tea

Weekend adventures: May 10 on 10

by Sab on May 10, 2012

I’ve joined a project called “10 on 10″ – where we post 10 images on the 10th of each month. We take photographs over the course of the day, sortof like a “day in the life of” so we can look back and appreciate the little things that make up our life experience, it’s easy to miss the small details that make life so interesting each day :)

Here’s mine; Beautiful skies in the morning, teacup shopping and appreciating a friend’s necklace. Korean Bibimbap for lunch, perusing Smoult’s continental Deli, finding a cute little suitcase. Visiting a shop where doggies are tied outside awaiting their owner’s return. Treating shopping exhaustion with tea and baby daffodils. Grape snacks at home and cracking open some study materials for the evening.

Cloudy sky over the shrubbery

Antiquing

So hungry, beef bibimbap

Doggie tied up outside a shop and the smallgoods display cabinet

More antiquing and some tea

Grapes

Study time

That’s it for now, hope you liked them. Be sure to check out Isabel Furie’s 10 on 10 for May, it is sure to be amazing :) It is both our first times doing this project!

- Sab :)

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Afternoon Tea at Greens & Co – Leederville

by Sab on August 12, 2011

Joss and I went to Greens & Co last week specifically so she could have a slice of the lemon and lime brulee – which she’d enjoyed on multiple occasions in the past. To be honest, I was a little apprehensive as I’ve found the cakes at Greens and Co to be very hit and miss.

Looking through the multiple cabinet displays, there were so many cakes to choose from it was overwhelming. Eventually, I settled on the strawberry cheesecake.

It looked delicious but turned out to be rather tasteless and disappointingly, there was very little texture difference between the base and cheesecake filling. It became difficult to eat after the initial few forkfuls.

However, the lemon and lime brulee lived up to Joss’ word – it was soft, smooth and melted in my mouth. The tangy citrus flavour helped to cut through the sweetness and thankfully Joss did not mind sharing ;)

The ambience of the place was very comfortable; old couches to lounge on arranged around coffee tables, board games, self-serve water, a ceiling full of white lanterns and walls plastered with music posters. The music in the cafe was a little loud for my taste, but I suppose a little extra background noise helps with privacy, as the tables are fairly close together.

For those of you who are gluten intolerant, they had a gluten-free chocolate cake there that looks quite nice :)

Are you a fan of Greens & Co? What cakes have you had there that you’ve liked?

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Afternoon Tea at Koko Black – Claremont

by Sab on August 8, 2011

After months of walking by watching other people have chocolate at Koko Black in Claremont Quarter, it was finally my turn! When Skye and I arrived on Saturday afternoon we did not need to queue for very long before we were directed toward a table inside the store. Lee joined us shortly after and a waitress popped up in a timely manner to take our order. Pictured below is Lee’s large iced chocolate, which comes in a rather large, rounded glass.

I ordered the chamomile tea. There was a satisfying amount, however this was not the best choice, taste-wise, to go with chocolate. The cup was very cute though, with the koko black cocoa bean image printed upon it.

I ordered the Belgian spoil to share with Skye, this contained chocolate icecream, chocolate mousse, two belgian chocolates, macadamia shortbread, and chocolate cake. As you can see below, the icecream (in the frontmost pot, topped with a curl of chocolate) was melting while I took the photos! The chocolate mousse was quite nice – it was topped with what I suspect were tiny, delicious pieces of crushed, salted caramel. These were my favourite part of the whole tasting plate.

Once, the icecream and mousse were contended with, we moved onto the belgian chocolates. We did not know what flavour or type the belgian chocolates were initially. I tried to snap the heart-shaped piece in half to share with Skye, which resulted in an explosion of sticky liqeur filling onto my fingers, which I am sure was not terribly appetising. Skye was brave and tried some of it anyway :) The rectangular piece, gilded in gold leaf with the Koko Black logo, was filled with chocolate ganache.

Then, there was also bite-sized, crumbly macadamia shortbread and a small piece of chocolate cake to nibble on.

Although many elements of the tasting plate were palatable, in general, they lacked complexity of flavour. This was a little disappointing given the rave reviews from friends and friends of friends. The experience of dining at a chocolate cafe was fun though, it is still a novelty to have them in Perth :)

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Breakfast at Crumpet – Victoria Park

by Sab on July 31, 2011

I don’t have time to write a full review today (nor will I in the near future) so I thought I’d just slap up a couple of pictures and some quick comments so this blog doesn’t grow cobwebs in the meantime.

I ordered the crumpets with honey and butter, they were freshly made – crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. They’re quite small so I ordered seconds when I was done (as they only cost $4.50, I suppose that’s not too bad).

On the flip side, the peppermint tea “for one” was so huge it would easily be enough for 2 people. Although I’m certainly not complaining, I wonder how big peppermint tea “for two” is?!

