Haagen-dazs Pop-up Melbourne

Haagen-Dazs Melbourne popup – Federation Square

It only takes one mouthful of ice-cream for you to fall in love with Haagen-dazs. It’s smooth, creamy and the flavours are incredible. What makes it even more loveable is that each flavour is carefully crafted with pure ingredients, which makes the flavours more intense, real tasting and full of flavour. None of that syrup or fake flavouring stuff and by golly it makes a difference. Haagen-dazs is visiting Melbourne and have created a little pop up restaurant at Federation square so best you be making a trip down there soon. It’s only here for a couple more weeks and it’s definitely worth the visit.

Haagen-Dazs Melbourne popup – Inside

They have a little shed set up at Federation square where you can sit down and enjoy your ice-cream in a booth.

Haagen-Dazs Melbourne popup – Outside

Or you can sit outside in the sun amongst the park like atmosphere with the white chairs, big umbrellas and astroturf. Either way the icecream is awesome and your seating choice with not effect the quality of your icecream.

Haagen-Dazs Melbourne popup – All the ice cream

We tried the Belgian chocolate which had a beautifully intense dark chocolate flavour. It was like eating quality chocolate in ice cream form. It was rich and velvety.

Haagen-Dazs Melbourne popup – Strawberries and cream

The strawberries and cream was amazing. I loved it. They use strawberries that are picked in their peak season so the strawberries are irresistible. It literally tasted like the strawberry ice-cream you get at a strawberry farm.

Haagen-Dazs Melbourne popup – Salted caramel

The salted caramel had little bits of caramel throughout the icecream and was topped with a sticky caramel and salted butter sauce. The caramel had a lovely flavour not too sweet, not too salty, just right.

Haagen-Dazs Melbourne popup – Macadamia nut brittle

The macadamia nut brittle was vanilla icecream with toffee dipped macadamias. We all know vanilla and macadamia work, creamy and creamy. It was smooth with a bit of crunch.

Haagen-Dazs Melbourne popup – Mint choc love

I’m big on choc mint, it’s one of my fave flavours so I was so happy to see it was one of the twelve flavours touring Australia. But they do it a little differently at Haggen-dazs and it is absolutely delicious. They have actual pieces of spearmint leaves and chunks of chocolate fudge throughout the minty icecream. Love love love!

The caramel biscuit and cream was a caramel icecream with pieces of crunchy speculoos biscuit pieces. Kind of like cookies and cream with caramel icecream and caramel biscuits.

Haagen-Dazs Melbourne popup – Melted

We went to the Haagen-dazs POP up after going to the Andy Warhol and Ai Wei Wei POP art exhibition at NGV. So naturally when i looked at my almost finished plate of Haagen-dazs instead of seeing melted ice cream, i saw but a masterpiece. A piece i call ‘pop n daz’ ice cream on cardboard plate.

All of the flavours were super delicious and it makes me sad they wont be around for long. Also unlike some places that only take cash, this place only takes card, so bring your debit/credit card along. This Melbourne pop-up is open until the 16^th of April and then it heads onto Sydney so make it down there some time now. And if you’re like me and already feeling a bit of separation anxiety, maybe stock up with a few take home tubs to eat when they leave.

I heart Haagen-dazs!

Olives x

Haagen-dazs Pop Up
When: 11^th March 2016 – 16^th April 2016
Where: Federation square (opposite flinders st. mac store)
Website: https://haagendazs.com.au/

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Burch and Purchese Sweet Studio

Burch and Purchese – Lamington eclair

Burch and Purchase Sweet Studio make incredible sweets. There are big cakes, little cakes, chocolate lollipops, ice-creams, nougat, explosive raspberry wheels, popcorn honeycomb rubble, and the list goes on and on. It was evident that the creation of these little wonders involved a high level of technique. Probably not the kind of sweets you can whip up in your own home. Each sweet takes you on a different adventure.

Burch and Purchese – Venue

As you walk into the narrow store you are surrounded by an abundance of sweets. I was fascinated by all of the elements that created the cakes, the jellies, the sponges, the mousses, the creams and the crumbles. A kid in a candy store sums it up well.

