Afternoon dessert at Ca De Vin, GPO Melbourne

Last day in Melbourne, and I was feeling a bit down having to leave this beautiful city. We have an hour to kill before heading off to the airport and fly back home to Sydney. So instead of drowning myself in misery, I thought why don't we have one last dessert in Melbourne!

We were walking along the Bourke Street Mall, and found this European style cafe/restaurant at Melbourne GPO. Ca De Vin, built out of a laneway and is tucked away from the hustle bustle of shoppers and trams.
Once inside, I was lost in the stunning deco with its big posters on the walls, dark timber tables, and warm/cozy lighting.

I ordered the dessert special from the blackboard menu. Warm chocolate delice with burnt orange syrup and mascapone. Similar to a sticky date with caramel sauce and cream, except this dessert takes you to a whole new level. The burnt orange syrup (yes there's definitely a hint of burnt orange taste) and mascapone (triple cream-cheese, instead of normal cream) paired perfectly with the warm chocolate, giving it a not overly sweet taste. The warm chocolate was soft in texture, comparable to that of a sponge cake.

What a great way to end my visit to the city that I have come to love ever since I laid my eyes on her =)

Chillin' at Brunetti City Square, Melbourne

Our second & last night in Melbourne, and after a long drive to the Great Ocean Road we've decided to do the dessert hunting around our hotel in Melbourne CBD. We head down to Brunetti City Square on 214 Flinders Lane, famous for its wide selection of cakes, chocolates, crepes, and gelatos to name a few. It was a warm night and we enjoyed sitting outside...chilling.

Some of the cakes that I managed to capture, unfortunately unable to try...

Strawberry & Ricotta Cheesecake

(A baked ricotta and strawberry cheese cake with a layer of chocolate sponge)

Mud Cake

(A decadent moist chocolate cake with marsala liqueur, ground almond meal and topped with a rich chocolate ganache)

Captivated by its beauty, I failed to note down the name of the cake

Torta

(Vanilla sponge, strega liqueur, one layer of chocolate custard and one layer of vanilla custard)

Black Forest

(Chocolate sponge, kirsch liqueur, blackcurrant jam, fresh chocolate cream and cherries)

After seeing all the cakes, I settled with the Tiramisu $5.40. The serving was small and to be honest it tasted like any other tiramisu, nothing out of the ordinary. I was hoping that Brunetti serves its own signature style tiramisu.

However, my disappointment was lifted by the tasty Rum Baba Mignon. Sponge fingers soaked in rum and apricot, the rum was definitely a kick for this petit size cake.

Shoya's Dessert Platter

Shoya Restaurant, Melbourne...a must place to visit for Japanese food lover. It's on the higher end, but worth every cent!
I always go back there for the Ox Tongue, deliciously thick, creamy and it melts in your mouth...
However, this time I found another three(3) favourites and one of them is the dessert!

My all time favourite Japanese food is the Chawan Mushi, and here at Shoya you can spoil yourself with the Crab Meat & Truffle Chawan Mushi for $38.50.

I highly recommend that you DO NOT share this with anyone else!

Another of Shoya's twist is the Kani Cheese Miso $10.50, crab and cheese in miso soup. The combination of the cheese (my guess: blue cheese) and miso was divine. My husband and I initially ordered one(1) to share, but the waiter suggested that we order one each so that we won't fight for it. Glad that we listened to him!

Now this is where the fun part begins, dessert time! Decision..decision, which one should I go for?? Then I saw it, the Dessert Platter YAY! It's the Chef's choice of 3 or 4 types of Shoya's home made desserts $25/35. Knowing that I have to tackle most of the desserts myself, I ordered the 3 types.

They were the:

Kurogoma Panacotta (soft and creamy, strong black sesame flavour)

Black sesame with panacotta to make smooth pudding covered with nostalgic soy bean and green tea powder

Sea Urchin Cheese Cake (can't really taste the sea urchin, but it's light and not overly sweet)

Surprise mix of fresh sea urchin smothered and cooked to make perfect and surprising cheese cake

Tofu Chocolate Mousse (low in fat and high in protein, somehow I felt guilty eating it)

Smooth light chocolate mousse smothered with tofu

My favourite out of the three(3) was the Kurogoma Panacotta. The green tea powder compliments the not so overly intense black sesame flavour.

