Tian Ran – OMG, seriously, OMG……

It was pretty damn amazing.  We miss Magic Wok so much.  I remember when I heard about it closing, it was like a part of me died.  Yes, I’m being melodramatic, but as much as we love Kuan Yin and Loving Hut, we really don’t have a replacement for Magic Wok.  Sooooo, we decided to drop into the Gold Coast and visit Tian Ran on the way home from Byron Bay.  Woah – the Gold Coast and Byron are polar opposites! 
Enough ranting, food:

Mmmmmm we’ve become addicted to the young coconuts from Woolworths thanks to Cam’s sister.  They’re probably incredibly bad for the environment, being flown from Indonesia/Thailand, but OMG, soooooooooooo good.
Entree 1: BBQ Pork Buns

Not as good as the Magic Wok ones (they weren’t bright red in the middle), but they were good.  Very ‘meaty’ texture inside.
Entree 2: Crispy Fish Strips

From the taste, Cam worked out that these were probably Lamyong Fishy Strips (no idea what the real name is).  They were really nice (and that’s saying something, ‘cause I’m not a fan of the fishy substitutes).
Entree 3: Chicken and Corn Soup

I’ve had this soup before – Cam brought some home for me when I was writing my thesis and he went to the land of the leather people (the Gold Coast) with friends.  Nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom !
Side dish: Nasi Goreng

This was delicious!  I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was delicately flavoured (tomato and chilli powder).  And super super yummy.  (I’m going to run out of superlatives soon!)
Amy’s Main: Salt and Pepper Chicken

Deep fried tastiness.  We thought these were Lamyong Soy Nuggets.
Cam’s Main: Black Pepper Chicken

Again Lamyong Soy Nuggets.  It had that tasty cornflour glaze thingy that Chinese food has.  Not too peppery – Cam really enjoyed this.
Cam’s dessert: Banana Fritter

I can’t vouch for the flavour (I don’t eat banana), but Cam had a huge grin on his face the entire time he ate this.
We really enjoyed Tian Ran.  The service was great and not too fast.  The guy who owns it (we presume) was really lovely.
It was a great end to a fantastic weekend.

Byron Bay Food

Howdy!  So the hell of exams is over, so I’ve started back at work 4 days a week and have been spending the Friday doing criminal law research for a lecturer.  It’s actually pretty fun, just hard to do in the heat!
Anyhoooooo, Cam and I went down to Byron last weekend to visit his sister and to generally spend time on our arses at the beach.

Broken Head Beach, Monday morning
We spent Sunday leisurely driving to Byron Bay, stopping at Minion Falls @ Nightcap National Park (best name ever).  Which was fun, except we got caught in a thunderstorm at 2 in the afternoon!  Leeches really are gross…

Funny, I remember it being calmer than this! 
We then spent Monday at two different beaches.  Morning was at Broken Head Beach (the two posts above) and Watego’s – closer to the centre of Byron (not pictured ‘cause we actually went swimming).

Terrible turnout

There’s two awesome vegan health food stores in the middle of Byron Bay – Santo’s and The Fundamental Food Store (Fundie’s – they have a store in Brisbane’s Paddington).

This deep fried tastiness was Monday’s lunch.  The two pastries were yummy (one was a samosa, and the other was delicately flavoured veggies), Cam had the tempeh sushi (ew ew ew), and there was a bean fritter.  Sooooooo good!

Luckily the Woolworths at Byron had Tofutti cream cheeze – so there were bagels for breakfast on both days!  Nom nom nom…

This was from Santo’s various salads and amazing pies.  Plus, in front, a millet ball and a rice ball (we shared).  This was sooooo good!

Byron Bay’s famed unicorn farm sign…
It was a fantastic weekend! 
We visited the Gold Coast on the way home on Tuesday and visited Tian Ran!  I’ve got a whole post’s worth of pics, so they’ll go up soon!