Ricardo's Cafe, Macquarie

"Flower of this purple dye, Hit with Cupid’s archery, Sink in apple of his eye."

- A Midsummer night's dream

Like many other interesting little haunts in the Capital, word of mouth is definitely more potent than any other advertisement. 

J was eager to show me this little patisserie/cafe nestled in a rather unassuming corner of Jamison Plaza.

Upon entering the rather busy cafe on a Thursday afternoon, I was immediately entranced by the beautiful display of cakes and pastries glistening on display by the front counter. 

Cakes and pastries on display

"Is that really a cheesecake?" I asked J in awe. 

The cakes and pastries looked amazing. Almost too surreal and perfect to be edible. I was torn between the irresistibly hipster cronuts and the incredible cakes on display. 

"You could always get both," J offered. 

Ah, maybe for another day then.

We decided to get some real lunch under our belt first. I ordered the open lamb sandwich, which sounded fantastic on the menu, but unfortunately was a bit of a let down in terms of taste. It was definitely generous in its proportions, but it just wasn't quite as tasty as it sounded. In my opinion, it was a bit lacking in contrast of taste and texture. Maybe it needed a proper salad on the side to cut through the rather homogenous tasting dish. A few sprouts sprinkled on top really did not do much for its flavour. Its presentation also left something to be desired.

J's gourmet burger looked more appealing and was quite substantial in size. (Although arguably, it is quite pricey for a burger) The burger was served in focaccia bread and had a side of undercooked fries. 

Top: Gourmet Burger $14.90 (with chips $17.90). Bottom: Open lamb sandwich $9.90.

Well, I guess Ricardo's Cafe is really better known for its pastries and dessert.

We ordered an Apple cheesecake to share, although we had to fork out a bit extra for the ice-cream on the side.

Not sure if it was due to hyped up expectations, but the taste of the cheesecake seemed rather ordinary next to the sheer spherical perfection and technical complexity of the cake. It was quite nice, don't get me wrong. And it's definitely something worth trying at least once. It's certainly impressive looking enough to show off on Facebook or Instagram, but I'm not sure if the taste was good enough to make me crave it enough to make it a regular event.

The inside of the cake had a small layer of rather soft biscuit 'crumble', a substantial amount of cheesecake-y filling to make the bulk of the 'apple' and a gooey cinnamon and apple layer that tasted a bit like cold McDonald's apple-pie filling (mind you, I do like a good Maccas apple pie.)

Above: Apple Cheesecake $8.90.

Perhaps I was unlucky with my order choices this time. Who knows, surely the crowd knows something I don't?

I'm still keen to try a cronut one day though :).

~~
Jamison Plaza 
Bowman Street
Macquarie, ACT 2614

 http://ricardoscafe.com/

Hana Hana, Sydney CBD

 I thought I'll make a quick mention of this little cafe/restaurant on the outskirts of Chinatown/ Haymarket. Hana Hana is the quieter younger sibling of a number of other Japanese outlets in Sydney including Wagaya and Takeru. It is located at the corner where once upon a time, the French Riviera ice cream shop used to sit perched on the edge of one of the many entrances to Darling Harbour.

Downstairs, the restaurant serves Japanese food (mainly bento box sets). But our usual haunt was upstairs where they serve dessert :). 

The place was quiet when we arrived (despite it being late lunch hour), and we made our way upstairs to another seating area decorated with pretty patterned fabric and simple wooden furniture. The upper level seating area seemed equally empty with only a mother and her toddler enjoying ice cream near the windows. A lone waitress was preparing desserts at the little open plan preparing area whilst we scouted out the ice cream display, which included all your classic Asian flavours such as green tea and black sesame.

However, we were quickly entranced with the idea of a Green tea parfait.

Left: Patterned lighting. Right: Green tea parfait $5.90.

