Being a good little girl, I went out with my parents and grandpa to Burwood today.  We wandered around the shops, and browsed clothes, boring my grandpa in the process.  I bought a cropped tee from Target (Free Fusion) to go with my maxi, and mum and I bought a couple of Giordano basics for $10 each!

Mum had an appointment, so grandpa headed off while I went to mum’s appointed place to accompany her.  However, we got there 45 minute early (sigh, early birds!), and I got bored within 10 minutes of waiting…  So mum asked dad to take me to a place to have lunch.

So we wandered into Kwok Doo half an hour before they closed up to prepare for the dinner session.  It was a very quiet restaurant with background music.  We received great service; the lady there was lovely and always made sure we were okay.

We ordered two dishes and a lemonade (which wasn’t super awesome; I thought it’d be Sprite).

The first dish was a stir fried rice noodle dish (Cantonese: Wat dan har kou gai kou chow hor).  Though a smallish plate, it was very lovely, we enjoyed it, and I would have it again.

The second was the century egg porridge/congee (the photo looks ghastly since it is so white).  This one lacked flavour and ingredients (so I had to mass season it with salt and pepper), but taste wise wasn’t bad.  I guess I wouldn’t order this dish again if I can help it.

Chicken and prawn stir fried rice noodles with egg gravy

Century egg porridge

Overall, it’s an average place for lunch; I left feeling full but light and comfy.

Kwok Doo
185C Burwood Rd
Burwood NSW 2134
Phone: (02) 9747 3592

Map:

View Larger Map

I’ve never been good with family outings… In fact, quite the opposite. And the more relatives present, the worse it is for me. All that’s ever spoken of is comparing each other one way or another, or general gossip about this and that. For example:

• Did your son get into a selective school?
• How did they go in the HSC?
• Did you get into uni?
• When are you going to get married?
• Are you planning to have kids?
• You know such and such? Her kid is doing medicine and is buying them a new house. How lucky!

Really?

Anyway, had one of these sessions tonight while dining at a restaurant to celebrate the first month arrival of my new cousin… and honestly, it was one of the most boring family sessions I’ve ever had.

We were the first to get seated, so of course we got seated together as a family. Everyone started to arrive, and somehow, I had to be the one to move from my parents,where everyone stayed put. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to make this about me because it isn’t, but how was that fair (and we got there first)?

And secondly, I was seated next to a my aunt’s friends (who I didn’t know, doesn’t appear to speak English, and don’t have much in common with… oh and did I mention they were very fast with getting all the good food? Not that I had any appetite to eat at any rate), the kids (me = not good with kids… plus, they each had their own consoles and was tapping the night away), my aunt’s husband (who doesn’t usually speak to anyone, let alone to me. You don’t even know he’s there half the time!)… and my aunt (who was looking after her baby and her toddler).

In a nutshell, I was seated next to people who are eithe under 15, or over 35 year olds.

B-O-R-I-N-G?

So, I sat by myself the whole time, messaging Mr AG and Ag buddy, bored to tears. The worst part was, everyone can SEE how BORED I was (including my 10 year old cousin, who apparently “felt sorry for [you]“)!

Near the end, the cake came out, and guess what? I was kicked out of my seat because they wanted to take photos over where I was sitting. What the?

Anyway, I finally survived the boring-est event of the decade, got home, and just got depressed.

It’s pretty safe to say that I won’t be going to any other ones in the near future.

Spare me the pain.

/end rant.

Hung out with my parents today. We first made a stop at Cabramatta for some vegan food and durian shakes… Arrived there at 1:15 PM, and finally found a park that’s not so far from the places of interest at 1:30 PM; Cabramatta was quite packed as usual at this time, so I guess it’s normal.

We had lunch at an all vegan place called Loving hut. I heard that this place is quite liked by people (including dad), so I was interested. On the walls were quotes on why not to eat animals (which… I do), and had fan artworks (don’t know what to call them).

So the menu was interesting; all the food was called their usual names, such as bi cuon (shredded pork rice paper rolls) and goi cuon (salad roll with prawns, pork and other stuff). However, all the meat products in the original foods were replaced by vegan stuff (obviously, right?).

Bi cuon (shredded pork roll) + fish sauce

This was fantastic, and may even be better than the real shredded pork as I can taste a deep fried element in it that really made the flavours pop!

Goi cuon (pork and prawn salad roll) + hoisin sauce

The “prawn” in this looked amazingly real… unfortunately, the taste was lacking.

Bo bia (rice paper roll with egg, Chinese sausage, shrimps, jicama) + hoisin sauce

This was really good, and I couldn’t tell it was vegan at all.

Fried fish

This is just battered taro fillings, but the fish looked so cute I had to order it!

Bo luc lac (shaking beef)

Dad ordered this so confidently it humoured mum  (he doesn’t eat beef since he was young)! This was actually really good too, though I didn’t quite like the “beef”.

Overall, these dishes were very interesting and clever; it looks and tastes surprisingly like the real thing! I wouldn’t mind eating there for our vegetarian new years’ ritual thing!

Loving Hut
227 Cabramatta Road West
Cabramatta 2166 NSW
Phone: (02) 9755 4410

Map:

View Larger Map

So then we headed over to Giai Khat for some durian shake.