Burch and Purchese – Caramel, chocolate & hazelnut choux

We ordered this giant profiterole, caramel, chocolate, hazelnut choux pastry thing. It was amazing. If a profiterole was a pokemon it would evolve into this encrusted choux bun, a big ball of choux pastry filled with hazelnut salted caramel cream. Delicious! It had a crunchy hazelnut base topped with a dark chocolate disk (looked like a little hat aww). The cream was smooth and had a good amount of salt to balance the sweetness.

Burch and Purchese – Chocolate and pear cake w dark chocolate velvet spray

The chocolate pear, hazelnut, caramel cake was sprayed with dark chocolate, it looked amazing, it looked like it was covered in velvet. It had layers of poached pear, choc hazelnut biscuit, chocolate hazelnut spread, roast pear cream, butter caramel, vanilla cream and dark chocolate mousse with a chocolate twig and a ball of pear jelly on top. The pear flavour was awesome.

Burch and Purchese – Bright-eyed Max and the salted caramel chocolate tart

The chocolate, hazelnut & salted caramel tart was very rich. Don’t be fooled by it’s appearance, it looked little but I couldn’t finish it all. It was yum but not for the faint hearted. It was a chocolate brushed tart shell filled with salted caramel, chocolate & hazelnut cream with a dark chocolate glaze. Bright-eyed Max liked the look of it.

Burch and Purchese – Explosive raspberry milk chocolate

Explosive raspberry milk chocolate was a fun adventure there was so many raspberry elements but it worked well because there were lots of different textures. It had raspberry cream, fresh raspberry compote with chocolate chip cookie (crumbled). It also had raspberry marshmallow and a milk chocolate mousse dome sprayed w red chocolate velvet spray. It also had chocolate popping candy rocks scattered on top. It was exciting. It was sweet, tart, crackly and crumbly. It was really fun to eat.

Burch and Purchese – Max and the lamington eclair

Again. This pup can really turn it on when there are sweets in sight. The lamington éclair was an interesting twist on a lamington. The éclair was made up of chocolate choux pastry. In the middle there was soaked sponge finger w raspberry jam and milk chocolate cream. On top there was spots of raspberry jelly, coconut raspberry marshmallow and chocolate sprayed crunchy coconut cream (which tasted like a soft bounty chocolate bar). It was really amazing. Each element reminded me of a lamington but in an unconventional way. The whole dessert was very much a rendition of the traditional lamington recreated as an éclair. It looked spectacular and was a real adventure to eat.

Burch and Purchese – Masterchef dessert degustation

This was the dessert degustation, which was featured on Masterchef. Everything is edible including the golden cloche. They have an army of chocolate animals stacked on the shelves (bears, rabbits, penguins) which sort of remind me of toys in a toy store that come alive at night. Little bit creepy but still kinda cute.

Burch and Purchese have a wonderful range of desserts that are sure to amaze. They each have surprises to explore. The cakes have many elements that make them more than just a cake. And for a few more days Burch and Purchese Sweet Studio have a pop-up dessert bar at the Royal Melbourne Show, which is sure to take your tastebuds on a ride. Either that or you can just visit the store in South Yarra.

I heart Burch and Purchese Sweet Studio!

Olives x

Burch and Purchese Sweet Studio
Address: 647 Chapel Street, South Yarra VIC 3141 (next to the Olsen hotel)
Website: http://www.burchandpurchese.com
Phone: 03 9827 7060
Trading Hours: Mon–Sun (7 days): 10am – 6.30pm

Olive Christmas 2013

Merry Max – Maximum Santa.

Merry Christmas to everyone from Olive Sundays!! Hope you had a wonderful day filled with lots of food, family and fun times. Christmas is a super busy time so I’ll just write a quick post on the festive events that were.

So my brother and I have an annual crap present competition where we create a crap present for each other.  And quite simply the crappiest present wins. My family members judge and decide on a winner with a show of hands. This year I won with my homemade LOAFers.

LOAFers.

LOAFers – Loafers are comfortable slippers worn around the house and they are made out of loafs of bread. These loaves function as practical footwear or a delicious snack. The soft bread moulds around your foot for extra comfort.

Merry Mel – The LOAFers are fully functional.

