Shenkin Eatery

Another top weekend we had! After a much needed sleep-in on Sunday morning I met my beautiful girlfriend for what I was hoping to be brunch but according to my iPhone clock it was lunch time already! It's Sunday, so time doesn't matter and if there is a cafe serving brunch items all day then it's a winner in my book! 

Due to our intensive starvation situation we went to have brunch/lunch at the Shenkin Eatery that is located on Crown Street, Surry Hills. A lovely little local cafe for me and I absolutely adore them. 

The Shenkin family has always been in the inner west so to have them located in Surry Hills is a special bonus for us living in the inner city of Sydney (although it still didn't stop me going inner west as I do love it there). The family consists of Shenkin in Erskinville, Shenkin Esspresso in Newtown and Shenkin Kitchen on Enmore Road. 

The food focuses on Australian and, their heritage, Israeli palate and I must say, that's the part I like the most. Anyone can do bacon and eggs but bacon and eggs with a twist is what gets my taste buds excited and dancing for more. 

The menu is decent and provides a good size of options without having too many items or too little. The coffee there is tasty as well and the service is top notch with staff constantly making sure you're happy and comfortable. The atmosphere is casual and the design on the cafe is very cool rustic with wooden tables and steel stools. 

To start, I ordered an ice coffee and my friend had a bottled orange juice. I'd love for them to do fresh juices especially with summer coming (*cheeky hint*) but being a coffee girl I'm satisfied! I then ordered the "The Bite" and my friend ordered the "Sliders".

My dish was devine and consisted of pan-fried mushrooms, poached egg & avocado falafel served with sourdough bread, mixed lettuce and Allenby sauce. Oh, that "Allenby" sauce is to die for! I wanted to bottle it and take it home. 

The Bite with the amazing Allenby sauce drizzled all over

The Sliders

A very decent serve of food by Shenkin; you seriously don't walk out of there feeling hungry or disappointed and the flavours are delicious and go together very well. 

To the Shenkin family ~ thank you for opening up in Surry Hills and sharing your talents with us inner city peeps. I love your food and customer service and will be frequenting more often! 

Jo xo

Where's Wally?…On Cockatoo Island

Where's Wally?….I think we saw him at the Island Bar on Cockatoo Island! Dressed in a red and white stripe top, denim shorts, white trainers and the classic round black glasses our group of seven was dressed as Where's Wally made our way through the city centre of Sydney to board a private ferry from King St Wharf and headed over to Cockatoo Island for an afternoon of workplace team building.

I don't usually take the ferry in Sydney but when I do, like on this day, it reminds me of being a kid going on a journey with school or my parents and I absolutely love it when the ferry rocks from side to side. For many others, I think I makes them a little sea sick, but for me, the feeling is therapeutical and so much fun!

Everyone were in group of around seven people and being Halloween each group were encouraged to dress up in Halloween costumes. It was amazing to see the amount of effort everyone put into dressing up and really coming together as a team. There were zombies, mummies, pirates and witches disembarking onto Cockatoo Island for an afternoon of treasure hunting. 

When we first arrived onto the island, we were greeted by the island rangers for a quick briefing and housekeeping and a warning that it is currently seagull mating season! There is a section of there island where many seagulls come to mate and have their babies and can tend to be very protective which means they will swoop at you if they feel that you're a threat to their surroundings. With this additional information and location, we made sure we stayed away or at least protected our heads!

The weather was absolutely amazing. The sun came out to play and felt like a true summers day in the middle of spring; we couldn't complain at all. We made our way to the Island Bar where we were treated to lunch before starting the team building game. The food at the Island Bar was really tasty and plentiful; to start with they brought out plates of antipasti, cured meats, flat bread and various panini's. Then boxes of different types of wood-fire pizzas arrived - let the carb loading begin! I must admit, the pizzas were very tasty and if I had more room in my stomach, I would have gone back for more!

Wood-fire pizzas

After lunch we then worked together in our groups to start the treasure hunt. Each team were provided with a map and the first five of ten questions we needed to answer. We had 90 minutes to complete the hunt and basically, as a group, you had to correctly answer the questions and the fastest team to complete the hunt with all questions answered correctly were the winner - simple! 

I would say, having a couple of very competitive team members in your team really helps with the game as well as someone who is willing to run (in the heat) the information back to the judges also helps. The hunt really allowed us to explore the island and find out some information about the island such as the two previous names Cockatoo Island was known, the number of tents on the island and the various buildings around the island. It also made us work together as a team to find and work through the information as well as coming together to take a "selfie" at each location to prove that we did go to that particular location as a team.