The lady we had last time wasn’t there, so we had to order from another. This one was a little less generous with the durian, and I could really taste it; the one last time was so lovely and thick that after an hour, it was still very lovely. This one felt like I’ve left it for an hour when I started drinking it. And the other lady who made my dad’s one was even stingy… A little disappointing.

Fruits and stuff!

Coconut and grapefruit section

Me being excited by my durian shake only to be a bit disappointed.

And so with our shakes and other foods, we left Cabramatta to give my brother his shake, and went to deliver some chili and salt prawns to grandma, whilst mum and I shopped.

Ended up buying a couple of things, firstly from Target, including some bras, Sally Hansen kwik off (I saw this on the vogue forums last night and wanted so much to try it out but don’t have polish on, so I will post about it later), and this panda shirt.

At the counter, I told mum I’d pay with card, and the saleslady asked if we wanted a bag for $0.1, so said yes, and mum asked (in Chinese) if she can just pay for that with her coin. I said I was paying with card and they’d add it up there, and the saleslady was amused. So I asked if she understood what we had said, to which she said, “I don’t, but I know that it’s something to do with the bag”… So I clarified what we meant. She must’ve been thinking that we weren’t willing to part with our $0.1 for the bag. Like, we bought over $60 of stuff, and you thought we were arguing over that?

Anyway. We didn’t have much time after that, so we headed into a few other shops, and only ended up buying some stuff from Typo. (This didn’t quench my shopping hunger, so I went home and bought 5 pairs of stockings/leggings/tights online!).

On the way, mum was telling me how all the Mobil petrol stations were being replaced with 7/11 ones, and the one she always go to will be replaced very soon.

I don’t usually do outfit posts, but seeing voguettes’ blogs with them, I decided to include one in this post.

Top/dress: Dangerfield
Leggings: ASOS
Mac: ASOS
Shoes: ASOS
Bag: Oroton
Headband: Mimco
Necklace: Mimco
Belt: ICE
Bow ring: Diva
Silver band: Chinese jewelry store

Read more

Family and I (yes, including brother, which is a surprise) headed to Cabramatta for a Vietnamese dinner tonight. Yep, all the way to Cabramatta for dinner.

But really, we went there especially for one thing: a nice, thickly blended durian shake (dad knows of a place that’s really good for those… we’re not going to the one at Bankstown for a quick fix anymore… they are quite stingy with the durian servings).

The place is called Giai khat, and they were constantly making shakes for customers! We saw many getting a mix of avacado and durian. I’m curious to try that mix though; I think it’d also taste really nice and rich! But for today, we got all durian shakes.

And boy, were they good! And I didn’t end up getting a pic of it before I started drinking it.

Then we had dinner at Dong Ba. Food was decent, and I got something I’ve never tried before, bun bo hue (hue style beef rice vermicelli), a specialty of the restaurant.

Bun bo hue – nice fragrant and spicy lemongrass soup, thick vermicelli, beef slices, blood jelly, and some other meat

Bánh canh - Parents each got one

Brother’s com ga hai nam (the ginger sauce was yum!)

Dong Ba Restaurant
6/40 Park Road
Cabramatta NSW 2166
Phone: (02) 9755 0727

Map:

‎
View Larger Map

Our family are fans of Luke Nguyen (especially on his tv show, where he gives us a peek of the culture, fresh produce, and cuisines of Vietnam) and his passion and enthusiasm for anything Vietnamese… Plus, he’s a funny character.

We have spoken a while now about trying his restaurant, Red Lantern (Surry Hills). So went went tonight!

Food and drinks menus

Entree – Chao Tom: Tiger prawn paste wrapped around sugar cane. Served with vermicelli, perilla and mint.

Entree – Chim Cut: Five spiced quail with a salad of roasted beetroot, green beans perilla and mint.

Main – Bo Luc Lac: Cubed pasture fed Black Angus sirloin tossed in a flaming wok with garlic, sesame and black pepper.

Main – Suon Nuong: Char grilled ‘Berkshire’ pork cutlets marinated in honey, lemongrass and shallot oil

Overall, it was a good experience; the food was great (loved the entrees especially), good ambiance (though we were stuck downstairs), and the service was just right (our waiter was really enthused and chatty, very friendly).

I can’t wait to try other dishes, or possibly go for the tasting menu

Red Lantern
545 Crown Street
Surry Hills NSW 2010
Phone: (02) 9698 4355

Map:

‎
View Larger Map

Grandma’s staying over for a couple of days… so we went out for dinner together =)

Vietnamese salad (goi)

Spring rolls

Quail

Oysters

Battered king prawns

Battered snapper fish

Vietnamese pancake

Bit blurry on the last one… think I was just really keen to devour this Vietnamese pancake!

My Canh
29 Greenfield Parade
Bankstown NSW 2200
Phone: (02) 9796 7586 ‎

Map:

View Larger Map

The family and I celebrated my brother and my birthdays the usual way; going to have a Chinese seafood meal at Hurstville.

And the rest I’ve got about a million photos of ^_^;

We had the usual quail, crabs, abalones, etc…

My Canh, Bankstown.

My Canh
29 Greenfield Parade
Bankstown NSW 2200
Phone: (02) 9796 7586 ‎

Map:

View Larger Map

Hurstville Chinese seafood restaurant, Hurstville.