Sydney Day 1: Bills, DFO and Gumshara ramen

I’m so depressed that the Sydney trip is over and even worse, the last long weekend for the year is over too! (T____T)

I had such a lovely break in Sydney, being able to catch up with dear Jaso was such a bonus and as usual, R and I (actually mostly me) had a great time shopping and pigging out. Already I’m looking forward to my next visit to Sydney.

We took the midnight flight out of Perth to Sydney so reached Sydney too early to check in. But that was ok because it meant we could head straight into Surry Hills for brunch.

We headed into Surry Hills, so far my favourite part of Sydney just for its sheer abundance of great cafes and quiet leafy streets.

Bills was busy as usual but we managed to get a table fairly quick. The service as usual was friendly and efficient.

My first coffee in Sydney, and I many many more in the days to come. But the first one at Bills really hit the spot, they do a lovely coffee.

Possibly Australia’s most famous Bills scrambled eggs. ” Is it the best scrambled eggs you’ve ever had in your life??’ I eagerly asked R. He said possibly yes, but then again, he normally doesn’t order scrambled eggs for breakfast hahaha. But we agreed that the scrambled eggs were something special, the flavour was unique, texture of the eggs, soft, creamy. Yums.

This might be my last visit to Bills for a while (we went this time because R didn’t get to go the first time), not that it isn’t great, it is, but there are just too many great cafes in Sydney to try out.

Bills
359 Crown Street
Surry Hills NSW

The last time we were in Sydney, travelling around on public transport was a bit of a hassle because we had to pre buy tickets for buses/trains depending on where you were going (couldn’t buy them straight on the buses) and it was a different system for light rail. But this time, we finally bought our Opal cards which are similar to Perth’s transperth cards where you can just load money into the cards and use them for buses/trains/ferries (still not available on light rail though).

Shopping! R and I are cheapskates bargain hunters so we love factory outlets. To get to DFO, we took the train to the Strathfield train station then switched to a bus (525 or 526) which brought us to Underwood Road right to the entrance of DFO.

View from our hotel room window. Our hotel was located on York Street, Wynyard. It was a great location because it was so near the Wynyard train station.

None other than Gumshara ramen for our first night dinner! R is obsessed with Gumshara ramen (he had it three nights in a row during his last visit to Sydney) and it was lucky we chose to go there for our first night because they closed down for a week after that. We had to settle for other ramen stalls which were pretty good too.

My gumshara ramen, I love their half boiled egg, cooked to perfection. My broth was the ‘lighter’ diluted version which is preferable for those not into the original very thick pork bone broth. I enjoyed my light ramen a lot.

R’s original thick tonkatsu broth ramen, he loved it and finished it to the last drop. Fantastic 1st day 🙂

Gumshara Ramen
Eating World Foodcourt
Shop 211 25-29
Dixon St Haymarket
NSW 2000

Cronut awaits ….

We’re flying out to Sydney tonight ….

Can’t wait.

See you soon Jaso.

First Year Wedding Anniversary

R and I turned one year old today :). This time last year we were probably in the middle of our second outfit change during our wedding dinner and running down the halls of Hilton. Ahh how time flies.

We had planned to have another ‘tapas bar/pub crawl’ instead of our normal fine dining/degustation celebration dinner (that’s happening in Sydney hehe) on Saturday night. Unfortunately our plans fell through due to the crummy wet weather and pure laziness.

Instead we stayed at home and watched TVB dramas and had instant noodles! It was actually really nice 🙂 and was a celebration of some sort because R made us homemade cocktails.

We did venture out on the real day itself on Sunday and went to the Claremont shopping centre for window shopping and brunch at Atomic cafe. I love weekend coffees.

This was R’s lamb pita, he said the pita bread was very nice and the lamb average.

My chicken avocado panini with a side of shoestring fries was pretty good.

The fig and ricotta cake looked too good to pass by. Taste wise though, it was just ok and not as fantastic as it looked.

Roast chicken for dinner! This was my request and it wasn’t even home cooked but bought from Red Rooster’s.

A lot of people tend to ask newlyweds what married life is like and whether it’s changed the relationship. Luckily I don’t have a lot of annoying friends or family whom have asked us this question.

But if someone did ask me how married life has been, I would say the fact that we’re having roast chicken takeaway for our wedding anniversary dinner is probably the epitome of what married life has been for me. R, for as long as I’ve known him, dislikes having takeaway food and especially fast food takeaway. He has this thing where he thinks if one is going out, we may as well have a proper dinner at the restaurant itself.

I, on the other hand, LOVE takeaways (especially fast food) and the idea of vegging out in front of the couch with the tv blasting away in the corner. Jo used to be my partner in crime for this hehe.

This year, R has been bringing me out to buy my takeaways and sometimes joining me in my couch potato session including our roast chicken tonight. I’m not saying that we’ve changed who we are for each other, he will always prefer a sit down dinner and I will always have cravings for a good Grill’d burger. But we’ve learned to compromise and find pleasure in each other’s hobbies and idiosyncrasies.

Close friends and family know that my working life is hectic and full on. What they don’t know is, no matter how tough or crazy work can be sometimes, it kinda washes away and feels all good whenever I have a Whatsapp conversation with my mum, or when I talk to Jo on the phone while walking home in the dark to the train station and can hear the kids in the background. Best of all, it’s all good when your husband spends his whole Saturday in the office with you, working quietly a few desks away while you tap tap tap on your computer.

So yes, one year into the marriage, and I’m really happy. Thanks for everything R. Looking forward to the years to come ;).