Christmas through the stomach/NY in SYD

Okay okay I know that everyone probably doesn't know what Christmas and New year's is anymore as that was ages ago, but I was just way too lazy to edit my zillion pictures I'd taken since pre-Christmas. I was working Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Boxing Day holiday, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day + the Sunday after, and also New Year's Day holiday (those additional holidays added because the actual holidays were on weekends show that the Aussies are just as lazy as the Vietnamese), so I was catching up on my own hols rather than harming my eyes with extra hours on Photoshop after work. But as I got yesterday and today off, I feel revived, refreshed and reenergised enough to finally get my shit together and some work done.

Anyway, as far as I remember during Christmas season I was just eating all the time. Before Christmas Susan from work organised a fancy afternoon high tea at the Observatory Hotel. Definitely a cool experience - everything was posh and pretty and delicate. However it wouldn't really be something I'd do again too soon - I'd rather go bar hopping like we usually do in Manly and get pissed. Jokes. (The getting pissed part I mean.)

Speaking of getting pissed: That day Cynthia and I met up early to stroll around for last minute Christmas presents and decided to have a quick lunch at Loewenbraeu. That baby chicken wasn't at her fittest and felt sick after a mango weizen; she was proudly telling everyone at the tea how she puked next to Gucci. Unbelievable.

That was when things were still fine.

I apologise for the shit quality of my photos, but this picture is just so adorable. Two of my favourite managers/supervisors!

Polly and I had the 22nd off together so we spontaneously decided to go up to Qstation to have our Christmas lunch. Polly has always been super fond of the Boilerhouse menu and couldn't wait to take me up to her workplace. We got spoiled bigtime with freebies and XXL portions, and sadly we felt a little sick when we finished our meal because we were way too full. But it was just sooo good.

Polly's oysters with mango salsa

My scallops

Too many breadrolls.

We shared another quail salad (greedy bitches), and for mains Polly had a lovely vegetarian risotto (was it with butternut?), and I myself a fabulous steak with spinach and parsnip. For some reason we also ordered a side of chips we never really touched, and to satisfy our sweet teeth we had a white chocolate parfait to finish. We were pregnant with food.

Christmas Eve I was invited to a very German Christmas dinner at Irina's. Literally every single one at the dinner was German, which was pretty funny for a change. The food was amazing, and chef Roman did a marvellous job with his Christmas turkey. After dinner we rolled down the hill and celebrated Christmas Eve in style at Shore Club. It was too strange, I'm telling you.

Turkey with sweet potato gratin and gravy, salad, and bruschetta

Irina with Daniel, Laurent's monkey brother

25th was a quiet girls night in for Polly and me, with cheese and crackers and wine. I was baking quite a bit during those days as well - for Polly I made berry coconut slices (like the ones I made at college), for work I made raspberry cheesecake brownies, and for my relatives and Laurent I made almond berry muffins (again!), but this time I added a bit of chopped chocolate. Everything came out looking very festive.

Christmas Day holiday was my only day off during that period and the cookie monster promised to make apricot clafoutis (to compete with Curtis Stone). For dinner we unfortunately didn't have much in the fridge, but Laurent was able to fix up the prettiest omelette ever. We also waited to exchange presents on that day (unlike Polly and me - we couldn't wait and were jumping around in the kitchen ripping up Christmas wrapping a week before Christmas; see previous post), plus the weather was really bad (grey and cold), so it felt very much like Christmas.

Oh and maybe you wanna know what I got for Christmas:

From Polly

From Laurent

And look! From Susan. Aw I'm so happy she reads my blog. :)

Also I got a "I hate my job" mug from Benny, but I left it at work. YES I use it at work, and everyone loves it. ;) I received two cards from Thanh Phuong and Khue Nhu as well, and a letter from the Orths. I love receiving Christmas post! However I have to mention that I send out 18 cards into the world and that was all I got back. I can see I am very much loved by my friends. Jokes. :P

As for me, I got Polly Vans Wayfarer sunnies (because she told me once she wants to get Wayfarers: "You know those sunglasses, ting ting ting *drawing a square with her finger*, like yours.") and the "Stuff every woman needs to know" book, for Laurent a travel diary and Kenzo Power (because he lost his perfume. I know, I like getting people things they need so they will actually use them), for Ben the Social Network book (because he likes making money :P), for Phong a half-year subscription to Time Out Sydney, and Irina "Breakfast at Tiffany's". Susu got the Singapore Black Book as a late present. ;) Oh and at work we did Secret Santa (or Kris Kringle, that's what they call it here), and I gave our Bollywood boss Sudhir Barney Stinson's "Playbook". Man he loved it.

Our Kris Kringle tree at work

JP on Christmas Eve

Okay, now to New Year's. Polly was working, the boys were all on holidays (and still are), and Laurent had plans with his French posse so I freaked out a little when I still didn't have any plans for NYE on the afternoon of the 31st. Luckily Gabby and Jonathan from work took care of me and we had a good time hanging out with Tamara for dinner, going to a house party of one of Jonathan's friends and watching the fireworks from Barangaroo. The fireworks were amazing - Robert, one of my friends from middle school in Germany urged me to go see it as it's supposed to be "one of the best in the world". I don't think he was wrong.

