The contents of this blog are matters of opinion formed over one more visits. There has been some artistry applied and metaphors and similes should not necessarily be taken literally.
We stopped by this small Chinese bakery/cafe in Burwood on an eat-pray-love of our local area, the second in three stops for a late lunch that day.
All we had was this uji matcha canelé ($6.50), quite expensive for such a small item, but quite tasty. It had a nice crunchy exterior, with a soft and gooey interior, amplified further by the inclusion of a matcha cream central filling. The canelé was overall not too sweet (as expected from a Chinese bakery), with a pleasant bitter dimension from the matcha.
Overall quite a satisfying little treat. They also sell a 6 inch cake for $88, which is kind of wild pricing, in my opinion.
I had the opportunity to not enjoy this pearl custard/egg tart almost 2 years ago, not post about it, and have the photo sit on my computer until now.
I had in fact forgotten about the experience, until I revisited it when I was served baked goods from Fujimi during a recent echocardiogram course.
Clearly not learning from my mistake, I had again the same tart. My main criticism about this arises from the fact that I don’t actually enjoy the pearls in bubble tea that much, let alone on top of a tart. They’re OK one by one, surrounded by a large mouthful of bubble tea, but when clumped in a group together I think they’re just too sticky and flavourless.
I also had this purple tart, which I can’t identify, but was slightly better. My main complaint about the pastry was that it was soft, rather than crispy. Was this due to the travel-and-wait time, or is this a factor inherent in these tarts?
I don’t know, but I don’t want to have them again to find out.
I really wanted to go back to Agathe a couple of weeks ago when I was in Melbourne for a quiz, but between cramming, spiralling, and Agathé’s rather tight opening hours I sadly wasn’t able to. Spanish bakery La Colmena is where my (local) friend and I settled with in the end, after taking into consideration my bakery desires, our relative starting locations, and the limited time I had before flying out (flight was delayed 2 hours, but I didn’t know this at the time).
The basque cheesecake ($14) we shared was pretty good, although sweeter than I would’ve liked. The texture was very nice, probably the best I’ve had, with a creaminess on the outer layers and a very gooey centre, although I think weighing up the strengths and weaknesses I probably still prefer one I’ve had at a Korean bakery in Sydney that offers a less sweet option for the Asian palate.
The flor manchega ($6) was extremely whatever – essentially thin, multilayered crispy pastry, dusted with sugar and with a bit of an aniseed/liquorice flavour. It is apparently culturally significant, but there are definitely other pastries out there that both have a rich history and taste interesting.
Maybe we just didn’t order the right things?
La Colmena Prahan Market, 163 Commercial Rd, South Yarra VIC 3141
We pre-ordered online and subsequently picked up in person a cake from local bakery Tamborrino, taking the opportunity to try a few quick snacks whilst we were there.
The REASON FOR VISIT was this ricotta and pear semifreddo (around $40). Semi-freddo as a concept is not something that we’re particularly familiar with, and we were told to keep this out of the fridge for 3 hours prior to serving. Due to poor planning on our part, we consumed this cake after only 90 minutes at room temperature, by which point it had devolved into extremely soft, almost custard like texture. Being non-Italian and not having had any semi or full freddo before, I wasn’t sure if such a degree of softness was intentional, but it certainly did not help with the cake’s overall overpowering sweetness. Though sacrilegious as it may be, I think this would’ve been much better eaten straight out of the freezer, giving it a bit more structure and muting the sweetness just a little bit.
I should admit that I did enjoy the little gold encrusted cereal balls, which were a bit chewy and a bit crunchy. Despite this, this was one of the few occasions where I actually preferred the backup cake from Savoy, the classic taro cake, that is always present at such events.
Though I didn’t love the main event, I did quite enjoy this ricotta mini cannoli ($~4 or less). We had made a separate trip some months ago to Mezzapica in Leichardt to get their allegedly very good cannoli, but I honestly don’t think Tamborrino’s was any worse – possibly even better. We had been lured to Leichardt on the promise that Mezzapica’s cannoli would be extra crispy due to their piping to order, but to be honest Tamborrino’s cabinet cannoli crisped just fine. Unlike the other things we had from Tamborrino, the cannoli was not too sweet.
The other little snack we had was this pistachio mini bomba ($4) – essentially a donut filled with an absolutely huge amount of pistachio filling. This, much like the cake was also quite sweet. But somehow more enjoyable – perhaps due to its small size.
Pasticceria Tamborrino Five Dock 75 Great N Rd, Five Dock NSW 2046
I ordered this small round honeycake ($65) from Newtown bakery Christina’s Honeycakes for a recent family birthday via home delivery service store2door. Delivery was smooth, but required a little bit of foreplanning as ordering had to be done prior to noon on the day two days before delivery.
The cake was very dense and sweet, with multiple thin layers of honey soaked sponge alternating with thick layers of flavoured cream. I’ve never had medovik before and am unlikely to ever have it again (of my own accord), so I don’t have any other honey cakes to compare this with, but the sweetness was in general too much for me.
I will say however that despite its small size it packs a punch in terms of its density, so a small 18cm cake really does go a long way in terms of how many people it can serve. Christina’s says 10 people, which I agree is appropriate, and can even stretch to more if need be.
Quite surprisingly for two Asians, my parents were fans.
