Jazz Apple Cafe & Cupcake Emporium

Boasting an amazing range of 30+ different flavours (selling 9 different flavours every week, $4 each), Jazz Apple Cafe (222 City Walk, City) seems to be the latest most talked about thing in Canberra, even though it has only been in business for around 7 weeks. Located just a few steps from my work place, i clearly had to go and check it out. You can't miss JAC, because it has a big sign written 'Best Cupcakes' right in front of it! I wonder...best cupcakes in Canberra? NSW? Australia? Well, it doesn't matter...i'm happy if it's just The Best Cupcakes in Canberra since we never actually had a proper place that sold cupcakes. As i walk in, my attention is immediately drawn towards the multitude of pretty, colourful and scrumptious cupcakes all awaiting in line to be readily devoured (by me). To my amazement, i managed to suppress the inner me (who desperately wanted to buy 9 different flavours of cupcakes) and ended up buying one...yes, O-N-E cupcake! It was hard to make a decision because i wanted to try everything but mainly the Triple Chocolate Mud, Strawberry & White Chocolate, Moist Vanilla, Lemon & Poppyseed! I ended up choosing the Moist Vanilla as i remember that it was quoted in the Canberra 'Food & Wine' Magazine as one of the favourite picks (including Triple Chocolate Mud and Jersey Caramel Mud). Moist Vanilla is a pretty cupcake with a very moist vanilla base topped with a lilac coloured butter cream icing and finished with a cute violet flower on top.

Taste-wise? Very nice and moist vanilla base and the icing was fluffy and soft...good balance of sweetness too! Definately coming back for more since there are so many flavours that i have yet to try! *Eargely awaiting for the Key Lime & Cococut cupcake =9

Moist Vanilla Cupcake, $4 (i ruined a bit of the icing, sorry cupcake!)

The Flute Bakery

In Fyshwick (8 Barrier Street), a little gem you find. It's odd to find it in such a location because everything else you see in Fyshwick is factory outlets, motorcars repair centres, furniture shops and warehouses enfin, the last place you'd expect to find a nice bakery as such. The first thing you'll see is a big board with the bakery's logo and it's opening times...and guess what? It's only opens from Monday to Friday (8am - 3pm).

Anyways, there i was with my camera and ready for some food snapping! It is a pretty small bakery with some French posters on the walls. To your right is a few simple tables and chairs, on your left is where the bread and artisan cakes are and right in front of you is where the oh-so-good pies and quiches are.

Since i hadn't had lunch, i wanted some savory food before devouring all the delicious cakes in the cake display (not that i managed to...). I tried the Beef Pie and the Lamb Curry Pie ($4 each). Honestly, the pies are simply awesome! A-W-E-S-O-M-E. The beef pie had a lovely oozing sauce which didn't leave any after-taste and the meat was chunky and soft. I will have to admit that the Lamb Curry Pie was really good and this is coming from a person that doesn't like lamb (AT ALL). If this was the first time I had ever tasted lamb, perhaps i woudn't be so critical and against it afterall. OK...i'll make an exception for this Lamb Curry Pie then.

Now comes my favorite part...the cakes ($5.50 each). Unfortunately for the first one that i tried, didn't have a name next to it so until my next visit, this cake shall remain without a name. It was a 2-layered mousse (the first layer was a hazelnut chocolate mousse and the second layer was a white chocolate mousse) set on top of a chocolate wafer crunch with a 'river' of chocolate running on top of the cake and decorated with some caramel crunch.

After that, i was so full that i couldn't fit another cake (as much as i wanted to), thus PLAN B: Takeaway! I took away 2 cakes: the 'Passionfruit Mousse & Pistachio Cake' and the 'Raspberry Tart with Vanilla Bean Custard'. The uniqueness of the pistachio cake was the little chocolate case filled with strawberry jam but what i really liked about the cake was the passionfruit mouse. It was light, aromatic and yummy-ly (weird invented word) soft. I quite enjoyed the combination of fresh rasberries with the vanilla bean custard, they blended well with the custard offsetting some of its sweetness.

Beef/Lamb Curry Pie ($4)

Hazelnut Mousse Cake (Temporary Name)

Passionfruit Mousse & Pistachio Cake

Rasberry Tart with Vanilla Bean Custard

Tien Vietnamese Restaurant

Ten days with no update...oops! Was a bit busy for the past few days...but what matters now is that i'm blogging again.

I went to a newly opened Vietnamese Restaurant last week called Tien Vietnamese Restaurant (27 Woolley St, Dickson) and because it was a totally unexpected visit, i didn't have my beloved camera...only an in-built camera in my Sony Ericsson mobile phone.

At a first glance, the restaurant has a modern design with very simple and clean tables and chairs (a la IKEA Style, it seems). The staff was polite and friendly with a rather fast service. This place is a bit more expensive in comparison to other Vietnamese restaurants in Canberra, but the serving size is definately very generous. To be honest, i couldn't even finish my dish. 

I ordered a Special Broken Rice and MP ordered a Prawn Laksa. I would say that there is definately room for improvement for both dishes; with the Broken Rice, there is a lack of authenticity in the taste for most of the components but in terms of presentation, the colours mix and match well creating a very colourful and beautiful dish.

