Just because it’s winter and the cold, wet weather has given some people the blues doesn’t mean it’s not a good time for sorbet.

Seriously, is any time ever a bad time for indulging in sorbet? Don’t know about you, but I sure can’t think of one. Perhaps this photo will help:

Mango sorbet must be my favourite followed very, very closely by lemon. Sometimes I think I might prefer lemon, depending on the meal that it’s following. Otherwise if it’s sorbet to be eaten for the pleasure of it – as eating sorbet so often is – then mango takes trumps.

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Oh, almost forget the Thai! These babies can be had for under $8:

Pad Kapao – shredded beef stir fried in a spicy concoction of chilli, basil and ginger with a gratuitous fried egg

Pad Siew – flat fried rice noodles with egg, Chinese broccoli and chicken, wok fried with oyster and soy sauce

The more I think about it, the more things I seem to think of that I miss about that place…

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Once you have had the pleasure of enjoying these dishes for about $8 in Chinatown everything else seems grossly overpriced.

I’m talking wok-fresh cooked food made using simple but fresh ingredients at prices that boggle the mind. Sure the vendors exist in dingy food courts with less than ideal surrounds, but I’m just there for the food and the authenticity of the taste is up there with the best irrespective of price.

It’s all about low margin and high turnover in these places and the speed of delivery deserves medals at times. When you have only 30 minutes for lunch and a ~7 minute walk either way speed is a make or break issue!

Fujian Fried Rice – warm and hearty, perfect for a winter’s lunch or dinner.

Indonesian Nasi Goreng – a bit spicier and full of fried goodness and texture.

Let’s not forget the noodle soups! This item comes in a little pricier at $10 but worth every cent:

Won tons, king prawns and scallops with egg noodle soup. Need I say more?

There is a place I go to that does a similar bowl of noodle soup but substitutes the prawns/scallops for BBQ pork for only $6.50!!! Best value for money food in Sydney I reckon.

Now that I’m no longer working in the city, I’m really going to miss these small Chinese food court stunners that fuelled me during my time there. I kind of disliked the city to begin with but now I’m really sad to go…

Yes, there are just some things in the city that will be dearly missed by my sad little heart (and stomach!)

Exact words escape me right now, but I am deeply saddened indeed

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Phones are not something I keep up with in general. However, it is because of a new phone that I haven’t updated this blog in a while. The Samsung I8000 aka Omnia 2:

I got it a few weeks ago and it has so many bells and whistles and tweaks and mods and settings to play and fiddle with. But as a phone I was a little disappointed.

My old phone (Samsung SGH-I450) was fantastic at being a phone – calling people and sending text messages quickly were a breeze. One-handed, unsighted operation was also possible after becoming familiarised with its menus. The generous keypad and physical buttons were a pleasure to use.

However, it wasn’t up to scratch when it came to internet connectivity, web browsing and emails etc. and since my plan was up for renewal I figured I’d have a look at some reviews online and pick up the best phone I could get for free.

The new phone is a behemoth. But despite this, from a usability standpoint I was just about ready to sell it and revert to my trusty old Samsung I450. That is, until I installed this…

Unless I have memorised the number, phone calls to contacts require pressing several buttons and sifting through a number of menus. Texting is also limited to only 20 contacts at a time and takes just as much time to add recipients. But I compose messages quicker than ever before.

It also has a rather excellent 3.7″ AMOLED screen that is very handy when used to watch divx/xvid encoded movies and TV shows that are supported natively by the phone. Its ability to sync with my calendar online (also used by my webmail and desktop mail client is a big plus too!

Still no good for texting with one hand while driving though. Not that I would ever do that… being illegal in Australia and all. Not sold on touch screens just yet either.

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There seems to be a definite trend of blog entries being written after visits to the supermarket. Today’s entry is about something I’ve noticed before but today it had me wondering…

As usual, I was in the express lane at Coles and although I had already been the victim of queue jumpers and other delays I wasn’t at all annoyed (it was my day off, so in no rush) but this one thing really annoyed me.

This is not unique to Coles – I’ve seen the same setup at Woolworths and other supermarkets. That is, people wanting to buy cigarettes can walk straight up to the counter and avoid the queues.

If that weren’t annoying enough, staff in the ‘express’ lane are often responsible for serving cigarette customers so when there is only 1 person manning the express lane – such as today – it comes to a standstill.

Today I waited for 5, yes 5 people to be sold their cigarettes. 3 of whom approached the counter after my checkout chick abandoned her post.

The only reason I can think for this is that cigarettes are a cash cow. Personally, I think this is not a valid reason that people buying cigarettes should get priority service over regular grocery shoppers.

Not sure what the situation is like overseas. Does anyone work or has worked at Australian supermarkets and know of another reason for this? I’d love to hear about it.

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At the end of each month I usually go through the webserver logs analysing traffic and other mundane website-related things.

One of the things that I particularly take interest in is websites that point to mine and  what keywords people are typing into search engines to stumble upon my humble blog.

By far the most common keywords are headphone/audio-related as well as plenty of food and drink – who knew so many people were interested in ginger beer with ginseng?

However, amongst the technology and food concoction that this website has become, there are some hidden gems and it takes some of the funniest searches to reveal them.

Today I thought I’d share my top 3 favourites for last month (March 2010):

1. “is there any ginger ale in south korea”

Others are catching on to cousin’s conspiracy theory! Maybe he isn’t mad afterall I can’t believe a bottle of that prized fluid is so hard to track down in South Korea. Is the truth out there???

