Dragon Beard Candy and Cream Puffs, Chinatown (Haymarket)

One Friday evening, Mr FBC and I find ourselves looking for dessert in Chinatown after finishing dinner. Luckily we managed to stumble across the regular and bustling Friday Chinatown Night Market (located on Dixon Street). It's a great market with lots of food stalls (satay sticks, Japanese Takoyaki - Octopus Balls etc etc). However, our mission was to find dessert!

We got to halfway along market street when I spied a sign which read 'Dragon Beard Candy'.... I made a 'b-line' for pure curiosity.

Luckily there was a sign which explained it all. Dragon Beard Candy is a traditional chinese sweet. It's made of corn syrup. The sugar is pulled by hand and made into fine white threads. The threads are used to wrap the fillng made of shredded coconut, peanuts and sesame. It's a unique sweet.

Dragon Beard Candy making action....The sugar threads are soft and melt in your mouth. It becomes a bit of a sticky toffee mess once mixed in with the nutty filling. But I like it... a lot. Can't remember how much it costs... I think about $1 each?
The Dragon Beard Candy was nice and different... but are we satisifed? Nah...

So, we got our dessert course no.2. For this, we went to our regular joint at the end of Dixon Street, Emperors Garden Bakery for the 'Emperors Cream Puff'. You buy the cream puffs from a small discrete window next door to the main bakery. The Cream Puffs are yummy fluffy little morsels filled with hot custard (as the puffs are usually made fresh on site - check out the special custard injecting puff making machine!).

At 30c each or $1 for 4.... who could refuse ?(at least 4... or 8 or 12!).

The custard is creamy and usually piping hot...yummo!

You'll find the Emperor's Cream Puff (located next to Emperors Garden Cakes and Bakery) at:
75 Dixon Street, Haymarket
9281 5989.

Baklawa and Burek, Rockdale

Baklawa and Burek... who would thought that they would go together? But they do.

Mr FBC and I were heading to a birthday party in Newcastle and offered to bring some desserts. What could we bring??? Ahhh... baklawa of course. So, off we went one early Saturday morning at 8.30am looking to get some baklawa from Ibrahims at Rockdale.

Unfortunately, we got there too early and Ibrahims was still closed. Doh! Having half an hour to kill, we went walking down the Princes Highway to find out what was happening in the downtown Rockdale on a Saturday morning. Answer: Not much actually... but we did find out that there were a number of macedonian bakeries specialising in burek. Yay!

A spinach and feta burek - from different angles.

Burek is a baked or fried filled pastry and filled with feta, minced meat, potatoes or vegetatables. The Burek bakeries were open so we sampled a spinach and feta 'burek' from Alexanders. The pastry reminds me of turkish bread.

I will be back for more. This little burek was only a snack while waiting for our baklawa.

Alexander's Bakery Cafe - 494 Princes Hwy. Ph:9567 6796

After our burek snack, we headed back down the Princes Highway to Ibrahims.

Don't you just love a pastry shop that sell things by the kilo and doesn't break the bank? I'll have a kilo of baklawa, please!

The displays are mezmerising as you stare at the towers of sickly sweet and sticky baklawa in all their delicious syrupy glory.

Here's a photo of our platter of baklawa and pistachio barma. A mixture of about 40 pieces costs around $30. Good value if you ask me.

You'll find 'Ibrahim Pastry' at:
412 Princes Hwy, Rockdale, NSW, 2216
ph (02) 95972071

Empanadas from La Paula

I loooooove pastry and I looooove savoury food. So, naturally I loooooooove Empanadas.

One Saturday afternoon, Mr FBC and I find ourselves in Randwick/Kingsford looking for a place to eat when I recall reading about a little empanada place in Kingsford on Not Quite Nigella's foodblog.

Low and behold, after a bit of a trek from Anzac Parade and down Gardners Road, we get sign that we are near - the big "EMPANANDAS" sign that is.

