Rhodes Phoenix

Today marks the 4th day of the year and so far, I haven't been out since NYE so i thought why not head out today ? Anyway, Drix & I were supposed to head to the beach at Brighton Le Sands but we kind of left it to the last minute and did not have time to pack & go so he took me to Cabarita. Today's weather was so beautiful, 36 degrees and full of sunshine. We kind of got lost trying to find our way there (yes I am a skilled directory reader haha) but eventually we made it :) Cabarita is located amongst the outskirts of Sydney Harbour & surrounded by Concord & Abbotsford. This place was so beautiful and the homes by the water were amazing. This is definitely a location where I can bring all my textbooks and sit along the shore as I know a vista of these luxurious mansions would motivate me to study hehe.Too bad I forgot to snap some quick photos but we took a brisk walk and wished we were at Brighton instead.. It was nearing midday and we drove back afterwards to Strathfield Plaza to have lunch at CC Grills (I'm unsure of the name but I think that's it) but to our devastation, the shop was closed! Drix was totally cut & we were left questioning why the store would close on a weekday unless they were on holidays. By now it's nearing 1pm and we decided to seek for some Yum Cha & the closest restaurant was Rhodes Phoenix. We arrived there at 1.10pm and parking is already a struggle! We ended up parking on level 7 in the heat as it seemed like no one was leaving from the lower levels so we had to sacrifice the car & park it in the sun :'( I have been to Rhodes Phoenix a couple of times and I do remember their food is quite nice yet pricy but I guess it's worth it! As we entered the restaurant, we were immediately seated and the first dish we order is salt and pepper squid. This was my least favourite dish of the day, as I found it to be quite salty yet very bland and dry & the fact that it was $10.50 made it even more dissapointing.

 Salt & Pepper squid $10.50

 Next dish we ordered was Drix's personal favourite fried yam dumplings (Wu Gok). Everytime we go yum cha, it is a must for him to order this and the first one we ordered had pork filling. It was alright; however it was not as fresh and hot as the coating of the dumpling was starting to soften but at least it satisfied Drix's cravings! 

 Pork Yam Dumplings (Wu Gok) $6.80

Again, the cart pulls to our table and it is another one of Drix's favourite dishes, braised pork ribs. These ribs are delicious when they are still hot and luckily, ours had just came out of the kitchen & ready to be served to our hungry stomachs! The meat was very tender and the broth used to braised the ribs is extremely flavoursome. Drix says could eat this with steamed rice for the rest of his life if he had to! Goes to show how much we enjoyed this dish! 

 Braised Pork Ribs $6.80

It seems to us that there are more carts rolling around with fried food than steamed food but as the cart with fried food comes towards us, I spot the fried prawn rolls. Back when Vinh Hao in Cabramatta was opened, I used to always order this dish with my family and sometimes even seconds! Well, these rolls were okay but then again, fried foods always taste better when it is fresh & our rolls were a tad warm and was starting to lose its crunch.

 Fried prawn rolls $7.50

Again more carts with fried food rolls towards us and we see the prawn yam dumplings. I actually prefer these dumplings rather than just the pork, only because the prawns gives the yam extra flavour :) This time, the dumplings are warm and crispy and was definitely better than the first dumplings we ordered. I can see Drix's eyes brighten up as he munches away hehe.

 Prawn & Pork yam dumplings $7.50

By now, I was hoping that more steamed dishes were coming out as the previous dishes we ordered left a guilt conscience on my mind. A little lady rolls her cart to us unexpectedly and asks if we want dumplings. Hooray! What I love most about Yum Cha is consuming these yummy intricate things & they finally arrive. We ordered two & it felt like a party in my mouth as I chewed hehe. Again, I could tell these dumplings were fresh from the kitchen as they were quite hot to eat.