Loafers are one crappy present and I was well chuffed with the win. My brother made an interactive gift where it was like pass the parcel with little toiletries as gifts. It was fun and lame but unfortunately not good crap enough to win.

Gingerbread house decorating competition.

We also had a gingerbread house decorating competition. Our gingerbread house had lots of detail that was unseen by the unimaginative eye. Firstly our ginger bread house had landed on top of the wicked Santa of the East, so you can see on the side of our house, only his legs and boots remain (you know, like in the wizard of oz). Secondly our team was called Team Kick-ass so we had little kick-ass and hit girl snowmen out front. Then there was the Christmas tree decorated with decapitated jelly baby heads as the bobbles and the corresponding bodies skewered by toothpicks as the presents under the tree. So our gingerbread house had a little bit of a dark twist but it was still really pretty. Our team didn’t win sigh, but it was heaps of fun decorating.

Jess’ Trifle – Best Trifle ever.

My cousins wife Jess made the best trifle I’ve ever eaten in my life! Om-n0mn0m. Look how even the layers are….impressive! It was the perfect amount of sweetness for it to be delicious but not too sweet so you can still have seconds or thirds. Yum!

Kim’s snowman cupcakes.

My cousin Kim made these adorable little snowman cupcakes and each of them had a different personality…how cute. Plus they were yummy too. Some of the snowmen looked really worried though which was cause for concern. I realised that it is probably because in Australia it is summer and summer and snowmen don’t mix.

My cousin Ali made really pretty Christmas coloured jelly shots. Red on the bottom and green on top was alcoholic and green on the bottom with red on top was non-alcoholic so the kids could eat them. It was difficult to remember which was which.

My cousin Rolls made peanut butter cups but left them at home (probably because they were too delicious to share) I know the feeling….and so does Max.

Merry Max loves Festive Food.

This year was Max’s very first Christmas and he is loving the opening presents and excessive eating part the most.

Overall I had a really wonderful Christmas. I hope you did too.

I heart Christmas!

Olives x

Gelato World Tour 2013

Gelato World Tour (Melbourne) – Caffe e Gelato Milany (QLD) – Dark Chocolate.

Melbourne is the third stop of the Gelato World Tour. One tour, eight cities and a whole lot of gelato. Gelato artisans from around the globe each showcase one signature flavour to compete in the international tour. It was only the best gelato I had ever tasted in my entire life. Quality gelato absolutely worthy of global recognition. During the tour the judges visit Rome (Italy), Valencia (Spain), Melbourne (Oceania). Dubai (Middle East), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Shanghai (Asia), Austin (North America) and Deutschland (Berlin). I was fortunate to have them stop in my very own town of Melbourne. What are the odds? It was definitely my lucky day/weekend.

Gelato World Tour (Melbourne) – Fresh Gelato in the park.

The event was located at Argyle Square in Carlton, people were happily consuming their gelato in the park. There were marquees full of gelato artisans in their whites and tall chef hats serving masses of fresh gelato. People queued in anticipation to taste the different flavours that Australia/Oceania had to offer.

Gelato World Tour (Melbourne) – Gelato Tickets.

The event was well organised and the system was well thought out.  You buy a $10 ticket at the front marquee, tear your ticket on the perforated lines and exchange the pieces of paper for gelato at the stalls. The no cash handling at the stalls made it easy and fast to get your gelato. For $10 you get 2 cups and 3 baby cones and then you use the unique barcode on the ticket to vote for your favourite gelato. This was not an easy decision to make because most of the gelato was outstandingly delicious.

Gelato World Tour (Melbourne) – Gelato Amico (WA) – Pure Sicilian Pistachio.

The ‘Pure Sicilian Pistachio’ got my vote from Gelato Amico, it was absolutely incredible. It is a milk-based pistachio gelato with pistachio topping using all natural, fresh ingredients and old-fashioned Italian recipes. Pistachio is not usually what I order when I get gelato but wow I was pleasantly surprised and in hindsight wished I had used my cup voucher for that one. Damn. It was made by Tino Tonon from WA which is a bummer because after the event I may not ever taste that sweet, smooth gelato again :(

Gelato World Tour (Melbourne) – 7 Apples Gelato – Banana w Dulce de Leche.

