Sugar Hit at Azuma Patisserie, Sydney

from The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry (a Sydney food blog) by leetranlam

So I've been pretty late to the Crave Sydney Food Festival game. But thanks to the diary-synching powers and ultra organisation of Amy from Pretty Pretty Yum Yum, I got to enjoy the Sugar Hit dessert special on offer at Azuma Kushiyaki. It's two bento boxes of awesome, and its crowdpulling power has led to diners overflowing the restaurant and having to take seats at the Azuma Patisserie next door, just to fit.



I like how everyone's twin boxes ends up a visual scorecard of the six treats on offer. At our table, every cup of Vanilla Panna Cotta with Strawberry Coulis and Belgian Chocolate Mousse Cake, sweetly streaked through with raspberry coulis and rained with freeze-dried raspberry flakes, was spoon-scraped clean. The Petit Almond Financier underwent a quick disappearing act, as did the multi-coloured Macarons. Half-eaten were the Green Tea and Wasabi ganache tarts. Not that the unfinished pastry states were some brutal judgment – just proof that desserts with strong shocks of flavour need only minimal bites to make their point.



I also love the cartoony expressions on all the different macarons – and the fact that the pastry chef went to the trouble of individually shaping their faces. We lined ours together so you can see their Oscar-winning emotional range. For me, the Passionfruit Macaron, with its crushed-fruit ganache, was a goal-kicking way to end the night.

The Sugar Hit is $20, with a glass of Brown Brothers muscat, Hennessy cognac or Azuma's special-blend green tea; available after 9pm and bookings are pretty much essential. On offer as part of the Crave Sydney Food Festival. Azuma Kushiyaki Bar & Grill, Regent Place, 501 George Street, Sydney NSW (02) 9267 7775, www.azuma.com.au

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Oct 18, 2010 11:08 PM

The Doghouse, Darlinghurst

from The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry (a Sydney food blog) by leetranlam

2 people liked this

I think this brings new (arm-stretching) meaning to the term "pop-up bar". At The Doghouse in Darlinghurst, the tables literally spring out from the walls (see below). And the beer bottles are hoisted about by a rope-and-pulley system.




I asked the bar's interior architect, Adele Winteridge of Foolscap, whether this was tricky to do. Turns out it's all based on "old-fashioned technology". That would be fitting, as the space is meant to evoke the past. It's a speak-easy bar – a living (and drinking) reminder of the 1920s – that was put together in 24 days. The Doghouse is the brainspark of Melbournites Rob Dumaresq and Hugh Gurney – winners of Drambuie's design-your-dream-bar competition, The Premise.



I've yet to see this in person but seeing as The Doghouse will be only open for one last weekend before it's flatpacked away, I thought I should put up a visual reminder (and visual encouragement) to check out the space.








Photos courtesy of Foolscap

The Doghouse, Rooftop, The Village, 287A Liverpool St, Darlinghurst. Open Thurs-Sunday, 6pm-12am, for one final weekend.