Prawn Dumplings (Har gow) $6.80

Another of my favourite dishes rolls out not long after we finished out dumplings and again, this is a dish I'd order every time I go to yum cha! It's funny that there is a similar Vietnamese dish called banh cuon (which my family loves & has the same rice noodle texture) yet it is someone I never actually eat due to its bland taste and my phobia of carbohydrates but adding to the contrary, I always eat steamed prawn rice noodles. My favourite part of this this is the soy sauce. It's flavour is sweet and works with the plain taste of the rice noodles and prawns.

 Prawn steam noodles (ha cheung fun) $7.50 

 Last but not least, I could never leave yum cha (even when I am bloated to the extreme) without ordering mango pancakes. For some reason, everytime we were waiting for a particular cart to come out, another cart rolls to us and they don't have the dishes we want to order and it goes the same for the dessert cart. More savoury dishes pass us and it was a while before I waved down a waiter to ask for the pancakes. Within a couple of minutes, the dessert cart arrives with the last mango pancakes & is immediately snatched for my sweet cravings hehe. I do know that these are called crepes due to the pancake's thin texture and I'm so used to calling them pancakes but oh well. These pancakes are filled with a large amount of whipped cream, which is delicious but what spoils it is the frozen mango filling. The fruit was quite hard and still ice cold as I bite into it! At least the texture of the pancake and whipped cream gives it a tick!

 Mango pancakes/crepe $5.80

 He looks like a little kid who is enjoying his drink too much to let anyone have a sip! LOL

The bill totals $74.40, a bit more than what i pay for at Iron Chef & Prince Restaurant but I guess it was worth it as it did fill us up and the fact that CC's grill was closed made us even hungrier. Today was a nice day even though it did not go to plan, at least I was full and satisfied! Hopefully next week, I'd be able to go to the beach before I leave for the cold season to USA!

first post for the year

Well since it is the 1st January, Happy Neew Year to all :) Last night, Drix & I decided to celebrate New Years Eve by heading out to New Empress Restaurant & Woolwich with Nancy, Kyle & Rachael. Because I felt odd snapping photos while everyone was hungry, I decided not to take any (which is a shame) but we ordered a banquet for 6 people although it was required for us to take out one dish as we only had 5 people. At $48.00 per head, I guess it wasn't bad as we had peking duck pancake, san choy bow, salt & pepper crab, fried rice, rainbow steak (I initially disagreed on ordering this dish as I didn't like it the first time I went to New Empress), honey prawns, seafood combination in bird's nest (the bird's nest was made from potato :o) & fruit with ice cream. Us girls left it to the fellas to finish off everything and soon enough, we were all bloated. We did catch a glimpse of the 9pm fireworks from the restaurant but the trees and buildings we in the way sadly. We left the restaurant at 9.30 and went straight to Woolwich. We thought we weren't going to be able to get into Woolwich as the cops closed off the road to get to Woolwich but luckily, there was shuttle bus services so we were able to park our cars and still make it for the view at Woolwich :) We got there around 10.45pm and were all surprised over how spectacular the harbour had looked and how close we were to the bridge! Well, with time to kill, us girls had a couple of drinks and chilled out before we crossed the road over to the park where a majority of people were already waiting to catch the fireworks. I must admit, not many people say it but I really despise alcohol and its side effects. Both Nancy & Rachael were fine, in which they had more drinks than I did, yet I was the first one to go tomato red & nauseous :( Such a weak drinker I am and all I had was a Jagerbomb & Alize!

 On the bus & gosh, Drix looks so seedy here haha!

 LOL at kyle..

New Year's kiss.. ruined by a photo bomber!

