The Sweet side of New York City

One thing I noticed about staying in New York was the over abundance of sweet things. There were not only the huge amounts of candy and chocolate - some of what we get in Australia but with different flavours - but even the bread and burgers buns were sweet! I found that only after a few days of being in the city that I was craving a 'proper meal'. I needed meat. I needed vegetables! I'm not sure if it was just the food we were eating, or whether New Yorkers or Americans in general are used to the high sugar content? I will say that I was more than happy to browse through the big stores with all those sweet things as it was such a novelty for me.

I found out about Dylan's Candy Bar not long before we left for our holiday and knew I had to get us there somehow! I'm so glad we did, imagine - a 3 level store filled with candy, chocolate and sweet things with staff who are lovely and excited about their jobs. This is where we first tried one of the best tasting things in the world (this coming from someone who's not a sweet tooth!) - Candy Corn M&Ms!

I'd been wanting to go to FAO Schwarz ever since I saw Tom Hanks in the piano scene in Big. While I knew about the floors and floors filled with toys, I had no idea that they had such a big sweet section on their bottom floor. There seemed to be so many tubs filled with weird and wonderful candy and chocolates, or lots of giant versions or giant bag fulls of sweets. 

These are just a couple of the different sorts of chocolate bars I found. We do have Milky Ways and Twix in Australia, but definitely not caramel and peanut butter flavoured ones!

A new addiction! Candy Corn M&Ms! When the girl in Dylan's Candy Bar offered us a sample of these we were a little uncertain, but she was so excited for us to try them we gave them a shot. And...they were amazing! We both immediately bought some and a couple of bags ended up in my luggage to bring home. Hmm, I wish they had these in Australia!

How could we pass up Ben & Jerry's. While this is now sold in Australia we definitely don't have many of the different flavours that they have in the USA. This the 'Late Night Snack' that I tried Vanilla bean ice cream with salty caramel and fudge covered potato chip clusters. I know it sounds weird, but the combination worked really well together with the sweet and salty.

I loved the time of year that we were there, summer had just ended so we still had amazing weather - all beautiful sunny days, but we got to enjoy some of the benefits of Autumn (fall). The shops were full of pumpkins, Halloween decorations and candy were starting to come out in stores and Starbucks had their pumpkin spice lattes in. While I enjoyed the mixture of the pumpkin and spices (and coffee!!) I found it was a little too sweet for me. 

Sister's Weekend

My sisters and I always talk about either going away as a family somewhere exotic, we all love the idea but it's one of those things that isn't likely to happen, especially now our family is growing. Not long ago though when I got back from my Sydney trip someone mentioned that we sisters should go away for a weekend. It wouldn't have to be far away or for long - just a day or overnight trip - but just a chance to get away together. That overnight trip was this weekend just past. One sister ended up not being able to come, unfortunately, but myself and my other two sisters ended up going down by the coast in Victoria to a town called Flinders.

We ate a lot of beautiful food, had a super relaxing massage at Endota Spa, explored local shops, stayed at the beautiful Quarters Hotel Flinders and just enjoyed spending time together.

Leisurely lunch of Pumpkin soup and half a piece of brownie & orange cake at the bakery part of Epicurean, Red Hill.

Excuse the bad picture - it was a dark restaurant. Our other sister who wasn't able to make it recommended Terminus at the Flinders Hotel for dinner and in particular the seafood paella. It didn't disappoint!

This is the winery, T'Gallant, that we visited for lunch on our second day after exploring the shops in Flinders and buying some beautiful bread and buns at Flinders Sourdough. It had a casual, rustic feel that I really liked and stunning views over the vineyards. We had a woodfire pizza along with a glass of the Imogen wine.  Both were amazing, especially accompanied by that view and the great atmosphere. 

Magnolia Cupcake Bakery

I'm sure by now that most (if not all) of you have heard of Magnolia Bakery and about the amazing cupcakes and desserts that they make. There's probably not much I can say that hasn't been said before, but that the reputation is well deserved. I heard about Magnolia Bakery years ago and so when I decided to go to New York it was quickly added to my list of places to go. I had wanted to visit their famous Bleecker St store, but my friend and I were wandering past the store near Rockefeller Centre and decided we just had to go in.

Here are my two purchases - a red velvet cupcake and a vanilla whoopie pie with maple cream cheese frosting.

Rhe red velvet cupcake was great, very fresh and moist but I thought the frosting was a little too sweet. I prefer a cream cheese frosting on my red velvet cupcakes. I do love the way they swirl the frosting on top of the cupcakes, I'd love to learn how to do this.

My favourite would have to have been the whoopie pie though, very sweet thanks to the maple flavour but so so good.

It was nice to be able to finally taste a truly American whoopie pie. I've made some myself in the past but they didn't turn out like this and I didn't have anything to compare them to. It's made out of two very soft biscuits, sandwiched together with lots of frosting.

Magnolia Cupcake Bakery

Rockefeller Center

1240 Avenue of the Americas at 49th Street
New York
Tel.: 212.767.1123
Store Hours:
Monday-Thursday: 7am-10pm / Friday: 7am-12am / Saturday: 8am-12am / Sunday: 8am-10pm

Sydney Part Two

This is part two of my posts talking about my recent Sydney trip. I wanted to use this post to concentrate mainly on some of the food places I visited while I was there. I did do other things than eat (I know, suprising!) like shopping along George St & Pitt St and through the beautiful Strand Arcade and QV Building, taking one of those yellow Sydney ferry's to Manly etc. but I just wanted to keep this post about the food. I did have a few average experiences on my first day with food and coffee, but once day two came I was on a roll with the great food. One of my favourites that I didn't manage to get a picture of was the Pork and Fennel sausage roll and lemon tart that I had from Bourke St Bakery. They were amazing - so much so that I scoffed them down without a photo. 

