The Phantom of the Opera

I don't know what's wrong with my lately, but my brain just isn't functioning. A friend invited me to a birthday party last Wednesday for the Friday night, and I replied after checking my calendar, that I've got tickets to the Phantom of the Opera that night. Yet Thursday night I kept saying to myself that I'll come home straight away after work etc etc. Hell, I even contacted Cherry Tuesday morning to plan what we're going to do before the Phantom!

Luckily I remember on the day and I didn't go home, otherwise I would've wasted perfectly good tickets to the Phantom and the fantastic meal we had at The Little Snail before the show. I checked the menu before we went and saw that they had a Bouillabaisse on the menu and I knew I had to have that if they had it on the night. And since I was getting an entree and a main, I might as well get their 3 course meal special.

Scampi in a light Tempura Batter

The scampi looks huge, but after you take away the head and the tail, you're left with a piece of 2 inch long meat. Cherry seemed to enjoy it though.

Traditional French Bouillabaisse with Crusty Garlic Baguette

This was anything but traditional. I was expecting a much smoother and pale looking creamy soup topped with croutons with dollops of aioli. This was closer to a seafood stew with garlic bread. It was still really nice though. It was chock full of seafood. Under those two pieces of bread was 2 pieces of fish, 2 scallops, 2 prawns and 2 mussels.

Crispy Atlantic Salmon served with Salsa Verde on Tomato Risotto

Duck A L'Orange on Crushed Kumera and Grand Marnier Glaze

I had the duck and it was quite nice. I've never had Duck A L'Orange before and this wasn't a bad start. I think I much prefer duck confit or chinese BBQ duck more though. The fruity acidity of the sauce was a bit too much after a while. But I still enjoyed the duck regardless.

Sticky Date Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce

Traditional Creme Caramel

This creme caramel was much better than the one we had at Encasa. This was softer and more wobbly. The caramel was sweeter and had a lovely nutty taste. Again, we walked out of there completely stuffed!

Luckily it was a good 5min walk to the Lyric Theatre after that. We got there about 15mins early and sat in our seats waiting for the food to digest. Our seats were about 1/2 - 2/3 of the way back from the stage, and boy was I glad we were sitting back with the show started. I'm not going to give away any details, but this is something you don't want front row seats to, as you will miss out on the full effects of the production.

I've only see the movie edition of The Phantom of the Opera starring Emmy Rossum, and I absolutely loved her (Although I hated the guy who played Raoul and the Phantom). So whilst my expectations wasn't one comparable with Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman's performance, my expectations certainly wasn't low. And let me tell you, this Australian production starring Anthony Warlow and Ana Marina blew my socks away! The cast, the set and the music was just magical!

Before the show started, I remember Cherry asking me if I was going to get teary eyed like when I watched Miss Saigon. Ok, I bawled my eyes out at one stage watching Miss Saigon. But I never cried watching the movie, so I assumed it would be the same with the theatre production. Well, I didn't bawl my eyes out this time round, but there were a few scenes where I started getting emotional and wanting to cry! That is the power of the play. I loved it! And Cherry loved it! In fact, the whole way walking from Star City back to George St, we couldn't stop raving about the show! I was half tempted to pull my iPod out to listen to the songs again!

I would love to go watch it again, lets see if I can get decent seats for a cheaper price. For anyone who hasn't been to watch a musical before, I highly HIGHLY recommend that you go watch The Phantom of the Opera!!

Michael Buble Concert with Naturally 7

Its been ages since the last Michael Buble concert. Last time we went, we had tickets to his outdoor concert on the Opera House steps. It was windy and raining, but we had a fantastic time! Sitting there in our ponchos, listening to Michael Buble serenading us with the Harbour Bridge and Opera House as the backdrop. It was perfect!

So when I saw the ads for the next Michael Buble concert, me and Cherry jumped at the opportunity to purchase tickets. So on the night of the concert, we decided to crash Encasa and hope we can grab a table without reservations. We did get a table for 2.....that seats 30 people! Luckily, other people sat at the two ends so we didn't look like complete nigels. The food at Encasa was fantastic as usual, and tasted even better after a jug of sangria ;)

Champiñones al Ajillo - Sizzling Garlic Mushrooms

This was so deliciously garlicky. The mushrooms were sauteed with loads of garlic that had caramelised and turned slightly crispy. Absolutely moreish when you dip your bread into the garlic oil or spoon some of the garlic onto the bread.