'Crostata di limone' FIFTEEN

I have been wanting to try Jamie Oliver's restaurant FIFTEEN ever since it opened in Melbourne, located at Basement, 115-117 Collins Street (Enter through George Parade). So with my last minute booking, I managed to get a table for Friday lunch. I made the reservation through the website and received an email confirmation pretty much on the same day.

Upon arrival, we were welcomed by the cozy and relax 'bar' area where you can enjoy you meal.

It was a really hot day when we arrived in Melbourne that morning, so I decided to order a cocktail. Being a vodka lover, my eyes were immediately set on the Pomegranate Caprioska $16.

Just the right amount of sweetness from the raspberry & sourness from the fresh lime!

Patiently waiting for the chef to prepare our feast..

Our Antipasti, Primi and Secondi, which consist of (from top left clockwise):

Parmesan with jamon Serrano, cheese sticks and black pepper $16

Sourdough bruschetta with grilled squid, zucchini ribbons, chilli and salsa rossa piccante $16

Galletto 'al mattone' with chorizo, capers, grapes and a pearl barley salad $35

Risotto (vialone nano) with zucchini, zucchini flowers, king prawns and Shiso cress $20

However, the highlight of my lunch was this lemon tart. It was smooth and creamy, with a refreshing lemon taste. If you like your dessert to be on the sour side, you'll definitely love this dessert! I enjoyed it thoroughly and look forward to make one myself.

'Crostata di limone' with vanilla crème fraiche and fresh raspberries $12

Phillippa's Belgian Chocolate Brownie

I made a short trip to Melbourne over the weekend and came back with the best gift ever from a very close family friend. As soon as I got into the car, she took out this little devil from a bag and told me that this is one of Melbourne's yummiest brownie. The trick though (as advised by the expert) is to heat it up in the microwave for a good couple of seconds until it's warm and slightly melting. She also emphasized that I have to eat it with a scope of vanilla ice-cream. Tell you what, always listen to the expert's advise!

Melted chocolate brownie never tasted so good before...

Remember to get your hands dirty on Phillippa's 'devilicious' chocolate brownie when you are in Melbourne!

It's only 360g

Phillippa's Armadale Store

1030 High Street

Armadale, VIC 3143

Melways ref 59 A7

(03) 9576 2020

Phillippa's Brighton Store

608 Hampton Street

Brighton, VIC 3186

Melways ref 76 G3

(03) 9592 7340

All about Lindt dark chocolate

An afternoon break from work lured me to indulge myself at Lindt Cafe located just underneath my office. Everyday is like a battle for me, resisting the temptation to spoil myself with either a cup of dark hot chocolate, macarons or cakes.

For the past couple of nights, I have been craving for a really good dessert. Climbing to bed every night with an unsatisfied feeling that my day is not complete without 'YOU'.

But tonight, I will sleep with a big grin on my face!

Wish I can eat all of them!

Opera

Quote from Lindt "This luxurious cake is made from thin layers of dark chocolate ganache, coffee butter cream & almond sponge that has been soaked in coffee syrup. The dark chocolate topping is adorned with a 24 carat gold leaf"

Chocolat Cerise

Quote from Lindt "Our Black Forest Cake is crafted using the perfect balance of Kirsch infused cherries, rich dark chocolate cake & the sweetness of vanilla cream all encased by a dark chocolate glaze & finished with perfect Lindt chocolate curls"

Unfortunately by the time I arrived home from work, the Chocolat Cerise has started to lose its shape due to the weather condition (summer time here in Sydney). I wish the shops here adopt the Japanese 'dry ice' concept. They put dry ice in the box together with the cake to keep the temperature.

Well, it doesn't stop me from enjoying my cakes!

