Cloud 9 Chocolate Cafe

After the pies, I suggested to go across the road for some dessert. I've seen this place online before, and decided to make the most of my time on this side of town.

This place is known for their 'Gelato Sliders'-gelato drizzled with chocolate sandwiched between cookies/banana bread/brownie. Again, there was a place I really wanted to try in NYC which had something like this, but I didn't have time ):

Gelato made on premises. The lady was spur nice, saying we could try as many flavours as we wanted to. 

cookies

Gelato Slider!

Macadamia crunch with caramel swirl gelato, vanilla choc chip and maple pecan cookie, dark choc sauce-$7

Most of the gelato flavours weren't super exciting like Messina. The gelato here was very smooth, but melted quicker than other places even though it was coldish that night. There were bits of the nut within the gelato and no too sweet. Another interesting flavour was donut w/ choc chip, but wanted to avoid choc ice cream...The strawberry cheesecake tasted a ting bit like artificial strawberries. I found the cookies very sweet once you have a bite of everything together. Picked 2 cookie flavours so they didn't sandwich properly...Once you cut it in half, it's even more difficult to eat, but they have serviettes/wet tissues there since they know it's going to be a bit messy. The cookies were actually hard once, so it gave structure to the slider, but it's hard to bite into it without squishing the gelato inside...

It's not on the cheap side, but it's one of those things where you try once for the novelty of it (:

the disease lecturers are actually very efficient. group exams yday, marked and given back today, as well as reviewing our answers to our online quizzes. not sure how i'm going to pass on thurs...with no notes and only by myself...diseases is quite interesting, lots of effort and quite confusing, but hopefully rewarding. my group has yet to be picked-thank you random number generator. 19 groups, so had around 14 groups have been picked. most likely will have to present the next fortnight...

relatives here are distracting and exciting (:

The Pie Tin

I've actually been wanting to go to this place since 1st yr uni, so I was super excited to go with Happy Apple for a long overdue catch up :) So lovely seeing you! Newtown is quite a trek from UNSW. Well not really, but in peak traffic a bus ride takes over 30min, and it's quite a detour compared to Surry Hills/Darlinghurst where all the buses normally pass through back to the CBD.

savoury pies

noo, I thought I uploaded the sweet pies onto my blog and then deleted it off my phone since my phone is constantly running on only 100mb of space, but obviously I didn't upload it ):

'insert dessert pie photo'

dessert pie cabinet is on the left, but too far to see here ):

There were a lot of chocolate options to choose from, but they didn't have the infamous apple pie, so we opted for something still a little bit different yet not too decadent. Savoury pies range from $6.90-$8.90, sweet from $7.90-$8.90 (except for the apple one)

Look at that cute pie tin number!

Lemon brûlée tart-$8.90, sweet roasted duck with cointreau & seasonal vegetables-$8.90

Thanks Happy Apple for the pies! Decided to get the duck pie since I've never had duck in a pie before. Tbh, I think the Pie Tin is overhyped. The pies were not, but not spectacular, and unfortunately I have to say, I've had better. It's still really good, just not amazing like everyone has said. If Manu from MKR was eating this, he'll be like 'where's the sauce?' The duck reminded me of shredded pork, it was a bit on the dry side, and without much sauce in the pie, it lacked some flavour. Wasn't as sweet as I hoped it would be, but it was very lean and the serving inside was decent. Seasonal veggies included carrots, onions and other stuff...

The pastry is just normal 'healthier' pastry, but if you have a pie, you might as well go all out on the buttery/fattiness. The pastry wasn't really flaky like puff pastry or really buttery either. 

Didn't feel like something too heavy, and around half of the pies that night were chocolate based =/ Chose the lemon brûlée pie since I've had brûlée tarts before, but not in pie form. The shortcrust pastry particularly the edge was a bit hard, quite hard to just cut it with your spark (they don't have knives). Again, the pastry was more plain in terms of butteriness. I know butter is bad, but sometimes a tad bit more does make something taste better...Loved the kind of crunchy-ish top which was blow torched. There was a sweet custard which was balanced well with the lemon flavour and wasn't too acidic.

take away :)

slow roasted shredded pork with apple & bbq sauce-$8.90

inside

This pie looked and was a bit on the dry side. Again, I would have preferred more sauce. Apple always goes well with pork, but would have preferred more. It was generally nice but not spectacular.

I just really want to try the apple pie if I come back next time...

too happy from eating->can't study. too excited about food->can't study. relatives over->can't study.

these weekly quizzes and fortnightly tests plus self study is not looking good already after wk 2.

need to up my study routine. already behind =/

after next week, going to try promise to myself to not go out to eat anymore

Vudu Larder and Aggy's Shack

This post has been sitting in my drafts for over a year now, but I guess it's time to start clearing out my draft folder.

Went to Queenstown, New Zealand in last year's winter break as a spontaneous trip overseas. Made the most of our last day there by doing more site seeing and looking around the local shops.

