Grace the Establishment

Hi everyone!

I'm terribly sorry about the lack of posts recently. Quite frankly, I've had nothing to post about and I didn't think it was worth boring you over my everyday life! Term 2 has finished and I am lucky enough to have a 3 week break. There is SO much school work to be done, however all my teachers have stressed that it's important to go out and have a good time to balance out all the hard work, so my friends and I have a whole list of places we hope to visit before the end of the three weeks!

Today, three of my friends and I visited Grace the Establishment for lunch before catching a movie. I've heard so much about this place so I was pretty excited to try it out!

 It was divided into 3 sections; the restaurant (above), the beer garden and the bar (below).

 We chose to sit in the bar area today.

Condiments and bar food menu

 The food!

We had a pretty hard time deciding what to get so we narrowed it down to a couple of items to share.

 Fried Chicken

Cajun Spice, Bourbon Whiskey Jam  $12

"That's really not much for $12" was my first thought when this first came out. I didn't love this but I still enjoyed it. I liked the combination of the chicken with the jam, and I usually enjoy anything with cajun spice!

 Smoked Coca Cola Pork Ribs

Apple Slaw $18

SO GOOD! The meat was so tender and the sauce-y glaze was so rich and delicious. I didn't detect much of a Coca Cola flavour, though. They weren't overly smokey, which I liked, and were complimented very nicely by the apple slaw. I'm not usually a fan of coleslaw but I actually really enjoyed this one. I definitely recommend giving this a go!

 Korean Pork Bun

Kim Chi, Chilli, Mayonnaise $9

Mini New York Style Hot Dog

Schultz Bacon, Pickles & Cheese $9

(Top left) Chilli Fries with Aerated Cheese $7.50

(Bottom right) French Fries with Tomato Ketchup $6.50

With their 'Sliders & Buns' deal, 2 sliders and/or buns with fries cost $18. We ordered two so that we'd all be able to try a bit of everything. I think these might have been my favourite item out of the whole bunch. The buns were so delicious, soft and not too dense - just the way I like it! The pork was so tender and juicy and tasted amazing with the kimchi and mayo. The hot dog was great but I think it was the pork that definitely won me over. I definitely recommend trying both!
The fries weren't overly special but thoroughly enjoyed by all of us.

Mac & Cheese $8

This photo is SO deceiving. It looks quite large but the portion was so tiny! If you scroll back up to the photo of all the food, you'll notice how small it is compared to everything else. We all still enjoyed it - very warm, creamy and cheesy! Worth $8 though? I don't know...

Dessert! 

Grace Salted Caramel Chocolate Bar

Nougat, Peanuts, Milk & Dark Chocolate $7.50

Too be completely honest, this tasted like a slightly fancier version of a Snickers bar with salt sprinkled on top. However, the salt did add a nice touch to it and we all enjoyed it! Splitting into 4 was so difficult because the nougat was almost rock hard, making it an absolute pain to cut through! I thought $7.50 was a bit too expensive for this, though. 

D.I.Y Donuts

Cinnamon, Aerated Chocolate Sauce $10

I love this idea! It was lots of fun (and very messy!) playing with the syringes and injecting their contents into the donuts. However, I personally didn't love how it tasted. The donuts were really dense and that made it hard to inject more of the chocolate or raspberry. The donuts also had a strange taste - almost bitter. My sister also had the same experience the last time she dined here. So basically, I think this is a really fun idea and it would be even better if the actual elements of it tasted better. 

Though I didn't adore the food as much as I thought I would, I still think it's a great restaurant. I love the atmosphere and how the decor really adds to it. The bar area is very relaxed and I liked how the large tables made sharing lots of food very easy. The restaurant looked so gorgeous and I liked the use of natural lighting. Also, the staff were super friendly which made our visit much more pleasant. I found it a little annoying how the advertised opening time is 11am, yet the kitchen only opened at 12pm. We were left waiting for an extremely long time (~ 40 minutes) with only a jug of orange juice. That would probably be my biggest complaint. 

