~Mate Gal - Weekend day out~

Hey cutie gals!

It's been so long...

I'm sorry! I've simply been so busy with school that I haven't managed my time well enough to make any posts. I'm making a tutorial this weekend, though (once I finish my homework that I'm meant to be doing right now) so you'll have something new by Thursday!

Anyways, today my family and I all went out for my grandmother's birthday to lovely Uruguayan cafes! 

Part of my heritage is Uruguayan, so I always like to take part in culture as well as I can. However, this is pretty hard LOL since there are very few Latinos in Sydney, let alone Uruguayans.

So today, we went on a pilgrimage to Smithfield, where there is not one, but two Uruguayan places!

First up was My Yerba Mate World, a hole-in-the-wall type of place that specialises in Yerba Mate.

I liked this old-style painting, so simple yet relatable

Yerba Mate is an herbal tea from Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil. It's a bit like green tea but more bitter, and prepared quite differently - you'll see.

My Yerba Mate World is quite special, because instead of serving popular brands of mate such as Canarias, they have their own organic blends from Uruguay and Argentina.

When we first arrived, we spent a while deciding on what to order because there were so many choices.

Straight mates, fruity mates, traditional mates, mango mate, dulce de leche mate - there was so much!!!

We decided on getting one normal mate, and my mother got an iced coconut mate, which I definitely want to try making myself sometime.

So sweet and little, just what we were looking for!

There were a few other Uruguayans and Argentinians there, so my grandmother had a great time talking with them.

I like the little freaky guy on the chalkboard, he's so me.

They also sold a few traditional foods, such as sweet pastries and yummy empanadas, but the first drink that came out was our iced coconut mate 

It had coconut chunks and ice cubes mixed in, and the coconut was so delicious because it simply sucked all the mate flavour. My mother wasn't a huge fan of the sweetness, but it was definitely enjoyable for me 😋

Mommy reveal!

Next, we had our traditional mate. Technically, we got them at the same time, but mate is made with 80 °C water, so we let it cool down a bit while I did a photoshoot~

I burnt my tongue while taking this. I was instinctively drinking even though it was HOT!

Perhaps a better shot~ Do you think I could be a mate model?:33

We also got plenty of time to chat with the owners, who were so nice, and told us the place had been open since 2005. Apparently, they used to focus more on Uruguayan food, but now focus on the mate.

The place was small, but so charming

I really enjoyed my mate, so much so that I got my very own gourd and bombilla!

It's literally so cute!!! Even the bombilla (which is the special straw that filters out the tea leaves as you drink) was rainbow! They actually had many different types, steel, gold coloured and rainbow~ Some had little adornments too.

Of course the real event was picking out my gourd, but before I even said anything, one of the ladies said "I know what you'll like" and started showing me every pink gourd they had there hahaha

I really liked the pink & orange blend one, but it was really huge. There was also a cute mint coloured one, but you can't really see it in the picture.

So I walked away with a new gourd, bombilla and a 1kg bag of uruguaya fuerte - strong!

So I got a mate refill and we got back in the car, off to dulce de leche cafe

This is why mate is so unique: about 1/3-1/2 of the cup is filled with tea leaves.

I never knew takeaway mate existed, but there was even a disposable mate bombilla, which made me giggle a bit.

Dulce de leche cafe was any sweet tooth's dream! It had so many different Uruguayan pastries filled with custard and dulce de leche.

These both looked so good. I really couldn't decide.

I chose a twisty pastry covered in sugar and filled with dulce de leche inside. My father said he used to enjoy them in his childhood, so I knew I couldn't miss out.

It was delicious, and I devoured it super fast.

My parents both enjoyed some empanadas too, and now want me to make some for them once autumn break comes around.

These do look really good though. I'm not sure I'll be able to compare.

Then our day was all over, and it was time to go home, buuu

These are my mom's sunnies, but I think they suit me better

I pinky promise I'll have a new tutorial out next week, and I'll be more consistent onwards. I planned and almost finished a tutorial a few weeks ago, but I was so unmotivated to edit and refine it that it never came to fruition. I have two exams next week and two exams the week after, so pray for me and I'll pray for you!

Luckily, only four more weeks of school until the holidays, then I'll schedule a whole bunch of tutorials and do lots of things to post about. I've also been trying to practice my makeup a lot, and I actually did it pretty well today, apart from my brows growing back, but I forgot to take any pictures before leaving home...and was ill in the car, so I had to wash my face waaaa. 

In the meantime, stay sweet, cutie gals!

    ~ Minabelle