Girls night out at Miss Chu's + The Victoria Room

Friday night in Sydney was a girls night out. It was so much fun. I dressed up in my St Frock dress :) How beautiful is it?! The purple and the beading and the blush is so special. And it has a special place in my heart as Sandradee kindly gave it to me.

Sydney Shop Girl, Kristy and Sandradee and I dined at Miss Chu's, a Sydney streetfood institution. It was lovely seeing my friends become friends :) And Kristy is a big fan of Sydney Shop Girl's blog.

Sydney Shop Girl took this picture. Isn't it quirky?

I loved the shuttlecocks and bamboo steamers hanging from the roof hanging over the pavement.

 And the bananas. Such an expensive decoration!

We sat on milk crates, watching Sydney Shop Girl brave the long queue, filled with pretty, stylish young things (including YOU, SSG). Girls wore corporate casual with style - high waisted skirts, pearls, funky dresses and sky high heels. We admired.

The menu is fresh and tasty Asian. So cheap too.

Water came in plastic bottles resembling hip flasks. I loved the look. We wished we'd gone to one of the many bottle-os along William Street for some wine.

 We were served food in paper bags.

 

 We ordered heaps! Twice.

Chicken rice paper rolls (they'd run out of duck and banana flower ones) - so fresh and cool. Peking duck pancakes - rich and warming. Eggnet crab spring rolls - not greasy, nice and seafoody.

 Scallop dumplings and Shanghai dumplings - fat and juicy with spicy sauce.

 On our second order, Kristy and I ordered Wagyu pho. Spicy, lemony, slurpy goodness. Wow.

And we also ordered more pancakes. Yum yum yum.

We were all so impressed with Miss Chu's and I was excited to learn there's one in Melbourne. Must. Go. Soon.

We then walked up a large hill to the upmarket Darlinghurst bar, The Victoria Room.

Sydney Shop Girl had a Cinderella moment and changed her amazing sky high shoes to sensible yet stylish flats.

We saw two more Cinderella moments - this carriage at a lavish Russian home decor (??) store.

We lamented that Kate Middleton won't be having a horse drawn carriage at her wedding, and I remembered Kirsti from Melbourne on My Mind went to school with Kate Middleton when she was known as Catherine.

The third Cinderella moment was more bogan, more relatable. A nearly empty bottle of beer and one shoe. I hope she found her prince.

Once we braved the hill, we had cocktails at The Victoria Room. I found it hard to choose. I chose rose and lychee.

 I felt so grown up at The Victoria Room. So plush and posh.

We shared dessert - I had the privilege of choosing them. A divine rose pannecotta with strawberries. So light and creamy, and just sweet enough. It was my favourite of the two.

And this, an apple tart tatin, which I adored only a millimetre less than the pannecotta. SSG and Sandradee loved it! It was warm and rich, and had a sticky sweet caramel sauce.

Friday night in Sydney was the perfect end to a perfect day. Here's to my friends becoming new friends. You can read Sydney Shop Girl's blog about the girls night out here.

Go on, you deserve it!

As a woman and I stood in the queue at Hausfrau in Yarraville on Saturday, lamenting whether to choose a sweet or savoury treat, or both, I said to her, 'Go on, you deserve it'. And she laughed, saying she did deserve a sweet treat alongside her savoury and salad. And I deserved it too. Two plates of deliciousness. And then some.

I admit, my diet this weekend has not been balanced. It's been heavy on the comfort, light on the healthy.

I guess some belly dancing being in the same room as belly dancers because it was too hot and humid for me to take part gave me solace that I was sort of exercising the comfort food off. Through osmosis?

Outfit 22 of the 30 for 30 remix: harem pants, Bob Evans tee, Mimco headband and hip scarf and Jiffies.

 On the way to Hausfrau, I saw this awesome street art.

I sat down for a late lunch and the Saturday Age. Elderflower is my favourite boutique softdrink.

First course was Croque Monsieur. Toasted ham white bread sandwich topped with bechamel sauce and cheese. Yum.

