Yes I'm a Introvert, So What?

Ever since when I was a child, people around me, including my parents have always said that I was too shy. I didn't like talking to strangers (like that was a bad thing anyway). "She'll grow out of it later" is generally the answer given when asked. When I didn't grow out of it the comments turned into criticism. Over the years, those comments didn't stop, not just coming from older generations but my own peers. 

So I feel like I should clear some things up, not just for me but also all the other introverts out there. No, introverts does not equal to antisocial people. Rather, we like to be alone with our own thoughts. A lot of the time, large gatherings and social events are very mentally draining for me. But that doesn't mean I can't handle social situations, I can hold a conversation with a stranger perfectly fine, but smalltalk bores and tires me and I feel the need to escape. I like spending time by myself but that doesn't mean I'm lonely. There's nothing more annoying than having someone you know keep bugging you to keep them company because they can't stand spending a few hours alone. You should be responsible for your own happiness. 

What's even more ridiculous is that I've been told in the past that if I really tried, I could stop being like this. Like there's this magical button I can press and voila! Social Tian! I prefer to observe and listen, there's a lot to be learned about a person by just listening to them and observing their demeanor. So what if I don't care about where you went on holiday this year, stranger who I probably won't see again for the rest of my life? So what if I don't want to tell you my life story, person who I just met 10 minutes ago, is that so wrong? Even when I'm with my inner circle of friends, there are times when I feel like I've had enough of this and I need to be by myself for a while. 

There is no right and wrong to this, it's just what it is. Everybody is different and are free to choose how they live their lives. So for another person to criticize me for being simply how I am is just offensive and ignorant. I can't just perk up because you feel like I'm being boring and needs to be less of a party pooper. A lot of people these days like to get to know everybody for the sake of 'networking', it's like another way of saying "I'm gonna be an acquaintance for now so that when I need you for something I'll contact you ok?". Well what if I just want to spend my time and energy on people who I actually care about and deserves my attention?

So yes, keep judging me for being antisocial and a ice queen, for being different than you are. I'm sorry that I'd rather stay home and do absolutely nothing than go to bs social gatherings that I'm obligated to. No, I'm not depressed or self indulgent. Yes keep telling me that I'll never make it because I don't know how to talk to people 'properly', but you don't know me and you never will. I'm just being me, if that offends you so then maybe you should go and eff off.

Pretty in Spring

It's the last week of Winter, as the weather warms up it's time to shed the layers we have on and let our skin breath a bit. Spring is the time to break out your pretty pastels and feminine prints. I personally own very few pink items, I prefer monochrome but I do find myself liking pink more these days. Break up the pink a bit with black leather shorts, they'll add a bit of edge to a very girly outfit. 

You can easily pair a variety of shoes and accessories with these, heels for sexiness, flats for comfort cool, vans or converse for casual chic. Make sure to dab on some pink or coral blush! 

I'm heading off to Melbourne for a day just so I can shop at H&M in mid September. Even though it's only for a day, I'll still have oodles of fun, lots of stuff to do and yummy food to eat. Will try my best to fit as much things in my stomach as possible in the little time I have. I have been working 7 days a week for the last 2 months and it's been taking a toll on me I think, so I guess a break is a much needed relief from headaches and stress. 

In Asia

If you want to go to a fancy schmancy restaurant you'd have to head to the city these days but I happened to stumble across this place called "In Asia". Of all places on Concord Rd too. If you haven't been to Concord Rd, it's mostly Indian and Thai eateries and all the big Pizza names on the one road. So when we saw how fancy this place was I was truly surprised. The type of cuisine is Fusion, from the menu it seems like fusion between Chinese, a bit of Japanese and Malaysian cuisines.

The decor is pretty funky, some kind of tree with hanging yellow flowers are placed in between the row of booths. The space feels big but also intimate at the same time. 

So we got:

Caramelised twice cooked pork belly, crispy panko egg, sweet tamarind sauce 

Chargrilled wagyu rump with chilli flake and lime sauce

Chicken thigh marinated in pandan and sesame

Barbequed pork neck marinated in palm sugar and garlic

Red curry of duck breast, lychee, cherry tomatoes, lime leaves

Roti

Popcorn Parfait 

The pork belly came first, the panko eggs looked like they were cooked to perfection, the yolks still runny. The pork is crispy on the outside and soft and meaty on the inside, it has retained its crispiness whilst being covered in sauces. The sauce is sweet and fragrant with a hint of sourness from the tamarind which went well with the sweetness of the pork. The eggs don't really have any tastes to them which is a shame because a little saltiness would work so well. The curry and meats on sticks came next. The curry was very creamy, the lychee added a nice refreshing zing and texture to the richness of the duck, again, very good dish. The side of roti was also excellent, soft and a bit chewy. 

