Australians are melting in this 40 degrees heat today, and really, being at work isn't much better. WHY do people shop for food when they should be at home, or in a shopping centre, where there is proper air-con? What, did they think there'll be strong air-con at Pennant Hills? It was really hot inside the complex, and having to work makes it even hotter =( I already had it good- being in the cash office and cranking the air-con till about 18 degrees, but the other times when I was out there in the shop packing or cashier-ing, it was like being stuck in a rainforest.
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| From Week 4, 2010 |
... which is why you need refreshing fruits for days like these.
That, is a new fruit in Australia called the "Achacha". Don't know who thought of that name, it sounds more like a percussion instrument than a fruit, but I guess it's quite exotic-sounding. Apparently, they're grown in North Queensland (lots of sunlight) and is a cousin of the mangosteen.
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| From Week 4, 2010 |
Looks rather like a lemon, except orange.
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| From Week 4, 2010 |
Inside is a white, soft ball of meat.
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| From Week 4, 2010 |
... plus a super big seed. It's kind of a rip-off buying this fruit, 70% of it is inedible skin or seed. The meat does taste like mangosteen, though this cousin will not beat the queen of fruits because... well, it doesn't have enough meat.
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| From Week 4, 2010 |
See! Just the skin and seed...
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| From Week 4, 2010 |
My brother actually found this out for me and today was the first day Harris Farm at Pennant Hills sold these fruits, so I went and got some just to try it out. Expensive... it was $9.99/kg and that can get you about... 22-24 Achacha's. We saw the ad for this at Imax while waiting for Avatar.
Achacha has a youtube account too, they uploaded the ad there.
Click here to watch it.
Click here to watch it.
We thought the ad was kind of lame and the name sounded pretty funny (are we being racist against fruits here? Come on, at least make it sound a little more regal, it IS related to THE mangosteen...) so my brother went home, did a bit of google searching and told me to get some today. So I did. It's nice. Nice but expensive. You end up throwing away more than half the fruit, and I doubt you can even plant the seed here in Sydney... you need tropical weather. Like in Queensland.
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| From Week 4, 2010 |
More lavender from the guy in the wheelchair outside.
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| From Week 4, 2010 |
And my lunch for today. They sell these at Harris Farm too... in fact, the Harris Farm at Pennant Hills sells a lot of Asian stuff, like miso, mirin, various marinating sauces like satay, oyster sauce, etc... I've taken to shopping there ^^''
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| From Week 4, 2010 |
Backtracking to yesterday. Another hot day, though not as bad as today. Had an early lunch at the Laksa House, Grace Hotel. Tt brought me there before once, but we didn't have anything because we weren't really keen on laksa. Then we went to Singapore and started craving Singaporean/Malaysian cuisine. This was mine- Bak kut teh, came with chicken rice.
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| From Week 4, 2010 |
Herbal yum-ness.
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| From Week 4, 2010 |
tt's Nasi Lemak. I'm actually interested to try their chicken rice because quite a lot of people ordered it while we were there. It was still quiet at about 11:45am, but apparently all the tables fill up and it gets really busy during lunchtime. A popular place for lunch amongst the working people near Townhall.
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| From Week 4, 2010 |
After lunch, we took tt's dog out for a walk. This is Obie. He's a fat Jack Russell Terrier. That dog goes crazy when he knows he's going for a walk. Seriously, he helps himself into the leash and then whines non-stop while grabbing the leash in his teeth and dropping it in front of you. Then when you pick it up, he jumps up at it again and again till you give it back to him... then he picks it up to drop it at you again =____= strange dog. He goes hyperactive, so a good photo of him isn't exactly possible.
Took a walk with him around Rose Bay... it's a really nice suburb, quiet and peaceful... but it was a really hot day. Poor Obie ^^ I think we tired him out with the walk, plus the heat must have really gotten to him. At first, he tried to defy me and kept splaying out all four legs in a stubborn stance, refusing to budge when he finds a tree or pole he likes to sniff at every few metres. Soon, he just trotted along without stopping like a good dog. Tried to carry him a few time, but that dog is one heavy brick.
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| From Week 4, 2010 |
Dinner was at this place called "Crazy Wings" at China Town. It's next to Roll+ and the hotplate place we visited last time with my sister. Quite a recently opened place, it was fairly quiet when we went in. No surprise, because this place is indeed quite expensive.
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| From Week 4, 2010 |
Interior is nice enough, with red lanterns, cushions with ancient Chinese paintings printed on the covers. The doors lead out to No.1 Dixon Shopping centre.
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| From Week 4, 2010 |
The chicken wings were nicely spiced, or, for the non-spicy one, very nicely marinated. We ordered a sweet honey one and a original house recipe one. Much preferred the spicy original house recipe wings- it wasn't so spicy that it was unbearable, but enough to make you get a herbal drink to wash it down.
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| From Week 4, 2010 |
Ordered other stuff- lamb, chicken hearts (of course~), and chicken thigh. All up with two cans of herbal drink- $30. For those huge spenders out there, this may not seem much, but for the amount of food (we were still hungry!!), this wasn't really worth it at all. Sure, the food were all nicely marinated, seasoned and it was delicious, but just put me back on the street with the satay stalls in Singapore and this place will be fast forgotten.
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| From Week 4, 2010 |
They did give us these vouchers to use next time though. For every $10 spent, get $5 off. So if our next meal there cost $30, we can use three vouchers and pay half price instead, $15. I thought that's alright, but tt seems a bit reluctant to go back there. Anyone wants vouchers to give that place a try?
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| From Week 4, 2010 |
Because it was Friday and we were still hungry, we walked outside and behold! Night markets were on~ with stalls of lovely street food. We got steamed cheong fun~
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| From Week 4, 2010 |
And my all-time favourite, which we always get whenever we buy from the night markets. Watermelon sago! XD That, was what hit the spot, exactly what we needed after a long and tiring day out in the heat.
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| From Week 4, 2010 |
Oh yea, Thursday, we watched The Treasure Hunter. It was showing at George Street cinema as part of the Chinese film festival. Predictable, cliche storyline with parts that don't make sense, some attempts at being funny (but Eric Tsang's funny character turned a bit annoying with his constant "You no good, you no good!" lines. First two times were ok, but please, know when to stop), some attempts at being scary (corpse with green face and vomit spewing out that bites people and ghosts that inhibit bodies? ... Could be worse I guess) and some fight scenes that really only involves shaky cameras and sand blasts... heck, don't pay for this. Jay Chou was only cool in one scene- when he puts together a gun he dismantled in a matter of seconds. That was impressive. That was all I remembered.
5 comments:
Obie's not fat! =P but yeah, he likes whining when he's waiting for something. I think he was actually more dehydrated than anything else ^^;
And I miss the (cheap) satay stalls in Singapore too =(
Of course obie's fat, there's at least 15kg of dog meat on him I bet.
15 kg?! try 15 pounds, well 16 to be exact =P
actually the fruit u had remind me of (in a bad way... EWWW) durian... the way the seed looks and the squeezhyyyyy meat stuck on the seed..... (double triple EWWW).... nothing can beat mangosteen.....=)
having fun there, mei.
but it tastes nothing like the durian =P and if you try it, you'll agree it tastes almost exactly like mangosteen... it's basically mangosteen with bigger seeds. And it's orange on the outside.
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