Dulce Luna Viennoiserie

i actually woke up at 7 to get free food, since i had a 9-6 day today,  and they started it at 8, so i had to go early and avoid the crowds.

never had sweet artisan pastries mixed with french and argentine styles, so i decided definitely go. so glad i got there early, only about 3 people in front of me, and by the time i got my coffee, the line already had 10+ people.

some of the sweet selections. 

when i first went into the store, my first thought: so small! then i looked at the prices, and the sweet ones were $3, and it's artisan pastry, so i guess for stuff like that, it was ok.

original luna-$2.50.

obviously they give the cheapest one for free. yep, really small, but it was one of he softest pastries i've had/ slightly sticky to touch, but not too sweet. i still think i like my traditional savoury crossaints with flaky patiserrie. i was going to buy other flavours, but then i thought it was get squished in my bag by the time i got home at night. then i thought i would go again at night to see if they had anymore free ones left, but then ceebs. also, i just saw the Dulce Luna on York St the other day. passed it everyday, but only noticed it recently. it's soo small compared to the Pitt St one.

small cappuccino-$2, normally $3.

it felt lighter than normal in my hand. i guess i would have like a bit more milk and foam. the coffee was alright, but it was a tad liquidy since imo, there wasn't enough milk. also, the lid thing is harder to drink from, since the brim is more flat compared to other places.

matt's MC bread is soooo easy to make! will make it in the summer break, and hopefully strong flour isn't too expensive. yay for Matt and his cheat's recipes. i have quite a few things on my mental to-bake list (: 

usually on wednesday's, i catch the 8.45am bus to the city for a 10am start. theoretically, it means i would be late, since the bus diverts to lane cove and isn't an express. depending on how fast the bus driver drives, when i get to my bus stop, i make a mad dash to the station. martin places station is quite "in", so there's a tunnel from the entrance, and in the morning, they have these barriers to assist with people coming into the station, so out of about 20 gates, only 1 gate goes in, and once you go in, you have to go to the further escalator to go down to the platform.

so i ran down today, and normally when the voice goes "door's closing, please stand clear" then the doors start to slowly close. but no, the doors started to close once the voice went off, and it wasn't a normal close, it was literally slam in my face. usually if the voice goes, and you still have 10m to the train, you can slip in the doors, but today those doors closed sooo quickly, and i was only 5m in front. then i looked at the time and it closed 30s earlier than it should. but in that half a second, the trains door re-opened just for me, so that made my day (: thanks kind train guard/station person!

but then when i got to central, the lines were longer than normal (by normal, i mean i had to wait over 5min). don't usually go this way to uni, but i start in upper campus, so catching uni buses from central means i don't have to take 10+min to walk from main entrance up the stairs. and i made it to the lecture on time since they started late (:

building my chilli tolerance, ate some home-made sri lankan curry from a friend's friend. legit spices and all.

i could have gotten another free big mac, but then i thought, even though it's free, it's soooo unhealthy, and i don't want to aste 5mins of my life for something that's not really worth it's $5 value. also walked past a bbq today with a relatively short line, but i've had heaps of fattening foods/sausages last week's bbq.

going through different styles of bible studies is interesting (:

i've actually eaten A LOT of good food this semester. i guess birthday month is over.

i'm finally up to date with my blog posts.

let me just back track a bit....on my parents and cousin+gf went to Reubin Hills on Sunday! i shall go sometime. they said it was good.

