Sunday 25 April 2010

Le petite Paris a Potts Point

Potts Point is an interesting suburb. At one end of Macleay St it's luxury apartments, sassy residents, gourmet eateries, classy boutiques. At the other end, well, it's officially another suburb infamous for everything portrayed in Underbelly the Golden Mile. But it doesn't detract from the gourmet culture - along Macleay St there are plenty of foodie delights that will keep us DDDs satisfied.

Yellow Bistro started our day, where all 12 of us managed to squeeze around 2 little tables normally sitting no more than 4 people each, and merrily shared our delightful pastries and cakes. A very atypical selection was on offer: lemon curd tart with a puff pastry base, chocolate macadamia and caramel tart; chocolate ganache cake; raspberry and pecan cake; strawberry and mascarpone cake; rhubarb tart; apricot tart; florentines; panforte; coconut coated marshmallow...
Of course we didn't have everything (we couldn't!) so here are the goodies:
Luscious chocolate macadamia and caramel tarts - VERY lush, VERY morish, VERY delicious, VERY luxurious with a gold leaf on top, nutty and fluffy and rich and light at the same time... how was that possible?
Pecan and raspberry cake with a thin layer of tangy lemon icing - delicious, somewhat romantic too - cake adorned with a rose bud on top ... awww love!
Deliciously moist orange muffin (left) and hearty tangy rhubarb tart, perfect breakfast food
Lemon curd tart - deliciously tangy, surprisingly gorgeous fluffy pastry which we cleaned from the plate afterwards :p
And the star of Yellow - amazingly light, fluffy, creamy, refreshing strawberry and mascarpone cake - possibly everyone's favourite from Yellow
Highly recommend Yellow. It was amazing that KT our CEO who lived just down the road from Yellow for nearly a year NEVER visited Yellow (but always meant to)... what's wrong with you girl!!

The gluttons moved on after Yellow and arrived at Fratelli Paradiso, a famous pizza joint that serves lovely pastries too. The manager was kind enough to organise all 10 of us to sit by the pizza bench - though, we had to wait for the pizzas to come out of the oven, cut, and put away, before we could have the bench. And the smell of the pizzas were so mouth watering the DDDs decided to have some pizzas for lunch... inclusive of our CEO who used to ban those who attack savouries on DDT days!! (KT: Rules are made to be broken :P)

Fratelli Paradiso fashioned a funky interior with black walls filled with large scribbles of its Italian menu. Of course what we were interested in were the pastries on the front shelf, which included palmier, cannoli, florentines, brioche with raspberries, lemon meringue tart, éclairs and a good selection of biscuits.
Nicely tangy lemon curd, with marshmallowy Italian meringue on top. And Emily cut it up beautifully for us to share!
Raspberry brioche (left) and peach and ricotta danish (right). Good danish pastry and refreshing change from the usual sticky custard danish.
Palmier (nowhere near as good as La Gerbe d'Or), ordinary éclair, really good florentines and cannoli.
Funky interior ... and pizzas appreciated by almost everyone on the bench. I myself only had a taste of the good slice of salami. Despite people's appreciation of the pizzas, the purist that I am still thought a thick based pizza just doesn't cut it... bring me Napoli in Bocca any time.

Those of us still standing after a big breakfast and lunch moved on to Bottega del Vino deli/liquor shop which stocked some of Adriano Zumbo desserts such as the passionfruit tart. However we didn't end up opting for the Adriano products - we can get them from Balmain some other time - but instead selected a ricotta passionfruit tart, gluten free lemon cake, and a pink vanilla and pistachio Turkish delight.
Very sticky fragrant Turkish delight; light tangy cool passionfruit cheese cake that doesn't look great as it's cracked on top, but one mouthful induced another; and a moist citrus cake with tangy icing.
Ah, 3 down, so many more to go on our list.. it was a tough decision whether to stay on and attack another stop with what's left of our energy or to depart and recuperate. As it turned out the DDT die-hards KT MB and CS ended up at Cafe Sopra for some strawberry and lemon curd pancakes (that looked like crepes but thicker) and rice pudding with honey, spice and Tom's jam (warm and great for breakfast, not so great for a stomach already filled with sweets), and an affogato with vanilla bean ice cream to wash it all down.
Tangy lemon curd, fresh strawberries, very lovely dessert; rice pudding was aromatic and delicious but too heavy for our full stomachs.
So that ended our tour of Potts Point for the day, though, we missed out on several other reputable places we might have to come back for (La Buvette, Igloo Zoo, Spring Espresso, Toby's Estate and Cafe Hernandez). Until next time - indulge on!

CS

KT: First time dessertees include Pieta, Peter, Caryn and Katherine - welcome and don't be shy now ;)