As I've mentioned so many times in my previous Australia trip posts that I'll do a separate entry about sweet treats, here it is! Just in case you haven't noticed, I have a major sweet tooth!
And my current obsession? Macarons, AKA French Macaroons.
Yup, these 3 macarons were from The Acland Cake Shop at St. Kilda, and they were at $2.50 AUD per piece if I'm not wrong. I've gotten them in Chocolate, Coffee, and Earl Grey (a flavour I always wanted to try). These macarons were somehow rather disappointing. Very sweet, especially the Earl Grey, which has this medicine kind of sickening sweetness to it (yikes!), and the macaron shells were all the way crunchy and very airy. IMO, a good macaron shell needs to be crunchy on the outside yet turns chewy on the inside. These macarons has failed to make the cut. Taste wise, were mediocre as well.
Next up was the oversized macarons at Queen Victoria Market, obviously selling at $2.80 AUD per piece unless distressed. I only bought one, and also my favourite salted caramel, to try out. Frankly speaking, they didn't look like a macaron at all because they're so big! They looked more like a mini-burger or a melting moment biscuit. Eating it was pretty tough too, because i couldn't crunch down in one bite. In the end I gotta bite off the top shell first then bite the bottom shell and felt like a kid eating a Big Mac, no joke.
Taste wise, they were definitely better than those at St. Kilda. The texture was more similar to macarons at Pique Nique, more solid and more 'cakey'. Taste wise, it's a pretty standard salted caramel taste. However, due to its size, I'll say it's pretty worth the money. *rofl*
Finally, my last macaron from the trip, La Belle at Chadstone Shopping Centre.
The store reminded me of Laduree, very similar!
If i'm not wrong it was $3 to $3.20 AUD per piece (YS's treat so I didn't know how much it was!) and I got their Raspberry Chocolate. Selection of flavours wise, they were pretty similar with Laduree as well. And the taste too! A little too sweet (just like how Laduree is, to me) but texture wise was perfect. As you can see from the picture the outside of the macaron shell was crunchy and slightly crumbly while the insides were dense and slightly airy, moist and chewy.
But then again, $3.20AUD/$3.80 SGD per piece? I'll rather go back to Canele, no doubts about it.
Then there's the melting moment biscuit from Hope Bakery at Sovereign Hill. I couldn't quite remember how much it was, but it should be $2+ AUD. Have always heard of this Australian sweet treat (along with their Lemington Cake) but couldn't seem to find any in Singapore. I'll say they tasted pretty good! It's like a layer of lemon-flavoured cream sandwiched in two pieces of buttery, crumbly shortbread biscuits. Rather filling for a sweet treat, too! I wouldn't mind having them again if I ever find them in SG. :)
And then, more Churros! This was the churros from the Spanish Doughnuts franchise with one of the branch at Southern Cross Station. They had a wide range of selection of churros (at different prices) and I just went for the simple, glazed churros at about $2+ AUD. This churros is definitely a better churros than the one I had at L'Olivio. I can definitely taste that it's made from a Choux pastry, and they were fried until crispy on the outside and still slightly moist on the inside. However, the sugar glaze was too much and it felt like my churros was totally drenched in sugar syrup. Would have better preferred a cinnamon sugar one, but I didn't seem to find it there.
Lastly, this was my final sweet treat/meal I had in Melbourne. French Crepes! The small cafe was located at a small alley near Flinder's Station, just 5 to 10 minutes away. Can't remember the name of the cafe nor their price listing, sorry about that.
First up, their coffee. I remembered ranting about their bad coffee standards and finally I found a better one. But that's because I went for a strong brew (double shot, perhaps) of their Mocha, and comparing this to any other coffee in Singapore, they're still bad. I really gotta taste it really carefully to find the coffee taste 'hidden' within this strong brew. Else, I'll just think of it as an unsweetened hot milo. Melbourne is definitely not my coffee place.
My choice of crepes for the day, Chocolate Banana crepes! There's definitely a generous serving of sliced fresh bananas and a huge drizzle of good chocolate sauce. However, I'll very much prefer those Japanese style crepes with a much thinner crepe skin. These french crepes are made very very much thicker, about 2 to 3x as thick, and so feels kinda 'mushy' and 'uncooked' in the middle. Well, I'm definitely not much of a crepes person and YS insisted that this was a very well done french crepes. I could hardly finish the crepes in the end because the texture of the crepes just got increasingly sickening to me.
And that's YS's plain butter crepes, which really looked like a badly made roti prata to me.
And this basically concludes my entire series of entries for my weekend getaway to Australia. :)
Till then,
Mia
