Monday, 29 December 2014

Post Christmas Hangout


My dear friend came over today to hang out. Since I live so close to an outlet mall plus my mother wanted to use my car, we decided to take advantage of my neighbourhood!

I didn't have anything to buy and I try to be on budget. I don't know really for what reason but save save save must be good right?

I just help her look for things and suggest stores when she tell me what she wants. Things are labelled as on sale but to tell the truth, I don't believe 100%. Especially since one store, I'm sure I saw the iPad sleeve before was on sale for about $30 but today I saw it on sale for over $50! Actually I think maybe over $60. Never mind, my memory sucks. 

My friend had more luck finding what she wanted but I just tag along ya. But I did manage to find one dress from Dotti down to $10. It was labelled as faulty but actually I think whoever complained just say it's faulty because they were lazy. The zip just keep snatching and get stuck halfway but actually I think it's just the loose threads being the kink. Can just trim it so I don't even consider it faulty. So I bought it. It's a catch!

Just before the end, we both bought underwear from Cotton On Body. I've never shopped from there so not sure about quality. But can't be so bad, full price is almost $12 but they were selling 3 for $10. Just buy first and try out. I bought all three grey colour boy cut (?! I can never remember the names!!! It's the one full butt coverage). I know boring grey colour but not many to choose from. Only other option left is white. 

Our dinner was a short drive away at The Zookeeper's Son. I've always heard such positive things said about this place. Value for money! Good selection, good taste, nice price for an evening at the pub. 


We were seated and we ordered our drinks. My friend ordered the ginger beer and I asked for a lemon lime bitters. I didn't see it on the menu so I wasn't sure even if they have a bar. The waiter told me they have it and it is made by the bar instead of store bought. 


The starter I chose was the steamed mussels with coconut cream. I have been wanting some since I returned from the Coromandel. It's hard to say why since normally I don't eat so much seafood. Probably because I've been in Nz during summer? Last few years, I've been away overseas. I would have preferred this dish to be less creamy but it's with coconut cream which I guess made it extra thick. I'm not sure if this causes the mussels to be more dry? 😪 win some lose some?


One of our mains: the Sunday roast (beef). I don't know what to say about this. I've had better roast meals before but not beef. However I've never had dinner at a bar so can't really compare and say anything about the standard. Especially for daily specials. Overall, I thought it was overcooked and the gravy might have been a bit thick. The flavours were okay though. It was $15.xx as the days special while other mains are in the high $20s. 


This is the Aucklander pizza which came highly recommended by my friend. She couldn't decide between the Sunday roast and this so I relented and suggested lets just get both. The pizza is chicken and cranberries with a plum sauce. Now, I agree the cranberries the highlight and the whole pizza is given an extra kick from the plum sauce. It was a good juicy feel. I think maybe the only thing I would have changed is to cut the chicken breast into smaller pieces and spread it out more. For tonight, it was rather chunky. But my friend tells me that it's usually cut into smaller sizes. 

We also ordered a side of beer battered fries. I think they stayed in the frien for a bit too long as some was over fried and you could taste the oil a little on those ones. I still at it all though, I'm such a pig. No wonder I'm so fat! Can't stop myself from eating crunchy deep fried stuff!


Separated the roast dish into two so can eat more comfortably. Maybe supposed to be like this and is actually not overcooked? I don't know. These past two days I've been watching Gordon Ramsay a lot. I feel like my standards have skyrocketed after watching him make stunning dishes so effortlessly. Never mind okay. After a few days of no Ramsay shows, my standards gonna drop drastically. So my opinion probably change too. 

Altogether the meal came to just a little over $35 per person so actually not bad since we felt so stuffed! In fact for that price pretty good! Got two drinks, got two mains, got starter and a side. I saw the tables next to us ordered "real" mains (the high $20s ones) and they looked fantastic. I would definitely like to go back and try them. Especially the pork belly one (I think it's pork belly). It looked so good. 

I'm sorry I didn't try to take better pictures. I never considered I will make a blogpost. In fact, right now I'm lying in bed typing this on my phone. The photos here all untouched since I'm so lazy. 

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