Dimmi online bookings

Online bookings are so convenient.

I don't really like talking on the phone in general and also because I've had heaps of issues with restaurants when trying to book via the phone, I much prefer booking online (although I despise the Momofuku booking system where they release a day's worth of tables at 10am every morning...some people don't have time to sit around the computer at 10am every morning to book a table! Anyways, just venting some frustration :P)

Dimmi provides an online booking system where you can easily select a date and a time for your booking, select the number of people and hey presto! you're done.



It's also great because it tells you automatically whether the restaurant has been booked out or not for that particular date and time :) And whether any Special deals are available for that particular date and time!

Dimmi also provides real restaurant reviews from customers which you can use in making your choice.



And the best thing? You can sign up and collect Dimmi points by reviewing the restaurant that you went to. You can 1,000 points per restaurant. Once you've reached 8,000 points, you can redeem your points for a $50 voucher to be used at selected restaurants that support and use Dimmi.





I have to say that I am yet to use the vouchers, but I will let you guys know when I do!

Although I love Dimmi, I have to admit that there has been ONE time (only once ever out of the many many times I've used Dimmi) when the booking did not go through properly and when I called them to double check they told me that they didn't get my booking! So if you want to be on the safe side, you can call up the restaurant directly to ensure the booking came through.

So if you haven't not booked using Dimmi yet, or have used it before but never collected points, go and earn yourself that $50 voucher :)

Visit the Dimmi website here.

D xx

Max Brenner Chocolate Bar, Castle Hill

I like chocolate full stop.

I like white chocolate, milk chocolate and dark chocolate :) yum yum. The best chocolates are from Belgium but alas, I'm in Sydney! oh well.

Notwithstanding the fact Belgian chocolate rocks, whenever I feel like a real chocolate fix in Sydney, I go to Max Brenner Chocolate Bar.  Luckily there is one pretty close to where I live - in the Piazza area of Castle Towers Shopping Centre.





This place always seems to be super crowded whenever I'm there...which is usually on the weekend so I guess that's normal.



One thing that bugs me about Max Brenner on weekends is that its packed with loud kids!! I have nothing against children but when they're being loud and running around everywhere it can really impair your experience. :(

Anyways, like all the other Max Brenners, this store is separated into the cafe area and the store area where you can buy some handmade chocolates, Max Brenner products like the hug mug and other chocolatey things.











You can check out there products here.

We sat down right in front of the Max Brenner slogan - Enjoy to the MAX!



My sister ordered a latte and I decided to me a little adventurous and ordered the white chocolate chai ($6)....had no idea what it would turn out like but decided to give it a go! It comes in a cool teapot!



I looked at the teapot and thought...ummmm where is the spout?!! and then the chick who brought us the order asked us whether we knew how to use it. I shook my head and then she showed us how! It was super cool. Check it out:



You press the teapot down onto your cup and it comes out from the bottom of the teapot!! The only problem was that after you do that and put it down....it kinda drips (you can see on the bottom right corner). The chai was really yummy though...success!

We also ordered the berry-apple fondue ($18). It also comes with marshmallows and banana bread!





Never really thought about dipping apples into chocolate before, but it was a great combination of crunch and velvet!

The banana bread could have been better though....it wasn't as fresh as I had expected. It was quite yummy nonetheless.

So if you're feeling like a chocolate fix, check out Max Brenner Chocolate Bar! Other items that I usually get from Max Brenner include the italian thick hot chocolate and the hot chocolate with the crunchy waffle balls! You can check out there menu here.

D xx

Sheer Gloss Lip Crayons by Face of Australia

It seems like there's a fad going around recently - crayon shaped lip glosses/balms.

Maybe it's because it sparks the little child inside us - remember those days when you were young and all you did was draw on sketchbooks with fat crayons? I sure do :P

So I've been seeing all these ads around the city promoting the Clinique "Chubby Sticks" in the shape of a thick crayon and thought "oooooh cute!". Nars and Boobi Brown also have similar lip crayons as well.

