Just Desserts, March into Merivale

Having just dessert for dinner sounds like one of the greatest things ever so I was super excited to go to "Just Desserts" - a March into Merivale event where a handful of Merivale restaurants showcase some of their finest desserts for the sweet-tooths in Sydney. Entry ($45) also includes 6 tokens, which you can redeem for desserts and/or drinks within the event.

Mini fried ice cream, butterscotch

I'd sussed out what some of the offerings were prior to the event so when we arrived, we made a beeline straight for the mini fried ice creams at the Mr Wong stand. The fried ice cream was super popular (no surprise there!) so there was a short wait while batches upon batches of ice cream were fried to order. We eventually made our way out of the throng with our prize in hand, and dug in past the crispy batter to reveal a vanilla ice cream centre. I found some parts of the fried ice cream a little too cakey from the coating, but I think I could just about drink that amazing butterscotch sauce!

Hot banana, nutella and salted caramel spring roll, freeze dried raspberry powder

Another popular item was the hot banana, nutella and salted caramel spring roll from Ms G's. Again, this was fried to order in batches but it meant we got a freshly fried spring roll scattered with the red raspberry powder. This was a surprise favourite of mine as it wasn't too sweet and the banana, nutella and salted caramel flavours worked really well together.

White peach, black figs, yellow box honey, orange caramel sauce

The Armchair Collective, Mona Vale

I had full intentions of writing this post while summer was still going strong and the weather was still beach-worthy, but it seems like I've blinked my eyes and February has gone and Autumn has arrived.

Don't let that stop you from visiting the Armchair Collective though. Even though it's conveniently located next to Mona Vale beach, the food, atmosphere and beautiful homewares available for purchase in the store will keep you coming back for more, as we certainly did when we visited them two weekends in a row!

Traditional iced coffee - $7

We started with a couple of drinks and I couldn't go past getting this traditional iced coffee. I'm a bit of a sucker for DIY things so this was right up my alley with each iced coffee component separated so you can mix your own. There's a shot of coffee, milk, sugar and ice cream and it's up to you to balance out the flavours as you please.

Iced chocolate - $6.50

The iced chocolate is also pretty mammoth sized and is generous on the chocolate syrup.

Armchair Big Breakfast - $19.50

Chiswick, Woollahra

Chiswick has been on my go-to list for a long time, so I was glad to finally try it out one warm summer night. Going on a weeknight meant that we weren't able to admire the beautiful gardens around the glass-panelled restaurant, but that certainly doesn't deter people, as the restaurant was packed on a Tuesday night.

Snow crab slider, lettuce, keypie, gherkins - $9 each

I'd heard people rave about the snow crab sliders so it was pretty much a no-brainer when it came to ordering these. I wasn't expecting the snow crab to come out as a crab cake but it worked with the soft slider buns. These are a little steep at $9 each but they were well worth it and I was left craving for more!

Crisp buttermilk chicken, cabbage, chilli mayonnaise - $20

The buttermilk fried chicken was a deep golden brown with a crispy coating that reminded me of KFC. The chicken was succulent and the chilli mayonnaise was particularly addictive with the crunchy coating.

Chiswick steak tartare - $22

Chur Burger, Sydney

Pulled pork burger - $10

Lately I've had some major burger cravings - probably because I don't think a day goes by without a burger appearing on my instagram feed! I'd heard about the awesome burgers at Chur and I can't believe it's taken me this long to check it out. I mean look at that beauty of a pulled pork burger! The pork is tender and juicy from the house made BBQ sauce and the generous slathering of mayo and there's some cabbage slaw there for crunch.

Crumbed fish burger - $10

Peach Picking and Pies at Bilpin

Millions of peaches, peaches for me
Millions of peaches, peaches for free!

Ok, so they're not exactly free but they were for me! I've been wanting to go fruit picking for a long time, so the summer break seemed to be the perfect time to do it since my favourite stonefruit, peaches, were in season. We looked up some fruit picking places on the interwebs and the ones in Bilpin seemed to be the closest to us, so Sir D and I road tripped it out one sunny weekend.

The drive took us about an hour and 15 minutes (via M2 and M7) and by the time we got there, we were feeling peckish. On the way to the orchards, we stopped by this Pie in the Sky roadhouse on Bells Line of Road. I'm not sure if it's affiliated with Pie in the Sky in Cowan but it was a similar set up. You can park your car pretty much anywhere around the little shed that houses the pie shop and head in to select your pies and drinks from the counter.

Steak and mushroom pie - $5

There's a selection of savoury pies that are mainly chicken- or beef-based, and they're all made in-house. We chose a steak and mushroom pie from the warmer which had a delicious flaky, buttery puff pastry on top and a thick gravy with tender beef cubes inside.

Apple pie with ice cream - $4.50