#TNTea

Hello!!

I know I have been very inconsistent with the blogging. I have been busy with a few new job ventures. However, with uni exams coming up, I thought I would take a little break and do a quick post on my 22nd Birthday by sharing a few photos with the blogger world. 

For my 22nd Birthday, I decided to host a Garden Tea Party. With the help of my sister, friends and family I was able to pull off an amazing event! 

The set up was at my sisters house, where all cake stands, decorations and props were items that we have between the 2 of us. Most of the food was either made by my sister or myself. My sister has 2 pet rabbits, Taro & Sesame whom were also a highlight of the event. Lastly I had an event hashtag of #TNTea where more photos can be seen.

Additional items were by:
Flowers by PaPetal http://papetal.blogspot.com.au/ - She uses crepe paper to create beautiful floral creations, she has an instagram of @papetalcraft. Her Facebook page would be best mode for contact.
Tea sets  by Just My Cup of Tea - Vintage China & Prop Hire
Macarons by fellow food blogger Tina Huynh (Gaytime and neopolitan!)
Cake from http://www.cavallaros.com.au/cakes.html
Pastries by Dulce Luna Viennoiserie
Photography Danny Ku

The menu

Photobooth props and area

The set up

Papetal hypericumberries

The tea table set up

Papetal crepe flowers and Just my cup of Tea sets

Dulce Luna pastries

A glimpse of afternoon delights

Papetal crepe flowers

Papetal crepe flowers

Home-made scones with jam

The filled table

Maracuja Cake from Cavalloros 

Sesame

Taro

Thank you everyone for helping pull of an amazing event! Another shout out to everyone who came, because without you all, there wouldn't have been an event to begin with!

Good food, good times!

Melbourne Bites: Hardware Societe, Lux Bite & La Belle Miette

A day trip to Melbourne and the food that was involved.

1. Hardware Societe
2. St Ali (coffee break)

3. Lux Bite

4. La Belle Miette

HARDWARE SOCIETE

120 Hardware St, Melbourne VIC 3000

Baked Eggs 

Left: chorizo sausage, piquillo pimientos sauce, crunchy almonds, queso de cabra goats milk cheese

Right: Sweet potato, thyme & jerusalem artichoke puree, triple cream brie

Charcuterie coddled eggs

cured meats, hot smoked salmon, fromage du jour, condiments

LUX BITE
38 Toorak Rd, South Yarra VIC 3141

Rainbow of macarons

Meringue Monster
Green tea sponge, pistachio, watermelon yoghurt, sour strawberry mousse and meringue

Lolly bag cake: As seen in Masterchef 2013

Almond jaconde, freckle Crunch, mandarin jaffa ganache, musk mallow, spearmint buttercream and redskin glaze

Endless Love

Lychee ganache, rose cream, lychee and fresh raspberries

Our delights!

LA BELLE MIETTE
30 Hardware Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000

Macarons
Left Column: Lavender, Earl grey & chocolate, Violet blueberry, Lemon, Salted caramel and Opera cake
Right Column: Raspberry, Pimms & pomegranate, Rose, Cherry blossom & sake, Scone, Bastille

Macarons

Left to Right: Lemon, ginger & pineapple, Heilala crème brulee, Mandarin & Jaffa, Sour strawberry, Ribena Lemonade, Coffee Candy (Kopiko), Bamboo Oolong tea and Kaya toast 

Hoard of macarons =D

MakMak @ Newtown

Finally, MakMak have created a retail store! This happened after originally being a pop-up store, and has now become a permanent resident of Newtown. MakMak was named the best macaron in Sydney, by a blind taste test conducted by 3 of Sydney's best chefs (Time Out Sydney Article). They provide exceptional flavours, with their current Botanicals Collection that is inspired by flowers, herbs and plants. Each macarons costs $3.00 each, but if you get more they become cheaper. I purchased 12 for $32.

Flavours (from top left corner):

Rhubarb & Rose: This was one of my favourite macaron flavours. There was a lovely balance of sweetness with the tartness of the rhubarb jelly centre.  

