I've never had a friend who loved to celebrate her birthday beyond going out to dinner and calling it a night.
Enter Sydney.
Do you remember that How I Met Your Mother episode about Lily and Marshall's wedding? Barney's "the bride requests it" antics to get what he wants.
Kind of like that, except sub "the birthday girl needs it" and lots of "it's her fucking birthday!"
Do you remember that How I Met Your Mother episode about Lily and Marshall's wedding? Barney's "the bride requests it" antics to get what he wants.
Kind of like that, except sub "the birthday girl needs it" and lots of "it's her fucking birthday!"
It semi-officially started after finally managing a group dinner after months of talking about it with some 50 or so people...
falafel partyyy
that became a national disaster between the arguments over how much oil to use if any and the disintegrating falafels (fatasses watching their precious food melt away is kind of serious).
Followed by Sydney's birthday dessert inspired by Mamasita.
I forgot to mention that we were all assigned jobs//committees. It was one of those "haha... but not really" jokes, and I was on the food committee of one because if I'm going to pay for food, it better fucking be good (so many regrets over those mediocre, so-so meals I should not have bought), supported by Urbanspoon reviews, pictures, convenience, price, and level of salivation upon viewing the menu. Mamasita had it because the birthday girl wanted Mexican and Mamasita had an attractive ring to it.
Anyways, it came to me before my food microbio prac when I was carefully reading the menu instead of writing my food chem paper. Poor uni student can't afford dessert, so she's going go make it instead.
And you know what I realized? Aussie is painfully void of pumpkin desserts... despite their using it in everything savory. The guy at Wooly's looked at us funny when we asked where the canned pumpkin was.
No canned pumpkin, but they have canned cream of pumpkin soup...
As a side note, no pumpkin bread or pumpkin muffins or pumpkin pies... how did I not notice this before? Probably because I was focused on how expensive the banana bread is here.
I ended up dragging Sydney (who was just there to get those Tim Tams on sale) up and down the aisles.. twice, and then to Coles just to find some damn pumpkin... and whipping cream. Decided the lack of pumpkin desserts is probably because the variety they use (Kambocha versus ... whatever we use - I actually spent time researching this and came up with nothing conclusive) is better suited to savory courses.
Australian cream smells really strange - or maybe that's just the Coles brand
So the inspiration was bluecorn flautas with pumpkin mousse.
The make-do version is as follows: cut up, boil, mash up pumpkin with brown sugar and cinnamon (and all the other pumpkin pie spices if you are not cheap like me). Stir in cream cheese and a bit of cream. Fridgerate. I would have folded in whipped cream if it wasn't for the fact that I noticed too late that the cream I got was "not suitable for whipping." Perfect.
The mixture came out thick but delicious anyways, so it was more a pumpkin puree than a mousse.
No oven? Sprinkle cinnasugar over tortillas and warm in pan for 0.4255 seconds on the lowest possible setting lest it burn on Sydney and Izzi's high quality stove. Spread generous globs of pumpkin and wrap. Eat whilst making yummy noises to make Amelia feel accomplished. Just kidding. But it's a nice gesture, thanks guys.
Considerable amount of stressing over the dinner situation due to a combination of Mamasita being unable to seat our party of 10 (max party of 10 by the way) at the preferred time and the fact that they charge $45/person for the chef's selection menu that is specifically for group sittings. Uh, no.
Again, foregoing writing my paper in order to research other Mexican places that were all either too expensive or... too expensive. Man, do I ever need to return to New Mexico to just... eat.
So switched to a Thai place and a few of us went to Mamasita for lunch before shopping.
Un taco? Un tequila?
The place was inconspicously sandwiched between two buildings on Collins, and we stressed a bit because the door could not even be seen from across the street. But the place was super cute, more spacious than expected, and quite lively - always a good sign.
Christine's giant bowl of quinoa (it's green! excuse the excitement but I've never seen that before) which she ate five spoonfuls of... packed up... and finished it out of the takeaway container... so classic, I love it.
Their supposedly famous corn... which was only mediocre... not bad, nothing special either.