The parfait consisted of an interesting combination of flavours and textures. There was a modest sized scoop of green tea ice cream, a chocolate wafer, some chewy mochi, crunchy cornflakes (an interesting touch, totally Japanese :)), sweet red bean paste (anko), and cream and green tea pudding at the bottom. Yum! Although, I'm not a huge fan of the mochi (which was chewy, but didn't have that much taste when compared to the rest of the parfait), the parfait was pretty satisfying overall. The dessert was not overly sweet (and may not satisfy people who like their sugar), but rather subtle, light and pretty refreshing.

Great place for your green tea ice cream fix!

~~

5/209 Thomas St
Sydney, NSW 2000

http://yesfood.com.au/hanahana.html

August 2013 - Adore Tea, Nicholls

“'Yes, that's it!' Said the Hatter with a sigh, 'it's always tea time.'”

- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

I have always loved a good cup of tea and heard many good things about this little tea house on the outskirts of Canberra (about a 20 min drive from the city centre), so when the occasion arose, I quickly jumped at the opportunity to visit this place.

The tea house is situated just around the corner from the Cockington Green miniature gardens, in a little market/square area across the road from an adorable little chapel and other unique shops selling various nick-nacks.There is both indoor and outdoor seating, as well as a gift shop selling their range of teas and various tea making paraphernalia.

It was a lovely sunny winter afternoon when we arrived, so we opted to sit outside in the sunshine. It did end up being a bit too hot for us after a while, but the very obliging staff were happy to lower the blinds of the little plastic cafe shelter when we asked. 

The staff were friendly, attentive and had a contagiously upbeat attitude. They were very knowledgeable about their menu and tea (I think the waiter said that there's something like 300 types!) and were happy to offer their recommendations and give us an idea of what the various teas tasted like.

We ended up ordering a pot of tea each from their extensive tea menu, and a few nibbles to share. There was a high tea option, but I believe you need to book beforehand for that and it's only available on certain days.

Clockwise from top left: White Peach Black tea and a Pina Colada fruit infusion. Dutch Poffertjes with whipped cream. 

Blackberry tasting plate. Scones with clotted cream and jam.

The tea arrived first on their little tea-light burners. As this was our first time there, the waiter gave us a quick 'Tea-brewing 101' lesson on how long to infuse for and when to fish out the metal infuser with the loose leaf tea leaves. 

My White Peach tea definitely smelt of lovely sweet peaches, but it tasted more like normal tea (but I guess that's expected with many of these 'flavoured' teas). I still enjoyed it, although it did seem like a lot of fluid to chug down in one sitting (I think I managed to get a good 4-5 cups out of the teapot). The Pina Colada tea had a very pretty reddish colour and had a slightly sour aftertaste, which was not really my cup of tea (pun intended), but my friends quite enjoyed it.

After seeing other tables ordering beautiful pyramids of poffertjes served with butterscotch syrup, we were expecting great things from it. It tasted alright, but were a little small and did not quite live up to what we were expecting based on its very enticing appearance.

Similarly, we were expecting a lot more from the Blackberry tasting plate based on its menu description. It came with a spoonful of berries in syrup, a shot-glass size of jelly (that tasted a bit like the aeroplane jelly), a tiny little berry cheesecake and a small scoop of blackberry sorbet. Unfortunately nothing here really tasted special.

But the scones were the saving grace and definitely the highlight of the lot. They were soft, crumbly and slightly warm and served with delicious strawberry and raspberry jam and clotted cream. Prior to this, I was never really a huge fan of scones or jam, but this has definitely made me a convert.

Overall, we did enjoy our visit although we may give the tasting platter a miss next time. Have heard good things about the high tea service here, but I think it's best to come with a nice empty stomach for that (and an empty bladder :P).

~~

Adore Tea

Shop 6, Federation Square One
18 O’Hanlon Place
NICHOLLS ACT 2913

http://www.adoretea.com.au/Adore-Tea-Gold-Creek-26.html