Category: Bakery

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Bakery Italian

Pasticceria Tamborrino – Five Dock NSW Restaurant Review

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

Categories
Bakery

Christina’s Honeycakes – Newtown NSW Restaurant Review

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.

Categories
Bakery Chinese

Savoy Cake 風月堂 – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review

Savoy Cake Shop has been the go-to for our family birthdays since the early 2000s, making an appearance at almost every single family event throughout my childhood and my adulthood. The reach of their taro cake is absolutely inescapable in our extended family and probably, I assume, many families of Chinese descent in the Sydney region.

I ordered a couple of cakes from Savoy, not by choice but out of obligation, for a recent family birthday.

The taro cake ($45 – 6 inch) is primarily made of soft and light chiffon, fresh cream and a taro cream both between the layers of sponge as well as on top. This cake epitomises the concept of ‘not too sweet’ while still being flavourful, and in my old age I have started to see why my family always went back to it, even though as an unprofessional food blogger I am required to sample the many cakes of Sydney.

I was advised by my family that I would have to order ahead of time in order to get fruit on the cake, however even having done so, this cake lacked fruit. It turns out that not only does one have to order ahead of time but also specifically mention fruit in the comments in order to get fruit on their cake, which is upsetting.

The second cake I ordered against my parents’ wishes was the matcha cheesecake ($49 – 8 inch). Two cakes was too many for our small family gathering, but I really felt the need to try something different – so the internet could know. The green tea cake was not bad, but much weaker than many cheesecakes I’ve had, and definitely the lesser of the two.

Most importantly I didn’t quite enjoy the texture of it, particularly the bottom 50%, which though appeared macroscopically the same tasted and felt much breadier and drier than the top, I assume due to to a settling process during production. My family pretended to enjoy it but it certainly wasn’t as enjoyed as the OG.

風月堂 Savoy Cake
254A Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134


Categories
Bakery Vietnamese

Happy Snack Cafe House – Homebush West NSW Restaurant Review

I found these photos on my computer from a year and a half ago, and realised I had never written anything about these porks roll. Searching through my Whatsapp chat with my girlfriend where sometimes feelings about banhs mi go, there was nothing noted, suggesting that these were neither memorably good nor memorably bad.

It doesn’t seem particularly fair, therefore, to even put up a post about Happy Snack Cafe, except for a fact that it acts as a reminder to myself that I’ve been here and that I don’t have to ever go back, unless it is to try some of their sit down options.

A completely unrelated flashback from the past is that it looks like we picked up these porks roll as we were actively worried about the possible impending death of our cat Evie. She had started wobbling all over the place, falling over, and had stopped eating. We had taken her to a couple of different vets who had given her IV fluids and each time she seemed to get better, but got worse again post-discharge.

Eventually we took her to the Small Animal Specialist Hospital (SASH) at North Ryde, where for the cost of $8,000 or so they put her in the MRI scanner under GA, took a CSF sample (from just under the occiput in cats!), and a bunch of other specialised tests. Seen by neurology, ophthalmology, dermatology, general surgery, and internal medicine, the presumptive diagnosis was thiamine deficiency based on increased signal intensity of bilateral basal nuclei. Some thiamine supplementation, and she didn’t have to die, and she’s been fine ever since.

These pork rolls were picked up on our way to pick up Evie from SASH. Here she is, in the car, with her neck all shaved for vascular access. I love her.

I honestly don’t remember enough about the porks roll to recommend Happy Snack Cafe House, but I remember a lot about SASH and can definitely recommend them to a friend or colleague.

Happy Snack Cafe House
104 The Crescent, Homebush West NSW 2140

Categories
Bakery Dessert

La PaTEAsserie – Epping NSW Restaurant Review

I fell victim to a targeted ad for La PaTEAsserie’s cake whilst on the hunt for something to serve at our wedding.

My wife and I each got to choose a cake and my choice was the Tie Guan Yin & Orange Cake (8 inch, serves 8-12, $90), which we ordered two of. Whilst it was certainly not bad, it did unfortunately pale in comparison to its competitor, the Lemon Dream from Flour and Stone.

The majority of components of this cake were tea-infused. The chiffon, a very light sponge, was infused with tieguanyin and had a very light taste, probably a victim of the Lemon Dream that was served before it. The Tieguanyin mousse with a hint of orange zest was pretty good though overall I felt that the cake lacked in flavour and took the concept of not too sweet a little too far.

It’s a shame that we had this cake second, and I fully accept that it’s very possible that I would have enjoyed this cake significantly more had I eaten it first before eating something else that was much stronger in flavour, but it is what it is.

Again, one cake served 20 people, and the second cake that was untouched for service was sliced up by the restaurant staff at Sunny Seafood Restaurant Central Park Mall to be taken home.

We had ours in the hotel room that night.

La PaTEAsserie (online order and pickup/delivery)
35 Oxford Street, Epping, NSW