Tamarillo and Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlées

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Natasha J Stewart

I discovered tamarillos earlier this year when the tree in my mum and dad’s back yard started producing the shiny red fruits. Once you slice through the hard skin the flesh is orange and the seeds are encased in a deep red pulp. The taste is like a mix of a tomato and a passionfruit; there’s a definite tartness that makes you pucker your lips at the first bite. I wouldn’t say tamarillos have become one of my favourite fruits, but they’re certainly interesting.

I came down to mum and dad’s house for dinner tonight and found a small bowl of tamarillos sitting on the kitchen table. They were smaller than usual, and the skin was a tiny bit shrivelled. I’m guessing they’re the last ones of the season now that winter is settling in. I made a deal with dad that if he picked up some cream and eggs from the shop, I would make them tamarillo crème brûlées for dessert. It was also the first time I got to use the vanilla beans dad brought back from Dubai. It’s so lovely being able to scrape the seeds from a fresh vanilla bean rather than resorting to paste or extract.

The test wasn’t without hiccups. The mix was too small for the ramekins I was using, I accidentally added too much sugar to the fruit, and on top of the oven not working we couldn’t get the proper blow torch for caramelising the sugar on top. Despite this the custard was smooth and creamy and went well with the tamarillo pulp sitting at the bottom. If you’ve got spare tamarillos you can find my recipe for tamarillo crème brûlée on RecipeYum.

Have you ever had tamarillos before? Did you buy them or grow them?

Creperie Bruxelles, Adelaide

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Natasha J Stewart

My post-travel bank account is looking a little low, so since getting home I’ve been mostly living off vegetable soup. With new places popping up all over the place I’m in a very sombre food space at the moment. Luckily I did get a chance to try the new Creperie Bruxelles on Henley Beach Road in Mile End. It doesn’t seem like the most obvious place to set up a new dessert spot; judging by the crowds when we were there, the location is not a hindrance.

Browsing through their menu, alarm bells started ringing. Poffertjes? Lemonade? I knew something was familiar. Turns out these are the same guys behind The Famous Lemonade Stand and Adelaide’s Famous Poffertjes (at the Garden of Unearthly Delights). I’d never tried the poffertjes before, so we ordered the poffertjes with vanilla cream as well as some crepes each.

It’s hard to use the word ‘Parisian’ to describe the creperie, after all, it’s named after a city that is entirely not even in France. Yet ‘Parisian’ fits it so well. There are ornate fittings and French posters on the wall. It’s a very cosy setting. We couldn’t wait to step inside out of the cold.

You can see why Sam and I are friends. We both immediately go for the option featuring the word ‘caramelised’. He goes for caramelised banana crepes with chocolate sauce, and I have caramelised pear crepes with spiced Chai cream. I also ordered one of their ‘famous’ lemonades. As much as I love desserts, I always need something refreshing to go along with them. Usually I like a bottle of sparkling water, but lemonade is also a nice way to cut through the sweetness.

Presentation was elegantly simple. General opinion was that there might have been a better topping to crepe ratio if the crepes had been filled rather than just topped. But there were no real complaints.

The poffertjes were the highlight. They were like miniature pancakes that had been cooked enough so they didn’t have that floury taste, but still a little bit gooey on the inside. It’s hard to fault the combination of lemon and sugar. The plate was great for sharing. There were about ten poffertjes on the plate, and we didn’t need to worry about cutting or dividing anything. They were the perfect size, texture, and flavour.

Our drinks hadn’t arrived by the time we’d finished, which ended up being down to a mix up with ordering. They were a little rushed off their feet, and we weren’t complaining. The lemonade tasted a little different, and was more like the lemon juice we get from Vietnamese restaurants. It was a refreshing way to end the night.

I’d recommend Creperie Bruxelles for the food and the atmosphere. They’re taken something they already do well and expanded it into a neat little cafe. Soon they also plan to serve breakfast and lunch; I, for one, am excited.