Thank god I did not miss out on the fireworks, as I felt like I was going to throw up. Poor Drix had to walk me to the other side incase I did chunder but it was all good as I did feel better by taking a walk & not only that, my mind was telling me not to feel sick as I could not miss out on the fireworks. Although I spent last NYE in the area watching the fireworks on top of the hill, the view from Woolwich was definately worth travelling for. This year's display was absolutely beautiful & from what I remember there was hearts, diamonds, clouds and many more! After the fireworks finished, we all queued up for the shuttle buses back to the car park and drove back to the area. We got back around 2am and chilled at Rachael's house til 3.30am. It was a memorable night and I'm glad to have spent it with my favourite people :)

 

Toppers Buffet Restaurant & Waqu

Toppers Restaurant/Last days in Vietnam
Its been exactly a week since I've arrived back in Australia and it feels great to breathe in clean, fresh oxygen :) I've been lagging with blogging as I have been out almost every single day. My last night in Vietnam was spent celebrating my aunty's birthday at a buffet called Toppers Restaurant in Parkson Shopping Centre in Saigon. What a better way to spend it after almost three weeks of excess consumption and sleep! My family arrived late as the taxi driver drove us all around the city and jipped us by pretending not to know where the shopping centre was. I must warn, anyone traveling to Vietnam should catch well renowned branded taxis! I told my parents to just stop the taxi and catch another one as our meter kept rising and we were heading to nowhere. We got out on a random street and asked shopkeepers for directions to Parkson and luckily, we were only 5 minutes away from it. We arrived there at 7pm (was supposed to be there at 6.30) and I was quite surprised with what was on offer. There were dishes such as steamed chicken, duck stir fried noodles, fried rice, banh xeo (Vietnamese pancakes), seafood (BBQ prawns, sea snails,grilled octopus, pippies), deep fried and fresh canapes (spring rolls, fish cakes, rice paper rolls, vegetable har gow), assorted salads, prawn and snow pea curry stir fry, Thai style noodle soup, roast beef, pasta, fresh fruits and che (sweet pudding). I'm sure there were many more dishes but that should do for now.

Excuse my bad photography but i had all the servers staring at me weirdly for whipping out my iPhone and quickly took some pictures. At the end of the night, our family went to bowling and this time round, I whipped both my sibling's bottoms and won :D We went home at 10pm and by this time, I felt less bloated thank goodness!

My last day in Vietnam will not be spoken about as I had spent all day ensuring I packed everything and being frustrated at Jet star for making our trip extremely difficult. The only great thing was that our plane was not delayed and we'd arrived on time back home.

 

Street Christmas lights

The most expensive wrap I have ever paid for !

Home sweet home!

Waqu Restaurant
A couple of days after, the boy took me out on Friday night to Waqu Restaurant. Actually, we had booked it 5 weeks in advance incase there weren't any reservations left. Our reservation was booked for 6.30pm and we ended up arriving 30 minutes earlier. The manager welcomed us in and lead us to our table at the back of the restaurant. We were greeted with the set menu and chose our dishes, where we chose to have 5 course menu for $60. For entrees I opted for the prawn + ricotta mezzelune pasta while Drix had pork belly west x east. We also ordered our beverages where Drix ordered me a glass of sweet wine (West Cape Howe, botrytis riesling) and for himself lemon lime and bitters along with still water. Our waiter brings out a complimentary dish (cannot remember the name) but it had crisp prosciutto, corn chip and slaw. Definitely an interesting mix, in which the slaw reminded me of KFC's coleslaw!

Lemon lime & bitters $4, VOSS Still water $8, Botrytis Riesling $10

Complimentary dish (crisp prosciutto, corn chip and slaw)

It wasn't long after til our amuse bouche came out. The three layered chicken and vegetable terrine was beautifully presented on a brown slate, which i believe is inspired by Japanese culture. What i enjoyed the most of the dish was the light, airy rolled sponge served with the vegetable puree. It wasn't too heavy and tasted wonderful while Drix could not help praise the terrine, in which he adored the leek layer.

