Answering The Call Of My Stomach

In the 10 days that i spent in Brissy in July, not only was I a happier person, my stomach was too - though my weight wasn't. I went back to all the yummy places i used to eat at! It's funny when i tell people that Brisbane is home to some of the yummiest food i've ever had, i realise that almost 95% of the food aren't even Australian!

Without further ado, this is how i, in Karen's words, "celebrated life".

You haven't had awesome Korean food until you've dined at Mad Tong San - home to the best kimchi chi geh and kimchi soon du boo i've ever had. So good that my Korean friends declare the food as "better than Korean food in Korea!". So good that i had it three times during my vacay.

I've never been a fan of crepes but when you have crepes stuffed with lots of cream cheese, raisins and accompanied with ice cream and sour strawberry sauce, who can resist? Say hello to The Ultimate (top of the picture) from Pancake Manor, a beautiful restaurant that was previously a church.

Ohmigosh, don't even get me started on the dim sum. It's nothing like what we have in Malaysia (in a good way!) and more closely resembles Hong Kong's dim sum, although i do reckon we have awesomer siew mai. They have my all-time fave fried squid tentacles! Yum to the Mee.

If you're in Aussie and looking for a fab Caesar Salad, you'll want to head into the Coffee Club. Although Caesar Salad is one of the easiest salads to make and is available almost everywhere in KL, they are never complete. Some places don't serve the salad with hard-boiled egg. Some don't come with bacon bits. And most don't have anchovies. Coffee Club has 'em all! And i heart Aussie's sushi rolls too, available at most food courts. Just two rolls and you've got lunch covered cos they're not the tiny ones we get in KL.

Of course, i can't go back to IH and not relive my uni days with some good ol' IH food (that blob of orangey stuff on the plate in the left photo - it's not as bad as it looks) and my all-time fave alcoholic soda Vodka Cruiser (flavour: ice). Why isn't it available in Malaysia? Why?!?

And i decided to save these images for last because it's hands down, the best seafood i've ever eaten. During one of the last few days of my trip, Ning Yi and I decided to hunt down Charis seafood market in Gold Coast that Joanne told us about. We feasted on prawns, a crab, a Moreton Bay bug (it's not a bug lah, just the name - picture second row left), oysters and fish & chips. The crab was THE BEST one i've had. Except for the oysters and fish & chips, everything was just boiled and placed on ice so you get the original taste of the seafood.

Then, we had some stomach space left and decided to get more prawns. But me being me, got so tempted by alien-looking seafood that i got a spanner-head crab and some marrons. By the end of the super-long lunch, Ning Yi and I vowed to never eat seafood again for the rest of the year. We were ohsofull but ohsohappy.