Another satisfying week has gone by! Time for my weekly blog entry? Hm~

While there hasn't been many new discoveries, many places are worthy of being revisited. No prize for guessing where we revisited yesterday, but rewinding back further to Tuesday, we went to the Botanic Gardens again, just to visit the succulent garden.

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Funny how succulents can take the form of a rose, and then get given such a cute but inelegant name like... the Mexican Snowball. Wait... Does it even snow in Mexico??

And onward to food adventures:

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This was at the malaysian restaurant in The Galleries Victoria, their Hainanese Chicken rice (unfortunately, not de-boned) and wanton noodle soup. Very average, and I promise myself I'll go crazy with these in Singapore- while paying half (or even less) of the price for a better taste.

We actually tried to go to Plan B- Becasse on Tuesday, but arrived at the place right on 3:45pm. Guess what? Kitchen closes at 3:30 =_= So that was dodgy, because the first time we went, we were too early and kitchen wasn't open yet. The lady working there was really sympathetic about it though, and we made a mental note to come back between 11:30am and 3:30pm the next day.

Which we did. =) Yay, we finally get our wagyu burger? =D Yes we did.

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What came first was the tomato condiment for the sausage roll that we ordered because... well, last time we had it, it was just too good.

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From 2009-08-21-2125-40

From 2009-08-21-2125-40

And it arrives. The Wagyu Beef burger, known to be the most blogged about burger in Sydney. Why three photos? Because we had to take three trips to this tiny little cafe in order to get our hands on it. And the second photo is blurry... can't be saved, but oh well, there's always other chances to take a better one next time right? =D I have to say, it is good, though I'm not really a big fan of burgers, so I wouldn't know what an outstanding burger will taste like. It's made out of wagyu beef- minced, but.... I wonder if one could really tell the difference between wagyu and non-wagyu meat when it's been minced. Don't all minced beef taste pretty much the same? Especially if you add spices to it? Maybe I'm just rambling on like some ignorant customer who does not know how to appreciate food, but what I do know how to appreciate... is their sausage roll.

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Tada! So all sausage rolls don't look very much different and it actually looks like... hm... shall leave that to your imagination (the photo definitely does not do it justice), but the taste... it's quite worth the $7 that it cost. Eaten with the tomato paste given in a small teacup, it -has- to be the best sausage roll in Sydney.

And Friday was a revisitation of Balmain's Adriano Zumbo. It's so nice to go during a weekday morning because you know that the only people you have to beat in order to get his cakes and a seat in the small little cafe... are the Balmain locals. Had a little misfortune with buses because one failed to show up and we had to wait quite a long time, while our stomachs protested their hunger, and paranoia that the cakes are all going to disappear kicks in, but we ended up in Balmain at 10:30am or so. Enter pattiserie, and there was a queue already.

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Cakes were disappearing fast. We saw this one last lonely round looking cake right in the middle and were thinking it's going to get bought before we got a chance to even see its description. No it didn't get sold, but we didn't get it anyway. Have to be nice to the customers after us, right? =)

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One guy before us got eight of the chocolate tarts D= And you wonder why things sell out so quickly. Each customer bought about 5 items or so from the shop, and being such a tiny shop, it's no wonder that the store gets completely sold out in a matter of minutes.

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According to a local, Adriano Zumbo has to make four trips from his workshop to his pattiserie each day. The time it takes for him to make each trip is not even fast enough for the cakes and pastries in the shop to stay on the display.

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"He has no idea what was going to hit him when he went on Masterchef." We were talking to this really nice Italian lady at his cafe, and she was there the afternoon after Masterchef aired with him as a guest. Apparently, there were 3000 phone calls to his shops after Masterchef, requesting orders for the chocolate mousse cake. If you imagine one cake selling at $90, and selling 3000 of them.... wait, actually, imagine MAKING 3000 of those absurdly crazy difficult to make cakes! And if it takes 3 hours to make one... to make 3000... that's like.... o O!!
Oh, the photo. Right, there's some weird connotation to that strange name for a cake, but hm... the cake itself was absolutely great. Chocolate poprock ftw!

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From 2009-08-21-2125-40

And this was our selection from his pattiserie shop =)

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At about 10:45am, the cafe was busy, but not completely full yet, so we managed to get a seat inside. Its interior? A small, U-shaped sofa with a slab table, with a vase of tulips and magazines, local newspapers, menu, and a small little guestbook where adults and kids were free to doodle their comments and praises. A few "I love you Adriano Zumbo" and "your cakes are absolutely to die for, thank you" comments here and there.. ^^''

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Their ceiling held a red chandelier that was quite unique. Nice touch.

This time, we were smart and didn't order drinks, because the hot chocolate is definitely rich and filling, so we ordered "The Younger Years" and "Miss Marple Deconstructed" again, because it was just too good not to. "The Younger Years" needed a waiting time of 20 minutes, I'm guessing the fondant needed some time in the oven to bake, so we know it'll be fresh out of the oven- warm and crisp on the outside, nice and gooey in the middle.... and we weren't disappointed. 20 minutes wait is NOTHING when you know THIS is coming:

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From 2009-08-21-2125-40

From 2009-08-21-2125-40

*Eyes rolled towards heaven* It came in a kidney dish, with a syringe filled with raspberry sauce that was to be injected into the fondant. As the syringe is plunged into the cake, molten chocolate just oozes out like a volcano, mixing with raspberry sauce and overflowing down to the crushed peanut brittles. The peanut butter ice cream was just great, and when eaten together with the fondant along with the chewy peanut brittle bits, it's like... like... D= *loss for words*

In a blink of the eye, The Younger Years went by~

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=(

If I were aiming to be a patissier, Adriano Zumbo would be a figure to admire and gain inspiration from.

That night, we headed to Kings Cross to try this well-rated Izakaya-style Japanese restaurant called "Juju". Most people will probably remember it if they went there, because they'd have to take off their shoes, place them in plastic bags and walk in barefooted or socked to sit on the cushions at the tables. Not seiza- though it would have been amusing to see people kneeling (or attempting to kneel), but there's room for feet under the table.

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The stairs leading down to Juju. It serves a lot of alcohol and a lot of people go there for beer and sake, so thank goodness it's stairs leading down when you go in. No doubt many tipsy businessmen will break a couple of bones if those stairs led down while heading out.

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Blurry menu- not my fault. My camera dislikes dim lightings with no flash.

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Their Gyu Tataki. Nice stuff- it has this jelly on top, with shallots and rocket leaves at the side, served with a critus vinegar sauce.

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Last piece... take it before the waiter does!

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We ordered their cream croquette set meal...

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Dimension-cut! Too bad, unlike Dotch cooking show, this cream croquette doesn't ooze cream out when cut.

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Typical beef tepanyaki set meal.

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And their cheese chicken on mash potato. I think people would actually go to Juju for the sake, and the entre, appetizers and house favourites, not for main meals. Their main meals were pretty mediocre, but the tataki and cheese chicken were quite good. Might not be worth revisiting, and there's the whole hassle with having to book (apparently essential when going to Juju's, it does get full pretty quickly) but if we were to go again... I think we'd order many small dishes rather than set, or mains.

There's also karaoke sessions after 10:30pm, so anyone up for being at Kings Cross at that time and wanting to show off some singing skills... there's Juju.