Chengdu Lollipops

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Natasha J Stewart

Chengdu was one of the last stops on our trip around China. By the time we got there we were sore and tired. Thanks to a mix up we were also staying about 30kms out of town. As a result we spent a lot more time lounging about and a little less time exploring. We still got to spend several hours at Chengdu Panda Base, we had a 34-course degustation at Yu’s Family Kitchen, and we saw Face Changing Opera after dinner at a teahouse. We may have missed out on fiery Sichuan hot pot and hunting down a supposedly popular street food, but we did get to learn about these toffee lollipops they were selling all over the city.

Chengdu’s historical district is a bit like Adelaide’s Leigh Street. The ‘traditional’ buildings and streets are obviously a facade, but there’s still a genuine charm. When I first saw the lollipops I thought they were made of glass or coloured plastic. Then I realised they were actually made of sugar. These were brightly coloured designs. They even had 3D candy that looked like lanterns on sticks. We saw them again at the People’s Park where they seemed to be making and selling the lollipops on every corner.

They keep a pot of toffee hidden somewhere below (I’m assuming with a burner nearby). Using a spoon the designs are made on a large, possibly marble, board. They only use a spoon and a small cranked pallet knife. The pallet knife is used to spread and flatten the larger bits, and the more delicate details are drizzled. Once the design is finished a wooden skewer is pressed down the centre. Once they’re set the lollipops are tied in a bag and placed in the stand.

One of my favourite parts is the spinning dial. At first glance it looks like some kind of zodiac chart, but it’s actually used for selecting a design. You can spin the dial, and the lollipop maker will make whatever it lands on. They’re such a great idea for kids. Everything about them is fun. They’re also so thin that they’re not likely to give you a sugar overload.

We bought the butterfly first from a lady who had pre-made her lollipops and wasn’t making any more while we were there. After walking around the park we came across another couple who were actually making the lollipops. I got to watch them drizzling and spreading the toffee, and I got to take a picture. I didn’t want to snap away without buying something, so I bought the bird as well.

The toffee is sweet and sticky, and of course I managed to get some of the snapped off toffee on my top. I can see myself playing around with these lollipops in my kitchen, perhaps while I’m at it I should be practicing my chocolate filigrees as well. It would be so much fun setting up something like this at a local market in Adelaide. The lollipops themselves are nothing special, but the process of choosing and making them is a real treat. If they weren’t so delicate I’d consider practicing something like this for the upcoming Sweet Swap.

I’d love a chance to get to know Chengdu a bit better with a little bit more energy. It’s been named a Unesco City of Gastronomy and there’s so much more I’d like to try. Plus, if there’s ever a good reason to visit Chengdu: Pandas.

Home-made Desserts, Beijing

Posted on June 1, 2013 by Natasha J Stewart

One night in Beijing we went out for dinner at DaDong. You can’t get a reservation unless you want to eat before 6:30, and the restaurant fills up fast. We turned up late to our 6:30 reservation. Thank to Apple Maps in China being less than helpful when you don’t speak Chinese, we could not find this restaurant. We ended up in an Amazing-Race-type experience. Running along the road trying to get to the restaurant on time, asking each and every person we passed for directions. We made it there 15 minutes late and we got the feeling they didn’t want us taking our time.

So we left, and we managed to make our way back to Sanlitun Village. I was certain we’d find a Honeymoon Dessert. We’d seen the chain all over Hong Kong and I was certain I’d seen one in Sanlitun. Turns out I was wrong. The shop I’d been thinking of was actually Home-made Desserts. As far as we could tell it was connected with neighbouring restaurant, Macau Taste.

The place bordered on the edge of elegant and kitsch. There were chandeliers and elaborate chairs, and butterflies everywhere.

It was called Home-made Dessert, but we gave it the affectionate name “Mango Many Ways”. I chose mango with sago. It also came with a scoop of mango ice cream, and some small glutinous dumpling style things, not too dissimilar to mochi. Vic went for the standard order of mango and sticky rice. I think if we’d continued down this path they wouldn’t have thought us quite so ridiculous.

