A good deed never goes unpunished

Instead of doing our usual point and laugh when we found out that Gus (Aka Mojojojo) needed surgery on his leg, we decided to do the right thing, and do the whole visiting with flowers balloons and all. So I called up the hospital, found out what room they've stashed him in and then went and bought a really cute Lion, some chocolate, cards, flowers, balloons and then collected MX so he could do the Sudoku puzzle when he's not all drugged up. Look at poor Gusti...

The Lion before it gets molested

The Leg

The Cut

Its ok girls.....the cut is near the groin, but let me assure you everything is intact and will function as per normal!! As we were visiting, we were mucking around with all the switches and things when we found out that we didn't have TV! You needed to subscribe to use it, and Gus didn't arrange for a TV before he checked in. Atleast he's got radio right? We told him to keep listening to MIX106.5 and that we'd dedicate a song to him by telling Richard Mercer that he got run over by a Taxi. This is when we realised that he's on holidays and there will be no love song dedications. So we did the next best thing. Before Moishii dropped me off home, we pulled over into a street a few blocks from mine, turned off the engine and proceeded to record our own love song dedications. (File will be available upon request)

We finalise our little recording, sent it to Gus's mobile via MMS and then Moishii started the engine to go home. Well, he tried to start the engine......Yes thats right, THE CAR BROKE DOWN!!! This is what happens when we try to do a good deed and visit someone and do the whole nice "bring gifts" shebang only we screw ourselves over! The being nice thing completely throws our delicate karma balance out of wack!

Since we were only a street away from my best friend Shirley's place, I gave her a call screaming for help and food. She came running, well, not running, she dragged her BF and brother and drove the 50m to the car.....in her bathrobe...


Talk about dedication!! Thanks for coming to the rescue! Except that you guys couldn't help and we were still stranded trying to work out what was wrong.


So Moishii called his Dad, who was sleeping at the time and came to our rescue. He arrives without any jumper cables so it was a mad dash into his dad's car then to Kmart. 5mins later, we have the cables, but we needed scissors to cut the packaging open. Since I'm 10m from home, I run in and grab a pair of scissors (and my camera of course!) and off we were back to the car to try and revive it.

So there was Moishii in his dad's car revving the engine. *vroom**vroom* His dad is yelling instructions from Moishii's car, which I don't understand a word of. This keeps going for a good 10-15mins and the car isn't looking any better. There was alot of seat swapping whilst I secretly took photos and video clips (Incase his dad thinks I'm nuts) when I said to Moishii "Look, I don't understand a word your dad is saying, you can't hear him from the car, why don't you translate and I can rev the engine??".

So Moishii gets out of the car after a few more small *vroom**vroom*. His dad starts yelling, I jump behind the wheel. Moishii turns around to translate and yells "He said step on it! Hard!"

So I did.

*VRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM*

I floored it. I stomped on the gas so hard, Moishii thought the car was going to lurch forward and end up ontop of his car. I stomped on the gas so hard, he jumped backwards and almost tripped on the footpath cracking his head open!! But guess what? THE CAR STARTED!!!

Its called "JUMP STARTING" for a reason. You need a big jump of electricity. Not your pissy little *vroom**vroom*. You need the SoRMuiJAi touch of life. The utter disregard for all lives and just STOMP ON THE GAS!!

So the moral of the story? Don't do good. You screw yourself over. And always STOMP on the gas given a chance.

Ton Ton

I recently discovered a little Japanese restaurant in the Chifley Plaza food court called "Ton Ton". They have gorgeous udon noodle soups and a whole array of ramen noodle soups that are just utterly drool worthy. Ontop of that, they have little bento boxes and other prepacked meals ready to go for anyone who is in a rush. I haven't tried any of their bento boxes and other hot meals yet since I'm always craving for their noodle soup.

The food at Ton Ton is supplied and made by Azuma which probably explains why it tastes so damn delicious! And it makes sense as well, since not everyone has the time or money to spend on a sit down meal at Azuma's during lunch. To have a quick, cheap and delicious little take away shop for the average worker to go to helps to boost their profits.

