Can you believe that Easter is around the corner already? Where has the year gone?
Well either way, you know what this means: IT’S TIME FOR GUILT FREE CHOCOLATE AGAIN!!!
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White Chocolate Cheesecake Eggs with Lemon Curd Recipe + Giveaway!
Posts tagged chocolate
A quick pash: Passion Tree, Chatswood
Foodie friends are the best. They feed you, they eat with you…and they don’t judge you when you decided to eat a crap ton of sugar and call it dinner.
In fact, they’ll do it with you.
Selection of Macarons
That’s pretty much what happened when Simon, Christine and myself went to the opening night of Passion Tree at the new The District Dining in Chatswood. We pretty much had a “give me one of everything” moment, and it’s no child’ s play, let me tell you that much.
And it didn’t help that I was prepping some food at home before the event and only had roast chicken skin to eat. Yes. The whole chicken.
ARE YOU PROUD OF ME NOW MA?? ARE YOU PROUD OF ME???!!!
Green Tea Bingsu
Anyhoo, you know how sugar always seems like a good idea as a kid because you pretty much don’t remember the crash afterward? Like how women who go through childbirth supposedly have some sort of amnesia that makes that forget the worst of the ordeal?
Yeah. No such luck here. We knew we were heading straight for a sugar crash, and we were going down in a blaze of glory.
Original Honey Toast
We started off with macarons, which were surprisingly good in texture, but lacking in the flavour department. And in the age of Adriano Zumbo, there’s no reason to have bland macarons. The Chocolate didn’t much taste like chocolate, and the Blueberry left us scratching our heads wondering what we just ate.
The Jasmine was the best of the lot, bringing out lovely floral notes that made a macaron refreshing. Salted caramel and Strawberry came a close second, with actual oozing strawberry sauce coming out of the bright pink macaron.
We then had the Green Tea Bingsu, which is a Korean dessert made of finely shaved ice and topped with all sorts of ingredients, from fruit, to cereal, to ice cream. yes, it IS customary to have ice cream on top of your shaved ice, and don’t let anybody tell you different.
Unfortunately though, this was no Kanzi cafe and its towering pile of melon and snowflakes. In this case the actual shaved ice was not quite finely shaved enough, and somehow managed to be a touch watery. The green tea ice cream was quite nice but not especially so, and the cereal and azuki toppings made it all like a Japanese parfait. So points for that.
The Original Honey Toast gallantly rode in and saved the day – crispy-on-the-outside-fluffy-on-the-inside toast (or should I say, loaf) was drizzled with sauce and covered with ice cream and whipped cream. And a blueberry sauce on the side, just for funsies. I really enjoyed how the really absorbed all of the melted ice cream and sauce while retaining its crunch, and it gave me the same warm, fuzzy feeling like when you dip garlic bread in soup. But sweet.
Think about it. Yeah, you know that feeling.
Frozen Blended Drinks (Turkish Delight, Chocolate and Green Tea)
And this point we were about to keel over in a sugar crash so large it would reduce any rational adult into a floor-lying-air-kicking tantrum, so we decided to wash it all down…with sugary ice blended drinks.
DO. NOT. JUDGE. ME. JUST DON’T.
The Turkish Delight was my favourite of the lot, with actual Turkish delight pieces in the rose and chocolate flavoured drink. Colour me impressed. And pink. Like the colour of Turkish delight. It did get a touch cloyingly sweet about halfway through, but that may just be influenced by the fact that we were already hitting that wall of sugar rush. Just maybe.
Smores Waffle
And you know what the treatment is when you hit a wall where you think you can’t go on any more? You push past the pain. It’s exactly like running. Or an all you can eat.
Same same, really.
So we head right back down the rabbit hole with waffles.
Caramel Popcorn Waffle
We were pushing past that wall so hard, we ordered two waffles. TWO. Take that, sugar crash. The S’mores waffle was a diabetes-inducing Nutella-marshmallow-strawberries-and-cream, while the Caramel Popcorn was a more straightforward caramel sauce/popcorn/cream sorta deal.
The S’mores coulda really don’t with some actual blowtorching of the marshmallow – rather than just the pillowy white gooey state it was in – Aqua S style. And no Nutella. Please no Nutella. It just pushed it over the top, and gave me that sticky peanut-butter-on-the-roof-of-your-mouth sticky feeling. Caramel Popcorn was heaps better, but really should be enjoyed without cream.
Repeat after me. Whipped cream does not make everything better.
I like that Passion Tree joins the ranks of other late night dessert cafes like Max Brenner and Oliver Brown without completely cornering you into the chocolate corner. It may be sacrilegious to say, but I don’t always want chocolate in my dessert, thank you very much. Sure, it’s not crazy amazing in terms of the food, but with a tiny kitchen just for assembly, it’s really more about giving you a bright space to have a seat with your friends and while the night away over some sugar. And I think they’ve done that nicely.
Not everyone can be a Cafe Creasion, you know.
