Adelaide's food secrets - Cocolat

I can confidently say that Cocolat has been my BEST find in Adelaide. It's a dessert cafe down in Rundle Street.

We had cakes there, and unfortunately they've been gobbled up too quickly that I ended up only having a photo of their amazing tiramisu:

It was soooooooo good. The cake was encased in milk chocolate, topped with shaved white chocolate and served with fudge and cream. I was in heaven for 5 minutes.

I bought a box of their truffles (and thought that maybe they're not as great as the Chocolateria San Churro here in Sydney), but my, to my surprise... They were even better! The truffle menu can be found here (expect to drool).

My chocolate experience in Cocolat was absolutely amazing that I had to go back to buy another 2 boxes of chocolate and indulge myself in 2 massive scoops of their gelato!!! If I'm not mistaken they've been awarded chocolatier of the year and they truly deserve it!!!

Cocolat is unique to South Australia and nowhere else so I suggest that when you go there you make sure that it's one of your stops!

Adelaide's food secrets - Rundle Spices

Before I moved to Australia I never really enjoyed Thai, mainly because I didn't know much about the cuisine. Out here people love it, and I've grown to love it too. Rundle Spices is another restaurant on Rundle Street in Adelaide's city centre.

We came in for dinner (a very late one at that) and they were just about to close shop. Their staff was so friendly that they still let us order despite them already prepping to close up! Suffice it to say the food came out from the kitchen so quickly like any other Thai restaurant.

There were five mouths to feed, and our table looked something like this (notice how the food's already been touched; we were that hungry!):

We had Red beef curry

Some pandan chicken

Some green chicken curry, and satay chicken.

The food was lovely, served very hot (as in hot hot and spicy hot, haha). It wasn't beautifully plated like you would in fine restaurants, but you really get good food for the price that you pay. What I loved about Rundle Spices was that their prices were very competitive. They're situated in the city centre, with many other restaurants that charge heaps for food. They managed to stay on the main street and still serve very affordable food. Entrees are between $5-8 and mains from $11-15.

The servings don't come tiny either. We were all stuffed by the end of our meal and still had some stuff left over. I'd have to say, Rundle Spices has really impressed me, because I've tried and tested so many eat in and takeaway Thai and they've lived up to the standard of serving fresh, delicious food for a cheap price in a beautiful setup.

Adelaide's food secrets - Brunelli

I know, I know... this is 3 months too late... but hey, I'm officially on break which means I can actually squeeze out some substantially sensible blogs! Lol. Last time I said I'd be talking about wining and dining in Adelaide, and here we are. The whole 4/5 days that I spent there, I basically just ate out for most of the time. When I arrived, I had lunch with a couple of old mates from the Philippines. I had a wonderful time catching up, and definitely a wonderful time eating! We had lunch at Brunelli, an Italian café down in Rundle Street Mall which is practically Adelaide's city centre.

My friend had this gorgeous plate of Pollo Principessa if I remember that correctly! It's basically chicken breast, with ham and white wine sauce.

My other friend has a warm chicken salad, which was generously drizzled with honey mustard and candy balsamic.

Meanwhile, I had Garlic Prawns with white wine cream sauce, rice and vegetables. It was absolutely lovely. The prawns were perfectly cooked - meat falling off the shell (in this case, the tail haha), super soft and super juicy! I loved it.

Prices range from about $20-$30 for mains, which isn't too bad considering the servings are hefty. You can either eat inside the cafe, or outdoors (which is, on a beautiful sunny day, so good) where you can people watch!

Going local

Brisbane has been a great adventure for me, as the entire year has been. I thought that immersing myself in the local sights of Brissy was the best way to wrap things up. It's like taking myself back home, wherever that is in my heart of hearts.

The day before we left Brisbane, we went to the North Pine Dam just for some down time and some quality chit chat amongst friends. We were pretty lucky cos it was deserted that day, and it was sunny and bright.

Caloy the talented, trigger happy boy enjoying the lush greenery

The dam. Wonder if you can go for a swim here lol

Of course my blog wouldn't be complete without an old tree

We spent hours on end there, until we got hungry and got some Cold Rock ice cream at Chermside (our first choice was a Mexican fiesta at Montezuma's but it was closed, so, sad face). Then, we waited for Tippy to finish TAFE at 9 in the evening. We drove straight to Mt Coot-tha, which is Brisbane's best lookout! Going up there at night was mesmerising - we saw the entire city lit up.

Tippy took this beautiful photo :-)

Before she got all melancholic and dramatic. Jokes

After that, we randomly thought of going to Shorncliffe one last time. As I may have mentioned before, this is where some scenes in the movie Aquamarine were shot. :-) The first time I went to Shorncliffe was in Autumn 2008 at night time. Then we went on the first night of our Brisbane visit this year. We saw a shooting star then. It was magical and enchanting. Then for our last night, we hung out here again. It just brings everything together beautifully. I say Shorncliffe is some piece of magical land.

