A birthday and a get together

I am sooo behind in my blogging! Bad SMJ! Here's my attempt to catch up. So a few of my major outings in the past two weeks have included Alex's birthday party at the Bavarian Bier Cafe and also a get together with some of my old workmates at Malaya.

Bavarian Bier Cafe @ York St

Firstly, Alex's birthday. I didn't bother taking much food photos since I've been there so many times. The only real food photo is of their sticky date pudding:


I've always disliked sticky date puddings as I find them too sickly sweet. That is until I tried the one at Nick's Seafood at Cockle Bay Wharf. They have converted me onto this gorgeous dessert! The Bavarian Bier's version is lighter and slightly crumbly compared to the traditional sticky date, but it worked out perfectly for me after eating a massive slab of schnitzel and mash. Plus I had gus help me eat half of it.

Now onto the rest of the night. It was pretty calm except when I tipped half a bier onto my brand new dress trying to climb over the bench to sit down. Note to self, don't wear dresses when you're going to be sitting on a bench.

Of course, there was the present for the birthday girl:



Then for some reason, Gus got a bit macho jealous of Ryan's biceps and needed a photo with them:


Only he lost the contest:


Just to make Gus feel less inferior, we decided to hit the schnapps, picking the ones with the highest alcoholic content. You know, cos we're all macho and all.



Let me tell you this, Sour Apple Schnapps is the ONLY thing you should order from their schnapps menu. The rest is either a paint stripper, or a sugar concentrate that will guarantee cavities within 5mins of taking a shot!

Malaya

The last get together I had with some of my old workmates involved Yum Cha at lunch. As nice as that was, we couldn't spend much time chatting and catching up. So this time round, I organised dinner at the Malaya to give us more time to catch up as well as have some great food! Unfortunately, the lovely Oyen who wanted to try Malaya so bad was feeling sick and couldn't make it, so it looks like I'll have to organise another outing to Malaya soon! Poor us ;)

As with every get together, there is alcohol beforehand. Its kind of given considering half of the people are boozers! (And I mean people who booze more than me!). This time however, we made it to the restaurant on time. Unlike the last dinner outing which involved a few of us getting so pissed we forgot to go to the restaurant, and when we did, we caught the wrong bus and ended up walking in a storm without umbrellas to get there! This time it was raining as well, and we were pissed, but not so pissed we couldn't find the place. But what do we do the minute we got to Malaya? Cocktails!!

Malayatini - Passion fruit and lychee martini

Mrs wong - Tastes like orange juice to me

We ended up having quite a few more rounds of cocktails and beers before the food even came out!!

Seafood san choi bow

My serve

Chicken satay sticks with a sweet sambal sauce

The sweet sambal like sauce was really really good. I was spooning a whole teaspoonful per bite I was taking. Then I moved onto the veggies which I dunked into the sauce then delicately balanced a heap spoonful of sauce ontop before eating. I was half tempted to ask them to leave the sauce behind. But get distracted for 2 seconds and it was gone :(

Roti Canai - Flakey pancakes with a chicken curry dipping sauce

The sauce

As much as I liked this dish, $11 for ONE roti cut into 4 wedges and a bowl of sauce is RIDICULOUS. In Singapore and Malaysia, this is considered a cheap snack. For what you see above, that wouldn't cost you more than $1.50.

Pepper king prawns - peppery but sweet and moreish

Wonderfully crispy salt and pepper squid

Tender Lamb Korma

Assam fish - Crispy but with a creamy sweet and sour tang

Half demolish Bali Lamb

Sze Chuan Eggplant

I decided to write about this dish last. This was UNBELIEVABLY, orgasmicly good! The eggplants were fried until crispy, but the inside was smooth and creamy, all tossed in a caramelised sweet and spicy sauce served on a bed of Kang Kung. I would've been happy with this dish and a big bowl of boiled rice. Hell, I'll eat this every single day, 3 meals a day for a week and I'll still be happy! Anyone who doesn't like eggplant must still try this dish. I guarantee it will convert you!

Happy campers!

Turning 27...

Seems like its that time of the year again. Since I am getting older, the chances of getting completely plastered is going to get less and less. So with that in mind, I made a reservation at the Bavarian Bier Cafe in York St. Plus, I thought it'll be good to get back into the whole drinking thing that we did when overseas. And just to add to the whole "partying" theme, we also booked a room at the 5 star Rydges Hotel at World Square for us to have a pre and post party party at.

And most of you should all know how absolutely psycho Moishii is and never to piss him off. I don't know what Christine did, but there were 50 photos of her to hand out that night.






And somewhere along the line, there was a penguin...

Mad Matt

...or two....

is this considered bestiality?

Gus doing a lap in the hallway

If it wasn't for these photos, I would've thought I was completely shitfaced before the party. Wait...I was:


It doesn't help that we had half a case of imported Chianti wine to kick start the night off with...Eventually we stumbled out of the hotel towards dinne. Not before Matt ditched us to go look for Laura. I guess he had better give her a call after he told her that he was spending the night at his Grandma's place and then got caught lying. Oh, did I mention that Matt proposed and then took it back? After making Laura buy her own engagement ring? Like what the hell? Good thing I heard this story before I started drinking....

