My friend Teena has been telling me about Ganache many times over. You see she is a friend of the owner’s wife and as a croissant fan or fiend, she adores the croissants here. So after a lunch together one day we make our way over to Ganache in Castlecrag. Having undergone a recent renovation earlier this year it looks oh so French in an understated way.
If you’ve been reading my tweets on twitter, you’ll know of my ongoing saga with our house renovations. We were originally told that the bathroom would take 12 days. It had been 6 weeks exactly since that fateful day and we’ve endured complaints from neighbours about hammering at 2am and yawning stretches of them disappearing for 2 weeks. So my Mother got serious and asked her friend Janice who works in construction to have a word to them. She did and he snapped into action and before we knew it, our bathroom was done. Of course one way to thank her for her help was with lunch and we asked her where she would like to go. Kaki Lima (which means 5 foot way or sidewalk in Malaysian) was the best choice. If anything is going to intrigue me, it’s a name. Kaki Lima caught my eye many months ago as I was always interested by the name “Malaysian Breakfast Favourites”. I love breakfast food (but at much later in the day).
It’s a small space, not quite 5 feet long but perhaps 5 metres long. On the right there’s a display of the food and kueh (sweets). A list of drinks sounds good and we pick 4 different kinds – cold drinks are $3.20 and hot drinks are $3. As for breakfast food, I need to confirm this with Janice – is this really what Malaysians eat for breakfast. “Sure!” she replies. Okaaay…
Bandung on left $3.20 and Tea Tarik on right $3
The Bandung is more an Indonesian drink with condensed milk and rosewater tinged a lurid candy pink. Whilst it has ice cubes floating in it, the drink is warm and sweet and reminds me of a Strawberry Quik from my childhood with a rose flavour. Tea Tarik or pulled tea is usually served foamy due to the pulling of the tea (pouring it from one glass to another).
Kopi $3
The copi isn’t as sweet as I like it and of course it’s Nescafe so a coffee connoisseur would probably give this a miss.
Barley water $3
The Mall area
Last month, a bunch of food bloggers and I went on a Meet My Suburb Walking Tour of Kensington and Kingsford where I showed them around the secret local’s favourites in the area. It was so much fun so some other blogger friends and I decided to do the same in Cabramatta. Betty from Betty’s Bites grew up in the area and when she emailed us asking if we’d like to join her on a little eating tour of Cabramatta, I didn’t hesitate for a moment. I’m almost embarrassed to say that as a born and bread Sydney-Sider I’d never been to Cabramatta before. What I didn’t realise that apart from the fact that Cabramatta has great food, the people are what I enjoyed just as much. Cabramatta residents have fun and a lot of laughs and the kids…well they’re priceless and they love a camera. And I should warn you now that this is a long post so please settle in with a cup of coffee or tea (sweetened with sweetened condensed milk to put you in an authentic mood).
Colourful desserts
Trissa and I are driving together for the first time Cabramatta from Balmain and the GPS is guiding us. We get into the wrong lane accidentally misreading the GPS. Trissa winds down the window “Please sir, I need to get into that lane” she pleads with the taxi driver who looks at her like she just told him he has a chicken on his head and it’s about to lay an egg. “WHAT?!” he says and before he can figure out what she means she manoeuvres into the space. We arrive at Cabramatta via the scenic route and spot Betty walking towards the train station, our designated meeting point. “Find a park where-ever you can on this street or the next” she says. Parking is notoriously hard in Cabramatta as crowds of people gather there on the weekends to buy and eat and the 50c car park (yep 50c to park your car, compare that to a city car park at $24 for 2 hours) is an option if we get desperate.
Fruit sold at a store
We’re meeting Ja, Betty and journalist Carla and her photographer boyfriend James at the station. Trish is to join us later. It’s a gorgeous day, we couldn’t have asked for better for a food walking tour and Betty has been charged with showing us the best of Cabramatta.
Stop #1 Kim Thanh Company Hot Bread
Sometimes I think that fate has arranged for it that I am my age and without a license. You see I can be a very distracted driver. This is a habit borne out of many years as the passenger always gawking at the passing shops. One such time where I was glad that I wasn’t driving was when we drove past Nookie Cafe in Surry Hills. It’s rather eye catching amongst the industrial looking warehouse types of buildings with shuttered windows. Literally a tiny room, a sign and 2 milk crates. Yet still, the lines come in waves and at any time you go past on a week day there could be 5 people waiting in line for their coffee.
This morning, my dining companion and I need sustenance before a day’s shopping so we stop by Nookie on busy Cleveland Street to partake of a coffee and whatever else they may have to offer. We walk up to it and it’s tiny – adorably so, and it’s like peeking into the room of someone’s house. The friendly barista Tom straightens his hair for the photo “Oh no, I don’t know if I’m quite photo ready. I had a big night for my birthday”. “That was 2 days ago” remarks another customer. I get the feeling everyone is a regular down this end of Cleveland street where there are many hidden offices and few places to get a good coffee.
Swear Jar
Desserts are like expensive shoes. You know you shouldn’t buy more but they’re just so irresistable that you just cannot say no. So when I invited my friend Queen Viv to accompany me at the Sugar hit at the Inter Continental Hotel I had no idea that she was in her final days of a detox. But like the trooper that she is, she decided that today would be the last day of her detox and if you’re going to celebrate the end of a detox, you may as well do it in style.
So on this Thursday night we arrive at the Intercontinental. We find a park a few streets away and in the cold wind and the high heels we’re just glad to be able to sit down and have a nice glass of something and a dessert. We’re a little early for the Sugar Hit by about 20 minutes so they ask us to take a seat and they’ll bring it out. We choose a banquette of course and sink our weary wind battered selves into it and before long, the waiter arrives with the dessert wine. For the cost of $20 you get a dessert and a glass of Brown Brothers Moscato dessert wine which is a lovely, very sweet drop.
Front to back: Gold Leafed White Chocolate Dome, Dark Chocolate Chilli Slice and Chocolate Hazelnut Macaroon with Chocolate Ganache with Nashi Pear Chutney & Vanilla-Honey Syrup
As seen in the Foodies Guide 2010
Receive daily updates via email. Just enter your email address and press Subscribe.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 Australia License.
What is NQN up to now?
NQN on Facebook
RSS