Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Starting from the beginning, haven't posted since Christmas and it's already almost new year! There's still Christmas cheer here and there though, and I know my restaurant game is still looking festive with all its Christmas trees and stockings. The bus I went on recently was brightly decorated in the Australian Christmas theme- green and gold tinsels everywhere and globes hanging from the ceiling.

From W

Friday, December 25, 2009

From X
PS. This entry's been updated so scroll down! =D

A personal MERRY CHRISTMAS from Midnight~! Or... as personal as it can get on a blog =D Hope everyone had a wonderful time celebrating!! For those who don't celebrate... well, bear with me for this shall be a Christmas post, because being the dedicated blogger that I am (yeah right), I'm sitting in front of the computer blogging. On Christmas day. Sad, but yea, with all the shops closed on Christmas and Sydney being the Land of Boredom on public holidays such as this, there really isn't much to do.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Let's do a short update.. on icie's room! Since there's been some question about Miku's cosplay and I really never knew that was a Ranka cosplay because I never did watch Macross Frontier, no matter how much my brother raved into my ears about its awesomeness.... I went around and... had some fun with his figurines. Some, he hasn't even opened from the packaging, which means he hasn't done a photoshoot for them yet, which means it's not even out on his blog yet, but then again, this site is pretty much unknown to strangers (I think people I personally know come visit this blog only? Why strangers would read this is beyond me) so whatever "spoiler" or damage I do here, it shouldn't matter, right icie? =P

Let's start with the Miku cosplay which Nadleeh did. It's actually from Miku's song "World Is Mine".
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People whinging about the lack of updates =P though I have to say, it hasn't been all that eventful this past week. It was my brother's birthday on Saturday though, but let's start from the beginning.

(btw, how hot is it today?! I'm sitting here in unbearable heat, silently damning the heat and summer in Sydney =_= it's currently WINTER in Japan and Hong Kong- two places I'd much rather be this Christmas than here =( But my brother just turned the air conditioning on... don't think I'll survive summer without one ^^'')

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It's Christmas soon! Have to say, I've been really lazy with presents this year and haven't really gone shopping for any. Or if I did get any, they are either small small things that I randomly see, or bought online. I really have to stop buying things online!! Now I realise what people mean by "one click and there goes $xxx(x)". I guess I'm not that bad... the most I've spent online was about a hundred, and they were all tshirts from threadless t's.... AND 70% of them weren't mine anyway.

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Back a few entries ago, I went to FL's house to make quiches, tshirt recons and what not. Also made this- a book cover for a very old book which I bought... online... and it was second hand, so had to glam it up with a self-made book cover. It's not because I'm giam that I went and bought a second hand book... it's just that it's so old that it's not even in print anymore, so all that's available are second hand paperbacks or hard covers that costs over $200 or something crazy like that. For a small little children's book called "The Otterbury Incident". I was never read that book when I was a kid, was more interested in Enid Blyton and Nancy Drew.

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Random brunch before work... this was white choc and raspberry muffin.

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=D Time to show off my new toy~ while my brother went and got a new camera and lenses and whatever else that drained his bank account, I randomly went and got a psp (I did blog about this before). Can't really see in this photo, but this is near my pathetically tiny Christmas tree with the PURPLE (must stress the word purple, because that's about 80% of the reason why I got it, haha... might just name it Purple from now on) psp, the first game for it- given as a Christmas present from tt =D and it's a real game because it *cough* cannot play the other kind of games yet *cough*. And next to it is the big fat poodle thing that we won from the machines =D

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It doesn't look all that great, but it's a quiche made from very few ingredients one night when my brother and I were poor and had no food in the house. I think all we used were eggs, milk, flour and miscellaneous ingredients found from the fridge. Have to say though, quiches taste a lot better with cream rather than milk.

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Moving on to Saturday! My high school friends had a reunion/Christmas outing thing going on the same day, but unfortunately, it clashed with my brother's birthday, so... blood is thicker than water afterall, as my brother constantly reminds me =P I had to celebrate my brother's birthday instead. We planned high tea at Swissotel, with his two friends, Madara and Nadleeh (nicknames, from anime... I highly suspect Naruto and Macross, but I'm not too sure).

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My brother told me Swissotel was mainly for backpackers or something, so we really weren't expecting anything big.

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But since it's buffet high tea, it can't be that bad right?

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Unlimited helpings of sandwiches and desserts.

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Creme brulee is always good, along with some cakes, scones etc.