I went with taco de lengua y cachete because they were out of goat (sad face - I don't recall if I've ever had goat yet). Doused in habanero sauce and the complimentary cucumber, onion, olive oil, and...cilantro (?) sauce they had.
A combination of feeling exhausted (I sleep way too much in Australia), cold (it was rainy... ew), cheap (pretty much a constant feeling though), stressed by work (paperprojectfourexamskillme), and not particularly hungry (finished a container of rice pudding) = not super enthusiastic about dinner.
But I dragged my butt out of bed because no productivity was happening and I was planning to get a snack-sized appetizer.
Unfortunately Thaila Thai was true to Asian form and charged for just about everything.
Let's start with the $14/person minimum charge. Are you fucking serious?
So apparently chicken, pork, beef, and tofu are all on the same level (aka they are all $14). It's the seafood that cost more.
Then there's the $1.50 surcharge for rice. What Asian restaurant doesn't give complimentary rice? Asia is literally right up there...
Nikhail and I shared a pork peanut curry (as if I don't consume enough peanuts already) and chicken pad thai though, so that solved the lack-of-carbs-for-my-curry problem. Outsmarted that waitress who thought I was crazy for not ordering rice, bitch.
Speaking of our waitress, she legitimately seemed pissed whenever we asked for something because 1. she never understood what we were saying and 2. we never understand what she was saying.
Finally, there was the $5 charge for our takeaway containers, which we just took because they were right next to our table and we were trying to spare the waitress any interaction with us (we were basically doing her a favour).
At least the food was better than I expected and half of it is still waiting for me in the freezer.
Followed by an attempt at watching "scary" movies (which was not scary) and painting our nails (which chipped off by the next day, bummer).
The week ended on Thursday for me and Joelle (because we were off to surf camp the next day).
Two rules to going out: 1. wear heels (which meant Amelia had to go shopping) and 2. can't be cuter than the birthday girl (which didn't happen because you can't really outshine a girl in a sequined dress anyways).
With the exception of these, all of our pictures were absolutely horrendous (of me, at least). Five shots/drinks were downed in 20 minutes, feet died, glasses were broken, the general balance of Thursday nights in St. Kilda was disrupted.
Coconut "malibu" and mango/lime jello shots are just the greatest things I've ever had.
falafel partyyy
that became a national disaster between the arguments over how much oil to use if any and the disintegrating falafels (fatasses watching their precious food melt away is kind of serious).
After forming and reforming the falafels about three times, flour was kind of late saving the day, and we still managed to bang out 2 per person plus a bit extra.
My personal highlight: the homemade tzatziki sauce.
-mince up ~2 cloves of garlic
-dice up the rest of Izzi's cucumber (about a fourth of it?)
-mash mash mash with plastic potato masher randomly included in study abroad package
-add Greek yogurt as needed
-salt and pepper, of course
Followed by Sydney's birthday dessert inspired by Mamasita.
Anyways, it came to me before my food microbio prac when I was carefully reading the menu instead of writing my food chem paper. Poor uni student can't afford dessert, so she's going go make it instead.
And you know what I realized? Aussie is painfully void of pumpkin desserts... despite their using it in everything savory. The guy at Wooly's looked at us funny when we asked where the canned pumpkin was.
No canned pumpkin, but they have canned cream of pumpkin soup...
As a side note, no pumpkin bread or pumpkin muffins or pumpkin pies... how did I not notice this before? Probably because I was focused on how expensive the banana bread is here.
Things I learned should already know:
never ever shop on an empty stomach - will only lead to frustration if shopping trip is unexpectedly prolonged
I ended up dragging Sydney (who was just there to get those Tim Tams on sale) up and down the aisles.. twice, and then to Coles just to find some damn pumpkin... and whipping cream. Decided the lack of pumpkin desserts is probably because the variety they use (Kambocha versus ... whatever we use - I actually spent time researching this and came up with nothing conclusive) is better suited to savory courses.
Australian cream smells really strange - or maybe that's just the Coles brand
So the inspiration was bluecorn flautas with pumpkin mousse.
