Sydney Foodie Getaway – Club Carlson

Source: Google Image

Sydney is one of our favourite cities to visit in Australia. Mr Bao and I try and visit once a year if not more, however, this year we haven’t had the chance to make the trip up…but we’re planning to do so very soon. We’re itching to go back 🙂 Coincidentally, I was invited to participate in a competition where I detail my ideal weekend in a blog post and if I am lucky enough to win, I will get an all expense paid for trip worth $3000 for 2 people! So wish me good luck my Dear Readers!

Source: Radisson Blu

This competition is ran by Club Carlson which is the records program of the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group which own the Radisson Blu, Radisson, Park Plaza, City Inn to name a few. I assume as a club member the more you visit, the more benefits you will receive and be able to redeem free nights which would be a great excuse to travel more and save money on accommodation! So my ideal weekend would start off with a 9am flight from Melbourne and arrive in Sydney just after 10am. This will give me more than enough time to catch a taxi and get to the Hotel. I would book a foodie getaway Bentley Package at the Radisson Blu Hotel.

Source: Radisson Blu

Hopefully my room will be ready and we will be able to check into our room, put our luggage away and head out for brunch! Whenever I go to Sydney I go a little crazy and do as many food stops as I can!

Flour and Stone

First stop, I will definitely go visit Nadine Ingram owner of Flour and Stone! I simply cannot get enough of her Panna Cotta lamingtons! I’ve been annoying her for the past 2 years to please deliver them to Melbourne! I will also bring my own little esky to take a couple more home to Melbourne!

Source: Three Williams

After two food stops, it’s time to do some exercise and what I mean by that its SHOPPING 🙂

Source: Westfield Sydney

Even though I live very close to a Westfield in Melbourne, I love shopping at Westfield Sydney. There’s a good variety of stores from the high end brands such as Prada, Miu Miu through to the more casual and affordable shops like Dotti. Let’s not forget about the food! They have Din Tai Fung (love their Xiao Long Bao), Ipuddo and more importantly Laduree!

After some exercising I will definitely take this opportunity to sit down at Laduree and have a macaron or two will a cup of tea. Perfect way to spend and afternoon if you ask me!

I’m probably pushing it…because we’ll be stuffed by then…but I still want to make ONE more food stop before we head back to the hotel! That’s a quick dash to Bourke Street Bakery for their Ginger Brûlée tart.

Source: Bourke St Bakery

With a large box of goodies from the bakery, we will head back to the Radisson Blu hotel. Remember how I said I’ll book in the Bentley Package, well it’s called this for a reason. It’s because this package includes one night’s stay in a Premier Room and also 2 tasting menus at the renown two hatted restaurant Bentley. I knew the restaurant was moving from Surrey Hills to a new location, however, I didn’t know it was into the Radisson Blu. It will be two birds one stone if I stayed at the hotel and also save on travel time ~

Source: Time Out Sydney

I’ve just had a look at the tasting menu and every thing sounds amazing what do you think of this dessert Violet Ice-Cream, Cocoa Honeycomb and Blueberry? hehe I think after a 7 course degustation dinner we won’t be hungry so we’ll head back to our room and relax! I’ll most definitely be using the free wifi to Instagram all the things we’ve ate that day!

Source: Radisson Blu

We’ll leisurely wake up at 9am the next morning and order breakfast from Bistro Fax and delivered to our room, because I love the idea of breakfast served in bed! It’s a plus because it’s also included in the package without having to pay anymore ~

After breakfast we’ll slowly get changed and pack everything and prepare to check out, we won’t rush because it’s Sunday and we should enjoy the time left we have in Sydney. We’ll leave our luggage at the hotel so we won’t need to carry it around with us. We will then make our way to the Sydney Fish market for some fresh salmon sashimi, baked lobster and cheese. This photo above was taken a couple of years ago when we visited the fish market 🙂 I’m sure I’ll be doing the same when I go this time!

Source: Blackstar Pastry

Wasting no time after a delicious round of seafood, I’ll drag Mr Bao to Blackstar Pastry a patisserie that has been on the top of my list for the longest time! Can’t believe I haven’t had this Strawberry Watermelon and rose water cake before!

