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