Sydney Part 1 - Let The Madness Begin

Before I start, let me warn you. This and the next two posts are PG-rated. Piggy Gluttony that is. So be prepared to feel hungry when you scroll through the photos.

I took the first flight out to Sydney a couple of Saturdays ago. Work is implementing a system and lucky me was selected as the project lead for Finance. So I had to go to our sister company's premises for a week's worth of training. I am repeating this two more times in October so I am expecting to get very sick of Sydney by then. Maybe, maybe not!

So I arrived in Sydney at 8.30 and was at my hotel an hour later. It was too early to check in so I left my suitcase with them and headed off to Pitt Street Mall for a wander. Confession time: I actually went downstairs to the nearest BreadTop and bought 3 items, with the good intention of having them for breakkie, morning and arvo snack. Three items, three meals. Makes sense right? Errr I ate all three before I even got out of the building. Woopsie. BBQ Bun, Pineapple Bun and Egg Tart, ye evil things!

Anyhoo, I legged it to Pitt Street Mall and headed straight for the new Westfield which housed all the luxury shops as well as the usual high street shops. I spied the mothership calling for me but I was in travelling gear, aka tee + shorts + flats so I was too intimidated to go in. Plus I was worried I'll get tempted by the shoes. At $1500 AUD a pop, I can't afford to be tempted.

My preccccccious!

So I wandered around for a couple of hours (ate a few moere things) and went back to the hotel. Still no free rooms so i headed towards Chinatown. Biiiig mistake! First thing I saw was this dessert shop that Jenn told me about. Sigh, asian desserts I love thee.

So I stopped and had a grass jelly + red bean + taro + pearls hot dessert. Not sure why I chose a hot one since it was freakin hot in Sydney. Anyhoo, it was a very popular place and there was no free tables inside so I had to sit in the bright sunshine. So I didn't take a photo of my dessert.


Then I was finally able to check in around noon and I felt piggy (rightly so) so I walked to Paddington which is half an hour away from the hotel. I may or may not have eaten more things on the way. My feet were killing me so I got a pedicure in Paddy and wandered around the Saturday market before strolling back.

Met up with my boss for dinner as it's on the company yahoooooooooooooo... hence the gluttony, peeps. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Although, is it better to be a cheapskate or a glutton? Wooo if I was a character in Se7en, which way would I have gone?

We went to Palate, a popular Jap eatery just underneath our hotel which is super central as it is near Chinatown.

Boss's choice...

Mine was eel something or other. Typical Jap fare:

After that, we went for a walk around Chinatown to burn off the food and we came across this long line! I've read about it in guides so we *had* to get some too.

One dollar for FOUR custard puffs!! Who knew you could still get stuff for a buck??? No wonder there's always a queue!


See those yellow tubes? They are the innards of the puffs and are inserted into the puffs to pump them full of custardy goodness.

Looks like a walnut.

Unfortunately, they tasted chemical to me. Bleh. Boss, the human hoover, ate the other three.

The next morning ie Sunday morning, I had a sleep in and then headed to Mother Chu, a popular Taiwanese eatery right opposite the puffs for my brunch.

I also got a roasted tea with grass jelly from my favourite bubble tea place, Chatime.

Taiwanese vermicelli in thick soup... soooo good. I wished I had this again. And I shall, in October!

You tiao with Shaobing... deepfried doughsticks wrapped inside flaky pastry. This was dry as and I chucked them out after I had them wrapped up to go.

Ohhhh my love! Shaobing with pork floss. Pork floss with anything is good in my books. i remember we used to eat pork floss right out of the tub when we were kids, and also with rice. Yum!

After that, I jumped on the bus to Birkenhead Point Outlet. Sydney's public transport rocks. Didn't buy anything apart from tees because it was a meltingly hot day and I packed inappropriately as usual. Part 2 and 3 to come.

Melbourne August 2011 Trip

I've been to Melbourne so many times that I didn't bother taking out my camera unless it was for something new this time around. This included photos of my nephew and niece!!! How terrible is that? Bad Auntie.

Monica modelling my big tub of Igloo pomegranate yoghurt with lychee. They didn't have slivered almonds. Drats. So yum.

How I <3 thee, o yoghurt.

Mel, Andrew and I caught a show in Melbourne this time around - Love Never Dies, the sequel to Phantom of the Opera. I didn't like POTO actually. Christine annoyed me a lot. She still did in Love Never Dies but the sets were so amazing that I could ignore her weak annoying personality most of the time. So good.

