The Stuffed Beaver, Bondi

I love hot chips. I love them so much that my love for them cannot be expressed in words (hehe). When I used to live in the Netherlands I used to eat them all the time with mayonnaise because they sold them everywhere in these stalls on the street!! (borderline addiction for sure)

So when I first heard about this Canadian concoction called "poutine", which is literally hot chips, topped with gravy and cheese, I just knew I had to try it.

After googling "where to buy poutine in Sydney" I found out that they were sold at "The Stuffed Beaver" in Bondi. So I had to go there. Google told me that they specialised in "Canadian / American" food.

The Stuffed Beaver is located in Bondi (not Bondi Junction), on 271 Bondi Rd. You literally need to drive all the way down Bondi Rd - it's located near the corner of Bondi Road and Denham St. We arrived in Bondi around 1:15pm and managed to find free 2 hour street parking on the curve where Denham St turns into Fletcher St.



You can easily recognise The Stuffed Beaver as it literally has a beaver for its street sign! So cute.



Being a weekday lunch, the place was completely empty when we arrived. I have a feeling that it's mostly a watering hole / bar so probably much more popular in the evening / night.

(Excuse my little brother's guest appearance in the photo! He had just finished exams at school so I was treating him to some greasy food hehe).







The place also has booth seating which I love! I think it provides more privacy :) They were also playing NFL on the TV lol.





Anyways, so we sat down in one of the two seater booths. The waitress came to see what drinks we wanted. She was really friendly (and American...I think) and reminded me of Katy Perry hehe. After ordering a diet coke for myself, I browsed the menu to look for what I had come here for. The POUTINE!  The menu itself was super cute with cartoon speech bubbles split up into the different types of food on offer. There were a number of burgers, hot dogs, nachos, fries, wings, tacos....so American!! (excuse the stereotype).









We found the poutine in the "pommes frites" section :) We also ordered the Happy Trevor pork sandwich and also the "frickles" (which I had been told was what they kept eating on Jersey Shore...I wouldn't know...haha).

I also really liked the table setting with cool rum bottle like water bottles, cute lamp and...ketchup & mustard!! A must have in an American / Canadian meal.





 



So, the poutine ($14.99) came out first. I literally saw it in front of my eyes and thought I was in heaven!! And it had been freshly made so the chips were super crispy and the gravy was hot and the cheese was melting into the gravy.... mmmm.... I thought it was really yummy..but then I'm biased because usually I go gaga over anything with fries.

However, a friend of mine that used to live in Canada told me that the "real" poutine was much better than the one from The Stuffed Beaver. Hmmm I wouldn't know since I've never been to Canada so I guess this is the best I'll get here! If you want to make a judgement for yourself you should definitely check out The Stuffed Beaver.





Next came the Happy Trevor pork sandwich ($13)...which wasn't actually a sandwich lol. And then I remembered that burgers were sometimes referred to as "sandwiches" in America...(not sure why...can anyone explain?). It was a small burger (maybe the size of my two fists put together?) and it was filled with purple coleslaw and pulled pork. It was really yummy. The creamy yet crunchy coleslaw went really well with the pulled pork and the brioche bun.



Then out came the frickles ($6). Frickles are literally "fr(ied) (p)ickles". This was a concept totally new to me so I was excited to try it. So I dipped it in the ranch sauce and bit into the frickle. It was a strange feeling at first because you have the super crispy beer batter shell and then....a pickle?! I think the two went well together because the greasiness of the fried batter was then counteracted by the pickle.



So this was our meal all together.  As you can see the poutine is quite massive...we couldn't finish it!



So overall we had a really good experience at The Stuffed Beaver. I felt like I was in Canada/America during the time I was there hehe. Would I go back? Yes, if I can't figure out a way to make awesome poutine at home...then I guess I'll have to go back! (plus I really want to try the "Celine Diog" lol!).



D xx

Four Ate Five (fouratefive), Surry Hills

When I first heard about this cafe, I remember thinking to myself....why did four eat five?? (LOL...true story!) And then I realised that it was actually a really playful pun on the street number of the cafe itself....you guessed it - 485.

This cute little cafe renowned for its all day breakfast is located on 485 Crown Street, Surry Hills.

In terms of where along Crown St it is located, it's in a little strip of cafes between Devonshire St and Jessop St.  There is 2 hours free parking from 8am - 6pm Monday to Fridays on Crown St itself so if you go during the weekdays it's usually not too hard to for find parking....although it can be a different story during the weekend!