Yay.. we've found La Paulas - bakers of Chilean Empanadas and Sweets

You know you've stepped into somewhere out of the ordinary and different when you a greeted with a big "Hola" :). La Paulas is filled with locals and decked out with lots of Chilean posters and trinkets.

We tried a few things from the menu...

First there was the Empanada de espinaca $3.70

The emapanda is baked (not fried) and the pastry is tasty and not too flaky - hate those crumbs. The filling is nice and oozy with the spinach/cheese mixture.

Next we tried Humitas ($4.90). This typical Chilean dish is made of fresh shredded sweetcorn with spices and is wrappred in corn leaves. There is a slight resemblence to scrambled eggs... but it tastes more like creamed corn. Again... I loooove corn so I loooove humitas.

And, finally, a meal is not complete without a little dessert. So Mr FBC and I have a little chilean shortbread (about $1.50) from the many sweets on display.

You can find La Paula at:
118 Gardeners Road Kingsford

Ph: 9663 1041

Baa Baa Sheep Cake from 85 C Cake Shop, Sydney

Isn't this the cutiest looking sheep ever!!!

Saw this cute sheep cake in the window of 85 C Cake shop on George Street while I was walking home one day. I went back a week later to buy the cake and used the excuse of partaking in a 'Masterchef' finale night as a reason for buying the cake.


I'm calling it the 'Baa Baa Sheep Cake'. The body of the sheep is made of sponge cake and the 'wool' is made with dollops of chantilly cream. The face was made of pink strawberry icing.


Will be back soon to taste all the other delectable desserts on display.

Btw... they don't stock many Sheep Cakes so I recommend calling ahead and asking to put one aside for you.

Details:
Shop 9 , 545-551 George Street
Meriton Tower, Sydney 2000
TEL:(02) 9264-8585

Zumbo Mania

Mr FBC and I had every intention to go to the now infamous 'Adriano Zumbo' Patisserie in Balmain before he appeared on Masterchef with his Croquembouche, Tonka Bean Pannacotta with Passionfruit slick & Chocolate Mousse Cake Creations. But... alas... we didn't :(

So, by the time I got there on an recent Saturday morning there was a very,very long line of eager people keen to partake in 'Zumbo Mania'.

However, all our worries were gone when we got to the front of the line. We bought a couple of croissants, a few macaroons and a bright red little cake creatively entitled 'Escape from a Columbian Rainforest'.

Note to self re: macaroons. I highly recommend the salt and vinegar flavoured macaroons. Sounds odd... but tastes great!

Now for some photos of 'Escape from a Columbian Rainforest' - truly a work of (cake) art. I've taken to calling it 'Coke Can Cake with Gooey Bright Red Syrup'. I've noticed Mr Zumbo now has a new and improved version of the cake with a very life-like softdrink can lid (which is made of chocolate but painted silver). A Table for Two (an awesome foodblog with fantastic food photography) has photos of the earlier version of the cake.

Here are my photos

Ta Dah... I present the Coke Can Cake.

Aint it pretty! It's simply too good to eat.

But we must try a little. It's made of a chocolate sponge, chocolate mousse and inside there is also bright red gooey fiz wiz like syrup...yummo!

Oh no... it's all gone :( How did that happen?

Adriano Zumbo Patisserie
296 Darling St
Balmain NSW 2041
(02) 9810 7318
www.adrianozumbo.com‎

Ceeeeelebrate good times.. C'mon (to Tetsuyas)

Mr FBC and I have been wanting to go to Tetsuyas for aaaaaages.

You need a good occasion to go to Tetsuyas (primarily because for the price for a dinner for two you could buy a pretty nice handbag and matching shoes!). And, what better occasion than the 10 year anniversary of Mr and Mrs FBC.

Btw..was I the only one wondering why Tetsuya Wakada did not feature on the Masterchef series? Maybe cos he's in a class of his own.

Having booked over 7 months ago for this anniversary dinner we were sooooooo excited at the opportunity to dine here. As soon as you step into this restaurant... you know you're somewhere special.

