Mia's Weekend Getaway: Mia Eats Australia - Sweet Treats!

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

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Mia's Weekend Getaway: Australia - Sovereign Hill (Part 2)

After a good night's sleep in my cozy bunkroom, we woke up at 830 in the morning to pack up and get ready to check out.

 

The air smelled fresh and crisp from the slightly chilly weather....

  

And the sky was so blue it made my photo looks like a postcard now! 

 Even their crow (on 2nd thought I think it's a raven?) looked prettier and friendlier. :)

We got to the reception at 930, checked out, and was told Sovereign Hill opens at 10. However, the friendly receptionist informed us that some attractions are already opened and we could get an access card to enter via Comfort Inn. However, as Comfort Inn is located right at the top of Sovereign Hill and quite a far walk from the bus stop, we decided to give that temporary convenience a miss and took a slow stroll down the quiet neighbourhood to enter via the main entrance. 

And of course, enjoying the view of a nearly empty road, lined with greenery and topped with a clear blue sky. 

 And guess where we headed upon entering the premise?

 

Typical Singaporean - Look for food! 

Even though the signage said, 'opens at 930am daily', we were rather disappointed that they actually weren't quite ready for the day at 10am. And so, we decided to go a little bit up the trail and right, to get to Sovereign Cafe for my morning coffee. 

 

It's actually a pretty big, canteen-styled cafe hidden at a rather secluded corner of the premise, behind the eye-catching carriage and white tent. 

And I have to say, my first coffee in Australia was extremely disappointing. I felt like I've paid almost $5 AUD for a downsized McDonald breakfast coffee. What's worse? McDonald gives it to us free flow. 

 After the disappointing coffee, we headed back to Hope Bakery and noticed they still weren't quite ready (many biscuits weren't baked and some pies were missing) but the entire bakery was already filled with the mouth-watering fragrance of freshly baked pies! As their lamb stew pies weren't ready yet, I was left without any other choice than to get a chicken pie for about $4.50 AUD. They had beef pies as well, but I don't take beef.
As you can see, the pie was thick and big, about the size of my hand. The extremely thin crust was baked till flaky and crispy and the filling of flavourful, moist and gooey chicken stew was piping hot. Just 1 of this pie was more than enough to fill up my empty tummy and make me happy and satisfied. A must try for pie-lovers!

After we're done with breakfast, we headed out of the bakery and came to a blacksmith shop situated opposite the bakery.

 And within, there were a couple of blacksmiths working! This blacksmith in green was showing us how to make a horseshoe.

 After which, we went by New York Bakery that was still yet to open for business. Unlike Hope Bakery, NY Bakery is more of an eatery that provides luncheons.

 We then got attracted to this Charlie Napier Hotel when we saw a group of tourists taking photos outside the building and decided to head inside for a look. Be glad we did, for the interior was so pretty!

 

 I absolutely adore these old looking chests. Always gave me the feeling that a pile of treasure is lying within. :)

After coming out from the hotel, we walked into Clarke Brothers Grocers, selling all sorts of food products (sweet treats)! I was really tempted to buy a huge bag of their chocolate nuggets at 60 cents AUD per piece but was worried they might melt on my way back to Singapore. As YS and I were discussing, the staff overheard our conversation and was really nice to suggest that we head next door for sweet treats that wouldn't melt.

 Hand made boiled lollies by Brown's Confectionery!

My purchase from the store that amounted to about $19 AUD. Google up Sovereign Hill and you'll probably read countless reviews about 'stocking up their raspberry drops'. I did too, which was why I grabbed a bottle immediately upon seeing it. I wasn't disappointed. It was really good.

And there! Souvenirs for my colleague - checked! And then I started fretting about getting gifts for the girlies. And after walking further up the trail, I saw my life saviour.

 Handmade soaps and candles!

 If you're interested, you may get yourself a colourless (smooth or lumpy) candle and try to dip dye them to the colours you fancy.

My purchase from the store that amounted to about $20+ AUD. 3 scented candles in Musk, Green Apple, and Rose. Along with 4 soaps in Lychee (smelled really yummy!), Rose, Lavender, and Hibiscus.

Souvenirs for the girlies - checked! :)

 After which, we decided to go on the mine tour. Since YS holds a student pass, we can get the tickets cheaper at $6 AUD per person. The disappointing part was, there's no choice of which tour we get to go for. I was really hoping I can get the Trapped tour, but in the end we got The Secret Chamber, telling the tale of two Chinese miner brothers.

This picture was taken mere seconds before our train started its descend into the mine grounds. And during the 90 seconds ride, we were enveloped in total darkness. I shan't divulge much about this tour, but my favourite part of it has got to be this ride in the dark. But hey, if you hold a student pass, why not give it a try?

After coming out from the mine tour, we were just strolling along where the trail leads us and came to this place whereby a gold-making showcase was being held. We were pretty lucky to be in time for the last 5 minutes (and most important part) of the showcase.

Making a GOLD BAR! Just look at that awesome glow of orange when it just came out of the furnace in molten stage!

And just to share a few more random snippets at Sovereign Hill...

And before we left the place to return to Melbourne, we popped by Hope Bakery again and got ourselves some biscuits!

I got myself a melting moments because it looked so cute, very similar to a whoopie pie/macaron. Yes, I'm very superficial when it comes to sweet treats. I shall not elaborate on the taste for now, as I shall do a separate post on the sweet treats I've tried in Australia.

And so, this concludes my experience at Sovereign Hill and also accounted for 1 and 1/2 day of my trip. Stay tune for more!

Till then,
Mia

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