Brooklyn Parlour

Dessert before dinner is one of those beautiful things that being an adult makes possible, and I’m convinced it’s even more legit when you’re on holidays. So I stopped by Brooklyn Parlour for dessert. Before dinner. Yep. I was given the choice of a solo or share table when I arrived, and I picked the share table – it was in the middle of the basement space and gave a great people-watching view amid the floral arrangements and bookshelves. I started out with a pot of peach and apricot tea, which was bright pink when I poured it and lightly aromatic to taste. For dessert I chose the red berry, pistachio and chocolate mousse glace (icecream). The berry coulis around the icecream was full of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and cranberries, and added a nice tartness to contrast the sweetness of the chocolate. The mousse-icecream was mostly frozen but soft enough to eat and silky smooth, with a rich but not-too-rich milk chocolate flavour. The real delight was the layers of frozen raspberry and pistachio inside the icecream – aka heaven. One of the best desserts I’ve had in a long time, and in one of the coolest venues.

Brooklyn Parlour, OIOI Anex B1F, 3-1-26 Shinjuku, Tokyo Japan           http://www.brooklynparlor.co.jp/shinjuku/

Cafe Comme Ca

¥1000 is a lot to pay for one piece of cake, and when I was a student in Tokyo I could only bring myself to do it twice – once with friends and once in a train station when I’d arrived three hours early for my train (oops). Both times it was from Cafe Comme Ca, and both times it was worth it. So when I went back to Tokyo I made sure to stop in again and try another slice. Each cake is sculpted with fresh fruit into rosettes or other incredible arrangements – I recommend taking some time to look at the display cabinet before making a choice (fair warning though – the staff, sadly, won’t let you take pictures of the whole cakes). This time I went for the blood orange and raspberry cream cake, which came out on a plate with cocoa dust in the shape of bluebirds (swoon). The fruit was juicy and covered in a sweet glaze, and the cream was light and not too rich. Western-style sweets in Japan are often sickly sweet, but Cafe Comme Ca gets the balance (and the beauty) just right.

Cafe Comme Ca, 5F Comme Ca Store, 3-26-6 Shinjuku-ku, Shinjuku Tokyo  http://www.cafe-commeca.co.jp/ (Japanese only)

Lux Bite

Ok, so technically I haven’t been to Lux Bite. But a friend accepted my challenge to bring back a sweet from Melbourne that you can’t get in Canberra – this was the result. A quick google reveals that this cake was actually featured on Masterchef too, so must be tough to make! Called the ‘Lolly Bag Cake’, this little slice is full of layers of childhood flavour. The strongest is without a doubt the green layer (spearmint leaf buttercream), but upon deconstruction the other flavours get their moment – redskin, banana and musk. The highlight for me was the layer of freckles (who doesn’t love chocolate freckles?), which gave some crunch, and the ‘banana Joconde’ (sponge). Whilst all the flavours don’t exactly complement each other if you take a mouthful of them all, they don’t exactly clash either, leaving a slightly confused but largely minty taste in your mouth. I found I enjoyed the individual flavours much more after pulling it apart. Now the pressue is on to bring my friend something good back from Adelaide in return. Thoughts?

Lux Bite, 38 Toorak Rd, South Yarra VIC                                     http://www.luxbite.com.au

Berkelouw Books

I was pretty sad to hear that Berkelouw had closed their Newtown store, it was a lovely place full of books and food. But never fear, they haven’t gone for good. Yes, it has a different vibe, but the outpost at Westfield Hornsby still has books and food, although no kitchen, sadly. Shelves line the long corridor overlooking the fountain, with books you can sit in armchairs and read while sipping a coffee, or, as I did, chowing down on a piece of cake. The cake selection was pretty good, with several full-sized cakes for slices and a range of cookies and smaller treats. I went for the apple flan, which had a beautiful almond cake underneath the layers of apple doused in that scrumptious sweet glaze that makes cakes shiny and delicious. The serve was enough to keep me going, and it was lovely to sit in the corridor on an armchair (complete with rug underneath!) and flick through the second hand volumes. Walking through the book store afterwards was fun too, so many lovely editions and new things to add to my ‘to read’ list.

Berkelouw Books:

Shop B30-33, Level 3 (on the link bridge), Westfield Shopping Centre, Pacific Highway, Hornsby, Sydney, NSW

http://berkelouw.com.au/stores/hornsby

The Grounds of Alexandria

I’m going to cheat and post twice about this place. As a self-confessed plant lady, The Grounds of Alexandria was a special kind of happy place. Exposed brick, fairy lights, a veggie patch, magnolias and fiddle leaf figs, the frame of a glasshouse, a pig named Kevin Bacon and food?! Mind. Blown. If it was possible to get even more excited about visiting here, it happened when I discovered the bakery section. Wow. I wanted pretty much everything. Having just eaten lunch, that wasn’t possible. But, one cake was. Only one. I chose strategically. Having never tried a pistachio cake before, or seen one offered anywhere else, I took a deep breath and ordered. Oh my. What a choice! The pistachio was crunchy and delicious, but the real secret delight of this cake was the oozy strawberry syrup in the middle, which turned what could have been a dry cake into a mouthful of bliss. Definitely a good choice. Now, to find a way to go back and eat everything else!

The Grounds of Alexandria: Building 7A/2 Huntley Street, Alexandria NSW http://groundsroasters.com/

Art Gallery of NSW

My uncle is an artist who regularly makes the final of the Archibald Prize, but I’d never been to the exhibition before. On this trip to Sydney, the exhibition had just opened, so I made my way through the city to the Art Gallery of NSW to check it out. Looking at incredible portraits is hungry work, so after making my way through the exhibition, I stopped in at the Gallery cafe. I have a soft spot for gallery cafes. Yes, they are usually overpriced and generally don’t have great service, but they’re such nice places to sit and eat. This was no exception, although to be fair the service was actually pretty good. I ordered a slice of lemon tart when the scones were sold out, and found a spot amid the long tables dotted with succulents. Any place with that many succulents is a-ok in my books. The lemon tart was suitably lemony and rich and the slice was more than enough for one. But for me the experience was more about sitting in a lovely cafe, people watching and resting my legs after the long afternoon of walking.

Art Gallery of NSW: Art Gallery Rd, Sydney NSW http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/