Adventure, baby!

Sydney

Bravo Trattoria

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Just a quick night out to welcome home Alec and to celebrate Bev staying in Sydney a bit longer.

We decided to try Bravo Trattoria in Crows Nest, famous for their many kinds of pasta (rumoured to be a hundred different kinds).

It is a very unassuming little place in the centre of Crowie. I’m not certain they had a hundred types of pasta, but they certainly did have a lot of variety.

Garlic bread – more buttery then garlicy.

Pizza – not sure which one this is.

Bev’s pasta.

Vege pizza – not mine!

My four-cheese pizza – very tasty but a bit over-priced.

Eating action shot.

Nom nom nom.

Italian pasta – delicious! I wil be ordering this one next time.

Lovely ladies!

Wuv!

More wuv 🙂


Bravo is well-known for their gelato, made on the premise every day.

Lots to chose from!


I thought it was very over-priced however – $5.40 for a tiny scoop! It was very tasty, but not so much better than Gelatissimo to warrant the price hike.

My mango gelato – very tasty, especially the wafer.

Alec’s berry crumble. Very good crumble – not soggy as crumble can become.

Fast and ready to explode after dinner. Bev seems to be expecting a pasta baby.

Bravo Trattoria
6 – 8 Falcon St
Crows Nest

(02) 9906 3620

Rihanna & Chris Brown Concert

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Rosalie and I braved teenybopper central to see Rihanna (and Chris Brown) at the Acer Area.

Cool sunset!


Arena packs out.

Chris Brown


Chris Brown

Dance-off on the floor.

Rihanna
Hate How Much I Love You

Rihanna
Unfaithful

Rihanna

Ro and I surrounded by invisible teenagers.

The concert was a lot of fun. Chris Brown lip synced the entire show (boo, hiss!) but Rihanna was fabulous.

Cookies!

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In honour of Alec coming home I thought I would bake cookies – something I haven’t tried in a while because our oven is lacking an element.

It seems my baking mojo has flown completely out the window – I made a lot of silly mistakes and got really frustrated!

ANZAC biscuit batter – my first attempt!


I haven’t used my parents’ fancy oven in a while and I forgot what all of the settings did. As a result, I put the oven on “grill” and “grilled” the biscuits. Whoops!

Completely ruined top batch

The second tray were salvaged


I tried to make a basic vanilla cookie as well – this proved to be much more successful!

Batter on the tray

Cooling on the rack

Covered in sprinkles (I put these on the batter on about 30% of the cookies so they cooked in the oven with the sprinkles on them)


Now I’m keen to replace our crappy oven so I can bake some more!

Umaimon Japanese Restaurant

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I saw a review for this little restaurant on the very excellent Grab Your Fork blog, which is also where I have sourced the pic below as the owner didn’t appreciate me taking pics!

Umaimon Japanese Restaurant is right near my work, but I’ve never noticed it before as it is quite tucked away.

My friend Isis agreed to try this little place out with me. We sat down outside so as to enjoy the balmy evening air, and were presented with three menus to peruse. Lots of choices, all in Japanese with brief, and somewhat interesting, descriptions.

We ordered edamame for appetiser to shade (about $4 for a bowl), and I ordered the stir fry energy vegetables ($8.90) plus steamed rice ($2.90 a bowl). Isis ordered chicken and tofu salad. Our food arrived quickly, in no particular order, and was delightfully fresh and perfectly cooked.

My energy vegetables had a bit of a punch to them – perhaps a lot of ginger in there? – and had lots of bean sprouts, which I just love.

Tofu salad
Isis’s chicken

Cute little bowl of rice

Stir fried energy vegetables.


The food was extremely reasonably priced and delicious. It was also packed with Japanese people, so I’m guessing it’s also a hit with the locals, which is another sign that it’s an authentic place to get very tasty Japanese cuisine.