so they left today. they came over for 10 days, but some nights they slept somewhere else. i cannot stand living with them! WHO TAKES TWO SHOWERS IN ONE DAY! they both do. it's crazy. IT'S AUSTRALIA! it's still winter, and it's not humid like thailand/hong kong, and it's not dirty like china where you can actually see dust particles/smog/smoke etcetc. the air is fresher here, and even if they don't go out, they still shower in the morning and at night. what's worse is that they have 1 hour showers, so 4 hours all up. what a waste of water. and then they leave the expensive heater light on, and you can tell they use more than necessary shampoo. also, they use 1 toilet role day! they don't wipe their hands on hand towels, but on tissues. what a waste! they also leave lights on. i cannot live with them. if i ever date someone who has those stuff, well i cannot imagine together. another thing, THEY ARE SOOO SLOW. i mean common, it's not your house so please show a little courtesy of not wasting things. i know they're "little things" but all up it costs money. i think they're perfectly matched. they make like 10 things to do, and only does one thing. soooo slow paced. they only finished packing/using the vacuum thing at 12.30am. dude! the vacuum is loud and i'm trying to sleep to get to my 9am lec in the morning.

never really liked this cousins slowness/wastefulness. i'm pretty sure he's been engaged for at least a year, and they are going to get married NEXT november, even my other cousin who got engaged a few months ago is getting married middle of next year. even slow to getting married. i think people take max a year.

today has been ): it's just those tiny little things. like people wasting time (oh, on sunday, when my cousin finally finished showering, her gf was about to shower, and i immediately sprang out of bed to get to the bathroom, or else i wouldn't be able to brush my teeth until past midday).

wow, i don't understand anything now in optics. it's only week 5, and the lec notes they put up confuses me more than the notes they write up in lec (which are already confusing).

so much more to say but i need to do work. don't even have time to watch MC online.

i really wanted to do the colour run on sunday! i saw people do it earlier in jan, the penciled it in for aug, but i was scared i had exams or something. yeah what a joke, my running 5km, but it seems so fun! anyone up for it next year?

noo dance eisteddfod this sat and next sun. there goes my study time ):

woke up so late today. past 11.. about holiday time =/

i had Jarrah's chai latte packet mix. DO NOT BUY IT, EVEN IF IT'S HALF PRICE. usually packet mix will tell you to add 250ml water. this one tells you 170ml. my mum tried it before, and said it was very, very bland, so i put in half a normal cup of water. IT WAS STILL TASTELESS. there was only colour, and almost no spices. yday i tried lipton's peach and mango pyramid tea. it smells amazing, but the taste wasn't that prominent. the tea bag is cool though (: oh, i also found a box of wedgewood tea at home. nicee.

did not do anything today.

i watched the masterchef weekly wrap up since i missed the whole week. and i'll missed most of finals week until the last episode since mon and tues=dance, wed=plus, thurs=6pm finish.

they have heaps less celebrity chefs this season. so glad i live in sydney where most of the pro-er chefs are. like one of my interstate friends didn't know there was a Masterchef Food and Dining Bar! also, another of my friends went!!! so jelly. i hope samira doesn't win. an exact replica of julie, who cooked raw food a few times (and they physically look the same). a lot of the options on the menu are inspired by Julie's dishes, and i hate julie, so i guess i can/will wait for next year's food.

also got a free big mac today. the person didn't even look at the voucher thing, and just chucked it asap. yay for photocopying it, so i can get a free burger until the 28th, as if they'll be bothered to type in the code. they are sooo small! and it feels so gross having maccas since all i can think of is white unhealthy bread, fake meat and cheese. the lettuce is fresh though. so even if it is free, it's not really worth getting multiple ones. also, they cost $4.95 just for a burger. i would much rather a $10 gourmet burger, or another $5 oyster. i was looking at other fine dining restaurants, and they also charge around $5 an oyster. i forgot to do the whole pinching you nose/listening to sea music when eating an oyster thing taughts by Heston! oh wells, do it when i next have an oyster.

week 5 hits me, and now i feel super screwed. have. not. studied. for anything.

two weeks to cram three subjects.

