Ladurée

I’ve been to a Ladurée salon de thé in Paris, but when I tried to visit the Ginza one while living in Tokyo in 2009, I couldn’t get a table (they don’t take reservations). On this visit, I was very strategic about when we went (5pm on a weekday) and we only waited 10mins to get a seat – winning! This was Mum’s belated Mother’s Day gift – we started out with a pot of Thé Eugenie each, served in silver teapots with pastel coloured cups and saucers. The black tea had a fruity fragrance, with strawberry, cherry, raspberry and redcurrant part of the blend. It wasn’t as overpowering as some of the other options (there are samples to sniff while you wait for a table) and we enjoyed every sip. For cake, I picked the Ispahan – a large macaron filled with fresh raspberries, lychee and rose-flavoured cream. The flavours all worked so well together and every mouthful was delicious – the macaron shell was crisp, the raspberries were very fresh and the cream spiked with lychee was just as decadent as you would expect. If you get a seat by the window you can people-watch while enjoying your luxury sweets. Swoon.

Ladurée, salon de thé, 4-6-16 Ginza, Chuo, Tokyo Japan                                             http://www.laduree.jp/

The Cupping Room

I am a firm believer that we eat with our eyes. As a general rule, I try to avoid eating sweet things for breakfast, especially before going to work (hello food coma!), but on this visit to The Cupping Room, I really couldn’t go past the incredibly beautiful ricotta hotcakes. If a plate looking like that went past you, would you be able to resist it? I didn’t think so. I was blown away by the flavours on this plate. First up, the burnt honeycomb was to die for – it added a sweet but burnt flavour with an almost sticky texture, which helped cut through the sweetness of the rest of the dish. As did the pomegranate seeds scattered atop the hotcake pile. I particularly liked the fresh strawberries and would have liked more to enjoy with each mouthful, but the stewed rhubarb was a nice addition too. Down to business – the hotcakes were incredibly light and fluffy, although surprisingly filling. The creme fraiche was a bit much for me, but I loved the citrus syrup drizzled over the top of everything (more please!). Overall, I would suggest eating this only if very hungry. But eat it. It’s delicious.

The Cupping Room, 1/13 University Ave, Canberra ACT  http://www.thecuppingroom.com.au/

Andersen’s Ice Cream

A friend recently reminded me of a great episode of the West Wing, where one of the characters explains how she likes to fight cold (weather) with more cold (icecream). That’s exactly what I decided to do when stopping in at Glenelg on my way to the airport. Having been to Royal Copenhagen most recently, I stopped in at their competitor across the street – Andersen’s. The Jetty Road icecream outlets are certainly quieter in winter, but the offerings remain excellent. I went straight to the sorbets, and was very excited to see that they offer blood orange. A regular cup was $5.50 and it took me quite a while to get through the portion. First up, the sorbet was a tad melty, which was surprising in winter, and which meant that I didn’t enjoy the texture as much. On the other hand, full marks for flavour – the blood orange was really intense, but balanced nicely by the natural sweetness of the sorbet. The flavour experience was very much like drinking a San Pellegrino blood orange sparkling drink (yum!). As with all good sorbets, the intensity of the flavour didn’t fade the more you ate, so I’d recommend stopping by and giving Andersen’s a try – definitely delicious for fighting cold with cold!

Andersen’s Ice Cream, 46 Jetty Road, Glenelg SA                           http://andersensicecream.com/Andersens_of_Denmark_Ice_Cream/Home.html

Cow & the Moon

When you’re awarded the best gelato in the world, you have some serious bragging rights. Cow & the Moon has earned those bragging rights – but does their gelato live up to the hype? I visited on a Saturday after lunch and was delighted not to have to line up. We got a few flavours to share, starting with the sorbets – apple & wasabi and black on black (blackberry). First up, let me say that the texture of these sorbets is really something special. They’re so thick and creamy for something without dairy! Black on black was tasted just like biting into a blackberry chewy lolly – rich, a bit tart and really luscious. I expected the wasabi to hit me in the face with the apple sorbet, but instead it was beautifully subtle, rounding off the sharpness that green apple usually has and adding complexity on the back palate. Yum. We also tried the hazelnut roche (so, so good), but my highest praise went to the divine fig and walnut gelato – it tasted golden and I could have devoured bowls and bowls of it. So the answer is yes, it does live up to the hype – check them out!

