Tag: australia

Lamingtons for Australia Day in the Wild West of the USA.

Lamingtons for Australia Day in the Wild West of the USA.

I was told as soon as I left Australia for my adventure around the world I would have a newfound sense of patriotism. I have always been patriotic about Melbourne (maybe because it is the best place in the world?), but have never really been a flag-toting, sausage eating, Crikey-shouting Aussie.

My friends in Melbourne have always been super organised with our bigger parties – we are huge fans of facebook events. It works for me because now I have gone, they invite me to everything anyway so I can see what is happening back at home. So when I saw the group was heading out for an Australia Day Picnic and rowing a boat to Herring Island, I remembered how my American friends Sam and Nina would always host parties on the American holidays like the 4th July. So, as an Australian, I felt it was my duty to host an Australia Day party here in Phoenix, Arizona.

I got a little excited about the prospect of introducing our friends to a bit of Australian culture. It wouldn’t be Australia day without lamingtons, so I baked a sponge and set to work putting together some Aussie baked deliciousness. For my non-Australian readers, lamingtons are a dense sponge cake filled with raspberry jam, dipped in a chocolate syrupy sauce and rolled in desiccated coconut.

Our friends Erin and Brandon showed up with their super cute son, Liam. He loved to pose for the camera!
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Goodbye to one of the most formative, blissful and charmed years of my life.

Goodbye to one of the most formative, blissful and charmed years of my life.

This year we were some of the last people in the world to reach 2014. I watched my friends in the UK, Australia, Sweden, Italy, Thailand (and even in New York) celebrate the end of 2013, and then finally it was my turn to say goodbye to one of the best years of my life so far.

2013 has brought me so much happiness and love. I finished pastry school and got a job as head pastry chef in an awesome restaurant next to my house.
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My Farewell Melbourne Party.

My Farewell Melbourne Party.

My farewell party (and last 24 hours) in Melbourne is something I will remember forever. I was so amazingly lucky to have so many people come together to create such an amazing farewell from my beloved home.

Earlier in the day we had all brunched, eaten cloudberry jam on ice cream, visited Swedish Christmas markets – when finally it was time to head home, pack my last few belongings into my bags and boxes, and get dressed to head over to the venue for my party. You can read about the earlier part of the day here.

I put on my party dress while Eric and Peter played Rockband, and Angela set up our wine and cheese lunch. After a glass of wine and a Daisy snuggle we all piled into the car to drive up to Brunswick to Habitat Lounge for the party.
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Tourist in my own hometown.

Tourist in my own hometown.

In the days leading up to my departure, I’ve tried to live life in Melbourne with as much vitality and energy that I can muster. I’ve filled every day with life, love, laughter, dancing and exploring.

Today was a CBD day. Melbourne CBD is full of so much positive community spirit. Buskers, public areas, art, flashmobs, exhibitions, street food – you can find anything on the streets of Melbourne. We spent the day wandering the streets, taking photographs, visiting the famous Library reading room, the shot tower in Melbourne Central.
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Our local pub.

Our local pub.

Most photos below are by the beautiful, talented and magnificent Stina.

On more than one occasion, my friends and I have commented on the fact that our lives are like a sitcom.

We are always at each others houses.

We are always eating out.
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Once there was a Hushpuppy, and she lived with her daddy in the bathtub.

Once there was a Hushpuppy, and she lived with her daddy in the bathtub.

So, a few weeks back Angela mentioned that there was going to be one more Underground Cinema before I left the country. We had always intended on going, so we thought we should get tickets for this one once they were released.

Underground Cinema is a secret immersive live cinema experience: their tagline is ‘taking cinema out of the cinema.’ It is held at undisclosed locations throughout Sydney and Melbourne, and it is generally around a four hour experience where you are immersed in the world of the film, and then at the end you are taken to one of Melbourne or Sydney’s classy old theatres to watch the film itself. Every time the film is completely different, the whole production is set up for a few days only with huge locations, props, full sets, bands, tonnes of actors.. it is a guessing game throughout the night to try and determine what the film will be.

So, anyway, Angela and I were planning on going to this as our first (and my last) time. But once the information was released, we were a little skeptical. The theme was water – the dress code was gumboots. The page had a picture of a crocodile, so I was thinking along the lines of Rogue. So we decided not to go.

