Iconic American Foods Everyone Should Try

So yesterday I went to America. Well kind of. Sort of. Okay not really. 

I actually went to a super store called USA Foods. It is basically a supermarket stocked with exclusively American items, which you can't really find anywhere else in Australia. It's heaven for homesick American expatriates, tourists, those wanting to throw a mega Halloween party, and just anyone vaguely Americurious. I personally just wanted to see how many variations of weird sweet foods I could get my hands on! 

I went with my boyfriend as practice for our America trip next year. I purchased some of the top iconic American foods one should taste to truly experience America in all it's sweet fantastic glory.

So this is what I bought and what I thought of each item...

Reese's Puffs cereal

What the cereal looks like

This was the thing I was most excited about! A cereal with my favourite Reese's peanut butter cups in it? What could better! 

Looked cool, smelt like the peanut butter cups, was very hyped... all good so far. Then I had my first bite...

I really, really wanted to love it, but something was off. After much consideration I've put it down to the Hershey's cocoa used. It's weird and fake tasting. And it tastes like floury low quality powder is coating every puff. I thought about it and realised I find the chocolate on Hershey's kisses average, so maybe it's that? I don't know... it's just underwhelming and fake tasting. A let down :(

Verdict: C

Lucky Charms cereal

What the cereal looks like

Yum!

I wasn't even going to purchase this, but I'd heard good things and it looked so pretty! It's the most amazing looking cereal I've ever seen, with cereal in the shape of different little charms and big colorful marshmallows in lucky charm shapes. 

And it's not just the appearance that's amazing, it's also incredible tasting! Maybe because it's not coated in horrible fake tasting cocoa powder like the other two cereals I bought! Also the marshmallows don't really taste like marshmallows and are kind of crunchy, but trust me that's a good thing. They are so sweet and yummy!

Verdict: What an A+ cereal in every department! Well perhaps not in health and well, perhaps not in being very breakfasty at all (should be a dessert). But hey, what do you expect from American breakfasts!

Kellogg's Smorz cereal

What the cereal looks like

So here I wanted a bowl of s'mores in all their gooey, melty chocolatey marshmallowed glory. But what I got was a bowl of freeze dried marshmallows mixed in amongst gross cocoa powdered little crunchy biscuits. I really feel like this disgusting cocoa powder should have been identified as a bad thing and eliminated from all American cereal by now! Disappointing.

Verdict: C

Toast 'Em Pop Ups - Frosted S'mores flavour

My desired s'mores experience was much better created in my toaster than in my bowl thank goodness. This was a yummy biscuity tasting rectangle filled inside with a melty gooey mix of chocolate and marshmallow. Very warm and comforting. Pretty impressed with this, and it tastes better than the competing Pop Tarts offering. 

Verdict: A-

Wrigley's Dessert Delights Mint Chocolate Chip Gum

Dessert in a gum. Tastes like mint chocolate ice cream. Has like 5 calories total, thus guilt free. Looks like Essie's Mint Candy Apple colour. Amazing. Yum. 

Verdict: A+

Wrigley's Dessert Delights Strawberry Shortcake Gum

Alright but not better than normal strawberry gum by Wrigley's. Just okay tasting, but a novelty. 

Verdict: B-

Big Red gum

A spicy hot cinnamon gum that burns your mouth and nose a bit. Pretty interesting flavour but I think I prefer sweet tasting gums. And it doesn't do that stick to your head burn and sear a red mark on your face thing anymore! Probably for the best, but less fun :p

Verdict: B-

To find out more about USA Foods and where you can find it in Melbourne check out this website.

Have you tried any of these foods? What do you think? What are some other American things I should try, keeping in mind I'm travelling there soon! I need your help and guidance guys! :P

P.S. I have decided to only do Survey Sunday's every second Sunday from now on in case you were wondering. This will allow me to write more posts of substance and will also help me think of new, exciting questions! Turns out it isn't easy to think of an infinite number of questions! Doing it every fortnight will keep it fresh and fun :D So they'll be back next week! xx

Marie Antoinette Style Feasting At The Hopetoun Tea Rooms

I can't believe it took me this long to discover one of Melbourne's greatest treasures. Hidden away in the Block Arcade, with one of the finest window displays I have ever seen in the world, lies the Hopetoun Tea Rooms.

