the mini cakes had the berry mousse, but other cakes had a strawberry mousse. this cake is quite light, and the real fruitiness and has some acidity. there's probably sugar added, but you can't taste it, which is good. this time, you had to pay for your cake first before you could order, and now the bigger sized cakes don't come with a free message. their packaging has also changed to a bright pink box.

went to lowenbrau again for a free meal. it was so packed, well it always is, but i guess oktoberfest is coming up, and they also decorated more stuff inside. ended up sharing a table with some randoms even though we had a booking. this time they asked for id first, and only gave the cheaper meal for free.

veal schnitzel with roast potatoes and cranberry sauce -$31.

the sauce was so good! since veal is more expensive than chicken, it was smaller than the chicken schnitzel, but it was still good. don't see veal ones everyday. mum had the roast pork knuckle, ($36), it didn't look that big, but once you dug into it, wow, so much meat/pork crackling. it was accompanied by mash and onions and their sauce, which was the same sides last time we went that went with their sausage lunch special. i tried to help her finish it, but even i couldn't

live music

chicken dance entertainment for the kids. there was also a super skilled face painter there.

went to guylian cafe! even though we were super full...first time (:

iced chocolate-$9 

cappuccino-$4.50 i think w/ a chocolate.

guylian is more expensive and isn't as nice as lindt. i asked for a little bit of cream, since i felt so fattened from the meal before. even though i like my ice cream, and this was nice ice cream, i think there was too much for the size of this drink, so once you eat the ice cream and some of the cream, there's actually only about half a glass of stuff to drink. unlike lindt, you could see the chocolate bits which didn't melt, so there was a slight grainy texture, but then the chocolate itself is like that, so i guess they wanted to retain their chocolate texture in the drink. there were these other people there who only had half a slice of cake and left! once slice is about $16 dine in. what a waste!

yellow snail

double decker bus back home

bro at youth camp. quiteness as home (:

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...)