Simply Chocolate

Happy Monday.  I am happy to report that I had a very productive weekend.  I put the finishing touches on my wedding flowers which were inspired by the ombre flowers from a birthday shoot posted on My Sweet & Saucy‘s blog, worked with my graphic designer on the wedding program, attended a fabulous dinner party and made the Raw Pad Thai salad from My New Roots, to accompany some pan seared salmon among other tasks that aren’t as exciting as the ones I mentioned.

I hope the title of my blog post tells you what I feel like eating today.  I don’t know what it is, but I have an insatiable craving for chocolate.  I thought I would visually represent my craving with an interesting looking chocolate company in Denmark.  Simply Chocolate is an “unpretentious” chocolate company in Copenhagen with witty package and creative in-store design.

Their chocolate has funny sayings on their packages such as “Oral Satisfaction Inside,” or “Grainy Gill,” “Minty Cindy,” “The Cream Team,” and “Undercover Goji.”  Anyone of these chocolates from Simply Chocolate would have done the trick today.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 

In other exciting news, I am almost ready to reveal the project I have been working on for the past four months.  It is a digital magazine on entertaining at home.  I’ve taken a global approach to the topics and can’t wait to hear what you think.

Love This: Homako

Believe it or not, the flight that I was supposed to take to kick off my honeymoon was cancelled.  Can you believe it?  We get an email from Edreams (FYI- never, EVER book a flight on Edreams) alerting us that our flight has been cancelled to Nice and we should call them to figure things out.

After fighting with two CSRs and no one willing to transfer us to a manager (a rather simple request), we are now rebooking with a new airline/website and re-routing our plans, hotels, car rentals and plans entirely.

So bye-bye to Nice, and hello to Lyon.  My fiance wanted us to to our trip off in Nice so he could say “It’s nice in Nice,” cheesy, yes, but it’s the simple things in life that bring a smile to one’s face. Oh well. I hear that Lyon is a delicious gastronomy city, so I am happy to have the opportunity to explore France’s second largest.

On another topic, I wanted to share another great Etsy find that I found a while back while reading Freakdelafashion’s blog.

Homako is a jewelry designer who is originally from Japan who now lives in Los Angeles. I love her jewelry designs.  She uses wood, fabric and other materials to make her geometric looking pieces and they are all available on her Etsy shop.  Soo cute!

Photo Source: Homako Etsy Shop

 I have never experienced travel hassle to this extent.  I hope you are having a less frustrating evening than I am having.

Leon and Khoo

As someone who has had the opportunity to live in different countries, I can assure you that it pays to have friends all over the world.  I mean c’mon, how else are you supposed to grow your cookbook collection if don’t have people’s bookshelves to browse?  Yes, I suppose blogs and Amazon recommendations will suffice, but sometimes browsing a REAL bookshelf is more fun than a virtual one.

A friend of mine in Prague, who shares my interest in cooking/baking, has a great cookbook shelf.  The other evening while my fiance and her were discussing her new website/editorial/writing services that she is launching in London, I decided to occupy myself by browsing her cookbook collection.

The Leon mini restaurant empire (they have multiple locations in London) is premised on buying and cooking with local ingredients, good, wholesome, high quality ingredients, low GI foods, and food to statisfy a range of dietary preferences from vegan and vegetarian to omnivore and carnivore!  I am totally going to a Leon restaurant next time I am in London (hopefully before the end of 2012).

#1 Leon: Naturally Fast Food (Two cookbooks – book 1 (Amazon.co.uk has it, Amazon.com is currently sold out) + book 2 can be pre-ordered for September 2012)

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

#2 La Petite Cuisine A Paris by Rachel Khoo.   Rachel Khoo, the English born chef and writer who now lives and cooks in Paris.  Her cookbook, highlights her cooking, and experiences of moving to Paris, enrolling in a program at Le Cordon Bleu and cooking/showing how simple it is to make French food in her tiny kitchen.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 

I am always interested in new cookbook recommendations.  If you have any, send them over by sending me a note in the comment section below.

Speaking of Coffee: I Need Coffee!

Do good things come in twos or threes?  Today, good things come in twos as I am blogging about another coffee shop.  To extend the coffee theme a bit further from yesterday’s coffee post…. I visited I Need Coffee last week.  It’s the new coffee shop just south of Karlovo Namesti (Na Moráni 7)  in Prague.  One day after lecturing, I took the tram en route to the farmer’s market by the river when I noticed out of the corner of my eye, a new spot opened on the corner.  I made a mental note to come back and stop in for a visit.

I love this coffee shop’s interior design.  They went all minimal-industrial-Scandinavian with poured concrete floors, lots of light wood seen in their counters and bar stools, one big blackboard wall and the rest, stark white!  They play a mix of rock + indie music and have funky, bright posters on their wall.

I sampled some home made ice tea and next time I will try some of their yogurt and perhaps a cookie.  My partner in crime had the coffee and said it was decent.  Since I Need Coffee! has two big windows facing the street, this is an ideal place to people watch or daydream or both!

Coffee Supreme

I’m in the trenches with my sleeves rolled up.  I am referring to the volume of work related tasks I am attempting to plow through between now and the time I board a plane for Toronto.  With several projects on the go, my eyes will soon be in need of a rest!

Today I did something out of the ordinary while eating breakfast: Turn the TV on.  I don’t often flick on the television while eating my morning granola and yogurt but for some reason, I did.  One of those “discover” travel programs were on about New Zealand and the extreme sports and golf opportunities available around the country.  Golf, I would entertain.  I am not sure how I feel about extreme sports.  After thinking about how I could one day get to New Zealand to experience the beauty of its landscapes, my mind wandered to one of my few New Zealand associations:  Coffee. (The other association is wine).

Don’t ask me why I know about New Zealand’s reputation for coffee but I know it exists.  Apparently coffee is taken very seriously in that country. Ironically, being a non-coffee drinker, my only direct experience with any sort of New Zealand coffee is from visiting a kiwi run coffee shop in Toronto’s Leslieville area.  Te-Aro has good tea and vegan carrot muffins.

On the topic of New Zealand coffee culture, I started poking around to see who the players were, why NZ coffee has such a stellar reputation and why its reputation has crossed international waters.  While I am still searching for the answers to my questions, Coffee Supreme crossed my path. Coffee Supreme is an independent coffee roaster/sourcer & brewer with cafe locations in Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Melbourne (AUS). They also have a great online shop if you are looking to build out your in-home coffee routine with top of the line gadgets, accessories and beans.

Just looking at their branding (from Hard Hat Design) and crazy, eclectic interiors (industrial-lab-vintage-retro-market-chic), it is easy to see why they have such a loyal following of coffee drinkers.  So cool.

These cool coffee bags (in the image below) were designed by Work Art Life in Melborne.

16 different takeaway cups were illustrated by the Hard Hat design team in paint, ink, chalk and pencil. The three different colour cups reflect the three different sizes of coffee available, making it easier on the baristas when line ups get busy.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Has anyone been to Coffee Supreme?  Feel free to share your experiences in the comment section below.

Have a great Monday.