Froyo in Melbourne

Merry Christmas from Melbourne!

This is where Steven and I will spend our holidays.

While we haven't really fallen in love with Melbourne, as we have with other cities, Steven and I found mochi balls in Australia!

It's froyo, coffee, and desserts--all organic! 

The downside is, it's not a self-serve froyo bar. That means you get as much yogurt/toppings as they give you, not the 1:2 yogurt-to-mochi ratio that Steven and I usually go for.

But at least they had mochi! First place in Australia that we've found with mochi balls!

We got Mango and Green Tea froyo with kiwi, strawberries, and mochi!

I can't describe how pumped we were to get our mochi fix.

Until we ate it...

It's passable, but barely. It lacked the plump, chewy goodness of Menchies mochi. The taste was almost artificial, or preservative-y.

But the yogurt was as good as Steven has had, which is the good news.

We discovered (through extensive research aka back of the napkin) that Cacao Green is somehow connected to Red Mango...and Koreans... We're guessing Koreans bought the Australian rights to Red Mango and renamed it Cacao Green. I know a simple wiki search would settle this, but I am FAR too lazy to do that.

We walked away pretty happy with this, the latest of our FroYo adventures.

Random cool tourist picture:

This was taken at Hosier Lane, a famous graffiti landmark in Melbourne.

This can't be utopia!

Yesterday, my other half-chromosome set and I went for a run.

It was 5.3 miles of hills and trying not to choke on her dust. She runs fast.

Luckily, I finished pretty strong, and went home to eat a ginormous breakfast.

The sister was complaining of knee pain, so I taught her "Thread the needle" pose as Moksha calls it. It's a really important runner's stretch because it targets tons of external rotators and especially my pain in the ass.

Here she is modeling it, while The Dog looks confused.

For the knee that pains her, I taught her how to get into it without torquing the knee.

Two decided to join the party. She is also a fan of healthy knees.

Later, Steven and I were scheduled to go to a housewarming, so we ate an early dinner at a restaurant highly recommended by friends: Utopia.

Steven had the chicken quesadilla. He said it was very good, but the coleslaw was weird (it was, I tried it), and the rice and beans mediocre. 

Our friends had the bison burger, which he said was AHHHH-MAAAAHHH-ZING!

I don't have a picture of it, but I ordered the Veggie Souvlaki.

It sucked. The pita was hard and stale, the veggie "meat" was cold. The only redeeming feature of my dish was the hot fries and some nice tzaziki (which they charged us 95 cents for an extra little dish anyway).

Later that evening, I had dumplings at home cuz I got hungry.

Alas, it has been proven that Sandy Cannot Live On French Fries and Tzaziki, Both Of Which Are Obviously Nutritious and Filling so This Finding Comes as an Absolute Surprise.

Before the house party, we walked around Queen St. W. Loblaws and found my new future home.

Down the street, we also saw this:

Is it weird that I want it?!