The Anderson’s Danish Bakery, Santa Barbara
August 2, 2012
On our second day I made sure we headed to one of those cute restaurants on main street for some al-fresco breakfast… we picked the Anderson Danish Bakery…
I love the perfect red roses on each table.
I went inside and met one of the bakers and to ooooo and ahhhh over all the cakes. There were so many and they all looked amazing.
They also make their own jam, which you can buy to take home.
I imagine the whole of Santa Barbara gets their birthday cake from here.
The strawberry tarts looked so good, and I got a taste of one. I wished right then that I had picked one of those for breakfast.
The inside is sickly sweet. I loved it!
We both ordered the french toast… before which we were given two baskets of baguette and 2 scones (!), who eats pre-breakfast scones!
Turns out we do… we gave it our best shot anyway, then this came out…
Ridiculous. See why we spent the rest of the day riding bikes? (and skipping lunch) That was some breakfast.
And this is it at night, open for dinner. We heard so many accents while we are here, I imagine from Danish people.
Skip breakfast and go for cake!
Espresso Cafe, Oamaru
July 16, 2012
The kind of neighbourhood cafe I would love near me…
Pretty on the outside with some chairs in case of sunshine.
With so many tasty treats inside and a handy tap in reach of customers.
I really want to make something like this, how cool does that look?
Great coffee, and proper cappuccino’s.
I had a savoury scone. Again I really want to make these, I have made cheese scones tons of times but I’ve never gone further than that. I really need to do this.
This one had a little cream cheese surprise. Love that.
My husband got the tortilla stack… it was served with some smoky chilli jam and was delicious. Such a colourful meal, this would be great to bring to a BBQ and see everyone got ahhhh when you cut through it.
Espresso is in Omaru, a town we drove through you can read more about this crazy steampunk place at You Make Me Swoon
The Slip Inn – New Zealand
July 2, 2012
We are now visiting New Zealand…
We arrived in Wellington first and spent the day there but since it was raining and we went back at the end of the trip I’ll save it until then.
The following morning we jumped in the little tiny car we had hired and got on the ferry to the South Island… the ride was amazing (see You Make Me Swoon for photographs of that) and then we landed and drove through vineyards in glorious sunshine.
Just as we were getting really hungry we saw signs for mussels so we pulled off and found this amazing little gem.
The Slip Inn is located in Havelock which is not far inland from the Marlborough Sounds and so worth seeking out. The location on the marina is lovely.
We didn’t even look at the other items on the menu we were all about the mussels, and we didn’t mess about with any of the other lovely ways to have them sticking with the classic steamed in white wine.
They came with a mini loaf of bread and butter, which was beautiful. There is something about just plain white bread and butter, so so good. Especially after a very early morning and a long ferry ride where I felt very sea sick so I was absolutely starving.
Then these monsters arrived.
And we sat munching looking at this view, my husband with a nice big glass of local Pinot Noir (me stealing little tastes) and I remember feeling ridiculously happy that we were about to start part 3 of the honeymoon… and we still had so much time away.
Seriously, have you ever seen mussels this big? I’ve had amazing big huge ones in Cornwall but these were another level.
In fact they were so big I did actually get squeamish at the end and couldn’t finish.
But I am so happy we stopped here, a great way to start our trip. I mean look at that water and that sky. The bluest blue and greenest green.
We didn’t quite have time to stay for dessert but we grabbed some of their cookies on the way out, they were right by the till and I couldn’t resist.
Once again huge chunky cookies with huge chocolate chunks.
Yum.
So as you can guess I kinda loved it here.
The Top Shop – Byron Bay
June 12, 2012
Topshop was a spot mentioned in Sarah Wilson’s guide to Byron Bay again and again and I was determined that we would visit for a burger one day… so on a very sunny day nearer the end of our trip (having briefly looked for it once and not found it) we finally hunted it down…
And actually it was around the corner from our B&B and it is where most of our tasty breakfast snacks, those that were not homemade, came from!
It definitely worth seeking out as it’s tucked away in amongst houses, not in the centre. It was so busy when we were there with people spilling out all over the grass outside, a proper neighbourhood favourite.
It’s a kind of rustic diner, and I loved everything about it. Inside it was all vintage signs and communal seating as well as lots of blackboards for the menus.
They make their own sourdough, love that.
The menu… I so wished this was my local cafe. I wanted to try all of it.
A big table and a huge stack of magazines. I love that.
I was all about having a burger, fries and a milkshake this day. My fresh strawberry ice cream milkshake was so great.
The burgers… so amazing. Proper good beef with all the good stuff on top.
Good fries…
My husband tried the chicken burger, which was actually chicken breast in a bun with avocado and cheese. A good choice if you’re pretending to be healthy.
One of my favourite spots from the whole of Australia… seek it out but tell anyone I told you!
They also make cakes, breakfasts, roll and sandwiches, desserts… so much amazing food.
Topshop – Byron Bay
Bayleaf – Byron Bay
June 7, 2012
One of my favourite things about Australia was how serious they take their coffee. I mean I don’t think I had a bad cup of coffee the whole time I was there… I think I have told you this already… but Bayleaf is a great example of an Ozzie coffee shop.
It really seemed like it was the place to be and even though it is teeny it was always packed.
They used coffee ground a couple of streets away.
I love the communal space and the food looked amazing, go pay them a visit if you’re in town and get an iced coffee – it has ICE CREAM in it!
Marvelous Cream – Bangkok
May 8, 2012
This is the last post from Thailand…
I loved the little dessert spots in malls in Bangkok.
Marvelous Cream was one of my faves, a Japanese themed cafe with fruits teas and desserts as well as ice cream and waffles. It was in a huge airport themed mall on the Japan floor.
I loved the little quotes on the menus. So Japanese.
Waffle-marshmallow sandwich anyone?
We did visit this all a few times, mostly because it was very near to us and also to escape the heat now and again.
I ducked in here almost every time to grab a fruit tea, they were amazing.
I love the packaging.
You got instructions with this dessert.
Yes that is my flavour.
So delicious.
I wish we had these dessert bars here. I’ve said that a lot haven’t I?
Phuket Cookery School – Ka Nom Kluay
March 28, 2012
Our dessert I was sad to see was not sticky rice and mango (Husbands favourite) but steamed banana cakes, but these were so cute and again simple to make I am glad I learnt how as I never would have chosen these.
We made little cups from banana leaves to steam our cakes in.
You need, for two people;
3 very ripe bananas
100g rice flour
20 tapioca flour for thickening
120g sugar
pinch salt
60ml coconut cream
50 grated young coconut
1. Mix all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and smash until a smooth mixture is formed. Pour the mixture into containers or cups, or banana leaves!
2. Steam them over boiling water for 20-30 minutes or until the cakes become springy.
You can eat the cakes hot or cold, I ate one of mine with some coffee at the end of a long day of eating.
I had to, such a Thai dessert, quite light considering and I imagine stomach and mouth soothing too great after a hot Thai dish