Of the three skewers I liked the pork neck the most, the pork was caramelised and the fat is almost translucent. The meat was well marinated and grilled just right, not tough and chewy at all.  

Then came the dessert, we went with the very original popcorn parfait which consisted of caramel popcorn, crushed corn flakes, grilled sweet corn and caramel jersey cream. When it first came out I noticed what looked like a stick of butter but in fact was the caramel jersey cream, I took a spoonful imagining it to be butter but in fact it was creamy, sweet (but not overly sweet) and melt in your mouth goodness. It reminds me of semi frozen whipped cream if that makes sense. The rest of the elements were ok, lots of crunch and bite which went well with the soft creamy jersey cream. The taste overall is just so so but I give them extra points for originality.

I like the fact that this place opened in the suburbs, it not only brings something different to a place that isn't normally associated with anything fine dining but also gives people somewhere to go without sitting through traffic and dealing with expensive parking tickets. The food and atmosphere is great and so are the staff. I would definitely come back here again.

In Asia

181 Concord Rd, North Strathfield.

If You Love Burgers Say "Moo"!

 
Moo Burgers
It's Friday night and I was planning to spend the night at home cleaning but my friend Annie suggested we go out on a "date night". After much debate where we should go, we settled on Newtown. 

It was especially cold and walking around King St looking for a place to eat was not exactly what I had in mind. She suggested "Moo Burgers" which was a gourmet burger joint, I'm not really a big burger fan to be honest but I was starving and anything would've been nice and in we went.

The place is quite cosy, the walls are decorated with kids' drawings of cows. As soon as you walk in the smell of grilled bacon hits your nose and I immediately felt my stomach start to grumble. The menu is quite simple, the normal cheeseburgers with some gourmet selections but one burger caught my eye, the "Duck and Bacon". Duck you say? Oh my I just gotta try this! Annie got the wagyu burger and we also ordered a cheesy bacon fries with their homemade sweet chilli jam sauce to share.  

The burgers looked standard enough, pattie & veggies with sauce sandwiched between two buns. The taste however, is quite phenomenal. 
The duck pattie was so soft and fragrant, filled with spices and sooooo juicy. The sourdough bun is just perfection as buns go, slightly crunchy on the outside and super soft on the inside, making each bite hugely satisfying. The tomato and lettuce are fresh and crunchy but my favourite element would have to be the orange jam on top of the duck pattie. It just takes everything to another level, sweet and a little bit tangy, oh my god I want some more now. The wagyu was just as awesome, the brie and the caramalised onions paired with the juicy wagyu pattie, again is just perfection. 

You know the food is good when there is no talking and trust me, we talk a lot lol. Ah "Moo Burgers", my new favourite burger place for sure!

Chocoloco

It wouldn't be a complete meal without desserts. After searching the streets to find a proper dessert place we came upon "Chocoloco". On one of their walls I found this quote, "Stressed spelled backward is desserts". Instant mind blow!

I didn't want to just get your standard chocolate pizza or banana split so I went all out and got their "Chocolate Supreme Belgian Waffle Cookie Brownie Sundae".
Yes it's quite a mouthful and literally too. The sundae was huge, pieces of oreos, brownies, waffles topped with whipped cream on a mountain of chocolate ice cream. The taste was great though, the whipped cream helped to cut some of the richness from all the other elements, oh and one thing to note is that if you get desserts here they give you free coffee. Not bad right?

In the end, I'm glad I came out despite the bone chilling wind :D

https://www.moogourmetburgers.com.au/

My Little Art Project

Having spent most of August indoors I had a surge in my creativity last week and decided to redecorate my place. Although the job of decorating is never done, I've decided to change the whole theme of the apartment, big job ahead indeed. But last week was the 1 year anniversary of our first date and Jules made me dinner which was very lovely of him. 

These are currently hanging on my bedroom wall, the typewriter print is from Ikea. It never seizes to amaze me just how exciting going to Ikea is and I always come back with stuff I didn't intend to buy in the first place. The idea came to me when I was browsing Etsy for prints and thought, hang on I can do these too. I've always worked with Acrylic paints so this time I chose watercolour, I really like watercolour paintings especially fashion drawings. Something about the transparency and texture of the paint really appeals to me.