One day, I'll have to come back and try the restaurant food, as well as take advantage of some of their specials deals like 'Taco Tuesday', 'Rib Night' and their Happy Hours (when I'm legal, of course :P). 

Overall, 8.5/10

Vy 

xo

 

Weekend snaps

Hi everyone,

Hope you've had a slightly more interesting weekend than I have! Now that the exam madness is over (for me, at least), I've had so much more time to sit around and do.... well, nothing. Which isn't necessarily a good thing, because there is always something new that could be learnt, especially in year 12!

This week, I haven't been out to eat so unfortunately, there won't be a review in this post. I did plan to visit E for Ethel, a cute little cafe on Melbourne Street which I've heard a lot about, but my plans fell through so I guess I'll just have to wait for another opportunity to come up for me to pay them a visit.

Rather than not putting up a post this weekend, I thought I'd leave you a few snaps of what I got up to this weekend :)

On Friday night, mum and I went out and bought a stand mixer. I think I'm now pretty well equipped for my quest to perfect macarons!

Also, on Friday night, I prepared roast pork for dinner on Saturday night. When I saw Maggie Beer make her Berkshire pork loin on Masterchef, I knew I had to give it a go! I just followed all the instructions for the roast pork here. On Saturday night, I also prepared some roast veggies before throwing it all in the oven. Give the pork a go if you're interested - it's so worth it.

On Sunday, mum, my sister and I visited Burnside for a very brief shopping trip! My sister and I were excited to see what Zara had in stock for this season and to be honest, it was a bit a disappointing. Nonetheless, we were still able to walk away with some goodies.

 The sight of this tree just makes me sad...

 A stop at Cibo for some Gelati :)

Fruits of the Forest and Mint

 The stores I ended up purchasing from

 Dymocks was having a 3 for 2 sale, so my sister and I got a little excited and walked away with 6 Classics! My inner physics geek is VERY keen to start on The Fabric of the Cosmos. 

If you follow fashion blogs like I do, then you would no doubt recognise this. 

Ah, the famous Zara skort. This was also available in yellow, blue and white (which had unfortunately sold out) but I went with black as it would definitely be the most versatile. Bit too chilly in Adelaide to wear this out right now, though! I think I might have them tailor made in a few other colours for spring. 

I didn't exactly buy this today but I thought I'd show it anyway. I call it my 'grab and go' wallet. It's slightly larger than my iPhone and fits all my essentials: ID, cash, coins and phone. Perfect for quick trips which don't require an entire bag. I picked it up from Collette for only $12.95. It is surprisingly good quality for something so inexpensive, and I like how it's nude and gold because it matches everything!

So, that's about it for my weekend. I'm going out for dinner to celebrate my godfather's birthday next weekend so hopefully I'll be able to do a proper review! Anyway, time to get stuck into my new books :)

Enjoy your week, everyone.

Vy 

xo

Baked Zucchini Boats

Hi everyone!

Cooking is a hobby which I love and often use to relax and de-stress. I made dinner on the weekend between my exams and decided to make one of my favourite dishes - baked zucchini boats! 

This dish was inspired by something I had a few months ago (posted about here). It's very quick and simple, requiring minimal preparation and would be something great to whip up on a week day or night. 

Oven baked zucchini boats from Zootz 

I improvised this recipe the first time I tried making it and have been adding bits and pieces in along the way as I attempt to make it better! I didn't use kidney beans or as much cheese as the folks at Zootz did. 

Serves 7-8 extra hungry people or 10 people with small appetites :P

Ingredients:

10 zucchinis

1 jar of tomato based pasta sauce (I used Leggo's Napoletana)

100g roasted whole red peppers

(I used these)

100g sundried tomatoes

500 beef mince (For a vegetarian option, feel free to substitute with red kidney beans or a variety of vegetables)

2 tsp chopped garlic

150g grated cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Olive oil

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

2. Place a large pot of 2-3L of water to boil.

3. Clean and remove the tops of your zucchinis.

4. Keeping your zucchinis whole, place them into the pot of boiling water and cook for approximately 10-15 minutes. Make sure they're not too soft!

