If the name isn’t already a red (white-and-blue) flag, then the Brie and Tomato Croissants and Savoury Crepe Rolls will clue you in. St Germain Patisserie may be on a Redfern street corner, but its picnic-ready display will whisk you to a small patch in Paris’ Sixth Arrondissement. The Riviera Raspberry and Lemon Mousse Cake, […]
In one big broom-sweep, I’ve found all these blog-dust-bunnies that have been lurking in my “Draft” folder over the last year. So I decided to wipe them clean and give them an airing. In the same way stores go crazy around Dec/January – purging their storerooms and piling their shopfronts high with price-slashed items – […]
It’s that time of year again – oversocialising, panic-present-buying, frantically wrapping up work deadlines. Oh, and there are good bits, too. (The free-flowing amount of chocolate! The widespread sampling of finger food! The fact everyone is excited to see the cliff-edge of 2008.) I hope everyone is having an awesome wind-up of the year. If […]
Some people will use any excuse to throw a party. My reasons are (probably) weirder than most. The idea of a chocolate-tasting party has been fizzing away in my head for a while. The inspiration behind it? A shiitake-mushroom block of chocolate I bought in Berlin. (Bet you saw that ever-predictable answer coming a mile […]
When the city you live in is so well-mapped in your head – with every laneway and street corner worn out by your autopilot gaze – it’s nice to be revived by something new. I love it when a discovery jumpstarts your enthusiasm for the geography around you; how finding a string of unfamiliar gems […]
The other afternoon, we zipped into Patisse for afternoon treats. I spent an hour scanning and re-scanning my gaze over every pastry, chocolate and cake in the display case, unable to loyally stay with one choice. So, in the end, I went with two. (My more decisive – and better-researched – friends already knew they […]
Instead of gingerbread men, you can get kick-ass Ginger Ninjas ($4) at Black Star Pastry in Newtown. Yes, ninjas. They don’t come with ninja stars, but they are clad in a thick identity-disguising coat of chocolate, which is more enticing than the sparse button-only gear their traditional friends get around in. There are many other […]
The last four months have been brain-blitzing. Work got a little wild and overwhelming and days ended faster than I thought possible. Now, panic doesn’t set the metronomic beat of life as much – things have slowed down to a breathe-easy pace. Which is nice. It means not rushing home, scarfing down cold takeaway and […]
It’s nice to have a place that you can think of as a lunchtime lifeline. The kind that’s worth the extra walking distance, worth blanking out the convenient eateries more closely located, worth becoming momentarily amnesiac over how much you really should be spending on a workday meal. The kind that jacks up the rest […]
It’s hard not to get keyed up about Oscillate Wildly. After jumping through the barriers of getting a booking (phone-wrangling a date for many months ahead – if you make it through the unending engaged signal), you end up having an incredible, ambitious dinner in a cosy, relaxed setting that will chart highly on your […]
