The Choc Pot - Chatswood, NSW

Dessert of the month for November 2015:

Pavlova Ice Cream Jar

This yummy dessert is made of chocolate  meringue, raspberry coulis, vanilla bean ice cream, mango passion fruit curd, white chocolate cream, and topped with berries. I think my favorite desserts have actual fruit in it...like this one. Ice cream is good, meringue (pavlova) yum, fruity sauces are good....mixed together is a nice sweet and tart dessert that you don't get tired of. I want more jars.

There is a crepe in the background which is also good, but I love ice cream more. Sweet tooth is growing here as these desserts have multiple elements that go well together. The Choc Pot is my new favorite dessert place. Their desserts of the month are always good.

Black Star Bakery in Kinokuniya Bookstore - Sydney CBD

Strawberry watermelon cake (what they're known for) on the left. Sooo goood. Very refreshing and light. Probably because of the fresh watermelon slices in the middle of the cake.

Raspberry lychee cake. Also very good. Their layers are soft, fluffy, and moist. Not too sweet, a bit of tartness from the raspberry.

Both desserts were excellent but I prefer their signature Strawberry Watermelon cake.

Creperie le Triskel - Melbourne, Victoria

On a recent trip to Melbourne, I stopped by Creperie le Triskel. Nice little French place on Hardware Lane. The waitresses had French accents which added to the ambiance. The largest photo above is the savoury (that's how savory is spelled here) La Triskel crepe. It's a buckwheat flour crepe with a free range egg, Swiss gruyere cheese, mushrooms, and spinach. You can have ham, turkey, or prosciutto, but I chose spinach since I am vegetarian. It wasn't too salty or oily...I do enjoy this kind of food. The sparkling apple juice was also delicious. Would definitely come back again.

32 Hardware Lane
Melbourne, VIC 3000
0466 406 404
http://lapetitecreperie.com.au/le-triskel/

Tea

Ordered some tea to go with my lunch. What a fancy tea cup!

Happy Lunar New Year....late

Prime Minister Tony Abbott

A surprise guest arrived while we were looking at the lanterns for the Lunar New Year. Lo and behold it was the prime minister. Not too many guards with him...nothing like the craziness of the US president. Don't get me wrong...there was a crowd swarming him...but we were able to get pretty close. Didn't snap any good photos when he got close, so this one will have to do.

Holiday Stuff Around Sydney

Being summer...it just doesn't feel like the holidays. Looking around town, here are some things that are very merry and bright.

The holiday lights at Town Hall:

 Some wreaths by Nurse's Walk near Circular Quay:

Martin Place lights and tree:

Pitt Street near Westfield Mall:

St Mary's Cathedral Lights of X-mas:

David Jones Dept. Store window displays:

This is the only window display I could find. Better than nothing, but of course nothing compares to NYC.

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays from Sydney. May everyone have a safe and peaceful holiday season. Don't let those crazy people elbowing you and cutting you off to buy presents ruin your day! Just breathe!

Brought to you by a Lego X-mas tree. Pretty cool eh? Holidays in the summer....strange to me.

Bluebird Coffee - Sydney CBD

This is now the new best coffee place so far. It's right by the Town Hall station off of George Street. The dessert was also good. It was nutella flavored, but forgot what it was called. Either way, it was moist and not too sugary. We had one sugar each in our cappuccino and latte. Good flavors together with the dessert. We will go back due to the convenient location by the train station as well.

Coffees here have been good so far. Becoming a coffee snob by tasting smoother and smoother coffee. They always do a good job with the latte art as well....which is a plus!

http://bluebirdcoffeesydney.com/

Registering the Doggie

Went to the local council that covers our area to register our dog. You just have to provide the dog's microchip number and desexing (spay/neuter) information. It was $50 for lifetime registration in the state of NSW. If you move to another state, then you would have to register your pet in that state. Just know that it is a one time registration fee for the state that you live in. So long as we don't move out of state, we never have to renew anything for doggie. They just want the microchip number and your information in their records. This way, if doggie is ever lost, they will scan the microchip and find the owner. So if your dog is not micro-chipped, I guess you can't register. No annual license fees here like in California. Woot!

Pablo & Rusty's in CBD Sydney

Stopped by the Pablo & Rusty's at 161  Castlereagh, and it wasn't as good. The place was buzzing....but for some reason the coffee just wasn't as good? Maybe more people, more rushed? No need to go back to that location. Lane Cove better.

Pablo & Rusty's - Lane Cove, NSW

There are so many little cafes and coffee shops here. Starbucks is not on every street corner here...which is a good sign. There are many great small shops here. Hooray for small business owners! Pablo & Rusty's is one of the best we've tasted so far. Just went to their website and noticed they have a few locations. Will have to try the one in CBD next time.

http://pabloandrustys.com.au/

Frappe - Crows Nest, NSW

Starting from the top left going down:
Veggie wrap: Salty (might be too much aioli)
Coffee: good
Veggie stack: good
Frappe (tropical flavored): good
Outside view: ok
Salad: rocket(arugula) and haloumi was good
Pasta: good

Overall: good...just no wrap again.

