noredmeat.com

It feels like I haven’t done a post in awhile…probably because I haven’t! Just been a busy bee lately but I have loads of foodie goodness to come this year.

My visit back to Sydney in September was full of foodie delights and I was lucky enough to sample a few baked treats. My sis and the other half of noredmeat.com loves chocolate, (especially in baked goods) just as much as me! So when she achieved her goal of running the Sydney running festival half marathon in under 2 hours, I surprised her with this exquisite Concorde cake from Bacco Pasticceria in Chiefly Plaza. Surrounding the chocolate and hazelnut (I think!) mousse were columns of chocolate meringue. The internal layers of meringue added a nice crunch to the silky mousses.

This concorde was one of many delights on offer from Bacco, so if you are lucky enough to work or study nearby, then get on down to the Chiefly Plaza and bag yourself some goodness!

LG03, Chifley Plaza, 2 Chifley Square, Sydney NSW 2000

As I have been living in London, I haven’t seen the Australian version of Masterchef, but I have still managed to hear all about the genius that is Adriano Zumbo. So scheduling in a visit to his Balmain store was always on the cards. By the time we arrived it was late afternoon and so the selection was pretty slim. After some debating, we settled on two very chocolatey choices.

The first one was an intense chocolate sacher. Whoa! As I said…intense! I’m not too sure what all the layers were but it was basically layer upon layer of rich mudcake-type sponge layered with a ganache. As mum would say, it was ‘wicked’. Not for the feint hearted!

The second one called  ‘Danny has tickets to her box office’ consisted of a chocolate pop rock and popcorn disc, vanilla almond chantilly, dulce de leche, flourless chocolate sponge and almond feulletine. This was pretty exciting to eat as the chocolate pop rock emitted slight explosions into your mouth. And the popcorn pieces gave it a real ‘night at the movies’ feel.

It would be nice to taste some of Zumbo’s other treats – next time we may even branch out of the chocolate spectrum!

Now I have heard Anita gush about Laurent Patisserie, but when I actually saw the shop in Bondi Westfield, it was like an awakening. This little treat called ‘Christine’ was like a trip to Paris. Laurent is a French patisserie with another store on Manly wharf and a bunch in Melbourne…lucky things. Christine herself was decadent. Brownie biscuit, valrhona milk chocolate mousse and a touch of creme brulee. Check out the cross section – this was heaven!

The Bondi store is in Westfield at Kiosk K107 Westfield 500 Oxford Street Bondi Junction, NSW 2022, (02) 9386 5181.

A few hours before I had to fly back to London, Anita and I did a last minute dash to Bourke Street Bakery. As it was late afternoon there wasn’t too much left, but we did manage to get our paws on these luscious pear tarts! The bakery now has a massive cookbook on sale which looks like it has many of the recipes they use. It is quite fun to peer into the window and salivate at all the goodies on display. Next time we will have to get down there early so we can have a larger selection to umm and ahhh over!

633 Bourke Street Surry Hills (Corner Devonshire Street)
Tel: +61 (02) 9699-1011.
Open Tue-Fri 7am-6pm, Sat-Sun 8am-5pm
Also located at 130 Broadway, tel: 92813113

Please note that not all of these baked treats were enjoyed on the same day. I don’t think even foodies such as us are up to that!

1. Vietnamese rice paper rolls in Sydney
2. Billu’s Indian Eatery, Harris Park, Sydney.