Passionfruit, Orange & Lemon Myrtle: I do enjoy my citrus flavours, but this was filled with so much flavour that it was a bit overwhelming for me. Lucky I was enjoying it with a cup of tea, which helped with the intensity of the macaron. 

Apricot & Elderflower: The taste of Autumn was definitely encased in this macaron. There were lovely pieces of apricot with the apricot ganache which made all the difference. 

Peanut butter & Belgian chocolate: Another one of my favourite macarons. It was like snickers in a macaron, but better! It was more so a peanut and chocolate, than actual peanut butter. Too good to eat slow.

Pistachio: It is a classic macaron, that can't fail (when bought of course). A great rendition of a classic.

Peppermint & Dark Belgian chocolate: Another favourite! I love things mint, and this is something to add to all things mint. A lovely balance with peppermint and chocolate. I was eating it slow to savour it all.

Salted Caramel: I was actually a bit disappointed with this one. The shell was crunchier than the others, and not enough of a salted taste. Then again, maybe I received an odd one of the bunch.

Raspberries & Cream: Gotta love raspberries! It was a lovely balance between white chocolate and raspberries. 

Smoked Vanilla & Pecan Praline: This was an interesting macaron. I could, yet couldn't get the taste of the macaron. The nuttines of the pecan was definitely there though! 

Green Tea Latte: A different twist on the new phase of green tea flavoured macarons. There was a bit more of a sweetness to it. I loved how there was a little white love heart on the shell.

Strawberry, Vincotto & Pink Peppercorn: This was my least favourite. I found the pink peppercorn to be overpowering, along with the wine type taste. The flavours were conflicting, and just didn't work for me.

Bounty: Coconut all around! There was a coconut centre that was bound by ganache. The chocolate half shell gave the taste of the bounty chocolate bar.

Overall, MakMak macarons are a delight! There shells keep in perfect form and reminds me of those from Melbourne's La Belle Miette. The flavours are more subtle than competitors such as zumbo and baroque. However, they are definitely worthy of being Sydney's number 1 macaron.

Good food, good times!

Check out my reviews of the other top macarons:
Cafe Cre Asion: http://spoonfulsofgoodness.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/cafe-cre-asion-surry-hills.html
Adriano Zumbo: http://spoonfulsofgoodness.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/zumbaron-day-2012-adriano-patisserie.html

Laduree: http://spoonfulsofgoodness.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/laduree-sydney-westfield-level-3.html

Baroque: http://spoonfulsofgoodness.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/baroque-pantry-rocks-sydney.html

Blackflower Patisserie @ Haymarket

Blackflower patisserie is a new pastisserie, that is a side business with Passionflower (the ice creamery). It opened at the end of 2012, and still building a reputation. They offer an assortment sweet delights including macarons, cakes, biscuits, teas and coffee. All their desserts provide a combination of great flavours.

The pastisserie has a handful of tables which can seat roughly 20-30 people. There is a lovely display of macaron towers, cook books, and empty patron bottles. They have their blackflower bags as decoration for their cabinets, and shelves. A nice place to catch up with friends over some sweets and beverages. Each macaron costs $3.00, and the cakes are around $7-8 each. 

 Panda - Black Sesame

How cute are these macarons?! They were a limited edition macaron that they used for a club promotion. I loved how the other side of the macaron had a little tail. The black sesame was a great flavour, that wasn't too strong but still had the kick. It was almost too cute to eat.

Hamburger 

Another cute looking macaron, I thought it might actually taste like a hamburger but staff said otherwise. The inside contained a patty of chocolate ganache, cheese made of yellow hard icing, and tomato sauce using red icing. The sesames put on top of the macaron, made it look that more realistic. The ganache was smooth and helped counteract the taste of fondant (which I don't like, but others may).

Salted Caramel

This was the most subtle tasting salted caramel macaron I have ever tried. It didn't have the kick that most salted caramel macarons had, needed just a touch more saltyness.

Chocolate with cafe patron

When I saw this, I couldn't not buy it. The idea of chocolate with cafe patron is a combination I would have never considered. There was a perfect balance with chocolate, and you could definitely taste the patron. A great treat for those who always like a bit of alcohol in their desserts.

