Cake Boss and Cannoli.

On another food related note, one of my favourite shows at the moment is Cake Boss. The show follows the crew at Carlo's Bakery located in the heart of Hoboken, New Jersey. Let me just say, these guys are amazing. They make some pretty phenomenal looking cakes, to suit any requested theme. On the whole, the show not only showcases their amazing talents in the cake/baking department, but is generally entertaining following their (often hilarious) family dramas.

The bakery is apparently renowned for their cannoli, and so without fail every time I watch this show I think of cannoli and then crave cannoli. To satisfy my latest cannoli craving, my sister and dad kindly offered to drive out to one of my favourite little Italian patisseries to get me some of the best tasting cannoli in Sydney. The place is Pasticerria Papa and all their desserts are divine! In fact, they are famous throughout Sydney for their Ricotta Cake, which is indescribably delicious.

After 2 hours stuck in ridiculous amounts of traffic, they finally got there. My sister was worried that they might have run out of cannoli, as the place gets extremely busy on weekends (where the line is out the door) and by lunchtime most desserts are no longer available. Thankfully, they were able to get cannoli - both vanilla and chocolate - and some of slices of our favourite Pecan Pie.

Yum!

SIFF 2010

I love Octobers simply because it signifies the celebration of good food around Sydney. Unfortunately due to work and uni commitments I haven't had many chances to check out many of the offerings at this year's Sydney International Food Festival. One thing, however, that my sister and I knew we couldn't miss out on was trying one of the special brunch offers.

So today, battling the insane windy weather conditions we ventured out with the family to have brunch at Hyde Park Barracks Cafe. We did the SIFF Brunch here last year and based on that and the set menu that they were advertising it sounded promising.

The 3-course brunch began with a homemade granola, vanilla yoghurt and poached fruit. This was followed by Eggs 3-ways...

Being vegetarian I had the meat-free version. This included - eggs florentine, a mushroom and fetta omelette with ciabatta bread, and an egg and roast tomato tart.

The third and final dish was raspberry waffles with white chocolate sauce, vanilla gelato and berries.

Overall, the food pretty tasty but I can't say that I was overly impressed. It might have been the service that put me off a bit, as at times it was plain offensive (I won't elaborate too much, but I think 90% of the people dining there had been personally insulted by one particular waiter)...but with 3-courses for $25 I can't really complain.

10.10.10

It's been a crazy busy couple of days for me but for the most part it has been crazy in a good way. I spent the most part of my weekend at work but this led to me being introduced to one of the best dumpling places I've ever been too. It also reminded me of the age-old adage to not judge books by their covers. In this case I'm referring to the little dumpling place. Upon first glance it doesn't seem all that welcoming or enticing but appearances aside the food was authentic and absolutely delicious.

After work today I headed down to the Rock's Markets to check out the Australian Cheese Showcase 2010 with a couple of my lovely coworkers, after sampling (and purchasing) some delicious organic goat's milk cheese we wandered around the rest of the markets. This was followed up with a stop in at what is by far my favourite French patisserie in Sydney, La Renaissance. They do THE most divine cakes and their hot chocolates are pretty delicious too! Today my sweet of choice was the Fleur de Lys...

(Source - http://larenaissance.com.au/images/savouries/Zulu.jpg)

It's simply divine. It's a rich chocolate mousse made from Valrhona 70% chocolate, with a crunchy praline and biscuit base. Yum!

Other lovely things that have made my weekend a good one included my newly acquired book bag.

I have been going on about these bags for a while (previously mentioned here), and my lovely sister surprised me by buying me one...and in my favourite pattern too! (Thanks F!!)

In return for my sister's generous and most thoughtful gift of the coveted book bag, I stopped by kikki.K and bought her the 2011 Inspiration Diary that she has been eyeing for a while. In fact the diary is so neat and has some great inspirational quotes throughout, that I ended up going back and buying one for myself.

Tulips, Parades and the Elephant Boy.

Just got home from a wonderful day out with the family. We decided to go for a bit of a drive down to Bowral for lunch, and it just so happens that the locals were in the midst of celebrating their annual Tulip Time Festival.

For lunch we stopped in at the Elephant Boy Cafe. The cafe has a quirky decor, filled with all sorts of odds and ends, and shelves lined with old books.

The food is (for the most part) really good. I opted for the Vegetable Lasagna was supremely tasty with it's fusion of Indian and Italian flavours - while it had a traditional bechemel sauce it was spiced with a lovely pancha masala.