Source: Radisson Blu

Since we’ve left our luggage at the hotel, I thought we should try the High Tea at the Radisson Blu as you all know how much I like high teas ~ It appears to be a traditional afternoon tea set with a good range of savoury and sweet items.

Source: Darling Harbour

And that will take us to the end of our foodie getaway weekend in Sydney. I will be so sad to leave Sydney so soon! I hope you liked reading about my ideal weekend away. I got so excited writing about this post, I’m already looking at tickets to Sydney! I really hope I will win and we will be visit Sydney very soon 😀

Daisy@Nevertoosweet was not sponsored to write this post, however, this is part of a competition run by Digitaslbi and Carlson Rezidor/Club Carlson.  

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Bloggers Pizza Competition 2014 – PLEASE VOTE for me :)

Hello my Dearest Readers 🙂 Yes it’s been a while I know, since Easter I haven’t really had a day off or any time to myself. As some of you may know my parents and Mr Bao was in town visiting, so we’ve been busy cooking and taking them around Melbourne. But don’t worry I’m back!

Now I wanted to test some of your memories hehe do you remember there was a bloggers pizza competition held at the Grosvenor Hotel last year? For those who don’t remember this is the post ~ Well it’s that time of the year again, for the annual pizza competition once again organised by Tink PR with Grosvenor Hotel.

Learning from the pro!

Last year I made a ‘sugarloaded’ pizza with dulce de leche, nutella, honeycomb and nuts even though most people said that it was quite nice and they enjoyed it. I knew that it probably didn’t get an many votes on social media because not everyone has a sweet tooth like mine 😛 So this year I took it more seriously and recruited Mr Bao to help and his mum was going to be our taster hehe

Recently, I’ve been hooked on the chilli chocolate combo, I really like the extra kick of spiciness the chilli adds to the chocolate. So I was deadset on using chilli chocolate, so instead of using Nutella as the pizza base, I decided to use a chilli chocolate sauce. I researched and found some recipes, but decided to outsource this duty to Mr Bao because I’d probably burn the sauce if I was to make it. I then had all these other additions I wanted to add – fruit, nuts, more chocolate or brownies.

I first started off with the chocolate chilli base followed by strawberries, hazelnuts and some chocolate chips. We tried this combination at home and found the chocolate chips to be a little overpowering, so I decided to take them out. I then spoke to Kirk for some inspiration and he suggested coconut for some extra flavour and texture.

After a few rounds of trialling adding and subtracting ingredients, we finally came up with the WINNING combo! And that’s with a chilli chocolate sauce as a base, topped with strawberries, shredded coconut, feuilletine (think super thin crunchy crepe pieces) topped with vanilla ice-cream and more chilli chocolate sauce 🙂

Wow impressive way of serving ice-cream!

I personally really liked this combination and the crunchiness and slight caramel flavour from the feuilletine but I was really worried about how the judges would take it. Because not everyone can eat spicy food, but I’m really glad that the judges Julia and Paul (Head chef of Grosvenor) and the other bloggers all liked it! 

Whoopsie Daisy 🙂

Oh yes I nearly forgot the name of my pizza is ‘Whoopsie Daisy’ because I had no idea what to call it, and when Julia suggested it, I couldn’t think of a better name 🙂 It really suits me and the pizza hehe! I was very surprised but my pizza actually got the top score that night along with Sabrina and Scott’s pizza from Brunch Addict.

Battle of the sweet pizzas

Two sweet pizzas appeared in the top three finalist, Sabrina’s pizza was a take on Rocky Road with Nutella, strawberry, marshmallow, nougat, whipped cream and served with hazelnut ice-cream. I’ve gotta say it’s a really good dessert pizza too but…I’m going to be bias and like mine a little bit more because of the chilli and feuilletine.

Now time to nicely ask, persuade and beg my loyal Readers to please vote for my pizza 🙂 It’s really simple, you just need to go to this link which will take you to the Facebook page and you will find the photo of my Whoopie Daisy pizza. If you can please like this photo it will be counted as one vote. And of course if you live in Melbourne, please go down to the Grosvenor Hotel and try the pizza for yourself that will also be counted as one vote. The pizza will be on the menu until the 5th of May and that is also when the competition ends.