The banana with dulce de leche was also my favourite. This one got Dan’s vote. It tasted like fresh banana (like real fresh banana) with swirls of oozing dulce de leche caramel. It was light, creamy and magnificent. It’s amazing how the flavours can make you feel like you are eating a complete dessert at a fancy restaurant in each spoonful. And lucky for me, this one is close to home, made by Mark Mariotti from 7 Apples Gelato in St Kilda.

Gelato World Tour (Melbourne) – N2 Extreme Gelato (VIC) – Destructed Kaya Toast.

The deconstructed Kaya Toast was interesting in a delicious way. It was created by Min Chai from N2 Extreme Gelato. Kaya is a caramalised coconut egg jam, which is usually served on buttered toast and is a common delicacy in Malaysia. His creation is a deconstructed form of the Malaysian classic, with pandan kaya gelato, with swirls of kaya and a Malaysian cream cracker crunch. Yum!

Gelato World Tour (Melbourne) – Vulcano Gelato (VIC) – Vulcano.

Yum, yum, yum, the Vulcano tasted exactly like a Ferrero Rocher in gelato form. It had all these yummy surprise bits in it like toasted hazelnuts, cereals and chocolate glaze.

Gelato World Tour (Melbourne) – Frangipani Gelato (NSW) – Pavlova Gelato.

The Pavlova gelato, yep tastes just like pavlova. This pashpav was a meringue based gelato with actual pieces of meringue and a passionfruit swirl. Yumness!

Gelato World Tour (Melbourne) Il Gelato (WA) – Mascarpone and Fig.

The mascarpone and fig was yummy too. It highlights the fresh flavour of figs and the gelato artisan Constantino Limoncella from Il Gelato had also won a Gold Award for it at the Sydney Royal Show 2013. Makes sense, it was delish!

Gelato World Tour (Melbourne) – Giapo (NZ) – Tiramisu.

And finally Tiramisu, need I say more. As stated on Gianpaolo Grazioli’s gelato profile ‘Ladyfingers dipped in coffee in a multilayered, textured egg-coffee custard. Decorated with white chocolate curls and a golden truffle.’

World Gelato Tour (Melbourne) – Dancing Gelato Man.

There was also some info sessions and mini-courses about gelato, the history, becoming a gelatiere, opening a gelato shop. Basically everything you need to know about gelato. This gelato man was having a great time dancing and playing air guitar in front of the stall. Maybe he had one too many gelato cups. I certainly did. Wow! Sugar HAze…I was drunk on sugar, it happens. But the event was prepared and had St. John’s ambulance onsite just incase of gelato overdose. It was great to be able to taste of all the best gelato of Australia/Oceania in one place. So much fun!

The awards ceremony for the world’s best gelato was at 3pm today and the winners for Oceania were:
1. Melbourne’s Gelato Messina with ‘Cremino’ their salted caramel gelato with house made gianduia fudge, fresh meringue and crushed amaretti.
2. NSW’s Cow and the Moon with ‘Mandorla Affogato’ with Madagascan vanilla bean gelato with roasted caramelised coffee almonds folded through with a coffee caramel sauce.
3. NSW’s Frangipani Gelato with ‘Pavlova Gelato’ a meringue based gelato with a passionfruit swirl mixed with meringue pieces.

I heart the Gelato World Tour!

Olives x

Gelato World Tour 2013
Address: Argyle Square – Cnr Lygon St & Argyle Place, Carlton Victoria 3053
Website: http://www.gelatoworldtour.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GelatoWorldTour
Event Dates: October 25^th-27^th 2013
Trading Hours: Fri 12.30am-9.30pm, Sat 11am-9.30pm, Sun 11am-7.00pm

San Churro

San Churro – Chapel Street Store.

San Churro is a chocolateria that serves a delicious range of desserts and drinks but most importantly they make Spanish Doughnuts aka Churros. Churros are not your standard doughnut (round with a hole in it), they are lines of pastry piped into the fryer making them crispy on the outside and doughy on the inside. San Churro on Chapel St. specialise in making churros and they’re damn good at it.

