Willy Wonker Factory aka Georgiou's Confectionery (25th September)

        Would you believe it if I told you I had my very own Willy Wonker factory in my neighbourhood? Okay so it doesn't have Oompa Loompas and a chocolate river but it's pretty much a sweet fantasy land where you could get lost for hours and hours immersed in sweet sweet memories thinking about all the candy you ate as a child.

        This Willy Wonka like factory is called Georgiou's Confectionery. They are a confectionery wholesaler but also sell direct to the public. This place is pretty easy to miss, a big brown unassuming building on a main road where you could possibly have driven past day after day and not known what was beyond those walls. Just like in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 'Nobody goes in, and nobody comes out'. Okay that part is a lie.

        As you walk in the front door (watch your step, a few steep climbs up) instantly you are hit with the strong aroma of chocolate and candy. Towards your right is where the front counter is. There are displays of bulk foil wrapped chocolates and other bits and pieces of sweet things. Towards your left are nice pretty displays stacked full of chocolates and biscuits and the like. It was only September and there were already Christmas gift boxes on display. It takes a while to slowly take in everything - it is quite overwhelming when you first walk in.

        This is only my second visit to this place in all the years that I've lived in the area. As soon as I stepped through the front door I remembered why it had been so so long since my last visit. I just wanted to buy/eat everything in sight.

Ohh look giant sherbet straws!

Ohhh - Willy Wonka Golden Tickets!

        There were bins with Hershey Kisses and Reese's candy on special, couldn't resist picking some up.

        At the back of the factory there's 2 aisles fully stacked on either side with all the candy that you can imagine, going higher than your head. Split into small bags and also available in bulk. I can say that as a child I had sampled almost all of the types that were available. Redskins, frogs, toffee apple lollipops, milk bottles, everlasting gobsmackers, loveheart lollipops, gummi bears along with  the all time favourites and things like chocolate coated nuts etc. 

They also stock alot of popular brands in bulk like Allen's fantales, minties, jaffas etc.

Ohh Flying Saucers! Took me back to the Heston Blumenthal episode.

        My real mission for this visit was to track down pop rocks - I didn't need a whole rocket full though and managed to nab the last bag of 8 little packs they had for $2. I was so intent on tracking down pop rocks that by the time I bought them I couldn't even remember what I wanted them for. Didn't matter though because Ryan got to most of them and was content eating the pop rocks as they were. We sure had fun going down memory lane with those.

        Back to the front 'store' section I was also excited to see that they also stocked all the American import items too. Had no idea what to do with them at the time though so didn't buy anything from this selection.

        Ohhh pop tarts, it has been yonkers since they stopped making them. Was keen to try a couple of these American ones, just for the sake of memories.

        So this is what I came out with at the end of my visit. I really did feel like a kid in a candy shop, oh wait - I WAS a kid in a candy shop. It was a fun time going down memory lane with all the candy but I think I need to avoid the place - for the sake of my sugar levels. The fact that it's within walking distance from my house (10 minute walk) is very dangerous but self control has prevented me from going nuts.

Georgiou's Confectionery

147 New Canterbury Road, Petersham NSW 2049

Hours of Operation:
Monday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Thursday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Thursday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Friday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Saturday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Sunday 10:00am- 3:00pm
*Only open on Sundays 4 weeks prior to Easter, and 8 weeks before Christmas.
Georgiou's is closed on public holidays, but open on Good Friday.
Closed at 12:00pm on Christmas Eve, but we are still open for coach bookings.

The Essential (Foodie) Gift Pack for a 21st Present

        This is what Di and I put together as a 21st birthday present for one of our close friends Sarah. I had an extra day off last long weekend so decided that I would catch up with Di for afternoon tea and while we were at it we could get the birthday present out of the way too. I knew that I had the perfect idea and when I explained it to Di (and then took her to The Essential Ingredient) she agreed I was on to something =). We chose the items we thought would be a bit more "gourmet" than the usual fair and different things that she wouldn't usually buy herself or find at the local shops.

