last night we went out to the sydney opera house. we all dressed up for the opera (we saw the magic flute by mozart.) the weather has taken a turn for the worse recently so i could not take any tourist shots.

before the performance we gathered at the opera kitchen for dinner. seeing as we were short for time, we all decided to order from one place … misschu.

having never eaten at misschu, i was rather excited because the world on the blogs is that this place is not short on praise. as we waited, my stomach grumbled & as the food was placed before us within fifteen minutes we all dove straight in … after photographs, obviously.

the traditional peking duck pancakes were such a hit that we ordered four serves for the four people dining at our tables. that meant we had sixteen pancakes on our table, i would call them a success. i had one & i loved it. yes, that is coming from a girl who rarely eats duck.

my family ordered more than just pancakes, one dish i was able to get a picture of was the deep fried prawn and crabnet spring rolls. i did not have one of these but they went quickly, within seconds. several steamed dumpling were also ordered by sadly missed my lens as we were in a hurry.

looks like a trip back is in my future.

recently i have changed the way i have been blogging, it’s better – i like it. these blog changes have me starting to think that i have turned into a hardcore vegan with all the blogs i have been posting.

this is not what is happening.

you have not seen the bowls of fruit with yogurt or the cups of strong coffee with a tiny bit of milk or the biscuits or the slices of cake. you are seeing the two largest meals i have been eating & not the rest.

my bigger meals have been rather vegan-like, i will admit that but i am not becoming a vegan. i love my seafood & egg whites far too much to give them up. cleaner eating is what i’m doing & i’m feeling brilliant on the inside.

salad, oh glorious salad, you make my heart smile. i am obsessed with a big bowl of vegetables, thrown together & mixed with lemon juice. lemon juice gives any salad a much need kick up the a$$, it adds that extra bit of excitement in the mouth.

admittedly, i am eating a redic amount of salads these days. i even had a day where one salad was eaten for breakfast & one for dinner. yes, that makes two in one day. i have not gone completely insane, i have a wedding coming up in july & i want to be feeling my best.

summer on the other hand is my best friend, i wait months & months to see my best friend. once it arrives we are inseparable, glued at the hip. i wear sundresses & it brings the sunshine, we are perfect for each other.

in summer, i trade my soup for sashimi. i cherish eating sashimi outside on a steamy hot summer evening. the sashimi is light which is perfect for summertime.

i see many trips for sashimi in my future.

this is exactly what i look like when i get out of bed, shower sans hair wash & run into the apple store to get my iphone fixed. i screamed disaster. i might have looked like a crazy lady wearing bug eyed sunglasses inside the apple store but i do not mind, i think i had panda eyes.

this breakfast was definitely a brunch, seeing as i did not leave the apple store until shortly after noon. i was very lucky that the genius bar were able to see me so quickly, the third flour is chaotic. i headed into westfield because my stomach was singing to me.

when i was looking over their menu this dish jumped out at me, my eyes lit up & my stomach was excited. i went sans dressing & asked for extra lemon … i personally believe that lemon juice makes every salad taste better, i’m citrus obsessed.

i’m on a huge salad kick lately & i’m always on the look out for new salad combinations, just look at my pins. the combination of vegetables & salmon in this salad won over my heart, this salad was true love.

the above juice was orange, mango & passionfruit from top juice because i can’t resist their juice menu. i also adore taking photographs in public, everybody stares!

watermelon & mint juice?

you know summer has arrived when you are craving a meal outside in the humidity that is sydney … december through march. any chance to be outside is taken by me. i’ll go out to to unsuccessfully randomly run into my crush. to get a paper. a coffee. a juice. a packet of mints. you need it, i’ll get it. anything!

luckily for me, i discovered that r would be free for dinner on friday night. which was brilliant because it allowed me to indulge in the humidity of the city with a friend.r & i like similar foods & therefore we make for a good team when it comes to ordering. we simply look over the menu, let each other know what screams out us & discuss. we compromise & order. SIMPLE.