We initially hit a little hiccup on the first leg of the hunt where one of our answers was incorrect but quickly as a team we managed to get the answer to the judges fast and obtained the second set of questions. We then took off as quickly as possible and the heat was seriously beaming down on us and of course this leg of the hunt involved a little more running. We managed to work through the questions very quickly even with other teams trying to sabotage us!

Where's Wally?

With our last question answered, our team captain, who was also the runner, ran our answers back to the judges while the rest of the team walked back to the Island Bar and discussed our potential winning prize. The prize was a $500 donation to a charity of choice so as a team we had to discuss and decide on a charity that we wanted to donate the money too. At first, I thought that this would be a hard discussion to have as a team as each person, including myself, would have their own charity of choice and to choose only one, and which one, would be difficult as all charities are deserving of the donation. However, as a team and being the month of October, Cancer month here in Australia, we decided to donate, if we'd won, the money to the Cancer Council. Cancer Council was chosen because we wanted the donation to cover all types of cancer rather than a specific one such as breast cancer.

When the team arrived to the Island Bar, where the judges were, we walked in realising that we were the only team back with the awesome news that we had all the questions right! Being the first team back and having all the questions right meant that we were the WINNERS! The ironic thing about being the first team back and finding out that you're the winner was that the other teams were still out hunting so there wasn't anyone there to see that we had won. However, that didn't stop us from celebrating, screaming and dancing around as winners do.

The Island Bar

As winners, it was then fitting for us to take some "winners" photo shots for the internal newsletter and then sit down to relax with a drink as we waited for the other teams to arrive back. The rest of the afternoon was spent with everyone enjoying a couple of drinks, some more food and soaking up the summer heat and just catching up with everyone outside of the office environment. 

Time to relax.

If you haven't been to Cockatoo Island, I totally recommend that you go there. It's a very short ferry ride from Circular Quay, Darling Harbour and even Balmain and with summer coming it's a perfect place to go with family and friends for a relaxing day of exploring and chilling at the Island Bar. I know where I'll be hanging out this summer!

Hope you had an awesome Halloween!

Jo xo

Sugar-free Honey & Thyme Biscuits

A slightly different post from my usual but something I just wanted to share. As much as I love to eat and enjoy and find new little places to try, especially for brunch, I also realised that I can bake! Yes it's true, when I have the time, I love to get out all my baking tools and bake something yummy; and boy can I bake!

Firstly, I would have to disclose that I'm really not good at decorating or making my baking items look good so from that I've realised that I will never be on the levels of such chefs as Adriano Zumbo. However, as I've been told by my friends (which has to be true), my baked goods are really tasty and delicious - so like they say, "don't judge a book by it's cover".

At the moment, I have a craving for biscuits and can't seem to get enough of them but clearly, they aren't the most healthiest to be consuming everyday and 5 a day isn't good for the waist or my health. So I decided to make a slightly healthier biscuit option and from that I created the "Sugar-free Honey & Thyme Biscuit" - OK, so I know that honey is sweet, but it's a natural sweetener which I believe is OK to use and you can't omit honey from a honey biscuit.

I was inspired by this usual flavour by Bread & Circus Wholefoods Canteen, located in Alexandria. As part of their breakfast menu, they serve a dish called "rainy day toast" which consists of sourdough toast with a heavy drizzle of melted organic honey-thyme-cinnamon butter. All I can say about this is WOW! A simple and very tasty dish and the thyme is serious business with the honey. Worth a try!

So, something I don't normally do, but below is my version of this amazing dish as a biscuit and I think I'll love it so much that you'll want to keep making it and I bet you'll add more thyme each time!

Sugar-free Honey & Thyme Biscuits - Jo's style!

Ingredients  

• 100g soft butter (I use Pepe Saya) 
• 100g rice malt syrup (I use Pure Harvest Organic Rice Malt Syrup) - sugar alternative
• 1 1/2 large tablespoon of organic honey
• 1 free range egg yolk 
• 1 level teaspoon cinnamon
• 200g self-raising flour
• 6+ sprigs of fresh thyme

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 175C.
2. Beat the butter and rice malt syrup in a bowl with a wooden spoon until creamy (I actually use my mixer as it makes life easier).
3. Next, beat in the honey and the egg yolk.
4. Add the cinnamon, flour and the leaves of the fresh thyme and mix into a soft dough.
5. Take a teaspoon of the dough and roll it into a ball.
6. Then continue with the rest of the dough. You should get about 30 biscuits.
7. Space out balls on a greased baking tray (or a tray lined with baking paper).
8. Cook in the oven for 10 minutes or until golden.
9. Let cook on the tray and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
10. Clean up, wash up and EAT!

