Baskin Robbins

I was first introduced to Baskin Robbins in Adelaide, but I don’t think they have many stores there now. My favourite flavour is a seasonal one called Love Potion #31, which is generally available in summer, but sometimes also pops up at random times during the year. What’s in this magic love potion, I hear you ask? Well, it starts out with white chocolate and raspberry ice creams, swirled with a raspberry ribbon and loaded with raspberry-filled dark chocolate hearts and chocolate chips. Seriously. I was delighted to see it was on offer at the Circular Quay store as I made my way back from a show at the Opera House, and grabbed a small cupful to savour. My favourite part is the dark chocolate hearts with raspberry liquid centres – the bitterness of the dark chocolate and the tartness of the raspberry balances out the sweetness of the icecream perfectly. The raspberry ripple throughout also mixes up the texture, making it one of Baskin Robbin’s more sophisticated offerings. I can’t vouch for its effectiveness as a love potion, but it sure is excellent icecream.

Baskin Robbins Circular Quay, Lot 2, Quay Grand 61-63, Macquarie Street
Sydney, NSW http://www.baskinrobbins.com.au

Adriano Zumbo Patissier

I have been a fan of Adriano Zumbo macarons for a long time. For a while, I had a tradition of trying new flavours every time I visited Sydney, but it’s been some time since I’ve stopped in. After breakfast at Sokyo at the Star, we couldn’t resist the multicolour, sweet-filled window of Zumbo’s. I’d tried all of the macaron flavours on offer, so looked further along the window to the tarts. There was an impressive array, but my eye was drawn to the peanut butter and raspberry combination called ‘Peter, Bob and John’ (PB&J). The tart was a good size and prettily presented with chunks of raspberry and peanut brittle on top. The first mouthful was silky smooth – the chocolate ganache was creamy and soft, and a perfect contrast to the sweet, slightly crispy base. The second mouthful was all about the raspberry gel (the ‘jelly’ in PB&J), which is tart compared to the sweet ganache. The peanut brittle added great textural pops, although I thought that the peanut butter flavour could have been stronger. Overall a delightful treat combining two complementary flavours. Zumbo remains the king of sweets.

Adriano Zumbo Patissier, 80 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont NSW http://adrianozumbo.com/

Seventh Heaven

First international #icecreamthurs! Singapore is exactly the kind of place where you find yourself wanting icecream. We’d walked a long way in the humid heat to visit the Gardens by the Bay, an incredible botanical garden with huge indoor displays and an impressive array of plants. In between the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest was an outdoor rest area, which by the time we’d wandered through the Flower Dome we very much needed to take advantage of. I was admiring the life-sized sculpture of a pride of lions looking down on visitors when the sign for Seventh Heaven caught my eye. Yep, it was a gelato stall, right there waiting for us! There were a few flavour choices, but being adventurous (and having tried it before in Tokyo), I chose the sakura/cherry blossom flavour. Sakura is (obviously) a floral flavour, and that came through nicely in the generous (but tourist-site overpriced) serving, without being overpowering as some florals can be. The gelato had that lovely balance between creamy and icy and whilst it melted quite quickly in the heat, each spoonful was refreshing and sweet. A perfect treat for explorers.

Seventh Heaven, Gardens by the Bay, 18 Marina Gardens Drive, Singapore  http://www.seventhheaven.com.sg/

St Ali

Note to self: the South Melbourne markets aren’t open on a Monday. Luckily St Ali is – in fact they’re open 365 days, so you can’t get it wrong (like I did with the markets). Instead of wandering through the markets a friend and I settled in at St Ali for afternoon tea, soaking up the sunshine from their outdoor seating which looks out onto the street. We were both tempted by the cake display and I caved first and ordered the fruit danish and a ‘hydrate’ juice, while my friend picked the lemon and marshmallow tart and a ‘detox’ juice. The juices were served in large, tall glasses and didn’t have much foam – mine had watermelon, apple and mint, although I could still taste the carrot from the detox juice which must have gone through the juicer first. The danish was lovely and crisp, with the pastry flaking off in large pieces to enjoy. The fresh blueberries, apricot and strawberries sat on a bed of custard which brought the whole sweet to life.  I could have happily eaten another if it hadn’t been so filling! Definitely a great place to while away an afternoon.

St Ali Coffee Roasters, 12-18 Yarra Place, South Melbourne VIC  www.stali.com.au

Royal Copenhagen

Hello #icecreamthurs! Glenelg has so many dessert options that it can be hard to choose – showing friends from Canberra around, they asked which of the icecream options was the best. I hadn’t had icecream down there for a while (usually opting for fondue), so picked Royal Copenhagen hoping that it would pass muster. Luckily, it did. I chose a single scoop of the Vanilla Meringue, Passionfruit and Raspberry icecream, having never come across this flavour before. It was a good choice – the icecream was beautifully creamy, the sweet vanilla meringue flavour was clear and well complemented by the tartness of both the raspberry and the passionfruit. My only criticism was that the meringue flavour seemed to fade the more you ate, but this is a fairly common issue with icecream. It didn’t hurt that they offer self-service toppings, including sprinkles and nuts – I added plenty of the latter to mine! We also had donuts to share, which came out piping hot and well dusted in cinnamon sugar. They were lovely and soft and I could have happily devoured several more. Royal Copenhagen didn’t disappoint!

Royal Copenhagen Icecreamery & Dessert Bar, 15 Jetty Road, Glenelg SA

Chasing Mr Morris

Donuts are something that I associate with my childhood – my brother was (actually, still is) a donut fiend and as such it was often the treat we would end up getting from the local shops. It has been many years since I’ve had a good iced donut, so when I visited The Hamlet and saw that Chasing Mr Morris (whose Instagram account I adore) had beautiful iced donuts, I was in. I picked the Earl Grey flavour for myself, and picked up a couple of Salted Caramel for my colleagues. On first bite, I was instantly transported back into childhood – that familiar donut flavour is right up front, with just the right hint of cinnamon and buttery richness. Mmm. I found that the Earl Grey flavour was quite subtle – I had expected stronger bergamot overtones – but that this didn’t stop me devouring every crumb. My colleague found the same with the Salted Caramel – the salty flavour only started to come through towards the end – but from all accounts it was equally delicious. Chasing Mr Morris has a fabulous food truck, full of succulents and granny blankets, and is doing an awesome job bringing donuts back!

Chasing Mr Morris, The Hamlet, 16 Lonsdale Street, Braddon ACT, no website

Uogashi Nihon Ichi

My love of sushi is pretty well known, so when I was back in my old stomping ground in Tokyo for a day, my friend and I stopped in at the local standing sushi bar for lunch. This branch of Uogashi Nihon Ichi is located on one of my favourite streets in Tokyo – Kagurazaka-dori. It’s an old geisha quarter, now full of traditional stores and restaurants, and is a bit of an institution – the street even has its own annual festival! On entering Uogashi, we were shown to a space along the standing bar. Like a sit down sushi bar, each station has its own cup of tea, soy and hand towel, just no chair. We ordered a range of different pieces, including tuna, salmon, kingfish and a couple that I had no idea what they were, but tasted amazing! The sushi-san gives you the option of soy (shoyu) or salt (shio) to put on the piece, and there are different recommendations for different fish. Each piece was reasonably sized, although a bit smaller than the nigiri at Sushi Zanmai. As usual, my favourite was the aburi (seared) tuna, but really, it’s all good!

Uogashi Nihon Ichi, 1F PORTA Kagurazaka 2-6 Kagurazaka Shinjyu-ku Tokyo  http://www.uogashi-nihonichi.com/english/