I arrived at the cafe around 12pm on a Friday and it was actually quite packed so I ended up grabbing the last available table (yay!).

The cafe is small and cosy, with about 30 seats indoors (including a large communal table) and about 8-10 seats outside at the front of the cafe.  I found it quite unique how they had the barista at the front of the cafe, separate from the actual kitchen itself, which was located at the back of the cafe. It was also an open kitchen too!



The decor was cute and homely, with paintings and other cute ornaments here and there (note the photos were taken at different times during my visit!).







One thing that stood out was that there were power points available under the seats which would be useful for those with laptops or iPads :)



The menu was quite extensive so I had a difficult time choosing what I wanted! I ended up choosing poached eggs with smoked salmon and a weak, skim latte (my usual)...then I just had to get myself a bowl of the kumera chips with aioli that everyone was raving about.





The table setting was really cute too, with a small bowl of sea salt, small pepper grinder and...tabasco! I was so glad to see some tabasco for everyone on the tables :)



My coffee came out first.  They use Single Origin coffee here, so it tasted quite similar to the coffee I used to get at Central Baking Depot.  Although I had asked for a weak one, I got a pretty strong kick of coffee in the beginning which lingered on the palate for a bit and then smoothed out.  It was actually really great!





Then came my kumera chips. When I saw it I thought...omg the bowl is huge!!! There was no way I was going to finish it...



The chips looked slightly burnt so I was a bit worried but then when I picked up my first chip and tried it with the aioli my worries withered away...it was so yummy!! Crisp on the outside, yet still a bit soft on the inside...the seasoning on it was slightly spicy and really delicious. I ended up not finishing it and had to grab a doggy bag for it :)

Lastly was my poached eggs with smoked salmon and organic sourdough bread.  The eggs were poached perfectly, with the yolk oozing out.....mmm. The smoked salmon was also great and came in generous servings.  The sourdough was sour (as it should be).  Overall it was really great (especially with the sea salt, pepper and tabasco!)





They also sold homemade jams with interesting flavour combinations (flavours that day included strawberry & rhubarb, orange & passionfruit marmalade and also apricot, almond & vanilla) and also pastries and breads hanging from cute swings at the front of the shops.







So, would I go back to Four Ate Five? I think so! The service was very good and there are still a lot of menu options I would like to try, such as the pulled pork sandwich and the cheese and meatball melt! You can check out their menu here (although I think some of the prices have changed slightly!) I'll probably end up going there for brunch with my friends, or just by myself to study French or something :)

D xx

Visit Four Ate Five's website here.

Cicco Chocolaterie @ Broadway

I only found out about this place because of my cousin who started working there after she came to Sydney from Korea (although now she's gone back after staying 8 months in Aus!).

To be honest, I only been to Broadway Shopping Centre like once or twice in my whole life because I never really had any reason to go there.

But this time when I went I was quite surprised at how new / modern it was! (Has it been renovated recently?)

Anyways, Cicco Chocolaterie is located on Level 3, near the Apple Store, Kikki K and L'Occitane.



They have plenty of seating all across the edges of the floor.





As you can see ,they even have a cute chocolate fountain! yum :)



Although the name suggests that the cafe would be something similar to Max Brenner, it has a lot more variety and doesn't only sell chocolate - it also has a variety of great meal options as well.



As soon as we sat down, we ordered a weak skim mocha and a latte.  The coffee was great - nice and smooth and not too bitter as well.



For our lunch we ordered a chicken pesto melt, a salmon focaccia and a side of curly fries w/ aioli.







The melt was great, with heaps of cheese (yum) and some salad on the side.  The salmon focaccia was fresh and also really delicious! And for the fries.....YUM YMU (but maybe I'm biased because I love love love chips/fries).  It was super crunchy and went so well with the aioli :)

Then we had the dessert. And being a "chocolaterie" we had to have some chocolate!! The first one was recommended by our cousin (so I don't know what it's called unfortunately).  It was like a little package of chocolate heaven with whipped cream and vanilla ice cream.



And last but not least, some strawberry dip! After seeing the chocolate fountain, we knew we had to have some of it.  The strawberries were really refreshing after all the chocolate (although they were dipped in chocolate as well hehe).



So there you go guys, a hidden gem of a chocolate / brunch cafe in Broadway Shopping Centre.  Needless to say, we went and shopped around to burn off all the yummy things we ate hehe!

Will I come back? Yep, the menu was pretty extensive and there were definitely other things I wanted to try!

D xx