Celebrating CNY & Valentine's Day with Adriano Zumbo's macarons

This year's Chinese New Year falls on the same day as Valentine's day. One of the tradition in celebrating CNY is to have sweets and cookies. After I did my weekly grocery at Eveleigh Farmers' Market , I head down to Adriano Zumbo Pâtissier at 296 Darling St, Balmain and get a box of macarons to complete our CNY celebration.

It was hard deciding how many macarons and what flavours to get as I wanted to try all of them! I managed to control myself and came out with only ten(10) macarons, and $20 less in my wallet (cost $2 each). 

Unfortunately I have to share my macarons and only managed to have five(5). However, I made sure that I have my hands on the Mexican Dark Chocolate and Chocolate Passionfruit. I love the Chocolate Passionfruit flavour (third from the front row in the image below), it still maintains the sourness of the fruit and was definitely less sweeter than Lindt's Passionfruit delice. I have nothing against Lindt's delice (a fan of its 70% Excellence delice), I just prefer my macarons to be on the less sweet side.

Heart shaped macarons for the special V day!

Some of the other flavours that I bought were: Normal Dark Chocolate, Caramel & Salted Chocolate, Vanilla, Rasberry, Coffee, Lychee & Pandan, and Strawberry.

I quite like the peculiar taste of the Caramel & Salted Chocolate macaron. The chewiness of the caramel blends really well with the saltiness of the chocolate.

Adriano Zumbo Café Chocolat will be one of my next destination wish list. My aim is to recruit enough ladies/daring men to devour as many cakes as we can stomach!

Care to join me?

What's the difference? Macaron vs. Macaroon

Ok, let me get this straight! I love macarons and not macaroons, yes just with the one(1) 'o'.

So, what is the difference?

For a start, macaron is a meringue based. Made from a mixture of egg whites (or you can alternate this with egg white powder), almond flour, granulated sugar (caster sugar will do the trick) and icing sugar.
The perfect macaron has a smooth, domed top and within 5(five) minutes in the oven it should have the little feet popping out at the bottom. Any longer and you still do not see those little feet, you can forget all about it.
Typically, a macaron is filled with cream ganache, simply made of chocolate, heavy cream and unsalted butter.

70% Excellence Delice (Macaron) from Lindt 

Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of macaroon to show you all the difference (never bake or buy one before). However, if you google search for macaroons you can find images, recipes and even blogs that are dedicated to them.

Most macaroon recipes call for egg whites, coconut (almond as an alternative) and caster sugar. Similar ingredients used in baking macarons, however the method/preparation is entirely different. The texture of a macaroon is more like a soft cookie, light and fluffy. 

Hopefully this mini entry clarifies your confusion =)

Macarons - Love & Hate

I have a love and hate relationship with macarons - had my first taste of macarons from Lindt a couple of years ago. They were just too sweet for my liking! Then came along the 70% Excellence Delice from Lindt, which I have come to love ever since.

Just look at how perfect they are!

You can get them individually ($2.20 each) or a pre-selected flavor box of six(6) & twelve(12). 

I made a trip to Japan in December 2009, with a mission to try the famous Pierre Hermé's macarons.

Pierre Hermé at Isetan Shinjuku, Tokyo

Bought the Christmas/New Year special edition which consist of three(3) different types of savoury macarons, of two(2) I know for sure they were truffle and foie gras. Not knowing what the other one was due to language barrier (the description was in Japanese & French), I still thoroughly enjoyed all of them.

This is where the 'hate' of my macarons story starts. With my newfound obsession of macarons, I decided to try my hands in making them. I successfully bake my first ever green tea macarons!

Before putting the batch in the oven

In the oven, perfect with the 'feet'

Fresh out of the oven, with green tea white chocolate filling

                    
Thinking that it was so easy to make, I tried making dark chocolate macarons and blueberry macarons (one after the other) without success. I was so devastated, kept searching & reading blogs after blogs and realized that it is not easy after all. I am taking a break now and hopefully I will have enough courage for another attempt soon.

In the meantime I will prepare myself for an adventure weekend with Andriano Zumbo's macarons .

Keep tune!