Sydney - Cafe Cre Asion

www.creasionmacaron.com

In Sydney for the weekend, I had hoped to try and make it over to Adriano Zumbo's patisserie for some macarons, however as this was probably not going to be likely, I searched for somewhere else to grab some as a present for L. 

I came across Cafe CreAsion on the NSW Urbanspoon site, it had been reviewed by numerous bloggers and seemed to be the place to go in the CBD for macarons.

My friend and I trudged around the city trying to find it, and finally managed to locate it in this little back street at about 5 o'clock on the Saturday. I hadn't high hopes for actually finding the place open at this time, but to my surprise it was, although all they were selling was macarons, which was okay by me.

Max Brenner Southbank

http://www.maxbrenner.com.au/

Months after Max Brenner at Southbank opening, we finally were able to figure out a time when the line to order wasn’t 8.35 kilometres long. Apparently this time is NOT on a Saturday night, a Sunday afternoon, or a weekday night, but on a Monday at about 2.30pm. 

We’ve visited the Max Brenner at Robina a few times, so were familiar with the menu and the amazing chocolateyness that awaited us. I am sure most foodies would be extremely familiar with Max Brenner.

I was quite set on ordering the Tutti- frutti waffles (waffles served with ice-cream, banana and strawberries with melted chocolate), however as soon as we spotted the menu with the Euphoria Banana Split Waffle Sundae ($14.50) on it, we decided immediately that we had to have this. 

Nikumaki Honpo and Papparoti

www.papparoti.com.au

This post incorporates two eateries as we bought food from both of them for our lunch on the weekend. 

I saw a post on Nikumaki Honpo on another blog and decided I just had to try it out, so we drove over to the new Warrigal Square Shopping Centre fortunately not far from our house on Sunday to grab lunch. This shopping complex looks super exciting, as there is a Madtongsan branch there, eeeeep, and also Little Nyonya, which is a branch of the Little Singapore chain (not yet open).

Walking in, we passed by Papparoti, which I was very excited about. I’ve seen Papparoti stores in Sydney and also in Vietnam when we visited, but we hadn’t gotten to try them at all. 

Firstly, Nikumaki Honpo:

This was touted as being the latest and greatest thing in Japan. Basically, nikumaki honpo is a ball of rice, wrapped in marinated pork slices, ovenbaked, and then with mayonnaise on top.

There is the option of plain for $4 each, or with cheese on top for $4.50 each. There were also free condiments of either fresh chilli or coriander on top as well. Of course, L got fresh chilli on his. 

Passione Gelateria and Dessert Bar

We popped into Passione Gelateria after dinner at Teneriffe one weekend evening. 
We perused their menu and admired the various chocolates and cakes in the display cabinet but in the end just decided to go with gelati. 

I got a scoop of Kinder Surprise and a scoop of Strawberries and Cream

L had Milk Chocolate and Stracciatella

Dodgy Cupcake Efforts

I wish I was amazing at baking cupcakes like some of the writers of the blogs that I read. Okay, so I have so far not put in much effort towards achieving my dream, however I am getting there and would like to share a couple of photos of the first cupcakes that I have baked. 

Yes, they look fairly sad however I am still slightly proud of them. 

Vanilla cupcakes with basic glace icing... I had a massive fight with the icing and got very angry

Chocolate cupcakes with choc buttercream frosting... first effort at piping anything.. very sad

Freestyle Tout Emporium

www.freestyletout.com.au

L and I have consumed so many calories at Freestyle it’s not funny. Usually we visit the Freestyle at West End however seeing as we were out for dinner in the Valley, we decided we just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to visit Freestyle at Emporium.

There was a short line at the door however we were soon seated. There wasn’t a spare table in the restaurant which is testament to how popular Freestyle is. If you want to eat dessert in Brisbane, then this is the place to be.

L ordered his usual Creme Brulee (seriously, he never orders anything else, and I demand to know when it’s my turn to order it!). This was accompanied by fairy floss, mixed berries, raspberry sorbet, vanilla bean icecream and biscotti. The brulee was perfectly set and the fairy floss was an interesting sweet touch. The raspberry sorbet was a bit sour for my liking. 

Sydney - Lindt Cafe

www.lindt.com.au

L and I took off for a naughty weekend getaway to Sydney. L has only been to Sydney once and I haven’t really been and visited the city area for a couple of years so we were excited and fully prepared to eat a lot of food. As soon as we touched down and got to our hotel which was situated near Darling Harbour, we took off for a stroll around the Harbour area and headed straight for the Lindt cafe, which I’ve previously had the pleasure of  sampling.

 

Unfortunately it was a Saturday afternoon, which meant we had to contend with the usual multitude of tourists as well as Sydney-siders out enjoying their weekend. The Lindt cafe was majorly crowded and we had a lot of trouble finding a table. The tables that were there were also chockers with empty glasses and plates that hadn’t been cleared.

L ordered the vanilla waffles for us to share, and we resolved to buy a few of their chocolates and their yummy delices to scoff later at the hotel. 

Strawberry Bread

Because L does ALL the cooking at home (I hate cooking dinner), I occasionally start feeling guilty and feel like I should cook something, anything.

So lately I have been trying to get into baking and desserts. So far I have had a few attempts at slices and biscuits, and a failed chocolate cake. I also don’t have many of the utensils required for baking, so am slowly accumulating various tins etc.

I found this recipe for strawberry bread by trolling through other foodie blog sites. I am a big fan of banana bread and I love strawberries and so this seemed interesting. 

The recipe link is:

http://www.natalieskillercuisine.com/2010/04/strawberry-sour-cream-loaf.html#more-337 

I usually spend just as much time on lining the cake tin as I do mixing up the batter. I like to painstakingly get it perfectly lined until there are no creases left, and in doing so usually waste about three metres of baking paper. Oh well......

This strawberry bread was super easy to make.

Ingredients:

•  1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 cups strawberries, quartered