Patatas Bravas - Fried potatoes topped with salsa and aioli

Crispy fried potatoes that have been lightly salted (perfect on its own) was topped with a spicy salsa and creamy garlic mayo. I couldn't decide whether to eat the potatoes on its own, or smoosh it into the sauce to soak up all that spicy garlicky goodness.

Gambas Sevillanas - Peeled king prawns in spicy tomato salsa

Big bursty king prawns were cooked in a light spicy salsa. I was spooning the sauce onto my plate so I could enjoy every last drop of it with bread.

Pork, Chorizo and bean stew

I can't remember what this dish was called, it was the special of the day. It was a stew made from smoked pork, chorizos and big fat beans! So hearty and comforting! If only the beans were softer. I like my beans soft like baked beans, but the dish was really nice.

I don't know what I was thinking when I ordered dessert, because I was stuffed like a chicken kiev. But we had plenty of time so we both opted to get a creme caramel, EACH.


This was nice, not too sweet, but a bit too eggy for me. I actually really enjoyed the vanilla ice cream on top. I can't remember the last time I had vanilla ice cream.

We decided to slowly walk to the Entertainment Centre, which is less than 5 mins walk away. I was so full I swear I was waddling. But as we got closer, I had to try and walk like a normal person. Why? I had my DSLR shoved into the bottom of my bag and I was hoping cameras were allowed. Luckily the Entertainment Centre isn't as anal as the Superdome, so I walked right on in without problems.

We get seated and soon the concert is underway. We didn't know who the supporting act was until Naturally 7 walked onto the stage. And from the moment they opened their mouths, I was completely blown away!


They started off with an a capella which turned into a full blown song. We started debating as to whether there was any music, or was it all vocal play. It wasn't until they stopped and explain the concept of the band were we totally knocked off our feet. They were 100% vocal play. No instruments, no synthesizers, no special effects. All them. All Natural. And even then, I had my doubts. That was until they gave a one by one demo on how they layer the music! They were absolutely fantastic!

To be honest, of all the concerts I've been to in the last 5 years, I can't remember a single supporting act that I liked. Come to think of it, I barely remember seeing support acts as I usually walk out or just block them out. This time, I wanted to buy their album! I haven't stop raving about them since!

I was disappointed when they're performance ended, but then Michael Buble came out and everything was perfect. PERFECT. I can't describe what it was like watching him in concert again, but all I can say is that he is charming, witty and funny as hell! AND he could sing! Boy could he sing.

Busting some moves

He jumps off the stage to get photos taken with the audience!

Taken when the woman was in the middle of groping his butt

One of his many funny skits

The concert was PERFECT. I can't wait for the next one!

I'll be back...

So much has happened since my last entry. I've started my new job, which is good so far. The department seems a lot more willing to spend money based on the jars of chips, cookies and other snacks stockpiled in the kitchen. My working hours have been unstable as we're trying to work through a few things at work. Hopefully once its settled down, my hours will be more consistent. The people are really nice here, but it doesn't look like a team that will appreciate my flying screaming monkeys. Not that my old team appreciated them that much either.

A few weeks ago, my Grandma had a fall. Not just once, but twice in an hour. Since October last year, she has been falling more and more frequently. I purchased a phonealert system, where you have a waterproof pager that she could wear 24/7. When she needs help, all she has to do is press the pager, and the phone will automatically make an emergency call to all the phone numbers I've set in. This time, she set off the alarm twice. Luckily, I was at home both times. The second time she fell, she must've hit her head on her walking frame, because her head was covered in blood. She had basically tore the skin on her forehead and there were massive gaping wounds on her head. We immediately called an ambulance which arrived within 10mins (We're only 2mins drive from the ambulance depot). I hop into the ambulance with her so I could translate and we're driven to the emergency room.

