Brunch in Surry Hills #2: Rustic Pearl Cafe - food for the soul.

Balkan & Aegean inspired cafe

Brunch is served on the lovely rustic wooden table! 

Rustic Pearl Café is a new café on Crown Street that serves a fusion of Balkan, Mediterranean and French cuisine. The café décor was cosy and warm. I liked the sophisticated rustic wooden furniture (a thick red blanket is provided in each table) and the beautiful painting on the wall. It was my first time to try Mediterranean breakfast.  I ordered the r.p Aegean style breakfast which includes soft boiled egg, tomato & cucumber drizzled with W/ olive oil, marinated olives, roasted mixed spicy capsicum and marinated fetta & sourdough toast. My friend ordered the scrambled egg (forgot the full name).

 R.p Aegean style breakfast AUD$16

I liked how those ingredients were separated into side dishes and went really well together with the warm crispy sourdough toast especially the marinated olives and roasted mixed spicy capsicum. It was very different from what I normally ordered in brunch, but I liked how it was light, healthy and also tasty. 

Scrambled egg (forgot the full name and price)

Front door

I will definitely come back with a few more friends to share the smoked ham, wild mushroom and caramelised onion gozleme and try their fruity drinks.

Brunch in Surry Hills #1: Kepos St. Kitchen, Kawa Cafe, Lumiere Cafe and Two Good Eggs Cafe

I have been having brunch in Surry Hills lately. I always feel delightful and relaxed after having brunch and it is also a great way to start the day. Surry Hills is a great place for brunch where there are different varieties and price range. I am also a coffee addict, which is a reason why I like trying out those cafes.

28/6: Kepos Street Kitchen 

My friend and I went to Kepos St. Kitchen the next day after my last exam. I remembered that the weather on that day was horrible, it was freezing and raining all day. However this didn't stop me from trying out their food, we walked all the way from Central station to Kepos St. After a "good" 10-15 mins walk, we finally arrived and were starving! The place was fully packed and the waitress opened the door for us with a friendly smile. Without looking at the menu, I already knew what I was going to order (checked the photos from their instagram lol).

Getting all ready/ their pastries look amazing/ my skim flat white/ their entrance

Woodsmoked salmon salad, olives, kipflers, soft boiled egg, za’atar AUD$18 (mine)

I was so excited with my dish because I love salmon and soft boiled egg! The egg came out perfectly cooked with an oozing orange just-about-done yolk (as you can see from the photo) but the salmon was not as "woodsmoked" to me. I really like the warm potato salad with quinoa. Overall I enjoyed the salad combination and it was light and delicious. 

Wagyu beef burger, pickled eggplant, walnuts, watercress , harissa AUD$18  (my friend's)

I had a bite of my friend's Wagyu beef, it was so JUICY.  

I have heard their falafel and tabouleh salad with pomegranate pearls are nice. I am keen to come back and try them out.  

1/7: Kawa Cafe
I always walk past Kawa cafe but never knew that they served breakfast there. My friend suggested to have brunch in Kawa before we head to the hair salon. Kawa has a relaxed atmosphere with white walls and mismatched furniture. My friend and I both ordered the Vegan BIG breakfast. The dish was served warm (which is very important) and the roasted pumpkin was so freaking tasty! I like how the baked beans are homemade and the hummus are creamy, they went really well with the crusty grain toast. I enjoyed every part of the dish and I cleared the whole plate. 

Vegan Big Breakfest includes ripe avocado, roast pumpkin, slow roasted tomato with basil, sauteed mushrooms, homemade baked beans, hummus and toast AUD$16.50

3/7: Lumiere Cafe

This was my second visit to Lumiere, I like going to Lumiere because they have have an extensive breakfast menu and their food proportions are HUGE. I felt like omelette on that day but I was struggling whether I should get smoked ham or the vegetarian omelette. The waitress suggested the vegetarian one, she said she liked the haloumi cheese with the egg so I took her suggestion. The omelette turned out to be a bit dry for me but I really like the grilled haloumi cheese and the firm chewy texture it has (was my first time having haloumi). Besides, it would be great if they served it with multigrain toast instead of plain white toast. I was super full after finishing the omelette as you can see the size of the omelette was about the size of my face lol (check out the photo underneath where I was holding my dish). I was a little disappointed with the omelette but I will definitely come back for other breakfast options!

Grilled haloumi & wilted spinach omelette AUD$19

7/7: Two Good Eggs Cafe

A brunch without egg is like having a burger without the juicy beef (not sure that make sense or not lol). It was a lovely Sunday and my friend bought me and other friends to this lovely cafe called Two Good Eggs. The cafe has a nice and warm atmosphere with brick walls and wooden tables & chairs. 