Anyways, today I strolled into Priceline (as I always do) and ventured towards the hidden back section that nobody seems to go to and found these "Sheer Glosses" in the Face of Australia stand...and they look just like...thick crayons!! Super cute!



The glosses come in a pack of 3 and have cute names as well - Macaron, Cupcake and Sundae.





When you put them on, the texture is actually much lighter than you'd expect...maybe it's because I had the texture of a real crayon on my mind when I tried it on hehe.  You can see it by the sheerness of the texture as applied on the hand below:



My favourite colour is Macaron (just like the food hehe)



Cupcake is a cute pink, and sundae is a very classy mocha colour. As all of the colours are rather sheer, you could probably wear all of them on any occasion!  I'm planning to wear them to work :)





The pens have a wind up applicator so that you never actually have to "sharpen" these babies!

And the best thing is - it only cost $14.95 for the pack of 3 at Priceline! (Chubby Sticks cost $35 for one!)

So if you're looking for a budget alternative to the Clinique Chubby Sticks, why not try these? :)

D xx

Taste of Malaya, Castle Hill

I remember during high school I visited Taste of Malaya (maybe it might have been called something different back then..I can't remember) when it was like a few day before my HSC (university entrance exams) and then ended up crying my eyes out at the restaurant because they forgot to bring me the salad I had ordered until my whole family had finished their meals.

I think I cried because 1) I was hungry / 2) I was stressed / 3) I could have been studying at home rather than wait like 45 mins for a salad.

So I told myself I would boycott this place at all costs.

Fast forward to now.....so one day I was at home and craving laksa and the only place I knew that sold it around my area was Taste of Malaya.  So I decided to give them one last go - if I had a bad experience again I vowed to never ever ever come back.

And how pleasantly surprised I was!!! The laksa was seriously delicious and the service was excellent and the price wasn't that expensive either.

So I went back again :)

Taste of Malaya is located in the Piazza section of Castle Towers Shopping Centre.



The place is decorated in a very simple, classic manner and seats about 40-50 people.





The kitchen is an open kitchen so you can see the chefs cooking away!



We ordered the hot "the tarik" (which is Malaysian milk tea) and a coconut juice.  I liked the teh tarik here, it was kinda like a latte rather than the usual watery type. I'm not a big fan of coconut juice but my sister claims that it yummy so I take her word :P



For entree we ordered some roti with curry sauce to share.  The roti was crispy, light and fluffy and the curry sauce was so delicious - I couldn't stop eating it!



Then we ordered a combination laksa.





The laksa here is very light yet full of flavour.  When I eat laksa, I usually don't end up eating all of the laksa soup because it can get a bit too thick and greasy but this soup was not too greasy and really easy to eat.  The noodles are the thin rice vermicelli noodles and beef is particularly yummy :)

Lastly we ordered the char kway teow because we wanted something without soup.





I thought that it was slightly bland and my mouth was left wanting a bit more flavour...whereas my sister was really happy with it.  We had to ask for a takeaway container because after the roti and the laksa we were so stuffed!!

We ended up paying around $50 for everything which I thought was pretty decent given that we had some leftover to take home!

So yes, I can now say that my teenage grunge against Taste of Malaya has gone and I will be coming back for more!  They have quite a wide range of dishes on the menu as well.

They also give you these chewy lollies at the counter which are really yummy too!  The waitresses are also super nice - one of them even gave me a compliment about my hair which I had cut that morning hehe.

D xx

Wonderlust #1 - December holiday destinations

At my work, we have to take two weeks mandatory leave during Christmas and New Years because the firm closes for two weeks.

Since leave at the end of a year is a given, I try to plan my vacation a decent time before the actual break so that I can get good rates on airfares and just to generally be organised!

Last year I went to Queensland, Australia to see the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree rainforest and then Korea (as I got extended leave)!  A blog post dedicated to my Korea trip will be coming soon so I can introduce everyone to places ink Korea that you must visit if you're ever there!

Anyways, visiting to Queensland was such a great experience especially because I really don't go traveling around Australia much.

So this year I decided to join my family on a trip to Tasmania, Australia for a week because I really want to see more of Australia.

