Spinach and Feta Muffin + Finals Studying

So I returned from a live aboard dive trip on the Great Barrier Reef yesterday… and immediately headed to the library because it is actually reading week and I had to get started on finals studying. I've got one on June 14th so now it's basically crunch time. This morning I went for a run, showered, and then booked it back to the library, where I have now been for the past 6+ hours. Of course, a long day of studying means appropriate study foods are needed. Number 1: Coffee!!!!! I got myself my typical large skim flat white (notice that the 'large' size here is a medium in the states) at Darwin's and also grabbed a feta spinach muffin. They heat the baked goods up for you there, which is great, it was a really nice and filling treat for breakfast. I also brought with me yogurt, kiwi, and my Just Right cereal so I had yogurt and cereal for lunch later in the day. And I also brought a can of soup with me, so I can eat it later if I get hungry. Basically, I did not want to have to give up my spot because I got hungry so I brought enough food for the entire day if need be. I also brought water in my new Prodive water bottle (above) that I got on the dive trip! I was properly prepared and have gotten through all of my material for my first two finals today, I may go through some paleoceanography material again, but I'm pretty much done for the day. I find that if I don't have excuses to end my studying I'm able to plop myself down for hours and just power through it. Guess that's one of the perks of being a Junior and going through the hell that is finals 6 times now...

Aussie Lollies Take 2

This time my adventure into the Lolly Shop was a way to taste a bunch of gummy lollies. I got 10 lollies, one of each of the flavors that I wanted. I got three that were not covered in sour sugar and the rest were. The three that weren't were pineapple (below top left) and 2 different strawberry flavors (below bottom). I liked the strawberry ones each was juice and flavorful, however the pineapple one was hard and didn't taste at all like pineapple.

I also had a Strawberry star (above top right). It was decent, not as sweet as it's US equivalent, but I liked the chewy texture. I also got to try a pear drop (below top left), this one I really liked it was chewy, and tasted a bit like a pear. Actually that one and the ones below, a tropical fruit (below top right) and watermelon (below bottom) were my favorite of the batch. They were all chewy, sweet and sour and they looked pretty too. They were more like gummies than sour patch so the texture wasn't my favorite, but they were still yummy.

 The last kind of lolly I tried was sour hearts. I had 3 flavors of these: sour peach (below top right), sweet peach (below top left), and sour apple. All were nice, the apple and sour peach were my favorites. It was really interesting that there were two kinds of peach and it was fun to try them. They were both peachy but also both distinctly different.

I liked all of these lollies better than my first trial, but that was probably because I was prepared for them to not be what they said. This wasn't even really the case, but they were still yummy. This was also a really nice afternoon pick-me up after a loooonnng morning of class. 

Aussie Lollies Take 1

 So we have a wonderful shop on the campus of UQ called the Lolly Shop. And as I mentioned before, here a lolly is a synonym for candy of any kind. Earlier this week I finally bit the bullet and went inside to check it out. Not only do they have a ton of Aussie treats like chocolate bars and Tim Tams, they also have by weight candy. This is perfect for me because it allows me to try a couple of kinds of candy for about $2, and satisfies my sweet cravings without going overboard. This time around I decided to sample some chocolate/caramel lollies (above). I got 2 with chocolate and fruit, 1 with yogurt and fruit, and the last was a caramel. I thought I was getting into something straight forward, boy was I wrong!

The first lolly I tried was an yogurt covered apricot ball. Now for some reason (perhaps maybe the name…) I expected it to be dried apricots covered in yogurt. This wasn't entirely the case. Instead, I got apricot flavored coconut covered in yogurt. It was actually kinda nice, there were chunks of real apricot in there, and the flavors blended nicely, even if it wasn't what I was expecting. 

After my first lolly surprise, I should have been prepared for the next one, but alas, this was not the case. The next lolly was a chocolate covered pineapple. So I was thinking "okay this is either what it says on the tin or coconut and pineapple like the apricot one." Wrong! This lolly was pineapple flavored taffy covered in chocolate. Besides the fact that it tasted really fake, and I was super sad that I didn't get any real pineapple it wasn't bad. I actually liked the chewy texture mixed with the chocolate.

By the time I got to the chocolate covered raspberry I knew that wasn't what I was going to get. So I bit into it hoping for the best. This one was raspberry flavored jelly covered in chocolate. It was yummy, though once again fruitless. Of those three 'fruit' lollies I think I enjoyed the apricot one the most. 

Lastly, I got a Jersey Caramel. It's a caramel square with cream in the middle and the concept reminded me of an American candy called a Bullseye, which I love. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed. The caramel was dry and gritty, and the cream didn't really add anything to the treat. It doesn't help that I was expecting something similar to a bullseye with chewy caramel and creamy, fluffy cream and was let down so completely. 

