Cow & the Moon

Hello #icecreamthurs! Let’s eat icecream to pretend it’s still summer. I love Cow & the Moon – it’s pretty much the best gelato I’ve ever had – so I’m always happy to go back and try more of their fabulous flavours. On this visit, I chose two of their fruity sorbets to try, one new and one old favourite. The new flavour was the peach sorbet, which I sampled and fell in love with. The peach flavour is sweeter than other peach sorbets I’ve tried, so the effect is more like eating a sweet, ripe peach, which I really liked. The texture is perfection – as creamy as any dairy-based icecream – and the flavour is beautifully intense. I also went for an old favourite, the black and blue sorbet, which tastes just like a blackberry chewy lolly. This is the kind of flavour that gets the saliva going, it’s so sweet and tart and bold. Dad ordered the World Gelato Championship-winning Affogato flavour, which I tasted too – oh my. There were caramelised almonds in it, as well as the perfect coffee and vanilla flavours. Swoon. Must visit for anyone heading to Sydney.

Cow & the Moon, 181 Enmore Road, Enmore, NSW, no website

Akiba

Akiba is a standing favourite of mine, and I hadn’t been back for a while, so stopped in with friends for a long weekday lunch. We were seated in the nicely-heated outdoor area, and had plenty of time to peruse the menu before someone came to take our order. We started with the kimchi and angasi pancakes (serve of 4), which were topped with sriracha sauce and bonito flakes. Whilst small, the pancakes packed a punch and whetted our appetites for the rest of the meal. Next up was one of my favourites from Akiba – the fried chicken. Hello mounds of deep-fried chicken goodness topped with a tonne of cheese! Alone the chicken is a bit dry, but with the added sauces (not 100% sure what they are – one is a spicy chilli, the other is a mayonnaise of some sort, but they look deceptively like ketchup and mustard respectively!) the whole thing lifts up another notch. We fought rather politely over the last pieces. Finally we shared a plate of Singapore noodles, which was a real highlight. The ingredients were fresh and there were tonnes of prawns and the portion was really generous. Really great food for sharing.

Akiba, 40 Bunda Street, Civic ACT, http://www.akiba.com.au/

T Bar

I have been going to T Bar for tea since I was a uni student (and they were in the David Jones food court), and one afternoon exploring in town I stopped by their store in Rundle Place for a snack. I love that you can both have their teas in store/takeaway and buy packets of their tea to brew yourself – T Bar was here before T2 and is still my favourite. On this occassion, I ordered an iced peach green tea and a lemon melting moment to dine in. The iced tea came out in a huge glass with lots of ice and fresh lemon slices inside – yum. The tea has a really lovely peach flavour without being too sweet; it’s well balanced with the sencha green tea flavour and doesn’t have an strong bitterness that some green teas have. The melting moment was buttery perfection – yes, it was small, but the luscious filling with a lemony tang and the crumbly, well-cooked biscuit were calories I won’t regret. The back of the store has a really nice seating area to enjoy your tea, and I’d love to come back for more substantial food and to relive my uni years again soon.

T Bar, Rundle Place, Rundle Mall, Adelaide SA, https://www.tbar.com.au/

Cheese Factory Cafe

There’s really nothing like a good cooked breakfast on a chilly morning, and we certainly found the perfect one at the Robertson Cheese Factory Cafe, in the Southern Highlands of NSW. Recovering from an epic night of dancing at a fabulous wedding the night before, a group of us hunkered down over coffee and juice and awaited our food. Some waited longer than others – it’s a small kitchen – but my big breakfast (sorry, forgot to note the price) came out relatively quickly and was huge! With two pieces of toast, roasted tomato, avocado, bacon, fried mushrooms and fried eggs (with still-runny yolks), it was exactly the energy-boost I needed for the drive home. Each element was delicious – the tomato was perfectly blistered but still juicy; the avocado was nicely salted and fresh; the mushrooms had tonnes of flavour and were probably the highlight; and the runny egg yolk brought everything together. The bacon was a little lacking in crispiness for my taste, but wasn’t unpleasant by any means. We stayed and chatted in the lovely cafe space for a while, before browsing the gift store full of gourmet delights. Definitely a great breakfast stop if you’re in the Highlands.

Cheese Factory Cafe, 107 Illawarra Highway, Robertson NSW, http://www.robertsoncheesefactory.com/

Molto Italian

On a chilly Canberra night, there’s nothing like stepping into a packed, pumping restaurant with good heating. Molto was just the right place for my friend and I, and we settled in and chose one of the many delicious-sounding entrees. We ordered the roe dip (sorry, I didn’t catch the name/price) with lemon and flatbread. This was utterly divine – the delicate roe flavour was perfectly articulated in the creamy dip, and the zing of drizzled lemon on top brought the whole dish to life. We could have happily enjoyed two more plates. Instead, I ordered the main of the day (the meat changes depending on the day of the week), which happened to be lamb ($28). The cut was served with a pistachio crumb and on a bed of celeriac puree, and came out looking divine. The lamb was cooked perfectly and was incredibly tender – it really did just melt in the mouth. The pistachio really made it something special, and being a big fan of celeriac, I found the puree added great flavour. The only downside was that the sauce was quite fatty, and it started to congeal a bit as the dish cooled, but otherwise it was a perfect dining experience.

Molto Italian, Element Building, Eastlake Parade, Kingston ACT, http://moltoitalian.com/

 

Scroll

I ate courtesy of Scroll; all opinions remain my own. I popped in to the Adelaide Scroll store to try their new sorbet range (yay, dairy-free options!) and opted for the Raspberry Dash (usually $9), which comes with fresh mint and is topped with mint-infused ice. Oooh. I watched the Scroll ninjas make my sorbet, starting with a liquid syrup that is spread on the icy-cold teppan, and smoothed flat before being scraped into perfect scrolls. The team were flat out during this visit, so I had about a 20 minute wait, but with ingredients running out and not enough staff, the two team members on shift were very apologetic. The sorbet itself had the most intense raspberry flavour I’ve ever tried in any icecream/gelato/sorbet, which was quite impressive. There was just the right balance between tartness and sweetness, and the textural contrast of the ice on top worked well (although I couldn’t taste the mint). Unfortunately, as I continued to eat, the raspberry sorbet started separating into chunks of ice and thick raspberry flavour, so perhaps the mix isn’t quite right yet, but overall the intensity of flavour made this stand out as an excellent sorbet.

Scroll, 35 York Street, Adelaide SA, http://www.scrollicecream.com.au/

Jimmy Grants

Hello, souva of my dreams. Greek food isn’t really a big thing in Canberra, so on this visit to Melbourne it was near the top of my list. I stood in queue at a busy lunchtime and ordered the Mr Papadopoulos ($12.5), a souva with lamb, mustard aioli, chips, onion and parsley, with a side of chips ($4.50) served with fetta and oregano (swoon). The food did take a while, but was clearly cooked fresh, and served nicely for dine-in enjoyment on an Emporium plate. I must confess, this souva had the nicest, softest pita wrap of any souva I’ve had (including the one at Gazi), and it wasn’t overly dense. That left me free to enjoy the melt-in-your-mouth, smoky pieces of lamb, which were plentiful and utterly divine. The parsley and onion added a tabouleh-esque touch, and the chips within were great, although not quite as great as the side of chips. Oh my, I was so full from the souva (which I couldn’t finish), but I kept shovelling those chips in. Yum. The fetta was lovely and salty, the chips crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside… A very filling and very tasty lunch. Greek food craving  satisfied.

Jimmy Grants, Emporium Melbourne, Level Three, 287 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne VIC, http://jimmygrants.com.au/