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

Gelato Messina

Let me introduce you guys to my favourite gelato joint in Sydney.

The place is called Gelato Messina and it's located on Victoria St, Darlinghurst.



Now I've done my fair share of travels around Italy, and have tasted my fair share of gelatos and so far, Messina is the only place that lives up to my expectations of a good gelato.



I personally prefer gelato over ice cream (although I still really love ice cream) because I like the smooth texture of the gelato and how that brings out the flavour of the ingredients better than the milky, slightly frosted texture of ice cream.

When I was travelling around Italy it was summertime so I ate gelato whenever and wherever I could find them! My absolute favourite flavour is (and always will be) "Fior di latte" which literally means "milk flower" (which they don't have anywhere in Sydney...can someone find me a place that sells this flavour?). To me it tastes like vanilla milkshake!!! Yum!



Fior di latte from Grom, a popular Italian gelateria (this one I went to was in Milan)



Almond and hazelnut / Fior di latte gelatos in Cefalu, Sicily (it was boiling hot that day....all we did was sit at a beachside cafe and eat almond flavoured food :P)

But, there is one flavour at Messina which potentially can be the Aussie replacement for my Fior di latte - it's the "salted caramel with white chocolate" flavour and oh mon dieu it is HEAVENLY (it's the one on the left - double scoop all the way!).



The sweetness of the white chocolate is perfectly balanced by the salted caramel leaving you that wonderful slightly strange flavour of both savoury and sweet tastes in your mouth.



Messina has around 30 flavours available daily - they also have a list of Special flavours which change constantly. These specials are really special because they're more daring and quirky compared to the usual flavours that are there every day :)



The other great thing about Messina is that it's really good value for money. One scoop is $3.90, two scoops are $4.90 and three scoops are $6.90! I know certain other ice cream / gelato shops that sell their ice cream / gelato for $5.90 a scoop (honestly, a bit toooo much for ice cream...).

You can also take away these goodies in a take away tubs (500mL - 1500mL sizes). They also have a Creative Department (Messina’s Laboratorio and Patisserie) next door which sells ready made single serve ice cream desserts!

Expect to queue up when you're there though - seems like Messina is everyone's favourite gelato joint! (psst, they also have second store in the Cafe Court area of the Star so maybe you can try your luck there and not have to wait in line ;P)

D xx

Sweetness the Patisserie (plus other bday gifts!)

Hi all :)

I know that it's been like over a week since my birthday but I really wanted to introduce you to this amazing patisserie that my friend introduced me to because she bought me some sweets for my birthday!

The patisserie is called "Sweetness the Patisserie" and its located in Epping!  My friend says its a little hidden gem on one of the side streets in Epping - its actually somewhere you would probably never "stumble upon" and would only really go there if you've heard about the place or live near it.



So the "it" products of Sweetness the Patisserie are apparently these "SWEET mallows" which are marshmallows of every colour imaginable! And each colour has a different flavour to is as well so imagine the number of flavours!

SWEET mallow flavours: Strawberry, Raspberry, Jaffa, Blueberry, Maple & Lime, Chocolate, Toasted Coconut, Black Currant & Vanilla Swirl, Mocha, Creamy Orange, Rose Water, Passionfruit, Guava, Lime, Espresso, Sour Cherry, Lime & Coconut Swirl, Lemon, Mango, Brown Sugar & Cinnamon, Lavender, Strawberries & Creme, Vanilla Bean, Lychee Rose, Raspberry & Passionfruit Swirl, Aniseed.



To be honest I don't even know what flavours were in my pack of four that I tried because there are just sooooo many flavours! If I had to guess (and unfortunately I'm not much of a Masterchef that knows flavours like the back of my hand), it would be Raspberry, Lavender, Lemon and Lime!  My fav was the green one (I presume its Lime...)



The SWEET Mallows are super fluffy on the inside and also really soft - you really can't compare these to this typical ones you buy at the supermarket.

Next up was the English Toffee.  I absolutely love toffee and caramel so I was so excited to give these a try and boy were they yummy!!  The combination of the toffee with the chocolate and the nuts (almond I think) as superb.  The toffee was more crunchy rather than sticky so I was happy that it didn't really stick to my teeth (the usual problem when you eat toffee).



I confess - I ate the whole pack in like less than a day. It's that good.

So I'm now super excited that I've discovered this little neighbourhood gem - I live kinda close to Epping so I'll be paying a visit myself in person very soon!

You can visit their site at www.sweetness.com.au

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Now, a lot of the people that are close to me know that I'm a big fan of art (not so into contemporary art though....but that could change, who knows).

And my absolute favourite artist is Vincent Van Gogh and my absolute favourite painting is "The Cafe Terrace at Night" by guess who? Right, Van Gogh! (if you've never heard of this piece of art, I highly recommend you Google it right now!)

But I really love a lot of Van Gogh's pieces - especially the paintings with the night effects (Fun fact: "The Cafe Terrace at Night" was the first painting which Van Gogh used his "starry night" effect!).

So obviously I love "The Starry Night" by Van Gogh, which is usually regarded as his magnum opus.

And my lovely friend who knew how much I love "The Starry Night", bought me a Starry Night jigsaw puzzle for my birthday!!!!!!



It's a tiny box and when I saw that it had "1000 PIECES" I was like "oh my, how small is a piece then?!!"

And when I opened the box....there they were...a 1000 tiny jigsaw puzzle pieces........!!!!



Here's a comparison shot between a 20 cent coin and a puzzle piece:



So if I'm not blogging often, you know what I'm doing instead :P Putting this tiny 1000 piece puzzle together obviously! hehe (jks, blogging will always be a priority!)

Hopefully I'll be able to finish this in due course and then hang it up on my wall in a nice frame :D

If you're interested in purchasing some artwork jigsaw puzzles to pass time with, check out www.jigsawsdelivered.com.au for a range of jigsaw puzzles!! (although they don't seem to have "The Starry Night".....must ask my friend where this one came from! hehe)

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Lastly, for myself I bought myself a nice hand cream for my birthday :)  Since it has been so cold recently, my hands have become super cold and super dry!! :(  So I was looking around to find a nice hand cream with a nice scent because I'm quite sensitive with scents (some hand cream scents give me headaches >.<!)

After looking around the shopping precinct in Sydney CBD, I stumbled upon this wonderful hand cream by TOCCA, in Mecca Cosmetica in Myer Sydney.  It is seriously hidden because it's like on the bottom shelf near the back of Mecca so you wouldn't really notice it unless you were really wanting to look for it.

I was actually smelling the candles above it (I love candles too haha) and I saw the hand creams below and thought heyyyyyyy!



I ended up buying the Grapefruit & Cucumber scented hand cream and oh my goodness it actually smells DEVINE.  The zesty sweetness of the grapefruit goes so well with the freshness of the cucumber I sometimes feel like eating my hands haha.  The cream itself isn't too thick nor too light so it has a really smooth finish and doesn't leave your hands feeling sticky either!

So if you're looking for a reasonably priced hand cream (A$14 at Mecca) with lovely scents, check out Tocca hand creams :)

They also sell clothes and other beauty products - check them out at www.tocca.com (although they only ship to US & Canada....*cries*)

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Upcoming blog post: Buffalo Dining Club, Darlinghurst!

Stay tuned :)

D xx