The dimly lit store looks like a chapel with the wooden pews and the arched windows.  When you walk in, you can see the churro station and the white, milk and dark chocolate sauces churning in melting pots. There is a range of yummy ice creams, cakes and chocolates on display but I always go straight for the churros. We order our churros at the counter, take our number and find a seat. The freshly fried churros arrive and they look delish!

San Churro – Churros dusted with cinnamon sugar.

I pick up the warm deep-fried churro that had been generously dusted in cinnamon sugar (you can get icing sugar if you prefer) and submerge one end into the white chocolate dipping sauce. The smooth melted chocolate sort of tastes like condensed milk mixed with white chocolate, so delicious! The consistency of the dipping sauce is thick enough to coat the churro with an excessive amount of chocolate and thin enough to discreetly drink the leftover chocolate when nobody is watching.

San Churro – White chocolate and Dulce de Leche dipping sauce.

As you dunk the churro into the chocolate and lift it out, the trick is to wait one second with your churro hovering over the sauce cup to make sure the chocolate drip settles before you transport it to your mouth. If you are impatient like me and can’t wait that necessary one second to let the chocolate drip settle, you will end up with chocolate dipping sauce all over the front of your fave shirt (happens every time). I remember the first time I tried churros, it was in the tiny and narrow San Churro store on Brunswick St. and I remember raving about the white chocolate sauce for weeks after. My friend is nuts about the dulce de leche which is a Spanish caramel. It’s a little smoother and creamier than normal caramel. She has the Dulce de leche hot chocolate, dips her churros in dulce de leche and then takes dulche de leche home for later.  I totally understand, it’s dulce de licious.

San Churro – Hot and cold (Spanish hot chocolate with white choc ice-cream).

The ‘Hot and Cold’ is a thick Spanish hot chocolate with a scoop of white chocolate ice-cream. Hot drinking chocolate and cold ice-cream is a match made in heaven. The ‘Hot and Cold’ tastes like a chocolate pudding liquefied. You feel like you’re drinking a homemade self-saucing pudding with fresh cream. It’s weird but amazing. I know that whenever I make choc pudding at home I find myself eating too much and feeling sick after but this way I can be served a controlled portion. They have a variety of hot chocolates flavours like hazelnut, mint, peanut butter (yum), chilli, ginger, dulce de leche and expresso or you can just have the regular hot chocolates in white, milk or dark chocolate which are a perfect winter warmer.

I heart San Churro!

Olives x

San Churro
Address: 150 Chapel Street, Windsor
Website: http://www.sanchurro.com
Phone: 03 9529 7559
Trading Hours: Mon-Thurs 11-11pm, Fri 11-12am, Sat 10-12am, Sun 10-11pm

American Doughnut Kitchen

American Doughnut Kitchen at Queen Victoria Market.

The American Doughnut Kitchen has been around since 1950. That is literally the year my mum was born. These doughnuts are what you call an oldie but a goodie. One traditional family recipe has had people lining up by the many for over half a century and will have people lining up for many more years to come.  These donuts are made fresh in the little van at the Queen Victoria Market (QVM) and they are absolutely delicious.

My american doughnut with its doughnut friends in the background.

These donuts are not your perfectly round style commercial donughts. Each little doughnut has its own unique shape. The dougnuts are crunchy on the outside and doughy in the middle filled with (burn your mouth) hot raspberry jam, covered in sweet (stick to your lips) sugar. There is something really clean about the oil they are deep-fried in. Every doughnut tastes like it was the first doughnut cooked that day. Personally I feel they have enough jam for my liking but a friend of mine always asks for extra jam and they are happy to accommodate.

American doughnut Kitchen doughnuts yumm.

Especially on Sundays, there is a very long ant trail of people lining up behind the food truck waiting to get their American doughnut fix. But the line moves at a reasonable speed so you aren’t waiting for too long. You can purchase one for a dollar or you can buy a pack of six for $6 dollars (wait a minute that’s the same price). But in saying that, that is a damn good price and these little guys are worth way more than a dollar, so buying in bulk is definitely the better option. You can easily down a six-pack in one sitting.

American Doughnut Kitchen Food Truck.