Lovely atmosphere/ hot mocha

My friends' brunch: #1 Two Good Eggs Breakfast AUD$17.90 / #2 Spicey Chorizo Baked Eggs AUD$16.90 / #3 Smoked salmon & Spinach Scrambled eggs AUD$16.90

Two Good Eggs Vegetarian Breakfast: poached eggs with grilled haloumi, baked beans, roast mushrooms, tomate and quinoa & soya toast AUD$17.90 (mine)

The poached eggs were well cooked with smooth runny yolk and the grilled haloumi was delicious with the sauce on the top (no idea what sauce was that). I particularly like the quinoa & soya bread, it was fresh and tasty! The baked beans would taste better if it was homemade. I also ordered a regular skim flat white but I felt the proportion was smaller than the normal regular size coffee (bit of a ripoff).

Aria Japanese Hair Salon Review

My new hair 

(sorry I should have use my camera to take some before-and-after hair photos)

I normally get hair done in Hong Kong considering it is always easier to communicate with hairdressers and the prices are very reasonable. However, I am staying in Sydney this semester break and it has been half a year since I did my hair so I decided to fix my hair after finishing final exams.

My hair is hard and annoying to manage, as it is long, thick (contains a bit of natural curl) and the bottom half of my hair are DEAD with extremely dry and split ends (from bleaching and curling my hair). It’s been bugging me for ages that I can’t find a hairdresser in Sydney that I can trust and rely on.

My friend and I decided to try out a Japanese salon in the City called Aria. We were attracted by their professional official website which provides clear and detailed information about their prices and services packages, booking contacts and recent campaign (20% discount for all the hair services appointment before 12 pm from Mon-Fri).  I thought it would be difficult to communicate with a Japanese hair stylist when describing my ideal hair (I am very fussy when it comes to hair because I can’t afford a result which is a failure as it takes a long time for hair to recover).  It was also the first Japanese salon I’ve ever visited, so I wasn’t too sure on what I should expect.

We had our appointment booked on Monday at 11:30am.The salon itself is nice, airy and extremely CLEAN. The staff is very friendly, professional and provide excellent services. I was very happy to have Akky as my hairdresser. I told him I would like my hair to be trimmed thinner and have my split ends cut off. I was also struggling whether I should dye my whole hair. He looked into my hair and gave me honest hair advice to only retouch the growing roots because my hair is very damaged. He dyed, washed and cut my hair all in one role.  Throughout the hair process, he was very patient and concentrated on every detail to make sure I have a desired hair result. He also styled the end of my hair with natural wavy curls which I really liked. 

Airy and clean atmosphere (photo from their official website)

Once my hair was finished (after two and a half hr), it was VERY glossy, soft and manageable, I was a completely rejuvenated! I was pleasantly impressed and surprised to find that he was able to cut my hair just exactly how I'd like it and the retouched hair colour matched perfectly with my original dyed hair (light ash brown). It was very reasonably priced given the location is handy (very cheap compared to other Asian based hair salons around the city). Lastly, we were given a membership card with our hair service package recorded and also provide future discounts. Overall, I was very satisfied and had an amazing experience. Without a doubt, I would definately go back again!

My hair service package: 

Ladies Cut only $35 + Retouched hair dye $75 + Discount (20%) -$22 = $88

Rating: 9/10

I strongly recommend you guys to have a try Aria Japanese Hair Salon and I am sure you will have a great experience like me and my friend Eileen had (proved from the photo evidence down below lol). 

Happy face after we got our hair done :D  Name: Aria Japanese Hair Salon Location: Level1/376 Pitt St., Sydney, Australia 2000 (near World Square, between Hardware shop and Cosmos Grocery store) Phone: (02) 9267 1378 (make sure you book an appointment) FB page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aria-Japanese-Hair-Salon/190703500944653 Official website: http://aria-jhs.com/main.html

New Beginning

I have always been thinking of making a blog to share my favourites (fashion, makeup, food, travel), record and capture all the lovely experiences i had. Since finals are over, it would be a great time to get this started and I am so excited about it :)

Today, I went to New Town to catch up with a lovely friend, Denise. We were on a brunch mission and we managed to score a table outside the 2046 Cafe & Deli. After demolishing our meals, we moved to the famous Black Star Bakery for some delightful desserts. 

Spicy chorizo & tomato baked beans with poached eggs & sourdough (mine)

Schultz smoked Wagyu beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, dijonaise, & pickles on rye (Denise's)

Strawberry Watermelon cake and Raspberry Creme Brulee Tart

There are a lot of amazing graffiti wall art along the side streets which are perfect for OOTD photos.

People were staring at us wondering what were these two idiots doing but we have so much fun playing around with the camera. 

Everytime I come to New town for the homemade soy candies from an old lady but disappointingly the market was closed today (blame the nasty weather). We then took the bus to Glebe for some fruity frappes and girl chat. 

New town is one of my favourite places in Sydney and will definitely come back and continue exploring.

Doraemon crossover Johnny Depp graffiti

Frappes from Well Connected Cafe in Glebe