Old (not so old) meets new (not so new): Central Baking Depot and Azuma

Despite being Sydneysiders who love wonderful baked goods, we have never visited Central Baking Depot in, well, Sydney CBD. We've frequented its sister bakery, Bourke St Bakery for their crusty flaky croissants, all time favourite strawberry brulee tart, tangy raspberry and chocolate mousse tart, and recently a ginger brulee tart. So finally, we have put CBD on our DDT map, with high expectations to be satisfied by hearty croissants, quality coffee, tarts and pastries.

Croissant - my standard order (with a cafe au lait) deliciously flaky, not overly buttery, but the portion is not as generous as that of Bourke St Bakery; Chocolate and poppy seed stick - fantastic, also flaky and morish, I loved it probably because it was the first thing I bit into this morning, though I think it's a simple combination that just works. Chocolate croissant - lovely, like Bourke St Bakery.

"Lemon pillow": croissant pastry with deliciously tangy lemon curd filling (but of course, we have a preference for tangy lemon curd, while many others can't handle the acidity). Like croissant aux amandes, but lemon.

Meringues (Italian) coated with coconut and raspberry (which I thought was rose... a little disappointed that it wasn't), pistachio, or cocoa powder (behind the first two). Hm. Must say, coconut shavings were dry and tough, also we couldn't taste much of the raspberry; Ground pistachio worked well with the meringue and it was giving me ideas (I'm not telling!); cocoa powder and sweet meringue was a good combo but I personally preferred the pistachio. However they weren't that impressive... looked prettier than it tasted. Might it be more interesting with the flavours encased inside the meringues?

Chocolate tart, plum and almond tart. Blackstar Cafe Bakery had set the benchmark for chocolate tarts - it was hard to surpass the quality and the pure lusciousness of their signature, amazing "goo" salted choc-caramel tart. This chocolate tart just wasn't up to scratch, and not dark enough for our liking. The plum and almond tart was not bad. No fireworks but great shortcrust pastry.

While we sat leisurely nibbling the goodies, we watched the bakers oil the pumpkins and season broccoli for roasting, mix the batter and bake the tart shells. It was lovely to watch, and to appreciate their efforts in feeding our gluttony. But we didn't ask them what this thing covered with funnily shaped foil was - our guess was they're empty pastry shells and the foil cover was to ensure they didn't burn and had good heat distribution... Other suggestions?

Personally I think Bourke St Bakery beats CBD in terms of the tart selection, but of course it is always a matter of personal preference. The coffee and pastries were equally good. Bonus of interior space at the CBD, where you get to sit in comfort, but then sitting on the sidewalk watching the life go by in Surry Hills at Bourke St Bakery is also one of the joys of a lazy Saturday brunch.

After the indulging and relaxing late morning that stretched into early afternoon, we strolled over to Regent Place for a "east meets west" experience at Azuma's. It was a fusion of culture, style and flavours, somewhat reminding us of Ella Patisserie (DDT April 2008).

Soy-milk pudding: a very light refreshing dessert much like a soy version of panna cotta, but much softer, with a plummy flavoured jam; "mille crepes": layers of light fluffy crepes and whipped creme, something I'd attempted to make before but was no where as tender and fluffy as this. Also a very light flavour, if you like to taste strong flavours, these two desserts aren't for you.

Green tea and red bean sponge cake: green tea creme with red bean sandwiched with plain sponge cake: The consensus was that Ella's green tea and red bean cheesecake had a better flavour, probably because I could taste the bitterness of the green tea powder. Green tea yogurt ice cream (they really should just call it frozen yogurt) - like frozen Yakult (Japanese yogurt) with a hint of green tea flavour at the end of the palate. I quite liked it, very refreshing.

Strawberry millefeuille: Beautifully flaky puff pastry, light vanilla creme patissier, not enough strawberries though.

Mango and cassis mousse cake: By far the most flavoursome dessert we've had at Azuma, and was everyone's favourite; sharp and tangy berry (black current) flavour topped with fragrant mango mousse. Moist and tasty. Must have.

We noticed that there wasn't the chestnut "mont blanc" as advertised, rather disappointing. Also they have tubs of Movenpick ice cream which we didn't have - highly recommend this very creamy ice cream, great flavour and silky texture. Well made coffee, though the desserts were light enough so tea or coffee wasn't needed to wash down the rich desserts, as it was the case sometimes with heavier (eg chocolatey) desserts.

Beautiful day ... though this time round I was left with the feeling that I could have more, maybe because Azuma was so light it didn't feel substantial for me, but that was the beauty of this style of dessert - you could eat a lot more without feeling weighed down!!

CS

KT: Welcome to our first timers Hannah & Joshua - the savoury palate must run in the family... They're each given a yellow card & expected to pull some REAL (aka sweet) weight next round! ;)