It was always a gamble and luck of the draw for the weather on DDT days. It'd been fantastically warm the weeks leading up to our pre-determined date, but the forecast was "cloudy and chance of shower friday, sunny saturday, showers sunday". Fingers, toes, arms and legs were crossed all week, hoping that for once the weather report is accurate.
AND IT WAS!!!!
Waking up to a crisp sunny morning is one of the pleasures in life, and to know it will be further enhanced upon breakfast at La Gerbe d'Or, my heart was dancing all the way to Paddington. (Aside - and to have bought a pair of hot-pink suede boots - joy!).
Two DDDs arrived at La Gerbe d'Or - CEO and secretary of course - and ordered a palmier, a St Tropez, an almond croissant, and a pain au chocolat. And a large bowl of cafe au lait and a cappuccino. Not that much, really, because by the time the next two DDDs arrived, there were only bits of crumbs left. I had to have the palmier because it was the biggest palmier I've EVER seen - at least 15cm across and it was fantabulous! Not overly sugary like some palmiers, and has a hint of savoury in it. The sugar in the centre seems to have caramelised a little and was a little sticky. Pain au chocolat was Bourke St Bakery quality - ie good; almond croissant is different from what we had at La Renaissance in that it's probably made with the almond paste rolled into the pastry then baked together, so it has the texture of bread and butter pudding. Not bad, just different and still flavoursome. St Tropez is a cake/bread with a layer of smooth creme patissier that surprised us with how light, fluffy and easy to gobble down as breakfast it was. Apple tart was very tasty, flaky and crispy pastry on the side with nuts baked into the pastry and apple slices caramelised and slightly tangy. The base was a bit dense though, probably because it was baked with the apples, absorbed too much moisture before it was cooked. Still, very tasty, as new DDD RD remarked. Last but not least, we had dessert to finish off our breakfast at La Gerbe d'Or (yes you read right) - with a chocolate truffle slice rich and chocolatey and to me tasted like whipped butter with cocoa - intense and probably not breakfast material... and compared with the pastries we had earlier, somewhat dull.
That bowl of cafe au lait - biggest I've ever seen... serving it in a soup bowl actually felt a bit wrong... then again, I DID ask for the large serving....
Other goodies I will return for are the fruit flan - with slices of fruit beautifully arranged on top, not just slices of fruit with excessive glazing; and the strawberry flan with WHOLE strawberries piled on top. It looked much fresher and tantalising than the usual strawberry tart, because it probably used a whole punnet for a single person's serve, and it was not as heavily glazed like the usual strawberry tart. Gold stars for the tarts!
Five Ways of Paddington has a lovely residential and village feel, cafes/restaurants scattered along Glenmore Road, locals dropping by for breakfast, walking their dogs, chatting to their favourite baristas... Lovely feel.
A short stroll up the hills to aid digestion, we land in the newly renovated Micky's cafe - an institution on Oxford St - for some Sundae. There are 10 different sundaes (the most intimidating being "sundae challenge" for 2), as well as other standard sweets like cup cakes, muffins, sticky date pudding, pancakes, assortment of slices etc. It was approaching lunch, so an affogato with a shot of Baileys was ordered... and soon relaxed and slowed down our CEO. Thankfully the "Eton's Mess" sundae (strawberry, marshmallows, meringue, banana, raspberry coulis and huge scoops of vanilla ice cream) helped revitalise her. Twas a lovely sundae. I also demanded to have a cupcake only because it had little butterfly wings adorning the cupcake... but it tasted unfortunately dry. Sticky date pudding was served warm with butterscotch sauce and a scoop of ice cream as big as the cake - moist, lush, soft..... Banana and maple syrup pancakes were fluffy, piled with banana, but it was suspected that syrup was "maple flavoured" rather than real ... tsk tsk tsk.
To qualify one of the DDD's burger and chips for the dessert tour, the chips were dipped in ice cream. I suppose it's something one either likes or dislikes... I don't find the taste offensive, just not for my palate. KT on the other hand could not keep her fingers off the hot chips and the sundae!
The newly renovated Micky's is bright, airy and comfortable. On a sunny day sitting in the courtyard would be an absolute joy. Excellent coffee too.
A short stroll away is the Paddington Market, packed as always, funky as always. And the market provided yet another goodie - moist Persian orange and almond (flourless) cake with Greek yogurt. Very fragrant, caramelised orange slice bitter-sweet. Gem find!
Tucked away in the side street just off Oxford St is Just William and their chocolate art. Cute little "mango creme" penguins, champagne ganache chocolate shells, little cupcake chocolates... in fact, all chocolatiers have their ingenuity and creativity, and have their philosophies with chocolate flavour and style. I must say, I picked chocolates with flavours that didn't go with my own palate, they were nice, but not quite for me... I really ought to stick with dark chocolates.
Last stop - Cupcake Bakery. We had fond memories of cupcakes from Sparkle Cupcakery last August, moist fluffy cupcakes with unusual flavour combinations of herbs, nuts and spices. The choices were not as varied as Sparkle, and we decided not to go for the chilli-chocolate cupcake and had the profiterole cupcake instead. It was simply profiteroles adorning a plain cupcake, which was a bit dry, so we were a little disappointed. They made a fine espresso, though not as good as Micky's. It was a good spot to sit and relax, and to photograph goodies from Just Williams.
Another beautiful day, beautiful desserts... thank you all, special mention to Ruth and Rick, welcome to your first tour!! Hope you had fun!
(At the end of the day, CS and KT went to have pizza and tiramisu at Napoli in Bocca... seriously.)
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