Social Hideout Cafe

Brunch at: Social Hideout Cafe in Parramatta. Photos taken by myself with my Canon D70 Camera.

One of my best girls Erin is travelling to Canada for five weeks to spend time with her boyfriend. We are super happy for her so we went out for a small farewell brunch at Social Hideout.
Catching up, we had little baby Rosie being passed around and we let her suck on our fingers as we suspect she is teething. Jaye updated us on her work adventures and she and I share inside jokes on Critical Role (we play Dungeons and Dragons together). Betty shows us her new fresh haircut and giggles watching Rosie's cute reactions. Erin lets her dog Cody be posh and we discuss her holiday packing. I talk about my new hair colour and how its a new look for 2020 (new year, new me?), with camera in my hand ready to capture memories.
We all talk about the men woes in our lives; and we all agree they are hopeless at getting ready on time. Then we spend a good fifteen minutes trying to pick out what to eat, debating pros and cons of each dish. And staying true to our tradition, we unanimously agree that we would have dessert afterwards no matter how full we got.

We ordered The Green Frenchy (matcha french toast with berries, caramelized banana, mochi and red velvet cream), Red Velvet Benedict with added Smoked Salmon (poached eggs with baby spinach and hollandaise sauce, on a red velvet croissant) and The American (breakfast burger with bacon, eggs, hash brown, avocado). We topped the order off with green tea lattes and coffees.
Delicious food with a beautiful floral backdrop.
Then, we decided on the Panna Cotta Granola Bowl for dessert. This was my favourite dish - berries, nut and granola sitting in purple taro milk then topped off with the smoothest and creamiest matcha panna cotta.

At the end of the meal, it was clear we over-ordered, but it could've also been that we stopped to chat so much that we were just distracted.  I love these girls. They are the best.
We gave our goodbye hugs and left with full happy bellies, knowing that we would see each other again in 6 weeks, ready to hear about Erin's adventures in Canada and hopefully get some cute maple syrup treats.

Japan Diaries: Nozawaonsen Ogama Onsen Tamago and Corn

Japan Diaries: Nozawaonsen Ogama Tamago Onsen Eggs and Corn (visited January 2019). 

黄金屋物産店  (Koganeya product store)  -9304 Toyosato, Nozawaonsen-mura, Shimotakai-gun 389-2502, Nagano Prefecture, Japan 

Photos taken by myself and Hai with Google Pixel 3XL and Canon 70D.

Ever since I met Hai, he has raved on and on about this special corn he once found in Japan. I have witnessed Hai telling people countless times about this corn and even drew maps for them when he heard they were visiting Japan.

So after four and a half years, I finally found myself in the charming Nozawaonsen at the Ogama Onsen,  standing at this outdoor onsen with sulfuric steam wafting up into my face. This local elderly Japanese man then asked me to step aside as he held a yellow plastic basket full of eggs. He would walk over carefully to the edge of the onsen and pull out the basket full of eggs that were simmering in this 90 degree Celsius hot spring water. Then he pulled out the cobs of corn. I was amazed.

Hai then dragged me away from this sight and led me to the souvenir shop opposite the markets a few meters from Omaga Onsen. This shop was owned by a sweet Japanese lady who ushered us to the wood table surrounded by souvenirs. Hai ordered us Tamago (Onsen Eggs) and Corn and it came out on a blue plastic plate. We were served roasted rice tea and some of the most delicious Japanese pickled vegetables (also known as Hangoroshi Kimchi) and nori (seaweed) I've ever had. You add these toppings on your eggs to make a great Japanese snack.

Onsen Tamago (egg) - 60 yen each
Onsen Corn - 250 yen each

We went to eat these Japanese delicacies three days in a row. Peeling the egg shells never got any easier because of how delicate the eggs whites were. These eggs were cooked in low temperature so the texture of the egg whites came out custard-like while the yolk was semi hard boiled. The corn got better the more I ate it. Very succulent and sweet.
The shop also offers soft serve ice cream cones and across the road at the little market stall we also ate delicious Onsen Red Bean (azuki) rice cakes.

The last night here we attempted to boil our own Onsen Tamago. We bought the traditional red rope bag and eggs from the convenience store. Outside an onsen (there are 13 in total run by Japanese families) there was a box in which you can place your eggs in the hot spring water and leave for 30 to 40 minutes. We used this time to spend time in the onsen then collected our eggs to take back to Elizabeth Hotel. We did not succeed as the eggs did not cook enough. We went back and cooked another batch for at least an hour and it was perfect. It's so hard to tell with the individual onsens how hot the water was. You can cook Onsen Tamago at these locations: 

Mini-onsen-hiroba "Yurari" (Closed in Winter)

Kamitera-yu (communal bathhouse)

Kumanotearayu (communal bathhouse)

Matsuba-no-yu (communal bathhouse)

Jyuoudo-no-yu (communal bathhouse)

I was very sad to leave this village after three days. I couldn't take away any of the snacks but I managed to take back some Japanese pickled vegetables.
 I can see why Hai raved on and on about it. I did exactly that when I came back to Australia, and now all I think about is Tamago Eggs and Corn.

Japan Diaries: Pablo Mini Tarts & Jack In The Donuts

Japan Diaries: Pablo Mini The Cheese Tart and Jack In The Donuts in Tokyo (Akihabara) Japan. Visited January 2019.

In Japan if I ever walked past anything that smelt good, I had it in my hands within minutes. This happened when I walked past Pablo Mini and Jack in the Donuts. No regrets.

Pablo Mini The Cheese Tart: Around the corner from Akihabara train station, there is a yellow brick store decorated with fake grass on the roof. This is the first brick & mortar store for Pablo Mini. Inside dozens of freshly baked tarts lined the shelves. Flavours included original (also known as plain), matcha, chocolate and strawberry. 

The seasonal specials were the sweet potato and caramel flavours and we watched a man delicately place red beans on the matcha/red bean flavour . One tart cost starts from 220 yen each but of course Hai and I got a 6 pack box to share.

I loved chocolate and original. The pastry is buttery and flaky; and the filling is smooth and had that unique creamy texture that only the Japanese can achieve. Japanese milk is so good, I don't understand how they achieve it. They must massage their cows daily.

Jack In The Donuts: Located near the famous Akihabara's Yodabashi Camera store, is this cute donut store. The shop front caught my eyes first, with thirty types of pastries lined up in abundance. They had classic ones, mochimochi (chewy) ones, cronuts, custard filled ones and "healthy" tofu ones. I didn't bother with a tofu one as I was on holidays, dammit. 

It was my first time trying a mochimochi one - it had a crisper exterior but inside was soft and chewy. I was able to pull the donut back from my mouth like stringed cheese. 

I wouldn't be able to find this type of thing back home in Australia. I also had the premier chocolate donut, topped with nuts and icing sugar. Bloody delicious