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Chocolate fountain, but we were pretty full so didn't really touch that. I really liked the fact that tea was also self-serve, and you can choose between teabags and 6 selections of tea leaves- Earl Grey, Lady Grey, English breakfast, Orange Pekoe, Green, Russian Caravan and one last one, can't remember. We had a pot of Earl Grey and Caravan, which tasted like tobacco tea because it has a smoky aroma to it. I still prefer my Earl Grey =)

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Swissotel has really nice clocks everywhere. There was another one like a huge watch face...

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Certainly doesn't look too much like a backpacker's hotel ^^''

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Where we had high tea.

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No one was playing, but I suspect this place will have quite a nice atmosphere at night during dinnertime.

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Two levels of wine.

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Next, we headed over to botanical gardens for... none other than a photoshoot. Note: not me. My brother and his two friends. I tagged along =D It was awesome walking through the streets and looking at people's facial reactions.

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I never watched Macross, but Madara is posing with a lion. I don't know why. Btw, they self-made all their costumes, including this one.

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Madara and Nadleeh- very obvious who Nadleeh was cosplaying as... =D

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It's Miku! From Vocaloid! =D That wig was super heavy, and check out those mini mouse platforms =D

Then my brother and his friends went off for a surprise dinner for another friend's birthday later this month and I went off to meet tt after work, but I wanted to have a look at the street that hung bird cages since I heard about it from a friend...

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This really reminds me of CCS, the movie (those who are hopelessly lost already- dw, it's another anime) where they went to Hong Kong and there was a street with all the bird cages... poor Nadleeh is scared of birds, so even though there weren't any real birds inside the cages, there were sound effects of it... ^^'' can be pretty creepy... especially at night =P

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So after the photoshoot, we went into Intercontinental Hotel to use their bathroom (to get changed).

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Shall explore hotels one day. It's pretty nice, and Usyd has a graduation ball happening in one of the halls. Why didn't we ever get a graduation ball?!

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Christmas trees decorating the hall where the graduation ball was going to happen.

My brother and his friends went to Kasumi (the izakaya with the soumen machines) while tt and I went to Sushi Rio. Haven't been there for a long time, but felt like something healthy and fast, like sushi. We decided that rather than grabbing plates from the belt, we'd just order handrolls.

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This was their scallop and omelette handroll... for $3.50 each, this was actually really really good.

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Second handroll- mine was a typical avocado/salmon and tt's was a battered prawn one. Mine felt healthier =P

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Took this one from the belt- squid (or octopus, I can't tell the difference between those two, ever) salad. This was like the one we had in Singapore at Carnivore, except that was self-serve unlimited octopus/squid salad and it was dried tomato flavored.

We ordered about three handrolls each and two plates from the belt, along with green tea, and the cost was around 10-ish per person because the green tea was free. Was really filling too, and the scallop sushi was seriously good... a nice healthy and filling dinner for that price is hard to find these days ^^''

It's been too hot recently to go out and tt's always busy working, so I've just been home reading books, playing tactics and stoning, but since my sister is coming to visit for Christmas tomorrow morning, the next post might be more eventful~ Oh, and there's Christmas dinner to make too =D We get a real turkey this year!!

Friday, December 18, 2009

Ever since I cleared out my history of blog entries (the ones from millenniums ago when this blog first started... I was a stupid kid who wrote lyke dis), this makes the hundredth blog entry~ =D

So I was home for dinner most of the time either really late after working, or when I'm home during proper dinner time, no one will be home, so it's been maggie noodles for days on end. One fine day, my dad woke up from a refreshing sleep, and, feeling in a good mood, left with my mum to the Sydney Fish Markets. Their catch of the day?

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Three of these beauties! =D Alive and kicking~

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Not so alive anymore... I came home late that night because I had work, so they had the other two crabs without me, but they did leave me ONE whole crab to myself! ... well, not quite one, they stole the shell.

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I LOVE CRABS! Having one whole crab to myself for dinner (well, there were other "sides", like scallops.. =P ), it just made all those other nights of sad and lonely instant noodles dinners fade away.

We don't have this often at all ^^'' It's actually meant to celebrate my brother's birthday, which is coming up soon, and he loves seafood too. Oh, the yellow "mustard" which came out of the crab while cooking? Mixed it with plain rice and it made an awesome finish to dinner =D Why waste? That's the good part!