The tea room has been operating in some form or another for over a century - it first opened in 1891 (for you overseas readers, in Australia this counts as positively ancient). As a result of it's long history, the Hopetoun Tea Rooms are steeped in tradition, charm and decadence.

This is the sight that you feast your eyes upon as you approach the tea rooms. The window is so extravagant that you have to jostle for a space amongst the ever present crowd of people gazing in awe at all of the mountains of sweets. 

This is as close to Marie Antoinette style sweet feasting as you will ever get...

After what can sometimes be a little bit of a wait, you get seated inside the quaint little dining room. It feels opulent to dine in, with its rich emerald walls, grand mirrors and chandeliers.

I've been lucky enough to dine here twice. The first time I ordered a strawberry milkshake and some scones. The scones were delicious, light and fluffy. Although they were served with this weird Rosewater Quince which was oddly chunky. I'd have preferred simple raspberry or strawberry jam thanks! The milkshake was lovely, but just tasted as normal milkshakes do.

The second time I went I had salmon and cucumber petite sandwiches which were amazing and so delicate. Quite a small serve though. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo sorry! 

I then followed this up with a slice of the most incredible lemon meringue I have ever tasted...

Words cannot describe how amazing this lemon meringue was. It has to be tried to be believed.

Some other notable items on my list of must go back and try are the following...

Red Velvet Swiss Roll:

Strawberry Sponge Cake:

Macaroons:

Spiced Strawberry Sponge:

All in all a meal here is a must do if you live in or ever visit Melbourne. My only complaints were that you can often get some quite rude and unhelpful staff, but this is probably just due to the fact they are run off their feet. Still no excuse in a place like this. Also it is fairly expensive. Everything I ate and mentioned above was priced between $8 - $15 per item. They don't take bookings which is annoying, and often you can be waiting a little while to get a table. Try to avoid the peak lunch rush if you can.

If you want to read more check out the pretty antiquated looking website (fitting I suppose) for the Hopetoun Tea Rooms here.

Have any of you ever been here? What is your favourite place to go for high tea and sweet type feasting? Any places you fellow Melbournites can recommend that I must check out?

Melbourne Spring Fashion Week

On Wednesday night I was lucky enough to attend with my fashion designer best friend one of the Melbourne Spring Fashion Week runway shows! We attended the Designer Series Runway 2 (tickets were $25 for general admission), which showcased the upcoming Spring/Summer collections from some of Australia's best and freshest designers.

The Designers

Above.

Alice Euphemia

Arthur Galan AG

Carly Hunter

Jayson Brunsdon

LifeWithBird

Manning Cartell

Thurley

YB J’Aime

The Fashion

The majority of the brands showcased bold brights, graphic prints and lots of textures. There was plenty of neon, florals, tribal and wearable art pieces.

My favourite brands were Arthur Galan AG for how wearable it was, and Alice Euphemia and Jayson Brundson for their incredible dresses.

If you want to see some of the highlights, go and have a look at this picture! It provides a good cross-section of the type of clothes and trends paraded on the runway. 

I'm really loving structured blazers, girly florals and prints, wearable art designs and pastels right now. Not a huge fan of the aztec, metallic/sci fi, sport luxe or neon looks. 

The fashions in this runway show got me so excited for Spring, I think the colours are so fresh and fun and really epitomise warm nights and days at the beach.

The Makeup

The makeup was done by Mecca Cosmetica and the eyes were the most predominant feature with a 60s inspired arty deep indigo dramatic eye. It was given a slightly futuristic, factory vibe with the indigo makeup joining the eyes across the bridge of the nose and a sharp wing. 