So the contents of the box contained:

• 1 Recipe Book: 500 Cupcakes
• 1 pack of 12 large sugar butterflies (you can almost make them out in the pic below after I shuffled the contents around)
• 1 pack of cupcake print cupcake patties
• 1 packet of Lime & Ginger shortbread
• 1 pack of candy hearts (cupcake decos)
• 1 packet of lavosh crisps
• 1 jar of red capsicum tapenade
• 1 jar of raspberry, rhubarb and vanilla jam
• 1 tube of blue sprinkles
• 1 tube of green sprinkles

        I so wanted to keep this box to myself. Okay so the birthday girl isn't a big foodie like I am but she loves her food and loves baking. What better present than a gift pack made up of all things food/baking related from The Essential Ingredient? I know that she's busy with uni and work at the moment but hopefully some of the items will inspire her to pull out her oven mitts again (I know you're reading Sarah! - Happy Birthday again! And start practising those baking skills ;) ). It was also handy that I still had all my floristry stuff lying around - handy being an ex florist ;) made presenting it all a lot easier.

        I also couldn't help but pick up a few items for myself. This was already my third trip in 2 weeks! Ryan was interested in the ash chevre goats cheese so I thought I would buy it for him to try while I was there - it's still in the fridge as we're yet to try it. I also wanted to try another one of the Dolfin chocolate range, I chose the dark chocolate with pink peppercorn. I've never had this combination before and found it quite interesting, definately not a combination I would usually think about eating. I was also excited to see that they stocked Lindt couverture chocolate and couldn't help pick up a jar of the dark bittersweet chocolate. I'm yet to use it but am scared Ryan and I might end up eating the whole jar before I get to make good use of it. The chocolate is just so smooth and silky. It's so good to eat!

***Edited 15/4***
Message from the birthday girl on facebook:
Thank you thank you thank you soooo much. Di just gave me the gift. It is so sweet... and it wreaks of your handiwork Angie... right down to the pinned on handwritten card. Its perfect. I love it. Pass on my hugs and thanks to Ryan too :)

        I don't do what I do to seek praise but it's a nice warm fuzzy feeling when you get recognised for what you do =)

50 dollars worth of snack food!

        I have decided that I am just too tired to do a real blog tonight. I don't want to do it half heartedly, like how I feel my souffle blog went. Didn't get home until almost 8:30pm because I popped by to see Ryan on his dinner break after I finished at the gym. So we sat in my car, me watching (and smelling) him eat the pasta which I had cooked on Monday night. (I recreated the dish we cooked on Saturday night adding a few extra things, I admit Ryan seemed to have done a better job than me).

        Anyway, what is the title all about? At about 2pm I received an email from one of my managers (I support several managers in different departments). "Can you go and do some shopping please?" was the title of this email - I was intrigued! The email contained a shopping list consisting of:

• Tim tams
• Vegemite
• Caramello Koalas
• Freddo Frogs

        Why such a shopping list you ask? We had one of the regional heads visiting our office this week, from the UK to be exact and my manager wanted to give him a bit of a gift pack with some Aussie things (snacks) for him to take away/home, none of the made in china koalas and kangaroos and that kind of tacky stuff (which we gave out to some Japanese visitors who came). So off I went down to Macquarie Centre with my corporate credit card in hand. By the time I had filled my shopping basket and checked out the bill came to about $50. I did also have to grab some chocolates for one of the monthly team meetings happening after easter. Still, that's a lot of junk food to carry back to the office. I caused quite a comotion coming back into the office as I was like a pack horse carrying all these plastic shopping bags.