Highly recommend their udon noodle soup (Not the tempura version), Ton Ton Ramen, Shoyu Ramen and Tonkatsu Ramen. MmmMmm

Prepacked meals

Shoyu Ramen

BBQ Pork Onigiri

Ton Ton
Level 1, Chifley Plaza
2 Chifley Square, Sydney
9222-9960
10:30am-3pm

Dragon Star Seafood Restaurant

So I got frantic calls from my parents one night saying that I HAD to go out for dinner in the city. They even changed the venue just so I could rock up. Why? My cousin was visiting from China. He had joined a tour group that was taking him from Sydney to Canberra to Melbourne to New Zealand to Gold Coast and then back to Sydney. Or something along those lines. Because he lost the itinerary. Yes thats right. So he had no idea how long he was going to be in Sydney for so it was our only chance to catch up.

So after my last volleyball game, I grabbed my bag and dashed out, still in my sweaty gear. Ewww.....yes I know...but everyone was waiting for me! We ended up at Dragon Star at Market City since it was the closest restaurant with good food. And since Australia is famous for their seafood, it wasn't surprising that the first dish we ordered was this:

Ginger and Shallot Lobster on a bed of E-fu noodles

MmMMmm Noodles........

I'm actually not a huge fan of lobster which is probably why I ate more noodles than lobster, and they also include these deep fried cloves of garlic thats gone all soft and sweet. I do love lobster sashimi, but cooked lobster is kinda tough and tasteless. I'd much prefer the delicate flavour and texture of crab. And speaking of crab......

Crab and vermicelli hot pot

This dish was a tad dry and could've used a bit more sauce, but I wasn't complaining too much since the vermicelli noodles were deliiiiicious! It might have something to do with the mince and dried shrimp they used to cook it. Or it could be the big globs of crab roe that fell off during the cooking process and got mixed into the noodles. MmMMm

Chunky crab roe!

Garlic Bok Choy

Lotus leaf steamed free range chicken

Steamed gourd with enoki mushroom sauce

The chicken was a bit tasteless since it was steamed ONTOP of all the ingredients instead of laying everything ontop of it so it could absorb some flavour. The veggies were nice and garlicky and hella refreshing after all the seafood. And the gourd......omg the gourd was good. Soft and sweet with the nice enoki mushrooms for a bit of texture contrast. MmMmm too bad I was so full at this stage I only had a small spoonful.

We ended up at our places afterwards having more fruit (not that we didn't have dessert at the restaurant) and got to have a good chat with my cousin. We're hoping his tour will bring him back to Sydney before flying him home. That way we could show him a bit more of Sydney instead of just the touristy things. And maybe I'll take him to a nice non-chinese restaurant!

Dragon Star Seafood Restaurant
Market City
Level 3, Shop 9-13, Hay St
Haymarket
(02) 9211 8988

Kylie

After so long, it was finally time for the Kylie concert. Me and Moishii had purchased tickets seperately when they were first released, but since the concert got postponed, and we were both travelling, we decided to get a refund on the tickets. A few months ago, I got a call from Moishii saying he's at Ticketek, and whether I still wanted to go. 10secs later, we both had tickets to Kylie. This will be the 3rd Kylie concert that me and Moishii have been to together. So you'd think that we'd be excited right? Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was going out EVERY SINGLE NIGHT and getting less than 5hours sleep a night catching up on me, but by 2pm, my "nap" turned me into a comatose patient. I remember struggling to wake up, forcing my eyelids to open whilst my eyeballs rolled to the back of my head and asking my brain "WTF ARE YOU DOING TRYING TO WAKE UP??". And apparently I wasn't the only one. Both of us were feeling utterly exhausted and it was barely 5pm. So we went for coffee at Georges cafe in Burwood. 2 cups of coffee didn't really do much without sugar:

This was a Sticky Date Toffee pudding, it was nice, but the sauce started to go really gooey, and sticky and almost crunchy when it came in contact with the ice cream. So it really was melted toffee. After eating most of the sugar, we headed off to Homebush where we ended up parking on the rooftop. Since we were early, we decided to go find out seat and relax:


A bit far from the stage, but I think the view was awesome considering they were last minute tickets. And we were in the first row as well so there was no one blocking my view (Since you all know how tall I am). Now the concert ticket said not photography equipment allowed. HA! Lemme say that again? HA!!!




