A walk along the city south

Yes we've been there before; yes it's old favourites; but just like comfort food, these classics will never be out of favour with us. Maybe, the day salted caramel falls out of favour with the general population, I'll eat avocado for a change (*NB avocado, along with oysters, are two of my food aversions*)

Anyway, it was a spectacular autumn day in Sydney - gloriously blue sky, warm sunshine, and we strolled. First stop Coffee Tea & Me, which turns out to be a hole in the wall but it serves spectacular coffee (Campos) that seem very popular among the locals. But we decided to move on to our next stop Breadfern, with their tempting pastries and beautiful rustic breads. I opted for a simple chocolate croissant, flaky and chocolatey, and a large skinny flat white..... breakfast done. Happy.

Serious dessert was served at La Renaissance Waterloo. La Renaissance is dear to us dessertees, it's never failed to impress. It was their macaron that I first fell in love with, a simple French vanilla creme icing. Simplicity done perfectly.

It was tempting to go for some of our old favourites, but there were new items in that counter! So we had two pieces of art today - Music by Vivaldi and painting by Monet. Seriously. Chocolate and orange with pistachio was symphony to my taste buds, and as much as we devour food with our mouths, we eat with our eyes. Thank you Monet, for a raspberry and lychee masterpiece, that was delectable both with our eyes and our tongues.

The joy! Happiness was autumn sun, beautiful desserts, great company.

It was a gorgeous day out, pity we couldn't have more as we're a bit sweet'ed out. But a sunny walk was all that we needed ^_^

And our next adventure? June Homebake! Theme = "Stressed" : You do realise stressed spelt backwards is desserts, right? So bring us a dessert that destresses - and lets chill and forget about the woes of the world, if only for a short while!

CS

Caffeinated yet?

July is a good month for getting lazy at finding places to eat dessert - thank you Aroma Festival! Besides, it's always a great day, amazingly for since 1998, it only ever rained once. All the other times, sunny.

And busy. Deservedly so, who wouldn't love a good cuppa on a lovely day, at the best location in the world?

This year, to mix things up a bit, we decided instead of starting breakfast at our usual spot, we forgo La Renaissance and stroll the stalls, followed by a sumptuous French lunch and desserts, then more coffee, if so desired.

Part of the Aroma Festival was a series of coffee appreciation workshops. This year I attended one on cupping - the international standard in determining quality of coffee beans, which goes something like this: 10g coffee coarsely (and freshly) ground, in round-shaped glasses or ceramic cups with a 7-8cm diameter and hold about 150-200ml volume; pour water in at 93C; steep for about 5 minutes - do not stir - then, carefully spoon away ("break") the 'crust' of coffee grinds on top, smell, remove the crust as much as possible, then slurp spoonfuls of coffee like wine tasting, so you get the flavour throughout your mouth. This is done for all the coffees you're tasting, so you can directly compare without bias.

(For details please google ... I'm not that familiar with this technique!)

It's scary though, see this colour wheel of all flavours and aromas? It's just like wine tasting. I can't pin point the flavours so more training is required....

Three single origins were provided for tasting: Kenya "Barichu Gatomboya AA", Panama "Camilina Geisha" (lovely story about its discovery), and Colombian "Rodrigues Ospina". And one other nondescript coffee sitting at the end of the table... which we discovered as something "that couldn't be much worse when it comes to coffee". Reminded me very much of Starbucks, actually.

Which one did I like best? The sharp Colombian, followed by the refreshing Geisha; the Kenyan was smoother but in comparison, flatter.

Learned heaps, will keep trying this for future coffee purchases.

The actual Aroma Festival was, once again, a gorgeous day out. Mild and fresh morning, I got a few coffees in my system before the massive queues started: A single origin pour over batch brew - Kenyan, sharp, but a tad bitter to taste; second coffee unfortunately was a "lowly espresso" so I got a skim flat white - mild and sweet tasting, some considered it weak and tasteless, but this is how I enjoy my flat whites. Then the last coffee purchase which I didn't have until later - a cold brew Geisha which I will enjoy for a few days to come.

LUNCH! Yes yes it's a dessert tour so I will skip describing the delicious dishes at Ananas.... and skip straight to dessert. Not many to choose from but everybody who had the creme brulee was absolutely in love with this creamy vanilla'y goodness. Oh and that scoop of raspberry sorbet ... and hidden underneath, a small pile of hazelnut praline. Yum.

I had to be different and went for a not so classic tarte tatin: Not classic as in the apple wasn't cooked with the pastry baked upside down, but the pieces of apple was full of caramelisation and sitting on a flaky pastry. Vanilla ice cream adorned the plate, smooth and creamy that was.

More strolling later, we found ourselves bouncing to live music  while wolfing down a classic French crepe, sitting opposite the Opera House, enjoying the last of the afternoon sun before it got a little too chilly to be out and about.

Thanks again for a lovely day, Aroma; we shall return!

CS

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