Insatiable Munchies dined as guests of Passion Tree.
Passion Tree
The District Dining
Chatswood Interchange
436 Victoria Avenue
Chatswood NSW
Website: http://www.passiontree.com.au/chatswood-interchange.html
He’s in love with that..Koko Black, Sydney CBD
A kiss on the hand may be quite continental, but diamonds are a girl’s best friend.
Screw diamonds, I say. Chocolate has been a more dependable best friend to many girls around the world, and has the ability to literally make you feel more warm and fuzzy inside.
Especially when it comes in the form of a rich, dark chocolate.
Koko Black is one of the latest Melbourne “imports” to arrive in Sydney, and when it comes to chocolate and all things decadent, Sydney pretty much has no self-restraint.
The salon downstairs provide a nook for you to relax with your chocolate of choice, and at the risk of sounding slightly blasphemous, their hot chocolate is SO much better than Lindt, Guylian or Max Brenner. Rich but still drinkable, Koko Black strikes a good balance between thick, pure chocolate sludge, and thin chocolate milk.
The Chocolate Gateau was stood firmly on the rich side of things, and it taught me a firm lesson that even though it may seem like a good idea, I shouldn’t order more than two things off the menu at the same time.
It was, though, a lovely experience. The cafe staff were efficient without being hovering, and there was a feeling that you could hang out there all afternoon without being chased away.
Oh and if you’re thinking about buying some chocolate to take home, just a note that Koko Black’s eating chocolate doesn’t seem to have quite the same amount of cocoa butter as say, Lindt, which means that it’s not quite as sexy. A bit like when you bring home that chick that looks hot in a dark club.
But yeah, stick to the hot chocolate. =)
This meal was independently paid for.
Koko Black
412-414 George St
Sydney, NSW
Phone: (02) 9230 0069
Website: http://www.kokoblack.com/category/salon/sydney/
D’oh nut: The Whisk and Crumb, Lover’s Markets
Never since the renaissance has there been a revival so rampant like that of the humble doughnut. Mostly made with yeast leavened dough that’s been deep fried and coated in sugar, the humble treat with a hole has now been refined and expanded to gastronomical proportions, with every filling, frosting, and topping you can get.
In other words – in this day and age – there’s no reason to produce a bad doughnut.
Pretzel and Peanut Butter Doughnut
So when I saw The Whisk and Crumb at the Parramatta Lovers Markets, I instantly caved to my sugar cravings. After all, who can resist chocolate topped doughnuts with popcorn, peanut butter, milky ways, and other delicious things designed to trigger an insulin spike to end all insulin spikes?
Milky way and chocolate doughnut
Unfortunately, these doughnuts are better conceptually than in execution. And expensive, to boot. Two tiny doughnuts cost $10 (or $5.50) for one, and while the toppings were inventive, the texture of the actual doughnuts were cakey, and dry. And if I wanted to just buy candy, I would’ve just gone into the confectionary aisle and bought candy.
So much promise, so much disappointment. D’oh!
This meal was independently paid for.
The Whisk and Crumb
Lovers Markets
Centenary Square, Parrmatta NSW 2150
Phone: +61 2 4782 3975
Website: https://instagram.com/thewhiskncrumb/
What to do in the Hunter Valley if you don’t drink!
It’s hard being a non-drinker. You get constant shocked looks every time you tell someone that you don’t drink, and entire destinations like the Hunter Valley – which plays host to beautiful vineyards and wineries – always seem just out of reach. Cause what are you going to do if you don’t drink wine, amirite?
Well, not exactly.
Christine and I – both “fuddy duddy” non drinkers – went on a girls’ weekend out to the Hunter, and had a TON of non-alcoholic fun along the way.
One a penny, two a penny: Hot Cross Bun Cocktails!
Coming from a country that isn’t all that into Easter celebrations, I think I’ve properly embraced this time of year since moving to Australia. As soon as the last licks of Christmas clears off the shelves of the supermarket, Easter charges right in, with Hot Cross Buns and so much chocolate and related confectionary you can see children’s footprints trailing up the walls.
I love a good spiced fruit bread, and hot cross buns to me are convenient, travel sized portions for all your fruit bread needs. Inspired, I decided that those flavours would work fantastically in a cocktail, served (of course) in an Easter Egg.
Summer breeze, makes me feel fine…Cloud 9 Chocolate Cafe, Newtown
I swear, all the ice cream advertising I’ve been exposed to all my life must be working, because when the days have been hot, sticky, and yucky, as they’ve been, all I want is a cool, sweet, frozen treat, to chase away the summer heat.
Oh who am I kidding. I don’t need a reason to want dessert.
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Willie’s Cacao + Recipe for Chocolate Vodka and Chocolate Hot Sauce
Ever wondered what a real-life Willy Wonka is like?
Well, meet William Harcourt-Cooze – British Chocolate maker and enthusiast, and about as close to the quirky confectionary-obsessed Roald Dahl character that we all know and love.
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