Now I know that public hospitals are stretched for resources, and given a choice, I would have gone to a private hospital. But private hospitals don't have an emergency department so we had to go public. This was the start of a 4-5hr wait where my grandma basically got ignored for the entire time. 3hrs wait in, a nurse comes in and draws some blood and checks her blood pressure etc, then she disappears again. It wasn't until about 1:30am that a doctor came to check on her, and it was only then that they bothered changing her bandages properly. She's 94yo for f*cksake. A little more attention would've been appreciated.

We left her in the hospital for more tests throughout the night and basically she stayed in the hospital for over a week where they did test after test. And the conclusion to all of that was a recommendation that she should go into a nursing home. We kind of expected this as it is getting harder to ensure her safety at home. You basically need someone at home 24/7 to look after her incase she has another fall. We've been lucky in the past that everytime she's had a fall, she hasn't broken any bones and was concious to press the emergency pager, but we're not always that lucky.

My dad and sister has spent the past 2 weeks looking at nursing homes, hoping to find one close to us, is mainly occupied by people who speak cantonese AND has room for her. We eventually found one about 5 mins drive away, is fairly small so she gets more attention, has predominately cantonese speakers and is quite spacious. Under the hospital's recommendations, she was discharged directly to the nursing home. They basically recommend that she doesn't come home for a few months until she settles into the new place. My grandma has been living with us even before I was born. Its going to be a big change without her around.

When she was in hospital, I went to visit her with my parents, sister and youngest nephew. As we were visiting her, my nephew started acting strangely. Next thing you know, he's telling us that he can't open/close his jaw. I noticed his face was kind of swollen, but everyone thought he's just put on weight. Then he started telling us he was having problems breathing. My sister immediately rushed him to the emergency department, which was only on the floor above us. Luckily we were already at the hospital, because my nephew's face and throat started to swell, cutting out his oxygen supply. It looks like he was having a slow allergy reaction to a new medication he was taking so we had to keep him there overnight to monitor his condition.

Like I said, a lot has happened since my last entry. Hopefully things will calm down soon so I can do some mego blogging.

All staff meeting

This was supposed to be the biggest and best All staff meeting we've ever had. I mean, it is the big boss's retirement party as well. This year it was held at the Entertainment center. The minute we arrive, we bags a table to setup camp. Before you know it, the food starts coming out, and little do you know we're standing right next to the food door!!

Peking quail roll

The sober shot (It's rare)

Curry puffs

Japanese beef on rice crackers

Vietnamese rice paper roll

Food trolley

Coconut Thai salad - They lied, they said there's beef in it. LIARS!

A bar full of food

Asian theme

Tempura veggies

Soft shell crab with spicy curry seasoning

I can't believe I didn't get a photo of the best dish of the night. Fried coconut prawns! But then every time that dish came out, everyone dove at the waiter scrabbling for the prawns. I had to be quick otherwise I wouldn't get any, let alone a photo.

As for the party, its probably been the most disappointing one that I've been to. I mean there was plenty of food and alcohol, but there was nothing special about the party. It was just a party. And there were no chairs! I was in so much pain I actually took my boots off so I could stand in my socks to ease the pain. Even then, I left around 9:30pm. I guess we'll have to wait for the xmas party.

Allysons Family Restaurant - Lebanese

I've never had Lebanese twice in a week. But I was up one night suddenly wanting to find out what was happening with our old family restaurant, when I found out about Allysons. Allysons is actually a few shops up from where our old restaurant used to be. Looking at the reviews, it sounded promising, so I conned a friend into going with me (So I can walk past our old restaurant to see how its doing).

As we walked in, I noticed a big table of about 20 people celebrating someone's birthday. To the right hand side, there was another room with a table set up for about 40 people. Luckily I had made a booking and was seated in no time. The decor is very simple, almost a bit sterile. But I was there for the food.

As I looked through the menu, I spotted Kibbi and knew I had to order it. Kibbi is the Lebanese version of Icili Kofte and it one of my favourite middle eastern dishes.