Then a blueberry Madeleine cake, eaten as I read how to make a chocolate cognac cake. The cake I ate was like a bread and butter pudding.

Two plates of deliciousness indeed.

I went to Hausfrau on my way to see Rabbit Hole at the cinema (to cool down).

(source)

 

Rabbit Hole is a play-turned-film about a couple, Becca and Howie, grieving after the death of their young son. I guess it's about when's the right time to 'get on' with life after you lose a child, and the strength needed to get through the darkness.

The theme that was apparent to me were the conditions grieving people unintentionally place on others, and the difficulty of not knowing how to handle other peoples' grief as an outsider. Grief stricken peoples' worlds stop while it turns for the rest of us. I particularly liked the relationship and subsequent forgiveness Becca gave the teenage driver who killed her son. It was very moving, and very sad. And Nicole Kidman's expressions were visible despite the botox.

On a side note, there were some teenagers in the cinema having sex in the back row. It was rather unnerving. I wondered whether people just pick any film to 'view' so they can have sex. And then I wondered how many people do this, and whether I've sat on a chair that people have had sex on. And then I had to stop thinking and just watch the film.

Moving on...

I ate half of this trifle for dinner. I told you. More comfort, less health. I deserved it.

Today I met Kristy and her very nice boyfriend for brunch at Fraus.

 

It was Kristy's birthday yesterday and she had a lovely weekend in Melbourne being spoilt.

Today was Kristy's first Fraus experience. She went into a chocolate coma with a thick hot chocolate...

 ...and a crepe filled with ricotta, and topped with figs and hot chocolate.

 

 

 

I was recognised by a blog reader. Sassy, left of me in the below picture, was excited to meet me in real life!

 I had my usual order: thick hot chocolate and a Florentine crepe. Quite healthy really!

This is outfit 23 of the 30 for 30 remix. Seven to go! Mimco headband, Target blazer, Valleygirl tee, Sussan jeans, Diana Ferrari shoes, Tiffany necklace and Lavallier bangle.

It was lovely seeing Kristy again, and finally meeting her boyfriend. I will see her in a month when I go to Sydney to speak on a panel at the Aussie Blogger's Conference.

I cooked a healthy dinner of pork and vegetables tonight. No pictures. But I did bake a fruit pie, and took pictures, because you deserve it.

 Apricots, passionfruit, pears, blueberries, rhubarb, a plum and a fig.

 Yum!

Carly and Kristy's Laksa King adventure

I met up with Kristy last night. She was in Melbourne on business. It's become a tradition to meet each other in our respective cities when either one of us travels for work.

We went to the new Laksa King in Flemington. It's flash. Lots of communal tables, funky chairs, and an indoor wall garden. It's a very busy place – we waited a while for a table. During this time Kristy showed me pictures of cakes she and her boy bought from Zumbo. I experienced cyber food envy - I wanted one of those beautifully handcrafted cakes. Maybe she can bring me one from Sydney next time?

This new Laksa King has been open a few weeks. It used to be hidden away in a dingy alcove in a shopping centre around the corner from its new home. There's another Laksa King outlet in the food court of a local mega-mall, but it's too risky eating there because there's a high chance I'll buy something from Cue after my chicken laksa.

There is over 130 items on Laksa King's menu. Fried noodles, seafood dishes, spring rolls and fried rices, and more. Despite the large selection, I only ever get the chicken laksa. We both did. We did branch out by ordering the roast pork belly with star anise, soy and caramel sauce and Asian greens to share. I had some roti. The meal was giant, delicious and $20 each! And warming on the chilly Melbourne night.

The giant bowl of laksa was mildly spicy, filled with rice and egg noodles and chicken, and the eggplant and tofu absorbs the wonderful coconut flavoured soup. I made a claim that this is the best laksa in Melbourne.

We thought the pork belly was the most tender we'd ever tasted, though would have preferred the skin to have been crispier.

Kristy was particularly excited about the pork belly.

