CeCi Korean Restaurant; SQ Restaurant

Last Sunday I had meant up with a few friends including some newcomers to Sydney. They hadn't been on a train in Sydney before and suffice to say, they weren't impressed. We met in Strathfield because they hadn't been and they were told that it was pretty Korean (one of them was Korean and the other fluent in Korean). I've only really eaten Korean food in the city where, I was soon to learn, it is quite overpriced.












Once again, bad blogger, did not take note of the names. The newcomers had ordered in Korean and I just didn't remember. The portions are big. I was expecting that tiny little bowl that you get in city Korean restaurants but these were so big! The bowl of rice cake and dumpling soup (not pictured because I didn't take a great photo of it) was $12 and was huge! We didn't even finish all of it among the four of us. We ordered 2 soups, 1 bibimbap and some tofu pancake thing and then we split the bill it was $12 per person. So impressed for the value for money. Must eat not in the city more often!

Also, if in Strathfield and in need of $2 ice-cream go to SQ Restaurant.












We were enticed by all the different flavours depicted on the colourful poster but alas, they only had chocolate and vanilla. Which is fine since I love vanilla but I would have loved to try melon flavoured ice-cream. The ice-cream comes int that tub thing and then she does something with the machine for the ice-cream to come out all swirly. (oh, I cannot right for anything right now XD). She gives you a small spoon so it lasts you pretty long!

• Find CeCi Korean Restaurant at 37 The Boulevarde, Strathfield.
• Find SQ Restaurant at 4 The Boulevarde, Strathfield.

This Friday Night: Star Bar; CitiSuper Dessert Bar; Glee 3D

On this horribly windy, rainy and practically schizophrenic Sydney day I headed off from the comfort of my home to the city to meet a friend to watch Glee 3D. I was skeptical because the TV series itself is not so great. But, I'm jumping the gun. Let's go chronologically!

We arrived at the cinema at 6 and lined up to get tickets. My friend thought that there was a session at 6:10. And there was but in Gold Class. So we had some time to kill until the movie session at 7:20. We headed to 2nd level of Star Bar. I've never been to Star Bar before. The 2nd level is spacious and lovely. I had a Hahn Super Dry for $4.90 and my friend had schnitzel and prawns with salad. I forget for how much but less than 20 bucks. I didn't eat because I had already eaten before I left home but oh, how that food was tempting. Looked so good!







For dessert we headed to that relatively new, I guess, Asian supermarket Citisuper. They also sell crepes and dorayaki. Dorayaki, according to wiki, "is a type of Japanese confection, а red bean pancake which consists of two small pancake-like patties made from castella wrapped around a filling of sweet red bean paste." Citisuper has 4 different fillings: chocolate, red bean, custard and (I THINK) green tea. My friend wanted a crepe but he wasn't confident that he'd finish it before the movie started. It's 1 for $3, 2 for $5 and 4 for something ... I didn't remember and my photo doesn't capture that last price! They were bigger than I thought they would be and much more filling. It's sandwich like and I was worried the filling was just going to leak all over my hands. The combination of the warm pancake and the cold custard was so amazing. Just what I wanted. So we stood at the entrance of Town Hall station finishing off our dorayaki. The photo I took of mine was blurry. So just use the example next to Doraemon for your reference. It looks so much better than that though. XDD





Glee in 3D was so much better than I thought it would be. I am not up to date with series but I don't think you really need to be as long as you know basically the characters and the relationships. Darren Criss is so good live. So is Lea Michele, Amber Riley and the girl that plays Santana whose name escapes me at the moment. The actress who plays Brittany is such an AMAZING dancer. Though, I thought her outfit for her solo was probably not appropriate for an all ages concert. There were children there!

Concert movies work best for 3D. I really don't like 3D for high concept films. I think it's unnecessary. BUT for concert movies it works so well. The confetti, the streams, the crowd, the performers ... it's worth it. I see the value of 3D because you feel more a part of it. In other films, it seems kinda useless. It's not really for any particular effect. For concerts it makes you feel like you're there. I so wish Arashi had a concert 3D movie. That would just be amazing. The closest I'd probably ever get.

It's not just performances, it's interspliced with interviews of fans and in particular a mini-documentary on 3 specific Glee fans. Glee, is not life altering to me. My high school experience was not really clique focused in the way that American high schools seem to be. So, I didn't particularly have a complex about being popular and accepted. I wasn't popular. Maybe I was a nerd but no one hassled me or teased me about it. It just wasn't how my school was. At least to me.

Watching it with a crowd makes all the difference to your experience of this movie. People gasped, sang along, clapped. Made watching it so much better. And this kid ... stay for the credits! Oh, is this a spoiler? Ah, who cares. He's so cute!

• Find Star Bar at 600 George Street, Sydney.


• Find CitiSuper Dessert Bar by Teamo at 580 George Street (HSBC Centre), Shop LG 09, Lower Ground Level, Sydney. 

The White House, UNSW

I'm a bad law student. I had all the intention in the world to go to class after 1 drink. But hanging out in The White House made it feel more like Friday than a Monday.

