Living Nerdy in Sydney

We were at a Japanese Restaurant, sharing a table with 2 young ladies in their 20s, when we couldn't help but over hear the argument they were having with the waitress. They were fussing over why dinner did not look like the dish in the menu. Apparently, there was no egg in the menu but the dish came with a fried egg. The waitress politely asked if they did not eat egg or are allergic to it. But the young lady replied that she eats egg but thought there would be more meat in the dish instead like what the PICTURE in the menu showed. The poor waitress apologised profusely. I thought to myself, have they not asked why the burgers at any fast food joint looked so much sloppy or why fast food pizzas didn't look like anything on the menu or advertisements? To me it all sounded pretty ridiculous. Food on menus and advertisement are the work of food artists or stylist. In order to make food look better, a lot is done to food to make it pretty inedible! To make colour look more ...

With the recent discussion of paying $7 to see a General Practitioner (GP) in the budget, it seems it will be the demise of Bulk Billing. But what exactly is Bulk Billing? When do we pay extra and how much do we get back from Medicare? What does the safety net mean? And what's the difference between scheduled fee and Australian Medical Association recommended fees? What's the Medical Levy Surcharge? The system is indeed very complex. I hope this series about Medicare would help explain how it all works. In this post, I will focus on the Medicare Safety Net. The Medicare Safety Net is designed to assist families and individuals with high healthcare needs. In short, it tapers off the amount one has to pay in gap payment once an upper limit (called “threshold”) has been reached. Only out of hospital services are counted towards this limit (e.g. seeing a GP, specialist in their private rooms, allied health outside a hospital). The Medicare Safety Net and Extended Me...

Harry's Singapore Chilli Crab is a Singaporean Seafood Restaurant located in Surry Hills close to Central Station. I've heard fellow Singaporeans tell me of great Singapore Chilli Crab at a hidden away shop in Surry Hills. We looked up Google and found Harry's Singapore Chilli Crab. We decided to visit this place as a treat on my birthday. We ordered a 1.1kg Singapore Chilli Crab, with less Chilli; with a side of deep fried mantou (buns). They gave us plastic bibs to prevent us from getting dirty.    The Singapore Chilli Crab was simply fantastic. It did live up to its authenticity. It did bring me back to a typical seafood restaurant in Singapore. I loved that mildly spicy tomato based sauce. I'm probably biased as I do love crab a lot. But my husband did enjoy himself too. Singapore Chilli Crab The  Deep Fried Mantou (buns) is a great accompaniment to go with the crab as it soaks up all the delicious gravy. The buns were hot, sweet and crisp on th...

Albee's Kitchen is a Malaysian restaurant on Anzac Parade, Kingsford. This is one place where you can find authentic Malaysian cuisine. Decor The setting of this place would be like your typical Chinese low price range restaurant - lots of tables cramped together, no table cloth etc. This place can get very busy especially during dinner time and really noisy as well. Be prepared to wait 5-10 minutes to get a table during busy hours.  Food Seafood Laksa - Home made laksa in a mild curry soup, coconut, fried tofu, bean sprouts and king prawns. This is your typical Malaysian curry laksa. It's very creamy, aromatic and a there's a generous amount of prawns. Curry Chicken Laksa Bihun Goreng Kampung - Fried rice vermicelli with fresh chilli, sambal, chili sauce, prawn, anchovies, chicken, egg, vegetables and bean sprouts.   This is another very aromatic dish thanks to the sambal and anchovies. Even with the anchovies, I wouldn't consider this dish to ...

Crossroads Bar is located on the 8th floor lobby of Swissotel, Sydney on Market Street. This bar is your traditional hotel bar with a modern twist.  It has a very cosy set up with plush leather sofas in pods or in an open setting. The lighting brought a luxurious feel to the whole environment. There was live piano in the background too. I visited Crossroads Bar together with a girl friend one Saturday afternoon for their Apple-Themed Buffet High Tea.  Booking: We tried booking a place 2 days before we intended to meet initially. But as the place was booked out, we had to reschedule to meet a week later. I suggest booking as early as possible to avoid disappointments. Drinks: We were first served with a cocktail. The wait staff explained it as an apple pie cocktail. It was quite a mild drink, but very refreshing. I'm still not sure what exactly was in the drink! It doesn't seem very alcoholic. Next, they gave us a pot of English Breakfast T2 tea to s...

Nikuzo, Bondi Junction is a Japanese Table Barbeque Restaurant. This is one of the best places to dine on a cold winter's night. Diners sit around a hot charcoal BBQ stove and cook up top quality meat and seafood. There are 2 main options for dinner - an ala-carte selection or a ala-carte buffet. Both options comes with a wide selection of BBQ meat and cooked dishes. According to the waitress, most customer go for the buffet. We did a rough mental calculation of what we were planning to eat and agreed that the buffet was the better option. There were 3 buffet options -  Standard Buffet, Wagyu Buffet or. The buffet is limited to 120 minutes. The wait staff would request for the final order 60 minutes after the initial order. We figured out why the buffet is only for 120 minutes by deduction - the coal runs out. We went for the Wagyu Buffet. From our last visit we learnt that service is pretty slow at this restaurant, so we ordered as much as we planned to ...

The potatoes we are are the tubers of the potato plant.  The potato plant has an interesting way of protecting itself from  insects, animals and fungi which attack it. It produces a chemical which falls in the family of  glycoalkaloids. This chemical is toxic to insects, animal, fungi and even humans. These chemical can be found in    high levels in the leaves, stems and sprouts of the potato plant and are normally at very low levels in potato tubers. But when potatoes come in contact with light, it starts turning green and the level of glycoalkaloids increases.  Green potatoes are toxic and should not be eaten. There are recorded deaths from eating green potatoes and miscarriages from eating a toxic spud. So what to do if you bring home a whole bag of green potatoes? If the potatoes were in a bag which you couldn't see through the packaging for colour (the bag was tinted colour or the bag was not transparent), you should try go back to the ...

Sick of overcooked pasta? Here are a few easy steps to cook the perfect pasta. Step 1 Select a pot  at least 4 times the size of the amount of dry pasta you are going to put in. Remember, pasta expands in volume as you cook it to about 2 times the size of it dry. Step 2 Fill the pot to 2/3 full with water and add a teaspoon of salt. Salt increases the boiling point of water. Step 3 When the water is boiling, add the pasta in. Step 4 Cook the pasta as per the instructions on the packaging. Different pasta will take different time to cook till al-dente (which is Italian for 'to the tooth'). What that really means is that the pasta will be firm in the centre. It is very important to keep stirring to prevent the pasta from sticking. DON'T ADD oil as this will prevent the sauce from sticking to the pasta. Step 5 Once cooked, strain off the water in a colander. Step 6a - Cold pasta salad If you are going to use the pasta in a cold salad, run the p...

With the recent discussion of paying $7 to see a General Practitioner (GP) in the budget, it seems it will be the demise of Bulk Billing. But what exactly is Bulk Billing? When do we pay extra and how much do we get back from Medicare? What does the safety net mean? And what's the difference between scheduled fee and Australian Medical Association recommended fees? What's the Medical Levy Surcharge? The system is indeed very complex. I hope this series about Medicare would help explain how it all works. In this post, I will focus on how much you will get back from Medicare if your doctor does not bulk bill. When you see your doctor, each service provided which falls under the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) number 23 . There are different item numbers depending on the following factors: is billed using a defined item number set out by the Schedule. This means for instance if you go to see your GP at his or her practice for a standard appointment of less than 20 minu...