Magnum Pleasure Store

i've actually walked past the Magnum Pleasure Store a few times during the 6 weeks, but everytime i thought it wasn't worth buying. most of the time the lines weren't that long, but when i wanted the magnum yday, the line was horrendous.

then came friday evening and i suddenly had a massive urge for a custom made magnum. you see, if i don't have a particular type of food, i can't study. (like during the hsc, i saw zumbo's packet mix first hitting the shelves, and saw the sale in the catalogue, and i just had to get my mum to buy it, or else all i could think about were his packet mix macarons and not what i was supposed to be studying).

so i woke up early today (before 9am on a saturday) to go out to the city just for ice cream. ice cream for breakfast! i've never gone out to the city just for one thing. i hope this doesn't happen again. it wasn't a massive waste of time since i got home before 11am. 

so good getting there at 9.30ish, when the store just opened. there was a line, but it was super short, about 10 people ie, you could stand behind the counter. originally there was only one person making it, and one person at the cashier, but in 10mins of the store opening, they got another guy. 

dipping of the magnum.

drizzle

vanilla magnum with dark chocolate coating, rose petals, rose praline, pistachio, crumbled meringue and white chocolate drizzle-$7

look how colourful it is! i wanted to contrast the different colours (:

yummm

the side. you can also the bottom. when they sprinkled the toppings, they sprinkled most of the meringue to act as as base to place the magnum on top.

it was sooooo good! it surprisingly wasn't sweet. maybe it was because i got dark choc, but the ice cream itself wasn't as sweet as normal (maybe they're cutting the cost of sugar), but i liked it that way to accentuate the flavour of the toppings. so why did i choose those toppings? not because of the colour, because they're one of the most expensive option. definitely needed to choose at least a type of nuts, and pitachios are my favourite out of the options (: and the green complements the pink. i love rose petals! i love any edible flower tbh. i've never had rose praline before, so i chose that. you could taste the rose and the nuts, and i think this was sweeter than the ice cream itself, but it was sooo good. also added some crunch (the pistachios were finely crushed so didn't have a big crunch). i also love meringue! and this was another interesting texture, since some of the white choc melted on it, and it gave a pleasant chewy texture.

i don't understand why people put choc sprinkles/more chocolate stuff and they already coated it with milk choc, and also a milk choc drizzle. it's just the same flavour throughout, and also it doesn't even look nice in a photo if everything is brown. i should've asked for a milk choc button, so i could have tried all three flavours, but the white looks nice. i have so many photos of it on my phone, don't know which ones to delete lol.

the coating did set, but it wasn't hard, and was slightly chewy. it didn't have the crack a normal magnum have. whenever i eat a normal magnum, it's hard to eat it without dropping some of the coating. i guess it's ok here because a cracked coating with toppings would be too awkward to eat. since i went in the morning, i managed to get a magnum chair and chilled there for quite a while (: surprisingly, a lot of people also went buy themselves.

i finally caught a double decker bus today in sydney! i was surprised to see one in off-peak weekend time. i saw the front seat was empty and literally ran to it.

such a nice and different view (: so empty compared to weekdays.

it got too sunny, so i ended up sitting in the 2nd row, haha. 

went to friend's house in the inner city for bbq later at night. ate soooo much meat. actually, i could've eaten more, but if you scrolled down at what i've eaten the past week. i'm trying to eat less. my dad kept asking me if i had my licence, so he could drink. of course,  always carry it around with me. when i was going to pick my bro up from rice (since friend's house is just 10min from city), turns out there were no green P plates in the car! so someone else picked him up, while my dad drew two green P's with a marker and wrapped it around L plates (they only had L's in their house).

my parents and cousin who has an international licence all drank at least 5 glasses of wine, so i guess i had to drive. ended up leaving at 12am. only did about 3 hours of work, and those hours they were "slow paced" trying to work out stuff. a super unproductive day ):

Masterchef kind of Day

today has been a disappointing/interesting day.

was going to watch a movie, but my friend forgot the free movie tickets. i haven't bought a full priced ticket for a long time, and i'm not desperate to watch that movie, so i decided to not watch it. went to magnum, but the line was soooo long! at the end of one side, there was a security guard, and he was like, "if you want to line up, the line continues around the corner", and wow, a second line just as long was forming at the other side, around the corner. defs a 2 hour wait, so i didn't go.

went to circular quay to go Masterchef Food Truck. i was surprised to see no lines there (went at 5ish).