Is it just me, or does most of the costumes make them look like a chicken? 5mins into the concert I turned to Moishii and said "God damn, I feel like some red rooster".


Anyway, the concert was awesome. It was a bit strange that there was an intermission during the concert though. Half way through the concert, Kylie asked everyone to get up and dance and sing along. The audience participation was awesome! After the intermission, there were a few ballads but that eventually spiced up when she sang our favourite song. Can't get you out of my head. So since this is "our" song, we got up and danced. 10seconds after standing up, I felt 2 hands on my shoulders dragging me backwards.

This BITCH behind me, dragged be backwards to try and get me to sit down:


1. I was not up and dancing the whole concert
2. This is THE Kylie song to get up and dance
3. YOU, you stupid little bitch, was up and dancing as well. But the minute YOU sat down, you expected everyone to sit down as well? Go suck a donkey cock for all I care.
4. Lastly, NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE EVER TOUCHES ME. You count yourself lucky that when you dragged me backwards, my chair started tilting up and almost dropping my camera and mobile. If I didn't have to save my bag and another $600 from buying a new camera, I would've turned and broken your fingers.

And to the other 2 on either side of her, its a fuckin KYLIE MINOGUE CONCERT. If you can't get up and dance and enjoy yourself during one of her concerts, you might as well start digging your grave because you're not far from it. Look around you, even the 70y.o. grannies get into the mood with their princess tshirts, all donned up in pink and ENJOYING THEMSELVES. So for spite, we stayed standing up and boogied away.

The girl sitting 2 seats away from me was the only one up dancing on our row. After we got up and danced, AND refused to sit down despite the inconsiderate bitches behind us, she leaned over to me and thanked me for getting up. No need to thank us, we were just enjoying ourselves. And just like us, the old biatch behind her kept yelling at her to sit down, so she basically told her to go suck on it. Just like Moishii told the slut behind him to go suck infected camel balls when she kept tapping on his shoulder.

After the whole dragging me down incident, Moishii started pissing himself laughing and wanting to get up and dance for every song. Whilst for me, I ended up screaming my head off. Instead of my usual blood curdling scream of CHRISTINEEEEEEEEE!!! It was KYYYYYYLLLLIEEEE!!! I even got a chanting thing going at one stage! So to those bitches who can't enjoy themselves, sit on it and rotate. We were up dancing and giving Kylie a standing ovation for the last 10-15mins of the concert because she definately deserved it.

After the concert ended, and the girl next to me thanked us again, we sat back and relaxed. It would've taken ages to get out of the Arena and then ages to get out of the car park. By the time we left our seats, the arena had totally cleared out and the crew was starting to dismantle the stage. All the lights came on which was a sign to get moving. We ended up roaming around for awhile before getting a cold hot dog to munch on whilst waiting for the car park to clear. It was exhausting night, but it was well worth it. I can't wait for the next Kylie concert.

Oh, and I've had a talk to Moishii and we've both agreed that we need to starve ourselves, deprive ourselves of coffee and the use of a toilet. Then, before going to the concert, I need to work overtime every single night and have a max of 5 hours sleep every night, no napping beforehand, so if another incident like that happens again, instead of being the mellow me (Which rarely happens) I'm gonna throw the bitch over the balcony.

Home Cooking vs Eating Out

My parents were overseas for most of October and November leaving me and my grandma at home. Its not too much of an issue I guess, except that I couldn't just call home and say that I won't be home for dinner. I needed atleast a days notice if I don't intend to come home simply because I would need to cook up some food for my granny. On the plus side, if I had enough notice, I was able to go out most nights without having to cop a big lecture from my parents. Yeah I know, I'm 26 and I still get nagged.

So basically me and Moishii went out ALL THE TIME. I was out on a weeknight at a pub drinking. My alcoholism is no longer confined to friday nights and weekends. This also meant that I ate out, ALOT.