The good news about this experiment is that I learned two important lessons about Aussie Lollies. Number one, don't compare them to U.S. treats, expectations lead to disappointments :(. And number two just because the lolly is called one thing, doesn't mean that it is actually what it says it is, so I'll be tasting with a bit more caution now. While I stuck to the chocolaty things for this test there were heaps of fruity gummy like lollies at the Lolly Shop that look really wonderful, so I'll be tasting some of those next! 

Rosellini Pizza at the Pizza Caffe

I once again ventured the to pizza caffe last week. This time I got a Rosellini Pizza which was semi-sundried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and ricotta cheese. I liked it, but not as much as I liked the Visconti. The reason was that the ricotta was kinda flavorless (it could have used some garlic or something). But the artichokes were nice and salty. The pizza still was a great lunch and afternoon snack. I'm determined to try most of the veggie pizzas on their menu so I'll continue to go there through the semester.

Flat White at Darwin's

So iced coffee is not the only coffee difference here. They don't have American style black coffee here, just expresso shots. So therefore, I've had to get familiar with the different Australian coffee terminology. They have something called a Long Black, which is similar to an americano, water added to expresso. I've usually hated americano's back home because they are watery and not strong, so I haven't gotten a long black here. However, I'm told that they are stronger than an americano, so I might have to try one eventually. What I have been getting here is something called a Flat White. A flat white is basically a latte without any foam. They have lattes here, but they have twice as much foam as American lattes so a flat white is actually closer to an american latte. I've actually really been enjoying getting these as my coffee on campus. And my favorite place to get them so far has been a cafe called Darwin's. The reason I like it is because it is clever. The cafe is named after the famous biologist, resides in the biological sciences library, and has a finch as it's mascot ( for those who don't know Darwin's Finches refers to the galapagos finches that he used to form his theory of natural selection). The science nerd in me is made very happy by this cafe and the coffee lover loves the coffee here. At first it was a bit hard to get used to the Australian way of doing coffee, but I like it.

Visconti Pizza at Pizza Caffe

UQ has a a pizza place on campus called Pizza Caffe. They were advertising at some of the orientation events and so I've had one of their menu's sitting on my desk for about a week. The first thing I noticed was that they had 24 different pizzas, and that 11 of them were vegetarian! This of course lead to me being eager to get started trying some of these veggie creations. The first day of class I was determined to try one of their pizzas. I decided on the Visconti, an eggplant, zucchini, capsicum za. It was about a 10 minute wait for the individual pizza, and I got it to go. Since our house is a block from campus, my housemates and I have just been coming back here for lunch everyday, and this started out the day I got this splendid pizza. It was nice to eat at home with company, and it was certainly nice to eat this amazing pizza. I loved all the veggies on it, especially the zucchini which was marinated. I would definitely get this again, but there are so many other pizzas I want to try on the menu first! Another thing to note about this place is that they do $10 pizzas from 1p-3p, so it's a lot of food for a good price.

Iced Coffee and Scones

My study abroad program had a Coffee Break at one of the cafes on campus. We chatted and got free scones and drinks. Scones here are like english scones, more like biscuits. They also eat them the english way, with jam and cream. I was starving at the scones were heavenly so I ate 2! As for drinks, I finally get to tell you about one of my favorite Aussie foods. Iced Coffee! Now here iced coffee is not simply coffee and ice. Here it is coffee and milk with a scoop of ice cream in it! It's such a delicious dessert for ice cream and coffee lovers like me! I got an iced mocha, which was what I described above plus chocolate syrup. It was really filling and rich but I ate it all because it was so amazing. Luckily, we were told beforehand about this difference otherwise I would have been really surprised if I ordered an iced mocha and they put this down. This was such a nice free breakfast, and even though it wasn't healthy it kept me full past lunch!

Green Tea Soft Serve

Okay, along with Taro, I also love matcha and have wrote about it a ton on this blog. Similar to Taro, I was hoping there would be lots of matcha things here. And similarly, I haven't been disappointed. Yesterday I was walking through one of UQ's main food courts and came across their froyo joint. It's called Nogi and has 4 flavors. Two of which made me stop in my tracks. Along with original and mango they also had taro and green tea froyo. I was sooo excited!!! I got a green tea cone and I can't wait to try a taro one next time. It was good, it tasted faintly of matcha and mostly of yogurt, but was so nice on a hot day! My sister and I often joke about how amazing matcha soft serve would be and how sad we are it isn't in the states. Well it's in Australia!!! As happy as I am about this now, I'm going to have to exercise self control every time I walk past Nogi :P