AU2010 - VietCafe Vietnamese Restaurant

As winter is approaching, its probably a good time for us to search around for our winter warmers, and this time, we decided to give VietCafe a try.

 

 

VietCafe or V-Cafe (V-Cafe actually sounds better because VietCafe sounds like Weird Cafe) is a Vietnamese restaurant which claims to offer fresh modern Vietnamese cuisine with house specialties that are sure to please.

 

 

So, we decided to try their Crispy Seafood Roll for entree …

 

 

… and their House Recommended Vietnamese Steam Boat.

 

 

While having the steamboat, we were discussing on why some people call it hot pot and not steamboat. And guess what was our conclusion?  

 

 

For me, I would call it hot pot because, at that moment, there was a hot girl and a pot right in front of me!   :p

AU2010 - Menya Noodle Bar

Tucked in a corner along Market Street in Sydney, lies a small noodle bar known as Menya.

 

 

According to their website, ramen or noodles, had since the late 17th century, developed into a unique Japanese cuisine in its own right. Ever since, Japan had been having a ramen war between the 100000 or so specialty ramen noodle bars. And interestingly, today, it seems that the war has now spread over to Australia.

 

 

Are we ready to join in the WAR?

 

 

If the answer is yes, then there are three simple rules to follow. First, choose a type of ramen, then, the type of soup, and lastly, place your order and pay, before getting a seat.

 

 

As for the unwritten rule, lastly, enjoy your meal!! During our visit, we ordered the Cha-Su Lover’s Ramen …

 

 

… and Menya Ramen in Miso Soup.

 

 

Since it was a cold and windy night in Sydney, Menya was and will probably be an ideal place for meals, especially during the upcoming winter months.

 

P/S: Thanks again to Chrys for recommending this place.

AU2010 - Chat Thai

As suggested by Chrys, we decided to join in the latest craze in town at Chat Thai, a chain of Thai restaurants in and around Sydney. Having just celebrated their 20th anniversary last month, Chat Thai currently has four branches located right in the middle of Sydney at Galleries Victoria, Haymarket, Randwick and Manly.

 

 

Apparently, the name “Chat Thai” simply means “Thai Nation”. But in English, the name would have meant “to converse in a familiar and informal manner” (in Thai??). Anyway, this is exactly what Chat Thai is all about since it offers a casual and relaxed dining experience coupled with authentic Thai food.

 

 

Trying to avoid the long queues, we visited the Haymarket branch just after lunch hour but we still had to queue for a seat. And guess what? The queue actually got longer as dinner time approaches. I guess, being the latest craze in town, long queues are generally expected.

 

 

After browsing through their fancy menus, it seems that Chat Thai is just another typical Thai restaurant in town that serves general Thai food, but with a lower price range. I suppose, this price factor is a major contributor to their popularity.

For lunch, we decided to try their Pad Siew (pronounced pad see ew), which is basically a stir fried noodle dish, where thick rice noodles are fried together with Chinese broccoli and eggs in dark soy sauce …

 

 

… and Sukho Thai, a noodle soup dish with thin rice noodles in spicy chicken stock, fish paste dumplings, dried shrimps and pork loin. Peanuts and finely sliced green beans were also added as decorations.  

 

 

As for dessert, we decided to give their coconut ice cream a try, which consists of a large scoop of coconut sorbet topped with peanuts, palm seeds and red beans.

 

 

All in all, I think the chefs did a good job with our meal, except for the pad siew that was a bit too oily and the red beans in the ice cream that was not soft enough. Other than that, I would recommend this place if you don’t mind the long queues, noisy environment, and crowded space.

AU2010 - Resizing of Embedded Inline Comment Form

Nowadays, almost all new Blogger templates come with embedded inline comment forms. Although I agree that its a convenient feature, unfortunately, some of them had a bug in it. Without realising it, I was also one of the victims. I am sure some of you blogger out there do encounter the same problem as I did. Basically, when a reader tries to post a comment, he or she will be required to verify through Captcha. Due to the bug, there are no way the reader could type in the Captcha code since the form and the Post Comment button are not visible. 

 

 

If the reader managed to figure it out by using the Tab button or select the words and then drag it downwards, then yes, he or she will see the form and Post Comment button. Otherwise, I am sure the reader will get a headache on how to post a comment.

 

Many thanks to Ervin who found the bug in my comment form. I have fixed it and you should now be seeing the form and Post Comment button if you try to post a comment.

 

 

So, for those of you who wants to know how to get rid of the bug, just follow the simple steps below:

1. Sign in to your Blogger account.
2. Go to Layout, then Edit HTML.
3. Check the Expand Widget Templates box.
4. Now, using the Find tool (Ctrl + F), search for the following code.

   <iframe allowtransparency='true' class='blogger-iframe-colorize blogger-comment-from-post' frameborder='0' height='250' id='comment-editor' name='comment-editor' scrolling='no' src='' width='100%'/>

5. Change the height from 250 to something greater or equal to 410.
6. Save your template.
7. Sign out from Blogger and try to post a comment on your blog as a visitor. The problem should be fixed.

 

Good luck!!

AU2010 - Buyer PayPal Scam

This is probably my second time writing something totally unrelated to my travels, food or events. Yesterday, I posted up an online advertisement to sell my car in free classifieds for the Wollongong area. Within several hours of posting, I started receiving several emails asking about the car that I was selling.

 

The first few emails read like this, showing some interests in my ads.

 

“Just viewed your listing and will like to purchase it.Any additional info ?”