The Excelsior Hotel Surry Hills

Tapas plate

Bruschetta

Pizza bread

The Bavarian Bier Cafe - Manly

1/2L Mango Bier

Schnitzel with creamy mushroom sauce and sauteed potatoes

Usually I wouldn't complain, since I love trying new food and I enjoy spending time with my friends over food. However, a whole month of nonstop pub food and alcohol plus my "I can't be bothered cooking, I'm just going to throw something together for dinner" type attitude, I was missing my mum's home cooked meals. I would get home from work, and I would eat leftovers, or knock up something quick like this:

A cheats bruschetta

Country sausages with sauteed zuchinni and carrot potato mash

Grilled pepper chicken with salad

Then when I've filled up my tummy, I would cook dinner for tomorrow night. I would rarely cook meals that I would eat on the spot since by the time I get home from work, it was close to 7pm. And by the time I finish cooking and eating, it'll be closer to 8. So my solution was to cook the night before, or cook something that requires minimal effort (like pasta). When I could be bothered cooking, it wouldn't really be chinese. I'll cook some of our traditional dishes from my parents villages, but nothing too challenging. I've always made a point not to cook anything too "authentic" chinese, because my mum can always cook better. Well, I didn't want to wait for my mum to come home before I got some home cooked meals. So I decided to tackle the one dish that I've always been hesitant to make. Hainese Chicken/Bat Chit Gai.

1. Its hard to make the chicken cooked and tenderly juicy at the same time.
2. My biggest fear is chopping bones with a cleaver incase I miss and lose a limb or two.
3. This is a "mum" dish.

But guess what? I turned out absolutely perfect! So good infact, when my parents got back the next day, they took one look at it and assumed my older sister cooked it! (Talk about faith...) And when I told them, they couldn't believe it and asked me to go through step by step what I did, to prove that I DID cook it! AND I chopped it chinese style! My mum was soooooo proud!! hehehe

I think I am alot more willing to cook chinese food after that. It was the line I had to cross to make me want to be a chinese cook. It also makes me appreciate home cooking a lot more. The fact that I couldn't be bothered cooking any of our traditional dishes says a lot about my attitude. It was always easier to knock up a pasta, or grill some chicken and fish, throw together a salad etc than it was to cook a home cooked meal. Theres no extra effort involved, just that its not my first instinct. Maybe its the eating out all the time and always eating something not chinese that has got me thinking the way I do. It may sound silly, but for me to make the chicken so easily had me thinking why don't I cook things like that more often? Why don't I spend more time learning all of my mum's recipes? Why is it every time I cook a meal for my family, its never chinese food?

Well, I've basically made the decision to make more of an effort to appreciate all the home cooked meals I get and learn how to cook it the way my mum does. Its funny how something as simple as making Hainese chicken can get me to think so much......

Good food, great company

This week as been the most hectic week for me. Ontop of the crazy work schedule, and Moishii's birthday, relos dropping in, a good friend also dropped in from interstate. This basically meant its been a non-stop week of boozing, munchies and catching up. Not that I really mind since great food + great company = enjoyment.

So after my big 3am night out, I was up at 7am again to go to work on the Sunday. After a good solid few hours of work, I met up with my friends for a quick walk around circular quay and then drinks at Lenin Bar. I've been to Lenin Bar before. First time was to go to Minus 5, and the second time was a few weeks ago where we spotted Antonia Kidman and they jumped into the photo. This time, we actually sat down for drinks.

Their cocktails are REALLY REALLY good. A bit pricey, but considering the location and the fact that Lenin Bar is a vodka bar, I don't think they were using the standard Absolut Vodka. We quickly headed off to Newtown afterwards to grab some food. Parking was atrocious as always meaning I had to go all the way back to my trusty secret parking spot. Since my friends whinge and bitch about me making them walk, instead of heading to Thai Pothong, we went to Chedi (Formerly known as "Thailand"), one of my favourite thai restaurants. Not only is there the normal seated area, they also have cushions on the floor for those who want to eat on the floor. And the owner, I love the owner. And so does my whole family. Not only is he polite and does everything he can to make your meal enjoyable, he's also Irish, but he speaks chinese! Everytime I go with my family, he has a good banter with my parents and bitches about his wife (In a joking way). I deliberately didn't tell my friends this, so when he walked over, he immediately started speaking chinese and my friend's eyes just popped out of the socket. hehehehe