The Double Cheese & Bacon Burger with Parmesan and Truffle Chips.

On my second night for dinner I decided to walk back around to the Opera House where there's a bar and restaurant right on the waterfront. I decided to go with Opera Kitchen and sat up on a table closer to the water where I had beautiful views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge lit up, as well as the city behind me. While the food is pretty expensive (especially for a burger and chips) it was worth it for the views and the food itself was delicious, especially those parmesan and truffle chips!

This just shows how close to the Opera House I was. It did end up raining that night (other than that I had pretty great weather) so I ended up moving in under cover near one of the heaters which was really cozy.

Adriano Zumbo's store at Star City Casino.

This was one place I was really excited about visiting. Adriano Zumbo, for those who don't know, is a patissier who's appeared on shows like Masterchef with his croquembouche, macaron tower and V8 cake. This particular store has a dessert train which I really wanted to try, but unfortunately I didn't get to experiece that as it wasn't on the day I went.

Cakes on display

Beautiful lemon meringue tart

Adriano Zumbo purchases

Macarons - (not in order) including Pineapple, Popcorn, Salted Butter Caramel on Toast etc.

Zumbo is famous for his macarons and the really unusual flavours that he creates. I was really looking forward to trying the popcorn one which so many raved about but I didn't find much of a popcorn flavour there. My favourite ended up being the Salted Butter Caramel on Toast. The caramel filling was just amazing and I savoured every mouthful!

Zonuts - Mango Rice Pudding and Hazelnut

Zumbo has created his own version of the famous craze that is the cronut. I got one of each flavours to try (these change pretty often) and while I enjoyed the Mango Rice Pudding flavour, it was the Hazelnut one that truely converted me to a zonut lover.

Hartsyard restaurant.

I'm not even sure where or how I found Hartsyard, but I'd read some really good reviews and when I saw the American style menu on their website I booked a table straight away. The majority of the items on the menu are intended for sharing but as I was on my own I just went with the one main and dessert.

For my main I chose the Fried Chicken with biscuit and sausage gravy. Very American and done really well here, the chicken was tender and I loved the crunch of the coating.

Pumpkin Pie - Rice custard, Jack Daniels Ice Cream, spiced pear, pecan praline

When I saw Pumpkin Pie on the dessert menu I knew that was my only choice - I love pumpkin pie and don't get to have it very often. While the dessert was beautiful, and wonderfully presented I was a little disappointed to find that it wasn't actually pumpkin pie, but pumpkin spice cake. Despite my initial disappointment I did really enjoy this dish, although it was so rich that I just couldn't finish it!

Drinking Apple Cider at Opera Kitchen and enjoying the beautiful views and sunny weather on my last day

A new favourite drink, Rochdale Cider - I need to find this in Melbourne!

Breakfast at Baroque - Poached Eggs, Mushrooms and Speck on sourdough and a skinny latte. I'd almost given up hope of finding a good breakfast place around The Rocks area when I stumbled upon Baroque in my online searches. I decided to give it a go and was impressed

Places mentioned in this post:
Bourke St Bakery
633 Bourke St,
Surry Hills, NSW

Opera Kitchen
Lower Concourse Level
Sydney Opera House
Sydney, NSW

Adriano Zumbo
Star City Casino
80 Pyrmont St
Pyrmont, NSW

Hartsyard
33 Enmore Rd
Newtown, NSW

Baroque
88 George St
The Rocks, Sydney
NSW

Sydney Part One

A couple of weeks ago I took an last minute trip to Sydney (can it be considered last minute when I booked 3 weeks ahead? It is for me! I'm a planner) It was during the school holidays so I had a couple of weeks off work anyway, but let me tell you, it was just so nice to get away. It made my holidays feel like....an actual holiday. I did a lot of walking, saw the majority of the things that I'd wanted to and ate a lot of beautiful food!

The beautiful Opera House. I've never been that impressed with this Sydney icon, but seeing it up close was pretty cool and you can see why it's a must see on so many tourists to do list.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge. I've never fully realised until now just how massive this bridge is. It was right near my hotel so I had to walk underneath it each day on my way to various places.

Speaking of hotels, I stayed at The Sebel Pier One which was just beautiful. I loved the rustic style (big beams everywhere) and the views out of my window over the water were just beautiful. The staff were so lovely and very helpful. And it didn't hurt that the bathroom was stocked with Apothecary Appelles products which I now want to order for myself.

This is the view out of my window on the first night when I watched the sun set. You can't really see the colours in this photo but it was stunning.

On my first night I decided to have a relaxing night in, enjoy my room and get some room service. The food was amazing, especially the creme brulee I had for dessert.

These were the BBQ Duck Spring rolls with hoi sin dressing that I started off with.

Followed by the Honey glazed pork belly, sour apple puree, caramelised apple, diced crackling. The pork was just so soft and I loved the combined crunch of the apple and crackling.

And my favourite - Creme Brulee, baked green apples with croissant ice cream. The apple was actually at the bottom of the creme brulee which I haven't seen before but which I really liked. And the croissant ice cream finished the dish off really nicely.

Downstairs in the lobby was a huge square of glass in the floor which you could look through to the water underneath (seriously, the hotel is on a pier!). I decided to relax there for a little while on my third morning with a latte.

I did have more foody adventures but I'll save them for my next post! So stay tuned :)