Here are some of the places I want to visit when I'm in Tasmania (all pictures are from the sites in the picture descriptions):

Cradle Mountain



Bay of Fires



Freycinet National Park



Cataract Gorge



Mt Field National Park



I actually did't realise how beautiful Tasmania was until I started researching about my trip!! Hoping I can get some good Tasmanian salmon there as well hehe! (Has anyone been to Tasmania or from Tasmania? Would love to get some tips!)

So....for the remaining one week of my leave....I'm torn as to where I'm going to go! I want to go overseas but preferably somewhere close by because I only have a week (or less) to spend.

Here are some of the contenders:

Hong Kong & Macao





I've been to Hong Kong before when I was younger but because I was like underage and had no money, I didn't really really get to enjoy Hong Kong to its fullest!  So I wanna go again and have FUN (plus go to Macao to check out the casinos!)

New Caledonia



I want to go there and try out my (beginner) French skills! Bon voyage! Oui! hahaha MDR

Perhentian Island, Malaysia



I heard that this place was a diving paradise! I've always wanted to try diving....

Palau



Somewhere off the beaten track! Haha actually this is more like a wish than reality because there are no flights from Australia...so it costs like $7000 to get there via like Korea lol.

So what do you guys think? Where should I go? Cos if I don't decide... I might just end up staying at home blogging :P

If you have any recommendations, let me know!

D xx

Outback Steakhouse, North Strathfield

Did you know that Outback Steakhouse is not Australian?

Yeah - high five if you didn't know that either :) lol

I only kinda realised when I saw that they had Outback Steakhouse restaurants in Korea and thought, surely that can't be an Aussie export? So a little bit of googling and found out it was American.

Anyways, so when I was a uni student, me and my friends would feel like steak but not be bothered to go all the way to the city so we used to go to Outback Steakhouse in North Strathfield.

And in my memory it was pretty easy to get a table there - we would sometimes rock up without a booking and be fine.

But this time when we rocked up....there was a 45min to 1 hour WAIT!!!! I was so surprised at how packed the restaurant was....ummm since when was Outback Steakhouse so popular? It was only like 6:30pm or something.



Thank goodness we had called a few days earlier and were informed about this "priority seating" system where if you call in you get put on top of the waiting list for seating (they don't take bookings for less than 8 people).

So we ended up getting a table in 15-20mins, rather than 45 mins.  They do have a bar section where people can have a drink while they wait for their seats as well.



The menu is pretty extensive but I was so set on getting a steak - so I chose the 225g Victoria's Fillet (although it wasn't as thick as it looked in the picture..!). I ordered medium rare, and it was cooked pretty decently so I was happy with the steak.





When you order a steak you have the option to choose between a soup (depends on what they have that day) or a salad and then one side.





I chose the Pumpkin Soup and the jacket potato as my side (as you can see above).  The pumpkin soup was super yummy (cos I don't usually like pumpkin soup but this one was really creamy and good) but the jacket potato was a little bit bland....should've got the sweet potato....

My friends chose the salad and garlic mash.  The salad wasn't particularly great because you could tell it had been pre-made and in the fridge from the condensation on the side of the dish.

We also ordered Bushies to share - they're like KFC but mushrooms! It was quite yummy at the beginning but then they started getting soggy....



You can also get refills of soft drinks for free and they give you complimentary bread (freshly baked) for the table with this delicious whipped butter...MMMMM

From observation it seemed like the cheesy fries were quite popular that day because everyone was having one! I remember I had then before and they were quite yummy, along with the "Blooming Onion" which is like onion fried in the shape of a blooming flower.

Would I come back again? Most likely I'll end up coming back because it's convenient and not too pricey - although I really didn't like the music and the atmosphere that day...the music was too fast which made me feel like I had to eat faster? and it was so loud we had trouble hearing each other across the table. The service was pretty decent though - the waitress was pretty attentive so no dramas there! If you do end up going there I definitely suggest calling beforehand to get the priority seating and TRY THE CHEESY FRIES!

D xx