Anyway I digress. Mel decided to book a hotel room for the night we were in town for the show. So we got to wander around Melbourne City child-less. Ah bliss. I mean awww I miss them.

We walked past Lord of the Fries so I *had* to have some since it is apparently the best fries in Melbourne.

Verdict? Aussies are a sad bunch if this the best. It's just normal fries that you can get in any old dingy Kiwi fish and chips (chups???) shops. Meh.

After the show, we legged it to Chinatown for some late "supper". Mel kept saying we can have a late supper... probably fantasizing in her own head that she is this cool hip chick that has a full on night life, hence the need for late suppers.

We went to Supper Inn. Mel said it's a Melbourne institution. It was just some dingy old Chinese restaurant with inflated prices. Having said that, the food was pretty good.

Suckling pig... oh so yum.

Tofu and some type of protein casserole. A typical Hii must-order dish.

While wandering around town the next day, we walked past this joint and I decided to take some photos so the Kits can maybe replicate and sell in their shop. hehe.




We had breakfast and coffee in town. I had a coffee and a slice called Amour. Mel flirted with the aging Italian barista to get $5 knocked off the bill.

That was all, peeps.

The loot I got this time around?

I'm so proud of this! My gynormous 2.2kg of oyster sauce for AUD$7.50. Holy macaroni. It's NZD$5.50 for a 500 ml over here. SCORE.

The obligatory snacks for "Viv":


I brought back a box of macarons from Lindt. Viv ate most of these.

Giant nutella macaron.

Stuff I bought included a $20 pair of flats, super cheap Karen Walker Hi There cardis and a vintage dress.


Next up, Sydney.

Wellington Part 2

Second day of my trip to Wellington saw us getting up bright and early and heading off to the City Markets. This is a MUST see every time I come to Wellington. The sole purpose of this visit? Kransky.

Indoor market. There is also an outdoor veges market.

The kransky stall.

The guys very accommodatingly chucked on a few more sausages for me when they saw me aim my camera at the grill.

So good. I wish Auckland has kranskies that are this good!

Cheese stall:

City Market is the brainchild of Martin Bosley (NZ chef) so he can usually be found at the markets cooking. Here he was cooking bacon and eggs butties.

Look at them eggs!

Veges stall:

Pastry stall:

Macarons are a given. I bought some for Viv.

Cute french guy cooking my nutella crepes. He hammed it up for me but I was too slow and didn't take the photo at the right time. Drats.


Yipp, I stuffed this all down my throat after the kransky I had five minutes ago. Oh and a coffee. Wellingtonians take their coffees very seriously.

Next stop: Moore Wilsons - a foodstore that is the answer to every foodie's prayers. Because WOOP was going on, they had a mini market going on in the carpark too. Jeff got a haloumi sandwich (on top of the kransky and bacon and egg buttie he ate.. oink!):

Indian roti stall. The dude gave me a huge smile right after I took the photo. Must get my timing right, darn it.

Bakery inside Moore Wilsons that stocks all the artisan pastries and breads that famous cafes around town produced. Auckland, we need this!

Veges area:

Yoghurt etc:

AND they have a fromagerie! for both soft AND hard cheeses.. sigh.

Loads of artisan products for sale such as:

More treats on display:

There's also a bulk food section:

.. where you can buy things in retail sizes, ie the ones you get from the supermarket, or in foodservice sizes, ie gynormous sizes. Look, huge bottles of sauces for times when you feel like taking a bath in tomato sauce.

I bought a box of 12 petit fours for Viv. I said Viv but really was for me. This was from Floriditas I think... so good.

The last day there was bad, weather wise. Wellington literally went from sunny in the morning to rainy mid morning to snowy by late afternoon. After a quick dinner at KK Malaysian with Jeff and Wendy, I bidded them au revoir and headed off to catch my flight back home. The flight was delayed by 1 hour but I was lucky as the snow played havoc with airport schedules and a lot of planes were not only delayed but eventually cancelled.

Jeff and Wendy also had an adventure going home after dropping me at the airport. They live up on the hills so the snow was falling fast and thick by the time they got home. Their car skidded down the driveway so they had to walk home. Oopsie, luckily no one or car got hurt. Phew. Thanks dudes for being great hosts as usual. I had a load of fun.. so did my tummy.

Truffles I bought from the Chocolate Festival - salted caramel in the background and some other flavour that I've forgotten now in the foreground.

These were from Bohemein and they were so so so so good. I am so buying a case the next time I'm in Wellington.

I can never go past Pistachio Nougat...

Salted caramel.. ditto... can't remember the remaining flavour.