JMH #3 // JH's arrival, yum cha, an Australian Christmas, and more food

Today was the long-awaited day of JH's arrival! The 9th.

We were waiting for this day, because it was after this day that the serious fun was planned, in terms of our schedule and itineraries.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to pick JH up from the airport, so he had to train it. It was a lot more expensive than I thought it would be (over $16 for a 15 minute train ride?!)

Either way, we met him at Central station and then with a bit of travel (actually, a lot of travel) we ended up at Cabramatta to meet with my friend PT, who was a local to the area.

Since HN had never had yumcha, and we were basically in one of Sydney's Asian Centrals (others include Chinatown and Eastwood), we decided it was the right time and place, so we hustled our way over to one.

Not the best photo, but these Asian mango pancakes are delish.
Also, the split moment after this photo, JH proceeded to drop the piece onto the table, almost landing directly into the chilli sauce.

And of course, as per tradition and expectation, we had to have a dish of chicken feet.

鳯爪 - feng zhua (phoenix claws)
They taste alright, once you get over the mental fact that it's chicken feet.

It's ironic because although PT, JH, and myself were all Chinese and have had yum cha before, we're not big fans of chicken feet. In fact, it was my first time eating one by myself. But whatever, HN needed to try it, so we all had one as well.

Cabramatta

It's interesting to have two Aussies and one Kiwi in Sydney's version of China.

Also, interesting fact, did you know that Cabramatta's local Government signed a contract that prohibited any Western-culture stores from opening here? (or so I was told, by PT)

Anyway, afterwards, we had agreed to meet another group of friends in the city at 3:30pm, so we quickly hustled all the way back to the city.

(yes, like I said, a lot of travel)

We headed to market city, where we found this snow-dome in the middle of the shopping centre. It simulated a snowy environment using bubbles and styrofoam, and because we had time to spare, we gave it a shot.

Ahh, such is an Australian Christmas.

We had to don on these stylish shoe covers, which we proceeded to wear for the next few hours until they began to disintegrate.
We also used them to ice-skate around the shopping centre.

P.S., thanks PT for all the group photos

We met up with some other friends (AT, HG, WD, DH) and went off to City Hunters to play pool because that's what our groups of friends always seem to do, and we had nothing better to do either.

(It's interesting because JH and HN told me that for them, in Melb and Christchurch, pool is a game that old/middle-aged men play in their spare time, where-as here, pool is considered a pastime for youths and young adults. I mean seriously, one of my groups of friends play so often that I think it's basically a ritual now.)

After pool (which I didn't take any photos at), we decided to kill some more time at Darling Harbour, which JH and HN hadn't been to either.

Australian Christmas Decorations in the harbour

Had a lot of funny stories at the playground, which I shall spare from here (they'll remain forever in my memories, lodged deep within my hippocampus). Let's just say JH was only here for less than a day but had already created chaos.

He approaches.

Eventually, at around 7:30pm (when everyone was starving), we decided it was time to head off to the designated restaurant, Holy Basil. It took a while to navigate there, and for a split moment we were super confused because it was located behind a bar, but we eventually made it.

The food was super great. Not going to lie. Though, I didn't really get much of an opportunity to eat a lot of the dishes we ordered, since they were spicy (I'm hypersensitive to capsaicin, I believe). However, of the dishes that I did try (pad thai, some sausage, and pork belly), it was delish.

Pad thai, which we soon discovered had peanuts in it.

We had known there would be an issue at this Thai restaurant because of JH's eternal list of allergies ("It's easier to ask him 'What aren't you allergic to?' than it is to ask 'What are you allergic to?'"). We'd taken specific cautions when ordering to make sure none of the dishes included any of the 500 things he wasn't able to eat, especially since he was forgetful and stupid enough (I can call him that because he's a close friend xx) to leave his EpiPen in Melbourne. (I. Know. Right. I almost smacked him all the way back to Melb when he told me)

And surprise surprise, the pad thai had peanuts!!

In hindsight, we should have specifically asked the waiter/waitress that we needed no peanuts, shrimp, etc., (the list goes on) in our dishes, but we incorrectly assumed that all the ingredients would be listed in the menu. We were wrong.

So there I was, sitting next to JH, enjoying myself as I dug into the pad thai (which I initially thought 'Hmm, kinda tastes like peanuts... But nah, they ordered no peanuts, right?') when JH turns to me and says "I think the sausage has peanuts in it". (It didn't, but he had also consumed the pad thai)

Almost mini panic-attack, but thankfully, JH had disclosed enough information to me before that I knew if he had minute amounts, he'd be fine. It was only anaphylactic when in higher amounts (though, I was still gravely concerned. Don't want to deal with a dead body, at least not until I'm into my medicine degree)

We dealt with the situation though. Ordered another dish just for JH. (I can't believe the number of times I stressed 'NO peanuts, NO peanut oil, NOTHING with peanuts or shrimp'). We all survived (thank god.)

Enough drama for JH's first day, thank you very much.

Afterwards, we headed off to N2, for the 2nd day in a row (JH's first).

JH's Mango Sorbet, which tasted really yummm. I ordered a cup on another day as well.

Afterwards, it was getting late, so we all headed on home. It'd been a long day, especially for the four of us (including PT), and in particular, for JH.

A tiring day that consisted of travelling from home --> city, city --> Parramatta, Parramatta --> Cabramatta, Cabramatta --> city, city --> home. I.e., about three hours of travel (?), not including walking and waiting time. It was also a day in which JH almost died.

I'd like to say it was ... eventful.

But it was finally nice to see JH again. He's truly a great friend and it felt just like old times, once more.

Needless to say, we all stayed up late into the night/morning.