Had dinner on Wed with some friends at St James Hotel, yet again! This time, I decided to check out the Mushroom Risotto but eurggggh.. lesson learnt: stick with their fabulous steaks. The risotto was basically inedible – and that is a BIG deal for me to say, because I eat pretty much anything 😉 I still basically ate it all because I was hungry (and too cheap to chuck it away and buy a different meal), but it was a bit hard and not creamy, and had ZERO taste.. and the mushrooms were a bit tough/hard, like they weren’t re-constituted in water long enough. Bleurgh! Will definitely order their steak next time.. since it’s always a winner, plus they give thick, flat fries with gravy on top… mmmmmm…..

Afterwards, we randomly saw that David Jones were open until 10pm! It’s a pretty big deal in Australia for a store to be open until then, because everyone is lazy and stores close at 5pm 😛 Insane, I know!! But that’s just the way it is. Anyway, they were having a big sale, but strangely, the whole place was pretty empty. We wandered around shopping until right at closing time when they were shutting off the lights on us and we were going “Noooo! Nooo! Wait WAIT!” 😛 I ended up with 2 pairs of Leona Edmiston stockings (30% off) and a ultra cute Alannah Hill “miss geisha” shorts (50% off)! The shorts nearly slip off my hips but I figure I’ll either wear it with a belt or get it altered smaller.

Alannah Hill “miss geisha” shorts

Ju Ju
Kingsgate Shopping Centre
Kings Cross, NSW 2011
$$$–

A bunch of us met up for dinner at Ju Ju’s @ Kings Cross last night. Fortunately, we had cars – the weather’s been horrid! Raining, freezing and all round miserable. We jumped out of the car and ran into the restaurant for some much-needed warmth and food in our bellies. We were over half-hour late for our reservation, and were told politely that we would have to clear out in an hour for the next round of diners. Eek! So we ordered quickly and stuffed ourselves silly quickly 😉 The restaurant is really fun, and great for a big group of people. All in wood, you’re requested to take off your shoes which are then put into plastic shopping bags (not very classy, couldn’t they at least have nice boxes/bags?), before being seated at your table. The table is basically floor-height, and the seats are recessed into the ground.. so it’s sorta like you’re dining Japanese-style (ie. sitting on your legs) but not. If that makes sense?! It’s fun, and the tables are all semi-hidden by horizontal wooden bars, so it feels like you’ve got your private little dining space.

The food is, frankly, fantastic. It arrived quickly (which may also have been due to the fact that they were trying to clear us out quickly) and was fantastic. Kicked off with the Cream Croquettes which were creamy and smooth on the inside and encased in crisp, light crumbs. Next was the Beef Carpaccio – that wasn’t the real name, I forgot it 😛 Basically slivers of thinly-sliced raw beef and a raw egg, all mixed together. Sounds a bit scary and, well, raw.. but it was so tasty!! I love raw food 🙂 The Shio Saba (salted Mackerel fish) was one of my favourite dishes – the fish was incredibly tender and juicy with a perfect salt-crisped skin. I couldn’t help myself and ate most of it, too good!

Their star dish is the Sukiyaki – a Japanese steam-boat style of a big hot pot on a fire, containing a sweet-ish soup in which you cook the raw meat and veggies in. The flavour of the soup was divine – rich and sweet and tasty. We were given an assortment of sliced raw beef, udon noodles, tofu, cabbage, eggplant, etc to dip in the soup to cook. It is sooo addictive, you just eat and eat and eat! The perfect winter dish – hot and satisfying.

Ju Ju

Cream Croquettes

Sukiyaki ingredients

Peeking out

Max Brenner
Double Bay, NSW
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Dessert was at Max Brenner. It was packed! After much deliberation, we settled on 3 desserts to share, since we were already pretty full from dinner. I haven’t been to Max Brenner in.. maybe a year? Dubbed “chocolate by the bald man”, the place is famous for, what else? Chocolate! Rich, smooth and creamy.. and their desserts are a delight. The Chocolate Fondue with with bite-size pieces of cake, fluffy marshmallows and fresh strawberries and banana. We were given the choice of either Dark or Milk chocolate, of which my favourite is always the milk 🙂

Also had the Chocolate Dip with Strawberries, plump strawberries (except for one dodgy almost-white one that they gave us, grrr) that you dunk into warm, molten milk chocolate.. oooooohhh… ahhhhh… Finally was my choice of the Chocolate Fondant with Strawberries, Liquid Chocolate and Ice Cream. By far my favourite!!! The cake is apparently baked in Israel (!) then shipped to Australia. A bit crisp on the outside, it gives way to warm chocolate oozing out from the inside. It’s rich, delicious and totally HEAVENLY! Even better eaten with some vanilla ice cream, and the strawberries dipped in liquid chocolate were a nice side. Mmmm… so good. Must remember to go back more often for the Chocolate Fondant alone.

Chocolate Fondue

Chocolate Dip with Strawberries

Chocolate Fondant with Strawberries, Liquid Chocolate and Ice Cream

Liquid chocolate interior

Remember when I bought those Bathroom Scales? Well, they arrived at the office earlier in the week and we’ve all been weighing ourselves. Well, the BAD news (which you can pretty much guess from just looking at the food-photos) is that my Body Fat % is not good. It’s about 18.1………… which may seem OK but I am SURE it used to be a lot lower. Wasn’t it?! I’m pretty sure it was.. Which means that the past year of eating crap has basically gone to my butt 🙁 According to THIS, I’ve decided I should be at around 14% Body Fat.

The GOOD news is that my Body Water Content % is high, around 59%, so I’m happy with that 🙂 The moral of the story? Must STOP eating and START exercising, pronto!!!!!