It made the models look odd and sci-fi and as though they were wearing glasses or had a semi uni brow. It was very severe and matched the visors the models wore across their eyes or as headbands when modelling certain brand’s outfits.

The Gift Bag

I have been the past three years in a row and one of my favourite things about runway shows is getting the gift bag on your seat and rifling through all of the freebies to see what you got! I’m always bizarrely curious to know what are in other people’s goodie bags, so here is what came in the Melbourne Fashion Week ones...

They are not quite as good as previous years but still extremely fun to receive. The shampoo and conditioner sample I’ve already used, and it smelt absolutely amazing and left my hair so shiny and luscious.

The experience was slightly ruined at the end with a whole bunch of protesters with horribly graphic images of animals being slaughtered for their fur barricading the exits. It was awful and I just kept my head down because the pictures were that disturbing. A few of the models came out with us and started attacking the protesters and making digs like ‘Oh is that a leather belt you are wearing, are those leather shoes?” and “There wasn’t any fur in any of the shows anyway!”. It was pretty crazy but luckily we got past them fairly quickly, but they made it very hard. It was difficult trying to escape and not looking up at the horrible pictures! It made me sad :(

Aside from that it was a fun experience. I just wish runway shows went for longer than half an hour!

Have you guys been to fashion weeks where you are? What is your favourite thing about going and what is your favourite brand to see?

And to finish, I'll leave you with a quote from Miss Fashion herself...

Chocolate Tour Of The City!

Today marks the three year anniversary of being with my boyfriend Rich, time flies huh!? So on the weekend we wanted to do something fun to celebrate it. It’s really hard when you’ve been in a long relationship to think up new activities to do, because you’ll probably have done pretty much every date type activity there is.

Well there was one idea we hadn’t yet done that I’ve been wanting to do for ages...

... a Chocolate Tour of the city!

Seeing as I’m the biggest sweet tooth ever, you can probably see why this activity appealed to me. Also I feel I should note here that my boyfriend attended of his own free will*.

Basically it involves going to about four different chocolate shops in Melbourne with a tour guide who teaches you about chocolate, and about the history of the chocolate shops you visit. And the best part: you get lots of chocolate samples! Also after visiting all of the chocolate shops, you go to one for afternoon tea (which was included). You also don’t have to eat all of the chocolate samples at the time, you can take some home to eat later.

So I thought it would be really fun to do a post about the best chocolate shops in Melbourne! Perhaps you can live vicariously through my chocolate eating!

This is where our tour went, in order of visitation:

Haigh’s Chocolates (in the Block Arcade)

This chocolate shop was the most generous with its samples. We received three types of them (and got to eat about two of each type):

-A chocolate champagne truffle: a very sweet chocolate with a dark outside shell and a softer ganache in the middle comprised of a mixture of white chocolate, milk chocolate and champagne. It melts in your mouth and tastes very rich and indulgent.

-A milk bud (30% cocoa) that was one of the best and creamiest milk chocolates I’ve ever tasted.

-A dark chocolate freckle (55% cocoa) that was really quite sweet considering it was dark chocolate. I usually dislike dark chocolate as it is too bitter, but this one was lovely and sweet. The higher the cocoa percentage, the better the chocolate is for you... so perhaps this one is a winner!

Ganache Chocolate (on Collins St)

This chocolate shop had the most attractively designed chocolates, with the most impressive sculptures and prettiest colours and designs painted on them. If you look closely at the picture below then you can hopefully see what I’m talking about.

Here we sampled one chocolate:

-A dark chocolate (60% cocoa) with a honey, almond and orange centre. I don’t tend to like chocolates with a lot of fruit or masses of ingredients in them, but this was divine. The texture of the inside was very soft and nutty, and it left behind a lovely sweet flavour.

The manager of this store came out and talked to us about the brand and their master chocolatier who had trained for 16 years in Europe to be a master chocolate maker! Apparently you have to study longer to be a genius of chocolate making than you do to become a doctor... crazy!

