I’m so incredibly happy with how this turned out. Not only does it look the part, it tastes amazing. It’s a dinner party delight that will leave your guest with a lasting impression. To make these sweet treats click here for the recipe.

Art Direction Lucy Feagins / THE DESIGN FILES
Recipe and Food Preparation Theresa Nguyen / THE GOOK
Food Styling Gemma Lush
Photography Phu Tang (the coolest name ever!)

I’m happy but sad – but happy but sad, to be back home.

I’m happy to be back in my not-so-big Sydney house. But compared to my shoe box hotel room in Tokyo – my house is gigantic. To lie in my comfy, squishy, pillow-palace bed is like a dream. But, I’m sad that I’ve come from super hot Tokyo to the chilly cold Sydney Autumn. My house is super cold, it may be time to invest in a good gas heater.

I’m happy that my homewares haul packed in my hand luggage survived the two flights and the cab ride home. No breakages – a happy food stylist here. More props, to add to the cupboards. But, I’m sad that this will be my last overseas trip for a while. There’s a wedding to plan – eeeek!

So how did my week in sugar-ladden-ridiculously-tempting-tokyo go? Pretty well.

I didn’t go crazy on the sweet stuff. I had an ice cream every now and then – I crumble with anthing green tea. I had a slice of cheesecake at dinner. I had a bit of a pretzel, and I’m sure there was sugar in my salt sausage roll from Dean & Deluca. A happy beer every second night kept me on holiday mode. Apart from that – I stood strong and figure the amount of walking done each day helped even things out.

I may not have finished the 8 week detox. But here’s how quitting sugar has changed my life.

I feel that I’m in control of my sugar addiction and can easily go without. But in saying that, I do allow a sugary treat one night a week and don’t feel guilty – instead I enjoy each spoonful. All in moderation – I say.

I rarely snack. Instead I drink lots of herbal tea, it’s soothing and cleansing – a pastime I can’t go a day without.

I eat slower now. I realised I use to eat so fast that I was still hungry – then eat twice as much as I needed to.

I don’t have afternoon crashes anymore. My stabilised energy levels mean I have a focused mind – it’s helped me get closer to my work and life goals.

I’ve lost over two inches from my waistline. And a whole dress size.

I’ve now have a flat stomach. We haven’t crossed each other for over twenty years – so I’m ecstatic. And I haven’t really exercised too crazily during the detox.

My skin is the clearest it has ever been. I’ve had more people comment on this than ever before. I don’t wear as much makeup, and I often go out without any on at all.

I’m not so cranky and moody at that time of the month. I have become a nicer person – as the detox claimed!

I have less gas. Yes, you read right. Less of the smelly stuff. And a more settled stomach. Funnily enough, when I eat something bad – my body responds really quickly and I can target the culprits easily.

Now that I’m home, Round Eye has jumped on the bandwagon and that means my cooking duties are so much easier now! I’ll be continuing my sugarfree journey indefinitely and I’ll update you any radical or even tiny changes I notice – may as well ride this train if it’s destination is happy land.

PS – I’m back to my usual posting and will give you a low-down on tackling Tokyo – so many people are keen to go but are a little scared of the whole ‘lost in translation’ cloud. I assure you, it’s all part of the fun. If I could, I’d go again this year!

The Design Files team loved my Choco Pocky Pops so much, I remade them for the second installment of my Tasty Tuesday guest blogging spot for the month of May. If you haven’t seen the post yet click here. And to see my original post on Choco Pocky Pops click here.

And I’m feeling all food-inspired as I write this from my hotel room in Tokyo. I’ll be posting up a storm when I’m back on deck post-holiday.

Art Direction Lucy Feagins / THE DESIGN FILES
Recipe and Food Preparation Theresa Nguyen / THE GOOK
Food Styling Gemma Lush
Photography Phu Tang (the coolest name ever!)

Bloggers can take holidays right?

Well, I am. I’ve landed in Tokyo – my seventh trip and I couldn’t be happier. It’s where Round Eye and I first fell in love over eight years ago, so this country holds a very special place in both our hearts. Other than eat a whole heap of food (and some sugar), I ‘ll be on the hunt for homewares, gadgets and also keeping an eye out for things only found in this crazeee city – cause it’s exactly that. Fast, furious, severely lost in translation – but I wouldn’t have it any other way. My kinda trip.

Have you been? If not, I highly encourage you to take the plunge. Plus, for us aussies, it’s almost a domestic priced flight! If you’re in need of a few travel tips, just click here, here or here.

Otherwise, see you in a week. Follow me on instagram @thegook I’ll be posting at least a pic a day (what the heck probably more!).

 THE GOOD

I discover every-single-coffee at Room10 is a double ristretto (pictured above with the ocean trout open sarnie). Hence the strong taste and why I keep going back weekly. It just took me over three months of going there (every weekend) to figure this (very important) coffee fact out.

The coyo breakfast at Kitchen by Mike is seriously out of this world. But the serving is way too small. I’d like a triple serving of that coyo alone. The papaya plus pomegranate can take a back seat. Oh, extra lime wedges too! Am I sounding difficult? Totally.

Pasta turned in a parmesan wheel at the table at Buffalo Dining Club. There is no actual cheese in the pasta, but simply by turning it in the rind imparts HUGE flavour – plus who can say no to a little theatre at the table?! And their gnocchi is all ricotta, no potato, no kidding - which equals melt-in-your-mouth pillows (plus fatty boombas).

Chiswick waiter bends down and says, ‘I’ll just get rid of this for you’ – in regards to a stray piece of papery stuff stuck to one of our shoes. Hit!

