Fun-filled Friday!

Who would have thought that after one Friday, I'll be blogging again? Sydney is boring, but it's also huge. There are many other places just waiting to be explored~ or simply revisited!

From Y

I went a little crazy editing my photos this time because my brother was teaching me stuff. I should get myself photoshop, but I still use paintshop pro =_= so there were a lot of things I couldn't figure out... thank God for a geeky brother =P Oh yea, the photo... it had been AGES since my last yum cha session, it's been so long I cannot even remember when the last time I had yum cha was, so when tt suggested yum cha at Regal, it took no hesitation to agree at all. This was 牛柏葉, unfortunately, I don't know the English for it... something like cow.. tripe? Intestine?

From Y

I tried looking up the English words for these and got a bit confused. I think it's because cows have so many different stomachs, so there's different tripes for the different stomachs. I think the previous one is the honeycomb tripe from the 2nd stomach, and this one is the book tripe, from the 3rd stomach. I don't know... don't think, just eat! They both taste really good, though I personally prefer the previous one... it's firmer... chewier... yum~

From Y

Cheong fun, char siu inside. My favourite fillings are prawn or char siu for cheong fun =D Or, just plain, with chilli sauce, peanut sauce and hoisin sauce from the night markets! Cheong fun are surprisingly troublesome to make yourself, so it really saves a lot of time and effort just buying this...

From Y

It's missing its partner! The har gao came, but where's the siu mai? We actually ordered it ages ago, but then the table in front of us managed to get it =_____= They must have misplaced it! Give us back our siu mai!! We actually ordered three dishes that we didn't see going around in the trolleys- cheong fun with a fried breadstick... (I really suck at writing English descriptions for these Asian delicacies...), siu mai, and fried taro with stuff inside. Sat there for about 20 minutes chatting and ordering other stuff. Flagged a waiter and verified the order again. He bent his head to listen, and left without saying a word or even so much as a nod. Tt asked, "Do you think he even heard us?" Waited more, ordered this. Verified order with a third waiter who came to refill tea. Waited...

From Y

... got the cheong fun, noticed the table in front of us got one too. Noticed they also got the siu mai, but ours didn't come o O!! *point and exclaim in horror at the unfairness*.

Meanwhile, a group of Caucasians came and occupied a table behind us. Within seconds, trolleys came rushing by and dishes piled onto that table, with waitresses holding out steamers and plates, yabbering some vague description in broken English and setting it in front of them. It was such a sight- none of the dishes brought to their table were rejected until the table was brimming full of dishes. I guess that's the difference ^^'' Asians do tend to be pickier with what dishes they get with yum cha. That's the whole point of having such a wide variety to pick from right? We take about an hour to fill our table (heck, we never even filled our table- we chose a few, ate those few while waiting for others to come, and if they don't come before we finish, our table stayed empty =_=) whereas they took at most a minute to fill their table.

Another thing- why do they like to drink beer and wine in the afternoon... for lunch? The point of "yum cha" is to... drink tea right? ^^'' Anyway, I digress.

From Y

What has been going around many times were chicken feet, more tripe and this... which we ate before I took a photo, because we were hungry waiting for our ordered food. It's... pork... bone... um, *gives up and switches back to Chinese* 排骨.

From Y

Decided that we've had enough tea, and stayed long enough (we must have been there for a long time because most of the tables surrounding ours were emptying...), so we ordered a final dessert dish of mango pancake and left...

Without getting our siu mai and fried taro.

I guess most people will complain that this is bad customer service, and for the price of yum cha, this is unacceptable, but... (this is turning into a dangerously racist post... I should be careful...) Asian restaurants, cafes, and... yum cha places, tend to be like this. They'd just slap a menu down in front of you, stalk off, and come back a while later to take your order without cracking a smile or a word of greeting. I read negative reviews of Regal having bad service, with the carts whizzing past the table without stopping to give customers a chance to see what they can order and them leaving hungry because they didn't manage to order food. I guess that's why I'm thankful for tt, who flags waitresses and their carts down like there's no tomorrow =D Unfortunately, the carts all carry the same food and not what we wanted.. they must be thinking, damn these picky Asian punks. But!! that is what you're meant to do- flag them down. Even if they serve you rather unhappily and grouchily, they'll still end up serving you. This is normal for Chinese restaurants ^^''

So overall, the food was good, service was... meh... which was expected. Tt treated that meal (Thank You!) and thought the price was pretty good too, so it wasn't too bad of an experience~ plus, the time we took waiting for food, we had a chance to chat and look around at other people who were dining there too (that's always interesting), so it's all good.

After taking a short detour to quantronics for some psp enquiry, we started walking towards Townhall and caught sight of The Chocolate Room on Sussex Street. We pass by The Chocolate Room quite often, but never went in. It was either closed, or there was no one inside, which made us think it was probably closed. This time, we saw a few people inside, so~ in we went.