Just in case you were curious the winner will have their name engraved on this trophy – so if I win my name will be under the legendary Iron Chef Shellie! My Whoopsie Daisy pizza will also stay on the menu for a month and the best part, I get to go down and eat it for free for a whole month! So my dear friends, family and Readers, if I win I promise to take you down there and try my pizza! Wish me good luck only a few days left!

Daisy@Nevertoosweet attended the Blogger Pizza Competition as guest of TinkPR and Grosvenor Hotel 

My Perfect Weekend – In Perth

Australia is a big country, and even though I’ve lived here all my life, there are still so many places I have yet to visit. One of these places is Perth 🙂 I’ve visited along the coast such Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide, Brisbane, Gold Coast and Brisbane. But somehow I’ve never made it to Western Australia. But now I may have a chance! I was recently contacted by Digitaslbi to participate in a competition to write my perfect weekend in Perth staying at the Pan Pacific Perth hotel. If my post is interesting enough and I win the competition, I will win a free trip for two to go to Perth!!!

Photo Credit: Colliers

There are no rules or limitations and I can be as extravagant as I want so I’m really trying to make it as interesting as possible! So a weekend isn’t a very long time, so I’m going to pack as much as I can into 2 days! First we would arrive in Perth and because we’re travelling in style, I would love to picked up by a limousine 😛

Photo Credit: Limohire

We would then be taken to the Pan Pacific Perth hotel and check into our River Suite with complimentary breakfast, access to the lounge, free WIFI and most importantly a massive room with our own ensuite bathroom and amazing view.

Photo Credit: Pan Pacific  Perth Hotel

After checking in, I’d like probably to get a drink and just relax in our hotel room for a while. Before we head out to check out what Perth has to offer ~ I would like to pick up a rental car because I like the freedom of being able to drive and explore an area as I please.

Photo Credit: Hertz

 

I’m really into culture and history so I’d like to visit the Pensioner Guard to see the cottages there and be transported back in time to see how people use to live. Next would be to visit the Rail Heritage Museum because Mr Bao likes trains and will appreciate learning about the history of them.

Photo Credit: Railway Heritage

After some sight seeing you know I’ll be hungry so it’s time for dinner and I’d love to visit Restaurant Amuse one of the top fine dining restaurants in Perth. I have done my research and it looks and sounds amazing! All the dishes look so intricate and interesting 🙂 But will need to book in advance because I’ve heard it can get quite busy.

Photo Credit: Restaurant Amuse

I think after a degustation menu at Restaurant Amuse we will be too full to eat anything else. So we will head back to our hotel and relax and have an early night in. And prepare for the next day of more eating 😀

Photo Credit: Pan Pacific Perth 

With the River Suite will get complimentary breakfast, so we will head down to the Monterey’s Restaurant for a buffet breakfast. After that I’d like to head over to the Crown Casino in Perth to check it out to see how it differs from the one in Melbourne 🙂

Photo Credit: Crown Perth

I will gamble a little and hopefully win some money and have enough to pay for lunch, next stop will be Jamie’s Italian. I know they’ve opened up in Sydney for a couple of years now, I still haven’t tried so I think it will be a great opportunity to try them out in Perth.

Photo Credit: Jamie’s Italian

Taking into account that we are only staying for the weekend, we will probably have to leave at around 7pm so after lunch, I will visit Mary Street Bakery and get a range of cakes and pastries to try. It all looks so delicious but I particularly want to try the lemon merengue tart!

We would then head back to the hotel, pick up our luggage and be sent to the airport and make our way back home to Melbourne. That will concludes my perfect weekend to Perth! I have really enjoyed writing this post, because it feels like I have already gone to these places hahaha This is only a rough itinerary because I’m sure when I get there or have more time to plan, I will be able to squeeze a few catch up with friends in Perth and also find more DESSERT cafes 🙂

Photo Credit: Visit Perth City

I hope my perfect weekend is interesting enough to win the competition and we will have the chance to visit Perth sometime this year!

