Here's some breakfasts!

Clockwise from left: Reese's Puffs; Cherry nice cream; Yogurt fruit & granola; Coffee smoothie; Scrambled eggs and chorizo wrap; Reese's Puffs & yogurt; Granola yogurt and fruit

Here are some work lunches. (Oops, I ate out more than I usually do - busy and lazy!)

Top: Fried rice (New Shanghai); Curry (Chilli India); Omurice (Oh Maki); Chicken-Fat Fried Egg & Rice (Mammoth) Bottom: Beef potato noodles soup (Dainty Noodle Express); Prosciutto Sandwich (Soul Origin); Cheese Borek & Zucchini wrap (Borek Bakehouse); Chicken Laksa (some place on Elizabeth street)

Some home-cooked dinners.

Clockwise from top left: BBQ at my parents' place; Chorizo scrambled eggs; Pizza Chicken nuggets & Champagne; Pork steaks & veggies; Fried feta with scrambled eggs, toast and tomato sauce

One weekend, we took a trip to Uluru! It was absolutely amazing, and I highly recommend visiting, especially while the Field of Lights exhibition is still on. Here's a photo of the rock that I took myself, when we were on a sunrise helicopter tour. Breathtaking.

Uluru

I was really sad to hear that Fat Oma on Swanston street closed down. Booooo! Their ayam balado (chicken with spicy sauce) was the best! I remain optimistic that they will open again somewhere else one day, and I'll be able to eat that ridiculously spicy, super tasty, crispy chicken again. In the meantime, my Indo friend recommended Ayam Ria (248 Clarendon St, South Melbourne VIC 3205) for an Indo chicken feast of ayam penyet (smashed fried chicken). I believe they might be the same owners.

Ayam Penyet

I checked out the new Brunetti (250 Flinders Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000) for a lunch with my buddy Adam. It's big, it's shiny, it's Brunetti! I really enjoyed my spanner crab lasagnette and aperol spritz.

Brunetti lunch

Surprise flowers and mince pie from Sandra. Yay!

Flowers and Mince Pie

As usually happens, we all seem to make more of an effort to catch up before the year ends. And with that in mind we hosted a couple of low-key mid-week dinners. First up was Taiwanese meat sauce on rice and a chocolate raspberry pavlova for our friends Jess and Alaina.

Taiwanese Meat Sauce on Rice

Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova; Coffee, Baker D. Chirico Mince Pies

The Baker D mince pies were great, but just quietly, my fave are still the Philippa's star-topped mince pies, with their perfect ratio of filling to buttery crust.

The next night we had old friend Adri and An over for dinner, where we ate Nigella's miso-roast chicken and cucumber salad (both from At My Table). I've made these a couple of times now and they're such a great combo! And this reminds me, I need to blog about all the dishes I've made from At My Table so far.

Miso-roast chicken, cucumber salad

Dessert was a seasonally-appropriate 5-spice and cider bundt cake, also a Nigella recipe, but this time from Simply Nigella. I've made it before and it's a goodie. (Don't even think about making it without the smoked salted caramel sauce, it is the bomb-dot-com).

5-Spice and Cider Bundt Cake

I only had a mini bundt tin, I had quite a bit of batter and sauce leftover. So with the remaining batter, I made donuts. DONUTS! Look at that smoked salted caramel sauce glaze, woaaaah.

5-Spice & Cider Donuts

By a pure stroke of luck, I managed to get to try one of the Veuve Clicquot x Lobster Shack lobster rolls. I was travelling further down St Kilda road to meet a friend for lunch, when my tram stopped and we all had to get off... right in front of the Arts Centre, where the pop-up was located. I texted my friend, he was happy to travel further for lobster rolls, and it was a truly decadent lunch. Delicious.

Veuve Clicquot x Lobster Shack

And of course there was Christmas, and now we've got Sandra's parents visiting from Germany! So we've been cramming in heaps of activities - day trips, shopping, eating, the works. I'll blog about our adventures separately.

And with that I bid farewell to my Unblogged Files for the year! Happy new year to you all, I hope 2017 was good for you, and all the best wishes for 2018 and beyond!