SYDNEY DAY 1
Hey everyone! Finally unpacked most of my luggages, (I say most because I'm too lazy to even open my carry-on luggage. Should probably do it soon though cos it has most of J's food stuff inside including Durian and Mango chips which are awesome! And Red Rock Deli chips (: Hope you're excited about them dear)
So anyway, I've had a great time in Sydney. Really thankful that I got to bunk in at Ivan's (treat you to Swee Choon when you're back!) and having him to show me around. I literally did zero research on Sydney, except for the time when I decided to flip through some books in the library cos I had the time. Took a 2am flight out to SYD on Scoot!
For most of you who are interested in Scoot, I thought it was not bad in my opinion. The leg space was pretty decent since the aircraft are basically SQ's and taking off and landing were pretty smooth. The landing was so smooth when we touched down at Sydney, I couldn't even feel a jerk. That was pretty surprising and awesome (: Although I must say, the stewardess aren't very pretty oops. When I landed back in Singapore on my flight back, the girl at the intercom went, "Hope you had a lovely time flying with Jetstar, I beg your pardon, I meant, Scoot!" #EPICFAIL.
Tip #1: If you're flying to Australia / New Zealand, YOU NEED A VISA! (omg I totally had no idea, so did 20odd other people on the same flight. We had to get instant visas at Changi that cost $50 as compared to the normal $20+ fee) ):
Tip #2: There are $2 per day Unlimited calls and data via Optus, one of their mobile services there. I have no idea why I had to place a base cover charge of $10 but it's also for a certain amount of data and it's not bad a deal. I had withdrawal symptoms from Social Media, mainly Instagram/Twitter/Whatsapp so I was dying to run to an Optus store to get a new SIM number, which I only managed to do so on the 3rd day.
Tip #3: Always check that your glasses (if you're wearing a pair), have their screws secure and intact. This is not the first time it has happened, but my glasses BROKE just 15min before we were about to land on the plane. I was in the toilet slapping on loads of moisturizer and brushing my teeth and one of the screws on my glasses went missing and it broke into two at the handle. I'm literally blind without them so I couldn't even bother looking for that tiny screw in that tiny bathroom so I had to open up the overhead compartment, pull out my contacts and wear them just before we landed. Thank god. Had to search 3 days for an optician there to help me fix it.
This is one of the first few photos I took when I reached Ivan's apartment in UNSW. Just thought the tree looks so amazing and cool! lol. Looks like some tree you would see in Avatar or something
First thing I did after dropping my bags was to visit Joe Black, a hidden gem of a coffee joint. Australia's nightfall is rather early around 5pm so most of the places will close about 5pm! (I had no idea how crazily short their days are until I experienced the first nightfall) We had a short conversation with the barista and he's coming to Sg for F1! They have really aromatic coffee and great brunch grub.
We both got ourselves a cappuccino and I ordered poached eggs with sour dough toast topped with bacon. The portions were really humongous but extremely filling at the same time. Definitely enough to last you a full 6 hours if you don't crave for food every second of the day.
I really enjoyed their eggs and bacon. The bacon wasn't the crispy sort but it packs a punch of flavour. Their eggs were poached perfectly with the right touch of runny yolks. Even the toast was commendable! I like the toast since I like my bread lol
The meal cost us about $15 Aud each. Yes, sadly enough, food in Aussie is pretty expensive. However, during my entire trip there, I don't think I've tasted something that isn't delicious. Might have been because I was visiting the famous food haunts, but the rest of the random meals were really great as well!
Definitely worth a visit if you're there.
JOE BLACK
27 Commonwealth Street, Sydney, Surry Hills NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 9000 0000
Opening Hours:
Mon - Fri: 7am - 5pm | Sat 8am - 2pm
We ventured to the city area after that just to take a walk. You really have to walk a lot in Sydney and I'm not kidding about that. Transportation is expensive and bus stops do not come often usually within the city area so people just tend to walk. A LOT. My leg muscles were aching by the 3rd day. Thank god for my really comfortable boots if not I have no idea how I was supposed to survive walking in Sydney after day 2.
A pub that Ivan and I eventually visited one of the nights because the bar we wanted to go to was CLOSED.
Love the clouds in Australia. There was one night I lifted up my head at night and I saw stars everywhere! Something you definitely will not see in Singapore ):
Dropped by QVB for some shopping. This is a non-functioning type-writer in one of the many boutiques. I wanted to include my name on the list but the typewriter wasn't working properly I guess
St Mary's Cathedral by night
A really cool salon! I wanna cut my hair in that sort of environment too.
We popped by Winery, which had some pretty lights outdoors. Wanted to try out their food but their dinner area was fully booked so we could only get snacks and drinks. Decided to search some place else for food and leave this for next time.
Tried chocolate licorice that tastes extremely horrible!
Then, came dinner time. Decided to just grab a bite near the Winery at Surry Hills since we were too lazy to walk anywhere else. Spotted this really cute chicken and salad place called Madam Char Char a building away from Winery. They serve spiced rubbed roasted chickens, some of the most irresistible salads, braised dishes and juicy burgers. I really like their concept and the way they display their salads is just absolutely tempting. (and I'm not even a huge fan of salads to begin with!)
As you can tell, these aren't your typical green salads but they had salads like cous cous and sweet potatoes, carrots etc.
Basically, you can order just the chicken either quarter chicken or half chicken with chips OR you can order chicken with your choice of any three salads. A quarter chicken with 3 salads would cost you $14.90 and a Half chicken with 3 salads would cost you $17.90. I went ahead with the half chicken but regretted otherwise cos the portions were so huge. I think Ivan ended up eating a quarter of my chicken.
Doesn't it look absolutely delish! I heard that chicken is actually very expensive in Aussie since their chickens tend to be free-range chickens. Another thing that I've noticed about Australia is that their food mostly come in gluten-free content. If you have no idea what is 'gluten', it is basically a protein found most commonly in wheat, barley, rye, malts and triticale. In other words, they also technically mean low carb. Don't really understand why they're so big on 'gluten-free' though..
For Salads, I got the:
1. Roast pumpkin and cous cous with feta, barbaries, walnuts, lemon and minted yoghurt dressing
2. Sweet potato with preserved lemons and peas
3. Peas, beans and broccoli with mint, feta, currants, pinenuts and za'tar with black olive dressing
Really like the cous-cous! They are super yummy!!
We sat right beside the window sill facing the street
Ivan's The Foodie Burger consisting of Wagyu beef, caramelised onions, crispy proscuitto, gruyere, green apple and beetroot relish & aioli $14. It was a pretty huge burger but since I can't take beef, I was latching on to his fries. They were crispy and yummy. (:
MADAM CHAR CHAR
285A Crown Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
Tel: 02 9380 4411
Website: www.madamcharchar.com.au
A collage of all that food loving that day.
Wanted to have hot chocolate here whilst on our way back but I was really too full to even have any other beverages so we skipped on that.
Hope you enjoyed the first post on Sydney! Probably 5 more posts to come... (:
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