        This is what I came back with. I had to google Australian brands because quite frankly I was a little confused as to what the true blue Aussie brands/products were. We import/export so much stuff these days. For the gift box I had a packet of Parker's Pretzel's (not genuine Aussie product but an Aussie brand), a packet of treat sized Caramello Koalas, a packet of treat sized Freddo Frogs (the one with the mixed flavours), a box of Paton's chocolate coated Macadamia nuts (my fave!), a packet each of regular and white chocolate Tim Tams, a packet of Nobby's mixed nuts, a jar of Vegemite and also a jar of Cheesybite. I am sure thee could have been alot more I could have shoved in that box but I didn't want to waste too much time/thought into it. I also bought 2 boxes of Ferrero Rochers and 2 packets of the mixed Freddo Frogs for the meeting. I couldn't help but stop by Darrel Lea in centre court to grab a bag (1kg!) of solid eggs. I have been craving easter eggs (I swear they taste different to regular chocolate! Even one of the managers agrees with me!) I think they might be injected with easter egg essence or something =D.

Zumbo Goodies, The Essential Ingredient (again), Rosewater Cupcakes & Tetsuya inspired Dinner by Candle Light for Earth Hour

        So it's Saturday morning and I open my eyes and look at the clock to realise it's only 8am - way too early! I like to sleep in on the weekends (as long as I don't get woken up by the members of my household). I couldn't quite get myself back to sleep so ended up laying in bed for a little longer. I had to head back to The Essential Ingredient again to return something so thought I would get an early start on the day and decided to get out of bed and left the house around 9am. (Who would be crazy enough to be out and about at this hour I think to myself). Boy was I slightly suprised to find that a fair bit of the population were already up and about. Because Balmain was not that much further from Rozelle and we missed paying a visit to Adriano Zumbo's Patisserie the day before I thought I might as well drive that little bit further while I was already in the area. As Essential Ingredient's website said they wern't open until 9:30am I thought I would head to Zumbo's first and try to "beat the crowd". The line was already 3 people out the door by the time I got there!

        The first time I tried Zumbo's was September 2009. Ryan and I visited the Cafe Chocolat and shared the "La Vie En Rose" dessert (rose creme brulee, raspberry sorbet, lychees, rose macarons and a coconut strawberry tapioca shake). Didn't take a photo of it at the time but you can have a peak of it at Not Quite Nigella. I also couldn't leave the cafe without buying some chocolates. From my facebook the flavours shown here were hazulnut rocher, mandarin & rose, and H20. They were gorgeous!

        After the cafe we headed back to the patisserie to have a look and grab a few things to take away. And of course I had to have some macarons. Can't quite remember what flavours were here but I do know that they were pretty safe flavours, nothing too extraordinary. They had also travelled around a fair bit in my handbag so were slightly melted by the time we got to eat them. We also bought an apple turnover for my mum and a custard tart for Ryan's mum. We didn't get a taste of neither of them.

        This time I wanted to try Adriano's cakes. I did a little bit of "research" on the website as Adriano releases new ranges every season. It all went out the door when I had a look through the glass display not seeing any of the cakes which were displayed on the website. My first choice was the "Dr Apple", this is from an old summer 2008 collection, read about this collection also at Not Quite Nigella. It's meant to sit alot firmer and taller than pictured. My crazy driving and an already warm morning (plus a stopover at Sydney Essential and then getting sidetracked baking when I got home) meant that this is what I ended up with by the time I pulled it out of the box to take a photo. It actually collapsed a little when I pulled it out of the box and collapsed even more when I attempted to put it back in the box. By the time I got to Ryan's later that evening it had become a flat puddle. We had to stick in in the fridge for it to set a little. I think this is my fave so far, I loved all the flavours and textures even if it was almost a pancake by the time I got to eat it.

        The other cake that caught my eye was this. As I was eyeing the cakes trying to decide what to get (after the Dr Apple) this one caught my eye - because it was nameless and because it looked intriguing. I asked the guy behind the counter what was in it and all I can remember is something along the lines of white chocolate mousse, raspberry and capsicum. It sold me there, I was definately intrigued to try what this combination would taste like! It was definately interesting. The sweet mousse/custard like filling together with capsicum, it was such a strange sensation on the taste buds. I tried to google and blog hop to find out the name/what was in it thinking that it too was part of an old collection. I was quite excited to have randomly come across this blog and the fact that it was a new release for Winter 2010 and that it had only just been invented (perhaps why it didn't have a name early on Saturday morning perhaps the day it was released?). As it was a bit more solid than the Dr Apple it didn't suffer as badly during transportation throughout the day but it was in a pretty poor state compared to the photo when we ate it.