Visited Vudu Larder for drinks in the morning. From memory, it was quite packed even in the morning. Food looked great but I had another place in mind for food, price probably a bit more towards the higher end of an average brunch. I guess there's a positive to taking photos of everything since if you asked me how much/what I had, I wouldn't have remembered (unless it's like desserts I know my prices pretty well)

Remarkable Berry: blueberry, mint, apple, raspberry-$8NZ

cappuccino: $4NZ (from memory)

Now that the Aussie dollar is lower, these stuff isn't that cheap. The smoothie was really refreshing, and could taste the fresh ingredients :)

Before going overseas for holidays, I normally do my research which also includes food. Heard that Aggy's shack was a locals favourite even though it is kind of like a shack, small, and limited outdoor seating, but it was so, so delicious!

Fish and chips: 1 fillet, fries, lemon, cream tartare-$12NZ

1/2 Mutton Bird, fries, tomato sauce-$15

They prefer to call it fries here...The fish was nice and soft inside with a crispy batter. It was nice, but not amazing. The mutton bird is amazing! It kind of tastes like fish but in chicken form. Apparently Mutton birds are only harvested in April/May by Maori people and is quite traditional in Maori culture/heritage. You would think deep frying a bird would dry it out, but this bird has some fat, so it retained the moistness and juiciness. The tomato sauce help cut out some of that 'fishy' taste. I don't mind that fishy taste, just some people may dislike it so there is sauce there in case. Heaps of chips and quite a large serving in general even though they look small. There are extra condiments on the tables. Loved eating this with a super amazing backdrop of mountains. Too bad it's closed now to make way for residential apartments ):

 

 

Haven Tailoring Coffee Joyously

Love how convenient this place is! Literally cross the road from Central Station, Devonshire street exit and there you are! Even closer than Devon.

This is a relatively new cafe which opened earlier this year. The co-owner is from HK and decided to venture out to Syd for more brunch style cafe options here, since HK real estate is even more expensive, and I feel that it's harder to profit from this style of cafe in HK. Like when I went back last year, a good quality cup of coffee I had at a cafe was $10aud. It was pretty average, and only tourist like me who search for HK's best would pay for that stuff, but the average HK person would just get cheap eats from their local HK style cafe for about 1/5 of that price...

Super spacious cafe with good lighting. 

drinks: cappuccino with more sweetness and aroma-$3.50

chai latte-$4

What's special about this cafe is that you can tailor your coffee. For the capp, we asked for more sweetness and aroma. I was actually kind of sick that day, so kind of had a blocked nose...but according to my mum it did have more aroma. I think all their coffees come with some currants. The chai latte unfortunately didn't have enough spice to it. Apparently it's naturally sweetened with honey, but I prefer it to have more spice. This one was quite small for the price you pay, and more on the milky side. It's cute how it comes with a description of the type of chai they use.

late lunch spread

Soba Noodles in miso, earl grey and lavender broth, with baby bok choy, soy seared mushrooms and balck sesame-$16.50

 

broth poured once it arrives on your table

It probably smelt really nice, but being sick couldn't really smell the lavender...It tasted quite different, but I think it worked. It's either you like it or you don't. This dish felt super healthy! Loved the generous serving of juicy mushrooms, and quite a decent serving size even though it doesn't look like it. Tea was also subtle, would have preferred more aroma, but it was still delicious.

Braised lamb shoulder w/ mint, feta, quinoa and pickled cabbage salad-$18.50

Since we ordered a vegetarian dish, decided to go with a meaty dish (sorry for the over-exposed photo). The lamb was quite fatty, not fully braised and had to cut visible pieces of fat off since the texture of fat in your mouth if not rendered down properly is quite gross. The lamb was a tad charred in some places, but the other flavours with the mint to make it refreshing worked well. 

Cake testing time!

Masfagato: 73% dark choc brownie w/ frozen mascarpone and a shot of house blend espresso-$13

Super interesting concept. Lovely presentation for something as simple as a brownie, but it's in a slanted glass (which kind of make eating it difficult unless you held onto the glass to prevent it from slipping). The brownie itself definitely has a hit of dark choc and not much sweetness. The coffee enriched the chocolate flavour. The frozen marscarpone reminded me of icy ice cream, helped to give a creamy element to the dessert without being overly creamy/rich.

Berry Vanilla Custard Cake-$5.50

The custard is blended/mixed into the cake sponge, and not like a 'magic cake where it's a layer of sponge and separate layer of custard. It's dense when you cut into it but not too heavy when you eat it. This cake had minimal sweetness.

Both desserts were on the house. Going to be back here very soon! Will defs keep you guys posted! :)

yay August! and yes I am biased having favourite months.

did some damage today...spent over a day's worth of pay D= hardly ever do this unless i'm on holidays...

already behind in wk 1 ): diseases require so much self study.watching at least 5 hours of pecs online then fortnightly exams/presentations in class...he talks so fast as well, so keep pausing the vid, so a 1hr lec turns into 1.5+hr.

i understand why event planners exist. it's for people who want to plan but don't have time to plan so they just tell someone what they want and on the day everything should run smoothly...i guess when i was young and had more time, i thought what's the purpose when you can plan everything yourself? i actually don't mind planning, it's just time consuming...