Three layered chicken & vegetable terrine (white wine daikon sauce, seasonal vegetable purée and rolled cake, prosciutto)

I think about 5 minutes after, our second dishes comes out. This was a dish that Drix had feared, as he isn't the biggest fan of raw seafood or anything along the words of 'sashimi'. The scallop tattare creme vichyssoise was fascinating on appearance but unpleasant on taste.  I was actually curious about this dish and took a spoonful of the wasabi infused scallop & tomato water jelly. It tasted very odd and since we do not like the taste of wasabi, this was Drix & I's least favourite dish of the night. However, the other components of the dish were nice especially the creme vichyssoise, which was smooth, creamy and went well with the bitterness of the rocket puree.

Scallop tartare creme vichyssoise (tomato water jelly, yuzu + olive oil dressing, rocket salad purée, red capsicum mousse)

I could see in Drix's facial expression that he certainly was not impressed by the dish at all as he looked like he wanted to throw up but at least we know we have a few dishes to go. I was anxious about our entrees coming out as I could see other diners consuming what i believe was the ocean trout, which we both didn't order. When the entrees came out, I was astounded by the presentation of the pork belly dish compared to the prawn+ricotta pasta. It looked magical and too pretty to even eat! I was slightly disappointed with the presentation of my entree but it was actually appetizing and enjoyable. The scampi was cooked right and the combination of ricotta and prawn was nice; however  the texture of the pasta was quite thick yet, it was an enjoyable dish. The two portions of the pork belly was braised to extreme tenderness (with one portion left with a crisp crackling) and was very delectable. Both Drix & I compared the eastern inspired pork to both our mother's caramelised braised pork & egg, which we both love. The miso crumbles were actually tasty and did not taste like what I thought it would.

 Pork belly west x east (pork belly confit and kakuni, asa-zuke salad, dengaku miso crumbles, hollandaise sauce)

Prawn + ricotta mezzelune pasta (grilled scampi, cauliflower flan, apple bisque, parmigiano foam)

Our first three dishes arrived pretty quickly but when it came to our mains we had a good 20-30 minute wait, which I guess was to ensure our stomachs had settled down from the previous dishes we consumed earlier. The waiter finally comes out with two massive plates. I almost forgot to add the waiters do describe the components of each dish to us after it has been presented, which is great as i did forget some aspects of the dishes I ordered beforehand. The presentation and execution of both dishes were even more mind blowing and I couldn't wait to dig in. The roasted veal loin was very tender & juicy, but not being a fan of rare meat spoiled my satisfaction for the dish. I must add, the toasted quinoa tasted interesting along with the truffle essence. The roasted duck was extremely juicy and flavour some, a dish I had intended and should have ordered. I could tell it was an Asian inspired dish, as the combination of the duck breast and hoi sin jus reminded me of Peking duck pancake. The zucchini fritter was unforgettable. It wasn't oily as I expected and the melted cheese centre was yummy. 

Roasted veal loin (truffle essence, aromatic mustard, enoki + quinoa, snow pea sprout matsunomi ae)

Roasted duck (hoisin jus, mango purée, zucchini zukushi, crispy prosciutto)

Now that we have almost finish dining, we both weren't anticipating on dessert as the thought of 'souffle' was unpleasant. One of my first experiences of tasting souffle left me feeling queasy & dissatisfied and since then, I have avoided ordering any 'souffle' desserts at restaurants.(it was the passionfruit souffle I had at Est. Restaurant that had me hating on souffle). We were both wrong about our desserts, which was both our favourite dishes of the night. The white chocolate macaroon was delightful and full of flavour but the highlight of the dish was the orange cheesecake souffle itself. It was so light and melted in my mouth. Actually I should say, each component of the dish was absolutely enjoyable and divine!

Orange cheesecake souffle (blood orange sorbet, orange coulis, mascarpone espuma, cardamon yoghurt, white chocolate macaroon)

 

Good evening to the most beautiful city in the world!