Daisy@Nevertoosweet was not sponsored to write this post, however, is part of a competition run by Digitaslbi and Pan Pacific Perth Hotel. 

Mushroom Mania Part II – Mushroom Burgers

Continuing with our quest to find the best Mushroom dish, Mr Bao and I decided that amazing mushroom dishes don’t need to be from fancy restaurants and that’s why we decided to do a review of something more casual and that’s mushroom burgers!

First stop Market Lane Coffee, I know it may seem a little strange, why would we go to a coffee-only cafe for a mushroom burger? Now here’s a little secret I’d like to share with My Dearest Readers, and that is every Saturday at the Prahran store Bob Hart’s team will be serving up their famous Mushroom burgers!

Mushroom Burgers @ Market Lane Prahran

For those who don’t know Bob, he’s a food writer and BBQ Expert who found his love for it when he lived in America. He has written a book ‘Heat and Smoke’ sharing all his best recipes and coincidentally, Mr Bao actually bough a copy without knowing that it was the recipe used here at Market Lane Coffee ~

These mushrooms burgers are very popular so be warned my Dearies and go early and line up 🙂 When we got there, there was only 6 burgers left and I failed and forgot to bring enough cash so we only got one burger to share >_< I don’t do sharing very well!

Mushroom Burger $9

Here it is! Bob Hart’s Mushroom Burger 😀 Between a delicious Dench bakery bun is a gigantic Portobello mushroom, grated onion, herbed butter, homemade Chipotle and topped with parmesan cheese! That’s it! It’s so simple but utterly amazing!

Even my carnivore boyfriend Mr Bao loves this burger, not sure if it’s because of the cheese and chipotle but it has a kind of meaty taste and the Portobello mushroom is huge and which is great because it doesn’t shrink 🙂

Latte $4.80

Really wished we didn’t have to share the burger…oh wells will just need to come back next time. At least we didn’t need to share the coffee 😛 Market Lane Coffee is very particular with the coffee that they serve, they don’t have skim milk or do mocha but they do coffees really well. It always has a good blend between the coffee flavour and also the creme. Definitely one of my favourite places for coffee in Melbourne ~

Flat White $4.8

Mr Bao ordered his favourite Magic but they actually don’t serve it here, but their Flat White is quite similar and enjoyed it.

Beat Box Kitchen

Now moving on to another great place for a Mushroom Burger and that is the food truck Beatbox Kitchen, the truck goes around many suburbs in Melbourne but on most Wednesday the truck will be at Ruckers Hill in Northcote 🙂

The menu is really simple, 2 burgers, fries and drinks ~ they have the Shroom burger and their Raph Burger a 170g beef burger which happens to be Mr Bao’s favourite.

Shroom Burger $10

Wish I went during the day and could take a better photo 😦 My apologies for the quality of the photo. This burger is a little different, the bun is soft and fluffy, still used portobello mushroom, melted cheese, red onions, tomato, lettuce and tangy mayo.

This Shroom burger doesn’t feel as healthy as the one at Market Lane 😛 But I think because of the melted cheese it’s super tasty! What a great substitute and option of vegetarians and would highly recommend you trying!

Fries with tangy mayo and spicy tomato relish $5

We never leave without getting the Raph burger but I couldn’t take a good photo of it >_< But please take my word for it! It’s juicy, yum and definitely with trying! We also ordered some fries and chose the tangy mayo and spicy tomato relish. I really like these fries because it’s not greasy and deep fried thoroughly. The tangy mayo is also addictive, while Mr Bao liked the spicy tomato relish more and he like the sourness ~

I know you probably want me to know which one burger is better, but it’s really hard for me to pick as they’re actually quite different. Both equally good and I’m sure it’s gotta be healthier than burgers with a meat patty 😀

