Chocolatesuze - Sydney Food Blogger

helvetica cookie cutters

9 February 2010, 12:34

I can’t tell you enough how fascinated i am with this plate of cookies. Are you a nerd like me and able to recognise fonts? Dude’s these are helvetica cookies!


The awesome Beverly Hsu designed these cookie cutters and is currently looking into getting them produced


Oh how i want! [via swissmiss]

 

 

an apple a day

7 February 2010, 20:43

How awesome is this! It’s an apple calender! It was created by advertising agency Serviceplan from Germany


Eating an apple from the tube will move the rest of the apples down to show the date and when the month is over the tube is refilled. Altho I’m not sure how long apples can last before going rotten haha


It’s a nice idea i guess. Maybe someone needs to work out refrigeration for the apples? [via toxel.com]

 

 

cheese hat

4 February 2010, 13:40

Heh like my new hat? It was in the boys section of Dangerfield ($14) mmm i do love my cheese :D

 

 

178 lollipops

3 February 2010, 02:00

It doesn’t take much to make me happy. Like this massive amount of lollipops for instance- 178 to be exact. The swirly patterns, the bright cheerful colours and the intoxicating smell of sugar. Not to worry I won’t be eating them all cos they’re for d-day in 24 days bwahahaha time’s running out! Tho that reminds me I am due for a trip to dentist hmm

 

 

Zeta Bar- Cryogenic Sorbet & Cocktail Bar

1 February 2010, 00:29

I was invited to the launch of Australia’s first ever Cryogenic Sorbet and Cocktail Bar at Zeta bar, Hilton Sydney along with Helen, Minh, Simon and Zina. As soon as i heard the word cryogenic i knew someone would be playing with liquid nitrogen…


Whee! Big puffs of smoke! People will be able to order from a list of their favourite cocktails, choosing whether they want it served in a cone, cup or even as a nitro puff.


First cocktails of the night is the Negroni


The staff are decked out in 50’s ice cream parlour awesomeness


Canapes start arriving so we don’t get too tipsy tasting all the cocktails bwahahaaha loved the pesto + tomato + mozza spoons


Creamy mushroom tarts were so much win


Pina Coladas


The ice cream boy serves up some cocktails as tasty sorbets ($4/cone, $6/cup)


I really like paper umbrellas


Pate on baguette slices


Sausages


Mini burgahs!


Spiced Black Raspberry Mule- loved this! Nice and sweet and lol very easy to drink :D


Ice block boy bearing icy treats


Champagne ice blocks ($5)


Food bloggers love a good show


The Cryogenic Sorbet & Cocktail Bar is available from the Terrace Bar every Friday night until the end of March.

Chocolatesuze attended the launch thanks to Carla from horizon communication

 

 

lego man cake mould

29 January 2010, 12:09

Squee! A silicon Lego man cake mould! I want this so badly argh lego shop why don’t you ship to australia??? [shop.lego.com]

 

 

tea-shirts

27 January 2010, 22:35

C’mon, is this not the cutest box of tea bags evah?


Designed by Soon Mo Kang, the T-shirt shaped tea package with a hanger hangs on the tea cup making it so awesome to look at that it’s almost enough to make me want to drink tea. Almost.


Nawww [Thank to Josh for sending this to me, found via 2dayBlog]

 

 

Happy Australia Day!

26 January 2010, 00:19

Happy Australia day! I found these Australia shaped burger patties the other day from woolies for 5bux haha yes I get suckered into novelty shaped food items quite easily


Grab a beer, your mates and just chill. Enjoy your day off dudes!

 

 

New Zealand Natural Golden Manuka Honey Ice Cream Launch

25 January 2010, 09:06

HAI. I love ice cream. If you looked at my freezer right now you would find multiple tubs of ice cream jam packed in my attempt at an optimum tetris stack. The awesome Fiona has invited us to a New Zealand Natural store for a tasting of their newest flavour the Golden Manuka Honey. I was worried that the manuka honey would be too strong a flavour for me but was pleasantly surprised that the ice cream had a light base and kinda tasted like mango ice cream with a hit of honey and golden kiwifruit ripples throughout.