But something was pushing us to go still – Angela messaged again and reminded me it was my last chance, maybe we should just go and if it is bad we can leave. I agreed, we bought tickets, and that was that.

Until the day of the film. I decided to look at the event page with a closer eye, so I put on my gumboots and my rain jacket and sat down to read. Something clicked in my head – I called Angela and said ‘I think the film tonight is my favourite movie in the whole world.’ I was starting to get super excited.
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A food month in Adelaide.

A food month in Adelaide.

My food study month in Adelaide is over.

I fly out this evening, and so concludes the most magical month of eating, laughing, riding my bike in the sun, visiting culinary regions on the outskirts of Adelaide, hanging out in the botanic gardens, and discovering random street parties and art. Oh, and studying the food writing portion of my Masters of Food Studies at the University of Adelaide.

I HAD to go back to Bar 9 for breakfast, because the Mushroom Truffled Ragu I had last time with Hari was EPIC, and a friend kept recommending Jenny’s Bakery to try some of their weekly changing cronuts. I had to cram these in before class today. Big breakfast with the lovely Kate at Bar 9, and then we head straight across the road to Jenny’s. I love having other pastrychef friends!
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An evening in Brunswick.

An evening in Brunswick.

It isn’t often I head north of the river – it has a very different, grungy, hipster vibe than down south, and I love to visit because it feels like a different city.

Tonight my friend Nick invited me to a dinner party at his AWESOME converted warehouse apartment. He definitely has the coolest house out of all my friends. On top of that he is a great cook, and we were planning on going out to the LuWOW to see a ska band afterwards. Oh, and I LOVE Nick. Spending time with him is always so ridiculously fun and nice. We always do super cute things, like bike rides along the river, picnics in the botanic gardens, afternoon tea with home baked scones, or going to the promo launch of Legally Blonde The Musical.
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Fine dining on the edge of the world.

Fine dining on the edge of the world.

We drove through the barren, craggy plains of the aptly named Tasmanian western wilderness to a small, unassuming fishing village that goes by the name of Strahan (pronounced Strawn). Underneath this quaint exterior however, were all the signs of a booming tourism empire. It seems that many aspects of the town are run by and for the tourism sector, though this simply means that your experience, while not entirely an ‘authentic’ one, will be smooth, pleasant and hassle free. Besides, people don’t come to Strahan for an authentic fishing village experience, they come because it is the gateway to an experience unlike any other.
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Whisky in the Central Highlands, B&B’s with platypus + glowworm caves.

Whisky in the Central Highlands, B&B’s with platypus + glowworm caves.

Just over an hour from Cradle Mountain we found ourselves in sleepy Mole Creek. Home to the Mole Creek Karst National Park, it is worth stopping for the night to do the underground caves and glow worms tour. We drove up from Hobart through the Western Wilderness, a region so alien to this country. It looked bleak and desolate like the moors of Scotland – not a single other soul was on the road, and it was raining. It was strange and exciting to drive through a region so different from the one we had just left, and the one we were about to enter.
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Salamanca Markets, chipotle flatbreads + local designers.

Salamanca Markets, chipotle flatbreads + local designers.

Hobart has, like many capitals, a thriving food scene. Where Hobart differs is that this food scene has easy access to beautiful, fresh Tasmanian produce. Wandering through the Salamanca Saturday Market, sandstone warehouses on one side and the water on the other, we tasted handmade ginger beers, gins, whiskies, fresh produce, candies, jams, jellies and chutneys from the people who have made them, start to finish, by hand.
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Raspberry Lattes, hot-smoked salmon, mango honey + wasabi cheddar.

Raspberry Lattes, hot-smoked salmon, mango honey + wasabi cheddar.

Heading from the west of the island, from Mole Creek or Cradle Mountain, we stopped by The Honey Farm in Chudleigh for a true sweet education. A small museum at the back of the shop had us captivated for a good half an hour, discovering about the life cycle of a bee, their roles, hierarchy and honey production. A cleverly designed system of bee boxes were set up behind a glass window, next a tube through the wall where the bees ‘commute’ to work in the honeycomb that is set in a glass box inside the store. You can watch the bees hard at work producing honey here.
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