CAFE C'YA

KOREAN FOOD. YUM. Gen took us to her favourite korean restaurant in Sydney, just down the street from her place, for dinner on the first night of our trip, and boy was it good. Cafe C'ya is hidden in a little street off George Street so its easy to miss if you aren't looking for it. But you should be looking for it because it is sure to make a hearty korean meal that you are sure to enjoy.

I didn't know I had so little photos of the place, but yeah, you can see above we had bugolgi & seafood korean pancake. We also had kimchi(?) seafood soup that is just perfect for cold winter days, and Beef Jap Chae on our 2nd visit, which is potato noodles. This trip marks my first time trying Jap Chae, which is weird, because I've actually been to Korea, but I guess I just never thought to order it. But I found that I really like it! It has this unique chewy texture, and the dish itself is so yummy. I think I'm going to walk into Korean food places and look out for Jap Chae from now on. Oh and as like any regular Korean restaurant, they serve side dishes. There were bean sprouts, kimchi, macaroni and some jelly like thing in a sauce that I found really strange to eat, but Gen & Jo like it so its probably just me. I must just be weird. Hahaha

This isn't the only time we had Korean on the trip. We ate here twice, once in another restaurant that I'll post about, and another time at a korean buffet place. Gen assures us that in Sydney, whats good is the Asian food. We had quite a bit of Asian food and Cafe food too during our trip and I must say I do agree with her. When we think of the best meals, they are ones when we had Asian food. Korean, Jap, Thai. Those were the best and they never did disappoint. Which might seem weird I guess, it being Australia. But I loved them and still lick my lips when I think of them. Which, since I came back, has been often. ;)

Eunice

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HYDE PARK & CITY WALK

Hyde Park is such a beautiful place. After having breakfast at Bourke Street Bakery and everybody taking a pretty long nap back at Gen's place, Jo & I went around to explore the neighbourhood on our own as Gen had a full day of school. Because Joash bought a Optus SIM card which was 30AUD for 15 days with unlimited data, messages and calls to Aussie numbers (pretty sweet deal!), getting around was easy using Google Maps so don't worry, we didn't get lost on our first day. Haha

Before my trip my cousin told me to definitely visit Hyde Park. He said it was beautiful. And it was! And I can imagine that it would look pretty beautiful at night too, what with the lamps lining the wide pathway. Although I think as a park its a bit on the smaller side. We finished walking through it pretty quickly even though we were strolling. But it seemed like the perfect place to unwind and relax. Around the J.F. Archibald Memorial Fountain were many park benches and I could already imagine grabbing a sandwich and just sitting there breathing in the park air during lunch breaks.





At the other end of Hyde Park sits the ANZAC War memorial. I didn't know much about it when I was there, but a little googling taught me some interesting facts! ANZAC stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and this memorial is dedicated to the Australian Imperial Force in World War 1. The lake in front of it is called the Lake of Reflections, and the trees that line the sides of it are poplars, which aren't native to Australia but are planted as a symbol of the areas of France in which the troops fought. I thought that was pretty interesting. You can click on the link to find out other details about the structure itself! Not knowing all these, the thing that really caught our eye was the etches into the trees that included many hearts, love dedications and other phrases. It led Joash to briefly called it a love park. Haha I guess you can call us uninformed tourists. :S



From the fountain we noticed the beautiful St. Mary's Cathedral just by the side of Hyde Park. If you think the structure look beautiful, you haven't seen the inside. And you won't too, on this blog at least. Photography isn't allowed inside, and out of respect I didn't take any. But we did step in to walk around and really, the whole place is stunning. We spent a lot of time admiring the interior, especially the beautiful stain glass windows depicting different biblical events. It just gave off a certain mood. Serene, calm, and it definitely took my breath away.



We also did a bit of city walk that day, and the one building/mall that peaked my interest was Queen Victoria Building. It looked so grand on the outside and did not disappoint on the inside either. I think the two large hanging clocks were one of the focal points of the structure, but I wouldn't know. It was for us though! They were incredible; so large in size, and extremely unique. They even had little miniature scenes going on on each side of the clock structure. The mall itself, was out of my league. Expensive stuff there, although there is one craft/hobby shop if you're into building toy trains, tamiya cars or gundam figurines. There was also a little Dr Seuss art work museum! Although it was closed when we went past so we just looked at it through the glass.




Not knowing where to go has it perks because we wandered into this little alley, that split into these two gorgeous alleys above. I. Love. Hanging. Deco. I love it. And trust me I have this little obsession with bird cages (don't know if its a symbol I associate to my life of just a Harry Potter thing), so I definitely fell in love with the first one. I still don't know what street these alleys are in though, sorry. Haha

We sure did a lot of walking on our first day, but I'm glad we did! I think we only spent one other day wandering around without an agenda because for the rest of the days we had like a main thing we roughly planned to do for each day. But walking made up a lot of what we did. I kind of developed calf muscles by the end of the trip. Which my boyfriend so kindly pointed out, does not in any way mean you exercised; go and run. X)

Eunice

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BOURKE STREET BAKERY

Hey guys! Sorry for leaving this space un-updated for three weeks. I've been in Sydney for the past two weeks and only got back last Friday so trust me when I say the holiday mood got to me. Year 2 of Uni life starts tomorrow but I have a string of posts coming up about Sydney: things we did, things we saw, things we ate. My friend Gen (whose house we invaded for the two weeks) brought us to all her favourite eating spots and well, spots in general, so while you're just going to get like the little snippets from the tourist I was on this blog, you can follow her as she discovers and shares more Sydney spots over at her blog! :)

So on the first day, after Gen (we were staying with her in Sydney) picked me and Jo up from the airport in the early morning, she brought us straight to Bourke Street Bakery, in all our half-awake and spectacle wearing goodness. Haha! But there weren't [much] complains because we have tried its amazing chocolate tart that one time she brought it back to Singapore, so we were already looking forward to have it again on this trip! 

