Sydney Sisters' Trip - Part Two!

Mel woke up early the next day to go attend the final part of the conference. Monica and I decided to have Mackers for breakkie.

Coffee and a bacon mcmuffin each... My my, how the mighty had fallen. You could be having Tetsuya's the night before and then dirt cheap fast food the next day. Oooh and they still sell Mackers cookies in Oz. Yummmm....


After breakkie, we wandered around the city aimlessly again. We stumbled across this poster at the train station... we were watching the show that night. Wahoooo...

I also fitted in some shoe shopping (of course!!) and bought 2 pairs. Monica took some photos of me trying shoes on... she thinks my tastes in shoes are weird.

Hawt!!

Myer had a sale so we went to town there riffling through the bargain bins for an hour or so.

Then it was time for Round 2 of my DJs yoghurt... fruit salad with berry yoghurt again. I like what I like, alright?

Yumm yummmmm....

After that, we met up with Mel and we headed off to Chinatown for lunch. Man, it was like walking into a twilight zone. One minute, we were on a normal Sydney street, ducked into a building and then when we got out at the other end, we were greeted by this:

The buildings in Chinatown all had Chinese names. I felt like I was in Hong Kong.

We couldn't decide on what to have for lunch... that all changed when we walked around a corner and came across this long queue. We quickly queued up too before we even suss out what the queue was for.. haha. Turned out it was for mamak, a malaysian restaurant. The spirit of kiasu-ness is still alive and kicking in us.

The guy showing off his skills and flipping a roti canai...

We were seated quite quickly as this is basically Malaysian fast food.

The prices were quite cheap so we went a tad overboard... just a tad!

Teh tarik to start us off... I think Santhiya's in Auckland is way better.

Rojak.. this is not the Sibu version so was a bit weird... the deep fried tofu was nice and crunchy though.

The roti canai was twisted into a scrunched up ball rather than flaky pieces so that was a bit weird too. East Malaysian mamak is obviously different to West Malaysian's.

This was nice - mee goreng.

Beef Satays

Malaysian style fried chicken...

Hmm did that seem like a lot of food for 3 people?? We finished it off with an Ice Kacang. Once again, the Sibu version is way nicer.

Conclusion: We can get better Malaysian Indian in Auckland.

We came across this picture on the menu/wall of the restaurant next door. Waffle with meat, anyone??

After that we wandered aimlessly around Chinatown a bit, waiting for the food to digest. There was a big market and I felt like I was in Thailand.. heheh. We had fun poking through piles of pirated Chinese dvds looking for hidden treasures.

After that, we walked back to the hotel for a rest and to get ready for that evening's entertainment - Wicked!

Getting ready.... poor me, no one took a photo of me full length. I think Mel took one so I might be able to post it up if it's a half decent one.

We had a stop somewhere and got these as our pre-Theater drinks. No champagne cocktails for us. We are all class, people!

Then it was time for Wicked.. wohooooo.

Trailer for Wicked:

My favourite was Glinda, the good witch. She was so blonde and hilarious. Funny!



Mel had been once already but she said it was really good and she was happy seeing it again. So we did. Our seats were second row from the side so it was really close up so we could see the expressions on the actors' faces but so close up that we missed the details of most sets. Oh well, it was still pretty amazing.

Afterwards on the walk back to the hotel, we dropped by Passionflower. It's an Asian ice cream place. Mel doesn't have a sweet tooth (freak!!) so I couldn't go to town with my choices.



I got a scoopy of Lychee & Rosepetal and Sticky Rice. Monica had half. Heheh.. twas a good night. Oh and since it was Saturday night, there were lots of rowdy drunk people on the roads. Mel and Monica, the village mice, got really scared and concerned. They've obviously never been on Ponsonby Road on Friday nights.

Last day in Sydney... boo! We got to look forward to a freebie breakfast courtesy of the hotel. Mel managed to find something to complain about when she was booking the place so she did her usual "I'm Doctor Hii and I'm not happy" routine and scored us some freebies! You go, girl. Actually it was only meant to be freebie breakfasts for 2 people but they didn't end up charging for my extra breakfast so double score!! Actually, I fully expected them to abandon me and go have the breakfasts without me the way Monica abandoned me in Taiwan for a freebie dinner with Haz many moons ago. Tsk tsk tsk.

Mel sorting out breakkie with the staff....

First plate:

Second plate:

Resting in between:

Last go:

Feeling stuffed again, it was time to do some touristy stuff so we headed off to The Rocks.

