visiting Sydney

Haven't been on here in ages, like OMGWTFBBQ?!?! Lol, I guess I’ve been occupied by work and recovering from work (exciting cycle of life), recovering from getting sick and neglecting myself enough to get sick.

A few weeks ago, I had an urge to have a break from ‘everything Canberra’ – actually just work. I took a much-needed flex day and drove myself to Sydney for the weekend. I needed to chill (in warmer weather) away from my house in Canberra.

I awkwardly chose to go to Sydney on a weekend where there were heaps of parties on – unfortunately, I didn’t any quality time with my girl friends. Nevertheless, the food I had that weekend was a breath of fresh air…

One of my friends hosted an ‘ugly sweater’ party – loved the theme as we just made fun of ourselves, as opposed to other dress up parties where people aim to look as gorgeous as possible. My friends and her housemates baked a sweater-shaped cake, and encouraged the guests to decorate it with supplied icing, lollies, sprinkles etc. It was a frivolous and fun thing to do. I loved the collaborative nature of the cake where everyone could contribute to it. The conglomeration of everyone’s creativity made it a super ugly cake.

My mum and I went to Castle Towers and saw a vending machine that made fresh orange juice. At first I was amazed at how a vending machine claimed to create ‘fresh’ products in front of your eyes. It reminded me of those machines in Japan that make hot noodles (with meat and veges I assume), at the press of a button. But then I stepped out of that and saw that other people were intrigued as well – is the machine  try hard, adding to Castle Hill’s self-proclaimed yuppy culture or just another commercial enterprise?

Also got an Italian sweet at Castle Towers’ Dolci Dolci – it was like a pastry, like a donut filled with dense ricotta… It wasn’t great, a bit dry and stale (and way too many calories for how plain it was). Can you even get Italian desserts/pastries in Canberra? Maybe I just wanted to eat it for the novelty of being in Sydney. It’s like when you are travelling and you do something really stupid just ‘for the experience’. Lol, anyway…

Japanese food – my favourite. I caught up with a friend in Eastwood and for dinner, I ordered Chirashi Sushi which was a bowl of sushi rice covered with pieces of eel, Japanese-style omelette, beans, pickled ginger, sesame seeds, wasabi etc. It was simple, but delicious… will try to recreate this at home.

The funny thing about the north-west of Sydney is how Asians open cafes with pseudo-fancy/sophisticated/ethical/alternative décor… it reminds me of many cafes/restaurant in Hong Kong that had Western-inspired décor and had Western food cooked in an Asian kinda way. This was like the new café that opened in Carlingford Court. The breakfasts were overpriced and the food was strangely 'sterile' – maybe I’m sceptical of the perfect circular shape of the poached eggs and half-stale bread.