Remember the power of mushrooms:
– Mushrooms are a superfood – low in kilojules, high in bioactive compounds, antioxidants, nutrient-rich, flavour-rich, convenient and affordable.
– Mushrooms are not a plant and neither a fruit or vegetable, they have their own biological kingdom
– Mushrooms have a natural savoury flavour, which acts as a flavour enhancer like salt or MSG
– A serve of mushrooms provide over 20% of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin B and also contains vitamin B12
– You don’t need to sit in the sun to get vitamin D because Mushrooms naturally contain vitamin D ~
– Research suggest women who eat 10g mushrooms or more daily has a 50-69% lower risk of getting breast cancer compared to those who don’t
– Last but not least it’s very affordable 100 grams (three button mushrooms or one flat mushroom) is less than $1 a serve

For more information please visit the Power of Mushroom website.

Now don’t forget the Mushroom Mania competition is still on! And it’s super easy to enter Simply try a mushroom dish, share it through:

Instagram – follow @powerofmushrooms, post photo and hashtag it with the name of the restaurant (#establishment), state (#state), #mushroommania
Twitter – follow @Mighty_Mushroom, post your photo and hashtag it with the name of the restaurant (#establishment), state (#state), #mushroommania
Email – email your photo to mushroommania@emushrooms.org, state ‘Mushroom Mania’ as your email subject line, include full name, phone number and delivery address don’t forget the restaurant name and state 😀
Competition opens 9am 1st July and runs until 11.59pm 31st July 2013.
For more information please visit their website.

Good luck everyone! And hope you win and get to try even more shroom dishes!

This is a sponsored post by Australia Mushroom Growers, but meal was paid for individually at Market Lane Coffee and Beatbox Kitchen all opinions are honest and based on time of visit. 

Mushroom Mania Part I – Komeyui

My Dearest Readers 🙂 I am proud to announce that I have been chosen to be one of the official Mushroom Mania bloggers this year! The campaign is run by Australian Mushroom Growers and every year in July a handful of bloggers from each state will review mushroom dishes from cafes and restaurants of their choice. Check out their reviews here ~

I am a huge fan of mushrooms! Love some herbed mushrooms for breakfast, in my stir-fry for lunch and mushroom sauce over my steaks for dinner 🙂 So I was thrilled to be part of Mushroom Mania and be able to share with you my favourite mushrooms dishes.

I always knew mushrooms were good for me, but I didn’t realise that it was actually a superfood with so many benefits! Here are some interesting health facts:
– Mushrooms are a superfood – low in kilojules, high in bioactive compounds, antioxidants, nutrient-rich, flavour-rich, convenient and affordable.
– Mushrooms are not a plant and neither a fruit or vegetable, they have their own biological kingdom
– Mushrooms have a natural savoury flavour, which acts as a flavour enhancer like salt or MSG
– A serve of mushrooms provide over 20% of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin B and also contains vitamin B12
– You don’t need to sit in the sun to get vitamin D because Mushrooms naturally contain vitamin D ~
– Research suggest women who eat 10g mushrooms or more daily has a 50-69% lower risk of getting breast cancer compared to those who don’t
– Last but not least it’s very affordable 100 grams (three button mushrooms or one flat mushroom) is less than $1 a serve
For more information please visit the Power of Mushroom website.

Komeyui, Port Melbourne

I had so many ideas about the mushroom dishes but realised most of them were brunch places. Mr Bao wanted something a little out of the ordinary and suggested maybe we try looking for mushrooms dishes used in Japanese cuisine because many mushrooms originated from Japan such as the Shiitake, Enoki and Shimeiji 😀 Awesome idea! I immediately went through the menu of our favourite Japanese restaurant Komeyui, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find any dishes where ‘mushrooms’ was the hero ingredient. But I didn’t want to give up…so I shamelessly emailed Kuma the executive chef and owner of Komeyui and told him about Mushroom Mania and whether he would like to create some mushroom dishes ~ Thankfully, he immediately agreed! YAY!

Chef Kuma

A week later, we were back at Komeyui and ready to try the special mushroom dishes 😀 Mr Bao was probably more excited because Japanese is definitely his favourite cuisine.

