Fancy Nance High Tea

To celebrate Mary's birthday yesterday she gathered together a group of friends to attend high tea at Adriano Zumbo's Fancy Nance salon in South Yarra. High tea is available in the venue from Friday through Sunday with three different menu options and price points:
- Sconti: $15
- Pretty Flamingo: $45
- I'm So Fancy: $65

Mary and I both chose the three course I'm So Fancy menu to get the full experience. A Zumbo high tea is a bit different to others as it is more of a degustation menu than sweets tower, and they start with the sweet items and finish with savory.

The first course featured a spiced pear strudel verrine, malted milkshake macaron, rhubarb crumble with custard, strawberry tart, and a mandarin, white chocolate and macadamia cake. My favorites from this course were the verrine and rhubarb crumble due to their strong flavors.

The second course was a mix of sweet and savory with Grandma's treasure tin containing a white chocolate chip cookie and croissant, a scone with sweet and savory jams and creams, and a chickpea cracker with basil hummus and tomato dust. The cookie was really good, and the chickpea cracker was very light and tasty.

Our final course was all savory dishes with a carrot, orange and ginger soup with roasted pumpkin seeds, mac & cheese croquette with bacon schmear, and smoky pulled pork shoulder on a scone base topped with pickled onions. From this course the soup was a clear standout with its full and robust flavors.

Overall the high tea was good but not mind blowing. There were a few standout dishes, but overall I would have preferred more sweet options to choose from.

Birthday Celebrations

My milestone birthday has finally arrived, and it's been a great day! Unfortunately things at work are really busy so I was unable to take the day off. However, my parents brightened my desk by sending an incredible bouquet of flowers (which also tipped off my colleagues that it was my birthday). Justin and I escaped for lunch at Mamasita, which was fantastic as usual and fulfilled my craving for Mexican food. Then my divisional colleagues threw a little surprise afternoon tea for me with a cake from Laurent, which was really thoughtful of them.

As someone who went on a patisserie crawl last year, it should be no surprise that I chose to celebrate my birthday this year by doing the dessert degustation at Om Nom in the Adelphi Hotel. When you walk in you are hit by the sweet smell of sugar. I was joined by a lovely group of friends, with over half of us doing the degustation and the others ordering savory food to share. Onagh was kind enough to get me the Adelphi Rose cocktail, which was quite nice. I think between us we managed to order all of the degustation options on the menu. My three choices were as follows:

• Raspberry Field- Raspberry and lychee sorbet, baked meringue, raspberry panna cotta, rosewater pearls and white chocolate
• Icecream 'Sanga'- Pistachio ice cream, ricotta orange cream, vanilla chantilly, biscuit cuillere, strawberry swirled vanilla ice cream and balsamic spheres
• MagNOM- Flourless chocolate, valhrona manjari 64% chocolate ice cream, peanut dacquoise and peanut butter swirled vanilla ice cream

All of the dishes tasted and looked great, but I think my favorite was the Raspberry Field with its raspberry sorbet mushroom cap. It was really nice of the staff to write happy birthday on my MagNOM plate (I blew out one of the table candles after my friends sang to me). Since the sizes were smaller than normal desserts and had light flavors I didn't feel overloaded on sugar by the end of the evening. The degustation was a great way to sample a portion of the menu at the quite reasonable price of $48 per person. I look forward to coming back to Om Nom to try some more dishes. I would also like to thank all my friends for making turning 40 years old a fun and relatively pain free experience.

Early Birthday Celebrations

As I will be back in Australia when my milestone 40th birthday occurs in February my parents decided to throw me an early birthday celebration with family and friends from the Bay Area. Mom made three poster boards filled with pictures from throughout my life and hung those on the wall in the dining area. It was great to see some of my aunts and uncles, cousins and godparents who I don't get to see regularly. We also got a bit of kid wrangling in between my niece and nephew and Lynne and Jeremy's two little ones.

Lunch was very nice between the hors d'oeuvres and the main meal of chicken tetrazzini and a mixed green salad. The chocolate cake from Victoria Bakery was rich and delicious, and accompanied by a glass of Mumm Napa sparkling wine. The funniest gift I received was from my aunt who managed to save my high school graduation senior cruise t-shirt that was given as a hand me down to my cousins in order to give it back to me all these years later. It was a lovely afternoon and best of all I've still got a month and a half until I actually turn 40!