to begin our dinner, we ordered three smaller dishes to share. the first being a r choice:- sweet yam tempura spring rolls served with sweet chilli sauce. i’ve personally never had a yam before & biting into this spring roll was exciting because the purple outer skin became orange .. magic??

being a massive lover of all things dumpling & steamed buns, i ordered the following two smaller dishes for us to share. everything i ordered was mixed which meant that we literally cut everything down the middle for a taste test.

i ordered:- mixed dumplings – pumpkin, english spinach, mushroom plus assorted steamed buns – bbq, chickpea, chinese cabbage.

the dumpling, they blew my mind. i have successfully found the dumpling i was secretly searching for. i have been on a quest to find dumplings that have the right texture in the skin & also have tasty ingredients inside. why did i not find this place sooner? i would look like a dumpling, that is why.

dinner was light & fresh, just what summer ordered. we shared salt and pepper silky tofu salad with wakami, cucumber noodle, baby leaves, mint and yuzu dressing plus bodhi vegetarian peking ‘duck’, bbq sauce, cucumber and pancakes.

we are both dying to go back for their lunch menu which is full of dumplings.

i am crazy. on a 26 degree day, i turned my oven on & turned my kitchen into an inferno. after stripping down to a singlet, i happily went on mixing my spices & rubbing my vegetables. get your mind out of the gutter.

admittedly i did not come up with this recipe. no strange ideas came to me while washing my hair in the shower for this one. this recipe is adapted from my favourite blogger & i really wanted to make a dinner out of my spicy mix so i did. i especially love that jenna explained to us that “roasted cauliflower started to caramelize and took on a deliciously nutty, spicy flavor”.

i was sold, you had me caramelize jenna.

spicy roasted vegetables

adapted from eat, live run

ingredients:

1/2 large head cauliflower, cut into florets

1 white parsnip, diced

1 purple parsnip, diced

1/4 pumpkin, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsbp flax seed oil

directions:

preheat oven to 200 degrees. mix all spices together in a small cup or dish.

drizzle oil all over vegetables and sprinkle with spice mix. toss in a bowl and lay out on a lined sheet tray, try to keep each vegetable seperate.

roast spicy vegetables for 25-30 minutes, tossing occasionally.

i served my vegetables with tofu & hummus … for dipping. delicious!

waking up after a late night on the phone with my bff was a struggle yesterday morning. we spent three hours discussing everything on our minds & hung up shortly after 1 am.

i’m the twenty-three year old who refuses to answer texts after 10 pm & falls asleep at 10:34 pm nearly every night. #loser alert.

a family friend came over for a catchup & this was the breakfast we chose to share with her. my love for berries & orange juice was my contribution to this brunch, the mother chef’s love for expresso was hers & our family friend suggested crepes.

we were a match made in foodie heaven.

growing up i was not often given curry for dinner because my taste buds were weak. i was so extremely weak that up until 5 years ago i had trouble with cracked pepper. clearly i was not a very strong child or teen, i am slightly ashamed.

since my weakened taste buds were … weakening my street cred – i made changes.

pepper here, sriracha there, chili in this, sambal oelek on that. my forehead sweated, my nose ran & my eyes watered. i kept adding heat into my food on occasion until one day … my face wasn’t a total mess as a result of my weak taste buds. only took me a year!

i am not about to try eating a full chili again but i have developed a love for things spicy.

i had a three hour conversation with a guy on saturday night …
i left without giving him my number or getting his. does that seem crazy? i feel like it was an insane situation & we were both sober so i have no excuse to say i was too drunk to get it. we clicked but then nothing, what the???!!?

i did however pretend to be incredibly drunk when i ran into my crush because he has made it very clear that he isn’t interested in me when i’m still crushing on him, it was awkward – i am awkward.

early the next morning, this breakfast happened. it was delicious. i enjoyed every mouthful. every sip & every minute of it, it was perfection. the frozen bananas were thawed slightly & made for brilliant ingredient to thickening this blended juice.