It sure tasted as good as I remembered it to be, and maybe even better. The chocolate is all soft and creamy and had a really unique texture for a chocolate tart. Loved it. Gen also recommended the Pork & Fennel Sausage roll, which apparently they are really famous for!

We had plans to bring a few chocolate tarts back to Singapore, but that didn't work out. Although we had it again at another outlet (last picture above) for breakfast on one of the other days, so I'm pretty satisfied. I'm already missing it though! X)

Eunice

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STANDING SUSHI BAR

Firstly, rest assured, there are seats. Hahaha Last Wednesday, I went to try out Standing Sushi Bar with Karin. My sister has been raving about it for a pretty long time. About how good the rolls are, how cheap it is...



Now before we move on from what she said, I must tell you, they are only cheap on Wednesdays. I think I got quite the shock when I first looked at the prices, every roll is more than $10, the better ones around $17. But they have a 50% off all rolls and handrolls promotion on Wednesdays at the Bras Basah outlet, so I would say, try them then! With that said, I'm itching to tell you guys how good they are so let's start!


Puff the Magic Dragon ($18.90). THIS WAS OUR FAVOURITE. Sorry, I couldn't resist hitting the caps lock key for this. This was our favourite. Firstly, the super cute name is a winner. Hahaha Puff the Magic Dragon has a tempura prawn centre, draped with slice of grilled unagi and topped with roe. This was the first one to arrive at our table and we fell in love at first bite. We sat there in silence and after a while went 'mmm... its so goooood.' The whole thing is just so yummy, with the sauce, and the unagi, and the tempura prawn, and the crunch from the cucumber. Its a party in my mouth. I have so much love for this.


Rockstar Roll ($16.90). It has a fried mozzarella cheese stick centre, draped with lightly seared salmon, and topped with mentaiko sauce. This is my sister's favourite and #1 recommendation, and we really did love it! The salmon slices are just lightly seared so you get some raw salmon in there too. We weren't really salmon lovers, but we enjoyed it a lot because its just so tasty. It does lack crunch, so the whole piece just mushes in your mouth, and its so yummy. Look at that cheese oozing out. Mm mm mmmm.


Crabby Chicken ($17.90). 3rd on our list! The first two were recommendations from my sister, but this one caught our eye and we were so glad we tried it! In the centre of this sushi roll is fried chicken and soft shell crab, topped with chicken floss and mayo. Its so yummy because you get salty from the filling, and sweet from the floss and yeah, its just delicious. 


Crispy Shrimp ($12). This one is the fourth on our list not because it wasn't good, but it just wasn't as flavourful as the others. Its like regular sushi with a tempura prawn in the centre, and the leaves that they rolled the roll in isn't sweet or salty, it just tastes like, well, leafy. Karin did like the taste of the leaves though! I wouldn't recommend you getting this. I would say if you're there to try something different, get another Puff the Magic Dragon or something else. The price difference is worth it, trust me. Haha


Heres a better look at the insides for you. Left to right, top to bottom: Crabby Chicken, Puff the Magic Dragon, Rockstar Roll, Crispy Shrimp.


We left with really happy tummies. We shared the four rolls between us, having 16 pieces each, and we each paid only $18, which we thought was pretty good value for the amount of good food we had.

Just to let you know, there are other promotions on other weekdays:
Mondays- $3 for salmon sashimi (5 slices)
Tuesday - 50% off sushi and sashimi
Wednesdays - 50% off rolls and handrolls
Thursdays - $3 for salmon sashimi (5 slices)
There are drink promotions on some of the days too! Check here for more details!
Remember these promotions are only for the Bras Basah/8 Queen St outlet!

Hmm... I'm thinking that theres a high chance I'll bump into some of you guys there on a Wednesday. Hahaha Have a yumtastic time if you do go! :) 

Eunice

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ONE YEAR IN

Theres a word in the dictionary of blogging jargon for a day like today - its called a blogiversary. It sounds really funny to me so let's just say we've come full circle and its been a year since this blog was launched! Yippee! Give me a moment while I skip around my room for a bit.

I remember all the reasons and motivations that led me to start up House of Daydreams. I've had blogs before certainly, but they were pretty hush-hushed and definitely not ones with as much focus, conscious effort and goals. I knew when I went into this that blogging wasn't easy. Looking back, it wasn't my best effort, seeing how the only month that seemed to be productive (based on regularity) was my first month of blogging. But the burn out is real. At times I didn't even want to have to do anything with my blog. Although you would have noticed that at various points of the year I did try to pump myself up by reminding myself of what I wanted for this space, and today I do the same.

I just wanted to say I'm grateful for each of you who have stopped by to look at my blog or commented at one point or another. Thanks to the friends who come up to me with kind words about the blog; I know I get really awkward/embarrassed, but it does make me feel happy! Thanks for the friends and family, especially my sister, who have been encouraging me from the start, sharing my posts, and pushing and reminding me when I need to. Even Mo, whom I'm sure found the whole idea really awkward at first, for being really supportive and being happy with me (instead of making fun of me) every time I go to him saying 'they shared my post!' or 'a blogger I follow commented!'. Hahaha I sound really pathetic I know but hey, its fun and it makes me happy so why pretend it doesn't?

Looking forward, I want to be able to put more into this space. It has certainly taught me a lot over the past year and even before that while I was just toying with the idea of it. But I'm pretty sure I can do more, and thats what I intend to do. School is only going to get busier for the rest of this year (Fall semester is going to be a hectic one), but I'll find the time with good planning, determination and God's help in managing my life well. 

There is definitely going to more to come, that's for sure.

Eunice

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