 Wasabi and white chocolate

I thought, that these two flavours would work, but it just wasn't right. I could taste too much of the wasabi, but the white chocolate did help a bit, just not enough. 

 

 Green tea and genmaicha

Genmaicha is the blend of brown rice with green tea, which adds a slightly roasted nutty taste. The macaron had a great taste of green tea, as other places have a stronger taste of vanilla or chocolate.

Envy - Japanese green tea, white chocolate and black sesame

All the cakes have very interesting names, such as pash, orgy, envy, hangover, and you can kinda get the gist of it. Going a long with the Asian inspired desserts, this was the best of all the dessert options. The layers of blacksesame, and green tea were amazing! The white chocolate added a bit more sweetness against the slightly bitter green tea.

 

Dessert of the day - Passionfruit and Lychee Bomb

This sounded delicious, looked great, and has one of my favourite flavours of passionfruit. However, for the first time the passionfruit flavour was too overpowering for me. It needed a bit of chocolate to help balance it out. The passionfruit overtook the flavour of the lychee as well.

  

Dessert of the day - Green tea and white chocolate treat

This was a little egg of joy. The bottom layer was white chocolate mousse, topped with a green tea ganache and garnished with coated cornflakes. It wasn't like anything I expected or ever tried before. The green tea ganache was the highlight of it, definitely something I will try to attempt one day.

Blackflower provides desserts that are filled with flavour. There are a lot of options, for those who love intense flavours, and for others who enjoy a bit more subtlety. 

Good food, good times!

Zumbaron Day 2012 @ Adriano Patisserie, The Star

 Haul of macarons by myself and 3 of my closest girlfriends.

That time of year had come again when Adriano Zumbo invited Sydney siders to all of his patisseries to try different flavoured macarons, specially made for the purpose of a Zumbaron Day - 6/10/2012  (it used to be on his birthday). This year the list was composed of 62 flavours, comprising of whacky flavours, and flavours that he has made throughout the years. Some of the whacky flavours that I did not purchase included duck pancake, pork belly and hamburger. 

My friend and I decided to get 24 macarons, and split them so we were able to try as many flavours as possible without having a massive macaron overload (if that is possible). From the list of 62 flavours we chose:

Box 1 (left to right):
Blue cheese, beer, blueberry & lavender, beetroot & raspberry, carrot cake, caramelised hommus, cola, fig with burnt honey & red wine, gin & tonic, lychee, milo

Box 2 (left to right):
Olive oil & salted truffle, passionfruit & basil, PB & J, peach ice tea, mojito, pineapple &ginger, redskin, salted gianduja caramel, wasabi & ginger, palm sugar & coconut, pear + pistachio & fennel

Of the above macarons, my favourites were olive oil & salted truffle, blueberry & lavender, carrot cake, red skin, passionfruit & basil and pear + pistachio & fennel.

I didn't like the macarons that had alcohol in it, or taste of alcohol. Furthermore, the blue cheese macaron was memorable (not in a good way). I am not a fan of blue cheese, and since this macaron had the EXACT taste of blue cheese, I took a small bite and ran for water straight away. However, if you are a fan of blue cheese, go for it, you will love it (as my friend did)! 

Along with the normal macarons, we decided to buy a few fried ones which included fried doughnut, fried chicken and custard fritter. There was also a special chocolate marshmallow pop macaron (the one on the stick). The fried doughnut macaron contained a raspberry macaron inside, so it tasted like a raspberry jam filled doughnut covered with cinnamon sugar ABSOLUTELY TASTY! The fried chicken tasted exactly as a fried chicken crumb, we waited to get back to my house to eat the macarons, and the fried chicken was still extremely crispy. The custard fritter macaron had a subtle taste which was slightly disappointing, but was still nice. I would definitely get all the fried macarons again.

Special macarons and cross section of fried chicken macaron

  

Fried doughnut cross section

Looking forward to next year, and more whacky and interesting flavours that Adriano Zumbo comes up with.

Good food, good times!