FOOD: Toast

Walk into Toast, a breakfast & lunch diner in the Detroit 'burb of Ferndale, you'll be greeted to walls decorated in a funky street art style, old style tables and quirky vintage toasters lining the walls. Offering an impressive breakfast and lunch menu, Toast has become the toast (yes pun intended) of the town, even before being voted one of America's top 100 places for breakfast. 

Toast became our destination for brunch over my birthday weekend. We'd heard great things about it, but not being ones to dine out for brekkie, it had always passed us by. But anywhere with crowds and queues outside can only be a good thing even if you're lacking in patience like myself, so when the mother in law was in town, it was our brunch destination of choice. 

From waffles to burritos, all kinds of omelets to an ever growing adult drink menu (think cucumber mimosas and adult coffees) alongside the standard juices and hot drinks. The strawberries atop my waffle were fresh and sweet, and the thick slice of cinnamon bread a side to Joe's Petoskey omeltte (think dried cherries, brie, bacon and caramelized onions mmm) was delicious. The place is loud, it's quirky, it's full of personality and very charming in it's appeal. It's certainly popular with the locals, with a 20 minute wait outside for seating on a somewhat warm September morning it wasn't too bad, there's always mug fulls of coffee to keep you warm in your waiting.

For two people not really huge breakfast fans any place that makes us want to return surely as to be a hit.

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Fancy checking it out for yourself? Well you'll find Toast at;
23150 Woodward Avenue
Ferndale, MI 48220

LIFE: Photoblogging a Birthday

With family visiting for the weekend and me being social awkward in taking too many photographs, I happened to miss last Saturday's monthly photo and hour link up. But with having a lazy day on Wednesday for my birthday, I thought I would photo blog it instead. Photos weren't taken every hour I will be honest, just as and when. They actually happen to highlight and speak a lot about me - my love for dippy eggs, cross stitching, loosing myself in a good book, a good film to picking vegetables. It's a day that makes me happy, a day full of things that make me happy. A pretty good start to being 29 I reckon. 

LIFE: Birthday Love From Detroit

Mid week birthday's give you the perfect excuse to drag celebrations out across two weekends. Fun weekends sandwiching your birthday from either end. While I'm not a big birthday celebrator, I'd rather not have all that attention, I don't mind using it as an excuse for some yummy food, exploring a couple of new places on our endlessly long Detroit visit list and spending some time with family who visited from Pittsburgh. From a mighty tasty blackened catfish sandwich followed by a huge bowl of the best mac n cheese Detroit has to offer in Slows BBQ, washed down with some handcrafted cocktails next door in The Sugar House. Capturing a sunset over the Motor City with our stomachs full and happy. A Sunday morning starting off with brunch at Toast down the road in Ferndale (review to follow) and a very delicious strawberry waffle and my new favorite place for breakfast. 

But that is just me. 

Happy memories, exploring a great city (yes really) and eating some great food.

FOOD: Nakd Bars - a Wholefood Alternative

One of my favorite aisles to wander down on any given shopping trip is the natural foods aisle especially around all the treats and snacks. I'm guilty of being a big snack eater and with choosing to be a bit more selective and healthy in our buying choices, a whole new range of goodies have been opened up. And it's pretty fun getting to taste them all out, finding some new favorites. So when Natural Balance Foods got in touch with me about trying some of their Nakd bars, I was excited to try yet another temptation.

Natural Balance Foods are all about iron rich foods. British based, they are branching out into the US market (online at least - you can make your purchases through their website) offering a wholefood alternative - with snack bars free of those unnatural processed foods using natural sugars (like those found in dates and raisins). But it's more than that, their bars are wheat, dairy, gluten free and 100% vegan.

Delving into their goodies and you'll come across some tasty flavors - caffe mocha, rhubarb and custard to cocoa orange and ginger bread to name but four. Soft and chewy they give you a great boost whether you need a mid afternoon snack or you're busy on the go. Speaking of being out and about they are the perfect size for fitting into your pocket, your bag, or popping into your lunchbox. What I really love is how clear and bright their packaging is especially with how clear the ingredients are labelled - so it shows you just how simple their recipe really is.

Using natural sugars found particularly in dates (43% of the Nakd cocoa crunch bar was made up of dates) they aren't low on the sugar front so you do have watch your intake. Not being a huge date fan sometimes it was a bit over powering, but still edible. I have to admit the more British of the flavors - the Bakewell tart and rhubarb and custard (although oddly enough rhubarb is not listed in the ingredients which was a bit of a let down that it's probably just a "natural flavoring" which was a bit of a downer) had to be my favorites.

The bars certainly fill up a hunger gap, they are a great size and come in a great variety of flavors. It's a shame they aren't available to buy in stores - because for me, that's just how I tend to do my shopping - picking whatever flavors rather than brands that I fancy. But for me, the high date content and flavor puts me on the fence a little.

Have you ever tried Nakd Bars? 

I received a complimentary sampler box of Eat Nakd bars in exchange for an honest review. However as always, my opinions and photographs are all my own.