There’s nothing quite like playing tourist in your own city. Sure, I was born and bred in Sydney and love it to bits but there’s always something that I discover that makes me find it endlessly fascinating again. Queen Viv, Miss America and my husband and I are walking the short distance from a restaurant to the Shangrila Hotel for a Sugar Hit. Along the way we walk traverse some back streets, not usually somewhere that we’d go but we are feeling perhaps foolishly brave because of our numbers and the consumption of alcohol. I contemplate my weapons should anyone untoward attack us-I have at my disposal…a pair of heels. Hmm they are heels but they’re wedges so perhaps not quite the weapon I need. I also have my bag and a camera bag and that looks to be about it. It’s too late to turn back anyway and we’re reminded of our Jack the Ripper tour in London. Luckily the lane ways are warmly lit and have names such as Long’s Lane, a tilted brick lane.
We reach the Shangrila at 10:05pm exactly for our 10pm booking. My phone vibrates in my bag-the waiter is calling me and I tell him that we are in the lobby lounge waiting for someone to show us to a table. He tells us “Oh you didn’t know about the 15 minute rule? If no-one turns up then we give the table away”. Hmmm fair enough, except we are only 5 minutes late so it seems like an overeager gesture.
Brown Brothers Cienna Dessert wine
Interestingly, our dessert wine is a chilled red wine, not the usual golden sweet nectar we are usually served. It’s light and sweet and reminiscent of redcurrants.
Heavenly Bliss Mocktail $12
We sit down and contemplate the strawberry themed Sugar Hit. One of my readers flapflap had said that it was good for Strawberry lovers and we are indeed that (Queen Viv doesn’t like chocolate so we gave the chocolate themed Sugar Hits a wide berth). We also order a Mocktail, a Heavenly Bliss with a fruity and antioxidant packed sounding blend of fruit. It has mango, pineapple, strawberry, cranberry, orange with fresh blueberries. I don’t really see the blueberries in this, perhaps there aren’t many of those. It is rich, viscous and of course very fruity.
Strawberry and rhubarb mascarpone dacquoise with creme fraiche ice-cream accompanied by licorice infused strawberries complemented with Brown Brothers Cienna Dessert wine $20
Our Sugar Hits are brought to us shortly afterwards: a combination of strawberry and rhubarb mascarpone dacquoise with creme fraiche ice-cream accompanied by licorice infused strawberries, complemented with Brown Brothers Cienna Dessert wine.
Strawberry and rhubarb mascarpone dacquoise
The leaning strawberry and rhubarb mascarpone dacquoise is impressive looking but the dacquoise tastes like a firm whipped cream rather than mascarpone. There is a pastry base rather than the traditional meringue base.
Creme fraiche ice-cream
The creme fraiche ice cream is nice and certainly true to flavour, the flame toffee decoration is adorable and ranges in colour from toffee to red.
Licorice infused strawberries
I am not a huge licorice fan but the licorice infused strawberries are so mildly flavoured that we have trouble discerning any licorice flavour. There is a slight flavour of something but it is so mild we cannot put our finger on it.
There is also a shortbread biscuit on which sits a single licorice infused strawberry. The biscuit needs some vanilla and is fairly average as is the strawberry. It’s probably my least favourite part of the plate.
We lie back in the comfortable lounges and Miss America threatens to curl up in one for the night.
I leave you with some pictures of our little laneway walk to the Shangrila.
Looking transported in time, the old fashioned Susannah Place shop and museum looks like there are current inhabitants (from the washing on the line).
We also see some curious footprints on the tunnel wall on Cumberland Street leading towards Observatory Hill.
Long’s Lane-rather eerie late at night and just a bit too Jack the Ripper-ish!
Shangri-La Hotel
176 Cumberland Street, The Rocks
Tel: +61 (02) 9250 6123
Sugar Hits are available during the month of October 2008 at the Lobby Lounge from 8pm.
If you enjoyed this post, why not share it with your friends?
What is NQN up to now?
NQN on Facebook
RSS
16 Comments | Add your own
Jack the Ripper and Sydney – not a comforting thought for my upcoming visit. The Strawberry delight sounds great though!