Anyway, half way to the restaurant, we bumped into these chicks at Pitt St mall who were lost trying to Mykonos on Crown on Pitt. I gave them some instructions and invited them to the party if they can't find the hen's night they were going to. I'm not sure if they ended up rocking up or not.

By the time we got to the restaurant, I swear the room was spinning. That doesn't stop me hitting the bar and downing the mango beer like no tomorrow. Before I could even sit down, Moishii pulled out his packet of Christine photos and started distributing it at the restaurant. Some people really got into it as well!!





Of course...theres the yearly ritual of my embarrassing bday card....



As more people arrived, it became present opening time. Thank you everyone for the lovely gifts!! A bunch of my friends chipped in to get some of my Italy photos printed into a book! I'm published again! Somewhere along the line, I also got a Max Bennar mug (more on this later), jewellery, a portable bag hook and a G-string. Yes you know who you are!! Dirty dirty people!! :P

After an hour, Matt decided to rock up with Laura. Lets just say, a few people quietly slid their knife off the table.

The rest of the night was a bit of a blur.







I know somewhere along the line, one of the guys at the bar asked for my email, so I passed my email along with Christine's. Just to go with the theme of the night. I know we also had some really great food:

Mixed sausages

Schnitzel of some sort

Moishii refusing to share his food

Tasting platter

Goulash

Caesar salad

Calamari

Pork Belly

Prawn Linguine

There was alot of groping as usual....







and god knows what else that happened......



The night ended with a few more shots of schnapps (and us tipping the waitress with a Christine photo) before we decided to call it a night and head back to the hotel. As we paid the bill and got up to leave, the boys were so nice to help me carry my presents. Except sometimes, it's better to do things yourself. Because less than 5seconds after getting up from the table, Moishii dropped the box that was holding my Max Brennar mug that Mey and Dave had gotten me. The mug was completely smashed up. This is when I stand in the middle of the restaurant screaming "OH MY GOD!!!! YOU JUST SMASHED MY BIRTHDAY PRESENT!!! THATS MY BIRTHDAY PRESENT!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU SMASHED MY BIRTHDAY PRESENT!! WE HAVEN'T EVEN LEFT THE RESTAURANT AND YOU SMASHED MY BIRTHDAY PRESENT!!!". Lets just say, we got more than enough attention with my little tantrum.

The remains

We stumble onto the streets trying to make it back to the hotel. The whole way stumbling back, Moishii started handing the Christine Photos out as if they were advertising fliers. He even started sticking them on the car windshields and slamming it on the table of people dining on the streets. Despite that, we still had a good 15 photos left by the time we get back to the hotel.

I wasn't paying attention, but all of a sudden, there was another penguin.


Meanwhile, Laura had chucked a tantrum saying Matt had to go home with her (she was also the one screaming we had to get the bill because she had to get up early and so THEY are not going to the strip club. What strip club??). So Matt grabs his stuff and starts screaming he wants a bottle of wine to take home. I grabbed a random bottle and shoved it at him. I even gave them a goodbye hug...lets just say the hug I got wasn't exactly..."warm and friendly". I'm surprised I didn't get a knife to my back.

Jojo also decided to leave at this point, leaving Gus and Moishii in the room with me. We decided to continue with the alcohol, that is until Moishii tips an entire glass of red wine all over the dressing table and onto the 5 star egyptian cotton doona and sheets. The red wine had soaked through the doona. Within 5mins, we had used up a whole box of tissues before Moishii poured a whole bottle of shampoo onto the doona. I was getting headspins from the shampoo fragrance.

Damage control

I decided to leave Moishii to it and went and got ready for bed. Except I came out to this:



Things got quite raunchy after that. I decided the 2 boys can share a bed and I'll take the single. I didn't want to interrupt...

I barely slept during the night. Not only was it freezing and I was too lazy to turn the heat up, but I was dehydrated and couldn't get comfortable with the tangle of sheets and limp pillows. Next thing you know, the alarm goes off and Gus is next to me like a ray of fuckin sunshine. What the hell is wrong with you?? LEAVE ME ALONE!! I decided to shower before Gus threw the curtains open and started singing out the window.

We all got dressed despite the massive hangovers. The original plan was to drive to Bill's for breakfast, but right now, we can barely walk, let alone drive. We made it downstairs to a cafe literally next door to the hotel and planted our butts down there for breakfast. Gus decided to ditch us for church leaving just the 2 of us there to recap. God these recap sessions are quite scary...

Lucky, after stuffing our faces and shocking our system with caffiene, we were finally human again.




We went back to the hotel where we checked out and dragged our suitcase (yes, we had a mini suitcase each for our overnight stay) to the bus stop at the cinemas to catch a bus to Martin Place where we were parked. Because the Blackmoores marathon was on, there was massive traffic disruptions, so we decided to walk there instead. Now this feels like we're on holiday....except our suitcases don't weigh 30kgs each!!

Moishii eventually dropped me off where I am nursing my hangover right now...

To all the people who came to my party! THANK YOU FOR COMING! If I did anything weird, I was drunk! ;) Til next year! Cheers!