I started a new job about 2 weeks ago and it has consumed my life, like all of my life. Days just seem to blur into one another so I haven't had the time to do much but sleep, wake up, go to work, come home, eat a small dinner then go to bed to repeat the same process again.


Working has made me realise how much I spend on food a week so I'm trying to bring in food from home at least once a week to try to save some money. I've had the idea for this recipe for a while now but never got around to making it. It was inspired by Nando's Hot Peri Peri sauce and a quick way to try to get Nando's chicken at home.

All I did was grab a chicken breast fillet, tenderise it, cut it into small strips, pour a generous amount of the Peri Peri sauce and let it sit in the sauce for about 30 minutes. While that was marinating, I washed the mixed leaf mix, cut up 2 tomatoes into small wedges (and deseeded it but you don't have to), cut an orange into segments then halved the segments and poured a whole can of corn, and put it all into a large mixing bowl. Once the 30 minutes was up, I just pan fried the chicken until it was completely cooked through. I added the chicken to the salad mix once it cooled down a bit but it isn't really necessary but I did it just to prevent the leaves from wilting.

Overall, I really enjoyed the salad. The sweetness of the orange offset the spiciness of the chicken, which really kicked a punch. I added no dressing and I don't think it really needs a dressing but if you want to try it out and do add a dressing, I would love to know how good/bad it tastes with dressing.

Like every Tuesday, Rosa and I meet up after I finish class and she finishes work for dinner before we head home. However, what we thought would be a normal dinner will now be forever known as one of the best dinners we have ever had. Let me introduce you to Macchiato Sydney.


We were greeted when we stepped in by some of the friendliest  staff that I have ever seen in hospitality. They made jokes about joining us for dinner and that we had to eat with them because one of them was dying. It was definitely a start to a meal that we had never gotten before. The customer service from then now definitely added to our experience. Our waitress made conversation with us, we were promptly served our food and any enquiries or requests that we had were quickly answered. And it all happened with a genuine smile on their face. The staff at Macchiato definitely added something extra to the atmosphere of the restaurant.


Once we sat down and saw the menu, we seriously starting salivating. I kept imagining all the different options in front of me and it seriously made the whole picking ordeal so much harder. We decided that we would each order one starter, one pizza and one drink each. From hindsight, that right there should have warned us that we were already ordering wayyy too much.

For our starters, we went for bruschetta and chips. The bruschetta was absolutely amazing. If you ever decide to go visit, you should definitely order one. It was unlike any bruschetta that I have ever eaten. It was served on a pizza base instead of a piece of toasted bread. The pizza base allowed for us to eat the entire thing while still tasting the sweetness of the tomatoes and the slight tanginess from the vinaigrette while the base remained crunchy. The problem I have with other bruschettas is that the bread after a while becomes soggy and it can be quite difficult to cut through when eating it bite by bite. You don't have that problem here. We were so amazed by it that we both became food critics and it was actually quite funny, thinking back on it. The chips were nice, crunchy and perfectly cooked. The outside had a nice golden colour to it while the inside remained fluffy and oh so delicious. You can't ask for more than that in chips.


For pizzas, I ordered the Pepperoni while Rosa ordered the Prosciutto with Rocket. I really enjoyed the thin, crispy crust. Another plus I found with the pizza was that it wasn't overloaded with cheese like I have found with other pizzas and therefore didn't leave me with a stomach ache. However, I wish we had the option of chilli oil since I like my food with a little bit of a kick.


For drinks, I ordered the Mango and Peach Mocktail while Rosa ordered the Lychee Mocktail. I loved the thickness of my drink and how it was sweet but not overly sweet. It was probably one of the best drinks that I have had in a while. Rosa's drink was really pretty with the layer of rosewater at the bottom and whole lychees floating and it tasted pretty good from the one sip I had but I didn't get the sweetness of the rosewater since Rosa drank all of it with her first sip.

Macchiato has definitely become one of my favourite restaurants for Sydney now with the great customer service and amazing food and drinks. I don't know why Macchiato isn't getting great reviews across the board but I will definitely be back for brunch or a coffee in the near future.

About two weeks ago, I celebrated my 21st birthday. If you know me, I am a very chilled person and that reflects how I celebrate my birthday. I'm not into the big parties or anything but prefer smaller outings where my friends and I can just relax.


My birthday was kicked off with Rosa, Catherine and Bryan coming over to celebrate at midnight. Rosa gifted me with a mango and lychee giant pudding 'cakes' and the Happy Kitchen Mini-Cake. We sat around talking and laughing especially when my primary school photos were whipped out. I strangely look the same in Kindy and once my mum started cutting my hair, my looks took a drastic turn especially in year 3 *shudders*.


