So they fired another girl at work. Last time they fired someone, I got called in 4 days a row, rudely woken up at 7am, 8am for long shifts... not this time =D My turn to call in to work and make them do something for me- write a reference for my masters. Ah, it sure feels good to trouble THEM for once, rather than the other way round ^^'' Hm, anyway! Tuesday, my brother took the day off to go for some sony conference thing, and since it's also my dad's weekly day off, we went to the Fish Markets~ (my dad and brother, huge fans of seafood)

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The food~

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Free salad~

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And chips. You only pay for the lobster and fish~ Since we went on a Tuesday, and it was before lunch time (think we got there about 10:45am or so) it was really quiet, with only a few families sitting around tables eating. It's the first time I see the fish market so... quiet!

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So this is where bonito shavings come from~ fact: In Japan, they don't call it bonito flakes, but rather, katsuobushi. I always thought bonito was a Japanese name for the skipjack tuna fish, but the actual Japanese name for it is katsuo. They're so pretty... all striped and shiny~

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Dog.. cockles... why on earth would anyone name cockles after another animal...

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More dead fish~ why baby barramundi?! wouldn't it make more sense to let it grow till it's the full size and then get more meat out of it? Or is fish like veal- the younger it is, the more tender??

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Salmon~

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Purple crabs! Their colours are so pretty.. I've always only seen mud crabs, and true to their name, they are a muddy, greenish brown colour. In other words: ugly but delicious.

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These have such vibrant purple pincers, they practically glow!

Have to say though, this is definitely not as exciting as say, Tsukiji Fish Market in Japan. No men wielding giant katana and slicing gigantic tuna, no liquid nitrogen frozen tuna meat the size of a cow being cut to pieces through a chainsaw, no live sea urchins and other weird sea creatures and people yelling for you to get out of the way as they drive through wet, slippery floors in their truck, carrying styrofoam boxes of... fish eyes... ^^''

Met up with tt for lunch afterwards,

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Takeru! Their maguro mentai mayo don... tuna and spicy cod roe mayonnaise rice, 1/2 size!

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Ramune. Anyone feel the urge to just press on that pink tab and push the marble down? =D

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Iced ko-hi~

Then today~ went through the trouble of carrying my extremely heavy coin can from house to bus stop (which was a couple of hundred metres away, but I was so tired after that, it was like lifting weights and walking at the same time), then from bus stop to townhall, where I unloaded it on tt to carry the rest of the way. =D

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Tada~

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You see these cans in almost every $2 or reject shop, and the good thing about it is that there is no opening for you to retrieve coins. Once inside, it stays inside, till you take a can opener to it. Forgot how many months it took us to fill it, but fill it to the top we did =D

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Blue is mine, red is tt's. Mine is obviously worth more. See the gold! =P

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I guessed the total will amount to something like $300 each can, so altogether, $600. tt guess $200... in total =P Guess who wins?

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*satisfied smirk*

We haven't cashed it in at the bank yet. Can't imagine carrying that whole lot of coins any further than a couple of metres down a flat road, but hm... I don't think anyone will want to steal it even if they knew it was money. It'd be funny seeing someone try running while carrying all that. Anyone can probably walk faster than they can run =D

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Since it's Wednesday night, the mussels at the Belgian Beer cafe is 1/2 price, so we went with my brother.

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Marnier(e)? *Sp?!

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Thai curry I think? Strong flavor.

The mussels were pretty small this time too, but the guy said they always serve 1kg of mussels. I guess it really depends on seasons, when mussels breed, they're supposed to be at their largest~ End of winter is probably when they are still hibernating and shrink in size (do mussels hibernate?)

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Their chips, with a very very nice dipping sauce. I'll pay to know what sauce it is and how to make/get it! =P

But wait! That is not all. You'd think we'll be full after eating mussels and chips, but there's no such thing as no room for dessert. Since the Belgian Beer Cafe was somewhere near Circular Quay, we headed back (cutting through Four Seasons Hotel as usual, where a porter opened the door and greeted us like guests) to Rossini.

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My brother's Panna Cotta- "Cream pudding topped with a fresh berry sauce and chocolate".

