Countdown to NYC

Just over a week now until I fly off and starting to get more than a little excited! But also a bit apprehensive since I am not feeling as skinny as I would have liked to be for the dress fittings. Thinking of doing absolutely no carbs next week in a final attempt to get my tummy as flat as possible but not even sure I would be able to last the day.

In the meantime, more Crave events (probably not the best idea for me to be going to these things at this point in time but hey, it only happens once a year) starting with the Nice As Spice drink & dine dinner at Sailors Thai Ivy, which was a fun four-course Thai dinner matched with four cocktails:

already majorly tipsy at this point lol

omg this drink was SO strong, I only managed a couple of sips

good view of the open kitchen

Sugar Hit at Cafe Ish:

you are meant to 'design your own dessert' with this palette of native Australian and Japanese sweets but I really couldn't be bothered to play with my food so just ate it

Sugar Hit at Westin:

Dinner followed by Sugar Hit at Azuma Kushiyaki:

the famous (for good reason) seared tuna salad

atsuage

some totally awesome clam special dish

assorted kushiyaki

tempura

Hopefully I can squeeze in a couple more sugar hits before I starve myself next week =)

Natura Bisse Inhibit-Tensolift

I am really starting to get paranoid about fine lines and wrinkles lately, as the years go by I find myself paying more attention to other people's complexions and realising what I don't want my skin to end up looking like in the future. Back in 2007 I read about Beauty Snob Tina's nightly skin routine and since then have been intrigued by one of the products she claimed to be like 'botox in a bottle' - Natura Bisse's Inhibit-Tensolift:

A 60mL bottle of this stuff costs a whopping USD715 and so I promised myself I wouldn't splurge on this until I hit 30. BUT I've started to freak out about the frown lines on my forehead (which Mr Ng claims do not exist but I swear I can see which I blame on him btw) and so I just might be buying this a little earlier than originally planned.

I'm not sure how my mum will feel about me spending that much on one product when we're in NY next month so it looks like my lines will have to wait until til I'm in HK at the end of the year. Can't wait to see what the results are!

Pedder Warehouse Sale

Received this email a few days ago and I'm so bummed I am not in HK right now. It's times like this I wish I was living there..

The Luisa sale here just does NOT compare to the Pedder Warehouse sale. I dragged Mr Ng along with me to check out one of the sales in April this year and geez it was a crazy house! HK girls sure do love their designer shoes. And I did manage to buy this awesome pair of Pierre Hardy booties:

which I know came out all the way back in 2008 but I love anyway, although still haven't managed to wear them yet hmm..

But as with all these sales, the popular sizes sell out FAST so the pickings will probably be pretty slim by today.

Crave Sydney Food Festival

So it's that time of the year again where Sydney comes alive with events to satisfy even the fussiest of foodies (well actually it's almost already halfway through the month so I'm a bit behind). Previously called the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Month, the month-long festival is now known as the Crave Sydney Food Festival and new events such as Breakfast on Bondi have been added to the now popular Night Noodle Markets, Let's Do Lunch, Hats Off Dinners and my favourite, Sugar Hit.

Unfortunately, Mr Ng and I were in Newcastle for the first weekend of Crave and so we've already missed out on one weekend of fun events. Just on the topic of Newcastle, I think visiting once in your lifetime is quite enough - there is absolutely nothing to do there! Harry's hotdogs is probably the most exciting thing they've got lol..

Lucky for us we don't have to drive all the way to Newcastle to get the same great taste.

Back to Crave and the first thing on the agenda was the Flavours of Malaysia buffet which Mr Ng's cousin was kind enough to book for us (after numerous hints to Mr Ng resulted in nothing):

But in short - save your money! Pretty much everything was a let down and Mr Ng was disappointed there wasn't even any chicken rice. Although they did have a not-so-good har mee i suppose..

Didn't take any more pictures though coz sadly there wasn't really anything worth taking pictures of.

Next up, Sugar Hit at Sheraton on the Park beginning with a delicious glass of Brown Brothers dessert wine (forgot the exact name):

and ending with a yummy chocolate-y dessert:

My only gripe would be it was much too small. I'm interested to see if other Sugar Hits have also downsized their portions.

The next morning Mr Ng and I decided to try somewhere different and so settled on brunch at Sonoma which is famous for their sourdough bread:

I love the cool coffee cup holders above the coffee machine, very ingenious.
Onto the food..I opted for the Crave brunch which was a baked free-range eggs, wild mushrooms, spinach and goat's cheese concoction with sourdough bread on the side and Mr Ng, being the unoriginal person he is, went for the eggs. bacon and bread option:

And the verdict? I will definitely be back. Super fresh ingredients made for a a very nice brunch indeed.

Last but not least, the Night Noodle Markets:

This was the crowd on the very first (Monday) night just around 5pm. Walked through last night (Thursday) at about 6pm and it was PACKED. Such a great excuse to grab a bunch of friends , find a table (if you can) and enjoy some nice Asian cuisine in Hyde Park if the weather is good..although it seems they do make you pay through the nose for the experience. Mr Ng therefore refused to eat there and so I had to make do with this before heading for dinner in Chinatown (you'll find the exact same food for much cheaper there you see lol):

Not very Asian at all huh haha. Now is it just me or is Sydney getting crazily expensive?? This small plate cost me a whopping $10. And I just realised yesterday that when I see petrol for $1.40/L these days I now consider that cheap!

More Crave events to come shortly =)