NOTE: if the dough feels a little wet (due to the rice malt syrup) add a little more self-raising flour, but I don't believe you'll need to as I've already tested the quantities.

My notes to great baking: I would suggest finding organic (if you can) local fresh ingredients as much as possible as the flavours are much more real and tastier. Like I said above, my baked items don't look stunning but they clearly standout when eaten!

I hope you enjoy this biscuit! Let me know what you're thoughts are and if you added more thyme. I just loved biting into the biscuit and getting a surprise hit of thyme. 

Happy baking!

Jo xo

John Smith Cafe

I received the perfect text message from my girlfriend during the weekend for a brunch catch up and she said she'll come my way. After reading a few reviews of John Smith Specialty Coffee at 1 John Street, Waterloo, it was time for me (I mean us) to go try it out.

Weekend street parking is pretty easy so it's great to know that you don't have to keep driving around in circles trying to find a spot. The cafe is located by many of the clothing factory outlets - perfect location for me! 

We arrived to a lovely waiter (very cute I must say) chalking our name to the side of the wall as their next in line for a seat. We were initially told that it would be a 20-25 mins wait for a seat, however in the space of ordering a coffee while we wait and walking back outside and an offer of water, we were seated within 5 minutes. BOOM! Loved it already!

Walking through the cafe, you walk pass a display cabinet that is smack bang in the middle and completely filled with cronuts! OH.EMMM.GEEE. I've just died and gone to sugar pastry heaven! I think I had salivated all the way to our table. 

Our real ice coffee arrived the moment we sat down in funky mason jars and it was a refreshing welcome from the heat outside. Hands down this would have to be one of the best ice coffee I've had around town and I love my coffee. Just a simple serve of real coffee, milk and ice - no nasties in there! 

Best ice coffee in Sydney!

We both ordered the same brunch item (due to my friend's food envy of seeing mine). Can't remember exactly what it was called but it consisted of two perfectly poached eggs sitting on top of a perfectly square of polenta, zucchini, sweet potato rosti with goats cheese, capers and peperonata salsa verde, and a side of trout! 

Very tasty, I must say! It could have been a little warmer but the flavours, especially the cheese and capers, all danced together and was the perfect amount of saltiness without adding more salt. The portion was decent as well so you don't walk out feeling hungry but I wish I did have room for the cronuts....oh, the cronuts! I guess this means that I'll have to go back. 

Apart from the great coffee options available (and there is plenty to cater for all, even avid tea drinkers) and the out of the box creative menu their customer service was impeccable. This is something that personally rates high for me because even if the coffee or food isn't so great (not the case for JS) I'd go back to somewhere purely because of the service. 

The staff at John Smith went out of their way to ensure what we were OK and comfortable from providing water while we waited outside, offering another table if we didn't like the bench top seating to checking that our coffee and food was to our standard.  Serious thumbs up. 

If you haven't tried John Smith Cafe yet, I seriously recommend that you do. The cafe is small so expect to wait (especially on weekends) but based on my experience the wait wasn't too long and it's well worth the wait. 

To John Smith - great coffee and fabulous food. Keep up the awesome service and you've won my heart (and my taste buds!). I'll be back to try the rest of the menu and have my new fav, ice coffee during summer. 

Jo x

Business Chicks & Rachel Zoe

It has been a little while since posting anything to my site; I've been busy in the last week catching up with friends, going to the SoulFest festival last Saturday, catching some sun at the beach, lunching in Surry Hills at Rustic Pearl and trying the amazing food  Centennial Hotel on Sunday! Love weekends!

Today I had the pleasure of hearing the fabulous Rachel Zoe guest speak for Business Chicks. Taking a small step back, I've had a great opportunity to help Business Chicks out with their Sydney events. I've joined their "crew" team that is mostly made up of young girls (and guys) wanting first hand experience in event management so many are either still studying or have just finished and need to gain hands on work experience in the field. I think this is a great opportunity for them.

For me, it's mainly two reasons, given that I do have a full time job in a polar opposite world; 1) I wanted to do something completely different, network and meet new people (OK, maybe that's three reasons into one!) and 2) I love the speakers that Business Chicks has and wanted the opportunity to hear them speak and meet them. So, I figured, I would ask and the lovely Zoe came back to me saying "YES".