        Of course who can resist the calling of the macarons! Trying some different flavours here which I havn't had before. L-R: Popcorn, Blueberry, Caramel & Coffe, Pear & Vanilla, Mandarin, and Raspberry. I think Ryan has a secret love for macarons too, as soon as I arrived he grabbed the packet and was already asking me which ones I wanted. I insisted that we had to go halves so that we could try ALL the flavours.

        After Zumbo's I stopped over at Essential Ingredient again. Ryan asked for some more organic cola and I grabbed some more of the Belgium chocolate, the Konacha Green Tea Milk Chocolate this time. It was certainly different, and definately enjoyable. I also grabbed a bottle of rosewater to bake some cupcakes to help with some fundraising at church the next day.

        So the girls at church were having a little bake off to raise some funds. I thought that cupcakes were pretty ordinary so had a flip through some cookbooks to get some inspiration as to how mine would be different. Although they do look quite ordinary the cakes are subtly flavoured with rosewater and are quite delish. I got the recipe from one of my books "Cupcake Heaven by Susannah Blake".

My purchases from The Essential Ingredient being put to good use.

        The recipe called for a simple icing using lemon juice (and pink colouring) which complemented my little cupcakes perfectly. The recipe called for sugared rose petals but I thought I would use my lovely little rose buds. 

        I knew that Ryan would love the fact that I had gotten Tetsuya's cookbook. While at my place on Friday night he found a recipe which he wanted to try. It was "Angel hair pasta with asparagus and truffle oil". So Saturday night was the time to cook. A very simple recipe but was absolutely enjoyable to eat. We did alter it a little adding chicken (Ryan insisted we needed a meat) and altering the portions of all the ingredients a little as we had more pasta and ended up chopping up more of each herb that went in.

        Of course our portion sizes and presentation were no where near that of which would be served in Tetsuya's restaurant. Ryan even went back for seconds and said it tasted absolutely amazing eaten cold the next day.

        As it was Earth Hour we decided to eat by candle light and enjoyed each other's company and conversation without any electrical distractions. That is until Earth Hour was over and we had friends show up for a night of playing the board game "Life".

La Grande Bouffe, The Essential Ingredient, Birkenhead Point make for a nice day off work

        I've just realised I have a whole week's backlog worth of photos/things to blog about since last weekend. Where do I start??? If I could I would combine in all into one super duper long blog entry but really... I can't do that... it'll be overload. The ideal would be to start from last Sunday and work my way through chronologically, but I don't really want to do that. So I will start with what I did on my day off work on Friday.

        Our first stop for the day was The Essential Ingredient at Rozelle. Since this place had moved to Rozelle from Chatswood I kept driving past but never been in. As we were a little early for brunch/lunch I thought we could kill two birds with one stone and pop by for a visit seeing as it's only across the road from our lunch destination. Upon stepping through the entrance I could tell this was a foodie's haven. All the latest gadgets and appliances, cooking utensils, gourmet foods, cake decorating supplies, cook books, even Ryan was pretty happy to be there. I swear I would be happy if this place was my home. I was just in awe and inspired by everything there. If I could afford it I'd buy everything in the whole shop! But then I would have the problem of where to store everything so living there sounds justifiable =D. They even had their own cafe and while I was browsing Ryan spotted some organic cola they were selling and just had to try some. It was good. To try and describe it the taste would be similar to LA Ice. I prefer this taste over Coke.

