Lily’s 21st birthday was on Wednesday, February 4, 2026. She had a celebration with her Newcastle friends on that evening but came to Sydney on the weekend to 7/8 February to celebrate with her family. We were fortunate enough to be in Sydney for the weekend and celebrate with them all at the Sangbymabasa restaurant in Surry Hills.
There were sixteen family members and their partners present and seated at two tables, one for the older folk and the other for people Lily’s age. It is a Korean restaurant so it was all a new experience for us from the bush. I will try to explain how it all worked.
The food was presented in small lots, each presentation with enough for two people. First up was the raw fish, cuttle fish I am told. Never having eaten raw fish I was pleasantly surprised that it tasted quite good. Lorraine didn’t eat the fish because she is allergic to sea food so they gave her a vegetarian pancake which also tasted quite agreeable.
Next came Korean spring roll with cucumber, radish and Korean pear followed by wagyu beef. I am sure you can work out which is which in the images below.
This was followed by bar-b-qued beef ribs (black angus short ribs we were told) and snapper with rice cooked in water and kelp oil. I was surprised how good the rice tasted.
This was all followed up by sweets that consisted of rice cake with caramel dip and Korean ice cream.
Of course, it being a special birthday celebration, a cake was supplied with one candle. The assembled family sang Happy Birthday and the cake was cut up and distributed to those present.
All in all a very pleasant evening. We had to be all out of the venue by around 8pm because they had another sitting.