Ooh, that does look like a scary laneway! The icecream with toffee decoration looks lovely..and like it would be something I’d enjoy
I did the Susannah Place tour a few years ago and it is so very interesting – a Sydney must do.
No, not jack the ripper. Playing Beattie Bow! You might have turned down the wrong lane and slipped back to the 18th century …. If you haven’t read the book I highly recommend it, walking around the Rocks at night will never be the same.
Good on you – so few of us really take the time to explore our own cities. I love the toffee decoration in the creme fraiche icecream – Tartlette did something like this a little while ago, with technicolour toffee that looked like staiend glass.
oh i didn’t like those serving plates that all of the food was displayed on. reminds me too much of slumped glass. ewwwww!
you just can’t beat white.
afterall, the food’s the star, surely?
Yum yum!
(please please go back to full feeds! I love reading all your goodness in my feedreader!)
I was wondering if your shoes is a comfortable one as seem you did walk a lot that night.
Which is the best sugar hit that you can recommend to us since October going to be finished soon?
Mmmmmm I want to try it… only a few days left haha and awesome back-in-time shots! THe presentation is fabulous and I am glad that the licorice flavour is mild haha.
Hi Barbara-Rest assured that Jack the Ripper didn’t grace our shores!
Hi Maria-My husband and I both had the same thought at the same time when we faced it: “This is just like the Jack the Ripper tour!”
Toffee decorations are definitely lovely additions.
Hi Belimda-Oh I didn’t realise there was a tour, sounds interesting! Might have to go on that!
Hi SydneyGal -Yes I’ve read Playing Beattie Bow (it was on the school curriculum) but this was most definitely Jack the Ripper!
Hi Cakelaw-There’s something so nice about being a stranger in your own city. I feel like I can be curious but I’m safe too? Ooh that technicolour toffee sounds amazing, I must check it out!
Hi the projectivist-I didn’t mind it really, I thought it was quite interesting and certainly looked nice to eat! Haha maybe but perhaps they felt like they needed a bit of help from the plates?
Hi Amelia-Thanks!
After some careful consideration I decided to make the blog feed a partial feed. The reason being for that is simply traffic. When people read the stories through google reader, they’re not counted as traffic to my site. And the sad truth is that for most blogs to survive, we need traffic.
Food blogs are notoriously expensive to keep up, not only the cost of the blog itself and hosting but also the cost of the food made and eaten out so keeping up traffic is one step towards being able to have NQN pay for itself. It’s just not possible to do this long term in the same vein as producing a brand new story every single day is very labour intensive.
I’m not sure which feed reader you’re using but mine is very easy to click through to the story, there is a little arrow that clicks through to it and it’s brought up in a new tab instantly. Perhaps yours is more difficult? I use google reader if that helps
Anyway I hope I don’t lose any readers and that you don’t mind clicking on the forward arrow. I hope you understand my position and I the fact that I want NQN to continue for many years to come
Hi Lilia-My feet were fine thanks. A walk after dinner is good for the digestion. It was barely a walk at that, less than 10 minutes of walking really.
I’ve only tried three but I liked the atmosphere here and at the Intercontinental but the Sugar hit at the Kings Cross hotel was pretty good but I did not like the atmosphere or location very much.
Hi FFichiban-Yes only a few days to go you’re right! I love the historical building in The Rocks and often think I’d like to live there! Yes mild licorice is good indeed…
i’ve been in bed for 2 hours by 10 pm, but i’d gladly get up and brave dark alleys for some goodness like what i see here. awesome.
Hi grace-Oh really? But all of the fun happens late at night!
Wow, was that really at the Rocks? I don’t even recognise any of those back streets! (Not that I frequent them!)
YUM! I love all things Strawberry. Wish I was in Sydney to enjoy this!
Hi Y-Yep right in the middle of the Rocks down a street I had never visited before!
Hi Teresa-Aww no, just a few days left too! :S
One Trackback/Pingback
[...] desserts don’t look that unusual so as we’re off to a Sugar Hit afterwards we pass on those. We’re full with food (Tea Smoked Duck, Oysters with Port Wine), some great [...]
Post a Comment