Lolo and Lola

I am a hopeless sweet tooth, and having heard so much about the cakes at Lolo and Lola, I had to try one. I went for the mango sans rival (mango without rival, $7), which is something I’ve never tried before. The cake portion comes with two slices, and it becomes clear quickly that this is a particularly amazing cake. Layered with buttercream, meringue and chopped cashews, the combination of crunchy, soft and creamy textures is amazing, creating a real adventure in sensations. The flavour of the buttercream is almost savoury, so that the sweetness of the meringue, flavoured by the cashews, complements rather than clashes. I found that I enjoyed the layers of meringue that were slightly firmer, with an almost crunchy outside (swoon). In between these layers are soft drizzles of mango, which add a beautiful flavour that stops the whole thing from being sickly but add a luscious, fruity richness. I devoured this dessert, and think the double-serve makes it great value too. Given that the menu changes daily, I can’t wait to go back and try more of their cake range. I think it’s love.

Lolo and Lola, Westside Acton, 3 Barrine Drive, Acton ACT, no website

Provini

Provini has been on my to visit list for a while, and it moved up the list after reopening with a new look and refreshed menu. I started with the pig’s head slider ($8 each), mostly because it was the most exotic-sounding item on the menu. The meat was tender and perfectly crumbed, sandwiched between two knots of panini and enhanced by the sweetness of roasted peppers. Tick. Next up was the meatballs ($16), which came with four meatballs in a pot of delicious sugo topped with cheese, and a large chunk of bread. This was the pick of the night – the pork and veal meatballs were perfectly cooked and packed full of flavour, the bread was excellent and perfect for mopping up what little sauce remained after we devoured it on the meatballs. We chose a pasta to share for the main, opting for the pappardelle ($26), with pork, veal and a white wine ragu. Unfortunately the dish was only just warm when it arrived (after quite a long wait) and there was no real ragu to speak of. The meat was lovely – it had been pulled into tender strips – and the pasta was al dente, but it needed much more sauce. We certainly didn’t leave hungry though!

Provini, 50 Bunda Street, Civic ACT, http://www.cocu.com.au/provini/

Ding Hao

Ding Hao and I go way back. This is where I used to come for yum cha as a uni student, and thankfully it hasn’t changed a bit. It’s still overcrowded, packed to the brim, and dishing up fast, fresh Chinese food. I actually went to catch up with friends from uni – the six of us got stuck right in, with no shortage of dishes coming around to enjoy. I am a sucker for prawn dumplings, and the seafood ones that Ding Hao serve are huge, tasty and definitely not full of mush. You can feel the disparate textures of the filling – so good. We indulged in a plate of salt and pepper calamari, deep-fried and full of flavour, not rubbery at all. The crispy beef was another favourite, coated in a thick sauce and with a slight chilli kick, they vanished pretty quickly. No yum cha is complete without prawn-filled long rolls (not the technical name, but hopefully you know what I mean), and I devoured my share of those before munching on some oyster sauce-drenched greens. Finally, it was time for mango pudding (more, please!) and farewells. Yum.

Ding Hao, 26-28 Gouger Street, Adelaide SA, no website

Movenpick

Set up in Adelaide’s super trendy West End, Movenpick offers their top quality icecreams and sorbets as well as a range of other desserts. We decided to get the icecream tasting plate to share between 3, which comes with 6 scoops ($14.95). We picked: creme brulee, macadamia, rum & raisin, choc mint, strawberry and the lemon & lime sorbet. My pick of the bunch was the strawberry – it was like eating creamy, rich strawberry jam without being sickly. Give me a tub and leave me alone, I’ll be a happy woman. My next favourite was the lemon & lime sorbet – it was just so refreshing and the citrus flavour was perfection. Macadamia would probably come next, one of those great icecreams where the more you eat, the better it tastes, followed by the choc mint, which had awesome quality flakes of chocolate and was really quite minty. I’m not a huge rum & raisin fan, but the quality and richness of flavour was evident, even to me. We all felt the creme brulee seemed a bit bland, but only by comparison. Alone, it was subtle and rich. So basically there were no real duds – six for six Movenpick, well played.

Movenpick, 6 Leigh Street, Adelaide SA, http://www.moevenpick-icecream.com/au

Tosung Charcoal BBQ

I love Korean food with a deep passion, so when my friend suggested we hold our group dinner at Tosung, I booked in an instant. We had a party of 13 and were easily accommodated. We delegated ordering to one of the guys and enjoyed the feast that followed. Tosung provide all diners with complimentary sides, including pickles, potato salad and kimchi (yum!). I got stuck into the kimchi pancake when it arrived – the batter here is nice and light and there is just the right amount of spice in the serving. Next up was a serve of spicy chicken; fried and coated in a sweet sauce and dusted with sesame, this isn’t the top tier of KFC (I prefered the one at Chez Kimchi), but it was still tasty. After that we enjoyed our bibimbap, served on a piping hot stone bowl and ready to mix up. I think the real highlight was the BBQ meat though – the cuts of beef and pork cooked over the hot coals were to die for and I think everyone ate more than they’d planned to! We also had fun tasting the lemon and cucumber sojus on offer – highly recommended to match the food.

Tosung Charcoal BBQ, 15 Franklin Street, Manuka ACT

Each A Cup

Flashback post! I couldn’t resist trying the local bubble tea in Singapore – it’s not something that I’m hugely into in Australia, but when it’s 35 degrees outside and 70 per cent humidity, an iced tea sounds more and more appealing! I thought their tagline ‘for people who go for quality’ was cute and so I put them to the test. I ordered a lychee ‘fruity iced blend’, although there were a number of tempting flavours including peach, green apple and ‘love fruit’ (whatever that is!). You can add extras into your drink, and having been so close to picking the green apple flavour, I instead chose to add green apple pearls as an extra, because what is bubble tea without the bubbles? They were somewhat busy, although my order didn’t take long to prepare. The drink was very icy and hit the spot perfectly on a warm day. The lychee flavour wasn’t sickly sweet, and the pops of green apple pearls matched really well, although I did find that the ‘skins’ were a bit tough at times. Each A Cup has so many options that you could easily try one a day for months – hmm, what an interesting idea…

Each A Cup, ION Orchard, 2 Orchard Turn #B4-45 Singapore      http://www.each-a-cup.com/

Chez Kimchi

Sometimes you just need… ha! Thought I was going to say ‘a burger’, didn’t you? No, this time I acknowledge that there is indeed a time and a place for KFC. Korean fried chicken, obviously. A friend and I caught up for KFC at Chez Kimchi on a Friday night, getting a table without a problem. We started with iced apricot tea – served in a large glass it was beautifully refreshing, and kept us going until our first dish arrived. Hello kimchi and pork dumplings! Wrapped into perfect little rings, the serve of 4 ($6.80) was a perfect starter for two. We loved the spicy kick of the kimchi and enjoyed trying the dipping sauces provided. I was also a bit enthusiastic about the pickle sides – so, so good. The main event was the half-size fried chicken. Curious to see what the wasabi sauce was like, we picked the Spring Onion Chicken ($18), which had 7 pieces of chicken (so tricky to split, but we managed). Unfortunately we didn’t get any wasabi sauce with it, but the chicken was so perfectly crispy and delicious that we didn’t really mind. The food here is such great value too – definitely one to come back to.

Chez Kimchi, Shop 11, 70-86 Bunda Street Civic, ACT, no website