So a friend of a friend of a friend said that there was a new bar type place at UNSW, my alma mater. At the end of a post like this I would usually add an address. But it's not really on a street. You kind of have to get directions from someone who knows vaguely where it is. The White House's website/blog is not very helpful with directions either! Unless I completely don't know how to navigate a website.

Easiest way to find it is not the way we found it. Walking in the opposite direction. The best direction is that it's opposite the Fig Tree theatre. Or, if you're coming up from lower campus go towards the Quad lawn and turn left into where the Goldstein building is. Look for a 2 storey WHITE HOUSE. Get it? XD

On the wall as you enter. Guess that building's been there all along.

Cider - $6.00.
So good it deserves 2 photos. Better than 5 seeds. Doesn't take like alcohol at all.

If you head upstairs there's a cocktail bar and some very interesting looking furniture.

The drinking "glasses" for the punch.

Glass of Golden Ale - $4.60.

I loved drinking here. Loved the design, furniture and atmosphere of the place. I do not remember this building being there when I was at UNSW. I'm sure it was there but probably not all renovated and pretty like this. There are board games that you can play. Cheap and/or old versions of Connect 4, UNO and Guess Who. Upstairs behind the bar are a stack of board games to choose from as well. We had intense games of UNO and Connect 4. CONNECT 4. I lost one and won one. And, my gosh, you really need to pay attention. Everyone has different rules for UNO. I don't think anyone's every read the rules for UNO. We just all get taught right? 4pm - 5pm is Happy Hour with bottled beer (they have Heineken, Hahn Super Dry, Becks from memory) priced at $4. 

I'm hoping to go again. Since I've graduated from UNSW I haven't really been back so it was so nostalgic getting on the 891 and having to stand all the way. It's such a nice place to drink and oh, how I miss you UNSW!

Back to school: a miscellaneous post

Unless you're a working member of society and education is all behind you ... XD

First week was last week for me and it was pretty easy intro stuff because it's the first week. It's difficult to get back into a routine after 5 weeks of nothing. Getting up in the morning is especially hard.

Anyway, besides all that, ticket prices have come out for the 2011 K-Pop Music Fest. in Sydney (http://www.jkent.com.au/kpop2011).

VIP $289 / Gold $189 / Silver $139 / Bronze $89

I don't know how much ticket prices for a music festival are usually so I don't know how reasonable these prices are. It's arguable for the number and status of some of these groups its a pretty reasonable price. I'm betting some fans are going to fly in from interstate and/or overseas. Sydney and ticket buying is pretty accessible compared to other places so that's a major benefit for overseas fans.

I'm getting VIP. If the benefits of VIP are pretty good. Details have yet to be released as to what VIP includes. If you get VIP too, see you there! XDDDD

I've spent the past few days catching up on dramas. I've been watching (not in order of preference):

• Japanese dramas


• Zenkai Girl (Ryo!)


• Hanawake no Yon Shimai


• Ouran High School Host Club


• Arakawa Under the Bridge (the crack!)


• Ikemen desu ne (Tamamori Yuta love!)


• IS


• Detective Conan (I ship Ran and Shinichi so much! Their chemistry is amazing!)

• Korean dramas


• Heartstrings


• Myung Wol the Spy

I have not caught up on City Hunter. Heard the ending was pretty good though. This Japanese drama season is pretty good. Lots of stuff to watch.

And ... dinner is cooked (Japanese style curry over pasta) ... wow, blogging is a great time filler! XD

How was your Monday?

Darling City

EDIT 22/07/12: Pretty sure this restaurant has closed and replaced with a Chinese and Korean fusion restaurant.

I started typing this up last night but I somehow deleted the entry and had no motivation to type it up again. After a long sleep (12 HOURS!) I find my motivation has come back to me.

After a long day back at uni (9am start, 7am finish, though I guess that's really nothing compared to people who actually work!) I met up with a couple of friends and friends of friends and made some new friends. We didn't really know where to have dinner. We usually go eat at the same places if we haven't pre-planned a dinner outing. And so, we headed off to Pitt Street to have some Korean food for dinner. I've always walked past Darling City but have never eaten there. As we went inside they were playing the Korean variety show Running Man. Extra fun.





Pitcher of Hite beer - $27
Hite is a less bitter kind of beer. So it goes down well without leaving too much of an aftertaste. The pitcher is bigger than what I thought. Bigger than a jug from a pub.


Side dishes


Kimchi jjigae


Dumplings
My dream Friday night, wind down meal is just any kind of dumplings and beer. Love, love, love dumplings.


Chicken
I should probably pay more attention when we order food. Half not coated in that spicy sauce and half covered in sauce. Whilst the red might make you think it'd be pretty chilli it was pretty mild. The chicken itself also had a sweetness to it that I was not expecting and I was pleasantly surprised.


Radish
I so thought they were pieces of apple before I popped them in my mouth.





We had dinner with a couple who had only been in Sydney for a few weeks and they agreed that Sydney was expensive. They were comparing Korean prices for food with Australian prices and it's much more expensive. Why, Sydney, why?!