Business Chicks runs so smoothly and like clockwork but without the feeling of being rushed or stressed. All the Business Chicks staff are genuinely so lovely, friendly and patient. They are always happy and are able to explain exactly what needs to be done and always with a smile - I would have to say, it would have to be a great team to be working in; very supportive and fun at the same time. 

The "crew" team working together to get the room set up quickly. 

The perks of "crewing" with Business Chicks so far has been meeting different people, seeing and meeting the guest speakers, getting the opportunity to see how things are run in the background and how quickly an event can come together under a small amount of time, and for me, the experience to do something completely different and I'm absolutely enjoying every minute of it.

Back to Rachel Zoe; a stylist, editor and designer in the fashion world and what an amazing life she lives. Originally from New York and now based in LA, Rachel Zoe made a name for herself amongst Hollywood's A list and first hand brought back her love of the vintage era of the 1960's and 1970's. Now a fashion icon to the world, she kindly graced us with her presence on how she handles her love of her career, being a mum to two beautiful boys and a stunning wife to a man she loves and trust with all her heart, Roger. Her and Roger have been together for 23 years (AMAZING! Especially in Hollywood) and being business partners it means that they are together every minute of the day so they had to learn to shut down (from work) and spend quality time together.

Being a mum is something Rachel spoke passionately about and it was clear that it was the best decision she had made. Rachel loves children and it was always clear to her and Roger that she had to be a mother; she was called the "baby whisperer". However, initially, it was difficult for Rachel to get her head around how and when; but since having her children she said "(it) changes everything but for the best possible way".

Rachel's career success comes from being honest and trustworthy and having staff who project these qualities sits high in her world. She loves to nurture people and help them move into something they want to do with their career and she'll provide that support to them as long as they are honest and trustworthy. These two qualities truly resonates with me and it's something that doesn't always happen in the corporate world - corporate politics creep up and people (adults) begin to play games that aren't necessary.

Rachel Zoe on stage.

High Tea menu

The pretty lolly table for the high tea event

Rachel is a down-to-earth person who keeps it real and honest with her friends and family. Listening to her speak today showed the passion she has for her career and really loves what she does but to also listen and hear about the love she has for her family was a side that I respected as it's the real Rachel Zoe.

To Business Chicks, thank you for giving me the opportunity to be involved with you gals. I have an awesome time crewing with you and look forward to many more crewing dates! If you're interested in crewing with Business Chicks, I honestly recommend that you contact them.

Jo x

Andrea's Amazing Wish

I was honoured to a special night with my stunning friend, Sharon Melhem, who had invited me to attend a special Make-A-Wish Australia event fittingly held at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA). The event, Andrea's Amazing Wish, was in honour of Andrea Alzened, a beautiful 9 years old girl who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

Make-A-Wish grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions to provide hope, inspiration and strength. The power of the wish encourages children to continue fighting and provides them with hope to achieve a dream. Andrea's dream was to be a professional artist where she could have people come and see her work.

Andrea loves art and when she is "doing her artwork it gets her excited and happy and she forgets that she is feeling sick". When Andrea was diagnosed with this horrible disease her mother, Tamar, had enrolled her into art lessons to help her through her treatments. It definitely worked - during her treatments, Andrea would paint, draw and sculpt and loose herself into a pain-free world where she is able to be creative and forget about the reality of what she is going through.

Through the amazing efforts and work of Make-A-Wish, the MCA was truly onboard with this wish and had offered to showcase Andrea's art pieces. Andrea is the youngest person to have her artworks displayed at the MCA, an achievement she and her family would be so proud of and be the envy of many artists, and her artwork is absolutely amazing for someone so young; a natural talent.

Not only did the MCA help Andrea achieve her wish, but Google also heard about Andrea and had commissioned her to create a "Google Doodle" which they will have displayed in their office here in Sydney, Australia. To take it another step further, Sass and Bide has enlarged one of Andrea's painting and is displaying it in their Brisbane office and provided a beautiful treat to Andrea and her sister by custom making dresses for them to wear on the opening night of Andrea's art exhibition. 

On this night, Andrea became an official artist; she kindly offered two of her art pieces to be auctioned off and with the money raised, she donated it to Make-A-Wish so that they can continue providing wishes for other children. This is a beautiful and selfless act I've seen and experience; not only has Andrea gone, and still is, going through so much with her treatments, but she is still willing to give to help others. For a 9 years old girl, she has a very big heart. 