It would be rather unfortunate if your American Doughnut hankering occurred on a Monday or a Wednesday because the QVM is closed. But never fear, you can find a comparable jam filled doughnut with a similar level of deliciousness. The doughnuts at Olympic Doughnuts will cure your craving (just outside Footscray station). Plus at Olympic Doughnuts they have a fun jam-filling contraption that looks like a swordfish. The doughnut is impaled by the swordfish’s nose, then the bleeding jam doughnut is thrown upon a bed sugar, to then only be eaten by the next person in line (poor doughnuts).

I heart American Doughnut Kitchen!

Olives x

American Doughnut Kitchen
Address: Queen Street, Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne
Website: https://www.facebook.com/AmericanDoughnutKitchen
Phone: 03 9417 6415 or 0412 224 083
Trading Hours:Tues & Thurs 6am-2pm, Fri 6-5pm, Sat 6-3pm, Sun 6-4pm

Go nuts for cronuts!

Dossants from Movida Bakery, inspired by the ‘cronut’.

What is a cronut? A cronut is a combination of a croissant and a donut. The name sounds silly but seems appropriate. When I hear that two of my favourite pastries are making a super pastry baby, naturally I want to meet it. The original trademarked ‘cronut’ is made in New York at Dominique Ansel Bakery but it can be identified under the alias of dossant or zonut in Australia.

So I was told that the only place to get this alleged cronut in Melbourne is at Movida Bakery in South Yarra so off I went. We got to the bakery and there was a selection of sweet and savory pastries, fresh breads and some delicious deli sandwiches yumm! But then I remembered that we came here on a specific mission to get cronuts, and by cronuts I mean dossants (wink wink).

Movida Bakery

We walked into the cute little bakery and ordered two dossants. I literally got the last two dossants. For me the last two? I should be so lucky. I hold on to them with dear life and walk out of there with a great big smile from ear to ear. I could not contain my excitement. I had no doubt in my mind that these dossants were going to be the most scrumptious little pastries to date. Admittedly they didn’t look fabulous but that didn’t worry me, in my mind they would be deliciously ugly and that was fine.

I also bought a cocoa meringue that sort of resembled a meteor, which reminded me of that asteroid game where you shoot the asteroids and they break into particles and then you have to obliterate the particles into space dust in order to save the world (well maybe not the world but definitely to save you and your spaceship). I made my own re-make of the Atari game starring my Movida Meteoringue. Same game but yummier!

Objective: Destroy the Meteoringue

People in NY are going nuts for cronuts and are waiting in line for over two hours to buy the new pastry. People are buying cronuts in NY for $5 dollars, which is a reasonable price, but people are then selling them for more than six times that amount on what everyone keeps referring to as the black market. (I’ll take one heart, two kidneys and ooooh is that a cronut?) Not the real black market but word on the street is that cronuts are being sold at an inflated price to the people who cbf’d waiting in line. Seems you CAN buy patience.

So back to the dossant, I held it in my hand, paused, then took the first well-anticipated bite. I couldn’t believe my tastebuds, I sat there in disbelief and had to do a retake. I took another regretful bite and put it down. My excitement had plummeted. My first thought was ‘meh nothing special’, my second thought was ‘how could a croissant and a donut make such an ugly baby?’ and my first words were ‘do you want the rest of mine?’. I was suffering from severe devastation.

Before: Going nuts for cronuts                         After: Severely Devastated

Granted the ones I tried are not the original trademarked cronuts but they are the only ones in Melbourne at the moment. Adriano Zumbo makes the ‘Zonut’ which is similar but his store is in Sydney.

I would like to try the original ‘Cronut’ but the guy who invented them seems a little possessive. Ansel has trademarked the name ‘cronuts’ but also tweeted that other bakers are ‘copycats’ and questioned if they would be able to look at him in the eye. Why so serious? He didn’t invent the croissant or donut but was happy to copy those pastries to create his idea. Once I made a dessert bagel with a donut acting as the bagel, and fresh whipped cream replacing the creme cheese. Should I trademark the Dogel?

This whole cronut experience has taught me that sometimes you may wait in line for so long trying to get what everyone else wants but once you get there you realise that cronuts totally suck and the thing you wanted so badly wasn’t what you wanted at all. Find out what matters to you and follow that line instead.

Olives x