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Father's Day 2015

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I asked my daddy, "what kind of cake do you want for Father's Day?" He said, "just a plain cake with nothing on it." He's just too easy and kind on me! Happy Father's Day!  I've spent so long looking for a perfect card for this Father's Day but they just don't seem to be have what I was looking for. I wanted something with a nice long message but all the ones I saw had dull cover pages. Then I came across this superdad one and I found it to be quite appropriate for us because he has been like a 'superhero' to me. I ended up getting this cute tatty bear one and thought I'd just write my own long message here and force him to read this later :P So here it goes... To my dearest best daddy in the world, Firstly, I hope you like the card and the other presents. I thought I'd get you this superdad tatty bear because you have been like a 'superhero' in my life. You may not know how to fly l...
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DAA conference | Melbourne

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Being a tourist :) Day 1: Reunited with the bestie at the airport. *Incessant chattering* Next stop was food.    First sunset photo We chose an Italian restaurant called ‘Vapiano’, based on another friend's recommendation. It was quite busy; we had to wait to get a table. We decided to order both pizza and pasta. Ordering pizza was pretty straightforward. However, the pasta line took forever. It took so long that we received our pizzas but still hadn't been able to order the pasta. We tried garlic and one zucchini and eggplant pizza. I liked the latter but the garlic one was a bit hard, it got a bit cold by the time we started eating.  The pasta was quite nice and flavoursome but nothing extraordinary and not worth an hour wait!   Vapiano Spotted a cute florist, on our way to dessert For dessert, we wanted to go Om Nom but unfortunately they had no space so ended up going to ...
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El-Phoenician Restaurant

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My homie just got back to Sydney so we caught up for dinner! We haven't had middle eastern food together so we decided to go with Lebanese cuisine. It was pretty light because we went on a weeknight. As usual, we took a very long time to decide what we wanted to eat. The staff kept rushing us asking if we had made up our mind. We did not like this one bit because we always take our time to order, and we felt it was unnecessary to pressure us into ordering because the restaurant was almost empty!   Eggplant dip was the best; it was smooth, soft and creamy. It was my favourite. I could literally eat this every meal; eggplants are one of my favourite vegetables (yes, I have too many favs when it comes to veggies!) Hummus and Lamb was an average dish. It didn't really stand out to me; I didn't hate it, nor did I love it. It turned out to be our least eaten dish from the night, and it's one dish we wish we didn't order. Mixed platter was pretty good, seasoned wel...
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The Emporium

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This cafe has a great welcoming atmosphere with options to dine in or outside. We went on a weekday so it wasn't that busy. I wasn't that hungry so I ordered a side. It was filled with Dutch, purple and orange carrots with Harissa dressing. It was great in the beginning but after a while, it got boring. It would've been better if they had one or two other veggies (rather than just carrots). Roasted Dutch carrots, cashew dukkah, harissa dressing $9 Chocolate cremeux, honeycomb ice cream, chocolate soil, dulce de leche, espresso gel $16 The dessert however, was delicious. It had lots of crunch, texture and flavour. There was lots of bits and pieces like bread, chocolate, ice cream etc. The amount was good in terms of portion control. Yes, I know the photo doesn't look as appealing as the lighting was poor but it looked way much better in person.
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Black Star Pastry (Strawberry Watermelon Cake)

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Some of you might know about the desperate attempt I made last year for the Strawberry Watermelon Cake (see previous post at  Black Star Pastry ).  Yesterday I had the privilege of tasting this cake at a party. I got super excited as I’ve been wanting to try this for almost a year now. I was so tempted to just skip the mains but I patiently waited for dessert time and made sure I left space for the cake :P In the meantime, I went to take a close look at the cake (could not resist, for obvious reasons) and I was amazed at how magical it looked. It was constructed beautifully starting with a layer of almond  dacquoise followed by cream, then a slice of watermelon with cream,   almond  dacquoise and cream again. Finally, it was topped with strawberries, pistachios and dried rose petals. It was a quite a delicious cake but unfortunately, it did not meet the expectations I had. I liked certain elements, such as the lightness of the cream layers, f...
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Five things I love about being a dietitian

