Yes I admit I have a minor unhealthy obsession with afternoon tea or morning teas. I love dainty little servings and a good cup of tea so I am sucker for anything vaguely constituting afternoon tea. The good thing about the Sheraton’s afternoon tea offering is that you can get a traditional afternoon tea with scones, finger sandwiches and tarts or you can go for the contemporary afternoon tea which comprises of delicious tidbits like Lobster slaw martini, swimmer crab omelette, Banana cheesecake, white chocolate brownie and the drool inducing list goes on.
We always order the contemporary afternoon tea. Whilst the traditional afternoon tea looks lovely, I cannot pass up the Lobster Slaw Martini or the Gallery Banana cheesecake. We know the menu so well ordering is easy. For $79 you can order any of the 12 dishes and 2 unlimited drinks are included (your choice of Twinings leaf tea, Vittoria espresso or Max Brenner Hot Drinking Chocolate). For $129 you get a choice of any of the 12 dishes but with two glasses of Moet & Chandon Imperial N.V. Additional dishes are available for $7 each.
We order the King Island Double brie with apple and Duchy of Cornwell Oat Cake; Lobster Slaw Martini, Tasmanian Smoked Salmon and lemon mascarpone crostini; Hoisin Duck Money Bag; Blue Swimmer crab and asparagus omelette; Gallery Tiger prawn Caesar; Pear and smoked chicken with verjuice and hazelnuts; Rice pudding and apple jelly; White Chocolate Brownie; Pannacotta with mandarin compote and, because they’re my absolute favourite and the idea of sharing one alarms me, 2 of the gallery Banana cheesecakes. Blythe’s favourite part of the afternoon tea is the endless top ups of Max Brenner White Hot Chocolate-usually $5.50 a cup, she can drink cup after cup of the rich milky liquid chocolate concoction so it feels like she is getting much more than her money’s worth. I order my usual standby, a pot of Earl Grey and settle back into the club chair and relax.
Clockwise from left: Pear and smoked chicken with verjuice and hazelnuts; Tasmanian Smoked Salmon and lemon mascarpone crostini; Lobster Slaw Martini & Blue Swimmer crab and asparagus omelette
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January 13, 2008
by Not Quite Nigella
OK I promise this is my last Jessica Seinfeld recipe for the time being. I just couldn’t resist making a low fat chocolate cake in the hopes that it would taste good. Well its low fat if you don’t eat the icing of course. The fact that I happened to have some fresh beetroot in the fridge was all planned and I dutifully baked the little beasts for an hour during a particularly hot and humid Sydney day.
Once out of the oven it looks distinctly more pinky red than brown so the icing is needed for the “chocolate cake” look. Uncooked, the batter looks a bit Red Velvet-like in colour. I found that the cream cheese chocolate icing was not my favourite as it was slightly bitter due to the amount of cocoa in it. The cake itself also has that distinct “vegetable” smell similar to the spinach brownies. Once you get used to the flavour its nicer at the 4th or 5th forkful although the 1st forkful was not so well received. For something very low in fat, it is quite moist though. Just don’t expect your favourite luscious chocolate truffle cake and you’ll be fairly satisfied.
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January 12, 2008
by Not Quite Nigella
Taking a trip to Dulwich Hill to purchase some sausages from Eumundi Smokehouse a while back, I figured I may as well make the most out of the trip. Fernandes Patisserie is an oft raved about little patisserie that sits on the Dulwich Hill side of Marrickville road, a street spoiled for food choices. I had been told that the cakes are delicious and the prices dangerously reasonable.
There are no signs explaining what the cakes are or the prices but the young woman behind the counter is helpful in explaining what each of them are. Alas they sold out of their Portuguese custard tarts at 1pm so we aren’t able to try those. I select four unusual looking cakes and she helpfully writes out the description for me. I pay a princely sum of $6.50 for all of them (don’t you just love those prices) and scamper off with my box of cakes. They’re luscious looking beauties and I lament the fact that I have to wait until after dinner to try them as the sweet smell is indeed alluring.
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January 11, 2008
by Not Quite Nigella
My sister in law has a fabulous organic garden and whilst she doesn’t live quite close by enough to pop in regularly and avail ourselves of the fabulous produce and herbs, when we do see her she inevitably and generously offers us the best of her garden including her first huge sunflower. I however was more interested in something else that grew in her garden, the green tomatoes. I have never seen them in the stores ever and have been intrigued, not just because of the film Fried Green Tomatoes (I have yet to watch it!) but also because I had heard that they were delicious.
I found a recipe online from the original book Fried Green Tomatoes by Fannie Flagg. I used panko breadcrumbs as they were the only ones I had and tried making them using bacon fat and also using grapeseed oil as I didn’t have a lot of bacon fat, the bacon fat ones were obviously tastier if not cardiacally sound. The milk gravy is definitely something that enhances it and is essentially a roux sauce. The dish in unusual, but a definite winner and if you’re growing tomatoes and finding that your regular tomatoes just aren’t good enough to eat raw or in a salad, this is a great way to serve them.
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January 10, 2008
by Not Quite Nigella
Mascot, Sydney. Home of the airport and errrmmm…let me think what else. Oh yes, Vietnamese rolls! On the same stretch of street, a few doors down from each other are two Vietnamese roll bakeries, Hong Ha and Vee Vee. Hong Ha is the one whose queues are stretching out onto the street, VeeVee by comparison does a more modest trade but has been there for years so it can’t be doing too badly.
The selection at Hong Ha
The selection at VeeVee
We decide to do a blindfold taste testing challenge to see who does the best a) pork roll and B) meatball roll. There are also chicken and salad and cheese rolls but pork is the traditional one and meatball is the preferred one from the tasters. We dutifully wait in line for 5 minutes at Hong Ha where the rolls are $4.50 each while there isn’t a wait at VeeVee where the rolls are $3.50.
Hong Ha rolls
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January 9, 2008
by Not Quite Nigella
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