Instead dad ordered some kind of cube-shaped bread pudding, and mum decided to sit dessert out. Until I mentioned how much I’d wanted to order the strawberry cotton ice just to see what it was. So we did. They checked with us multiple times that we were actually sure we wanted to order it. When they came out we knew why.

The pudding was obviously designed for more than one person. It was a lot larger than the picture implied, and had four forks so we could all share. It was like half a loaf of bread that had been hollowed out, soaked in some kind of custard, and topped with a scoop of ice cream. It was also delicious. Comforting like a bread and butter pudding.

The strawberry cotton ice was as its name suggests: a strawberry dessert that sits somewhere between cotton candy (fairyfloss) and ice cream. The artificial strawberry flavour was a little strong for me, but the texture of the dish was really interesting. It looked like fairy floss does when you squeeze all the air out of it. Oh, and it was also huge.

Safe to say, we left homemade desserts feeling pretty full. Out of all of the desserts, I’m most interested in recreating the bread pudding. I like the way it’s served in the loaf, with the scoop of ice cream on top. There’s just one thing I’d like to add: chocolate. It’s served warm, which makes it a good winter dessert. With the rain we’ve been having the last couple of days I might be trying this out sooner than I’d planned.

Colibri, Beijing

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Natasha J Stewart

I’m naturally attracted to cupcake stores, so when we passed by Colibri in Sanlitun Village I held everyone else up so I could peruse the flavours. The store is larger than your average cupcake store, with plenty of seating space and floor to ceiling windows. It looked fresh and modern.

We didn’t stay long. I had to make a quick selecting from their already dwindling supply. I came home with mocha, green tea, apricot, and double chocolate cupcake. They had great little cardboard boxes to pack them up in, and we were on our way.

I loved that the cupcakes were a little bit different. There was often a combination of toppings: icing piped round the outside with some king of centre filling. I’m tempted to try it with a few flavours. There wasn’t a standard design for the icing, each flavour seemed to have something different. On looks alone I’d rank them reasonably high. They were eye catching, and each one had it’s own defining features.

Unfortunately they didn’t quite live up to expectations. We all found each of the cakes very dry. They’re quite big cakes that are a little sparse on icing. There were also a few flavour combinations that didn’t quite work. The mocha was good in principal, but while the icing was coffee and chocolate the cake was a regular vanilla cake. I’m a stickler for cupcakes matching their chosen flavours. If you’re calling something a chocolate cake, the cake should be chocolate in some way. You can’t rely on your icing to carry you.

There was so much to love about the design and presentation at Colibri, unfortunately I wasn’t too in love with their cupcakes.

Desserts Through Hong Kong & China

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Natasha J Stewart

When I was younger I stood across from the Chinese border twice. We used to live in Vietnam so it really wasn’t that far away. On two trips up North I got a chance to look over to China, but I never got a chance to visit. Now I’m sitting in a hotel room in Hong Kong after two quite exhausting weeks travelling around China and Hong Kong.

Whenever I go anywhere, another suburb, interstate, overseas, I’m always interested in checking out the desserts and sweet things on offer. Thankfully I get to put it under the guise of research– not just pure indulgence. This is a short list of most of the desserts we’ve eaten over the last couple of weeks. There are also a few unmentioned places I’ll be looking at in a bit more detail later.

1. Red Bean and Green Tea Ice Cream, Victoria Peak, HK

I had this combination a lot through China, mainly in the form of a red bean and green tea frappuccino from Starbucks. I can’t remember the name of the place we went to, but it was at the top of Victoria Peak after we’d taken a ride on the peak tram. Hong Kong was hot and sticky, so ice cream was a very welcome treat.

