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)

Pressed Juice

Having formerly worked in a juice bar as a student, juice is very important to me. I even have my own juicer at home, although I’m usually too lazy to use it because it takes so long to clean. As such I don’t mind paying for juice, especially when I’m out of town. I’d seen a closed-up Pressed store after hours in Adelaide earlier in the year, but was very excited to wander past an open one when I was in Melbourne. I have to admit that the store fit-out drew me in – almost Scandinavian with blonde wood, plants (yay) and rows and rows of beautifully coloured juices. I’m not very adventurous when it comes to juice flavours, but Pressed really encourages you to move away from the traditional apple/orange mixes and pack some veg into your beverage. This time I stuck to something more traditional – green apple, lemon, mint and pineapple – and was rewarded with a tangy, beautifully refreshing juice that brightened up my afternoon. There is a clarity of flavour you get from cold pressed juice that isn’t like anything else.  Definitely calls for a #cometocanberra campaign.

Presse Juices: various locations in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide    http://www.pressedjuices.com.au/index.php/