Umaimon
Shop 5, 51 Druitt St
Sydney NSW 2000
Phone (02) 9283 0606

Monday to Friday 11am-10pm
Saturdays and public holidays 12pm-10pm

Cruelty Free Festival and Chinatown Shopping

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I asked Lisa to accompany me to the Cruelty Free Festival in Haymarket. Even though she is a meat-eater, she also eats a lot of meat substitutes – way more than me! I thought it would be good to try some new vegan foods and see what they had to say about living a cruelty-free life – something I have become more and more passionate about over the past year.

I hoe into one of my favourite foods – corn!

Lisa tries a vegan curry puff.

Close-up – it was so tasty she went back for more!


We went halves in a vegan “cheesy” pie. It was filled with soy cheese and textured vegetable protein. I’ve wanted to try soy cheese for a while to see if I could actually eat it instead of cheese. The answer? No, no I can’t, sadly.

The “Cheesy” pie. Pastry was fabulous, but the insides were another story.

Lots of hippy vegans.

We sat down to eat and listen to some vegan singers and bands.

Faux beef jerky … heavily dosed in honey we thought. Tasted fabulous so Lise got a bulk pack to take home!

Glistening faux meat …

Lise loves coconut juice.

There were lots of stalls filled with vegan cosmetics and skincare products as well as plenty of animal rights groups. I bought a “Save Babe” tee from Animals Australia and a calendar from Monika’s Doggie Rescue. Both are animal charities I strongly recommend supporting.

Pet Rescue stall – I want to save all the cats, dogs and other animals out there in pain. There are just so many of them it’s overwhelming.

Happy, loved vegan dogs chilling out.

Trying vegan pecan pie for dessert. Super pricey and not as tasty as the real thing unfortunately!


After doing our bit for a cruelty-free life, we needed some shopping at Market City’s outlet centre and Chinatown shops to lift our mood (plus a real dose of sugar after all that healthy food!).

In Morning Glory. They have such cute things … and weird giant stuffed condoms.

They also had keyboard stickers. My personal fave was the “my god!” key. Always a favourite when your computer crashes.

A giant stuffed poo?

Cute kitty – Lisa had to be persuaded to leave it behind.

China Town!

Smiling faces on our way home.

Sakura Japanese Kitchen

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Before seeing Body of Lies at the movies (which we both enjoyed, despite the bad reviews), Alec and I had dinner at my favourite noodle place on Pitt St, Sakura. Nothing special, just tasty noodles and great conversation before Alec had to head off to the USA for work once again.

He loves his picture being taken all the time, really he does.

As demonstrated when he tries to shoo me away with his chopsticks.

Alec’s huge bento box.

The same thing I always order – udon noodle soup and vegetables tempura.


Not amused by the chopstick attack from Alec.

Tired now! Too much noodle? Surely not!

Sculpture By The Sea

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One of Alec and my first outings when we started dating was to Sculpture By The Sea. We decided to check out the 2008 exhibition – and it brought back some lovely memories.

We did plan to go on a hot day when every other Sydney-sider had the same idea that we did, to either indulge in art or to fry themselves like bacon on the sand. We also made the mistake of driving there. It took us almost an hour and a half to drive there and park, so next year we will be going public transport.

Bondi Beach – packed!

Stuffing my face with amazing gelato from Movenpick.

Alec loving the crowds.

Let the sculptures begin!

Perplexed at the fake pond sculpture.

This didn’t photograph well – it was a glittering pair of wings that floated in the breeze.

Railroad!




Anti-whaling statement.



Oh hai!






Google vs eBay Pong Match

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After two netball and one touch football game, the Google team took on eBay in the next event – pong. As I have terrible hand-eye co=ordination, I took on the catering job for this tournament.

Teams unite. Googlers wearing the basketball uniforms.

eBay kicked our butts and deserved the trophy. Phuong, eBay team captain, receives the mini-cup.

Phuong then skulls something alcoholic from the mini trophy and manages to keep it all down this time.

High hopes to be number 1, but unfortunately we can’t be the best at everything.

Ang and I bonded over the SingStar games that followed.


We rocked the night out with some fabulous tunes. Note however that we were rarely in tune, although Alec has told me on many occasions that I have the voice of an angel (LOL).

Some bro-mance going on here. And air guitar. Love boys in touch with their, ahem, emotions.