It's been a rough week. Think quite a few people are having rough weeks too, and in turn, loaded and shot their frustrations at me =_= but I guess you just have to keep a cool head, distract yourself... watch some anime =D and everything will be alright.

Strange though, that while this week there's been some major downs, there's also been major ups that don't usually happen. Coincidence, or...?

Sunday! Unfortunately, though I didn't know it then, last Sunday was probably going to be my last free Sunday for a while- been rostered to work for the next two Sundays. Revisited Ming Hai for brunch before heading to Usyd's law library for some studying.

From Week 18, 2010

Roast pork belly!

From Week 18, 2010

I ordered plain hor fun to go with it, and since we also ordered pig's ears, this was good =)

From Week 18, 2010

tt had chicken and egg porridge (oyako don- porridge style =P) and fried breadstick ^^''

From Week 18, 2010

Something random my parents bought from Coles one day, and I must say, it's actually pretty good. Like chocolate mousse, just slightly denser.

Skipping a whole lot of crappy days to FRIDAY! tt knew I was being a grouchy hamster, and his friends introduced him to this really nice place at Surry Hills...

From Week 18, 2010

... which has a $35 lunch special on Friday, 3 course meal.

Upon arriving, we were asked if we had reservations. This place is actually quite famous and is open for dinner, Tues-Saturday, but they only open for lunch on Friday, 12-3pm. We went there at almost exactly 12, but that place really filled up quickly at around 12:30pm... with business people.

We were served bread roll with butter, and there was also a small dish of coarse seasalt instead of the usual salt shakers. It was actually really hard for me to take photos- it just feels odd to do so, and we were seated in front of the kitchen...

From Week 18, 2010

so waiters and waitresses were always nearby, keeping an eye on everything. Which is great, because they refill our water when it's nearly empty, but also made my photo-taking very rushed and at times, blurred.

For the 3 course meal, there were two options for each course, so tt and I tried everything between the two of us =)

From Week 18, 2010

Barbecued ocean trout with Thai-style salad. I had this for my entree, it was wonderful. Honestly, despite there being some nasty coriander hidden inside (which I immediately picked out), the trout was barbecued to perfection and the Thai salad wasn't overpowering in flavour.

From Week 18, 2010

Sweet corn valoute with corn and bacon fritters. Tt had most of this one and I tried it after having about half of my entree. Mine was definitely better =P though this one was pretty good too. Just felt it was a bit ordinary, like cream of corn soup.

I shall interject here and say it's actually really hard to share food in that restaurant. It's a known dining etiquette that sharing food (in the Western culture) is rude and you're meant to keep the food you have on your own plate (read: no passing food around from one plate to another, and no tasting dishes that you did not order). We discreetly swap plates for the entree, but for the mains, we just had our own, though I did secretly manage to taste tt's and he had a small taste of mine too. For the dessert, we just had our own.

From Week 18, 2010

My main- roasted pork belly with champ potato and red wine jus. This was so good, but with crackling pork belly, I have yet to taste one that isn't good. The potato was really spicy by itself because of the spring onions (imagine a stick of spring onions- they used the white, spicy parts of it), but when eaten with the pork belly and some apple sauce, it all evens out. However, I couldn't help but compare this to Westin's pork belly. We both agreed that Westin's was better (apple chips! and poached apples to go with the pork belly, whereas this one, I'm almost certain they used a jar of apple sauce) but value for money, it's definitely this one. Oh yes, I did notice the missing bits of crackle- guess the chef must have been taste-testing.

From Week 18, 2010

tt's crispy-skinned mulloway with petit pois a'la Francais. I didn't remember the menu off by heart of course, these names will be quite a handful to remember. The fish was really juicy and flavoursome. Some people like to steam their fish to retain the juice, while others prefer to grill or barbecue their fish, which makes it crispy, but dries it out. This was good in that it was crispy on the outside, but not overdone, so the juice stays in the flesh. I'm not too sure about the pea sauce, but tt said it was really good.

From Week 18, 2010

Something random my camera caught when I was trying to unsuspiciously take a photo. tt holding a camera and casting a shadow, which he always did on his dishes, ruining my photos.

From Week 18, 2010

Dessert! My coconut financier with cherry sorbet. I'm not really a fan of their desserts- I tend to like coconut for its juice and meat, but not so much for coconut flakes or the artificial flavour. The cherry sorbet made this dessert nice though, it wasn't very sweet at all, more sour (sour cherries are awesome) and goes well with the cake. The crumble underneath the sorbet was really nice too, like the crumble atop apple crumble pies or a cheesecake base.

From Week 18, 2010

Bread and butter pudding with vanilla ice cream. I don't actually know how this taste like, so tt, any comment? =P

From Week 18, 2010

So yes, this is how I remembered the names of the dishes, or you'd be seeing amateur descriptions like "seared fish (I really didn't know a mulloway was a fish) with pea sauce".

From Week 18, 2010

Their business cards are in the form of mini sample menus.

From Week 18, 2010

It sounds so delicious, but I'm fairly certain that's their dinner menu. Take a look at the second dish listed: Terrine of rabbit and foie gras with white asparagus, baby carrots and hazelnut vinaigrette. How good does that sound?? Note to self: MUST TRY FOIE GRAS ONE DAY!

From Week 18, 2010

In case someone wants to go. You know you do =P Thanks, tt, for bringing me to such a wonderful restaurant for such a good meal =D Definitely helped cheer up an otherwise bleak week.

From Week 18, 2010

Came home and had a prawn salad today- made at home with packet salad, crunchy fried noodle (a must-have in salads!), fresh prawns and thousand island dressing. =D Sure, it's not at all like Assiette's salads, but.. prawns!!!

From Week 18, 2010

Just after work today, I received a phonecall from J.C. I haven't seen that girl in decades, so that was a such a surprise. She called to say she was in Cherrybrook and dropped off something into my letterbox. Inside? Dvd of Buzzer Beat (perfect because I just finished Rideback anime yesterday!), a letter and a card.

;______; it was so sweet of her! Am seriously touched. Thank you thank you thank you!! =D

Now I have energy to write my essay! =D