2. Red Bean Snow Ice, Din Tai Fung, Beijing

We saw one of these come out of the kitchen when we first sat down. Safe to say we were ordering one. A towering pile of shaved ice covered in red bean. We were going to get a mango or strawberry one as well, but by the time we got to dessert they’d already sold out. I got lucky with the red bean, but it’s a bit of a shame that not everyone on the table was much of a fan.

I didn’t know what to expect. I thought the shaved ice might be a little flavourless. There was some kind of milky sauce at the bottom of the dish, that soaked through all of the ice. It was quite a light dessert, and very refreshing. Din Tai Fung is a Taiwanese restaurant, and I suspect this is probably more of a Taiwanese dish. I was a bit fan, and I think I probably ate most of this mountain.

3. Brunch at Grace Beijing

One of the highlights of the trip was brunch at Grace Beijing. We had a five course brunch menu where you choose a dish from each of the categories: starter, entree, main course, asian kick, and dessert. Then there was the complimentary seafood platter because we had six people. You can swap around any of the courses at whim. If you wanted three desserts you’d just have to forgo two of your other dishes. Accompanied with free flowing wine, mojitos, and juice cleansers (basically mocktails), it was something I’d be tempted with far too much if I lived in Beijing.

My starter was a thick banana pancake with a scoop of crunchy chocolate ice cream. The pancake was very thick, and I was worried it might be a little stodgy. Thankfully I had the first bite and it was beautifully fluffy. This came with a strawberry smoothie shooter, and a few fruits. There were these sweet red berries with the dish that were unlike anything I’ve had before. At first I thought they might be giant cranberries, but the flavour wasn’t quite right. Turns out they were actually cherry tomatoes. I’m not quite sure how they prepared them, they appeared to be almost glaceed, but I’d love to see if I could incorporate that sweetness into another dish somehow.

For dessert I had a passionfruit creme brulee. The crack on top wasn’t too pronounced, but the brulee was delicate and creamy. The apple tart tartine came highly recommended by our friends, and the menu claimed the chocolate cake was the best in the world. All of the desserts looked very appealing, and ended the meal on a constantly high note.

4. Toffee Covered Fruit, Beijing

In Beijing we went out to one of the ‘snack streets’. I get the feeling that a lot of the food is geared towards making tourists squirm, but there were a few good things we got to try. One of these is the toffee covered fruit they sell on long skewers. The idea is similar to a toffee apple, but the result is to much better. Once the excitement of a toffee apple wears off you’re usually left with a thick bit of toffee and a disappointing and soft apple underneath. We had our eyes out for toffee covered strawberries, as recommended by one of our friends, and later on we followed this up with toffee covered grapes.

For starters, the toffee isn’t as thick as a toffee apple. This means that the combination of the soft fruit and the toffee works better together. Otherwise you end up eating the toffee and then the fruit, rather than the two together.

This is definitely something I’ll be trying (probably once strawberries are back in season).

5. Fruit at Da Dong, Beijing

Da Dong was one of the restaurants recommended to me by Fuschia Dunlop. I wish we’d had the chance to try more from the menu. We had their roast duck, but most of their other more interesting dishes were a little too elaborate and expensive for the type of meal we were having. We weren’t splashing out that night, but it was a tempting proposition.

We didn’t actually order dessert, but we were given a complimentary dessert before leaving. There was a glass with some kind of fruit puree. It looked delicious, but none of us could pick the flavour. We also had a plate of fresh fruit that looked beautiful. Unfortunately it wasn’t the best fruit, but you can’t fault the way it looks.

6. Degustation at Yu’s Family Kitchen, Chengdu

The last one was another Fuschia recommendation. We were lucky to get a table because we just turned up on the night, without really knowing where we were going. They managed to fit us in, and we got to enjoy Chef Yu Bo’s 34 course degustation menu. We had two desserts, followed by some fresh watermelon.