NYE sundown at King St Wharf

It was hard to capture all the grandness of the 12-minute fireworks, especially with my poor point-and-shoot. But these two photos are my favourites.

I don't wanna think about what I would've done that night without them.

I crashed at Angel's place that morning as I had a 6-o'clock start at work, and I don't know if any of you knew about it but the alarms on all iPhones didn't go off on the 1st and the 2nd of January (I guess nobody had to work early New Year's Day morning so why would you know actually). I just thought I was too tired and overslept, but when I woke up late for work once again on the 2nd, I went on google. It was a nice idea to turn the alarms off on those holidays, Apple, but unfortunately it was very suitable for us hospitality people.

New Year's Day was a beautiful day so I went with Laurent to Little Manly after work. I had a relaxing dive in the afternoon water (and made a new little friend who was swimming next to me - Lily "from the Rocks"!), and Laurent played his guitar; the day turned around after all the stress with waking up late and being in zombie mode at work all morning.

Hell is this a massive post. Told you I couldn't be bothered editing this many photos. But yeah, I didn't have the chance to tell you last year so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. :) x

Tumblin' uncontrollably

I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel - my 13-work day marathon is nearly over. I am exhausted and of course I haven't had the time to do much, therefore of course no new posts. However I'm still up for some creativity while slaving for my bank account, so I started a tumblr thingy (what do you call it again?). Make sure you drop by every now and then for some random fun; but of course I'll still be writing properly every time there's some big shit going on. :)

PS: Originally I wanted to call my tumblr tea and toast (because I'm having tea and toast at work all the time), but it was already taken. Check for yourself how creative the owner of that lovely user id is. Whatevs, I came up with something else much cooler haha. Jokes :)

PPS: Polly and I have alread exchanged Christmas presents. I am so touched by her encouragement. Who knows, maybe what she said will happen some day.

Happy holidays! Don't drink too much, and buy proper presents everyone.

All you can do is hope that lists help when you're busy and broke.

Currently: having breakfast * organic muesli + organic yoghurt + home-made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

Ok this is random but I gotta say Aldi's organic product range is pretty yummy. Polly and I are so in love with their toasted muesli clusters, and have always been eating their yoghurt with that lovely layer of wildberry jam. And I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies the other day (again from Curtis Stone's cookbook. But not only because he's hot.); they're super moist and chewy and taste adorable. They lack the cookie crunch, but as long as they taste good... don't you think something different is always nice? :)

I put together my Christmas wishlist - it's probably more of a long-term wish list though (and who knows how long "long" will be). What I might get for myself this Christmas is probably the passport cover haha! And maaaybe a key loop if a nice one comes across - the search for the Marc Jacobs one is a bit of a pain here in Australia. And why the sunnies you ask? Because I'm an idiot and I lost them. I'm too embarrassed to tell you how.

1. Hat * Stussy; seen on generalpants.com.au

2. Rain boots * Tretorn; shop.tretorn.com

3. Food, Fashion, Friends * book by Fleur Wood; fleurwood.com

4. The Creeper sunnies * Sabre; sabre.fm

5. Passport cover * MC Leather; seen on gogogear.com.au

6. D3100 * Nikon; nikon.com.au

7. Bag * seen on needsupply.com

8. Key loop * Marc Jacobs; marcjacobs.com

I love General Pants Co.'s gift selection, as well as the super mega huge and super duper cute one at Urban Outfitters. Also do I love giving books, and Ariel is my number one choice of bookstore for funky, funny and sweet reads.

And yeah, today is the day of lists. See post title.

To-do's today:

1. Finish writing Christmas cards

2. Write application letter for Student Ambassador

3. Browse for some baking and cooking ideas for this Christmas season. Thinking about giving the macaron challenge a try - I can see myself sweating and suffering from nerve breakdowns in our kitchen already, but they'd make such lovely gifts.

4. Plan the second city day trip for this Saturday. It's my turn this time, and Laurent and I are both poor as ass at the moment, so it has to be a tight budget plan.

5. Cook dinner. I feel like chicken drumsticks and peas haha. Actually we have to wash up first.

To-do's soonish:

1. Browse around Paddington Markets and EQ Village Sunday Market for gifts

2. Silly Season Sale this weekend in Darlinghurst for... more gifts? Oh please don't look at me like that, I've missed out on so many sales already.

3. Try to figure out when Polly and I would have time to pre-celebrate Christmas, since both of us will be working over the holidays. And deciding where to go - current picks are The Tea Room at QVB for high tea, or Friday lunch at Bistrode CBD. We'll be evaluating our choices; hope we'll make it to our date too.

4. Finish up Christmas shopping and get all the presents organised and wrapped. Am working all mornings for the rest of this week so I'll have plenty of time to stroll around the city.

5. Plan for Christmas and New Year's. My roster is quite good for the Christmas holidays but on New Year's Day I have to start work at 6am. At least I wanna see the fireworks (my plan was actually to party properly), but then I'll most likely fall asleep at work. As if anyone's gonna be up before lunch anyway! Grr.

