Tuesday, December 06, 2005


paddington lace & chocolate

so this morning i wandered out on the train to edgecliff and walked thru the tromper park to paddington, an upscale sydney district famous for its art galleries and row houses trimmed in elaborate wrought iron, known as "paddington lace."

i repeat: sydney trains are clean, new, with blue upolstered seats and cheerful yellow doors, arrive on time according to the electronic screens that announce them, and have sparkling clean stations. unlike nyc, where the tracks are littered with trash, which draws rats, causes fires, and blocks the drainage so the tunnels flood.

i went to check out some art in paddington, but while i was there i also hit the handmade chocolate of just william. i highly recommed the dark chocolate and raspberry ganache platypi(!) and well as the dark chocolate dipped glacé apricots.

then i walked down oxford st. to stop by max brenner, an upscale chocolatier. there i sampled a selection of 3 bonbons: a dark chocolate square with orchid oil, a dark chocolate square with caramel cream and whiskey, and a dark chocolate ganache square with arabian spices.

so let me just frankly confess i had chocolate for lunch; highly recommended, especially the orchid oil, which tasted just the way cattleya orchids smell. enchanting!

this of course was just a triple-play after last night's excursion with the extremely patient aussie barista judge paul haddon, whereby we found some kimberly chocolate in an asian market, of all places. (scroll down from here to the food section, where you'll see the review.)

the kimberly bars he found were semi-sweet and white -- all flavored with indian chili flecks. the semi-sweet bar was good but a little gritty; however the chili sneaks up on you and leaves your lips with a gentle tingle!

afterwards, i made it to mark's yoga class at city apothecary from yesterday -- a very pleasant beginner-type vinyasa featuring a lot of pranayama at the end. i loved this class, but i do wonder why so many yoga centers in sydney seem to have concrete floors!

this is a minor kvetch, because the yoga studio is lovely and the yogini at the front desk was so kind.

i also managed to catch a very gentle viniyoga class at yoga sanga, which is frankly a pleasant page right out of mark whitwell and gary kraftsow. this studio is in the surry hills district, in a korean area.

totter up the narrow wooden staircase to the second floor, and again, meet some very friendly and soft-spoken aussie yoginis. the floor here is also concrete, but at least it's covered in an indoor-outdoor type carpet!

i have 2 more yoga studios to check out: synergy and lifesource.

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