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I've been thinking about writing this for a while now but thought I'd leave it for something special like Dietitian's Day (which is today) And here we go :) 1.    You are legally allowed to spend more time thinking about food.  The normal, acceptable amount for a person is 10% (according to experts), with exceptions for people if their profession involves dealing with food. If you're thinking more or less than this, your dietary habits may not be considered so normal. But as dietitians, you're allowed to obsess about food, and it's totally okay! ;) 2.    You always have something to strike up a conversation. Have you ever been in an awkward situation where you’re trying to carry out a conversion, but not sure what topic to pick? It can be a struggle when you’re connecting with new people. Talking about food is a good starting point because it's something we all eat; each and every one of us has something to share about food (likes/dislike...
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The Vogue Cafe

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I've been thinking about going here for a while now but somehow never end up going because Macquarie is far and out of my way. I've seen so many Instagram posts displaying their ever so fine looking drinks which always gets me drooling! I took my time to pick a drink, trying to choose between Nutella, peanut butter and Oreo. I decided to go with Nutella as a safe choice because Nutella is one of those things you can't go wrong with. The veggie AF dish looked great but I was slightly disappointed after I tasted. The dish had multiple ingredients- falafel, tomato, cucumber, lettuce, rocket, Spanish onion, cashews, quinoa, poached egg, garnished with mint, lemon and olive oil. The combination of quinoa, cashew, rocket and falafel wasn't as satisfying as I was expecting it'd be. It wasn't bad, but at the same time, it did not stand out to me. I found the falafel flavours a little dull; it wasn't as authentic as the Lebanese ones.  Veggie AF ($1...
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Parramatta Lanes

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I heard a lot about Parra Lanes last year so I thought I'd make a time to see out this year. At first, we had a lot of trouble finding out where we needed to go. I've heard Parra Lane gets spread across over multiple stations to distribute the crowd. However, the problem was that the places aren't always easy to find. After walking around for some time, we managed to get hold of a map from a security staff. My main reason for coming was to try some knafeh; I've heard so much about this dessert from people who came last year. But we realised this particular shop was furthest out from our location. First stop was Koi Dessert Bar but there as a long line. While waiting in line, I decided to try the strawberry watermelon gelato from N2. I've always been a huge admirer of the strawberry watermelon cake from Black Star Pastry . I thought it'd be an interesting combo to have it in a gelato form. It surely was, I quite liked the gelato cake, it had a very stron...
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Kale chips

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I've been thinking about making kale chips for a while now; it was one of those things I thought would be too complex. Normally, I use kale in a smoothie or a salad but I can never get through a whole bunch without it going yellow. Recently, I've had a go at making kale chips. It's actually not that difficult, but it's just very delicate. You need to have the right temperature and time setting. Otherwise, you end up with burnt or soggy chips (like I did for the first few times!) I've adapted this recipe from some recipe sites and personal experience :) Recipe is as follows- Ingredients 1 kale bunch Paprika Cayenne pepper Lemon pepper Sea salt 4 Tb Extra Virgin olive oil Method  Preheat oven to 150 (fan-forced) Remove stems from kale and tear leaves into bite sized pieces) Wash kale thoroughly Dry kale with a salad spinner (this step is important!)  In a bowl, mix olive oil and herbs/ spices (amount to your liking) Line tray with baking paper U...
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Daddy's birthday 2016 | Sultana, almond and spiced crystallised ginger cake

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As usual, I asked my dad what kind of cake he’d like. He initially said “plain cake.” After further pressing, he gave me three ingredients he would like on the cake sultan as (they are his favourite), almonds and crystalli s ed ginger.  Recipe adapted from: https://www.sanitarium.com.au/recipes/a-z/almond-and-sultana-spice-cake   Ingredients 125 g butter 100 g sultanas 125 g self-raising wholemeal flour 125 g self-raising plain flour ½ tsp ground cardamom ½ tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp nutmeg ½ tsp vanilla esssence 125 g brown sugar 2 eggs 1 cup skim milk ¼ cup flaked almonds 40 g crystallised ginger 1 TB flour   Method 1)       Preheat oven to 180 C 2)       Grease springform pan with baking paper 3)       Melt butter in a saucepan, add sultanas and cook for 10 mins or until sultanas have softened 4)       In a bowl, ...
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