holidays part 2

I'm back in my Canberra home after escaping to Melbourne and Sydney for xmas and NYE. It's now very hot and dry in Canberra, but I'm mostly glad to be here as there are minimal distractions and I can rest (for today at least).

My holidays were overall good. I caught up with friends and family who I hadn't seen in ages and probably talked and socialised more than I would do in two average months in Canberra. I only wish I spent more down time, away from the big cities with some peace and quiet. Oh well, I guess I can do that here.

This time I visited Sydney, I was spoilt with a wide range of tasty and healthy options in takeaway joints and restaurants. I brought my mum out to the Sydney Tower Westfield, which has a massive (and shiny) food court. The takeaway joint Mero Mero was relatively quiet but I couldn't resist the option of a DIY salad. It reminds me of a salad joint in my old uni where you could design your own salad from 20+ ingredients and was extremely popular among the students. My salad had beans, roasted vegetables etc, with a raspberry vinaigrette. The vinaigrette probably overpowered the salad, but this may be because the roasted veges already had some vinegar marinade on it,

My mum got a quinoa, haloumi and cranberry salad from the juice bar. I had some of the quinoa and it was delicious. A perfect mix of salty, sweet and crunchy goodness.

I also caught up with my friend at the Argyle Hotel Bar in the Rocks. It was filled with European tourists, but I what can I really say... it seemed that I was the only one taking pictures. We were in the bear garden/courtyard, which was a chilled, secluded and enclosed area. I got the salad with roasted veges, which was one of the tastiest salads I got recently... or I was just really hungry. The veges were fresh and there wasn't too much of any vegetable (I often find these types of dishes have too much eggplant). The salad leaves lightened up the dish as well. Only shortcoming was the lining of oil at the bottom of the dish.

It must be a trend to put dried fruit in salads. In a Woolies near a Melbourne beach, I got a cous cous salad with cranberries. This was delicious and fulfilling... then I got suspicious - does cous cous have wheat in it? A quick Google search on my phone revealed that it did. Oh well - the rest of the salad went into the compost. My eczema did get worse the next day... this could have been the wheat or the sand on the beach.

Back to work tomorrow. I wonder how long I'll last...

food court at centrepoint westfield

In my recent trip to Sydney, I brought my mum to the new Centrepoint Westfield which has an stunning food court. The floor is filled with upmarket fast food franchises, restaurants turned into casual eateries and one-off stores. This included Grill'd burgers, Din Tai Fung (best dumplings in Sydney), Iku Wholefoods etc. In fact, the space is like a convergence of street food to mid/high-market eateries. It brings these eateries in one convenient location to the shopping masses. Customers ranged from suburban families to the Sydney North Shore yuppie to the international tourist with large expendable incomes.

The black reflective floor emphasises the food court's 'sophistication' - a sensation oozing out of the shiny decor in the rest of the Westfield. Walking around the food court, it reminds me of a gallery - each store has immaculate displays, each showing off a carefully designed concept/marketable image. To some point, I also felt like I was in a food court of a UK/European high-end department store.