There's no better way to leave Brisbane than being at Shorncliffe.

The ebb & flow of the water, the orange lights and the cool breeze just leaves you clear-minded and ready for another adventure.

(edit: I know this has been already posted as a 2010 entry, but I meant for it as a year ender one. Sorry for the timezone change, I'm in the Philippines and it's only 11:30 here and I still have an hour 'til 2010. LOL)

Beached as, bro

This is just a quick post on the beaches I visited when I went to Queensland.

First up, the Gold Coast, which is located at the south of Brisbane. A trip to Queensland is never complete if you don't go to Surfers Paradise. I swear, this place really is GOLD. I went in 08 for a night and I knew I had to go back. This year we just stayed for an entire day (a TOTAL MISTAKE!), as we had other places to cover.

Tourists and locals soaking up the Gold Coast's sun

Caloy and I with the Gold Coast as our backdrop

I had heaps of fun - a full day at the beach with good food and good company can't ever go wrong. The waves weren't as big as expected, so we spent a lot of time in the water. A lot of surfers and body boarders were about as well. If you're just out of school and about to turn 18 (or already are), this is the perfect time to go. I went just the day before schoolies, a well celebrated event for people who've just graduated from high school. Next year it starts on the 20th of November and runs for a week.

Mosaic art on the walk to Surfers, cool beans

The Gold Coast is a fantastic place to get wet and wild. That's all I have to say about it. You might need a week to fully experience it, which is what I'm planning to do next year.

However if you're with your family and wish to just have a laid back trip, I suggest you head on over to the Sunshine Coast, located to the north of Brisbane. Expect a lot of children running around and making sandcastles. We went to King's Beach and spent the whole day swimming and eating fish and chips.

The beach was pretty packed that day

Kings Beach is good for skimboarding

I enjoyed myself as I lounged about and chased the kids we had brought along with us. I'm all for lazy days and you can definitely have lots and lots of lazy days at the Sunshine Coast.

With that I leave you with the carefree (and for some, careless) spirit of summer and 2009. Surely there'll be better things to do and see in 2010. 'Til then, xoxo.

Glass House Mountains

This is all about Queensland's Glass House Mountains.

Okay, maybe I'll throw in something a little bit more interesting (hint: pubs and alcy?), for those who're growing tired of my nature natured (haha) posts.

I came to Queensland with too little knowledge about Brisbane's outdoors. All I knew was that in Queensland you'll find the Gold Coast and The Great Barrier Reef (which I've yet to visit). Other than that, I pretty much have no idea what there is to see. After our city visit, I realised that there's much more to QLD than just boys washboard abs and girls head-turning curves.

Tippy decided that we should go up to visit the Glass House Mountains. I reckon this is QLD's version of NSW's Blue Mountains. It was named so by Capt. James Cook because the mountains reminded him of glass furnaces. Just like the 3 Sisters, the Glass House Mountains have their own story. They are supposedly, a family of 6 children plus a pair of twins.

Glass House Mountains information at the lookout

Mt Beerburrum?

The lookout that we went up to was Mt Tibrogargan (the "Father" in the legend) and it is 364m tall. Seeing this side of Queensland has made me realise that Australia is full of surprises. I really like the story behind the Glass House Mountains and thought it was way cooler than the Blue Mountains. :-P We went on a little walk down towards the foot of the mountains, but didn't end up at the finish line which is another lookout as we had little kids along with us as well as their nan.

A fallen tree along the Mt Tibrogargan walk

Our hiking buddies for the day!

Mt Coonorwin, my favourite one!

I really enjoyed the drive to the Glass House Mountains because it was a perfectly sunny day and of course we had our own little mishaps, such as that of making a wrong turn and ending up at Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. I reckon it would be a brilliant idea to go visit the zoo in the morning then go up to the Glass House Mountains in the afternoon as the sun sets. Too bad we didn't have enough time.

Steve Irwin Way!

We drove into the zoo's parking lot and had a photo by the zoo's shuttle bus to make missing the turn worthwhile. Haha

Queensland sunsets are very pretty.

The view from the drive. Trees make my heart very happy :-)

After absorbing the beauty of the scenery, we drove back to Tippy's but made a pit stop at Ettamogah Pub. Beside it are quaint little shops where you can buy local stuff, which reminded me much of Tasmania and Dubbo. We had a little bite to eat as well as a few beers at the pub, which was of course, enjoyable. The interior is definitely a must-see, with framed cartoon pieces that tells you about the pub's history as well as lots of wooden furniture that really takes you back to the country.