THE BAD

Unhappy and rather surly wait staff at White Rabbit Gallery. They oozed negativity, they stomped around the tables. It tarnished the whole experience. But do go to sit under bird cages (pictured above) and drink some gorgeous tea.

I experience the world’s biggest piccolo ordering ever at Tapeo. It came in a latte glass. Plus, my first over cooked poached eggs at a cafe in years. This corner cafe does provide some interesting people watching.

Rather hipster staff at Luxe Espresso in Newtown. They clearly see our stacked up dishes but ignore them. We clear our own table, so our second coffees can be placed down. Even though the cured ocean trout is da bomb, I don’t think I’ll be back anytime soon.

Totally being ignored for twenty minutes once seated at Chiswick. I had to hop up and ask the front desk to find us a waiter so we could first, order drinks and then, order food. Luckily the manager comped our desserts and the waiter’s actions above resurrected our experience.

THE DEETS YOU WANT TO KNOW

OFF THE FORK

I love eating out. Cafes and casual restaurants are my thing. I often hit between two to six cafes on a weekend alone. That said, I don’t really want to do a flat out review of all of them. Booooring. Rather in my monthly Off the Fork post, I’ll give you the top moments and the low moments – plus some commentary inbetween.

Service that kicks, food that screams fab. It’ll all happen here at the end of each month.

I’m absolutely stoked with the first post, a repost of my tiny (and edible) chocolate terrariums. Check out the full post here. In the meantime, ogle over these super-duper images; shot by Phu Tang and styled by Gemma Lush. These two did such an incredible job, I couldn’t be happier with the results.

Stay tuned for the other three posts – which are, if you can believe it, even cuter and kookier than this!

Art Direction Lucy Feagins / THE DESIGN FILES
Recipe and Food Preparation Theresa Nguyen / THE GOOK
Food Styling Gemma Lush
Photography Phu Tang

Tune in Tuesday for something crazier than these chihuahuas.

It’s been in the making for a few months.

I feel like I’m about to burst with excitement.

It’s almost better than my trip to Tokyo on Thursday. Squeeeeeeee!

Simplicity and freshness rule when it comes to putting this salad together.

Watercress is one of my favourite salad leaves – but I don’t tend to eat it as often as I would like to. I adore the peppery taste with contrasting crunchy stalks. I grew up on these leaves drizzled simply with nuoc cam – Vietnams most famous dipping sauce. Or, served with some ever so tender thinly sliced beef strips wok tossed with lots of garlic, sliced tomatoes and nuoc cam.

Even though nuoc cam is easy to make, mid week I take this ever so simple route. Dress with a little sesame oil (small drizzle, this stuff is strong) and a little fish sauce to taste, then a final flurry of sesame seeds – optional really. I stress watercress doesn’t keep well. Buy it the day you want to eat it. Keep it in water to maintain its freshness. Eat all of it in one sitting!

WATERCRESS AND SESAME SALAD

INGREDIENTS
BUNCH OF WATERCRESS, WASHED WITH REALLY STALKY BITS CUT OFF
SMALL DRIZZLE OF SESAME OIL
GOOD DRIZZLE OF FISH SAUCE
WHITE SESAME SEEDS (OPTIONAL)

LET’S GET COOKING

STEP ONE Place watercress in a large bowl, drizzle over sesame oil, fish sauce and sesame seeds.
STEP TWO Transfer to serving dish and eat immediately!
This salad doesn’t keep well as the leaves wilt and soak in the dressing, so eat it all in one sitting!

Last week I was a bit bad. Three days out of the seven I ate sugar. And the worst bit, I could feel it everywhere – especially in my stomach, mind and body.

Anzac Day saw my week turn into disarray. I had a gorgeous sugar free dinner with the girls at Buffalo Dining Club, but my arm was easily twisted as soon as Gelato Messina was mentioned. I dived into a rather generous scoop of Fat Clemenza, ricotta cannoli gelato. Oh my – it was so friggin good!

The next day I skipped my usual brekky of chia puddings with natural yoghurt and a drizzle of rice malt syrup – strike two. This is probably the worst thing I could have done. My day was horrible – I couldn’t function, my mind was all over the place, I couldn’t do my work well. That day, my work took us out for an asian lunch, otherwise known as sugar ladden – lets just say strike three. Following on from that, I took some very good friends out to Chiswick and had a good few too many spoonfuls of the bomb alaska and black forrest cake. Now can you see my cheating?

Did I mention the amazing rhubarb crumble I ate on Saturday evening – that’s what I call a sugar-slam-dunk.

What did I learn from that three day sugar rush?

Once I start, I can’t stop. It’s a steamroll affect. So I need to control these sugar cravings in a balanced and healthy way. Have some sugarfree chocolate or make a sugarfree dessert that will hit the spot. Turning to the dark side will send me back to my old lifestyle. Of afternoon crashes, a foggy mind, a constant rumbling tummy – searching for another thing to eat – which was chocolate, lollies aka the bad stuff.

I’m hopping back on the sugarfree bus. Let’s hope this speed bump is a thing of the past.

A little behind the scenes of me styling and setting up the third of my steak sandwich series. I often forget how may shots I get caught in during the lighting process. But I love the randomness of arms that appear – reminds me of the food styling process; it can be a slow, placing bits one by one, checking the composition and evaluating the colour. A process I really enjoy.

If you’ve missed the other ones, here is the first steak sandwich and here is the second steak sandwich. Don’t worry this recipe will be up in the next few posts – plus all the photos that made the cut.