Weekend Wonderland

This weekend has really been very interesting, and certainly one of the most eventful weekends I"ve had here in Sydney. The weather's been great these last week or so, and especially these past few days: it's getting quite cold now, with the temperature reaching as low as 17 degrees Celsius (the max is still about 23 to 24 degrees, which is still way cooler than the minimum temperature in Malaysia, which makes it great!)

Yesterday a bunch of us decided we had had enough of the cold lunch here at IH, and we were all just aching for some familiar Malaysian flavours, so we trooped over to this quaint little shop located amongst some residential apartments (I think the building is called the Quadrant Building or something like that, not too sure, but it's just slightly beyond Broadway). The shop's called Malacca Straits, which in my humble opinion is a fantastic name for a place specializing in Malaysian cuisine.

I knew exactly what I wanted, and that was a hot steaming spicy bowl of laksa. Unfortunately, the laksa here isn't the Sarawak laksa type, but rather akin to the Singaporean-style laksa, aka curry laksa. Nevermind, I thought, at least it's still laksa. It was a pretty huge bowl too, like, the vermicelli here in this one Sydney-sized bowl is the amount you'd get if you were to order three (maybe even four, depending on how stingy the laksa man is) bowls of regular laksa back home in good ole Kuching. We had the option of choosing from vegetable ($8), chicken ($8.50) or prawn ($10 I think), so I went for the chicken cos I thought 50 cents, well, that's not too big a difference, right? And it was well worth the extra 50 cents - the chicken pieces were quite exquisite, silky smooth coating and great texture, quite generous (not like the ridiculously measly slivers of shredded meat you get back home). The soup was quite close to the real thing, and I think I might have even sighed in contentment (2 months without authentic Malaysian food can be quite torturous). However, the soup wasn't quite salty enough, and they might have diluted the curry gravy to tone down the spiciness? I understand where they're coming from though; any spicier and they might lose the local angmoh clientele. The blandness of the soup aside though, the ingredients were pretty satisfying. There was the taupok (is that what you call it, the fried pillows of tauhu?) and taugeh and even three or four curry leaves thrown in for effect. I even munched on one, so happy was I to have the familiar tastes of home in my mouth again.

After that we ended up at Broadway, and I finally got an Aussie number, so you guys can call me if you're feeling extra rich. It's from Vodafone, and it's one of those where your credit will be valid for 365 days (meaning if I'm extra careful I won't have to recharge my credit at all!). Message me on Facebook or email me if you want my number, cos really I shouldn't reveal it here in a public domain and all right?

This morning was Easter Sunday, and I managed to go to a church. Which church? Hillsong were having their service at the Sydney Entertainment Centre today so Su-Wen and I set out from IH at 8.15 am (I was ready by 7.15 am cos I forgot that Daylight Savings Time had ended early this morning!). The place was actually just a 15-minute walk away (near Chinatown), but we ended up walking for an hour in the opposite direction! We finally found the place at about 9.15 am, 15 minutes after the service was scheduled to start. It was great to be there! It was all also somewhat surreal, because you hear their music, and you see their videos and all, and suddenly you're there, in person. But most importantly, I feel happy and quite comfortable there, so I might try to attend their services from now on. And apparently their church is somewhere at Waterloo, which is approximately 1.8 km away, which is within walking distance. Here are some pictures from this morning's service:

Then for dinner tonight Uncle Stephen brought me to a Vietnamese place located somewhere in Chinatown (the place is becoming quite familiar, as in I can recognize some buildings and landmarks and all). I didn't know anything on the menu so Uncle Stephen did the ordering. We had some keropok-like thingy which they topped with vermicelli and pork slices and spring onions (and you add some fish sauce to it before you take a big yummy bite!). There were also the dishes of sliced pork (roasted to perfection) and the fried tofu squares (cooked with chopped chilli and black pepper, I think). It's the first time I've tasted Vietnamese food, and really, it's fantastic, and oh so addictive!!!!

It's been a great weekend for me, full of memorable events and eats! And the best part about it all? This next week is still the holidays for me, muahahahaha! I am gonna sleep till late tomorrow, and only wake up in time for lunch... At least, that's the plan. I hope you all have a great week ahead, people! Cheers!