Nourishing Quarter

Just thought I'd give you a quick taster of this amazing vegetarian restaurant on Cleveland St...

And my favourite, scribed upon the blackboard, "Desserts for models and athletes"... what's not to love about that?!

Our review of Nourishing Quarter is on it's way...

Coconut is king!

 
This awkward and ugly looking fruit is the secret ruler of the fruit kingdom (or ‘drupe’ kingdom if you want to get technical). I started including more in my diet a few months back when it was suggested it would help with my fatigue and immune system. 

I have been a convert ever since. While it was once derided by respected healthies as ‘bad fat’ it is now being lauded for its abundant health properties. The fat from the coconut is lauric acid, a medium-chain fatty acid that is easily absorbed by the body and used instantly as energy. It’s the same stuff that is found in breast milk, so you can be as healthy as a new born bubba. In addition to boosting the metabolism and serving as a great post-workout recovery drink (Nina, the hockey-dynamo-fitness-freak can attest to this!), it also has potent anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties to help you fight off infection. And - as Jenny’s ever-wise Mother has confirmed - coconut oil is actually a great skin care product!

                                       Nina's coconut love

There are lots of ways to incorporate this superfood into your diet.

• Coconut on its own - cut off the top (perhaps with a hammer, or maybe chuck an anvil on it. They are impossible to open) and sip on its sweet nutritious innards. Or alternatively buy it from a shop where it already has a hole drilled into it. Drinking with a straw is very hip.
• Coconut oil - great for almost any cooking which involves frying (dw it's healthy! and when its heating it has the alluring smell of a sweet and buttery lipsmacker). You can buy it at most health food/organic store. I usually fry it with chopped carrots, spinach and nuts, with a little sea salt and tumeric to have it with pasta or rice. Also try deep-frying with cut-up potatoes for amazing coconut potato chips! 
• Coconut milk - not just for curries! Put it in smoothies, porridge, in baking, anything! 
• Coconut ice-cream - this stuff is AMAZING. It has become a favourite of our household. You can make it yourself, or you can buy it from most organic stores - we normally get it from Dr Earth in Newtown. We found CoYo is the best brand. Though it's a tad pricey so you may want to try make it last longer than a day (or ignore the poor frugal student in you and eat it in a couple of hours as Sarah and I do)

Ooooo Mummaa!!!

I just can’t keep this a secret anymore. The cities of Perth (and Melbourne from what I’ve been told) are hiding what I believe to be the ‘not so guilty yet so immensely satisfying’ pleasure of the future! Tutti Frutti can be described as a frozen yoghurt experience; you face the choice of an ever-changing array of flavours, ranging from plain old vanilla and dark chocolate to green apple and lychee. But this isn’t any normal frozen yoghurt; somehow (the process being too technical for me) the yoghurt magically transpires into a soft serve like texture, which you can then top with fresh fruits, any and every type of chocolate, lollies (including my favourite, freckles) and even some brownie. As seen below, I am a firm believer that fruits are best suited to breakfast and not dessert.





You are in charge of the concoction you create and maybe it’s this hands on experience of feeling as if you are still ‘cooking’ that I truly love. When facing 10 amazing soft serve flavours, toppings for every day of the week and a choice of a large or medium sized tub, the only problem remains the scales! But as this is frozen yoghurt and NOT icecream, the increasing scale numbers only hurt your bank account because at Tutti you pay by how much your treat weighs!

P.s I’ve thought about franchising Tutti to Sydney but until I finish being a poor uni student trying to find the cheapest dinner on King St, I’ll venture down to Glebe Point Road. Rumour has it there’s a place like it. I’ll keep you posted!

Bread & Circus

After careful consideration I decided my first blog post had to be on what is sure to be, my favourite cafe/canteen in Sydney so far! Hidden inside a warehouse in Alexandria is Bread & Circus, a wholesome, organic 'canteen' where you dine on menu's that vary from day to day. Sitting at inviting long wooden tables, you face an array of bright colours, fresh plants and flowers, lovely yet quirky decor (a pumpkin or two) and a few beach chairs and stools that face the sun. As you wait for your food to arrive (which is rather quick), you can either read the latest Frankie, Russh or Vogue that awaits you on your table, or watch the owners prepare the next course of food from scratch. A family and homely vibe can be sensed as the owners and staff peel the organic vegetables, sitting on a colourful mix of milk cartons, whom chat as if you weren't even there. And that is what I love; the slight European vibe which invites you to relax. 

Although I am a coffee fiend, surprisingly Bread & Circus does not serve coffee, but the fresh juices, smoothies (although quite pricey for a smoothie) & fresh young organic coconuts are a lovely substitute for my caffeine hit! As a breakfast lover who could happily eat breakfast for each meal of the day, I have repeatedly ordered the Granola Muesli tasting plate! I have been known to be quite the 'muesli snob' as the muesli I dine on at home is normally better than any cafe's. Except for this place!

I have also tried the 'Foxy Porridge' which is delightful! A hint of rose mixed through an extremely satisfying porridge filled with blueberries and hazelnuts! But as I said earlier, a breakfast tasting plate with fresh honeyed blueberry yoghurt is all i'll ever need! As a breakfast lover, I have still not ordered what looks to be a wholesome and vibrant array of lunch foods (even though I intentionally went at 3 o'clock to force myself to not order muesli - but I couldn't resist)! The picture below depicts the fresh array of vegetables and legumes, which you can look at before you make your decision. This is extremely helpful for all of us indesisive eaters who get severe cases of food envy!

All up, Bread & Circus is the kind of place where you want to be a regular. The staff are welcoming and have begun to recognise me as the girl who loves coconuts and taking photos of her amazing food - just to make her friends jealous. The food is reasonably priced; breakfast under $15 and lunch ranges upto $22. Don't be worried when you see Campos Coffee and not this adorable little set up, walk around to the back and you will soon realise why I have fallen in love with this place! (Situated on Fountain st, Alexandria - opposite Dan Murphys).

Quinoa and Tabouli Salad

For our first post, we would like to introduce a quite tasty invention of ours - the quinoa and tabouli salad.

There is currently an obsession with quinoa going on in our house, due to its nutritional value I'm guessing. At first I liked it because of its unusual texture - sort of bubbly, fluffy, soft. Quite different from the white rice that I was so used to. But a quick wiki reveals its health benefits, so that's a plus!

For this, we boiled it with some salt, mixed it with the tabouli that we bought from the chicken shop, and served it with mushrooms and kanga steak (which I unfortunately overcooked, sorry guys - still trying to get the hang of kanga meat. The fact that it tends to ooze red even when it's cooked is really confusing to me.)