yulli’s in surrey hills

This is a post from May 2023, of a day that turned out to be quite an interesting one, and not all of it was good. Consider yourself warned.

Today has been an interesting day for many reasons. I honestly don’t know how the whole day turned out to be the way it did in the end. It all started with my morning gym session.

After the gym, I decided not to have breakfast, as it was already close to lunchtime. I thought it would be quiet at the Turkish Embassy, so voting wouldn’t take long, and after that was done, we would go to Yulli’s in Surrey Hills for lunch. The day had other plans for me.

Voting Day for Turkey
I wanted to vote. I’m still a citizen of Turkey, and it is the only thing I can do for my country and its future while living thousands of miles away.

But it wasn’t quiet at the Embassy as I thought it would be. The queue was long, and some people were taken inside as a favour while everybody else was waiting. Favouritism is a big thing among Turks, you see. If you know the security guy there, you’re in first—no need to queue.

On top of that, there was nowhere to park. My husband dropped me off near the embassy, and that’s how I joined the queue. Immediately, other people—mainly women—arrived, and they started to talk to me.

I learnt from one of the ladies there that there is no embassy in Brisbane, and if you want to vote or get your documents renewed, you have to go somewhere else to get it all done. It is ridiculous when you think about the number of Turks who live in Brisbane.

The same group of ladies also told me about their health problems. Not that I asked. But the conversation was all about their kids and grandchildren. Again, not that I asked. Phones were out with photos of their whole family. Did they bother to ask if I wanted to see them? No.

Did they ask me anything about myself? No. They have kids and grandchildren, so you should drop everything, put yourself and your worth as a human being aside and listen. That was the whole 1 hour 40 minutes of my life while waiting to vote that I will never get back.

And I’m telling you, rolling my eyes and putting up with it doesn’t even cut it. I mean the torture of listening to someone else’s important stuff (only in their own world) while my whole being is ignored entirely is a shit sandwich.

This was one of my worst social nightmares happening right before my eyes: a bunch of women talking about their kids and grandkids while disregarding me.

They think kids are the only common ground with other women, and they see no harm in taking you hostage to dump their kids’ stories. Well, I have some news for you ladies: some women choose not to have kids, and they’re okay with that decision. I am one of those women, and I don’t like the way you dominate the conversations and pepper them with your kids and grandkids. That is NOT okay.

I tried to avoid those kinds of women all my life, and yet I was trapped in this saga of breeding while waiting to vote. At the same time, my husband was trapped in a parking building with his Kindle.

After enduring all those incredibly ordinary word salads about kids and stuff, it was finally my turn to vote, and then I was free to go—such a relief to think that I will never, ever see or talk to those women again.

I was free to go and have lunch at Yulli’s in Surrey Hills. Easy, right?

No, think again.

Yulli’s, Surrey Hills
Finding a parking space in Surrey Hills was yet another problem. We were just about to give up after driving around every possible block with an opportunity to park, and finally found one!

Yulli’s is a big thing in Sydney, you see. The place has been in business since 2008, and even after visiting Yulli’s in Byron Bay, this was going to be my first time.

And I was busting and starving!

Unfortunately, the toilet situation was not that good: they had constantly running taps, and the floor was quite wet because of it.

Anyway, we were finally there. Worn-out and famished, and this is what we had:

• Steamed leek & ginger dumplings with plum sauce
• Korean fried broccolini with sticky sour chilli sauce, toasted coconut and crushed almonds
• Roasted adobo cauliflower with butter bean cream and walnut crumbs

We would like to go back and have dinner next time, but if the parking situation is ‘that’ bad around the area, we may not want to do that. I guess we’ll wait and see when Yulli’s will call our name.

Until then, you might want to go and have creative vegan dishes. If you do, use their website to make a booking.