Chocoholics, anonymous. Welcome to the Smooth Festival of Chocolate!

Welcome to the best city in the world!! 

And this was made even better with lots of velvety delicious chocolatey desserts. With brilliant weather like this, The Rocks gets incredibly busy - but thanks to the forethought of the organisers, the event was spread out to avoid heavy crowds at any one spot. 

However, queues are not avoidable... Especially the popular stalls like Black Star and of course, Zumbo, whos endless creativity had fattened up who knows how many sweet tooths like myself. 

Two out of 4 Zumbo goodies here. After consuming so many items, it was really hard to remember what they were... one with chocolate mousse, pastry, passionfruit custard; the other was chocolate, raspberry, caramel, custard... Something or other. Both yum, not over sweet, classic Zumbo! Thanks for existing.... 

The most popular Zumbo goodie however was the reinvention of the Golden Gaytime. And I believe that was the most popular dessert of the event!! Ice cream + caramel sandwiched in chocolate macaron shells, coated with chocolate and nuts. It was Golden Gaytime on steroids. Amazing was not enough of a word to describe it! 

If I had to find fault in it... It was not easy to eat. Too big for a mouth, and it was quite ready to fall off the meager popsicle stick. Thankfully the chocolate and nut shell stayed put so we were able to hold on until they were consumed!

There were of course plenty of other goodies - some I managed to devour, like the Profiterole Project's freshly piped creme patissiere that lured me to their stall and the crunchy toffee didn't disappoint; Others I could only look at while my pancreas protested.... I stared at the gorgeous creations from Black Star and Textbook Patisseries and could only say, NEXT YEAR ... At least the watermelon cake (this year it's white chocolate watermelon cake) should still be available from Black Star. But the other desserts? Hopefully they will stay on in their respective patisseries for at least a little longer. 

I did have one of these colourful croissants - how beautiful are they! It was a cherry ripe croissant - chocolate croissant with cherry custard. Flaky croissant, light tang of the cherry, excellent breakfast :D

From a distance, that smoke was a tantalising advertisement for something savoury! We could spot the smoke from Circular Quay! This was a very welcome break from all the sweetness - charcoal chicken/pork skewers with a deliciously thick and sticky sauce, which was gloriously sweet and savoury and finger licking good (better than KFC, by far!!). And with that, we soldiered on for more sweetness....

However apart from having to queue to get my food (and these food stalls were really quick so the wait was minimal), I refused to queue to enter the chocolatiers' hall or the Lindt Lounge. But it was a great idea having chocolatiers indoors - the sun wouldn't have been too kind to the delicate chocolates!

This year unlike the previous two, I missed out on the blogger/social media special treatments because I didn't check the emails early enough. Oops ... So I missed out on VIP passes to the dessert demonstrations... but my trusty camera zoomed in to one of the goodies just to say, yup I was there.... even if I was on the side line, watching other VIPs eat what should also have been mine :p

Thus passed another glorious Spring weekend at the most beautiful place of the most wonderful city in the world. One never grows tired of it.... <3

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

Smoooooth(FM) Chocolate Festival at The Rocks

Chocolate overdose again! Just 2 weeks after our intensive dessert study with Textbook, we attended the second annual SmoothFM Chocolate Festival at The Rocks! The organisers have certainly got the knack for picking perfect spring days - last year we were sunburnt from the glorious weather, and this was repeated with the most beautiful sunny spring weather one could ask for!

There was much to see and taste - a feast for the taste buds as well as the eyes! This beautiful sugar sculpture and the chocolate handbag belonged to the Australian Patisserie Academy. I love this handbag though I doubt this will be very useful at all!!

The goodies from the various vendors - generous volume of sweets in a jar, looks fun but I couldn't help but think what we would do with the jars after we've finished...?? 

The goodies from Choco Samta looked so enticing just scattered in the cabinet! 

We like eclairs - they are just so pretty! From Passion Tree Velvet

Chocolate sculptures - chocolate cocoa pods and cocoa tree, and that dirty shallot, the succulent plant, quail egg and the salami in the background were all chocolate too! 