2. “pastries of shakespeare s time”

Why this would be relevant to anyone is beyond me. Once upon a time – 6 years ago! – I wrote about pastries and mentioned the shop that once went by that name but nothing from the English Playwright’s era, sorry!

3. “jackson raine”

(+related searches) Finally, this just goes to show that although I only ever wrote about Jackson once, about 4 years ago, he is such an unknown actor that my website takes the coveted #1 position on Google when searching his name. Oh memories…

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I was at the supermarket last week as I so often am not, and was faced with a moral dilemma.

The supermarket was quite busy and I had just joined the end of one of several longish queues to check-out. The store staff were on the ball that day because noticing the situation they decided to open a new check-out lane. And this is where I found myself in a quandary.

As the checkout chick walked past to open up a new lane she asked me to come over to form the queue. As opposed to sneakily queue jumping I was actually invited to do so on this occasion, and I obliged. I even helped move the shopping trolley out of the way. Perhaps I did so to appease my guilty conscience as on-lookers stabbed me all over with their contemptuous glares. Thankfully I only had a handful of items and paid by card so was out of that uncomfortable situation rather quickly, or at least quicker than most.

But that’s where there’s a problem: What if I had been patiently waiting for quite some time in a queue and had passed the point of no return, ie. was walled-in by the impulse candy section and unable to escape my queue to join another? Surely if anyone was deserving of gratification it would have been these people. I would have been annoyed to say the least. That day I escaped some annoyance; many others didn’t.

In this scenario it seems that people at the end of queues – those who have waited the shortest time, like myself – were to benefit the most from a new check-out opening.

And this brings me to a similar situation related to driving on Sydney’s fine roads though I believe it affects drivers everywhere. If drivers in other cities have developed a strategy for this problem I’d love to hear it – there are many things that take a while before reaching the Land of Oz.

I’ll set the scene: You’re driving along on a road with two or more lanes. Suddenly there is a breakdown or similar in front on your lane causing the cars behind to come to a grinding halt. Now you must turn on the indicators and try to change lanes in an attempt to get around the obstruction.

You know what happens next… The people who have waited the shortest time or no time at all are usually the first to exit the situation because by spotting the incident from afar have changed lanes early on and cruise straight past as you sit there hopelessly until the very last car behind you has done the same. Again, the first person in the queue is often the one feeling the deepest burn.

It is becoming rarer and rarer that you meet a nice driver who will give way to you – due to the sheer number it would be impractical to do so anyway. Other times there may be someone slow in pulling out and you are presented with a golden opportunity to exit before the steady stream of cars starts moving towards you. But again, it is usually the cars behind you that are able to seize such opportunities first!

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I feel like, you know, cupid making all these Matchas! Oh the puns will never get old…

So I woke up this morning, as usual putting on my Kimono and then promptly took it off after remembering what I’d said in this previous post. I was in a bit of a rush yesterday so this will be a photographic tour of only my second attempt.

(more…)

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Growing up as an Asian (I remain Asian to this day also), tea is an integral part of my diet. In fact some of my friends and I might even consider ourselves quite the tea connoisseurs

Irrespective of these past persuasions I am still very excited today to receive my Japanese ceremonial Matcha tea set from Ippodo Tea.

Their website is great, check it out @ http://www.ippodo-tea.co.jp/en/ if you hadn’t already clicked the previous link. It’s full of information on various teas as well as the history of their 300 year old shop. If I should ever visit Japan the store will definitely be on my list of destinations.

Aside from the purported health benefits, it’s just kind of cool to finally do it like they do in the movies! Except I will not be wearing a kimono. Or tying my hair up into a bun. I’ll leave all that to the real fanboys.

It’s a little late to start brewing right now – especially since lately I appear to be a bit sensitive to caffeine – so it will have to wait until tomorrow morning before I try my hand at making some.

For now, here are a few photos of the kit (click for more):

Origami-like precision in the wrapping paper

Surprisingly good English in all their documentation

The goods meticulously packed in true Japanese fashion

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So 2010 is upon us, and not without some changes to be had I’m sure.

For instance, I have found that the week-to-page + blank page layout of my diary from Rebound Books is no longer sufficient for all the little notes and memos I write to myself. These days I need a day-to-page in A5 size and have had to settle on a rather ordinary diary that I got from K-Mart.

In other news, I was recently contacted by Menulog – a website with restaurant information, reviews and online ordering system. In my search for restaurants I have occasionally stumbled across the website looking for opening hours and menus and they do seem pretty comprehensive, at least with restaurants local to where I live anyway.

Somehow – and I’m still not 100% sure how – but someone over at Menulog must have come across my website and deemed it foody enough (I suppose I do write the occasional food post, but I digress) to send me a voucher to share with my ‘readers’. So here it is:

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This coupon code will take $10 off your next take-away order at Menulog’s website. Ordering online does seem pretty convenient if you’re afraid of speaking on the phone or need to order food while you’re on the phone to someone else… That and many restaurants’ menus are listed online so you can easily browse their selection instead of trying to dig up their flyer in your recycling bin or having the employee with less than perfect English attempt reading it all to you.

Without personally having used the service yet I can’t say how good or bad it is, but based on feedback I’ve read elsewhere they seem pretty reliable. The coupon should work for most of this year and will work in conjunction with any restaurants’ existing offers as well.

Frankly I think this benefits them more than it does me, because apart from me also being able to use this coupon to receive $10 off I promise I’m not getting any kickbacks (nor am I employed by them), and this free advertisement is going out to all of the handful of people that actually even read the posts on this website hahaha.

Gotta love the fact that this site ranks highly on google for some very obscure search keywords I suppose.

Enjoy.

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