Sydney

It’s 5am and I’m wide awake. I don’t know how many times I’ve made mental notes about not having coffee past 10pm but I still do it on occasions. This time my excuse was that watching Dark Knight on a huge IMAX screen was so fun that err.. well.. wait, I think it’s the freezing temperatures upon exiting the cinema that persuaded me to go “Hey, let’s grab a coffee!”. Although in hindsight the cinema was probably colder than being outside at 11:30pm.

[Six days later]

The past two weeks have been pretty full on. Mom was in town for a bit, and we were doing a fair bit of exploring all over Sydney and beyond. Including a 40-minute trip to Thornleigh to check out this Malaysian restaurant my cousin’s hubby is going to work at. He’s a chef. Anyway, the food was well worth the journey, so much that a return trip for the monthly assam laksa special was made on Sunday. I was blown away, it’s the nicest I’ve had in months and not just because I’m here. It’s better than the one I always have during my local pasar malam that I’ve had since forever! Didn’t manage to take any pictures.. forgot about that when the food arrived. Haha. Anyway, the restaurant is called Makan @ Alice’s and they make really good nyonya kuihs and do BKT for dinner.

I wish I had some pictures to post. Must remember to use camera when I’m out. That’s if I remember to bring it out :P

Have been enjoying the food here quite a bit. And really, really enjoying cooking it at home! I made grilled lamb cutlets with coriander pesto and mint leaves, garlic sesame prawn fettucine (turned out awesome.. although most people would find the garlic overpowering, I like it that way) and I made lamb backstraps with lemon myrtle couscous from a DJs recipe because mom bought macadamia oil and peppercorn steak with cheddar mash potatoes and asparagus cooked in a butter sauce and baked herbal chicken. Yum. Of course I enjoy eating out also but I have to watch my expenses :/ So many restaurants so little money.. kek.

Oh err.. almost forgot to mention the wine too. Went in search of my fav wine, the St Clair whites, and so far no where I’ve been to stocks this.. which is strange since it’s an NZ export. Finally met someone who was able to tell me where to get it here. Apparently it’s the only place that sells this stuff here and this guy, Michael from Dan Murphy’s, seems to be a big fan :) He recommended something quite decent with the same flavours as the St Clair, but if I wanted a bottle of St Clair I have to travel about 30 mins to get it. They do city deliveries but minimum order is 12 bottles.. GG.

I miss Vintry! And I’m jealous of all you people (you know who you are) who can drink this whenever you want :P Oh BTW its in the $23–27 range here.

Oh and here are some long overdue pictures from Good Living Growers’ Market in Pyrmont that I went to with Nick last month. The next one is this weekend and it happens only once a month :( I got some really super awesome to die for lamb patties there the last time, so I’m praying those guys will be there this weekend! Also awesome gourmet potatoes and hopefully I save enough money to buy an eye fillet. And cheese! Must remember to drag Zona along.

This is not turning into some food blog. I’m still giddy over the food choices here. Not that there’s not a lot of food in KL, dammit I’m Malaysian I don’t need to justify my love of food :) Also, to be honest I haven’t been up to that much else. There’s still a million things on my to-do list but I haven’t felt compelled to tick those boxes so fast. Am looking forward to this weekend though, working whole of this week so I haven’t had much time to run around.. not even at night because I’m catching up on Boston Legal. Dammit Roy <3