Sophie (his dog next to him) was actually an accident. I was opening a tube of new paint and it splattered onto the paper (oh the screaming and frustration that followed). Then, while I was staring at the mustard yellow on the paper thinking how I'm going to clean that up I suddenly thought of Sophie. She was a Labrador, Labrador are that kind of colour! And so here she is, for my one it just wouldn't make any sense not to put my cat Joe in there too. 

It took less time than I had expected having had little to no experience working with watercolour. But I find these 2 quite charming and they're one of a kind. 

Whenever I start missing you I shall look at these and smile :)

Leopold the Bunny Rabbit

I've never really played with a lot of dolls when I was a kid and in my adult life the dolls that I got was bought for my cat to tear up. 

So it's Saturday night, Jules and I are waiting around for my friend Annie to finish up her date. We decided to go play the skill tester machines, the ones that are obviously rigged so you keep trying to catch the dolls. Anyway, I've never been good at those things so it was up to Jules to get some kind of a prize since he's always been the lucky one at these things. After many attempts and a lot of swearing, Jules finally caught this bunny. At first I thought, oh another one for Joe to tear up but then I looked at him more closely and somehow I kinda fell in love with his little face, his colourful triangles and his long limbs and ears.

The next day I decided to take some photos of him and thought it'd be funny to put him on this little rocking horse with some props and it all started from there. The next thing I knew I even got him some clothes lol. I took a few shots of him riding a scooter and posing with a bike and even introduced him to LSP.

"Oh..my..glob! He is so hot! Look at those man lumps!" is what I imagine she would say.   
 
I actually have a lot of fun putting him in poses and scenarios and here's just an introduction to Leopold (that's what I named him btw), so there's probably gonna be more snaps of him on here in the future. 

Anyway, hope everyone's had a good weekend. It's so darn cold these days all I want to do is curl up in a ball in my bed and nap all day. But no, I have to get up and work. (boo..)

 

Chefs On Show

I apologize again for the lack of posts lately but I don't think I've ever blogged about Chinese food and just so happens that we went to eat at a "Modern" Chinese food restaurant over the weekend so here it is. 'Chef's Gallery' popped up a few years ago in Town Hall, it has put a rather sophisticated spin on your average Chinese dishes. The kitchen is in full view with dozens of chefs making dumplings, kneading noodles, stir-frying. 

The menu is rather extensive, there are a lot of dim sims, appetisers, entrees, mains and of course, desserts. We got the mixed dim sim platter just to sample a mix of different ones. There was duck and mushroom steamed dumpling, chicken steamed dumpling, prawn & pork dumpling with chilli soy sauce, prawn and pork dumpling. For entree we had the mini Macau pork burgers and pulled pork with pancakes. Felt like noodles so we also got the hand made noodles with prawns in a chilli tomato sauce. Dessert is a must of course, their signature dessert just happens to be the cutest thing! "Piggies goes to visit the bunnies"...awww. 

The dim sims were nice, having had lots of dim sims in my life (good and bad) I can't really say much else about them. The flavours and textures were all there, a little better than some yum cha places. I did enjoy the duck and mushroom one though, just a bit different I guess. The mini burgers were a big hit with Jules (he really likes burgers). There's pork floss added to the burgers which gave them a sweet and crunchy bite, the fried buns were fragrant and crispy, the pork was juicy and sweet, it was very enjoyable to say the least. The pulled pork was so tender, but it made me think it was duck for a while because you have to wrap it in the pancake and drizzle over the sauce to eat it, much like how you would eat Peking duck. The noodles used to be thin and with a bit of bite but they changed it to a flatter, softer noodle which I didn't enjoy as much, the sauce however is still very nice, not as chilli as I'd remembered though. 

Then it was time for dessert. The platter was presented with a feast for the eyes, 2 red bean centered buns shaped like piggies, 2 marshmellow bunnies, a house made of wafers, 2 scoops of ice cream (strawberry & mango), roasted chestnuts, a sandy path made of milk powder, stones made of this chinese snack that tastes like milky crunch balls. It's just full of detail! Although I must admit that the taste is rather mediocre, it's still worth getting just for the mere sight of it.

If you're bored of just your average Chinese seafood restaurants and looking for something that's a bit different then try Che'f Gallery. They don't take bookings for weekends so best come early or on a weekday because the line can get quite long. 

Shop 12 Ground Floor Regent Place Shopping Centre
501 George St, Sydney NSW 2000
www.chefsgallery.com