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Chocolate cake at San Churros – Subiaco

by Sab on July 5, 2011

I met up with Aimee at San Churros last week. The store was not too busy mid-Friday afternoon and the place had a very relaxed and pleasant vibe with people sitting alone reading the paper, or doing some work on a laptop in the window. I like places that are suitable for lone rangers to go and chill out.

I was slightly hesitant to meet at San Churros at first because although the churros there are well made (light and crisp), they are just not something I particularly like. I can’t stomach the hot chocolates at San Churros either, they are WAY too rich for my tastes. I don’t like to waste caloric intake on unhealthy foods that I don’t *really* want, however, Aimee assured me the cakes were delicious.

For my drink, I opted for a mint tea, as I wanted something warm and refreshing that didn’t have chocolate in it and I do not drink coffee. The tea was lovely and had a strong mint flavour.

Here is the latte that Aimee (with lovely hands) ordered – the bottom layer is sweet condensed milk, you mix it into the drink yourself, which is part of the fun!

I ordered what I think was called the Big Fat Chocolate Cake. I was taken aback when they asked what chocolate sauce I wanted with the cake. Does chocolate cake ever need chocolate sauce!? The friendly guy behind the counter suggested dark chocolate and although I was hesitant to add more chocolate into the mix, I tried it and it did taste pretty good with the cake. The cake was very moist, icing was also tasty (not overly sweet) and it wasn’t too rich – somehow I managed to eat just over half of the slice.

Water was a necessessity in spacing out mouthfuls of chocolatey cake. I usually carry bottled water with me to restaurants in case they do not provide it / only provide one glass / there is poor service but I was pleasantly surprised to find free self-serve water in the corner of the cafe. Beware of drinking too much water though, there is no toilet in the cafe and the nearest one is a little trek around the block.

The last time I visited San Churros, I had both a hot chocolate AND a plate of churros to share with someone, which resulted in major regret and sugar coma without much taste payoff because the chocolate overload becomes samey very quickly. I’m really glad that this time, neither of those items were part of my experience. I’m not in a hurry to go back because I rarely go out for cake, but if I wanted to indulge, I would consider it. I’d need someone to share the cake with though ;)

There is a growing number of San Churros in Perth – Fremantle, Subiaco, Leederville, Hillarys, Rockingham, and soon there will be one opening in Northbridge! They are all over the place and everyone I know seems to love that place a whole lot more than I do, so there is no doubt I will end up back there again soon.

What’s your favourite thing to order at San Churros?

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Morning Tea – Lavender and Berry Farm, Pemberton

by Sab on June 16, 2011

I went to the Lavender and Berry Farm for morning tea and thoroughly enjoyed the peaceful surrounds that were rich in flora and fauna: there were ducks wandering about the cafe and squeaking when we arrived as well as many little birds eyeing our food.

Tom and I ordered tea and two different scones – the scone with berry jam as well as the lavender scone with honey, both of which came with a large helping of whipped cream. Both scones came out warm and were obviously baked that day. There was only one scone on each plate but they were of a large size so we didn’t have to fight over the scones.

The berry jam had a tart, very concentrated berry flavour so we did not need to use much of it atop of our mouthfuls of scone. I thought that the scone was nice but unfortunately I don’t know enough about scones to describe them!

The lavender scone had a subtle flavour of lavender – perhaps too subtle for my palate as I could not really taste it. However, that could be a failing on the part of my taste buds rather than the scone. The honey it came with was rich and smooth – it all went down nicely with whipped cream!

The tea was a nice counterpoint to the meal, providing extra warmth on a winter day and it did not compete with the flavour of the scones. I had chamomile tea, I used it as a sort of palate cleanser between the different types of scones.

The family at the table across the room from us ordered three plates of the signature dish – pancakes with icecream and hot berry sauce. The pancakes were huge and looked more like cakes than pancakes! A dish that is best shared between a few people, as it looked very tasty but quite rich – the family ordered one each and only ate half of what they ordered.

The little birds really enjoyed it, a swarm of about thirty of the cutest tiny birds descended upon the pancake leftovers after the family left the cafe. The birds were skittish around me and my camera, quickly flitting in and out of the plates. It was hard to capture more than a few at a time!

The birds are quite bold – one fat little bird came up and ate plain whipped cream out of my saucer while I was sitting right in front of it! Sadly he was in and out too quick for me to snap a picture.

Here’s a little shot of the store where they sell their jams and a variety of other things.

I really enjoyed this visit, the atmosphere in the cafe was really nice – especially with the cute little birds, rich plant life and decorations that gave the place a comfortable, country cottage feel. I would recommend this place to anyone who wanted a relaxing morning tea near Pemberton! Have a look at the Lavender and Berry Farm website if you want to find out more :)