Button Mushroom Gratin $9 each

Wasting no time, the first mushroom dish was immediately brought to our table and it smelt so good. To my surprise it was a French inspired dish, a button mushroom gratin. It was a button mushroom filled with a duxelles (minced mixture of mushroom), an oyster topped with cheese and finished with pine nuts which gave it a great crunch. The dish had so much flavour and the duxelles just took the mushroom flavour to a whole new level! A highly recommended dish if you like mushrooms!

The dish had so much flavour and the duxelles just took the mushroom flavour to a whole new level! A highly recommended dish if you like mushrooms!

Broiling seasonal mushrooms and clams $18

Next was a lighter tasting dish, broiling seasonal mushrooms and clams which had oyster, enoki, shiitake and shimeiji mushrooms. Kuma told us he thinks this is the best way to eat mushrooms because usually mushrooms smell really great but some of that flavour is lost during the cooking process. But because the mushrooms are broiled it retains all the flavour, which I agree and the clams also gave it an additional sweetness.

Mr Bao and I were fighting over the broth like liquid left behind because we think that’s the best part ~ I would recommend having this dish first and before having the gratin as it’s strong flavour may overpower this dish a little.

King Oyster Mushroom Nigiri

We only expected 2 dishes but Kuma also made us some King Oyster Mushroom Nigiri that was lightly seared with a blow torch. The oyster mushrooms can be quite bland in flavour, to add more flavour the sushi rice was actually seasoned with seaweed. I just wished more nigiri used seasoned rice 😀

Chawan Mushi $12.5

We also ordered some non-shroom dishes, including this Chawan Mushi a savoury steamed egg custard with pieces of prawn, chicken and also a soft mochi like dumpling hidden inside 🙂 One of my favourite Japanese dishes!

Ohhh surprisingly found mushrooms in the Chawan Mushi as well 🙂

Assorted Sushi & Sashimi $45

Mr Bao loves his sushi, so he ordered the Assorted sushi and sashimi platter for us…but he probably ate more than half 😦 Not fair!

The platter has a good variety of sushi and sashimi, with salmon, kingfish, tuna, scallop, salmon roll and ebi prawn. My pick would definitely be the seared salmon and the salmon roll with salmon roe on top. I love it when the roe pops and the salty liquid explode in my mouth hehe. Mr Bao really liked the tuna sashimi with a fatty oil layer which melts in his mouth ~

Deep fried soft shell crab $20

I had serious cravings for soft shell crab so we got a serve ~ I love how easy it is to eat without having to break any teeth trying to crack the shell. It was crispy and crunchy but not the least oily 🙂

Hiding behind the soft shell crab! I found another MUSHROOM 😀 I’m actually not sure what mushroom this is? Button? Swiss Brown?

Berkshire Pork Tonkastu $27

Still had some room for some more food 😛 so we tried the Berkshire Pork Tonkatsu another deep fried dish. I loved the thin batter coating the pork, even though it was deep fried it wasn’t dry and still tender and succulent inside. We would have liked a little more mustard but other than that it was great ~

For once I was defeated 😛 I couldn’t have a proper dessert but we did have the complimentary honey dew with brown sugar syrup so that was a nice sweet treat to end our wonderful mushroom themed meal.

Even though two mushroom dishes were specially made for us ~ Kuma has now placed it on the menu and you too can try these dishes!

There’s also a competition running on the Mushroom Mania website 😀

It’s really simple! You eat a mushroom dish, share it through:
Instagram – follow @powerofmushrooms, post photo and hashtag it with the name of the restaurant (#establishment), state (#state), #mushroommania
Twitter – follow @Mighty_Mushroom, post your photo and hashtag it with the name of the restaurant (#establishment), state (#state), #mushroommania
Email – email your photo to mushroommania@emushrooms.org, state ‘Mushroom Mania’ as your email subject line, include full name, phone number and delivery address don’t forget the restaurant name and state 🙂
Competition opens 9am 1st July and runs until 11.59pm 31st July 2013.
For more information please visit their website.

Hope you’ll be enjoying some mushroom dishes too 😀

This is a sponsored post by Australia Mushroom Growers, but meal was paid for individually at Komeyui all opinions are honest and based on time of visit.