The Lindt Cafe (on Collins St)

Lindt is one of my favourite chocolate shops that I frequent a lot, so unlike the first two, I knew my chocolates here.

They gave us a sample of their Milk Chocolate Delice (Macaron), which was lovely. These are best eaten at room temperature however - ours were a bit too chilled. I wouldn’t recommend the Milk Chocolate though as there are far better flavours of Delice: Strawberry, Vanilla and Cookies and Cream are my favourite. Strawberry is just a dream to eat, and probably the best macaroon I’ve ever tasted in the world! Definitely try one if you have the chance.

Lindt also provided us with a little show bag with some information about their brand plus two dark fondant sticks and one milk chocolate square. Lindt chocolate never disappoints, and is the creamiest, meltiest chocolate I’ve ever tasted.

You can also eat in store at the Lindt Cafe (which I’ve done a lot!). I strongly recommend their croissant dipped in melted chocolate, their hot chocolates that you get to mix up yourself, any of their Lindt balls, and their Iced Chocolate.

Koko Black (Royal Arcade)

Out of all of the chocolate shops, I frequent this the most for their sweet cafe items (but rarely for their chocolates). They gave us a sample of their Hazelnut truffle, which tasted a lot like Nutella and was covered with Hazelnuts around the outside, with a creamy nutty mix of ganache on the inside. One of my favourite chocolates of the day!

The environment and ambience in the Royal Arcade is just lovely. There is an upstairs hidden eating room, where you can sit in a lavish parlour styled room and peek out huge ancient domed windows at the hustle and bustle of the arcade below. It’s just so cosy, comforting and hidden up there, and you can fully escape the craziness of the city.

If you are going here for its cafe, I’d recommend their Belgian Hot Chocolates (also their Light version, which tastes mostly the same and is so healthy for you... right?!), their chocolate mousse, their Iced Chocolate, and their little Chocolate mud cakes. They have some great share plates that give you a lavish assortment of Koko Black’s offerings that are great to order if dinning with a partner/friend.

We finished the day at Olio Cucina, a lovely little Italian Restaurant in the outside alley of the Block Arcade. We all got a slice of incredible tasting orange cake which was very refreshing after all that chocolate, and our choice of tea/coffee/hot chocolate-of which we went the latter (it’s a chocolate tour after all!).

Here are all the samples we were given (somehow we managed to get a pic of all of them at the end from the extras we took/the ones we saved for later):

Our Chocolate Samples!

So all in all it was a very well spent, entertaining afternoon. My couple of criticisms would be there were no white chocolate samples (of which I am a huge fan), and also that we didn’t get to see any chocolate being made or see behind the scenes of the stores in any way. I thought a chocolate tour such as this would include this element. I’ve been to a lot of chocolate factories over the years (Hershey’s, Cadbury, Chocolatier etc), and I’ve always really enjoyed seeing chocolate being made and then being able to eat it after seeing the effort that goes into it. I felt this part of the chocolate process was really missing in this tour.

My favourite of the chocolate shops? That's a tough one! I like all for different reasons! Lindt for it's Macarons, Koko Black for it's cafe, and Ganache for it's decorative chocolates. They were all brilliant though!

The tour cost $37 pp, which was pretty good considering all samples and afternoon tea was included. I think a tour like this would  be more beneficial to a tourist, or someone who doesn’t know chocolate shops inside out the way I do :P

If you don’t want to pay the money, why not go on your own tour? You could probably do it cheaper, and at your own pace, and only sample the things you choose. The good thing about Melbourne is that we have so many chocolate shops, and they all tend to be quite close to each other and plentiful. So it’s easy to barely walk and stumble across about 6 in a 5 minute stroll!

The site of the tour can be found here. We did the Chocolate Sunday Walk tour at 2.15pm.

Have you ever done something like this? Do any of the chocolate shops I mentioned rate among your favourites?

*May have complained about the lack of other guys in the group, but as I pointed out, there were two other couples. It does not matter that the other 22 people in the group were females... :P