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tt's Torta Rossini- "Baked ricotta cheese cake"

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And mine- the ugliest ; ; Panzerotto- "Sweet donut filled with sweet ricotta cheese and cinnamon".

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Yup, there's cheese in there alright~

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Vienna Coffee and Hot chocolate. This is actually the first time I try a Vienna coffee... was never a purist when it came to coffee. Give me an expresso and I'll add milk to make it a cappucino myself.

What to do on Friday~ hmmmm.... ultimate question that is to be contemplated throughout every Saturday- Thursday~

So I've been a little lazy with the updates. Haven't actually found the time between work, reading books and... life! to update, but here I am, late one Monday night, hair dripping wet and drinking tea... and updating.

Just finished reading Haruki Murakami's "Hear the Wind Sing"... his first novel. Thoughts? Shall go into that once I finish "Pinball, 1973", the novel following this one. It's apparently out of print, and several copies are available at Usyd library. My brother borrowed it once... and dropped it down a toilet bowl (note to tt, please don't get that one for me). More on books? "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown will be out tomorrow!! And~ my dad just said he's reading Chapter 1, in Chinese, on the computer. =______=

Food! For what is this blog without glorious food? =D Been craving char siu rice for a long, long... long long time. The first time we attempted to sate that craving ended in disaster, the second time... hm... concluded that a self-attempt at char siu fan is not quite as good as those served outside, so we went and had

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char siu fan. Blurry picture, but hm~ never was a pro photographer, never gonna be one.

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Who didn't play with whatever's on the table while having dinner at a Chinese restaurants with their families when they were young? Toothpicks, chopsticks, gunk on the table, anything works for entertainment during a boring family reunion dinner~ toothpick star? =D

Friday! The most looked-forward to day of the week!

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I realise it's illegal to take photos of shopping centres, so this one was taken in a rush. Parramatta! First thing we got when we walked into the shopping centre was... a cup of corn. There was this stand selling cups of corn with different flavors like chilli, butter... we got the plain salt+butter corn XD Hot corn with melted butter= win.

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I've completely forgotten that Max Brenner is at Parra! Walked out looking for somewhere to have lunch, saw chocolate and made a beeline for it.

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"Dark Sensual Dome"- Dark chocolate mousse with a surprising creme brulee centre, served with fresh strawberries and pure melted chocolate.

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We got the typical hot chocolate (milk and dark, since someone doesn't know how to appreciate dark =P jk~) but made a mental note to try the thick Irish chocolate next time (thick... chocolate... hm...)

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And the dark, sensual dome arrives =D

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Dimension cut!!

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=( That's why I'm not a photographer. The much anticipated dimension cut photo turns into a blurry failure of a picture. Still! It was good~! I wonder if one can request for the dipping chocolate to be dark...

I think after going to adriano zumbo, most cakes and chocolates have been ruined. The bar's been raised too high and even though the dark sensual dome was good, it doesn't come up to par with Adriano Zumbo's creations, like "Miss Marple Deconstructed", or "The Younger Years"... =( I don't think even Lindt, or Guylian cafes could compare.

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It was a good love story... but not as good as adriano's *sniffle*

Back on track, we still haven't had lunch, and there wasn't actually many restaurants that we were interested in trying, so we went for something safe... sushi.

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"Lion King"

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Salsa~

Somehow, when it comes to sushi trains, "Sushi Rio" comes up top of my list... and then maybe Makoto... but real sushi must be from restaurants =D For good value on sushi, my brother recommends "Kura", though.. tt disagrees wholeheartedly.

Dinner was set in a small Korean restaurant. I tend to avoid Korean restaurants now, since I don't particularly like kimchi, and their food ALWAYS include cloves of garlic chopped into miniscule pieces that are impossible to pick out, and onions sliced into bits incorporated into the food.

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Their side dishes (excl. kimchi) are usually pretty good. Like the potato. I always wondered how they make it.

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Going to embarrass myself by attempting to spell this dish... "chap... che"?? It's stir fried potato noodles, quite nice =D

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Bubbling stew~

Opinion on Korean cuisine hasn't really changed... there's always the garlicky aftertaste... (and breath!) Kimchi still taste meh, and it's either bland or the flavors are overly strong.