        At about 11:40 we headed across the road to La Grande Bouffe where we wanted to have brunch. We'd been here twice before for dinner and it's become a little favourite of ours for when we want to eat something special. Having had read their breakfast and lunch menus I was curious and wanted to visit again during the day. According to their website breakfast was served until 10:30 and Lunch was served from 12. As we had arrived in between they were still only taking orders from the breakfast menu and upon looking at both bthe menus we decided to wait the 15 minutes until we could order from the lunch menu.

        I asked our waitress what fresh juices were on offer and as soon as watermelon was mentioned Ryan jumped to order one, I said "make that 2 please". Love love love fresh watermelon juice, it's so refreshing and yummy when they use quality watermelon. That's an appliance that I am missing at home, a juicer.

The view of the Darling Street behind me.

        While waiting for 12 we ordered some toasted brioche with butter and jam. It was a fairly buttery bread, tasted like a cross between white bread and buttery pastry. The jam was top quality stuff and was absolutely delicious spread over the butter on the toast.

        Ryan decided to have the "Cassoulet of Corn fed Chicken Maryland". The meat was very tender, the skin was absolutely crispy, just the way I like it! Reminded me of the Vietnamese crispy skinned chicken I always tend to order when we eat out. It was served on a bed of beans and some chunks of pancetta. Ryan commented that it would have been better served on a cooler/colder day. He wasn't expecting this to come out when ordering it. And it did turn out to be a very very warm day. He enjoyed it none the less and was even nice enough to give me a few nibbles of it here and there.

        I have been craving a good baguette for a while now and was pulled towards the baguettes on offer on the menu. All the salads sounded quite interesting too. I ended up chosing the "Duck Confit Baguette with Cornichon". The duck was tender and moreish and the little pickles added a nice contrast. I really enjoyed my baguette.

        After our lunch we made our way back to The Essential Ingredient so that I could pick up a few things seeing as our conversation during lunch on what we wanted to do for the rest of the day was sounding like we wouldn't really be coming back past this way. I picked up small bar of Belgium chocolate which we had to eat straight away because my car was scorching hot by the time we hopped back into it. It was a quite smooth chocolate, not too sweet, and contained small pieces of cocoa beans (from Ghana) mixed through which I found quite enjoyable.

        I also picked up some other goodies consisting of a packet of Roses de Reims biscuits, a small tub of rose buds and a box of Rocher Noisette, hazelnut biscuits. The Roses de Reims remind me of the sponge lady finger biscuits. The rose buds end up on the top of some rosewater cupcakes I make the next day.

        Our original plan was to go shopping at Birkenhead Point as Ryan was finding that his waredrobe was a little bare. While having lunch we agreed it was a bit of a waste of a day to be spending it in a shopping centre so we drove to the city with the intention of visiting the Crypt of St Mary's Cathedral (yeah a bit ironic seeing as we didn't want to be indoors). After driving around the block a few times we finally found a parking spot and paid for two hours worth of parking time and headed towards St Mary's Cathedral. When we got there we found a note to say the Crypt was closed and the lady at the gift shop confirmed it. Ryan was really disappointed that he couldn't take me into the Crypt. We thought that seeing as we had originally planned to go to Birkenhead Point and having our Plan B go to dust we hopped in the car and headed back in that direction.

 

        I love going shopping on a weekday. There's no crowds and queues so you can shop to your hearts content without having to push your way through other people. I think we ended up spending about two hours or a so and managed to grab a few bargains between us. There's currently a big sale on with some stores offering 40-50% off marked prices. If you have a day off during the week definately head down there for some bargains. Two things I love, good food and good bargains. We pretty much shopped and dropped and were pretty exhausted by the time we left. Not before stopping by one of the cafes for a quick snack before our long drive back to Strathfield. I can't remember the name of the cafe but it's on the ground floor where the big open area is of the complex. Opposite Nine West shoes. Ryan grabbed a proscuitto and pesto ciabatta roll and I had a ricotta canolli and a lemon ice tea. We weren't expecting much but they were good. After a big day out the rest of the day was spent at home chilling out in front of the TV and eating leftovers.