Yes, Christmas tree. So you know that this is a delayed post. December 2017 was busy. Little P got married early December and Moo Moo Cow came to attend her wedding. I am going to shorten Moo Moo Cow to MMC for lesser keyboard stroke.

Anyway, MMC bunked with me for about a month and there were a lot of eating. A lot, so much that I think I gained 5 kg in the span of time. It is alarming to feel the jeans getting tighter and I am attach to my jeans, so now I would need to work harder to make sure that I can fit into those jeans easier, instead of feeling like a sausage. We knew we are eating non stop but.. ahem, there is no remorse... that we told Little P it is #takinsaf (this is in Malay Language, which translate to #noremorse). Feels to have higher impact to be saying it in Malay Language. Here goes the story...

Work decided to have a last minute planning day in mid December and I was told to book tickets to fly to Sydney for attendance. As MMC was staying with me at the time, I asked if she wants to come and she said 'yes'. Coincidentally this trip was to be on a Thursday and Friday, so we decided to extend over to the weekend and fly back on the Sunday which gives us about 4 days in Sydney.

It was the awesome Swissotel again when work paid for my accommodation but we moved to Travelodge Hotel Sydney after one night in Swissotel. Travelodge Hotel Sydney was nothing to rave about so I am not going to write further, but of course, it is way easier on the pocket.



Thursday and Friday were working day for me, so MMC went roaming around Sydney by herself. Planning day lunch was at Hurricanes Grill at Circular Quay which is at the new Gateway Building. Lunch was self funded so I am glad for the lunch menu as it is cheaper. I had pork ribs with sweet potato chips side, also included was the token salad. Unfortunately I can't remember how much was this as we paid cash to our colleague who is the organiser, but I think it was around $25.


After my colleagues had a few rounds of drinks (I only had one!), the planning day ended and I met up with MMC to have a pre-dinner tea time. It was at the awesome Kinokuniya book store which still have not open a branch in Melbourne :(. We shared a Strawberry Watermelon Cake with rose scented cream and Japanese Forest Cake with umeshu cream and plums from the Black Star Pastry. The strawberry watermelon cake really doesn't need any introduction. I don't usually like anything rose flavoured but this one is mild. The cake is really light and refreshing. The Japanese Forest cake is pretty good too and pretty.

Japanese Forest Cake $10 per serve

Strawberry Watermelon Cake, $8 per slice

Right after that, MMC and I made our way to Chatswood to meet another friend, F. F suggested for us to try Jim's Malaysian at Hawker Lane in Westfield Chatswood. I had the easy job of sitting at the table to wait for the other two to order food. MMC and I shared a char kway teow, a black pepper pork ribs rice and teh tarik. The food is so so but teh tarik was way too sweet despite requesting for it to be less sweet.

CKT, $13.80

Black pepper pork ribs rice, $14.80

Day 2 lunch was my usual joint at Ippudo! See I am not joking when I said I try to make my way to Ippudo every time I am back in Sydney. I had Akamaru Tamago. Still the best ramen in Australia. I saw a shop with Ippudo sign in QV but there is no sign of when it will open. There is hope of good comforting ramen in Melbourne! :)

Akamaru tamago, $18

Like the day before, I met up with MMC after work and we had another snack. Haha. I was back to Gateway but for some gelatos at Messina. We shared 2 scoops, one of Nicky's glasses (coffee and salted caramel gelato with whipped cream) and another one of a cheese flavoured specials. Memory fails me on the actual name of the cheese flavoured gelato though.

I think 2 scoops were $6.80

The macaron were self added which we bought from Ladurée in Westfield Sydney. Haha. One of the macarons was salted caramel and the other chestnut. You will soon realised there were a lot of salted caramel flavoured food consumed because MMC loves caramel and salted caramel. Interestingly I am not of favour of it, in fact the thought of caramel gave me toothache but I admit that it always taste better than what I pictured before eating it. That said, my view of caramel remains at status quo - too sweet that the thought of it gives me toothache. Haha.

This is a failed photo, only after I have downloaded this photo that I realised I could see myself in it. Tsk

Very soon after we had the last spoonful of the gelato, we rolled our way to another usual joint - Izakaya Masuya where I usually meet up with E and S. We (or rather E) ordered on our behalf to share some dishes.

Eel sushi roll (this is one of the specials)

Sashimi Deluxe （特選刺身 2人前）$24.80

Wagyu Snow Hot Pot（和牛の豆乳雪見鍋）$48

Day 3 was a Saturday and of course we had a proper breakfast. MMC googled for a nearby cafe and we were at Two Good Eggs for our breakfast.


MMC had the Spanish Baked Eggs with spicy salami, black olives & manchego cheese served with sourdough and I had chorizo sausage with scrambled egg.

Of latte and long machiato

Activity after breakfast was shopping in the DFO Homebush so our lunch was at the food court there. We shared an extremely big plate of fried rice. The photo might not illustrate the portion accurately but this one plate was enough for both of us. As you can see both of us ate a lot.. so this was huge.


We kept to our daily snacks so our snack for day 3 was this very cute choux pastry from Doux Amour.

Which is cuter?

This pretty face was filled with black sesame cream. Some novelty or instagram-able food just have the looks but not the taste but this one was quite good and not sweet. It may not look like it but the size is more like a bun with filling size than smaller cream puff size. They are not cheap so best to share! I think it was about $8 a pop.

I am cute but I am yummy too!

Dinner was Thai affair at Chat Thai, the Westfield Sydney branch. We shared Grapao Gai Sup and Dtom Yum Goong.

Thai ice coffee and Thai ice tea

Tom yum goong, $24

Stir fried minced chicken, fresh chilli and holy basil $16

Our flight out of Sydney was at 4ish in the evening on Sunday but we managed to fit in 3 meals; moving the snack time to morning snack. Haha.

I re-visited Haven but tried different dishes, one savoury and one sweet-ish. Haha.

David was the barista of the day!

Ice coffee and long black

Tiramisu $16.5

House smoked salmon pasta $22

The squid ink pasta with prawn oil and raw egg yolk was egg-cellent but for egg waffle, I much prefer the black sesame egg waffle I had the previous time. It was no longer on their menu though, unfortunately.

It wasn't far from Central Park, so we strolled over to have our morning tea at Koi. Haha. I think the menu at Koi changes quite frequently, I don't see either of the cakes I tried on the shelf anymore. We had one to share and from the few shortlisted by MMC, I chose the Watermelon Jar. The full description was, "Lychee creme diplomat, dehydrated rose, watermelon and strawberries, almond sable"

Watermelon Jar $13

We then walked around Chinatown as it was closed by until we saw this street art.


We then crossed the road to check out the menu and after flipping through the menu, we pushed the door open and sat down! Hahahaha.. but this was a very good find in Sydney. We both agreed that this place is worth another visit if we are back in Sydney. The restaurant name is Ho Jiak which means tasty in Hokkien.

Indomee Goreng with salted duck egg $18

Nasi lemak satay $17

Teh tarik liquor $10

The one in the background was teh tarik affogato. It is a little pricey but the food was good and we rolled out of the shop happily before brisk walking back to the hotel to make our way to the airport.

There are still some new places that I want to try or old eateries that I want to re-visit but, this is how you can fit in all the eating plans in 4 days ;)


Side note: Happy 2018.. haha..