Day 25 TOM n TOM

Day 25 Tom 'n' Tom 

So a new semester has started again, which means more time to procrastinate a little longer until it becomes serious. Since Y has uni in the city, and I was in the city, t'was like "why not catch up then?"

Y and I went to the same high school and have been friends since year 9-10ish. Its hard to find time these days to catch up with old friends and just listen to how they have been. Like I know it's easy enough to send each other some short text messages, or post a comment on Facebook, but to actually have a conversation with someone and spend some quality time with someone, for me, I find hard. It's ridiculous too, since I don't live that far from Y, or most of my friends in general ==

So anyways, while in the city, we wondered around a bit, then settled for Tom'n'Tom cafe. We wanted to play pool after, so it was a win-win since the cafe and pool place is pretty much next to each other.

I think pretty much everyone has seen, heard and eaten/drank in Tom'n'Toms by now, and each and every time Im there, it's like being in Koreatown. The whole cafe is either filled with koreans or some sort of asian-type but the main point, is that they're always busy.

After walking into the cafe, we walk over to the counter to look at the menu which is on a dashboard up above and behind the counter. Their prices are similar to Gloria Jeans. They dont have much of a variety in food. Mostly pretzels, muffins, banana bread and that korean sweet toasted bread with cream. I personally have only tried that bread with the massive lump of cream once, and that was enough. Dont like cream enough to eat it that way.

So I opted out from getting anything new and different, but instead chose something safe. When you've finished ordering and paid, they give you hockey puck-like buzzers. When your orders ready they buzz at you.

Y got an iced mocha tomaccino with a toasted blueberry bagel while I got an iced green tea latte and toasted banana bread. To us, this is a comfortable order. We know what to expect.

I love the designs on their drink cups. I think in all korean cafes they have a cute/quirky concept to them. 

Our carb-cravings were satisfied but my drink had become watery because of the amount of ice inside my drink.... green tea flavour wasn't strong enough. I think Starbucks makes one of the best tasting iced/green tea lattes that I've ever had~

All-in-all it was a fun day of catching up and playing crappy (beginners-luck) games of pool

Day 7
Jamies Italian


Whilst walking through the CBD, X and I decided that we should try Jamie Oliver's Sydney restaurant, Jamie's Italian. There was so much hype around the opening of this restaurant back in 2012 and many people have already blogged about their dining experiences there, so it was definitely necessary that we tried it out ourselves.

Even though the restaurant was busy, we luckily didn't have to wait for a table. The The maître d was so friendly and lead us up the stairs to our table.

After looking over the menu we ordered:

(Complementary fresh bread made in house)

FISH blank

$12.50_PP

CURED & CRISPY FISH

Beetroot-cured salmon, roasted shellfish, smoked mackerel pâté & mini fritto misto with yuzu mayo

ITALIAN CHEESE

Amazing aged pecorino with crispy “music bread” & chilli jam

PICKLES

Pickles, green chillies, best green olives & caper berries

CRUNCHY SALAD

Shaved carrot & beets with lemon & loads of mint

Loved the battered fish. crunchy outside, flaky inside. they especially tasted nice because they were served hot.

The mussels were spicy and tangy. 

I didnt really like the crunchy salad. It had a weird taste to it and neither of us could point out what that taste was. I wish there was more salmon though. The sauce on top was sweet and it complemented the salty salmon really well.

The green chili things were really chewy and sour. discarding them, the biscuit thing? was yummy and creamy and easier to eat. Behind it, in the picture, there is the italian cheese with chili jam. If i wasnt so full, I wouldve eaten it all. The chili jam was surprisingly sweet.

 After the FISH BLANK our pasta orders came out. My risotto was very creamy and I couldnt finish it all. The oil in the bowl kind of put me off a little too.

WILD TRUFFLE RISOTTO

$13.50

Finely minced black truffle with butter & Parmesan. 

X ordered the Tagliatelle Bolognese half portion ($12.50). It looked like normal spag bowl but the pasta was ribbon-like and very "to the bite". I think I preferred her pasta over my risotto because it wasnt as rich but still very tasty.

Jamies Italian is definitely a new favourite of mine now.

- steph

Day 3
Bondi 

Autumn weather has been kinda trippy lately. some days are really cold and grey and others are hot and sunny... its so unpredictable and at times just annoying. So i thought I'd make the most of today's nice weather and go to Bondi

Originally I wanted to have lunch @ Hurricanes but it wasnt opened....   And considering that I don't normally go to Bondi, I didn't know where to eat. So whatever shop that was opened and looked half decent, is where I went to eat.


After strolling up and down Campbell Parade, we finally settled for Il Puntino. It looked quite old and
warm inside but we chose to sit outside. better view of the beach.

We sat down, had a look over the menu. I chose the chicken Caesar salad and bf had the T-bone steak with vegetables. then we waited...
we waited for quite a while... and considering that there was only 1 other customer sitting near us, was it necessary to wait THAT long....finally some garlic bread came out. we didnt order it but was told that the garlic bread was on the house. (Probably to make up for bad service)
toasted focaccia bread spread with garlic oil on top. was quite nice

( toasted goodness)

Our meals came out 15-20mins later... boy was the wait long... when my Caesar salad came out, it was drenched in dressing... when placing my order, i asked them to put it on the side... i guess they forgot that...

( $16.50)

The egg was the yummiest part of the salad. Not too firm, not runny but soft. 

The bf's steak was too much of a disappointment to bother taking a picture of it... think of a simple home cooked t-bone steak with steamed broccoli, potato and carrots on the side, along with a little pot of packet mushroom sauce... Even I could cook up a better steak than that... and the t-bone steak wasn't medium rare nor was much of the meat edible... definitely was not worth $26

We finished our meal while gazing at this

When we stood up to go pay, a waiter came out and insisted me stay and have a coffee, on the house. After pausing a moment, we decided to stay since we still had time left on our parking

The food wasnt bad, just wasnt great, however because we were at Bondi, it made the outting even more enjoyable.

- steph

Dont think I'll ever bother going to this restaurant again...

Day 2

Oliver Brown~
Stepping into Oliver Brown the atmosphere was entirely different from the bustling traffic beyond the glass windows. You were sucked into the comfort of the decor and the wondrous smell of chocolate. I couldn't help jump a little in glee.

Being our first time at the cafe, we looked a little lost browsing through their menu. The pricing the and choices on the menu wasn't anything different from standard chocolate cafes.

below is a picture of waffles and a Cookies and Cream frappe, crepes and a simple cappuccino.

A mountain of melted chocolate on top of waffle, strawberries and banana? What more could a girl ask for? There was definitely enough chocolate to satisfy my cravings. The waffle, however, was more chewy than the ones I usually have but I could get by. The drink definitely tastes like oreos, a plus in my books and there was so much of it!

 The crepes unfortunately didn't fair as well. Though it pleasantly presented it tasted more  like pre-made packet crepes. Not really worth it for a meal over $10, however, the strawberries were definitely fresh and not to mention the chocolate.

The cappuccino was relatively standard. What really won our hearts was the small accompaniment chocolate melts served up in the teaspoon. Such a sucker for miniature anything!

All in all it was a pleasant first time  despite the flaws.



- steph

Day 1 of Semester Break

So what do Uni students like doing, and what do they do best? Procrastinate~ Now that we are on two week semester break, we have all the time in the world to procrastinate hard (yeah right, we all have part time jobs to work ...)

Regardless of uni break or not, we all procrastinate, and most of us procrastinate with food. So listed below for the next few will be some posts about food, and places we've been to.


Enjoy : )

- steph