Mmm also managed to get a scoop of the butterscotch & walnut icecream oh man so good


HEH we were also given a free box of the manuka honey ice cream to take home. 9 whole litres baby yeah! Attempting to carry the box for a 20min walk was an interesting experience. It happened to be 33 degrees that day and while the box was in a plastic bag I soon gave up trying to hold by the handle because I am weak and had to hug the box like a baby. A baby with edges. That was fat. That you didn’t want to melt.


Manged to get the ice cream to the safety of Helen’s work freezer but not before opening it up and digging out some scoops

For a limited time, New Zealand Natural are offering customers a FREE scoop with any purchase of a regular ice cream to allow people to try the new flavour.


hehe side note: a certain someone managed to put both our boxes of ice cream into an esky in the boot of his car, shut the door and realise he’d left the keys in the boot… 1 hour and 1 very expensive locksmith later we rock up to pyrmont to deliver the ice cream to noods’ work where the awesome jason (hi jason’s gf!) recognises me and we are loitering outside the building because I can’t remember which entrance is there’s. A quick game of fooseball is played while I check on the survival of the ice cream. It’s a bit melty but still good and goes into the safety of their freezer.


Chocolatesuze was invited to the launch of New Zealand Natural Golden Manuka Honey Ice Cream thanks to Fiona from Mark Communications

 

 

Wedding dress and cake all in one

22 January 2010, 10:09

Oh.em.gee! How awesome is this?! My wedding is in 1 month and 4 days and while I feel like i’ve got everything under control i still like looking in magazines and websites for ideas and zomg i totes <3 this dress/cake bby Lukka Sigurdardottir!


Check it out it’s a checkered cake! [via Gather and Nest]

 

 

Chocolatesuze Featured in Cleo

20 January 2010, 01:34

So. I’m in the Feb edition of Cleo. (Click image to enlarge). While I was wildly excited to have my pic up there I did have an issue with how my page long of responses to the questions the journalist had asked me got reduced to this one line: “Susan Thye, 26, of chocolatesuze.com agrees ‘it can be an expensive hobby’.” Er. For the record my full sentence was: It can be an expensive hobby but food doesn’t have to blow your budget for it to be tasty.” Also, it’s MACARONS not macaroons! And I didn’t make them! The pic of the macarons are from Adriano Zumbo! Blargh I don’t want to sound ungrateful, I was totes cackling with happiness about my imminent appearance in a shiny magazine but I wished a little fact checking had been done, as pointed out by Lili’s post here- Julia Child ain’t French! And what about the absence of Lisa’s pic?! I didn’t particularly like how the article seemed to make foodbloggers sound psychotic and wtf with including an addiction specialist in the article? Ah wells that was my 5 seconds of fame haha also featured in the article were fellow foodbloggers Anita, Jen, Lili, Lisa and Lorraine. Jen has also transcribed the article in full here

 

 

Hunter Valley part 3

18 January 2010, 09:54

HAI! We are nearing the end of our Hunter Valley journey folks.


Starting the day off with the most important meal of the day. Piles of french toast, scrambled and sunny side up eggs, grilled tomato and crispy bacon galore.


One last wine tasting


Brunch at Food Like No Udder (Shop 11 Hunter Valley Gardens Village, Broke Road Pokolbin). Really we chose to eat here because of its name…


I forgot to take a photo of the menu and their website is non existent so here goes my awesome memory. We decided to share the Ploughman’s platter which had huge wedges of cheese including one that had 3 very pretty layers that looked like a slice of cake. A mountain of salad hides the cold meats and corned beef and an assortment of pickled onions, roast capsicum slivers and olives.


There was also a huge HUGE plate of bread that came with the platter. These guys are super generous with their serves man!


Aussie burger. Fat juicy patty covered in melty cheese


I have absolutely no idea what this is. Um. Meat stew. On mash. With bread.


Scones with jam and cream. The scones were nice and warm with super fluffy innards tho i managed to go thru the pots of jam and cream on just 1 scone…


The sticky date pudding was ok but I really didn’t like the sauce. Wasn’t butterscotchy enough.


Paddles of beer shots!