Rosewater cheese cake from Choco Samta. No chocolate here ... :p

"Tacos" from Black Star Pastry - highly recommended the "Angel" (lemon curd, passionfruit jelly, meringue and coconut) which was tangy; Loved the spicy "Devil" (dark chilli chocolate ganache, freeze dried plum and hazelnut) and the creative "Match-mallow" (matcha white choc, freeze dried lychee and raspberry marshmallow)

That is the queue at midday! Patience is a virtue .... especially when chocolates are involved. 

This was the reason for the queue - Zumbo's "Chouxmaca" and a dessert BigMac. Worth the wait? We think so! 

Anna Polyviou (I'd like to call her Polyanna ... not because she looks like a Polyanna but just her name!!) demonstrated her version of a wagon wheel - "Wag Anna" - and gave away a couple of colourful kitchen appliances by making people dance!! 

Tamas Pamer's creation at the Callebaut test kitchen - chocolate mochi, red bean ice cream, aerated dried chocolate 

Australian Patisserie Academy's beautiful demonstration - chocolate  mousse, crumble, rice pudding, mango "skin" (or fruit roll up, as I see it), cardamon and caramel pudding, white chocolate with mango puree centre - LOVE!

And, that was not it. There was so much going on, so many goodies to taste and to see, we just have to stop somewhere! Here's hoping that this event will continue and become another one of those annual DDT pilgrims like the Aroma Festival and the October Good Food Month! (And we are very thankful that this is now held in September so it doesn't clash with the Sugar Rush of October!!)

CS

Caffeine addiction satiated at the Aroma Festival

Wow! Another stunning day! Not too long ago we whinged about the cold and damp Sydney winter. This was today.You can't ask for better weather than this, ANYWHERE in the world!

As with every other year, we started at La Renaissance: A perfect strawberry macaron, an old favourite palmier, and a chocolate and pistachio roulade. Plus an individual Le Roi Soleil, a gorgeous dome of mango & mandarin mousse with coconut cremeux, almond nougatine & almond sponge. How fitting!

Then we started strolling - by 11am The Rocks was abuzz with people and they are all caffeinated/caffeinating. Because of the recent rise in popularity in specialty roasters, for the first time in many years the Aroma Festival went back to how it all started in 1998 - it has a big focus on coffee, the stuff of aromas. There are a range of coffee preparations too, no longer just the creamy espresso, there were the 'artisan' coffees such as pour over, cold drip and traditional Kenyan brew. These gave different characters to the flavours of the coffee and, as much as we all love a good espresso, Australia is way overdue for these preparations. 

I had a lovely cold brew from Delano Specialty Coffee. The Kenyan traditional coffee by Djebena was also stellar - strong, but not bitter. I didn't mind the pour over coffee from Zest Coffee too, although dimmed in comparison to Delano.

Having loaded up in coffee, we left the beautiful atmosphere of The Rocks for Koko Black, where we had spectacular chocolates a few months before. Koko Black has a basement cafe, serving chocolatey desserts and drinks, which filled our table: Iced chocolate/coffee, chocolate affogato (chocolate sauce over ice cream), an apple crumble with panna cotta, a salted caramel delice, and a chocolate spoils plate with chocolate ice cream and crumble, chocolate alchemy cake, chocolate mousse, chocolate pralines and chocolate cherry royale. 

Let's start with the way it should be tasted - light to heavy. The apple crumble with panna cotta was quite fresh but that panna cotta lacked the wobble-effect. Salted caramel is a flavour that has been done to death, but boy this was a good delice - gooey sticky sauce over a mousse that encased a chewy caramel centre. Now that chocolate spoils plate - every item rich and chocolatey and best shared. Really good chocolate mousse - light texture, rich flavour, and that little pot is the perfect amount as any more than that will send anyone into a sugar high. Chocolate alchemy - rich chocolate ganache, moist layers of cake and chocolate creme, again perfectly petite. Chocolate ice cream was silky and again, rich.

The desserts are on par with Lindt, or Guylian's, and of course their chocolates were brilliant. Though for a cutting edge boutique chocolatier the desserts could be more creative. 

Post chocolate high that accompanied the caffeine high, I took a stroll on this stunning afternoon across the harbour bridge. Calories consumed - 2000. Calories burnt - 200. I feel so much better now .....

CS