Ibyang Sanchez, Author at Ibyang

Coco Cubano (Parramatta, NSW)

19 October 2012 Ibyang Sanchez 0 Comments Category: Food, Restaurants

Coco Cubano is a cafe and restaurant in the heart of the Parramatta CBD. Together with friends, we met up on a Saturday morning to have brunch here.

About Coco Cubano:

Coco Cubano takes the best of Cuba, mixing hedonistic espresso, chocolate, cocktails and food to bring the experience to life. The cafe and bar takes the creation of pleasurable and comfortable environments seriously and blends with the best in customer service and delivery. (source)

The restaurant is a sight to behold. Lots of attractive paraphernalias that will amuse from their couches, table number and photos on the wall.

They offer breakfast until lunchtime but we ordered lunch instead. Us ladies started off with a jug of Sangria. Just the ladies because the husbands were driving hehe. The Sangria tasted great with its refreshing fusion of lemon, orange and red wine.

The Husband had a glass of fresh Orange Juice. So good and healthy.

Our friends ordered a big plate of Nachos. A great partner to the Sangria.

The Husband had a hearty and massive Wagyu Burger. The meat was juicy, tasty and flavourful. It had bacon, cheese, onions and a few greens. It came with perfectly cooked chunky chips.

As for me, I savoured the goodness of their Grilled Chicken Breast with Quinoa Salad and Chips. Such a healthy option but comes with great flavour.

Great tasting food and a cozy ambience was what made up our brunch at Coco Cubano. Can’t wait to go back and try their other dishes.

Coco Cubano Cantina Cafe

302 Church Street, Parramatta NSW

Phone: (02) 9126 8264

Breadtop Has Arrived in Blacktown

18 October 2012 Ibyang Sanchez 1 Comments Category: Food

The famous Breadtop has arrived in Blacktown! The recently opened bakery is located at Level 1 of Westpoint Blacktown and they’ve only operated this week.

Breadtop is known for their deliciously baked breads. They also have cakes, ice cream and custard.

One of their bestsellers is the Pork Floss Bun. So glad we were able to grab the last one on the shelf.

Also the only one on the shelf when we visited was the Milk Custard. I like it because it tastes like white chocolate.

So glad that we now have Breadtop in our suburb. My next foodie wish is for us to have Chatime (Dear Universe, please can we have Chatime here soon?).

Japan City (Ryde, NSW)

17 October 2012 Ibyang Sanchez 1 Comments Category: Shopping Finds

We missed going to Japan City. They used to have a branch at The Galeries (near Townhall Train Station) where we used to go but they closed. A visit to Top Ryde City Shopping Centre filled our Japan City craving.

Japan City is Australia’s largest Japanese concept store, offering a wide variety of specialty gifts and homewares inspired by the tranquility and traditional elegance of the Japanese culture.

With humble beginnings as a small gift shop in NSW, Japan City has cultivated unique brand image for the best quality Japanese products, modernized it’s systems and designs and expanded its retail operations with great success to become the largest retail Japanese concept store of its kind in Australia.

Below are some of the photos I took. As always they sell pretty and well-designed products that attract the eyes.

Consistently, we like Chopsticks with Sakura and odd shape designs so we bought these three pairs.

The Blue Sakura Chopsticks came with a holder and it was on sale. The other two were chosen by the Husband to add to our growing number of chopsticks at home.

Japan City

Level 1, Top Ryde City Shopping Centre

Corner Devlin Street and Blaxland Road

Ryde NSW

Phone: (02) 9809 3001

Goodies from Koreatown

17 October 2012 Ibyang Sanchez 1 Comments Category: Food

Here are the stuff we brought home from our Koreatown Fri-date:

Breads from Hello Happy. Our favourites are the buttery and soft Almond Croissant and sweet Red Bean Bun.

We decided to get the Cheese Bun and Green Tea Red Bean Bun. Good breads with more than enough filling.

Ice Cream. The Cookies and Cream Connoisseur ice cream is not a Korean ice cream because it’s made by Nestle but we bought it because we found it so cute in its tiny packaging. We were shocked that it’s AUD$4.00 but it was worth it the moment we tasted it. It was great and filled with lots of cookie bits. We bought a Red Bean ice cream and found it similar to the monggo ice candy we used to eat when we were kids in the Philippines.

Chocolates. I was intrigued by both the Orion Choco Boy and Lotte Macadamia Chocoball so we decided to try it. The Macadamia Chocoball didn’t taste much of a chocolate. The Choco Boy fared better as the chocolate was good and melted inside the mouth.

Canned Coffees. We like having a few Lotte Coffee-in-Cans at home. This is as instant as it could get. It’s not as spectacular as drinking brewed coffee but it’s an instant coffee fix and refreshing during hot days. The brown can is the Mocha Coffee which I love better than the blue can which is Mild Coffee.

I bought a can of Baba Americano Coffee for the sake of just trying it out. It’s bitter but good enough not to add sugar for someone like me who likes a strong coffee.

So there. Just a few stuff from Korea that we buy whenever we’re in Strathfield.

Koreatown Fri-date

15 October 2012 Ibyang Sanchez 1 Comments Category: Aussie Life, Charmed Life of a Mrs, Food, The Married Life

We’ve been hanging out at different suburbs lately so we’ve missed our favourite Koreatown in Strathfield. We took a day-off last Friday and decided to have brunch there amidst the rains, wind and gloom. Such bad weather that it was tempting to just stay in bed and sleep. But our love for Korean stuff proved to be much stronger so as early as 10:30am we were already there hoping to find a place to eat.

We found a cafe and restaurant called “Beauty and the Beast” (39 The Boulevard, Strathfield NSW) that serves Korean, Japanese and Western food. They have a wide range of dishes from snacks, lunch, dinner and even happy hour. I’ve never been more glad to find that they serve Club Sandwiches. They’re my favourite snacks (think Tropical Hut Philippines) since I was a kid and it’s not commonly served in cafes here in Australia. The Husband and I ordered a Club Sandwich with Chips, Kimchi Stew with Pork and Tofu and Pork Katsu–one for each cuisine. The servings were big but we almost finished everything because we were so hungry. Enjoyed the food because it was simply delicious.

After brunch, we went to Hanaro Mart (Shop 16/11 The Boulevard Strathfield) to look at Korean goodies. We mostly bought chocolates, canned coffees and ice cream!

Dropped by Hello Happy and bought some bread. We love their bread so everytime we chance upon Hello Happy we buy a few to take home with us.

For a change, we didn’t have coffee and instead visited the newest yogurt place in Strathfield, Yogurberry. The store’s only a week-old and we even heard construction going on at the back but the place was ready to accommodate customers nonetheless. The weather was freezing cold and yet here we were enjoying a big cup of Taro Yogurt.

Brunch, check. Korean goodies, check, Korean breads, check. A yogurt dessert, check. A short visit to Koreatown and we got what we came for and more. It was a great start to our long weekend.