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Then, even though we just went to yum cha about 4, 5 days ago, we decided to go again, just for this- the fried taro dumpling, which I didn't manage to get last time. This time, we went as early as 10:40am or so (because yum cha is meant to be in the morning apparently), so we got all the freshest food~ and because there were so few people, the waitresses just ask what you want and they'll order it in the kitchen before bringing it fresh to the table~

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Chicken feet

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See! It MUST be a pair. Can't have one without the other, or it won't be called yum cha anymore.

We managed to get those dishes we didn't get that day =D

This week has just been Chinese food. A few days after yum cha, my parents brought us out to Aunt Jane's Kitchen in Carlingford for my brother's official birthday dinner (the crab was home-made, and, despite its extravagance, we usually have official birthday dinners outside).

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Tofu with prawn paste on top~ I don't know why, but rather than the tofu itself, I like picking on the veggies at the bottom. The prawn paste seems like the kind that will be on top of prawn toasts.. something I'd like to make soon =)

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Braised duck! Ignoring that awful bunch of parsley that's been used as garnish, this was really nice. Can't go wrong with duck! It HAS to be the best out of all the poultry. Chicken... too common and seen lots of disasters with it, turkey... is too dry. Quails are small and pigeons are too. And those two are hard to eat with all the bones.

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I'm not sure what type of fish this was, but this was another really good dish. There was a time when I really loved fish... and then I avoided it because I swallowed a bone and it was painfully stuck in my throat for a while. This one was bone-free!! They half-diced the flesh of the fish and dipped it in batter before frying it. Also came with yuba (beancurd...? I think that's what it's called in English) and soft tofu, the sauce was just right- not too salty.

We rarely ever go out for family dinners anymore, so even though in the past, we've had lots of these type of dinners where we go to a very typical Chinese restaurant and have a very typical Chinese dinner, it was especially enjoyable because we haven't actually done so in a long time.

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Tin Tong, "Taste of Shanghai"- first started off in Eastwood. My parents used to go there so often because they really liked it when it first opened. Then the standard dropped so low, they didn't go back for a while. They complained that not only was the food getting mediocre, the porcelain dishes they used were all cracked and stained, definitely not what you should use to serve food to customers. Decided to forgive and forget, so last time when my aunt came to stay over with my uncle, we headed over there for lunch before driving me to work. Must have changed to a new boss, there was a new menu, new signboards with new food, new cutlery and dishes, larger variety of desserts, etc. They were happy after that =)

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A new branch opened up in World Square, City, downstairs on the same level as the Asian supermarket, Breadtop and Coles. It's proving very popular. Ever since World Square opened, that shop changed about three times (that I can remember). First it was an Omelette place, where it specialised in many different kinds of omurice. Then it became a Vietnamese place, where it sold many types of fried rice, noodles, had big comfy chairs and authentic lemon tea (not bottled and 80% sugar). That closed not long after opening... maybe it became something else before this, but whatever business opens up there doesn't usually last very long at all. This one might be different- it seems popular enough to stay there for quite a while.

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For some reason, when I visit a restaurant for the first time, there's always some sort of accident that happens. Thank God it's a minor one this time ^^'' While the waitress was tearing our order from her notepad and placing it on the table, I was pouring tea... was too busy watching her and overfilled the teacup... =( someone must have cursed me with restaurant clumsiness (jk~ heck, I used to work in one!)

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There's the menu. It was taken upside-down, thus the weird perspective.

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Picture speaks for itself. XLB! Competing with DinTaiFung up two levels~ this is definitely cheaper I guess, but according to tt, the XLB is still best at Ashfield.

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Rice cake with shredded pork and cabbage. The table next to us were influenced and ordered the same dish a few seconds after ours came =D

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Pan-fried dumplings with pork and cabbage~ there were three choices, you could get different types of veggies with the pork, one being parsley (definite no!) and the other was spinach.

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Ja Jiang noodles. Tt really likes Ja Jiang noodles, but I prefer noodles with soup usually (if Chinese- wanton noodles, if Japanese- ramen, if Italian- I still prefer pasta with broth or a thick sauce) because dry noodles tend to taste.... well.. dry.

For now, I shall show off Latti, because she's so cute. It's been raining the whole day and it's cold outside, so she decided to spend the day indoors. Parcels come often to this house thanks to my brother ordering lots of stuff online, so we get lots of these big cardboard boxes, which we randomly put in the living room before throwing them out.

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She looks tiny~

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Grouchy cos I woke her up from her sleep and it's cold.

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ZZzz... Back to sleep.

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I'll blog about this some other time, but...! Lookie~ tt (I) won this from the machines! =D