My roti was comforting. I love the texture and semi sweetness of roti. I wish it wasn't so fattening.

In between slurps of noodles, we talked about wildly inappropriate topics that only good friends can get away with talking about. Our conversation was ridiculous at times!

We laughed about just how much food we'd ordered between us, and were delighted that it was so damn cheap. We mused about how we should have worn elasticised pants. Maybe if we had have eaten at the Laksa King in the food court, we could have stopped in a Target afterward to buy ourselves some elasticised pants.

Laksa King on Urbanspoon

Carly and Kristy's Mexican fiesta

Firstly, I must apologise for any typos I may make, or silliness. I found half a bottle of red wine that Mum had left behind (I'll buy you a new bottle, Mum, I promise!) and I am a Moscato drinker which has very little alcohol, so this red wine is having quite an affect on me!

I was lucky enough for my friend Kristy to be spending the work week in Melbourne. So we went out for dinner again on Thursday. It was a hoot. Especially when I went to the toilets and the sensor light switched off and made it so dark that I was unable to see anything and worried that someone had actually switched the light off in readiness to kill me. Then I realised that if I couldn't even do up my fly in such darkness, the murderer probably wouldn't have been able to kill me.

I digress.

We went to Taco Bills. It was the smallest Taco Bills ever. And hidden away. We were very surprised. My super spiky high heels weren't conducive to walking up and down the three flights of stairs, particularly after the carafe of Mexican punch (non alcoholic red cordial) we had consumed. It was economical at $6.95 to get a litre, though felt just as detrimental as if we'd drunk a litre of real punch. Hyperactive!

I love the contrast of the limes with the bright red punch.

I said to Kristy, 'I don't know if we can drink a litre of that stuff.'
She replied, 'Yeah, we were a bit ambitious.'

But we drank it all!

We ate the following:

Beef rolled up in corn tortillas. I didn't say this at the time, but they sort of looked like Schmackos, but didn't taste like them. Once when I was a kid I ate a dog biscuit, and also some fish food. So I can vouch that our first course at Taco Bills tasted much better than Schmackos. Unless Schmackos have changed their recipe.


Nachos. It was melted cheese deliciousness. Watch out arteries! Kristy let me eat all the guacamole too! She is too lovely!


Chicken burritos with rice and beans. We probably didn't need this course because we were SO FULL, but we powered on. Because there are starving children in third world countries, I felt the need to eat the whole burrito.


Kristy had the creme caramel. She said it was nice. I had a small bite but I don't like caramel. Sometimes I feel I am the only one in the world not to like caramel.


I had half of this chocolate mousse. I didn't eat any of the cream - I believe it was cream from a can. The mousse was yummy.


And this is how fabulous we looked, combined with some of the funny things we said (I typed them into my iPhone for future use - well they were funny at the time! I guess you had to be there....):


Kristy: 'she's got a Mexican hat!. She is serious about her Mexican!' (We tried to get ourselves a hat, but our Mexican punch didn't qualify for a free one!)


Carly: 'I could eat a whole litre of melted cheese...hold on, how would you measure melted cheese? Kilos or litres?' (We decided litres.)


Kristy: 'Id expect smut from Channel 10, but Channel 7 is so CONSERVATIVE!' (This ended our conversation about all the raunchy sex scenes we've seen on TV lately.)


Kristy: 'Did she forget her pants? Everyone that reads your blog will think I am the meanest girl in the world.' (For the record, Kristy is not mean, she was merely reacting to a girl that should have been wearing pants underneath her dress that was more like a tee shirt.)


Carly: 'Are you wearing jeans?'
Kristy: 'Yep.'
Carly: 'Same. I'm gonna undo my top button when we get in the car.'
Kristy: 'Same.'

So it was a wonderful night. I went to bed feeling like a whale covered in melted cheese. Kristy is awesome!

(PS: no jeans buttons were undone in the car).

(PPS: Visit the new Tune into Radio Carly FaceBook page and 'like' it!)