5. Meanwhile, slice up your sundried tomatoes and red peppers. Reserve any oil from your sundried tomatoes to use later for extra flavour.

6. Remove the zucchinis from the pot after 10-15 minutes and drain them. Allow to cool for a few minutes before cutting them in half and scooping out the flesh. Line them up in an oven dish.

7. Time to get started on the filling! Add your reserved oil and a little olive oil if necessary into a deep pan on medium to high heat. Add and sautee your garlic. 

8. After the garlic is lightly golden, add in your beef mince and cook for 5-7 minutes.

9.  Once it reaches this stage (above), add the sundried tomatoes and red peppers, and cook for about a minute for all the flavours to infuse. Then, add the tomato sauce and cook for a further 3-4 minutes until the mixture is hot. Season with salt and pepper according to taste and remove from the heat.

10. Divide and spoon the mixture into the prepared zucchini boats and top with some grated cheese.

11.  Place them in the oven until the cheese has melted and has turned golden.

And voila! Serve with sauteed veggies or a light pasta.

Enjoy! :)

Vy

xo

Red Door Bakery

Hi everyone,

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and to all high school/uni students who have upcoming exams, I hope you're all studying extra hard, but don't forget to take some time off to relax and do something fun to reward yourselves!

On Saturday afternoon, mum and I were doing some shopping and on our way home, I suggested we stop by the Red Door Bakery because I'd heard so much about it and wanted to see what all the fuss was about. It was such a gorgeous, sunny afternoon and we were very tempted to have coffee there, but we decided we'd rather bring a whole bunch of goodies home for the rest of the family to try as well.

This is the first place I've visited which actually does suspended coffees. I think it's a lovely idea :) Read more here if you're not familiar with this.

See the empty tray covered in sugary-syrupy-goodness in the top left hand corner? 

That would be because mum and I bought the last few crème brûlée tarts!

Crème brûlée $4.50 each

I've heard so much about these and was super excited to try them! I didn't even edit the pictures of the tarts. They really do look that amazing! 

It was DELICIOUS! The custard is so creamy and there was the perfect amount of vanilla in it. The pastry was just a little bit flakey yet still soft and tasted so good with the custard. Not the entire top was crunchy, but the bits that were tasted fantastic. I definitely recommend this - seriously, go check it out asap!

Pork and Sage $5

This is something else I've heard people rave about so of course I had to pick one up! 

It was SO delicious. The pastry is incredibly tasty - so buttery and flakey! Personally, the filling didn't stand out as much to me as the pastry but it was still delicious. This was my siblings' favourite thing that we brought back. My brother didn't even want to let my sister try some! 

I honestly don't think I'll be able to eat another standard sausage roll again...

Moroccan Eggplant and Lamb $5

I have been loving lamb lately so this caught my attention. 

I loved the flavour of the filling and how you can actually see what the ingredients are. This goes for both rolls - I really liked how you can actually see what you're eating. I really couldn't pick a favourite between the two! Both are worth trying, in my opinion. 

Olive and Rosemary Stick $3.50

Mum picked this one out because she's a fan of olive bread. I didn't love this as much as I thought I would (I'm a HUGE fan of olives!) - the dough was a bit tough for my liking and the olives were so salty. We saved some for dinner and stuck it in the oven, and I think that improved it a little. 

I think this is definitely a place worth visiting. The staff are so friendly and the food is fantastic! I think next time I visit, I will definitely have a coffee as well and dine there, just to get the full experience. I never realised how lovely Queen and Elizabeth Streets actually are - there are so many cute little cafes and boutiques! Can't wait for the next time I visit! And another bonus, it's less than 5 minutes away from my house.
Overall, 9/10.

Vy
xo