21!

can't believe i'm 21 already. people ask me how i feel...old actually. after 21 you don't really reveal your age anymore lol.

skipped a lecture yday and this morning to study for diseases. a test every fortnight means it's likely your birthday will coincide with an exam. it was actually super hard. there were 4 exam options/papers, so the lecturer placed diff papers next to you, in front and behind you. he was like, even if you had your phone on you and wanted to look something up, you won't have time. dayum. 1 min per question, and some questions were longer than this paragraph, so took you almost minute to read let alone think about it. it was so, so hard ): i'll study harder for the next one in two weeks...really need to study in groups for diseases, at least 5 hours online videos, and another 5 contact hours doing exams/case presentations and testing us on that material, on top of other online quizzes at home and readings. no way you can do all the readings/study everything before the 2nd weekly test on top of the other 3 subjects. maybe it'll be doable with 2, but you defs won't have enough time on your own...

anyways, enough about diseases. so screwed even in wk 3.

i was actually super surprised my optom crew organised a cake even though we had an exam today. black star is still in the opposite direction to uni. first time having a slice from an actual cake (rather than slice). 

iconic strawberry and watermelon cake

yumm. an all time favourite. thank you! loved the vibrant colours in the winter sun (:

massive feast back at home. super big pizza, lamb cutlets, duck, salmon, prawns, scallops which mum opened herself (!), asian stuff-mushrooms, dried scallops, sea cucumber, veggies. definitely over ate...

Zumbo V8 Vanilla Cake

Flower

Layers: Vanilla chantilly, Toasted vanilla brûlée, Vanilla water gel, Vanilla macaron, Vanilla almond, crunch, Vanilla dacquoise, Vanilla ganache, Vanilla glaze

look at that gel!

I've wanted to try this cake for a long time, even before it featured on Masterchef 2010. The original one was chocolate (I think). this cake comes and goes, and finally it landed back in winter in time for my birthday! so many layers, so delicious. a bit on the sweet side, but the gel and the crunch helped the balanced the flavour. Was in a rush so didn't make a clean cut of the layers. yummm. yay for leftovers.

Birthday celebrations to continue!

The Seat and Panna Cotta

finally went to The Seat today! it's a south eastern/thai restaurant in pennant hills. everyone in my area said it was good and definitely worth going, so i decided to go with my mum today or else i'll never have time to go until after next sem.

we went at around 2, and there were still quite a lot of people dining in and take away. so glad their lunch special, which includes a drink and a dish for $10 also applies to weekends.

"house special drinks". on the left-lemon ice tea, on the right-thai style milk tea.

both drinks were really sweet, which explains why there was so much ice. since ice melts, after a while the drink doesn't become as sweet. couldn't really taste a lot of the lemon until some of the ice melted. with the milk tea, it actually is orange, the lighting was too bright so it washed out a lot of the colour. it's an interesting taste, but still sweet.

top-thai fried rice w/ beef, bottom-pad thai w/chicken.

the fried rice was pretty normal, couldn't really distinguish any "thai" flavours. the pad thai didn't use thin rice noodles, it used rice noodles but in a really thin cylindrical shape, so kinda like spaghetti but made out of rice noodles. this dish was pretty good, a lot of people around us also ordered it. there was a sweet chilliness and the acidity of the lemon balanced it well (: there also wasn't this lingering oil feel on your lips which is good. it doesn't look big, but the plate actually has depth, so we both didn't finish our plates and went back home with one filled take away box.

i think i took too many big bites, now my stitches are gone, and i think i ate the string, and i'm scared that it is more infection prone =/

going grocery shopping by myself is kinda wierd. yes, even though i've had my p's for ages, i don't buy groceries myself.

first time buying vanilla beans! my heart broke when i say the price: $10, and turns out there were only 4 beans. i earned the woolies voucher, so i let myself off this time and bought a packet. later i went to this other store, which stocked Spice and Co, and they had 2 beans for $4.50, and they were softer as well. no wonder why masterchef has ditched MasterFoods spices and gone with spices/herbs etc from Spice and Co.

cutting vanilla beans is not as easy as it looks on tv. on masterchef, their beans are straight and they have super small sharp knives for easier control. i only found a small sharp knife after i finished cutting it...and curved beans are very hard to cut/split in one go.

first time attempting panna cotta!

decided to use powder, since the leaves were even more expensive than the vanilla beans! like what!? there was some leaves in the fruit shop which were a bit cheaper, but i also saw that after i bought the powder. doesn't matter, powder lasts longer.

i know why the skin forms, but why does the vanilla seeds float to the top/bottom? i guess people serve it upside down so you can't see the skin...in some pictures, you see the seeds throughout the dessert, but in my one, you only see it on the outside....

they tasted pretty nice (despite it being half milk and cream). i only used a tiny bit of sugar, since i wanted to taste more of the natural vanilla taste rather than sweetness. served it with some passionfruit (: ceebs making a coulis, will do that tomorrow...i have yet to have restaurant quality panna cotta/souffle, but i used the Taste recipe, and it was exactly what i imagined panna cotta to be. should use my silicon muffin trays next time, according to the person who commented on the website, the desserts just slip out. couldn't be bothered to oil the glass ware. i also liked this recipe since it tells you to use the bean/pod. other ones tell you to discard it, but me being asian and hate wasting food, especially expensive stuff, i used it. (i also tried to eat the pod, unfortunately it's like a leaf).

came third again at dance eisteddfod with the same dance. this eisteddfod was made/created by my dance teacher, didn't know that was possible. i saw my old dance teacher since he was adjudicating. i really loved is dances.

i had two cakes, panna cotta, cheese on wafer crackers for dessert. feeling so unhealthy.