Kibbi

Crunchy on the outside, filled with a spicy lamb mince and pinenut mixture. It was sooooo good. Luckily, our platter came out and I wrapped these up with some dip an bread.

Mixed platter for one

We ordered a mixed platter for one to share. It came with a chicken kebab, shish kebab, kafte kebab, hommus, babaganoush, labne, garlic dip, tabouli and lots of lebanese bread (Both fresh and fried). I didn't think this was a lot of food shared between 2 people, but I was really really full by the time we finished this platter off. Which was a good thing, because the pizza we ordered was a complete disappointment.

Seafood pizza

I've never had a seafood pizza made almost entirely out of seafood stick. We actually counted before eating, that there were 2 prawns, 1 piece of fake crab meat and the rest was all seafood stick. The base was quite nice, but the excess seafood stick made the pizza almost sweet. And the cheese was strange in the sense that it didn't melt properly.

I would probably go back for the Lebanese food, and maybe the pizza again. But I'll definitely check what pizza other people are eating before ordering.

The suicide before Zenobia

A few of us met up in Leichhardt for the Spanish film festival. We had prepurchased tickets to the suicide club. It was an amusing film, but I guess I had much higher expectations. I kind of expected it to be like something me and Moishii would make. But honestly, not many people are as screwed in the head like us. After the movie, we were all starving. We decided to find the closest indoor place for dinner, which happened to be Zenobia.

Moishii had been there before and said it was pretty good, but he's only ever had the banquet at a party. As we walk in, we spot Brian McFadden standing outside having a cigarette break. We didn't bother chucking a fuss as Delta Goodrem wasn't there. We walk in and get seated. It took us a while to figure out what we wanted to order, which wasn't a bad thing since the waiters basically ignored us (Even though our table was RIGHT next to Brian McFadden's table).

We eventually flag someone down and place our order. About 10mins later, our dip and some bread finally come out. We're ravenous at this stage and start to devour everything.

Babaganous

The babaganous is really nice and smokey, but I reckon I make a much better babaganous. We decided to go easy on the dip and bread as we wanted to save our stomach for the mains and possibly dessert. 20mins after we finished the dip, Gus's fish comes out:

Grilled fish with a nutty sauce

The sauce was really nice on first taste as it was rich and creamy with a lovely nutty texture. A few more bites into it, it starts to get a bit sickly. Since everyone else ordered the same thing, we told Gus to start so it doesn't get cold. Its a good thing we told him to as well, because it took almost 30mins for the rest of our meals to come out. And when I asked the waitress what was happening with our food (After half the table started flapping their arms for attention), I got a "Are you stupid?" look followed by a "WELL! YOU ordered the chicken. Of course it takes longer than the fish!" followed by a "Moron" look from the waitress.

I tried to explain that my friend is sitting there eating by himself whilst we wait. And again "Chicken takes longer than fish to cook". Gees woman. I know that. Any moron knows that. So maybe, you should cook the fish when the chicken is almost done? As opposed to cooking them at the same time? Now THAT would be a logical way to do it don't you think? Instead of having one person eat 30mins before everyone else. They didn't even bother telling us when we ordered, just expected us to wait. I can tell you, if Gordon Ramsay Kitchen nightmares this place, that would be the first thing they would get beaten about.

And it wasn't just the waiting time for the food, it was them completely ignoring our table because Mr McFadden was in the house. Every waiter/waitress was fwapping around the table like bees to honey hoping for a big tip. Their table had at least 4 people attend to them, whilst us, sitting right next to them practically had to wave a flag and blow a trumpet for a nod of acknowledgment. I know he's a celebrity, and you may get a big tip. But think of it this way, who pays the rest of your salary for the rest of the year when he's not around. Ignoring everyone else for one tip is plain stupid.

As for our long awaited chicken. It was ok. Certainly not worth the wait. I would happily drive the extra 20mins to Bankstown for Habibs and pay 1/2 the price for twice as much food and a much better garlic sauce. Atleast Habib's sauce doesn't taste of raw garlic and sting your tongue.

BBQ Chicken with garlic sauce

We were actually all looking forward to dessert, but after the service we've received and how long it took, we decided to just grab the bill and leave.