Now since some of the people who came along were new to me, I decided not to whip out my camera. But their Salt and Pepper squid and Marinated BBQ Pork is highly highly recommended. I'm also going to go back to try their sizzling combination seafood as well. The table behind us ordered the dish, and the aroma quickly spread throughout the whole restaurant. At first everyone went "Oh my gosh!! That smells sooooooooo good!!!" *WHIFF*. This was quickly followed by a "OMG *COUGH* CHILLI!! *COUGH**COUGH*CHOKE* BUT IT *COUGH* SMELLS SO GOOD!! *COUGH*"

The whole restaurant basically had a coughing fit for a good 5 minutes. I ended up having to take a walk outdoors since I was sitting the closest to the sizzle platter of evil chilliness. But damn it smells good. And I'll definately order it the next time I go. I might bring an oxygen tank with me though...

So somewhere along the line, during a scorching hot day, I took my friend out to the Fish Markets. Now this time, since is just us 2, I happily whipped out the camera whenever I wanted.

My favourite seaweed salad

Seafood platter for 2

Oysters

Salmon and Tuna Sashimi

Table shot: And yes, we finished all 6 bottles!

I found a baby seagull!!!

After completely stuffing ourselves, we decided to walk it off. So it was over to chinatown where we ended up in Market City with some cooling easyway to wait for the sun to go down a bit. Once the weather cooled off slightly, we headed over to the Chinese Gardens.

I haven't actually been to the Chinese Gardens for a good 4-5 years. The last time I was there, was for my brothers wedding. And the time before that, would've been around year 9-10 in High School. The entry fee has definately gone up. $6 for an adult, but it was actually worth it. We strolled around a bit, sat at a pagoda for awhile to chat and have a catch up. I loved the fact that we were in the middle of the city, but it was so relaxing and tranquil, that I felt like I was on holidays overseas.

There was a big Myers sale on that night, so after we did some shopping in Chinatown, we headed over to Pitt St Mall to tackle the crowd at Myers. 30mins later, I had a headache and I didn't want to see anymore clothes/bags/lines for the cashier. Since it was still stinking hot, we decided to head over to Cockle Bay Wharf and ended up at Home Bar for a drink. When the weather cooled down significantly, it was over to my favourite Korean Restaurant. BBQ City.

This must be the first time that I've been where I didn't order my fish egg stew. Since neither of us was really hungry, we ordered the mix BBQ meat platter for 3. Yeh...I can't explain it either. The food never disappoints and I walked away groaning about eating too much again!

After our big day out, my friend insisted that I join him and his friends for dinner again the next night. To cater for everyone, it was Chinese. We opted for Dragon Star at Market City since they had free parking after 5pm. We handed the responsibility of ordering food over to my friend who started pointing at things in the menu randomly. My worst fears came true when I saw the amount of food that came out! I had told my friend that I wasn't hungry and he should only order for 4 instead of 5 people (Knowing he will over order anyway) But I didn't expect THIS:

Steamed barramundi

Ginger and Shallot Lobster

Peking Duck

Stir Fry Duck and Snow Peas

Garlic 4 Season Beans

Crispy Skinned Chicken

The lobster was big enough to feed all of us. We barely got through 1/2 of it. The peking duck was really nice, although I prefer it when they slice it with a tad more meat attached. When you order Peking Duck, the remaining meat on the carcass is usually used to cook another dish, we opted to have it stir fried with snow peas. Somewhere along the line, my friend had also ordered a whole barrmundi (Which the waiter kindly deboned for us at the table), garlic four season beans and crispy skinned chicken that was served with pringles. All that for 5 people! Especially when I made it clear that I wasn't hungry! OMG! We actually ran outta room on the table by the time the fish came out. There was alot of reshuffling, including me emptying a whole plate into my friends bowl since he ordered the food. We ended up having half the food packed into take away containers. We tried our best, but considering the task infront of us, we knew we were never going to finish the food anyway!