Learning Some Australian

As weird as that sounds, there are some words we just use differently. Here are a quick few:

bell pepper (US) = capsicum (Australian)
romaine lettuce = cos
arugula  = rocket

Yup...looking at menus...I had no idea what those things were until I asked a native Australian. Feeling pretty foreign for an English speaking country.

Labor Day and Daylight Savings

Just a quick note that Labor Day here was this past Monday October 6th and Daylight Savings was this past Sunday October 5th. We sprung forward one hour because remember... we are on the other side of the equator and it's Spring.

Greetings from Sydney

G'day mate! This is my first post in a looong time. So much has changed. This is also my first post from the other side of the equator. Yup, no more food blogs from SoCal. Now it's food from Australia (generally)...and many other things I'm learning out here.

Today is the first day that I have internet connection here at my new location. Yay! It took approximately 2.5 weeks since calling the internet company for internet to actually be hooked up. Yes, they work slow down here. So I've been patiently/impatiently waiting for internet service. Technically, they just installed service into the building (not all the way to our unit). Luckily someone I know is a network engineer and found the already connected lines that run into the unit. Network engineer told the guy that came to do the install to punch a line to the correct location that runs to our unit. So it's all done.

Puppy dog was also imported with us. After working at the shelter and seeing so many abandoned animals, there was no way I was going to leave our dog behind. Well....even if I hadn't worked at the shelter, we would've imported the dog. We took on the responsibility to take care of her for life. She's our family! More on the process later...boy was it a pain.

Anyway, I hope to be posting more things about everything that's different (and not) around here. So far I'm figuring out which stores equate to what in the states. *Sigh* I don't really know if I'm getting a good deal...and I like to get good deals!

Hopefully more to come soon!

Kean Coffee - Tustin, CA : Caffe Napoli

Liking Kean Coffee a lot. Smooth lattes. And I am not a coffee drinker. But when I want some, I want it from this place.

Caffe Napoli

I tried the Caffe Napoli and it was sweeter than their regular latte. So if you like a sweet latte, then this is it! It's quite good though. Kind of like a dessert drink. Very yummy, not like a coffee. The latte art wasn't so great in this one. It came like that, I have not stirred it yet. Yeah, but hey, as long as the drink is good.

Kean Coffee

http://www.keancoffee.com/ 

1368 Newport Ave., Suite 14

Tustin, CA 92780

(714) 838-5326

Christakis Greek Cuisine - Tustin, CA : Spanakopita

No need for too many words. You like Greek food, try this place out. There's even live guitar music to be enjoyed.

Interior

The calm before the storm. We got there just after 5:00pm when they opened for the evening. So getting in was easy. Cozy setting. Getting out was harder since all the seats were filled.

Greek Salad

 My dinner started with a small salad. Part of the dinner meal.

Spanakopita w/rice, green beans, potato

The main dish. Spanakopita with rice, green beans, and a potato wedge. All pretty darn good. (And I don't love Greek food, but maybe that was because I didn't eat REAL Greek food.)

Spanakopita

The Spanakopita was crispy and flaky on the outside with lots of feta cheese on the inside. All good. The only thing I would say is that it was a bit dry. I myself have a dryer mouth and need lots of water so maybe that was it. Besides that, I liked that it wasn't too salty. The flavors were well balanced in my opinion. The Meat-eater thoroughly enjoyed his meal as well. Thumbs up!

Christakis Greek Cuisine
http://christakisgreekcuisine.com/
13011 Newport Avenue
Tustin, CA 92780
714-731-6600

Japanese Chiffon Cake - Mitsuwa Marketplace: Irvine, CA

Cake is not really one of my favorite things to eat. But when I went to Japan, I loved their cake. It's so light and airy and not too sweet.

So when I saw cakes on sale at Mitsuwa I had to get one. I had a hard time deciding, but decided to pick this cream one, even though I don't love cream.

Oh, I love this cake. It's so soft and light, fluffy, airy, creamy (not heavy), and not too sweet. Perfect for my taste buds. Love love love. It almost melts in your mouth. You don't really have to chew because it's so soft. And this cake is the not-fresh on-sale item. I wonder what the freshly made ones taste like? This is definitely an indulgence!

Ecco Pizzeria & Bar - Costa Mesa, CA : Margherita Pizza

There is a backlog of food that I have not gone through, and it seems to get further and further behind because I would rather post about newer items. But here is one that I definitely have to blog about (even if it is old) because it is quite good. Ecco is located in the anti-mall area of The Camp.

Starter Bread

Our bread looks a bit burnt, but it wasn't bad.

Salad

I had this salad that doesn't seem to be on the menu any longer. It was quite good for my taste. Light and not too oily.

Margherita Pizza

What I always try...their plain pizzas. Margherita pizza is my favorite. Thin crusts rule for me since I don't like dough. Their dough was good. Nice, thin and chewy. I did think this pizza was too salty (same as other pizza places). Perhaps they use the same formula throughout all their pizzas, and their other pizzas have more items on it so it seems less salty. Whereas the plain cheese has nothing to cut the salt? I don't know. I always think these are salty for some reason. Everyone has a different palate, can't satisfy everyone. The meat-eater did like his meat pizza though....didn't think it was salty. Besides the saltiness, everything else was good. Perhaps it's changed by now.

Ecco
http://www.eccopizza.com/
2937 Bristol Street
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
714-444-ECCO (3226)