Me being touristy and foolish

Classic country style

Favourite part of all the signage in Ettamogah

Outside the pub just before leaving

The tiring but well spent day trip to the Glass House Mountains called for a big dinner and a few drinks with a couple of Tippy's mates. It was really fun, but I wish we could've explored more of the mountains. Maybe next year I'll do it again.

Last but not least... have a Barefoot Radler! It is :3

PS

I realised I've gone past a thousand views, and wow thanks everyone!!! I never thought I would even go past a hundred in a year (sure went by quick didn't it?). It's all so overwhelming, haha, really. Thank you!!! :-) That said, I want YOUR input for next year's mishaps... I'm really looking for new places to see outside of Australia (hint: youngest country in the world). It would really mean a lot to me if you message me stuff that you want to read about, or places that may be interesting to the rest! :-) Leave a comment and I'll make sure to take note. Thanks very much for sticking it out with me & my lameness and for making my year! :-) xoxoxoxo

Welcome to Brisbane!

When the spring semester ended, my friend Caloy and I decided to go on a 6-day adventure to Queensland. My best friend was kind enough to give us a roof to live under and good food to eat throughout the trip. It's funny how we're all from different cities. I live in Sydney, Caloy in Melbourne and Tippy in Brisbane. Because of this, we have had a lot of chances to compare Queensland to our places of residence. Of course Tippy has her own biases being a Queenslander.

Caloy and I took a plane up to Brisbane (Thank you, JetStar!) and after a hearty breakfast and a long early morning nap, we decided to first explore Brisbane's CBD. We took public transport which I may say is quite different from Sydney and Melbourne. The QR trains are one level as in Melbourne, but they're all pretty vintage. I actually liked it but I assume there might be a lack of seating capacity come rush hour. It comes out really cheap though, right about $5-6 for FIVE ZONES! Even much less if you have QLD concession.

Me enjoying the train ride.

In the city we went to see the Anzac Square. We had our photo taken at the Shrine of Remembrance. I think it's one of the places that are really worth seeing because it has a lot of history behind it.

Shrine of Remembrance with Caloy

Close by was the Central Station, but I wasn't able to go inside. Here's a photo from the outside:

Central Station is not their biggest station, but Roma Station

I must say their CBD is quite quaint and definitely much smaller than the Sydney one. It also isn't overflowing with people during lunch. What I like most about it is that everything is close to everything else. For examplem, The Cathedral of St Stephen's is merely a 5 minute walk from the shops where we had lunch.

This is the interior of the church where we said our prayers before going to Southbank.

Crisp white, classic structure. Notice that there are individual seats and not pews

At the dock you can see Story Bridge, which is something like the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It is much smaller, and its main difference from the Sydney Harbour Bridge is that it is a cantilever bridge where as the latter is a steel arch bridge. I heard you can also climb the bridge just like you can in Harbour.

The Story Bridge

We tried to catch the CityCat to get to South Bank but failed miserably so we just caught the usual ferry. The CityCat is bigger and it just sounds so much cooler.

City view from the ferry :-)

At South Bank, we walked until our legs gave away. Lol jokes. We went around the South Bank Parklands and it's really pretty. Seems as though it's so easy to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life in Brisbane. It's like a 10 minute ferry ride!

This is what welcomes you to South Bank!

What's even more awesome about it is that there is a man-made beach called Streets Beach (click on link for 360º view). I find that such an insanely gooooood idea. In Sydney, you can easily hop on a bus to get to Bondi or other nearby beaches or get a ferry that can take you to Manly in half an hour. In Brisbane it takes like 10 minutes, and there aren't any sharks!!! Haha I'm so sold to this idea since I can't swim properly but love the beach anyway.

Super awesome, right?

As we continued walking towards the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) & Queensland Art Gallery (QAG), we passed by the tourist attraction Wheel of Brisbane. It is, of course, like other ferris wheels in other countries, a great (aerial) way to view the city.

Didn't want to try it cos I get insane dizzy spells!

Tippy & Caloy on the bridge to the Galleries. This provides such a good view of the city!

Our last stop for the day was the GoMA and QAG. Unfortunately, the GoMA was still in the process of being set up for the upcoming exhibits. The Queensland Art Gallery, however, had quite a selection of artists and artworks, ranging from indigenous Aussie art, Picasso, Warhol, to Queenslander art. I really enjoyed our visit there but maybe not as much as I had enjoyed the National Galleries Victoria in Melbourne. What I loved most of all about it though is the very modern look of the building!

I love the colours they used! So easy on the eye.

This may be rather weird but this is one of the highlights of our city trip ---

Ceiling decor made of paper & clips (!!!)

This simple decoration of the GoMA looks really really good in real life. The best part is that it's simple and anyone can do it. I swear, I'm considering putting the exact same thing up when I finally have a house (with a high ceiling to match)! :-)

For the lack of coherence I promise you better entries about the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and many more of Queensland's pride! Happy holidays, all! :-)