The make-do version is as follows: cut up, boil, mash up pumpkin with brown sugar and cinnamon (and all the other pumpkin pie spices if you are not cheap like me). Stir in cream cheese and a bit of cream. Fridgerate. I would have folded in whipped cream if it wasn't for the fact that I noticed too late that the cream I got was "not suitable for whipping." Perfect.
The mixture came out thick but delicious anyways, so it was more a pumpkin puree than a mousse.
No oven? Sprinkle cinnasugar over tortillas and warm in pan for 0.4255 seconds on the lowest possible setting lest it burn on Sydney and Izzi's high quality stove. Spread generous globs of pumpkin and wrap. Eat whilst making yummy noises to make Amelia feel accomplished. Just kidding. But it's a nice gesture, thanks guys.
Considerable amount of stressing over the dinner situation due to a combination of Mamasita being unable to seat our party of 10 (max party of 10 by the way) at the preferred time and the fact that they charge $45/person for the chef's selection menu that is specifically for group sittings. Uh, no.
Again, foregoing writing my paper in order to research other Mexican places that were all either too expensive or... too expensive. Man, do I ever need to return to New Mexico to just... eat.
So switched to a Thai place and a few of us went to Mamasita for lunch before shopping.
The place was inconspicously sandwiched between two buildings on Collins, and we stressed a bit because the door could not even be seen from across the street. But the place was super cute, more spacious than expected, and quite lively - always a good sign.
Our tacos all lined up. de pollo, de pescado, de lengua y cachete.
Their supposedly famous corn... which was only mediocre... not bad, nothing special either.
A combination of feeling exhausted (I sleep way too much in Australia), cold (it was rainy... ew), cheap (pretty much a constant feeling though), stressed by work (paperprojectfourexamskillme), and not particularly hungry (finished a container of rice pudding) = not super enthusiastic about dinner.
But I dragged my butt out of bed because no productivity was happening and I was planning to get a snack-sized appetizer.
Unfortunately Thaila Thai was true to Asian form and charged for just about everything.
Let's start with the $14/person minimum charge. Are you fucking serious?
So apparently chicken, pork, beef, and tofu are all on the same level (aka they are all $14). It's the seafood that cost more.
Then there's the $1.50 surcharge for rice. What Asian restaurant doesn't give complimentary rice? Asia is literally right up there...
Nikhail and I shared a pork peanut curry (as if I don't consume enough peanuts already) and chicken pad thai though, so that solved the lack-of-carbs-for-my-curry problem. Outsmarted that waitress who thought I was crazy for not ordering rice, bitch.
Speaking of our waitress, she legitimately seemed pissed whenever we asked for something because 1. she never understood what we were saying and 2. we never understand what she was saying.
Finally, there was the $5 charge for our takeaway containers, which we just took because they were right next to our table and we were trying to spare the waitress any interaction with us (we were basically doing her a favour).
At least the food was better than I expected and half of it is still waiting for me in the freezer.
We weren't a particularly patient group that night, itching to go after sorting out the money situation.
So none of us actually saw the dessert platter Marco set up for Syd coming (despite the fact that he was literally gone for half an hour as we all commented on his bigass plate of fried rice - explanation? we thought he was talking to his mom..).
Only thing to note here is the penis-shaped delicacy (thanks for that observation Nikhail) that Allison tried and cringed at. The rest of us then proceeded to do the same thing with the knowledge that the thing was absolutely soaked in alcohol in mind. Such a strange experience - the thing was fried and warm on the outside, but mushy and cold and... extremely alcoholic on the inside. I think we all screamed out and made the same face after trying a piece.
No longer a teenagerrrr and "NO MO DRAMA IN MAH LYFE"
Yay, happy 20th to the first person I met in Aussie - how sentimental.Followed by an attempt at watching "scary" movies (which was not scary) and painting our nails (which chipped off by the next day, bummer).
The week ended on Thursday for me and Joelle (because we were off to surf camp the next day).
Two rules to going out: 1. wear heels (which meant Amelia had to go shopping) and 2. can't be cuter than the birthday girl (which didn't happen because you can't really outshine a girl in a sequined dress anyways).
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