Perth Turning Me Into a Sweet Tooth?

I have never been much of sweet tooth and am usually happy to skip the dessert when we go out for dinner. However, this appears to be changing whilst I am in Perth. Last week, my Perth’s food adventure took me to Rochelle’s and this week, I discovered Corica.

Corica is a traditional Italian bakery selling continental strudel, cakes and pastries which was established back in 1957. When I arrived at 10.30am, the shop is already packed and I struggled to get a glimpse of the delicacies being offered at this place. I know that Corica is famous for its apple strudel and being the glutton that I am, I was trying to see if there were other temptations. As I progress to the front of the queue, I started talking to the lady in front of me and was told that the apple strudel is to die for and it’s one of the things her family always have during birthday celebrations and festivities. I also found out that the strudel only come in one size which serves 8 people. The idea of walking out of the shop without the strudel was definitely not an option since 1) I have made all the way here and waited patiently in the queue 2) there were less than 5 boxes of apple strudel left in the shop and the shop has only been opened for 1.5 hrs.
Before I even got home, I couldn’t help myself and wanted to have a peek of the strudel which has been concealed in its box. So I found a bench at a park and opened the box. My first reaction was “How the hell am I going to finish this?” My second reaction was “This is a strudel?” Corica’s strudel is oblong in shape and is built up of layers of pastry, cream, stewed apple and custard with glazed pastry on the top. With much restrain I closed the box without pulling a piece of the strudel with my hand and proceeded to do my groceries.

As soon as I got home, I made a cup of coffee and cut myself a piece of the strudel. As soon I bite into the strudel, I could taste why the strudel can make anyone start salivating as soon as they think about it. The crunch of the pastry is well contrasted with the smoothness of the cream and custard. The stewed apple is perfectly balance with the required amount of tartness and sweetness. It’s a light and refreshing dessert for the Perth weather.

As I wrote this, I am salivating over the apple strudel. Lucky I still have a piece left in the fridge. Perfect for afternoon tea. And no, I didn’t eat the whole strudel over the course of the weekend. I rang a colleague who lives nearly and gave him half the strudel.

This is what happened the day after I stayed up the whole night watching movies......

No 1 – Wake myself up with a cup of coffee eventhough it’s 12.30pm

Good coffee in Perth is hard to come by and is more expensive than Melbourne. Research needs to be done and even if you are armed with information, you might still be disappointed. This was the case today. The cafe recommended was supposedly one of the best in Subiaco, but the one I had was burnt and the milk was so hot that I had to wait for it to be cooled down whilst waiting for the train.

In the 2 weeks I have spent in Perth, I have found couple of coffee places which have done these beans justice:

• Spring Espresso in Subiaco - Probably one of the best latte I have had. The milk was silky with the creamiest foam. This is a place that I wouldn’t have even known about if not for a recommendation from the owner of the bakery across the road from my apartment in Perth. According to the owner, the guys at Spring travel all over Australia to compete in Barista competitions.
  
• Ristretto Espresso - These guys are definitely serious about their coffee and are known as the espresso specialists. They roast their own beans and have two types of beans on offer each day. They also use Bannister Farm milk which I have noticed to be the milk of choice in the better coffee places in Perth.

No 2 - Deal with ny craving for Indian

Indian is one of the foods that I will crave and crave and then I will completely forget about it. I definitely woke up this morning with a prominent craving for Indian. When I was working in Perth before this current 3 months secondment, I had a workshop in a hotel in Northbridge and my Perth colleague mentioned that he gets his Indian hit just down the road from the hotel. Hence, I decided to give this place a go. As I arrived, I peered into this unassuming place half awake and saw the first good sign, the place is filled with native Indians. On top of that, there were serving the street foods that I remembered from my time in India last year.

Being the glutton that I am, I wanted to try as many things as possible. Hence I settled for the non vegetarian thali. I was also tempted by the mango lassi which were on every table in the restaurant. The lassi arrived promptly and is exactly like the one I had in India and definitely hit the spot.