Booze For A Cause

It's been ages since I last saw Tash due to her fly in, fly out job and constant travels.  To celebrate her birthday she invited people to join her at Cuban-themed bar Los Barbudos in Fitzroy for their monthly charity event Booze For A Cause.  Tonight a percentage of the bar proceeds, as well as $10 from every African Feast sold by The Voodoo Jerk Truck upstairs, went to benefit the non-profit organisation Scarf.  Scarf trains young people in hospitality by giving them hands-on experience, mentoring and networks in the industry so that they can gain employment after completing the ten-week program.  It was great be able to learn about and support such a wonderful organisation while catching up with Tash and everyone else over drinks and a yummy dinner. 

Here's a little video about Scarf that was done to celebrate their recent 4th birthday:
Scarf from Hannah Colman on Vimeo.

South Yarra Patisserie Crawl

Some people like to go on pub crawls- I prefer a patisserie crawl!  After my South Yarra adventure last year I was ready for a return visit to celebrate my birthday.  Leilani and I started our afternoon at LuxBite and shared the Tea Set for Two.  Besides our chai lattes and two finger sandwiches we had our choice of 4 macarons and two desserts.  For the macarons we picked the following flavors: heilala vanilla creme brûlée, ribena lemonade, green tea pistachio and bamboo oolong tea.  For the desserts we had the Lolly Bag Cake and Banoffee.  Everything was great and I think the Lolly Bag Cake was a favorite for both of us with its unique mix of flavors.

The next stop was Adriano Zumbo's first Melbourne shop, which I have been wanting to visit since it opened last year.  We picked out a box of six Zumbarons to eat later on: apple pie, mojito, pandan & sticky rice pudding, red velvet, caramel de buerre sale and Francesco brownie.  We then got a table and shared the WASSAUP-BI! and Secret Carrot's Business cakes.  Both were quite yummy, and the hint of wasabi actually worked in the cake.  All of the Zumbarons that we ate this evening were quite flavorful and tasted as expected, especially the mojito one.  I look forward to returning and tasting some more Zumbaron flavors as well as the famous V8 cake.

Our last visit was to the Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio.  You would think we had sugar overload by this point, but you would be wrong (at least for me).  We bought a couple treats to take home with us: the popcorn & honeycomb rubble and strawberry, mint & white chocolate rubble.  In addition, we shared two different desserts: the Explosive Raspberry Milk Chocolate which was served in a tube and the Beetroot, Strawberry, Rose and Vanilla cake.  Both were surprisingly light and tasted amazing (especially the cake).  When Lei told them it was my birthday one of the ladies brought us out a slightly damaged Explosive Raspberry Wheel to take home as a gift, which was so nice of them.  Overall it was a great way to celebrate the day and get a pretty strong sugar fix!

Another Year Older

Photo by Kat

Today is my birthday and it has been a pretty good day.  I went out to lunch at Shuji Sushi with Clinton, and then came back to a beautiful bouquet of flowers at my desk from my parents and cupcakes from my work colleagues.  They know me too well!  After work I had a lovely dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant Mamasita with Chantal, Amrita and Onagh.  We grabbed the last table and had an assortment of dishes and margaritas.  Then we headed off to the bar on the 35th floor of the Sofitel for a night cap before heading home.  Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes throughout the day (and to those in the US who will be sending them tomorrow when I officially turn a year older).

Karaoke

Today was Natalie's birthday so she invited some friends and a group of us from work to celebrate with her by having a karaoke fest at Chi Lounge in Chinatown. We had our own private room for four hours at $25 per person, which was used to cover food and drinks for the group. It was an entertaining evening and we had a wide selection of music to choose from. Clinton did a good job of picking the divas to sing along to- Mariah, Britney, Beyonce, Lady GaGa, and Madonna. We also had some ABBA, Snoop Dogg, *NSYNC, Kanye West, and finished up the night with a rousing rendition of the Spice Girls' "Spice Up Your Life." I was hoarse by the end of the night but had a great time.

One Year Older

It is now officially my birthday in both Australia and the United States. The day began with a phone call from my parents. I was good and did not open the present they sent me until today, which was a photo book of my life that my Mom made. It's really awesome. They also got me the bouquet of flowers you see in the picture. I have received some lovely birthday wishes from friends and family throughout the day. Chantal and I went out to lunch at Shuji Sushi and Clinton treated me to a mini chocolate mud cake at Treasury Deli in the afternoon. After working off the cake at the gym I returned home and I'm spending the evening watching Gossip Girl and RuPaul's Drag Race. All in all it's been a pretty good birthday.