For my birthday dinner, a group of my friends went to Gigino's which is located in Fairfield West on Hamilton Road. They do Italian food and we ordered 4 types of pizza and 2 salads for our meal. I loved the pizzas especially the spicy pepperoni one. I love wood fired thin crust pizzas and Gigino's definitely delivered on that. I think what sets Gigino's apart is their customer service. Our waitress was attentive to what we needed and was knowledgeable about the menu and what we would like when we ran into some trouble picking. The owner (or maybe it was the manager) came around to each table and talked to each party about what they liked and did some general chit-chat. We then all came back to my place and played board games making fun of one another and just having a nice time being around one another.

As part of the dinner, I got gifted my first ever luxurious bag with my friends gifting me a Coach mini tote bag. I was seriously overwhelmed when I got the present and could not thank them enough. It even comes in its own protective bag (that's when you know its fancy, LOL) and I'm still too scared to take off the protective bits or bring it outside. They also got me a Junior Masterchef hat and apron set and surprisingly, I could fit both. Don't know whether I should be happy or upset about that.


The day after my birthday, I embarked on another Italian meal with another group of close friends. We ate at Savanas at Stocklands Wetherill Park. We had eaten there before but had pizzas. We chose to have the pasta this time around. It was okay but nothing amazing in my opinion. It may have just been the pasta that I ordered. For dessert, we went to What the Fudge? in Cabramatta. I ordered the Nutella Waffles. I unfortunately didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would but I think that was mostly because I was still slightly full from the dinner. We spent about 2 or so hours there just talking about random topics that popped into our heads.


This birthday was probably one of the best, just because I was able to spend it with so many of my friends and it was just a nice relaxing way to enter into another year of my life but also celebrating all the friends and the memories that I have accumulated with them. Spending my birthday with my friends makes me so grateful that I have them as part of my life and reminded me that having a good group of friends, along with family, really allows me to spend everyday in a happy mood.

Last week, I decided that my inner hipster needed to get out and show herself. For this to occur, I travelled to Newtown with some friends and visited Brewtown Newtown.



The moment I stepped off Newtown Station, I could already feel the hipster coming out LOL. If you wish to visit, turn left once out of the station and keep walking straight until you see the store "T2". Once you reach the store, there's an alleyway right there and you just need to turn into the alleyway and you shall reach the cafe.

The cafe was actually bigger than I expected since I visited "Circa" in Parramatta and that place was tiny. I visited on a weekday at about 10:30-11am and the wait for a table was relatively small. We got placed at a side table which was actually quite bad for us since those tables were really high up. This made eating really difficult for us since we are all relatively small in comparison to the Australian population. Our waitress was really nice and friendly and I loved the overall feel of the whole cafe.

We decided to pick this particular place since we heard it was the only place in Newtown that served cronuts. I decided to try the chocolate cronut while my friends tried out the jam and glazed cronut respectively. The cronut was actually quite nice with a crunchy exterior but fluffy layers inside with chocolate dispersed between the layers of pastry. In addition to the cronut, I also ordered a hot chocolate to accompany it, which was probably a bad idea to begin with. The hot chocolate was pretty much perfect for me in terms of sweetness and creaminess so I would definitely go back for their hot chocolate. However, the hot chocolate combined with the chocolate cronut did leave me with a chocolate overload.

I would definitely come back again, in fact we plan on doing so, to try out their breakfast menu since we saw some plates and they looked absolutely delicious. I would however request to be seated at a table where bar stools are not used just for ease of eating.

On Monday, myself with two friends decided to go and catch-up at Macquarie Hotel Liverpool Bistro. What drew us into this bistro is that it offers 'Buy One Get One Free' with mains every night for dinner and the whole day on weekends. This pretty much results in a very cheap meal.

The meal was pretty good and the servings definitely made the money worthwhile. The mains pretty much range from high 10s to low 30s with the high 20s and low 30s being for different types of steaks. The seating was very relaxing with an interior and exterior option. The two are separated by bifolding doors and loungers (which looked very comfy).

We ordered the Inferno Wings and Chips, Portuguese Grilled Chicken, Salt and Pepper Squid and Creamy Boscaiola Schnitzel. I didn't personally have the Schnitzel so I can't comment on that but everything else was pretty good. The Portuguese Chicken wasn't as spicy as I would have liked but it was still delicious to eat and I really liked the Salt and Pepper Squid. The Inferno Wings were okay but to be honest, that may have been because I was getting full by the time I decided to have one. We had chips and salad with each dish but you have the option of mash or chips and salad or vegetables for the Schnitzels. I really enjoyed the chips but I pretty much enjoy all chips unless you really stuff them up but the salad for me was something that I could have gone without. I'm pretty certain that it was the dressing as I could eat some parts of the salad with no complaints but I would get to one portion of the salad and I just couldn't stomach it.

Overall, I would go back if I wanted a cheap but fulfilling feed - potentially trying the pizzas next time I visited.