The Langham, Millers Point

I came to The Langham for a wedding ceremony, followed by reception in their prestigious halls. The hotel has been refurbished in recent years - all black and white interior filled with bright lights in every corner, comfortable lounge chairs and fresh floral centrepieces.

Entrance of The Langham

In addition, they have a sweets/lolly pop bar for guests (or perhaps all for show since I didn't see anyone touching the display) near their concierge desk:

Sweets Bar

Hong Kong: The Lounge @ JW Marriott 香港JW萬豪酒店, Admiralty

In order to thank me for my hospitality during my aunt's stint in Sydney and knowing that I was a foodie, she decided to treat me for a meal at The Lounge inside the JW Marriott Hotel, Hong Kong, which is renowned for their afternoon tea buffets.

Let's say the experience was... seriously epic!

Entrance of Lounge

Afternoon tea at The Lounge runs from 3:30pm to 6pm so I had a light lunch beforehand to prepare myself for an afternoon feast and had every intention to skip dinner that night. 😂

Cow & The Moon, Enmore

My ice cream adventures in Enmore continued with a visit to the infamous Cow & The Moon, which was named the "best gelato makers" in the world back in 2014:

Outside of Cow & The Moon

When I arrived, there was a long queue leading outside the store, which I swear didn't move at all for the initial 5-10 minutes.

Hakiki Turkish Ice Cream, Enmore

Following my meal at Salmon & Bear, I decided to work off some calories and strolled along the main street in search of dessert. Having never ventured this far into Enmore, I had to rely on trusty old GoogleMaps to navigate my way to Hakiki Turkish Ice Cream, which has been on my to-go wishlist for over a year.

Street Sign

Inside the Dessert Bar

Roadtrip to Bilpin

A few months ago, a few friends and I decided to go on a road trip together to visit a friend working in the Windsor vicinity. After doing some research into the surrounding areas, a friend suggested that we visit Bilpin for a day trip.

Bilpin is located just over 1.5hrs drive north-west of Sydney and is popularly known as the 'Land of the Mountain Apple', due to the rich fruit orchids and bountiful gardens that line the main (Bells Line of) road, which runs through the Blue Mountain region. The famous produce from the region are the locally grown/produced apples, juice and cider. Since they don't usually advertise the source of apples at the local supermarkets nor do I usually partake in cider (or any alcoholic drink), this place didn't really ring any bells so I was up for the challenge.

Roadtrip!

Foodi's (Not so) Amazing Scavenger Hunt, Sydney CBD

To celebrate a momentous occasion, a friend organised a food scavenger hunt, held in the Sydney CBD. At first I thought it was a self-organised activity but it turned out that the scavenger hunt was actually through a third-party called Foodi and there was actually a (significant) cost component to it. I can't believe that food scavenger hunts even exist in Sydney but then again, so do escape rooms (don't even get me started on this topic).

The premise of Foodi's Amazing Scavenger Hunt is for the teams to follow a series of clues that lead you to 10 or so food venues across the Sydney CBD in the space of 3 hours. Along the way, you are required to take team selfies, consume food samples, and complete challenges that may require you to either photograph or obtain (e.g. by purchasing, begging, taking... or stealing) items from the given scavenger hunt list in order to earn bonus points. By the end of the hunt, the points are accumulated and the winning team is announced at the final location (usually a local pub).

Let's just say the entire experience was... memorable... to say the least.

Bernie's Diner, Moss Vale

After an enjoyable lunch at Biota Dining, Bowral, the group headed off south to Bernie's Diner.

Entrance of Diner

Set in Moss Vale, Bernie's Diner resembles the classic American diner from the 1950-70's (à la Grease) with bright red bar stools and booth seating, and a black and white checked floor. Their menu here is actually rather extensive and included burgers, sides, drinks, dessert - oh the choices...:

Gelato Messina HQ & More, Rosebery

Following on from our lunch at the Three Blue Ducks, we continued on our food crawl in search of dessert.

Messina HQ

Located diagonally across the block from the Saporium car park, is the Gelato Messina HQ, which offers gelato and cakes to passing customers, and appears to be the location of their cooking classes.

Flour Drum, Newtown

A while ago, Aunt-T joined MSG Cafeteria to various food blogger groups, which were mentioned on our blog but I never really asked about.. And it wasn't until I recently logged into the blog email for the first time that I discovered 50+ unread emails - a veritable minefield of spam (of the inedible type) and gold (of the edible type) because within the long list of unread emails were exclusive invites to food tasting events!

One of the recent invites received was from the Food Critics & Bloggers Australia (a.k.a. FCBA) for a tasting event at Flour Drum, Newtown. Having rarely been to Newtown (mainly to visit Black Star Pastry and Brewtown Newtown), I had to research on how to get here.

Located 10 min walk, or 4 min by bus, from Newtown station, Flour Drum sits inconspicuously among boutique shops along the main road but is rather like a hidden gem in the rough - for inside the cafe are some of the friendliest staff I've encountered and serve mouth-watering cakes. The co-owners - Christopher, Victor and Johnny - were easy to chat with and happily engaged in conversations with various customers scattered across the cafe (except maybe Johnny, who as the executive chef of Flour Drum spends a lot of his time in the kitchen - he stayed up till 3-4am making cakes for the weekend!!).

Outside of Cafe

Black Star Pastry, Sydney CBD

Being a major fan of Black Star Pastry cakes, it was on my 'to-do' list to take SissyG to Newtown and visit the bakery... that was until I checked out there website and discovered that they recently opened a new branch in Kinokuniya, CBD. Since we were going into the city to watch Kung Fu Panda 3 and visit Sepia, I insisted on a afternoon dessert stop here:

Entrance of Cafe

Just like the branch in Newtown, this cafe offers coffee and a range of mouth-watering cakes:

Individual Cakes on Display

More Cakes and Tarts
(look at that popcorn cake!)

In addition to the usual cake menu, there is a new cake on the block that is (supposedly) only offered at this particular branch (a lie.. also saw it at the Newtown branch) - the Raspberry Lychee Chocolate Cake ($10):

Top View

Side View

Another multi-layer cake, this cake is constructed with the following layers (from top to bottom):

1. Raspberries and lychees (coated in gelatin), topped with an edible flower
2. Cream
3. Sponge cake
4. Raspberry marshmallow 
5. Vanilla cream
6. Chocolate biscuit/cake

Presentation-wise, the Raspberry Lychee Chocolate Cake is very pretty and it didn't taste overly sweet or cream-y. However, instead of doing a raspberry marshmallow layer, I think they opted for a simpler/quicker option of just placing the normal round raspberry marshmallows into the vanilla cream and the chocolate 'biscuit' base turned out to be more like a chocolate sponge cake. Overall, it's a good addition to their cake menu (although only at this branch only).

Also, a sneaky peek at their signature Strawberry and Watermelon Cake:

Strawberry and Watermelon Cake ($7.50)

One of the Asian girls sharing the table with us actually ended up eating two of these...#respect

There is limited seating within the cafe area so you'll need to wait if there are no available tables or takeaway and consume at the nearby TGV underground food court.