Happy Birthday Danny

After our big shopping excursion last week today was the day for Danny's American/Australian-themed 30th birthday party. A group of us gathered at Princes Park in Carlton this afternoon on what was a very hot day. We set up a table in the shade with a variety of American foods as well as some Kool-Aid. Surprisingly a lot of guests weren't big fans of the Kool-Aid, which I guess is an acquired taste. Ruth braved the barbecue grill in the sun and we had hamburgers, hot dogs and sausages along with some salads. I contributed a classic macaroni salad, which came out just as I remember it from my youth (it was the first time I had made the dish).

Danny had brought a variety of balls, so while some people kicked the footy we were throwing around a football. I think we had people throwing spirals after a few tries. Danny's attempt at an American accent contest didn't really take off, so we sang happy birthday and had some of Ruth's chocolate ripple cake, which was in the shape of the number 30. It was a fun afternoon and as darkness descended on the park we cleaned up and headed for home.

Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my birthday. I started the morning with a phone call from my parents, and at the office received a beautiful bouquet of Aussie native flowers from them. After work a group of my friends and I headed for drinks at Madame Brussels on Bourke Street. We tried a couple different pitchers of punch, which are their specialty. After chatting away and a quick bite to eat, it was off for home. Thanks to everyone who has sent me birthday wishes today.

Dinner and Breakfast on the Mountain

Last night I met up with Fran at Melbourne Uni and we headed out to Kalorama to have a birthday dinner for Peter and Rebecca at Peter and Mark's house. It was chilly in Melbourne so we knew it would be a cold night on the mountain. Thankfully the boys had the fire going when we arrived. We ate Indian for dinner and cake for dessert (although most of us were too full to eat it). I stayed the night and played games of pool with the boys (won against Mark and lost against Peter).

Melanie came and picked me up in the morning and we drove to Olinda for breakfast at Ranges. We got a table by the fireplace and I had pancakes with a side of bacon. After eating we visited a few of the antique shops before Mel took me to see her house in Tecoma. It's a very peaceful place being surrounded by trees and I admired all of her art deco furniture. We chatted for a bit and had some tea before Mel dropped me off at the train station for the hour long journey back to the city.

The Longnecks

I had a very special birthday evening last night because I got to see The Longnecks, otherwise known as The Living End, play a sold out show at the Ding Dong Lounge in the CBD. Ruth and Danny joined me for the evening. This was our first time in the Ding Dong Lounge, and it's a nice room. They have tables where you can play 80's video games, which I thought was cool. We enjoyed the second opening act, Yves Klein Blue, a band from Brisbane with a diverse number of great little songs.

The Longnecks came out to a roar from the audience. We were safely positioned by the soundboard off the main floor in order to avoid the mosh pit. The band played a very similar set to the St. Kilda Festival with some more new songs added to the set list since they didn't have a time limit:
- Raise The Alarm
- Hey Hey Disbeliever
- Loaded Gun
- Kid
- How Do We Know
- New Frontier
- Waiting For The Silence
- Faith
- Moment In Sun
- November
- Rats
- Suzy
- 21st Century
*********
- E-Boogie
- What's On Your Radio?
- West End Riot

A majority of the new songs have a much heavier rock sound than their previous efforts. There was some diversity though and some songs are more polished than others. I'm really curious to see what will make the album and what the final versions will sound like. For the encore they played officially as The Living End, and the energy in the room just went to another level. These guys are amazing musicians and so fun to watch live.

The Party Season

It's that time of year when you can't escape attending a bunch of parties. On Friday we had our Department Christmas party at work. By 2:30 pm most people were outside in the Printer's Court vying for shade and a cool drink. It was a very hot day so I only lasted an hour and a half before heading home.

On Saturday Michelle held her 30th birthday party at the Fitzroy Victoria Bowling and Sports Club. After eating a barbeque dinner we headed out to the greens to commence lawn bowling. By the end of the night my bowling had improved significantly. Michelle had four flavors of cupcakes for us to eat for dessert. It was a fun night and good to catch up with everyone.

Today I headed up to Kalorama for Peter and Mark's Christmas party. Rosemaree was kind enough to give me a ride. The boys have purchased more art since I was last up there, so we had a bit of an art walk around the house. Lunch was good but we had so much food to eat I was bursting by the end of it. I got a nice picture frame from Rosemaree and this beautiful bronze statuette with mirror from Peter and Mark. Overall it was a very busy weekend but nice to spend time with people I haven't seen in a while.

