Did Someone Say Salted Caramel?

On Saturday it was my birthday. It was my first birthday as a single Mum and I was in Melbourne away from my baby girl.

I'd celebrated with my bestie the night before at Mama Baba's and after visiting a few friends Saturday morning I thought I'd make one final stop before heading home to my girl. 

My stop was at Burch & Purchese.....just my all time favourite sweet studio in South Yarra! I almost didn't stop, the traffic on Chapel Street was so bad. Almost. Then a free car space appeared right in front of the shop and BAM! I was in there!

The place was crowded. Really crowded. I wouldn't even be able to see the salted caramel eclairs let alone get served. Where the hell did all these people come from?

And then I saw them.....

Hello boys!

She was so lovely and we chatted about Mama Baba and how she will be working for Adriano Zumbo in Sydney.

My stash....salted caramel chocolate, toasted macadamia caramelised white chocolate, a salted caramel eclair and a chocolate hazelnut tart. There's no such thing as too much caramel!

This is the chocolate hazelnut tart.....Yum!

After that it was the 3 hour drive home to Albury and I couldn't wait to see my little girl. I arrived to a home cooked birthday dinner at Mums and Emily had already been bathed and in her jammies. Those little arms around my neck was all I needed. 

Opening my birthday present from Emily. It was a photo frame with "Best Mummy" inscribed on it.

All up it was a great weekend. Emily and I spent Sunday together having lunch out with Mum and Dad and catching up on the mundane, housework and grocery shopping. I have managed to keep almost all of the Burch & Purchese stash hidden at the back of the fridge, although I did demolish the hazelnut tart and Dad enjoyed the eclair. If your ever in Melbourne it is definitely well worth the side trip. 

Seriously....More Shopping!

On Friday I took off to Melbourne for another big day of buying. This time it's to pick Winter 2013 stock. I've always found it fairly difficult to choose 6 months in advance but on one hand you at least know what customers wanted that you didn't have this winter. I also know what has sold out the quickest, so I know what to make sure I have loads of next time.

Next winter is going to be very different from this seasons colorways. There is loads of orange and purple, navy and green, florals and patchwork fabrics. I'm so excited about what I can bring to my little shop. Here's a sneak peak at what I'm looking at when I meet with my agents.....

Picking from the new range Fabrik was just delightful!

Baobab has some very funky designs

 

Mizzle basics



These gorgeous crotchet booties are part of the new Mizzle winter range and I just love them!

Four and a half hours of buying and I was exhausted. I'd hoped to get a bit of shopping in but since it was 4:30pm on a Friday afternoon and I knew I'd have to battle peak hour traffic back to the hotel in St Kilda, I decided to call it a day.

My bestie turned up at 7pm and we headed out to Mama Baba for dinner. I wasn't sure what to expect. I was ready to be disappointed since there was such a hype about George Calombaris's latest restaraunt venture and I'm not normally a fan of going to celebrity chef restaraunts.

I'm not foodie, I know nothing about wines and I couldn't care less who the chef is. But, I know what I like and don't like in a meal. There's no point in plating up a pretty dish if it's not going to fill me up and taste delicious.

Mama Baba is at the end of a little lane just off Chappel Street in South Yarra. You would never know it was there and it's totally unexpected in appearance.

 

The entrance.

We started at the bar and enjoyed a few drinks before we were seated at our table. If you don't like noise this is not the place for you. The music is loud and so are the customers. The seats are close together so expect to be able to hear all of your neighbouring tables conversations. Somehow this works well though and we had some great conversation with our neighbours.

Entree of beef carpaccio......oh yeah!

Scollop's and they were perfect

Tortellini Prawn saganaki, tomato & feta. It honestly tasted more like crab to me but it's definitely a dish I wouldn't normally order so maybe it just wasn't my taste.

Desert...... this was the Ferraro Roche and it tasted exactly like one! Oh this was heaven.

An Italian Mess. By this stage I was so over full I just couldn't fit it in. But my bestie demolished 3/4 of it!

All up I was definitely not disappointed by Mama Baba. Totally worth the 4 phone calls I made over two weeks trying to get a booking. And to Stacey on the reservations line....you are so lovely to deal with.

So that was day one of my freakin' weekend. Part two tomorrow as I'm buggered and it's time for some sleep.