Being new to foodblogging we weren't sure of the 'food photographing' protocols. So, we asked one of the waiters if we could take photos of the food and he said 'Yes - of course you can!' with a big smile.

So.. of we went... snapping away at each course (except for course no.1) before devouring every bit. Hope you enjoy the photos. Although, not sure if our photos do the food justice?!

For your info, course no.1 was a 'Cepe & Chesnut Mushroom Soup with Shaved Mushroom'... but we forgot to take a photo - doH!. We did manage to take photos of all the other courses.

So..here goes...

Course No. 2 - Pacific Oysters with Rice Vinegar & Ginger
Mr FBC doesn't like oysters... but he liked these ones.

Course No. 3 - Smoked Ocean Trout & Avruga Caviar. There was also an egg yolk on top of the trout. The waitress suggested that the dish is best eaten all mixed up. And indeed it was..

Course No. 4 - Leek and Crab Custard - delicate soup. I thought the lone little green dot on the edge of the soup was cute.

Course No. 5 - Sashimi of Blue Fin Tuna with Wasabi & Ginger

Course No. 6 - Tetsuya's Signature Dish - Confit of Petuna Tasmanian Ocean Trout with Konbu, Apple, Daikon & Wasabi Seasonal Green Salad

The trout was delicious with a very flavoursome salty crust.

Course 7 Terrine of Queensland Spanner Crab with Avocado. Cute as a button.

Course 8 - Grilled Fillet of Barramundi with Braised Baby Fennel

Course 9 - Wagyu Beef with Lime & Wasabi

Course 10 - Twice Cooked deboned spatchcock with spelt risotto & Manjimup Truffles

This was the first time that I've had truffles!?

Course 12 - Cannelli Beans and Mascarpone - this was very unsual... salty and sweet. The dish was meant to be a palate cleanser to help with the transition between the mains to desserts.

And onto the 3 courses of desserts..

Course 13 - Pear Sorbet with Orange Jelly & Custard Apple Mont Blanch

Lemon Scented Floating Island with Vanilla Bean Anglaise

Course 14 -Chocolate Ganach with Green Tea & Red Beans. This was the dessert that made me go from satisfied to 'really full'. The dessert is definitely sexy... with it's shiny little chocolate hat tipped to the side. There was one layer in the dish which I wasn't too sure about. I think it may have been the red beans... but it sort of had a salty seaweed taste?!

Course 15 - Chocolate Fondant with Hazelnut & Praline.

And last but not least....Petit Fours to accompany our coffees. There was a green tea cake, chocolate macaroon and I can't remember the third item as I was really, really full so couldn't think straight.

So full.... so satisfied. To top it off... the restaurant had fabulous waitstaff who were professional, informative and extremely attentive. We'll see you again 'Testuyas'!

Testsuya's Restaurant

529 Kent Street

Sydney

Tel: 92672900

Wagaya - Haymarket (Chinatown)

Having been inspired by a few foodblogs (Not Quite Nigella & Grab Your Fork ) and a curiousity for 'touchscreen' ordering, Mr FBC and I plus a few of our friends decided to try Wayaga in Haymarket, Chinatown.

Warning - it's very easy to get carried away with the touch screen ordering system.

Sorry - forgot to take photos of the touchscreen... but you can see piccies on other foodblogs (Not Quite Nigella ). Basically you order your dishes from the touch screen menu and then 'voila'.. the dishes appear in no time.

Here are some photos.

A platter of yummy sushi and sashimi.

Oxtongue Skewers.... taste like beef?

And one of the most exciting dishes of the evening.... Sushi Roulette! One of the little suckers is filled with hot wasabi. Fortunately, neither I or Mr FBC were the victims of the Wasabi bomb.


Here are the details for the place...

Wagaya

Level 1, 78-86 Harbour Street,

Haymarket Chinatown, Sydney

Tel: +61 (02) 9212 6068