Although the servings are quite small, I was satisfied with my experience at Waqu. The wait staff were attentive, the food was enjoyable and most of all, it was nice to be able to spend my night with my other half after three weeks of not seeing each other :)

18/12

It's my third last day in Vietnam and gee, it has gone by so fast! It's hard to admit this but I don't want to go home yet as I know I'll have to face the bad weather back in Sydney. Well last week I travelled up north to the shores of Nha Trang. Our family had to be at saigon at 5.30am (Tuesday morning) as the coach was leaving at 6am. I Bought some hot corn from a poor man on the street as I was starving since I had to get up at 4am and gosh I've never tasted such a bland, taste less corn in my life! But oh well at least I helped the poor man :) Our coach was hot pink and white and reminded me of something barbie would travel in haha. Anyways , our tour Guide introduced himself And told us about our schedule for the 3 day tour. I think every time he stood up and spoke to those abroad, i fell asleep haha! He had a member from each family to introduce themselves & speak about where they were from. I think about 70% of the coach were foreigners either from Australia, America or England. We stopped by for breakfast at 8.30am & I had dry hu tieu (Dry glass noodles), which was hard to swallow as I usually have a bowl of oats and fruit. For this tour, it covers basically our breakfast, lunch & dinner til the end of our tour. The next stop was for lunch by a beach (cannot recall name :() but the water was stunning and aqua! Too bad it had to shower as the area (as well as nha trang) is known to rain. Another 3 hours and we finally arrived in Nha trang! We got there approximately 7pm so basically it took 13 hours to get there due to the frequent toilet breaks and terrible weather. We arrived at Yen Sao restaurant, basically a restaurant specialising in distributing bird's nest products. Dinner was rice with stir fried squid, canh chua soup, pan fried tuna, Prawn salad and pineapple for dessert. I might as well add that I consumed at every restaurant consisted of some sort of fish, squid and pineapple lol. We went back to the hotel, unpacked and settled for the night.

Next day, dad told us to get up at 5.30 so we could dine in the restaurant at 6.30 for buffet breakfast. I don't think there was much I could eat besides fruit (the usual pineapple, dragon fruit, papaya) but here are some photos!

We were supposed to be at the coach at 7.30am but knowing my mother will be late, our family hopped on at 7.35am and our tour guide punished my mother by having her repeat a tongue twister 10 times while the pack were laughing. We head to Diamond Bay resort (where miss universe was held in 2008) and it starts sprinkling. I slept til about 10.30am and was awoken to mud crabs, sea snails and squid in front of me. I obviously could not resist and had some, in which our tour guide notifies us that lunch was at 11.30am. Excellent, stuffed myself with all these crustaceans and there's still more food :( I won't repeat myself but the menu for lunch was almost the same for dinner. Next we went to an aquarium and I could not help but sqeal when I saw the baby seals & turtles. Such gorgeous mammals! There were also small sharks, tropical fish and skeletons of some whales. Well that's pretty much what we did that day.

 

Good morning Nha Trang 

Cutie baby seals!

Little turtles

The same occurs the next day. Get up at 5.30, head to breakfast at 6am and hopped on the coach at 7.30am. Thank goodness the weather was warmer yet still cloudy. Today, our tour takes us to Vinpearl Land, a "5 star" island resort which consists of a theme park, water theme park, private beach, shops, accommodation and restaurants. I had to prepare myself, as the main way to travel to the island is by cable car. It is known to be the world's longest cable car and takes approximately 10 mins to get to the island. At first, our family had to purchase a entry ticket costing 360 000 VND (about 17 AUD) which entitles us to unlimited rides, arcade game plays and more in order to access the island but first we had to hop into the cable car. It felt like my heart was going to drop but luckily, it wasn't bad at all!

 Not high at all..

 Being the typical tourist I am ha-ha!