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

Hopetoun Tea Rooms

Stopping in at the Hopetoun Tea Rooms is becoming a Melbourne tradition for me. I am completely in love with their window display and their William Morris wallpaper, and I could happily spend days working my way through the tea menu. On this occassion, I met a friend and we managed to get a table without having to queue. The line grew quickly after we were seated, though, so you have to either time your visit well or be prepared to wait. I started with a pot of Buddha’s Finger tea – oolong with peach characteristics. The tea was strongly flavoured, and, as with all of their teas, best consumed fairly quickly, as it started to go bitter as it cooled. I couldn’t resist a big slice of cake, so picked the raspberry sponge as my snack – the piece was quite large and full of cream. The raspberries on top and throughout were plump and fresh, and added a nice tartness to the overall sweetness of the slice. The sponge was lovely and moist, and the raspberry coulis served on the side was divine. Everything here – from the cake to the decor – is lovely.

Hopetoun Tea Rooms, Block Arcade, 282 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC    http://www.hopetountearooms.com.au

Ujicha Gion Tsujiri

After an amazing dinner on Pontocho-dori, we wandered across the river to Gion, Kyoto’s famous geisha quarter, also famed for its tea stores. I had a real craving for icecream, and was a bit sad to see so many stores closed for the night along Shijo-dori, the main street. But when I spotted a couple of people walking along with soft serves in hand, we kept going and eventually found Ujicha Gion Tsujiri serving take aways. Yes! I hadn’t had many traditional-flavoured icecreams on this trip, so I picked the more exotic of the two options – hojicha, rather than the standard matcha. Hojicha is a green tea that’s been roasted over charcoal, giving it a more complex, smoky flavour. This was evident even from the colour, which was more a khaki than bright green. I absoutely loved it. The flavour had more bitterness than your standard icecream, but the roasted flavour really added a lot of depth and it tasted like what I imagine tea with cream would be like. The texture was rich and creamy, as soft serves should be, and I devoured the little cupful happily.

Ujicha Gion Tsujiri, 573-3 Gionmachi Minamigawa Shijo Dori Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto http://www.giontsujiri.co.jp/gion/store/kyoto_gion/#_=_

Sage Dining Rooms

Part one is here. The second main was agnolotti with mushrooms, truffle, pine nuts and a creamy bone marrow sauce, and this was my favourite of the two. I loved the rich cream sauce and the pairing of truffle with forest mushrooms. The pasta was clearly house-made and had a lovely bite. Looking at the dish, I just wanted to dive right in, with all that beautiful grated parmesan on top! By this point we were getting very full – I sipped at my mocktail (strawberry and mint lemonade – uttery divine and something I will go back for) and enjoyed the Autolyse bread with butter and salt, topped with a truffle crisp (the strongest truffle flavour of the day). The first dessert was the sweet and it was at its best with a mouthful capturing all of the elements – the sweet waffle, the not-very-sweet icecream, the shaved truffle and the salty popcorn. Everything worked perfectly to create a complex, sophisticated dessert. Finally, we finished with truffled brie, served with thyme-infused leatherwood honey and a neutral, very thin crispbread. The thyme made the honey almost savoury – again, trying the dish with all the elements in one mouthful yielded the best flavour. Sage, you sure know how to make a first impression! The Sage truffle lunch is on until the end of July as part of the Canberra Truffle Festival.

Sage Dining Rooms, Batman Street, Braddon ACT                     http://www.sagerestaurant.net.au/