The ceiling

Prawn Laksa

Special Broken Rice

Blakstone Restaurant & Bar

UPDATE: Restaurant has closed down

It was a Wednesday. Cold and windy in the middle of spring...that's Canberra for you. For the most bizarre factors, you can experience four seasons in one day.You can have destructive hails in April, snow in November...but never a hot day in the middle of winter. Anyways, if it wasn't for the free movie and Gummy's enthusiasm i would have probably stayed home drinking tea, fb-ing, msn-ing, etc...

The movie was at Manuka's Greater Union ('An Education'), so we decided to meet up early and walk around Manuka (since G has never been there before). We went into 'The Wine and Cheese Providore' and guess what i saw immediately? Snow Bear biscuits (from UK)! I regret not buying them, but now i know where to get them. This place is packed with gourmet goodies, a big variety of cheese, freshly baked bread and it has a small cafe inside as well. I would describe the place as being a gourmet shop with a small cafe corner...if that makes sense. Must try next time!

We kept on walking around and around and we finally decided to sit down and have a cup of hot drinks in Blakstone Restaurant & Bar. 1) It was too cold to keep on walking 2) our eyes were caught in a sign saying 'Wednesday Special - 2 for 1 pizza $19.95'

Blakstone has a sophisticated and pleasant decor with black, white and red as their theme colours. The staff is very friendly and nice! *thumbs up

To start with, we ordered some hot drinks since the kitchen wasn't opened yet. To our surprise, the hot chocolate drinks came with pistachio & cherry nougat as an accompliment. Wonder why...maybe they felt bad for not having marshmallows...since G requested some.

Hot Chocolate $4.00

After the drinks, we ordered the pizzas (thin crust)! I got the Pesto pizza and G got the Chorizo one, i quite liked the roasted butternut pumpkin on my pizza! Chorizo pizza was nice too, sadly the amount of chorizo wasn't a lot but it was compensated by the prawns!

Pesto Pizza - Roasted butternut pumpkin with baby spinach, cashews & basil pesto

Chorizo Pizza - Spicy chorizo sausage w’ prawns, caramelised onion & watercress salad

I'm glad for how the day had turned out, despite the cold weather! It was totally worth dragging myself out of bed =)

My photo was featured in refrigeratorsoup.com

Just excited when i saw my photo featured in Refrigerator Soup! They featured the photo from my 'Sydney Trip - Day 2' post - the 'Old Time Chocolate Mousse'. This website basically publishes the top 40 food photos submitted for the day! Twenty photos are featured in the morning and the other half is featured at night!

I think it's a bit small...but i've circled my blog =)

This is the photo that was featured at refrigeratorsoup.com

Milk & Honey Cafe - Cakes

A colourful, clean, vibrant and modern cafe located in the heart of Civic (29 Garema Place, Bunda St.). The place has a cool interior where there is a choice of eating in the elevated area of the cafe, and i just like the fact that it has small cake display with a variety of cakes and sweets in it! It's definately a nice place to catch up with friends and on both recent occasions that I've been there, we enjoyed a cup of coffee and shared a slice of cake ($7.90). On the first occasion, i had a Hazelnut Meringue which was really light and airy...very appropriate after a filling dinner. On the second time, i had the Milk Chocolate Rocher - it has some flaked almonds on the outer side of the cake and a thin chocolate ganache on top. It wasn't too rich (which i dreaded) but it was quite soft and nice!

Milk & Honey Menu

Hazelnut Meringue

Milk Chocolate Rocher

Coming back sometime to try the other cakes...i have my eyes on Hazelnut Delight =9

Sydney Trip Day 2 - 20.09.09

That's was the day of wedding! After the beautiful ceremony we headed to Waters Edge (11 Hickson Road) where the reception took place. It was a definately a beautiful place with a breathtaking view of the Harbour Bridge and of course, of the whole Sydney Harbour. The tables were beautifully set up with rose petals of the shade of pale yellow and each guest got a jar of honey from Beechworth Honey - i got the Orange Blossom flavoured one. I haven't tried it yet, but it says that it is light and clear in colour, floral aroma and a distinctive taste with an unique and citrus after taste.
The reception started with canapes being served and then a 3-course meal served alternately followed by coffee, tea and chocolates. The food was nice and my favorites were the Smoked Salmon entree and the Chocolate Mousse.

Entree 1: Tasmanian smoked salmon tian, tomato and avocado, crème fraiche, fennel gribiche and lemon oil

Entree 2: Spicy tomato risotto topped with prawns sautéed in garlic and olive oil

Main 1: Fillet of cod, tomato fondue, mushroom duxelles, soft herb crust, sabayon of grain mustard

Main 2: Roasted breast of chicken carbonara with crisp pancetta wafer and Parmesan cream

Dessert 1: Old time favourite bitter chocolate mousse, citrus fruit

Dessert 2: White chocolate mousse in a dark chocolate tear drop w raspberry puree and Grand Marnier syrup

Of course the wedding wouldn't be complete without the wedding cake! It was a simple single-tier cake but elegantly decorated with pale yellow, white and cream roses to match the wedding theme. Loved it~