Central Baking Depot

A cute little bakery near work. I’ve had a number of things here, some good, some bad. Their raspberry and which choc brownie was the best I’ve ever had, and their beef pie was terrible.

The below breakfast is recommended.

My friend had the ham and cheese croissant. I’ve had it before, love, altho prefer it fresh rather than toasted

How much do I recommend the chocolate and almond croissant?? It’s a choc croissant covered with a thick later of marzipan and dusted with cocoa powder and icing sugar. Not too sweet and very creamy

coffees here are not too bad. My cousin and her hubby would recommend their iced coffee

 

Weird and Wonderful Foods~

Pork floss in a dessert? Congee milk tea? Salt, milk and green tea in a sentence, let alone in one drink? Now don’t tell me it won’t be nice before you’ve tried it, because that was the mistake my cousin made.

Pork floss Napolean

I will risk melamine and industrial plasticiser poisoning drinking pearl milk tea once each time I return to China. When I searched up milk tea on a review website, this 阿姨奶茶专卖 (Aunty’s Milk Tea Specialists) came up on top. Their best seller is this tempting combination of two favourites: purple glutinous rice and red bean congee and milk tea – like a fusion of Chinese and Western breakfasts!

I feel so lucky to be able to try this drink because the only two shops are so far far from where I live. However I inadvertently stumbled upon it whilst wandering in a major shopping district. Low and behold whilst some shops had still not reconvened business following the CNY break, this almost hawker-like tiny shop front already boasted a massive queue.

With my fresh breakfast in one warmly toasting my hands, I excitedly took my first gulp. The reviews had been so promising, but all I could think of was it could be so much better with a spoonful of sugar. How ironic that as I was queuing I contemplated requesting half sugar? To be fair, many reviewers like the fact its not sweer, so I dont think there isn’t anything wrong with the drink itself, it’s all me and how I’ve deviated from the common accepted Chinese tastes and demonised by the X of sugar.

Two years on, my food baby is still Spanish-Italian

Friday - Catch up with grads from my cohort. Found out one of them went to Egypt for the Xmas holidays, fell horribly sick from the thick smoggy air and lost 4kgs. How hateful is that?!

Half a metre of deliciousness – BBQ chicken and seafood marinara

Dessert – Sticky date pudding, Italian crepes, panna cotta (enjoyability increases from left to right)

Saturday – early CNY. We ordered Set Menu 4

Olives

Salad

Garlic shrooms and fried potato cubes with aoli and spicy sauce – both really well received.

Chorizo

Peeled king prawns in spicy tomato salsa

Seafood paella with giant mussels and prawns!

Din Tai Fung, The Star

Din Tai Fung sans the queue!

DTF’s signature dumplings 小笼包

Pork and shrimp wontons with tangy and spicy sauce – the sauce is so awesome I packed it and used it for my own noodles for the rest of the week

Vegetable wontons with tangy and spicy sauce

Pork mince and beans fried rice – my colleagues liked the fried rice

Wedding

Sometimes I amaze (not in a good way) in the amount I eat. I even broke that old adage that the bridal party does not have time to eat. I had to get up at 5:30 for hair and make up, and I ate a lot that whole day for fear my next meal would be tenuous.

The reception was held at the Vibe Hotel at North Sydney (Curve Bar & Cafe I believe), the food was quite good.

Thai marinated beef, chilli mint & coriander salad with crispy wonton

Crystal bay prawns, salt cod brandade cake, lemon & basil oil

Grilled fillet of barramundi, pea & leek risotto, broccoli, cherry tomato and olive salsa – although I came home with stinky breath

Roasted beef sirloin, potato puree, peppered asparagus, roast garlic and herb butter

Raspberry baby cheesecake with mixed berry coulis

3 layer chocolate mousse cake with vanilla bean anglaise

Cute green tea flavoured wedding cake

Cicco Chocolaterie

I’m kind of racist when it comes to desserts. I love Asian desserts like red/mung bean soup, black rice congee, rice cake… but the same cannot be said for when Asians do Western desserts. Asians tend to have milder tastes for desserts so Western desserts made the Asian way tend to be immensely toned down. The _ example is that chocolate cake from 85*C – tasted like a brown chiffon cake without a note of chocolate.

Sure when I bake I always halve the sugar and use 75% of the fat; sure I find Western desserts done properly the Western way are usually over the top. But when I have Western desserts, I want the whole package complete with overdoses of sugar and fat and other flavours.

OK I know the above was slightly self-contradictory, but it’s complicated and it’s honestly how I feel!

Hence why I would not have ventured into this cafe had it not been for the voucher in my Entertainment Book giving me a firm shove. Come on! Koreans making chocolate surely does not inspire a whole lot of confidence!

Belgian dark hot chocolate – this was really enjoyable. Kudos to the Koreans handling Western desserts Maybe it tasted so good because it wasn’t as sweet and heavy as say Lindt or Max Brenner

Chicken risotto – this was quite yummy

Caesar salad (dressing on side) my major complaint was the salad leaves didn’t look fresh and probably unwashed

Cicco Chocolaterie @ Chatswood Chase

Too Hot to Cook

43 degrees today! Walking out was like walking into an oven at its best and felt like being burnt alive at its worst. Needless to say, any cooking is out of the question, thus outsourcing the task to those who are paid to suffer is justified.

Although I have only heard bad reviews of Ozeki, it was one of the few Entertainment Book vouchers we have left for Chatswood. To be honest, it was not as bad as they say, quite the contrary, they have some decent fairs with lots of variety. Pricing was another matter, but then isn’t that the case with all sushi trains?

Aburi salmon and scallop

Tuna

Deep fried eggplant

Oyster

Fried salmon

Matcha pudding

Coffee pudding

Saved: $10.68