6. Check what's showing at the outdoor Ford Fiesta Moonlight Cinema and plan a sundown picnic + movie night under the stars

7. Update my restaurant check list. There are zillions of restaurants and cafes here in Sydney that I wanna try out - rich times are so not in sight.

8. Start arranging my scrap book. I've been collecting articles on places to go, F&B, interior ideas etc over the years, and have so many websites bookmarked on my browser; I really need to start getting everything together because I'm rather a visual person - it's easier for me to think and plan when everything's in front of me. Clicking through millions of websites at once drives me nuts. 

9. Get Polly and the boys together for hot pot before everyone jets off to holidays. We love it when it's hot and steamy. Even in summer. ;)

10. Speaking of jetting off - I booked my flight ticket to Ho Chi Minh as well. Will also be stopping in Singapore to hang with Benny and enjoy this wonderful country one more time, therefore have to plan what I wanna see/where I wanna go/what I wanna shop for. But of course I'm super thrilled to see my family (especially my sister!) and my friends back home as well - expecting to meet some of my dearest homies. That's why all the shopping!

So. Before I get depressed (because the weather forecast has been "cloudy & isolated showers" all week, and it never rained a drop when I was at work; today I got my day off and it's cloudy and windy.), I'll be on my way to the beach and do all my "jobs" for today down there (except for the cooking and washing up of course) - I haven't been there for a thousand days. Hopefully my Christmas cards won't fly into the ocean.

Joy.

It is goddamn busy at work. Nowadays I only got one, maximum two days off a week, and they're always packed with sleeping in, tidying up the flat, groceries shopping, catching up with friends and other things for which there hadn't been enough time. That's exactly why I always got loads and loads of blog material piling up on my computer - if only a day had more than 24 hours. But then again I'd probably just spend more time at work.


Anyway, when Diego was back in town I again made Curtis Stone's Tiramisu. You would never believe how easy it is, and it is so light and fluffy that you will definitely be willing to sacrifice some more of your future half hours to make it again, again and again.

* Combine 2/3 cup of cold strong brewed espresso and 1/2 cup of brandy.

* Fill a saucepan halfway with water; bring to a simmer. Set a shallow bowl on top and beat 4 large egg yolks and 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar in the bowl with a handheld electric mixer for about 4 minutes, until pale and thick. Remove from heat, let it cool for 5 minutes.

* Place 2 cups of mascarpone (around 400g; at room temperature) in a large bowl. Stir in half of the egg yolk to lighten it, then fold in the remaining part.

* In another bowl using clean beaters, beat 2 large egg whites and 1 1/2  tablespoons of sugar with the electric mixer just until stiff peaks form; fold into the mascarpone mixture.

* Spoon a thin layer of the mascarpone mixture over the bottom of a 6 cup trifle bowl (I use a 25-cm square tray). Quickly submerge enough sponge finger biscuits (should be around 20-30 in total) for a layer in the espresso-brandy mixture, and arrange them in a single layer over the mascarpone. Spread more mascarpone mixture over the biscuits, and repeat with the remaining biscuits and mascarpone to form new layers, ending with the mascarpone mixture. Grate some bittersweet chocolate or sift some chocolate powder over the tiramisu. Refrigerate for around 2 hours, until set.

[From "Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone"]

Last Saturday Laurent picked me up from work and took me on a half-day surprise "trip". We went to the MCA to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibition, enjoyed the afternoon sun and the amazing Opera House and Harbour Bridge views from the Botanical Gardens, and had the funnest and bestest dinner ever at Bodega. It's amazing how such a simple day could bring so much joy.

Bodega fish fingers. A dream on toast.

The chefs at Bodega look like sexy rock stars and artists. It was so much fun watching them make the dishes (we had seats at the open kitchen), and they had fun with us too, as we were literally hanging at the bar losing our saliva - everything looked sooo fricken tasty. Even the olive oil that came with the bread tasted like green apple and banana, how cool is that?

Their version of banana split. Nowhere close to a classic one, but sets you into an euphoric state.

Other pleasures...

* Shopping for Christmas presents at Ariel and strolling around Surry Hills and Paddington with Susan.

* Polly's chicken mushroom risotto. I could have it for breakfast now.

* Making thịt kho (mom you should be proud of me!) and muffins in one night and seeing everything vanish.

* Browsing the internet for hours for more Christmas gift ideas. Results in lack of sleep but oh well.

* Looking at pictures of my baby sister, who's effin 1.28m now, and missing her. Can't wait to see her.

* Watching How I Met Your Mother with Laurent and laughing our asses off. I know we're quite a bit behind but epic shows stay epic. Better late than never.

Ok, time to finish up. My uncle and my aunt are coming to see me in Manly today so I have to do the quickest massive clean-up of my life now (because it's 10.30 am already and I have no idea when they're arriving, and our flat looks like a bomb site. Although we just cleaned up this week.), and then I wanted to make some cookies. Will be back soon with my Christmas wish list - I know nobody's gonna help me fulfil my dreams anyway, but I'm just gonna do it for myself so there's something to keep the spirit up at work; people call it goal setting.