Recipe to Riches is basically a show about people with home grown recipes who wish to make it big and have their product sold Australia wide. The winner each week will have their product on sale for a week at all Woolworths stores. It's great to see this idea of being able to watch them cook it on TV one night and eating it in your own home the next. Another hit by TEN, finally....

This week's winner is Connie and she has made croquettes. Apparently people in Australia think croquette is a sport and not a food. The croquettes are filled with love aka bacon bits and soft rice with parmesan.. you really can go wrong. For me the salty aspect wasn't quite enough and it tasted a bit bland. I think some random guy who tested the product had the same feeling. Overall it's delicious and at $6 for a box of ten.. I was hoping the product would be a home run. 

Anyways, a great concept like I mentioned but the show could do with a tweak in the execution. 

Sold in black and gold, the marketing team understands this symbolises prestige and I think it can only be bought at 7/11.  Apparently every can has at least 4% of the Acai Berry Extract and they use 28 berries per liter. It was all on the can and in the little booklet that was tied to the can. Great lil' promotion.

I normally don't go out of my way to buy energy drinks unless I'm uncontrollably sleepy at work but I'm really loving the refreshing tastes of the Acai Berries. I think mixed this with some Vodka and we got ourselves a winner! Hmmm and it is a Friday... What a great way to stay energetic, "healthy" and uncontrollably loud...

I'm not a big Honeycomb fan.. so that eliminates my passion for snacks like Crunchie and Violet Crumble. My fiancée on the other hand seems to only seek out those snacks containing the things I hate. Wonder if she secretly does so just so I don't finish it all....I wouldn't blame her.

Just like the Snickers one, it's all individually wrapped to mimick the look of the candy bar. 

After my first bite, all I can say is Wow! I'm actually loving this ice-cream. I think the fact the honeycomb center isn't crunchy like the candy bar but very smooth and sweet really allows me to become a secret honeycomb converter. 

I don't think you'll see me reaching the Crunchie bars at the confectionery aisle... but I'll definitely be keeping an eye on its ice-creamy counterpart.

Situated under Imax, this little venue gets its fair share of visitors and for a good reason. They serve mini burgers and souvlaki paired up with a chips and drink combo. Nothing original except that their souvlaki is pretty dang good. 

The service is moderately fast dependant on the number of orders as they usually only have two works manning the whole store. 

I love souvlaki and have been known to long for a trip to Melbourne just to satisfy my souvlaki cravings. Sydney's closest substitute are kebabs and yeeros... which just doesn't compare.

I would say this is better than most kebabs in Sydney but you get a tiny snack size serving for your $8 investment. 

Everything about just tastes freshly made from the bread to the soft and juicy lamb. Plenty of sauce... so much so you can't eat and walk with this unless you love oily sauce stains on your clothes and shoes. I actually ruined on pair of my shoes when the oil landed directly on the suede section. I learnt my lesson this time and actually sat down in a nearby food court. 

That's the only downfall of this place, its such a great location with great views... but you can't enjoy your meal by the water because of all those seagulls. Normally they place all your meal in a brown paper bag to take away.. but in hindersight, I'm glad they didn't. I think the seagulls have developed an association with brown bags and food... damn you Maccas. 

Wow! A new range released for Wonka. Four exciting new flavours and this is what I got my paws on...

Wonka's new range is more about being creative and gimmicky but don't really offer us anything new and original taste wise.

The chocolate is very rich and super sweet, but I don't mind it like that. Especially when it dissolves into a thick melted puddle in your mouth. The most amazing part of the chocolate is the raised 3D shapes on the chocolate and that's where it all lies. Depending on which piece you got, you will either get a Choc Fudge, Choc Sauce or Choc Cookie piece-as if you're consuming different sections of the pipe in the chocolate making process.

If you're just after a snack with more trick than treat, this range definitely delivers-like a block of chocolate with a fairy tale written on chocolate pieces.

A quick Google search found me this treasure. I'm not normally snacking around Marrickville but if I'm in the area, I'm a frequent visitor of the Yeeros Shop.