We could see the whole city of Nha Trang and it's beautiful beaches. As we hopped off the cable car, our first option was to enjoy the water theme park first as it was the area that was closing the soonest so we went. The first ride we went on was the multi slide. That actually killed my eyes as I slid down but in the end, I came last to my siblings and father. Next, our family chilled by the beach before my siblings decided to walk around and find more water rides. Since my brother admitted he had no balls and didn't want to go on anything, my sister and I went on The giant slides (in which was a mission to travel up the stairs to reach the slide as the metal steps hurt my feet). The ride was fun but not thrill seeking enough so my sister and I decided to try the Tsunami slide. I thought I made a mistake when I realized how many steps I had walked up and how high the slide was. Pretty much every person carries a donut to the top and the instructor pushes you off the ledge as you sit on the donut, where it takes the rider down the slide in see saw motions. I cannot really explain how the ride works but here's an image of the ride.

The time flew by so quickly but the rides were closing up and we could go a second round so our family swum by the beach til sunset. I also must add, there must have been more foreigners at this theme park than local residents! We then went to the arcade area, where the arcade games and dodgem cars were free of play. I took advantage of that and played so many rounds of shooting hoops that my right arm was starting to ache :$ Our family waited for the 6pm 4D movie session, which wasn't even that great as my dad chose to sit at the front and all I felt was cold air shooting in my face (one of the 4D effects). My parents actually intended on watching the light fountain show, which was amazing. I did record the show and photograph it but here are some pictures :)

We left Vinpearl Land at 8pm and travelled back to town, where the taxi took us to a seafood restaurant on the opposite side of Nha Trang. We had the usual crab, sea shells and grilled prawns along with sweet and sour fish soup and braised tuna but since the food was not that great, I didn't bother takinh photographs nor remember the name of the restaurant. After dinner, we cabbed it back to the CBD and walked around, in which my dad got stuck in a shopping centre while it was closing as he was trying to find the toilet. It was so embarrassing as we could hear the staff and security call out his name on the speaker but I guess it was hilarious in the end. That leads to the end of the day so i today was more enjoyable than yesterday!

The last day in Nha Trang was absolutely dreadful. I got up at 5am and did not want to eat anything from the buffet so all I could consume was dragon fruit and pineapple pieces, along with a ham, cheese and tomato toast. My stomach starting kicking in as soon as i finished eating and I was left gripping onto my belly all day. Our tour guide took us to another beach, about 50km away from Nha Trang and we spent all morning there. It was a shame that the sun was out and it was hot but I felt too sick to do anything. Lunch was rice with the usual and then we were taken to a mud bath resort back in Nha Trang. In Australia, it takes roughly an hour to travel 50km but in Vietnam, it took 1.5 hours to get there and back. Feeling queasy, I thought I'd get a massage at the mud bath resort. The massage was relaxing and lasted about 20 minutes; however, when the therapist asked for a tip, I felt so uncomfortable and pretended I didn't understand her. Obviously it is optional to leave tips wherever you go but to ask for one is definitely impolite! Our next stop was to the markets called Dam Markets (known for dried seafood and fruit) before we waved goodbye to our tour companions and cabbed it to Nha Trang train station. Before we left, my parents bought roast pork rolls along with rice with egg and pork chop in case we were hungry during the train trip but in the end, no one had eaten much and slept all the way home. We board the train at 6.30pm and departed at 7pm. The trains were better than i expected as they looked very antique on the exterior but inside, it was fitted with new bunk beds, a flat screen TV and air conditioner. I did not sleep for long on the train as my stomach kept hurting during the night but I did manage about an hours sleep. Initially I thought the trip would take a lot of time but the next thing you know, the guards knocked on our doors at 4am and told us we were already in Saigon. At the time I thought 'thank goodness we were re back in the area, better food and cleaner toilets'. Well that was my 3 day trip to Nha Trang. I'm not sure if I would return to this city the next time i travel to Vietnam but it was good experiencing this popular tourist destination.

 Last day in Nha Trang & despite the clouds, the beach was beautiful

 Farewell Nha Trang!