From Y

Cute version of "DND" sign.

From Y

If you can't read it, it says "a diet tip... eat a chocolate bar before each meal. it'll take the edge off your appetite, and you'll eat less". Not sure how plausible that is, sounds a bit off to me, but I did hear about the one where eating a twix bar is healthier than any other confectionary bars. Somehow, my entries on food seem to be getting more health conscious. Not that I'm on a diet or anything. If I'm ever forced to go on a diet, I highly doubt I'd survive a week. Give me my [unmelted] butter!

From Y

I haven't seen this in a while. I know they serve hot chocolate like this up in the chocolate place in the Blue Mountains. Warm milk with a candle at the bottom to heat it up, and the chocolate buttons are placed into the milk to melt. It is then sipped up using the metal straw/spatula.

From Y

This is called the "Chocolate Melting Pot"

From Y

This is actually not a good idea at all.

1) When it arrives, the milk was filled too full- at just one or two buttons of chocolate, it overflows.

2) BUT... when you try to sip the milk so it'd stop overflowing, there's a very big chance that the milk is far too hot to be sipped up... especially through a METAL straw.

3) Not only will you scald your tongue, you'll be dropping that straw/spatula as fast as you can because as the milk travels up that metal rod, your fingers risk getting burnt too.

4) I was majorly tempted to blow out the candle, but then what of the rest of the chocolate buttons and the milk, which would be lukewarm and not hot enough to melt chocolate? Re-lighting the candle will be troublesome too- the candle is very short and placed deep inside.

Oh my gosh, I just realised I don't have a photo of tt's hazelnut.. something something milkshake! The Chocolate Room had quite a few interesting varieties for milkshakes, like kit kat, meringue, chilli, etc. Very... very... diabetically sweet.

From Y

Their tasting plate. That small cup of hot chocolate was good.

From Y

We got to choose our chocolates from their selection there. This is their heart-shaped passionfruit white chocolate and ganache.

From Y

From Y

"Spark". Very well-named, because when you bite into it...

From Y

you can feel your mouth crackling. They added popping candy inside =) My favourite item from their store.

From Y

This was their Darjeeling chocolate.

From Y

Doesn't look that special inside, but it has a very pleasant and subtle Darjeeling tea flavor. Quite nice~

From Y

Some interior shots..

From Y

It's actually a fairly quiet place, and I have never seen it full of people before... when we went there, there were a couple of tables filled, a man sitting by himself reading newspaper, a group of three youngsters chatting... that was about it. Quite a relaxing place to chill.

Just don't get the chocolate melting pot.

From Y

Must end the day with Azuma's Patisserie. I still cannot spell that word without searching up the proper spelling for it... =_= They put out self-serve water in Sapporo beer glasses, but the water tasted quite weird...

From Y

Nyom.... their Piña colada cake~ Real pineapple slices with pineapple mousse and a sponge base. I love Azuma's cakes! And I still haven't tried their mont blanc, which seems to be there most of the days. This one was a new, never-seen-before one, which was why we chose this one. Mont Blanc, I shall come get you one day.

Christmas is approaching... I'm at a loss of what to get my parents.

From Y

Dad wanted something like this, an LP thingie that can connect via USB and re-recorded into .wav and burnt onto discs that are more lasting. I asked him again today if he wanted this, which we saw at the sony shop for $299, and he said no =_= Talk about changing his mind quickly.

From Y

My brother? I don't even need to think about HIS present. His birthday AND christmas presents are going to be cash- self requested. Well, he did give himself a present already... a Sony Alpha 550 (because his 350 was acting up a little... he did say I can borrow it to learn how to use though =D ) and I suspect he's a little broke after buying it ^^'' No surprise, looking at his collection of cameras and lenses =____=

From Y

He also bought this: Eminence's Promise album, featuring music from Makoto Shinkai's movies (his movies include Byousoku 5cm and Voices of a Distant Star). I think most of them are composed by Tenmon. If you see clips of interviews with Makoto Shinkai, he has a cat that looks very much like Scary sitting on his tablet beside him. Super cute! =D The cat's name is Sayuri~ and!! -->Read this!!<--

Or if you can read Japanese, -->the original text<--, complete with pictures. Sayuri forgets Shinkai-san and when he came back after a year, she scratched him =(

Where was I? ._.

From Y

Oh yeah, their album. I don't think they actually held a performance for this, or maybe they did in Japan, but seriously, if they performed this in Sydney, I WILL go see it no matter what! Tenmon writes awesome music that goes with Makoto Shinkai's beautiful artwork and animation... his movies are all really touching and thought-provoking too.

From Y

I haven't gone through the whole cd yet, but it's sounding good so far. Quite a few piano solos though... would prefer more orchestrated pieces, or small ensembles... Eminence, come back to Sydney!!