Emma and Daniel's Mezze inspired crispy skin chicken with sumac, ginger and honey cous cous-$12

as expected, it was tiny. i was actually very disappointed in this. first, there was no crispy skin, the chicken was luke warm, same as the cous cous. the sprinkle of stuff tasted like this Japanese seasoning thing one of my host people gave me in yr 9, didn't taste middle eastern. not worth the money.

then the main part of the day. i ate about three pieces, gave one to my friend, nek minnit, a seagle swipes two pieces from me! took a piece and another piece dropped. then heaps of seagulls around fighting. so sad. i'm sad that this was so expensive and eaten by a bird. i kept on eating it, and hoped that the bird didn't touch the other parts. there were at least 15 birds zooming in on me with their sharp peaks after the first attacked. luckily i didn't drop any. first time this has happened. usually i see it happen at darling harbour, not circular quay. when i came home, my mum's like "aren't you scared of getting bird flu?" that did not occur to me, i just hope australian birds are cleaner. well, i'm still feeling fine atm, so hopefully my food wasn't contaminated too much.

Masterchef Food and Dining Bar!

the entrance/dome isn't that grand, but the inside was heaps better than i imagined!

mise en place! they have a copy of the MC clock on the right, except it's not an exact replica.

in the top left corner, about 20 waiters were being given a pep talk. some chefs outside.

decor matched the dome feel (: view from the bar area.

i only watched people eat the $115+ four course meal. heaps of people just came into the dome to take photo then walked out.

bar menu, which is not on the website.

most expensive oyster i've ever eaten. second item on the menu-$5

i was so stupid. since the lighting there is really dim, like all high class places to create an ambience, i dug a bit into that white stuff which the oyster was placed on. woahhhhh, spat it out straight away. it was the saltiest of salt (still could feel the salt in my mouth after eating some desserts and macarons after dinner at night).  the use of the french champagne had a very interesting taste. you could still taste the oyster flavour, and the cavier gave some texture. i wouldn't say it was the best oyster ever, but definitely my most interesting oyster ever.

top-1st item on the menu, bottom-third item.

the buffalo thing was really soft/melt in your mouth. the braised beef was very tender as well since you could pull it apart with your fork. also, these were very small.

the forks weren't branded, but i guess there's no point having branded stuff for a pop-up restaurant. food took longer to come out than expected, since they were very small portions. also cocktails are 15bucks, but you can kinda make them yourselves, since i saw some people just reading off the bar menu and making them. obviously since my bday (when they first opened) they have yet to get used to the menu, 

these photos aren't worth fb/instagram, since the lighting was pretty bad inside. fyi, if you go to a hatted/high class restaurant, it's best not to go at dinner because 1. it's more expensive for the same amount of food 2. lighting is dim ie bad for taking good photos with a phone/snap and shoot camera. even a dslr with flash on food doesn't look that good. when i went Aria, i went for pre-theatre, same food as dinner but cheaper, and it was still light.

if you guys have time, it is definitely worth paying a visit and looking at the inside!

i have not done anything the whole week. must start studying soon.

Penne Alla Elisa

skipped chem lec today because i was super tired, skipped yday one for food =/

stupid field of vision eye test. it's quite tiring, and i have to get re-tested for a third time again. another hour of my life gone. i just keep clicking the button, must do it properly next time. it made me miss out on three places w/ free food, one of which had free food on ceramic plates-"high class"

visual illusions are so cool.

had dinner out at an italian restaurant, and a dish had my name!

the one on the left is called Penne Alla Elisa. and they actually pronounced it my way! it had prawns, avocado, pesto, garlic in a pink sauce w/penne pasta.

they now have a website, and you can order online. yay for 2nd free dinner this week since it was "work dinner" and my dad's boss paid. it's actually quite taxing on your body to eat out for dinner more than once a week. sometimes i'm glad i don't go out for weekly lunches/dinners since eating out continuously is sooo unhealthy.