BWAHAHAHAHHAA


And our haul of wines mmm

 

 

Hunter Valley part 2

14 January 2010, 23:51

HAI. So after our awesome lunch at Esca we went to drop off our luggage


Accommodation can be pretty pricey for big groups and we had 8 adults + 2 kids but thanks to Noods’ google skillz we found Kookaburra Hideaway which was so freaking huge and awesome and only $65p.p (weekday)


How massive is the kitchen! So noice having a spacious workspace! The place was fully equipped with utensils, microwave, fridge, oven, dishwasher and even a washing machine


Living area. Check out the view of the property in the windows! Every now and then you can see kangaroos!


The retreat had 4 massive bedrooms spread out around the u-shaped house


Each bedroom had adjoining bathrooms, 2 of which were spa tubs w00t


Shoes.


And then back to hitting the wineries


mmm wine


A visit to Hunter Valley Cheese Co (McGuigans Complex, McDonalds Road, Pokolbin) for their super tasty ash brie


Mmm baby cheese awaiting maturation into adulthood


And a visit to Binnorie Dairy (Tuscany Wine Estate, Corner of Hermitage Rd and Mistletoe Lane, Pokolbin) for their super smooth labna


Armed with several bottles of wine and huge wodges of cheese we make our way back home where Noods fires up the barbie. He got a little freaked at how dark it was haha when the sun set it was completely pitch black and the sounds of wildlife running around will give you the creeps because you feel totally isolated as there are hardly any neighbours around


Dinner time! Stay tuned for part 3!

 

 

Hunter Valley part 1

13 January 2010, 11:41

HAI! So. Gonna be doing a bit of spring cleaning and posting some photos from trip to Hunter Valley which was sometime around September last year. Noods’ rellies from malaysia were in oz so we thought a trip to hunter would be fun. HI UNCLE KEN!


We had set off from Sydney nice and early. A little too early because wine at 10am didn’t feel quite right so first stop is the Smelly Cheese Shop (2188 Broke Rd, Pokolbin)


Cheeses! Love how wedges of cheese are individually sold so you can try more types without making your wallet cry


Jams, relishes, biscuits and lavosh breads to go with your cheese


Being in the cheese room makes me so happy


Our selection: Southern Blue, Smoked Applebox, Windsor Red (because it’s SUCH a pretty pink colour!), Netherby Blue, Triple Cream Brie, Haloumi


Lunch was at Esca Bimbadgen (790 McDonalds Rd, Pokolbin)


Mmm wine. Ok so obviously menu and prices may have changed since last sept. As has my failing memory.


White Entree Tasting Plate ($32)- Tomato tart tartin, seared scallops, prawn & coriander cakes and 3 matching whites


Red Entree Tasting Plate ($32)- Shiraz braised beef cheeks, wood char grilled lamb fillets, wood spit roasted duck with 3 matching reds


Crisp skinned barramundi with sauteed jerusalem artichokes and a basil and mussel nage ($36). I had to google ‘nage’ at the restaurant. Apparently “Cooking à la nage means poaching food, usually seafood, in a court bouillon and serving the court bouillon and the vegetables around the food as part the garniture.” Righteos. The barra skin was perfect and shattered with each stabbing of my knife.


Braised farmed rabbit with broad beans, rosemary, fazzoletti and a porcini cream ($35). The serving was huge check out that mountain of shredded rabbit! That sentence sounds wrong.


Prawn and coriander cakes with snake beans, peanut nahm jim and a pomelo cucumber and kaffir lime salad ($36). The salad was nice and refreshing but sadly the prawn cakes were a bit on the heavy stodgy side


Wood char grilled lamb fillets with baked fennel mediterranean tomato sauce and a parsley, olive and parmesan salad ($36). Dudes there was so much freaking lamb! It was like a magical dish where the lamb just did not end!


Ocean trout and soft leeks baked in creme fraiche pastry with a chive butter sauce and salmon roe ($36). Buttery flakey pastry holding soft ocean trout was so much win and the butter sauce and salmon roe just made the whole dish that much tastier


(It took me so much effort getting Noods to jump for this)

 

 

donut seeds

11 January 2010, 07:57

In a perfect world donuts can be magically grown… [via i wanna smile]