Currently the stats show that approximately 2,000 children around Australia are diagnosed with a life-threatning medical condition and Make-A-Wish have granted 500 wishes, so there is so much more to grant and more funds are needed to help grant these wishes. I encourage you to donate today and help make wishes like Andrea come true.

To help raise awareness and much needed funds to make these wishes come true, Sharon Melhem founded Shine & Dine, an annual fundraiser in support of Make-A-Wish Foundation. Her amazing work and dedication has helped Make-A-Wish provide more wishes to these children and their families, giving them hope, strength and joy. It provides them with a goal to aim for and for a moment, helps them forget about the reality they are currently going through.

The annual Shine & Dine is set for next year and is schedule for 5 June 2015. Mark this special occasion into your calendar and come support an amazing event and have a fabulous night. I'll be there and I hope to see you there!

To Make-A-Wish Foundation - personally, I'd like to say, what an amazing job you do and the power of a wish you provide goes beyond what a child dreams of. Keep up with the great work!

To Sharon - you have a massive heart that goes around the universe. The annual Shine & Dine event you organise, the support you provide and the energy you create is truly amazing. You are a beautiful person both inside and outside and I am so lucky to call you my friend.

Jo x

I Love Food!

On Saturday I was volunteering for OzHarvest at Eveleigh Markets, one of my favourite farmer markets here in Sydney and I had a very interesting discussion with one of the other volunteers. Phil and I were the only two on Saturday for the afternoon shift and although we have worked together before, this was the first time we've really had a opportunity to get to know each other outside of volunteering. This is what I love about volunteering, the joy of meeting new people and hearing about their lives.

I found out that by trade, Phil was a professional baker. He now focuses and works with people on food safety but still continues to bake and cook beautiful real food for family and friends (I'm waiting for my invite!). We had an interesting discussion about the current food fads such as the benefits of coconut (milk, cream, water), chia seeds, going dairy free, following the paleo diet and so on. I mean, how did the world survive without coconut previously? Firstly, my disclaimer, I'm not against these food fads and/or diets, I do respect them for what they are and how it has helped many people who are wanting to live a healthier lifestyle. I, myself, have tried and tested some of these fads. 

We did both agree that, although these food fads are encouraging positive health for many people, we both enjoy real food. The real test question, "are you a margarine or butter person?" Butter, butter, butter! Butter all the way for me and the reason is because I know it's real natural food, not something that is man made. Did you know that margarine is black and that food colouring is used to make it similar to butter! Ewwww!

I had recently read an article in the Sydney Morning Herald titled "Is Camel Milk the New Superfood?" It states that it's already popular in North America, the Middle East and Asia and had been known as a health tonic with the health conscious claiming that it can help "a range of disorders including diabetes, autism, digestive problems and food allergies." If this is the new superfood, I guess we'll be seeing, camel milk ice cream, cheese, labnah, yoghurt etc. Something to keep an eye out for in 2015!

For me, food, like most things in life, should be consumed in moderation. Minimise the amount of processed food consumed but don't give up on the things you enjoy. If you're anything like me, I love ice cream and this is the one thing that I cannot (or I should say, will not) give up but obviously, don't eat so much of it. Well, personally, I would if I could! I believe that fresh organic food is best for you but again, don't kick yourself if you can't get organic. Not everything in my cupboard or fridge is organic. There are weeks where I'm not able to get to the farmers markets and the most convenient shop on the way home for me is an IGA.

I am a supporter of fresh and local which is why I do encourage shopping at your local farmers markets and supporting local businesses. Plus, just try it, when you eat fresh and local, the taste is so much more than something that has been frozen and shipped in from another country.

I'm not a food critic but my social life does revolve around food from popular venues, small hole in the wall places, recent pop-ups and street festivals showcasing local talents. Trying new venues and trying different types and styles of food and drinks is a pleasure I enjoy and I'm lucky that many of my friends also enjoy it as well. Sydney has really grown up when it comes to food and I would have to say it's one of the most amazing cities in the world where you'll get a stunning harbour, lushes beaches and fabulous food and drinks. We sure are on the map for amazing local food and drinks.

Summer is here and I encourage you to get out there and try our amazing cafes, restaurants, pop-ups, farmers markets, local street festivals and many more. I'm always on the look out for something new to try and experience; if there is somewhere you love and think I'll love it too (I probably will), let me know and I'll go try it out. I'd love to hear where what your favourite food or drink is and favourite place to eat. I may join you! 

Happy eating!

Jo x