Valentine's Day and Baia The Italian

Happy (one month late) Valentine's Day everyone!
I've been waiting to share my Valentine's day experience with everyone (:! So very behind on posts x)!

 Just a little something I was prepared, a little surprise after he drove me home! I started baking and making the goodies one week in advance to allow time for errors :P . I made Chocolate dipped marshmallows pops, crystal rock candy, vanilla melting moments(biscuits) and some random vanilla cookies. Everything wrapped and decorated with purple and white. Ron keeps opening them, looking, then closing them but he hasn't tasted it yet >: . Boooo! Doom on you! Doom on you! He better like it! >:)

chocolate dipped marshmallow pops are ready to go!

rock candy is growing, day 2

 Crystal Rock Candy

 This turned out better than I expected. Even though these sugar crystals had to be chiselled out of the jars because the crystals grew onto the jars too.

Box of wrapped goodies for Ronald McDonald Weasley!

This year was my turn to decide on a place to eat, so I quickly settled with Baia on Darling Harbour. I reckon it's a great place to hold a special dinner, for that special someone ;) because of the marvellous night/sunset view of the harbour and also Baia's great food is worth the note. 

Ron was surprised. He thought I'd simply go for a dessert store instead -.- . We were offered the chance to sit outside and feel the cool evening breeze, or to dine inside where's it's cosy and dim lit. Of course I had to go with the more intimate seats inside.

We seriously did not know what to pick because everything on the menu was soo tasty and by then (7:00pm) we were starving our butts off! So I ended up with Pappardelle al Granchio (Pasta with Arctic Crab). This was my second time having this dish! I love it because of the yummy sauce, it's a rich tomato with spicy chilli in it. When I first saw the two flavours I thought.. chilli and tomato? No go. But then I decided to have a try. It ACTUALLY tasted good, if you're a chilli lover, you will love this dish!

While Ron chose the Lasagna alla Paesana (traditional lasagna), which tasted alright like lasagnas from other Italian stores.

Happy Ron!

 Gift/card exchanging time! 

Happy me!

I was astonished when I saw what he got me :D. "Aww you shouldn't have!" While the little tien inside my head was screaming "YESSSS!!! My one and only, first Bobbi Brown thing!"

Bobbi Brown Bellini palette
(with mirror(top rectangle))

What gorgeous neutral colours! I lurrrvveee it!

Pretty pink lip glosses!

Fine One One by Benefit

All in one, Blush, cheek toner, cheek highlighter
(can be used as a lip stain)

both items were boxed in this cute box :3

 I will not use either of these products! They are soo precious to me! ): Too precious! I will furnish it in my mini make up gallery at home.

Din Tai Fung

On a few occasions my friends and I have decided to try Din Tai Fung because it's been around for a while and has received good reviews on many websites. Din Tai Fung first opened in Taipei and now there are two restaurants in the heart of Sydney! We tried the one in city Westfields, on the food court level.

 I was quite delighted when I saw the ordering system, you simply grab this ordering page and tick in the boxes the yummy things you want. I quite like how the chefs work their dumpling magic behind a glass screen, so we can see how well and clean they are. I am quite impressed with how clean and tidy this store looks. They are generous with packaging and plastics, you can get soy sauce in these little, cute plastic bottles with a red cap, or chilli oil in a handy snap container...and even their ginger were bagged in little individual zip lock bags. (Yes, wanting to bag some cute soy sauce bottles did cross my mind hahaha).

 Here are some photos from two trips to Din Tai Fung in Westfields:

Hot & Sour Soup

 This soup tasted similar to shark fin soup, except it was slightly more sour and hot... not much though. I would prefer it if the soup represented it's name. If only it was a tiny bit more sour and spicy, then I could eat this for days :D.

Mango Pudding

 I really, really, really like their mango pudding! It has these yummy coconut fibre bits in there too! This is probably my favourite item from Din Tai Fung (since I have a friggin huge sweet tooth). For those who don't like pudding, maybe this one will change your mind.

Vegetarian Dumplings

 These taste pretty good! This place lives up to it's name, the dumplings are just right. Not too much meat and not too much flour. Soft flour, I like!

 Just an aside, they cook their rice really well ( as silly as judging rice sounds), each granule is not soggy and it still retains most of the rice's plump texture. Feed me more rice plezzz. Nomnomnom!

Veggie Delight

 Their so called signature "Veggie Delight" dish is not a stand out, it was okay to have but it's not a dish I would return to this stall for. It kind of reminds me of those little side noodles you get with the Japanese bentos.

Pork and Green Beans

 Tasty. I would have this dish again. However, the servings are not that generous considering the fact that they are just green beans.

Spicy Sesame Noodles

 Tasty for the first few minutes, too creamy in a sickening way afterwards. I could not even finish these noodles. The noodles themselves are well made though. Perhaps I should have tried the noodles in a different sauce/soup.

Prawn and Pork wonton in Spicy Sauce

These are nice, even the spicy sauce is nice. The sauce is not too intense, which goes well with the already slightly salted wontons. (:

I would certainly recommend this place! I haven't tried the bigger Din Tai Fung at World Square, but I know will be just as nice (if not even nicer).

Have a try!

Sydney Fish Market Excursion!

Hi guys!
Have you ever been to the Sydney Fish Market before? Who am I kidding, everyone in Sydney probably has. We've probably been dragged there when we were small or maybe some of us venture there to fulfill our tastebud's curiosity.

Anyways, I managed to drag myself out of bed extremely early today to take a little trip down to the fish market before uni started. I don't remember the last time I visited this so called famous fish zone, so the trip was new and pretty exhilarating for me. I never travelled to the fishing zone  by myself before, nor have I ever caught the Sydney Light Rail alone, but thank goodness for my multi2 pass. You beauty! Anyway, I boarded the 'tram' outside Capital Square and took it on a beautiful route pass Exhibition Centre, The Star and reached Sydney Fish Market in a matter of 15 minutes I think. After that, the little 7 minute walk to the big centre was not that hard to find since there were arrows and pointers along the way.

There were many stores selling fresh seafood catches, to casual restaurants tempting customers with a choice of fried/bbq/fresh seafood. I do not remember why I didn't take a photo of the entrance :/ . All the seafood looked really fresh, and relatively larger than the creatures sold in the local market eg Cabramatta. I spotted these prawns that were the size of my whole hand, some of them were even bigger. They were BIG ASS PRAWNS.

prawns of some sort

Salmon, sashimi

 I was craving sashimi, so I bought a slab, they sliced it and sold it by weight. This piece came down to roughly $12, which is really good value compared to sushi trains or Sushihub.

Scallop salad? I forgot & Sashimi

 What else did I find at this large sea life aquarium?

Huge King Crabs

 Aww why do all of them face away from people? Okay guilty feeling. Poor sea creatures. But they taste soo good )):: . It's not as if I have seafood on a regular basis anyways.

Red lobsters! So red they look fake!

Some takeaway for luncheonz! Half BBQ octopus in a tasty herb/lemon marinade and fried baby squid in salt/pepper/ garlic (also very tasty). I really want to replicate both dishes (: .  

Fried Squid, BBQ octopus

 Coming to the Fish markets at around 10:30 to 11am is a good time. Me likeyy!