Happy Birthday Rosemaree!

This evening Rosemaree, Fran and I gathered together to celebrate Rosemaree's birthday. I met them at Crooners on Lygon Street in East Brunswick. They had a wide selection of food on their menu, and we all had good sized meals. For dessert we headed back to my place as Rosemaree had brought along her own birthday cake- courtesy of someone at work. It was quite yummy especially with the added bonus of Lindt chocolate balls on the top. All in all it was a great night and nice to be able to catch up with them both.

Happy Birthday To Me

Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes my way. The best present to me is new music, so here is Neil Finn performing "Silent House" at the SCOPE Benefit in the UK on February 8th. This is a song he co-wrote with the Dixie Chicks, and it should appear on the new Crowded House album. It's not the best quality audio/video, but the beauty of the song still shines through.

Happy Birthday Ruth!

Tonight I met up with Ruth and her friends for dinner to celebrate her birthday. We ate at the restaurant Cookie on Swanston Street. The place is pretty popular, and they have an extended bar area as well as Thai restaurant. The food was delicious- I had the Pad Thai which was fantastic. Everyone's dishes looked great. The funniest thing was that they delivered the bill in a small children's book. I'll definitely have to go back to try more dishes.

Fun with Cake

Here is Katie celebrating her 1st birthday in June. Very cute!

Peter's Birthday Dinner

On Thursday it was Peter's birthday, so tonight he organized a dinner with his friends. Rosemaree was nice enough to give me a lift to Kalorama. We met up at Peter and Mark's place, and then headed over to the Snooty Fox restaurant in Olinda. We got a table next to the fire, which was nice although a bit warm. Tanya was running late, and Peter joked that she better have a good excuse like being stuck in a ditch. A half hour after we arrived Fran spotted Tanya through the window waving both arms at us. Fran waved back at her. When she didn't enter the restaurant after a few minutes, we wondered where she had gone. Turns out she managed to get her car stuck in a ditch at the entrance to the restaurant parking lot! Peter, feeling a bit guilty for his previous comments, went outside to help. It took a while to get her car out (I guess the locals are used to this happening), and we were nearly finished with our dinners by the time they came back inside the restaurant. The food was pretty good. I had the chicken breast stuffed with spinach and feta cheese and vegetables. For dessert I had the orange creme brulee. It was a long night as the service was very slow, but I'd probably go back there to eat again. We said our goodbyes in the parking lot, and carefully headed for home. Jen and Fran kindly gave me a ride back to my place.

Happy Birthday Will!

Tonight Helen helped to orchestrate a surprise 30th birthday party for Will at The Butterfly Club in South Melbourne. Will was completely shocked and had no idea what was going on as he walked upstairs and saw everyone. Helen had brought together family and friends from throughout Will's life. James gave a speech on the early Melbourne Grammar years, and Cameron covered Uni and beyond. We had free drinks, food (from both the venue and Will's mom, Beth), and good conversation. Welcome to your 30's Will- it's not as bad as some people make it out to be.

Meeting Up With People

It has been so great to catch up with people while I have been home. Today I had lunch with June at Comforts in San Anselmo. We took a walk around downtown after we finished eating. I got to see some photos in a shop window from New Year's when there was about 5 feet of water racing through the streets. It's amazing that most of the businesses are back open again after such damage.

Last night I went to the Glisson's house in San Rafael. Lucille cooked up a yummy dinner for us, and then we watched American Idol. I haven't seen any of this season, but it was the first show with the final 12 contestants on the big stage. Lynne already had nicknames for all of them, and we heaped abuse at the tv screen as they butchered the songs of Stevie Wonder. No one really stood out to me- definitely not a Constantine in the bunch this year. I have no idea who will win. My favorite Simon Cowell comment of the night was when he told Bucky to get rid of his "Jessica Simpson hair." I have to agree with Simon- the hair was distracting!

On Monday I got to visit Angie and baby Katie at the coffee shop. Katie has gotten so big- she's the tallest baby ever (9 months old and 30 inches long). It was nice to hang out with Angie for a couple hours and catch up. We are having a late lunch and doing a bit of shopping tomorrow while Katie is with her grandparents. Should be fun.

Oh, and I have to wish my dad a very Happy Birthday today! I'm so glad I am home to celebrate it.