I wish I could remember exactly what the first was. It looked like a small powdered log. When you bit into it the outside shell cracked and there was a glutinous filling. It was warm, and had a nice play of textures. The second were battered balls of apple, covered in toffee. They were brought to our table hot, and we dipped them in a dish of cool water to make the toffee set. I think this is so you get the hard crack of set toffee, while the rest of the dessert remains hot.

Paul Lafayet, Hong Kong

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Natasha J Stewart

For the last two weeks I’ve been travelling around Hong Kong and China with my parents and one of my sisters. She put together most of the itinerary while I was a little too busy with assignments, so it wasn’t until the last minute that I tried to squeeze a few patisseries or dessert cafes into the trip. Unfortunately we didn’t have too much luck tracking them down in Hong Kong. We missed one while walking down its street, only to find it wasn’t actually open till late afternoon. We passed another one by chance, but it also wasn’t opening for a few hours. Luckily we found one: Paul Lafayet.

The name may sound French, but this is a local Hong Kong patisserie– albiet one opened by a French expat. I came across it while searching for Hong Kong’s top patisseries (yes, I really am that inventive when it comes to finding places to try).

It was a fairly standard patisserie fare. Macarons, cakes and other desserts. There wasn’t anything that instantly jumped out at me, but I was a little fond of their ‘rubber duck special’. Hong Kong has recently played host to the giant rubber duck that’s been travelling around the globe. We had it in Adelaide a few months ago and it’s now made its way to Hong Kong. When we last saw it the duck was sitting deflated in the harbour.

I went for the rose and raspberry macaron. It was larger than all the rest, with pulps raspberries poking out from between the two shells. There’s one macaron I’ve been eyeing off for quite some time, the Ispahan macaron. Ispahan is a city in Iran, there is a rose named after the city, and I’m assuming that Pierre Hermé’s macaron gets its name from this rose. Funnily enough, most of the images I’ve seen of this macaron are topped with a rose petal that seems far too dark to come from an Ispahan rose.

The macaron is a combination of rose, raspberry, and lychee. Unfortunately Paul Lafayet’s macaron was sans lychee so the holy trinity remains elusive. The tartness of the raspberries helps cut through the perfumed rose flavour. I think the rose was a little too strong and sweet, but overall it was a good combination.

I was first introduced to macarons through Tumblr. Perfect little coloured sweets that just look so good. In stacks. On plates. In bowls. Lined up. Piled up. Basically anyway you put them, they looked good. They were so new that I wasn’t even aware of the whole macaron vs. macaroon debate. They made me think of a Doll’s House. In the play Nora spends a lot of her time lying to her husband. One of her secrets is that she’s been eating macaroons. When she gets home she wipes the trace of them from her mouth and hides the bag away in her pocket. Nora isn’t actually eating macarons, she’s eating macaroons, but there’s something in that image. I can imagine her standing in front of the glass cabinet and choosing from an array of colours and flavours before popping one in her mouth.

From a visual point of view the Ispahan macaron is one of the greatest macarons. I’m also really intrigued by the combination of the three flavours. Obviously playing with flavours stretches so much further than macarons and there are so many other desserts that you could play with.

I would have liked to have tried more at Paul Lafayet. Mum and dad got a small cake while my sister picked a tiramisu. I couldn’t go past trying the macaron, but there were definitely a few other pastries and cakes to make the decision a little bit harder.

My one major gripe about the store is the lack of seating. There was a small l-shaped bar in the corner with 4 chairs crowded round it. We could barely fit with all our bags, so it wasn’t the most comfortable way to enjoy a few sweets. I would have loved a proper sit down area where you could grab a tea as well.

We’re back in Hong Kong now, which is why I can finally post this. I haven’t been able to upload any images while I was travelling through China. There are a couple of other patisseries that I’d love to try. Considering this is our last day, it could be a bit of a stretch. I fell in love with China and its food, so I’m hoping to come back sometime in the not too distant future. Hopefully then I’ll get a chance to sample a few other local dessert and pastry shops.

Have you been to any patisseries in Hong Kong?

Playing House

Baking, Living, and Playing