What better way to start your Friday than with our 1. Sometimes it’s too hard to choose just one dessert after a meal, so I love it when restaurants do an ‘assiette’, a small bit of each on a plate! Costs a little bit more, but who cares. So I was very happy to find that the Hotel Spencer Bar & Dining Room in Melbourne do just this. We spent our first evening in Australia with Helen and Brent enjoying an excellent meal here.
2. Helen’s currently working on a cattle farm in Western Australia where she does a variety of jobs. Sometimes cooking. She made these chocolate chip cookies which went down a treat. You can follow her on Instagram where she posts some great photos.
3. If you ever visit Singapore and you like chocolate & cheese then this place is a must! The Cheese & Chocolate Bar at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel is amazing. The views from the 55th floor of the city at night were fantastic. But the best thing was that there were 40 hand crafted desserts (mostly all chocolate) and 12 varieties of European cheeses including a Shropshire Blue. I think I tried every one of the desserts and cheeses. Some looked better than they actually tasted but they were all beautifully presented and it was a great evening. We also had a ‘flight’ of wines which were paired with the desserts which was extra (no, I didn’t have 40 wines, just three). You may remember Helen having weasel poo coffee whilst travelling around South East Asia last year, well this place did elephant poo coffee (Black Ivory Coffee). However this was rather a lot more expensive and it seemed that we had to have five cups of it, which is a bit too much just before bedtime. Of course, this may have got lost in translation but we declined.
4. Kettle Black, South Melbourne, part of Top Paddock in Richmond. Oh my, this place just had to be the best place we had breakfast at whilst in the whole of Australia. This dish is hotcake (a bit like a sponge cake) with ricotta, blueberries, pure maple, seeds & mascarpone and not only was it so beautifully presented, it tasted absolutely marvellous. Helen and I shared this and another fabulous dish, whilst Geoff enjoyed polenta porridge with burnt maple, textures of strawberry & basil. We wanted to return but just ran out of time unfortunately.
5. This very lovely dessert was served in a champagne flute. Vanilla panna cotta (which is one of mine and Geoff’s favourite desserts), rhubarb compote and a layer of champagne jelly cleverly set on top. This was from The Two Badgers in St.Kilda, Melbourne where we had another delightful meal with Helen and Brent. Afterwards Geoff and I were introduced to the chef, Michael David Clay (who we took to instantly) and had a drink and chat with him. A smashing chap and we wish him well.
Living life, loving cake
A x