The clock tower outside our bedroom window from another angle:

First glimpse of the bridge:

The market underneath the bridge:

People doing the bridge climb:

Ahhh pretty:

Roped some kind soul into taking some touristy shots for us:

Believe it or not, we thought it was time for lunch again. So we walked up and down Chinatown again before deciding on this Vietnamese place.

Monica hard at work deciding what to order:

Jackfruit Shake... not a fan.

Pork roll...

Innards of the roll:

Broken rice...

Stuffed again so we walked back to the hotel and went past the QVB again. Wassup, Queen V?

We had a bit of a rest and then it was time to checkout...

Had plenty of time when we got to the airport so we sat around playing games on my iphone. Sad, I know... Bye bye, Sydney! It was a good trip.

As is my usual travel tradition, I bought choccies and lollies for Viv:

Sydney Sisters' Trip - Part One!

The 3 older Hii girls have been planning a trip to Sydney together since Easter. Mel was going there for a conference and off-handedly said we should come along too since accommodation would be free. Monica and I took her up on her offer. Wohooo sisters' trip away coming right up!

Mel was already in Sydney so Monica and I coordinated our flights so that we would arrive in Sydney around the same time on Friday for the long weekend. AirNZ was the cheapest so I flew normal instead of budget for once.

When I checked in, the Air NZ lady said to me "I was getting married in London the day you were born... the first time." Bahahaha.... one life ended and another began i guess. Anyway she must have felt an affinity to me because she offered to block the seat next to me so that no Ah Bui sits there. All good, lady but how am i going to meet a rich handsome stranger, fall in love and live happily ever after with a good deed like that? Oh hang on, rich stranger would be in business class. Ok, never mind.

My usual pre-flight routine.. except with Burger King breakfast and not Mackers.

Never again... I prefer Mackers.

The plane was new and the entertainment system was awesome! One of those where you can watch before the plane takes off and you can choose what movies you want to watch instead of one movie for all. Forgive me if I wax lyrical here about it, I don't get to travel full fare much.. bahahaha. No entertainment system or food on Pacific Blue!

I watched Ice Age III. Soooooo good.

I went for the continental option as I was feeling piggy for eating 2 lot of breakfasts.

Arrived in Sydney and I beat Monica to the railway station where we were to take the train into the city. Her plane was delayed. I was at the International Terminal which was the first terminal and she was at Domestic Terminal, the second one. So I had to text her 5 texts to make sure the bimbo would be on the same train as me.... texts like make sure you are on the right side of the terminal, it's the next train coming, etc etc. Phew, she made it.

Mel's conference was at Hilton so we went to meet up with her and then walked to Westin, where she was staying. On the way, we walked past Apple's flagship store in Sydney. It was Ipad launch day so we saw a long line of losers queuing up for the latest toy. It's just a glorified gigantic ipod, people. The madness continued for the rest of the weekend. Everytime we walked past, the place was packed.

Our room at the Westin....

View of the clock tower outside our bedroom window:

Then we went and wandered around Pitt Street Mall. First stop : David Jones foodcourt for my favourite yoghurt.

Fruit salad with berry yoghurt... check!

Mel went back to the conference to check out a lecture she wanted to attend so Monica and I wandered around Queen Victoria Building. Check out the ceiling.

Went to Myer and poked around a bit... saw this cool lego model of Sydney bridge.

Forgot to take a picture of our lunch because I was starving and wolfed it down. But the desserts were awesome and deserved pictures! L to R clockwise - berry cheesecake spongey thing, berry pudding thing, berry tart and green tea vanilla pannacotta thing. Haha, I know I'm awesome at descriptions.

Mel escaped so we went shopping. Helloooooo Chanel.

When we decided to go to Sydney together, we got Monica to ring up Tetsuya's for a booking. Unfortunately the only spot they had was for 4 people and they refused to allow 3 people to have that booking. Snobs!! So we gave up on the idea of going to Tetsuya's, currently ranked 38th in the world. It used to be 5th and then 17th last year so Mr Wakuda has been a bit slack in his efforts! Anyway, Monica missed a call from a mysterious number around 4 pm on Friday afternoon. She rung back and it was Tetsuya's!!! They've had a cancellation and wanted to know if we want to take the spot! We got all flustered so had to have a quick emergency meeting about it. Should we, shouldn't we? Is it too extravagant? etc etc. In the end, we decided that it is a one in a lifetime thing and we'll probably kick ourselves for not doing it, plus it's kismet! So we did!

Walking to the restaurant in peak hour traffic... methinks I won't be able to survive in Sydney. I'll turn into a permanent angry person because of the crazy traffic. Notice I said permanent.. heheh.

