Sick of living off instant ramen because of your student budget? Here are some relatively affordable South East Asian eateries that really give you a bang for your buck if you’re after something filling. They probably average around $12 a dish – which sounds like a lot, but let’s be honest, one plastic tooth costs $8.
In no particular order:
Pondok Daun
Overall: technically Indonesian food, but very similar to Malay food nonetheless. All-round great tasting food with large portions
Best for:
Mi/mihoon/nasi goreng (wok tossed noodles and rice)
Crispy fried whole Tilapia fish topped with sweet-sour tomato Balado sauce (Ikan Nila Balado) – served with rice and complimentary “MSG” soup
Smoky, tender grilled meat – skewered satay or in thick slabs
Bonus (for Malaysians): opportunity to practice your rusty Malay with the super-friendly staff that runs the place
NanYang Café @ Renaissance Arcade
Overall: dishes are more Chinese-based but everything there tastes amazing – most of you would have been here
Best for:
Flat rice noodles in egg gravy (wat tan hor)
Wok-tossed flat rice-noodles (char kway teow) – this is so good that I’ve had this at least once a month for the past three years
Note: cash only! (and ATMs aren’t that close)
Thanh Thanh
Overall: ok, this is just full-on Vietnamese, but it’s good anyway! Prices are decent with loads of seating – come when you’re a group of fifteen and you haven’t made a reservation elsewhere on a Friday night
Best for:
Durian/custard apples smoothie – guys this is some legit stuff. Hands down the most realistic durian or custard-apple smoothie I’ve ever had, much better than the ones at Pondok Daun
Star of Siam
Café Michael 2
Overall: both are Thai places
Best for:
Tom yum soup – closely resembles the Malaysian experience
PappaRich
Overall: probably serves the broadest range of Malaysian food. I know the Malaysians are scoffing, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers
Come for:
ABC (air batu campur, shaved ice desert) – this is the only restaurant that I have found to serve it satisfactorily
Chicken curry with roti canai/prata (crispy Indian flatbread)
Warong @ Lower Ground Floor Rundle Place
Overall: a food stall at Rundle Place food court which is super conveniently located
Best for
Location – I’m serious, it’s great for a quick bite during shorter lunch breaks
Ming’s Steamboat (or Hong Kee, which is right across the road)
Overall: ironically, I’ve never actually tried their steamboat, but all the other Chinese dishes are amazing with generous portions
Best for:
Salt and pepper pork trotters – crispy, fatty and tender, this is honestly pretty much magic on a plate
Chef Lai
Overall: general Malaysian food paired with their decent prices and authenticity
Best for
Ambience: the place looks pretty run down from near and afar, and while that might put some people off, it just adds to the feeling of a real kopitiam back home.
Reviewed by Kit a.k.a Lim Ee Ling
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Entry for #OralBAU #TeachMeToBrush Video Challenge Helping Australia improve their #DentalHealth If you thought oral hygiene involved...Clean your teeth with bubble gum...Brush your hair with a toothbrush... then this video is for you. Share, like, subscribe ;) Credit to: Youth - Troye Sivan Sugar - Robin Schulz (ft.
Well, the break has flown by and the tougher semester is here to stay put, at least for another 4 months. Most of us are probably still in semi-denial of the reality that the long-not-awaited Semester 2 is finally here, and that vacation is over, however short it was.
So to get right back on the dental track without much distress, we thought of sharing with you a list self-help strategies (we all know how useful they are) with help of the Almighty Google.
Dear Google, how to get back to studying after a long break? Well, this question itself is quite ambiguous in nature. It can be interpreted in multiple ways a) getting back to school after a long holiday b) taking up a new course possibly months or years after graduating from a certain school. But remember, I did ask the all-knowing search engine. After a complex set of algorithms being made to match my demographic group, I was directed to several websites that shared about post-vacation strategies.
Here is the list, let's dive right in, shall we?
#1 Limit your tasks, workload, commitment.
Let’s get real. Is that even a matter of choice in dental school? First day of the semester- anatomy overload at 8.30am. And the week just gets progressively longer and intense from then on with heaps of first time skills being put on test with even higher expectations. Well, let's skip this one, it is non-applicable for this course.
#2 Turn your study space into a mini-sanctuary.
Well, mine still looks like a massive earthquake since the exams, with loose papers, snacks wrappings and other indiscernible crap lying around. The effort of sprucing them up itself seems to be a huge commitment, let alone renovating them into a paradise. Remember #1- limit your workload. Again, not applicable. What is wrong with these approaches, they are contradictory. Moving on to No. 3.
#3 Make a holiday resolution.
Now, now, does anyone even do New Years resolutions these days? We all know it never works; we probably need another list of strategies to help make and stick to a holiday resolution. Again too much workload. If despite all odds a resolution is made, what would it be? Study X hours daily? Keep up to date with lectures? Prepare before all clinic sessions? I think the dental school has employed sufficient and efficient resources to deal with that.
#4 Find a vacation theme song.
This strategy is probably to remind you of the freer days, in the aim to get your calm mode on. It may work for some, but I am predicting most may fall into a post-vacation temporary acute depression instead. I, certainly am, one of them. The right jam to the heightened blah-ness would probably be Fantine’s“I dreamed the dream” from Les Misérables.
#5 Looking forward to come back.
This is when you are supposed schedule certain activities that you did on vacation during your first week back to uni i.e hiking, yoga, absolute nothing, etc. Hmm, this seems plausible. If we only had the TIME.
Maintaining the post-vacation chill ain’t that easy ay?
Jokes aside, hope you guys have had a wonderful break and a somewhat bearable, if not enjoyable first few weeks of dental school.