Have you ever had a kebab and was wondering whey they skimp out on the meat and sauce. Then this is your place. Meat pieces are chunky.. none of that thinly sliced stuff you get elsewhere in Sydney. The service is very friendly here, despite being busy, and that's a rare trait I can appreciate. The yeeros are packed with so much meat inside you cant even close the wrap. Don't even know if you can offically call this a yeeros as it's just meat attempting to stay enclosed in an undersized pita bread. Even though I'm a full-fledged carnivore, I thought that there was way too much meat. ( I had enough from my roll to make a small meat platter) 

The garlic and chilli sauce combo is always my go-to sauce when it comes to this. Not only great to ware off vampires but it works nicely to break the meatiness. You might feel like they've forgotten the salad but it's there amongst the cow.

My happiest moment when revisiting this place was the chips. My first bite into it flashed me back to when I was a kid and use to get the fish and chips in the newspaper. So oily, so good! Though now thinking back... how sanitary was it to place food in newspaper. Plus that's the size of a small plate, so you know the servings are generous. 

 

To make the process easy, tiny holes are all over the packaging allowing you to just whack it in the microwave without even removing the packaging. 

Wow... I knew sausage rolls were bad for you but look at what happen after nuking it for 2 minutes...

What's the taste verdict? I can only taste oily pastry. I see the "meat" (possibly a combination of shoe and roadkill) but all you can taste is a thick oily and highly salted pastry. I want my dollar back.. I'll need it to pay for the heart attack induced from eating this.

So lately the local supermarkets have been having a sale frenzy on lollies and I'm always happy to appease them by adding some as backup in my pantry. 

I love the fact it's very chewy and the flavour is long lasting. Downside is that you get a sore jaw after a few pieces. Maybe that's a good thing for the waistline. 

The flavours it comes in are: Apple and Raspberry, Mixed Berry, Strawberry and Banana, and Mango and Passionfruit. They all sound pretty nice and safe. The lolly is constructed with one flavour wrapping around the other flavour and easily distinguished by the different colours.

No flavour really stood out to be but I guess it would be a great drawer filler incase you feel that need for a sugar hit.

The marketing department even attempted to entertain us by placing questions on each of the wrapper (more personal than trivia).

Questions include:

What's your nickname at school or work?

What new chew flavour would you like to create?

What's your all time favourite TV Show?

I guess it would be great if you run out of questions to ask on that awkward first date....

During my long lunch walks I noticed that the Breadtop @ Town Hall had a new addition. A sausage croissant... Welcome!

I've always admitted that there's something about croissants that appeal to me... despite not really ever eating one that was fantastic... still yet to venture to La Renaissance.

The pastry is oily and flaky which provided a crispy and crunchy bite. The sausage and cheese is very average. I think with a more flavoured and seasoned sausage and better slice of cheese, this hot dog reinvention would have been a wiener...

Another thing that caught my eye was an oval shaped egg tart... umm what? That's just not right. I had to buy it.. at least in hope that to justify it's unconventional shape, it would have been an amazing delight. 

The egg custard is creamy and just sweet enough but the pastry is very biscuit like but still quite soft. Personally I prefer buttery and flaky.. that crumbles on each bite forcing you to finishing it within a few bites or bear the risk of dropping everything. This egg tart has nothing on the ones in Hon Kong nor even my local Flemington egg tart provider.

Shame... I was almost certain that the sausage croissant was going be a gem....

So Central Depot Bakery often gets listed as one of the top 3 bakeries to get a pie. I'm a definite pie lover, so much so that I would  tolerate a low quality pie and excuse it just because it's a pie.  

I personally love the pies up in the Blue Mountains... enough for me to endure a bush walk just so I feel deserving to stop off afterwards and pack in those calories. Maybe I can convince myself to drive up just for a pie for the blog... anyone interested?

 

This pie is hearty and chunky and probably would have been warmer if I didn't have to venture so far to find a seat where I wouldn't be attacked by seagulls. There's one thing you can guarantee that they won't let you down on and that's the pastry. Excellent as always. The veges tasted fresh and made it feel very healthy. I personally don't like veges in my pies. The pieces of chicken was a bit rough for my liking but the sauce was decent enough to make it bearable. To be honest, it was probably a bad idea to attempt to tackle this pie after a pasta lunch but what's done is done. 

Now thinking back.. maybe I should have just tried a more meaty option.. knowing how carnivorous I am...