We got to the street address on which Tetsuya's was meant to be but couldn't find the place. It turned out that it was the house inside the gates next to Monica. I guess it didn't need extra advertising.

We rocked up at 6 pm and the whole place was empty. All the waiters were out at the entrance to greet us.

The service was impeccable! The waitress who looked after us was from Whangarei... and she kept asking us if the pace was alright and whether we needed a break between courses. Everytime we told her we were fine and to bring it on! Heheh.... We were having the 13 course degustation as they don't do a la carte.

First up, Italian white roll and butter with truffles and parmesan.. Yum yum. Monica nearly licked the butter bowl clean.

I don't usually have butter in my normal everyday life. The only exception is when I eat out at fancy restaurants. The butter just seem nicer! Anyway, I slathered it on as you can see. Sooo good.

First course : Warm Chestnut Soup with Sour Cream. This was really similar to a pumpkin soup. I loved it. So smooth and yummy.

Our bags were behind us on our seats so our waitress ran off to find a stool to put them on. A waiter also met Mel partway when she got up to go to find the bathroom. Her napkin was also removed and exchanged for a new one. I don't know if they do this for everyone else or whether they thought Mel's napkin was too scruffy and needed a change. Like I said, the service was amazing. They also tolerated the constant flashes going off from our table as we all took photos of each dish. So 3 cameras multiply by 13 courses... you get the idea.

Second course: Sashimi of Kingfish with Blackbean and Orange. The fish was so fresh and tender and the blackbean sauce was very reminiscent of something Mum would cook. Bold call comparing a top restaurant to my Mum's cooking, you say? Well, you haven't tasted her cooking is all I can say.

The dishes looked big since I took them at close range. This was what it really looked like. On average, you get about six bites out of it. 4 if you are a Hii girl haha.

Third course: New Zealand Scampi Tails with Curd and Scampi Jus. This has a very heavy Asian influence as the white blobs were soft silky tofu. It was very nice but every so often, I got a mouthful of raw jelly-like scampi. I think this was Mel's favourite.

Fourth course: Tetsuya's signature dish - Confit Petuna Ocean Trout with Konbu, Celery and Apple. This was the first time I had trout. It looked and tasted like salmon to me but a lot saltier. It was balanced very nicely by the tart and crispy apple and celery. I liked this.

Fifth course: Grilled Fillet of Baramundi with Braised Wood Ear and Chestnut Mushrooms. This was nice but again, tasted like something Mum cooks regularly.

Sixth course: Braised Oxtail with Sea Cucumber and Yuzu. The oxtail was rich and buttery. I was glad it was only a small portion as I would have gotten sick of it really quickly if it had been a main.

Seventh course: Twice-cooked De-boned Spatchcock with Truffles and Barley Risotto. The spatchcock was really tender but it was just a glorified chicken dish to me. I did enjoy the barley risotto though.

Eighth course: Sirloin of Wagyu with Braised Leeks, Sansho and Soy. The wagyu was cut really thinly so it tasted and looked like bacon to me!! Very very tender. Bit salty for my tastes. I donated my leeks to Mel and Monica as I'm not a fan.

Ninth Course - the : Pear Sorbet with Brown Butter Ice Cream. This was good. The pear sorbet was tart and refreshing and the brown butter ice cream did have a very buttery taste to it which was interesting.

Tenth course: Cannellini Beans with Mascarpone and Soy Caramel. This was plain weird. Salty with beans swimming in it. This was the only dish I didn't finish.

Eleventh course: Salted Sable with Lemon Scented Leatherwood Honey. This was yummy. It was delicately salty and nicely balanced by the rich creaminess of the filling. Yum.

We were stuffed and tired by the end of this and the waitress asked if we wanted coffee or tea. We were too full so we declined (but also because we were too cheapskate to pay for coffee). She then said they also have macaroons for us which she would get boxed up for us to take home. Yay!!

Puuuurrreeeettttty:

2 layers of macaroons with 4 in each layer. 3 flavours - pink, orange and brown. The flavours were very delicate so it was hard to determine what they were... might have been strawberry, orange and chestnut. I liked the brown one the best.

The waitress also made sure we got a menu each to take home with us as it was our first time there. I had been scribbling the names of each dish down furiously as they were introduced to us throughout the night so I needn't have bothered. Oh well, it was nice of her.

What???? The tea and coffee were part of the menu!!!!!!!! We feel cheated now.

That's it for Part 1. Part 2 coming right up.