Whilst I sipped on my lassi, I noticed that although the place was slowly getting busier, it seemed like most people were at the restuarant for its Indian sweets. People were leaving the place with boxes and boxes of these things. For once in my life, the popular sweets did not entice me at all. I think it’s probably because I find Indian sweet extremely sweet and overpowering. Though I did remember polishing off a bowlful of Gulab Jamun in a remote Indian village last year.

Alas, my thali arrived and I was presented with an array of food which included lamb masala, butter chicken, dahl, a vegetable curry, raita and a sweet yoghurt based dessert which tasted a little like rice pudding. The thali also came with rice , pappadams and naan as well. The serving was massive and it was enough to feed 2 people. Unfortunately, as I wanted to leave some room for dessert in my next destination, the thali was left unfinished.

No 3 – Settle my craving for ice cream

Lou and I first came across Rochelle Adonis when her rose nougat was available for tasting 2 years ago in a Good Food Festival in Melbourne. We were disappointed that her nougat was not for sale and were left with only a memory of the creamiest nougat we have tasted. I subsequently read about her in the Qantas magazine on one my work trips earlier this year and also read about her house churn ice cream with interesting flavours such as Turkish delight with cardamom and pressed lime and vanilla nougat.

As I walked into the place, the staffs were busy setting up for a high tea reservation. A lady came and served me and I was telling her about how I came across Rochelle’s rose nougat. The next thing you know, the lady went back to the kitchen to tell Rochelle about my little story and Rochelle was walking out of the kitchen to greet me.

After all the commotion, I sat myself down in this little pretty place and enjoyed my scoops of turkish delight and cardamom and smashed chocolate sable and sour cherry ice cream. I was also pondering that maybe on my next special day, I might be able to have a cake as gorgeous as the one that’s in the picture below which a lady carried home from Rochelle’s. Lou and Nut are coming for a visit during the Melbourne Long Weekend and we will be heading off to Rochelle's to try her high tea. At $35 for a 2 course, I couldn't resist and made a reservation before even checking with the girls. No doubt, one of us will be blogging our experience at Rochelle's.

Contact Details
Spring Espresso Bagot Street Subiaco http://www.springespresso.com/
Ristretto 160 St Georges Terrace Perth http://www.ristretto.com.au/
Mela India Sweets 428 William Street Northbridge
Rochelle Adonis 193 Brisbane Street Northbridge http://www.rochelleadonis.com/confectionary.htm

Pierre Roelofs@Monsieur truffe

These 're the desserts that worth coming for...

Approved By Matt

Without meaning to, I planned dinner at Society with FH and SY the day Epicure celebrated the 50^th birthday of the Age Good Food Guide and labelled this place as one of the Guide’s 10 Survivors. I had simply always wanted to eat at this wooden panelled, elegant place on Bourke Street which is now one of the DiMattina restaurant family.

While enjoying a pear martini and waiting for the girls to arrive, I browsed through Epicure. Most of the people I know tend to read Epicure on an almost religious basis, with Espresso being the most popular section within it by far. For my part, I tend to check out Matt Preston’s “Unexplored Territory” as that page is organised to recommend food and drink within the budgetary reach of a normal working person. It also helps that I do like his columns as much as I like those by Jeremy Clarkson, A.A. Gill and Sarah Wilson (the hostess of the first Masterchef Australia series whose candour and intelligence shines in her writing)

Imagine therefore my surprise and delight when, for this issue, I saw my own face in the photograph used for his recommendation. As most will know by now, the Foodie Team is an avid supporter of Dancing Goat as the Victorian State Barista champion-owner does such a marvellous job making Veneziano blends and single origin beans stand out in their fragrant, bittersweet glory.