Shall go back to my sweets =D

It's only been one week and here I am, updating again... (whoever said it'd be TWO weeks before I updated again! Hmph.) Though there's no new places to visit, there have been two occassions that needed celebrating- Father's Day on the Sunday that just went by, and JC's birthday that was almost a month ago, but we celebrated that today!

Father's Day... they always say that Mother's Day is more celebrated and that the sales of Mother's Day cards sold in America is second only to Christmas cards. Father's Day card? Hardly anyone buys that. That's no big surprise I guess, since fathers are meant to be all manly and beyond getting sentimental over cards. Plus, stereotypically, fathers are meant to be out working all the time and not many really spend much time at home sadly, so kids tend to be attached to their mothers.

My dad? Haha, whenever I complain that he doesn't spend time with me (in a joking manner of course!), he'll shoot back a response of "well, it's not like YOU spend much time with me either, always off playing (tt =P ) or working!" I guess I totally deserve that... ^^'' but! I digress. We like to celebrate occassions, whether it be birthdays, public holidays or Days like these together with a family dinner outside, so this time, my dad chose Tin Tong, Eastwood.

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I really don't know the names of these dishes, ShangHai food I think? So it's just going to be photos.

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Condensed milk with fried.. um... bread roll ^^'' Haha, and radish pastry~

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My dad liked this one, though I really don't know what it is. Have to say though, Tin Tong was good when it was newly opened, but the standard has dropped quite significantly since.

Turns out one of my friends from work was also at Eastwood that night, dining in a Japanese restaurant just opposite where we were. Paths didn't cross ^^''

Today was the first day in a while that I didn't have to work. It's been quite frustrating, with work calling me early in the morning at 7 and 8am, messing around with the rostering and changing the times when I'm meant to work (usually calling me to start earlier or something like that), all because there was this sudden termination with one of the staff on Thursday two weeks ago. Today was planned about two weeks ago with JC. I went early to prepare.

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From Shu Shin Bou~ a mochi place at World Square. This is their mascot!

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Preparing at Gloria Jeans. I stupidly forgot that my scissors weren't in my pencil case!!! I had a box cutter knife in my bag though, so I used that. Knew it'd come in useful sometime!

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And it's all ready~ the mochi (to replace the birthday cake), the two cards (cos I owed her one from last year), the books I borrowed from her, and a tofu soft toy she always wanted covered by those books.

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I know, I don't usually post faces on my blog for privacy reasons, but she doesn't mind =D The two cards~

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Mascot-chan~

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Gumshara! It was crazy, we went there at about 1:15 or so, it was crowded!! There were two long queues- one waiting for the noodles, one waiting to order. Despite the long wait, people just kept coming, saying "this will be the best ramen you've ever tasted!" The grumpy man sitting behind JC? I think he's just grumpy because he had to wait so long for the ramen. We must have waited about half an hour or so for it o O

Lesson: Don't go to Gumshara at 1pm or so. It dies down at about 2pm... so either go really early, like at 11:30am when it just opens, or late. I don't have any qualms about waiting for good food *remembers the 20 minutes wait on adriano zumbo's "The Younger Years" D= *, but I can understand why some people get impatient (like if they were on their lunch break at work, or uni break).

After Gumshara, we headed towards the arcade near the George Street cinema to play some taiko, but it was closed, so we went to Ten Ren instead.

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Black Tea Plum Jelly and Jasmine Green Tea Jelly with honey swirled on top.

Met tt afterwards for a short while for fried chicken wings and lemon tea (I really should stop eating), then pondered over what kind of books my dad likes at Kinokuniya because I still haven't gotten him a Father's Day present... before heading towards the bus stop. Just missed an express bus, but it turned out to be a good thing, because the next express came just 2 minutes later and it was a lot less packed! People who got on two stops later were saying the first bus was completely full, whereas the one I got on, everyone had a seat... or two like me =D Came home and Dad cooked steamed fish for dinner~ (did I say I should stop eating?? I really should...)

Just a couple more weeks before Singapore!!!