My dad and sister tried the Fish Cakes (made from Salmon and Potato), which is a dish Elephant Boy is quite popular for. I, of course, could not resist and stole a bite from their plates and decided that they were indeed absolutely delicious.

Because I had trouble deciding what to order my mum decided to get the Sweet Potato Tart so that we could share and I could have both the lasagna and tart. It too was spiced with some uniquely Indian flavour and with the accompanying Mango Chutney was incredibly tasty.

After lunch we decided to go for a bit of a wander around the main street and check out all the stores we like to visit whenever we head to Bowral. Despite the fact that I'm in the middle of a mission to save money for a holiday I couldn't help myself and had to buy something. I opted for a little bar of Herbal Clothing Protector. I figured it was practical, protecting my clothes from potential moth infestations, and so it justified the spend.

Then my sister and I went into one of the many antique stores. There is simply so much character and history behind each piece, I love it!

While we were out on our little wander we noticed the street was beginning to fill up with locals, and it was then that we discovered that today was in fact the main day of the Tulip Festival, and because they were celebrating it's 50th year there was going to be a parade through town. The parade itself was pretty standard, showcasing the organisations and things that make the Southern Highlands unique.

Following the parade there was going to be wheelbarrow races and lantern parades but we decided it was time for a break from festival-watching and decided to grab some coffee and cake instead. We usually head to the Bowral Cafe and Patisserie, but having enjoyed our earlier meal at Elephant Boy we decided to head back there. Sadly, this second visit was a bit of a let down. We ordered our coffees, as well as a slice of Carrot Cake and a slice of Pear and Almond cake to share. When they arrived we were shocked to discover that there was in fact mould on the Pear and Almond cake. This put a major dampener on our afternoon.

Despite the mould debacle the coffees were in fact really good, living up to the claim on the door that they have "the best coffee in town". Predictably I ordered a Chai Latte, and not only was it perfectly made it came in a little bowl, which I thought was pretty neat - even if it did present a slight challenge when it came to drinking it.

All in all it was pretty great day :)

Bagels Galore.

So it is no secret that bagels are my favourite kind of bread. The best bagel I have ever eaten is undoubtedly the 99 cent bagel from Danny's deli in NYC. It was a simple (super cheap) bagel slathered in an unhealthy amount of butter, I'm drooling just thinking about it.

Ever since that wonderful bagel I have been searching for delicious bagels around Sydney, and although they will never be quite the same as those in one of the bagel capitals of the world (NYC), I think I have found a pretty good substitute. Even better it is a mere 2 minute walk across the road from my uni and current workplace.

For a couple of years now I've walked past the great bagel and coffee company looking at the people crowded inside and wondering "could it really be that good to always have crowds?", but I never did stop to try it. Last week my craving for bagels was pretty extreme, so I finally gave in and stopped by. This led to the grand discovery that they make pretty tasty bagels and that their menu also contains delicious curly fries and double shakes.

As a result I've been stopping by almost every day after work (unhealthy I know, but who can resist!) trying out the different bagel options always with a side of curly fries. My favourite combination so far has to be the classic bagel with cream cheese:

Whatever the bagel, it is a MUST to order a side of curly fries with moroccan salt (they offer plain and chicken salts as well, but having sampled them all moroccan is by far the tastiest).

Monday.

Today has been a fairly great day. It began with an exciting morning, which saw the arrival of our beautiful new fridge and oven (to replace our deceased fridge and currently dying oven).

Then I caught up with my lovely friend R (not to be confused with previously mentioned cousin R) and we hit up one of my regular haunts - the T2 Cafe. Today I had the Madagascan Vanilla tea. This is a delicious black tea blend that is flavoured (and scented) with a delicate hint of vanilla. In addition to their wonderful selection of teas, T2 seems to have expanded the range of food items offered in their cafe, and they now have a tasty Organic Pear and Raspberry Loaf (and for those with particular dietary requirements, it is also gluten free!).

The day was traveling well and after bidding farewell to R I tried my luck in tending to some University business at the Student Office. Big Mistake #1. The lines were unbelievably long and the staff really unhelpful (there is a major communication issue!).

After what seemed like an eternity I emerged from the Student Office, and another genius thought struck me. I decided to head to the bookstore and pick up my textbooks. Big Mistake #2. With all my books rounded up I was faced with a major dilemma, together they weigh several kilograms and with an umbrella in hand getting them to the car seemed near impossible.

Here is my stack of books (which have added fuel to my existent dislike for textbooks of all shapes and sizes).

I may have won the battle against the books this time, having successfully got them home, but now I'm faced with a far greater problem - getting them to and from classes. Wish me luck!