But I digress. There I was in colour print on broadsheet, complete with my aquamarine bucket hat. The photographer (I remembered him as a bald man with two huge cameras) sensibly left out my right hand clutching onto a perfectly made Tanzanian short macchiato as my left hand was protecting a house blend latte. The photographer also left out JC who was sitting right opposite me and wondering what the photographer was doing.

The photograph also made me look like I had found the place first out of the Foodie Team, when FH was really the one who had found the place (in my defence, we were looking for the place during the same time period and I lucked out because the address does not match the physical location). FH was understandably irritated but soon shrugged it off in favour of enjoying her first proper meal of the day.

The rest of the meal is a blur to me as SY, FH and I chatted about the Good Food Guide’s latest winners and losers, work, the search for a good investment, house management affairs and the like. I do recall SY pausing over her mushroom main which she found most pleasing, and my wondering whether I could actually eat in one gulp the pasta marinara dish. Never judge a dish by its size, I was reminded later. Pity about the time the chef took to preparing our dinner, and the just ever-so-high prices for the main courses.

The dessert platter was hardly enough for three ladies but still presented a pleasant closing note to the meal. I commiserated with the waiter who had had to work at Bourke Street due to the gutting fire at il Gambero, another DiMattina establishment which served decent oyster mornay and was popular with the traditional Italian three-course (antipasti, pasta, il secondi) crowd. Served a decent coffee, I was in such a good mood from being in Matt’s column that little could have fazed me that night to be honest ;)

Food – 3 out of 5 stars, considering the price you pay
Service – 4 out of 5
Atmosphere – 4 out of 5; good but non-intrusive jazz, proper lighting, decent space between tables. I would go back for a drink and little bite there anyday.
Coffee – DiMattina’s, always a good medium-strong roast. 3.5 out of 5.

One of my best coffee day :D

'Why 're you always fully booked on Saturday?' 's the question my friends always asked me. Umm.. how to answer this question.. the truth 's I always booked myself on that day, hehehe.... I normally spend my Sat with LS. We always go to a farmers' market to buy foods, do brunch, and go to places we 're up to :P

This week, we went to the farmers' market at St.Kilda before going to have brunch at a lovely cafe, called Il Fornaio. I started my day with a latte (Di Bella), which LS valued it as one bean :D Hot chocolate 's very tempting!

LS and I grabbed black pudding & fried eggs w sourdough ($11) while our two friends grabbed french toast w bacon and maple syrup ($10). The black pudding 's meant to be eaten with fried egg and bacon with every bite. While, french toast turned out to be one of the best french toast in town.... yumm... After breakfast, we continued to Cacao, the mother branch. It 's one of the places that I can't resist chocolate, all individual chocolate looks glossy and yummy. I took quite a while to figure out what chocolate should I have before finally settled for smooth and creamy chocolate shot and 'wild passionfruit'.

Our next stop was Toby's estate, a coffee haven. I can sit here all day long :)

Today's cup of excellence 's Mexicana. What does it taste like? Truthfully, I didn't know but I trust LS and followed what she ordered, hehehe... Our short mac turned out fantastic with a mouthful, smooth body, and a punch of tanin right after swallowing. The tanin was lingering there for quite sometime.

LS and I unexpectly went to Bar Etiquette. We just stood outside and studied the drink lists before a guy, walked out of the bar, told us that there is no coffee here! It 's obviously not a place for coffee, lol. LS decided to check it out and mentioned this incident to a bartender. Surprisingly, this bar serve coffee. To end a day in style, I tried coffee here since LS already reached her coffee quota. My coffee was fantastic and valued for money. It tasted like butterscotch which 's highly interesting, considering its main ingredients 're coffee and sherry :P

The rooms upstairs 're cute especially the Asian room (lots of umbrellas on the ceiling). I think here 'll be perfect for my little group hangout. Everyone 'll have something to his/her liking; beers, cocktails, or wines. (Though this bar 's concentrated on beers, judging from the lists) Best of all, it's a BYO food!