 

“Hello,

I am interested in buying your car for sale as soon as possible,please what the current condition and the last price you wanna sell.”

 

“Just viewed your listing is it still up for sale?
if yes what is the condition and your firm price?
Am no familiar with this site do get back to me on my email markbruce1021@gmail.com”

 

So, thinking that they might be genuine, I reply to their questions and also arrange a time with them for an inspection. But, instead of telling me the time and date, I received the following:

 

“does the engine works perfectly?,just wanted to make sure all bases are covered,i will purchase at the listed price and payment will be sent using PayPal and i will be needing your email with PayPal for payment or you could send me an invoice(ill handle the PayPal surcharge,you just let me know).Make sure you get back to me so that we can arrange for pick up as i will like the item to be picked as i am out of town at the moment. I await your reply. Thanks”

“how i wish to come and view this vehicle but am out of state now....am a marine engineer busy sailing am just too busy for that,am making this enquries on behalf of my wife because she is the one that need this,am in a ship right now at Bermuda..but don't worry about that when i have you paid my shipper will come for the inspection and pick all the paper works will be done once they get to you..kindly get back to me with your paypal details for me to have you paid also the pick up can be arranged as soon as we can..many thx”

 

“Hi, thanks for the swift response. I am actually buying this for myself and will want the shipment handled by my shipping agent but no worries as i am going to be responsible for the shipping bills, i will add extra amount of $2000 for my shipping agent cos am out of the town for now so i won't be able to pay them upfront myself i will be glad if you can do accept this for me. The car is going to be picked up by my agent after i have made the full payment via paypal or bank transfer. All i will need is is the amount of the car and your PayPal account email or your account information so that i can remit the funds into your account as soon as you email me your agreement to this process. I will need more pictures of the car in your next mail as i won't be able to come and check out the car.I reside in London but i get fascinated buy products from abroad because it costs some fortunes here and hope we have a deal. Once again, your fast response will be grateful appreciated so that we can complete the transaction sooner.”

 

“Hi mate,thanks for mailing back,am ok with the condition and the price,am buying it for my vacation,cos i'll coming soon from our rig as am a petroleum engineer and am on a rig offshore,i won't be able to come for the inspection due to my work basis.i will be paying you through PayPal,pls get back to me with your PayPal details so i can proceed with payment and contact the courier agent that will come to
pick it up and deliver to location in Perth,Western Australia.
Await your reply.....”

 

See the similarities? All of them mentioned that they are currently away overseas, will get their agent to collect the car and also asking for my PayPal account. The funny ones are the ones in London and also in Perth. Who on earth will buy a second hand car in Australia and ship it all the way to London? And, why buy a NSW car to be used in WA?

 

Anyway, after replying to them saying that I would prefer to deal locally and will only accept cash payments or only release the car after cashing out from PayPal, I haven’t heard from them since (FYI, they replied me the above emails within 5 minutes of my reply).

 

I did a Google search on this topic and it seems that its quite common nowadays. The scammer will first pretend to be interested with your posting. Then, they will insist on paying you with PayPal. If you happen to provide them your PayPal details, they will pay you an additional sum and that extra sum needs to be paid to their shipping agent. And if unluckily you bit the bait, you would have transferred the money to their agent, and the scammers flee after that. According to the forums, chances are, I won’t be hearing from them anymore, since now I insisted on cash payments.

 

For unsuspecting sellers, this seem to be risk-free because the buyers will pay us in full, so, in a way, we don’t have anything to loose. But, because they will pay us more than expected, PayPal will put the money on hold. And the stupidest part is that we sellers have to help them pay their agent on their behalf. Seriously, if the buyer is able to pay us through PayPal, why can’t they pay their agents directly?

 

 

So, to all sellers out there, be aware of this PayPal scam, and especially these scammers:

• janelain140@yahoo.com.au
• janelain64@hotmail.com
• lain19799@yahoo.com.au
• el.jac100@gmail.com
• markbruce1021@gmail.com
• janeywards@gmail.com
• jhaakenson231@gmail.com
• rickheyer@gmail.com
• doncayline@googlemail.com
• guytonbrown2004@gmail.com
• richardwilcox17@gmail.com
• omo.amigos200@gmail.com
• gracealbert1125@aol.com
• timothyelson2009@googlemail.com
• rexlawson41@yahoo.com.au
• tombezauciel@yahoo.de
• nicolas.sandra9@gmail.com
• deanharry009@hotmail.com
• robartandrewson27@hotmail.com
• moss.frank59@yahoo.com
• ashleymichael66@yahoo.com
• danparrow@googlemail.com
• joemark0281@yahoo.com
• ramstar01@sify.com
• engcanavarokevin@gmail.com
• johnkelvin.kelvin1@gmail.com
• markburren@yahoo.com
• andycrofty@hotmail.com
• parris.cathy59@gmail.com
• xzust1900@gmail.com
• morgbrandy01@googlemail.com

AU2010 - Crystal Thai Cuisine

After hearing about the management change, we decided to give Crystal Thai Cuisine a try again, …

 

 

… but this time ordering everything from the Chef’s special. For Crystal Thai Take Two, we decided to try their BBQ Lamb, …

 

 

… roast chicken (Chicken Paradise?? Can’t remember the name, but its something similar to roasted chicken, covered in sweet and sour sauce) …

 

 

… and their fried fish (Massaya Na Kin?? a fried fish dish with mixed herbs).

 

 

The food is, as usual, expensive, but I guess we will be back again for the relaxing ambience of the restaurant.