Autumn Brunch at Crows Nest

I've already gotten rusty at this after missing just one tour - First it was not giving enough time to plan out the tour properly, then it was grabbing my camera sans battery (I was sensible in taking the battery out for a charge the night before...), and now I'm at a loss at where/how to blog!

Maybe it's all the drinking the night before. I'll use that as my excuse.

Being a local, there were much opportunities to check out the establishments in Crows Nest. To survive here, one would have to serve extraordinarily good food, thanks to the demanding customers and our ever-more-sophisticated foodie culture in Australia. There was no shortage of good coffees, bakeries, cafes, restaurants and wine bars with brilliant and clever menus. And that's all fine by me!

Our day started at La Baguette, a small French style bakery on the upper end of Willoughby Road. We started with a few - just a few - pastries and tarts - a fluffy and light coconut macaroon, an eclair (filled with creme patissier), and a layered chocolate pistachio cake (with a lightly crunchy wafer base). Our favourites: creme caramel on a tart base (wobbly!) and a dark caramel tart - not too sweet,  thick, gooey, slightly bitter caramel, good depth of flavour.

We wandered down the hill and noticed a new place called Caffe Villagio, and decided to find out what they're like. There weren't many sweet offerings on the menu so we ordered all of them - (1) rose water and honey, (2) blueberry and (3) choc mint cake and ice cream, and Persian tea to wash it down with.

The orange blossom Persian tea had a subtle but distinct orange blossom flavour, not overpowering; the ice creams and the cakes - essentially trifles - generated a few surprised 'oohs' as we dug in: Fragrant rosewater with sticky honey was a hit, as was the lightly tangy blueberry cake and of course, the old favourite choc-mint combo. The gang was divided, but I think the rosewater may have won us over just a little more than others...

We continued down Willoughby Road and decided to resume the French theme as the dessert menu at Le Bouchon restaurant included some very classic offerings. Of course my recent trip to France had nothing to do with it....

Cafe gourmand arrived and we were shocked as they were sumptuous and generous: we expected bite sized samplers, but they were substantial enough to be shared among us (iles flottantes - 'floating island' - poached meringue on custard; opera cake; vanilla creme brulee; berry clafoutis). These were very good desserts, classic and well made, thumbs up for each of them. Crepe Suzette was flamed in front of us which was a lot of fun. Bailey's creme brulee was rich and smooth - thank you for not being runny or curdled!! The cheese board (goats cheese, comte, blue and a semi-soft) arrived and was a much welcomed break from our sweet indulgence. And of course, what's cheese without a bit of wine ... A little French Malbec went down smoothly, perfect for a languid, sugar-induced stupor of an afternoon.

Thank you Crows Nest, our 3 stops were all substantial and enjoyable. And very grateful for the unusually high turn out (of 9 people!!) which helped us consume a large variety of sweets! Apologies for the photos ... not quite my usual standard but I only had my old phone to go by!

CS