Sugar Hit 2012 - Shangri La Hotel (ROUND 3)

1 RADIOHEAD TICKET FOR SALE - 12 NOVEMBER 2012 - DROP ME A LINE IF INTEREZTED

Hello friends, welcome to my humble e-abode.

Haha hey guys,

I completely slept in and missed my lecture this morning, so I am at HOME, blogging about the third round of my sugar hit adventures.

Last night after uni, C and I decided to settle for a light dinner at Takumi (sushi4lyf) before heading to Shangri La hotel for their annual Sugar Hit offering.  I also went last year, so had built some sort of expectation - it's always good to have something to compare to.  (By the way, has anyone noticed that the really popular food blogs haven't even so much as whispered a breath about the sugar hits? So strange!)

So here it is!

The aerial shot - it was surprisingly hard to take a nice photo of the whole plate. It's such an awkward length.

The staff at lobby lounge were so much nicer and helpful this year! Overall our visit was really pleasant (compared to last year anyway - it's always much easier with smaller reservations). I really should have asked someone what the individual desserts were because I had no idea.  This is what it says on the crave website:

The Lobby Lounge offers a decadent chocolate tasting plate with an assortment of handmade chocolates infused with rose, Earl Grey, orange, lavender and Irish whisky; with a glass of Brown Brothers dessert wine.  

I thought a dessert lover like me would be able to pin point exactly which description matched which dessert - but I guess I failed last night.  There are two that I am unsure of, but you'll read about that below!  Last year, everything was a bit cake-y and mousse-y, but this year, everything was soft ganache coated in a hard layer of chocolate... sort of like a truffle?

White chocolate coconut & dark choc cream infused with Irish whisky

See those spikey balls on the sticks?  I thought they were lovely, soft balls of white chocolate and cream coated with white chocolate, glazed in honey, then dipped in lightly fried desiccated coconut for that extra crunchy texture. But I can't be sure, because there wasn't a menu or anything.

Pause, just a disclaimer- all these descriptions are things that I've magicked up in my mind. They could be really wrong :P

I found it a bit strange that they had their melted chocolate/cream in a tangchi (chinese soup soon), because there wasn't anything oriental on the plate - but I guess practicality trumps all. [this sentence sounds really pretentious, huh]. You could definitely smell/taste the irish whisky in the dark chocolate cream. It made the dark chocolate less... dark, and definitely made it more edible.  I normally steer clear of dark chocolate - it's too bitter for me.

The classy jaffa

Gritty orangey/nutty pieces on sugar syrup

I'm not a fan of the orange and chocolate combination. I have never liked jaffas even though I love oranges and chocolate (separately) A LOT!  However, I did appreciate the fact that there were so many different parts to this dessert in particular. There was the chilled and candied orange flesh sitting on the dark chocolate "plate", the actual truffle piece, and the smashed up orangey/nutty pieces glued to the plate with sugar syrup.

Once my teeth broke the chocolate shell of the truffle, the essence of oranges hit me HARD. I could not taste any chocolate, and it was quite nice actually. This made me think I should step outside of my comfort-food-zone more.  Maybe it's time to venture into the chocolate-mint arena !!

Excited about the following dessert:

Could not tell what this was. But it was delicious.

I LOVED THIS!  There were mini choc-coated crunchy malt balls (like last year on the whisky candy bar).  I wasn't sure whether the filling tasted more like lavender or earl gray - no idea what flavour was infused. It was very subtle. The chocolate slab itself tasted very nutty - hazelnut? It almost tasted a bit like Ferrero Rochers.

I would go back to Shangri La for this. :D

Rose flavoured macaron with rose-infused white chocolate cream filling - defos no debate here

I haven't bought into the whole macaron-craze in Sydney.  The white chocolate cream inside was fairly pleasant though.  I haven't had Laduree Macarons because I'm no macaron expert - I just eat the ones that my friend, K bakes.

Double layered chocolate slab with glaxed and popped wheat

This was a yummy one.  I think it's exactly the same as the candy slab they had last year, but I didn't taste the whiskey.  Not too sure what flavour was infused into this piece of chocolate.  BUT IT WAS MY FAVOURITE.  The top layer of chocolate was like a thick ganache, but the bottom layer must have had layers and layers of wafer biscuits because it was so crunchy!

C, le bestie

Et moi

Finisshheeeddd

Mandatory selfie. 

We both looked pretty spiffy that day, but my arm was not long enough to extend the frame to our bodies too :*(

Overall thoughts: Very good. I did not feel sick after the desserts, and even though Orange/rose flavours do not come close to being my favourites, I thought they were more than delicious desserts. I do feel like it's substantially less than last year's (tbh, I love CAKE so much more than truffles and chocolates).  But it was good nonetheless.  I look forward to seeing what desserts they have next year!!

This is probably my last sugar hit post for the year.  It's the 24th today - I'm not sure I can squeeze in more sweets between now and the end of the month.  Time to buckle down and get studying for finals. :(

In other news, W and I skyped with our favourite Chinese-aussie living in Berlin.

It was just after 8am over there, so he was busy getting ready to leave the house.  Didn't get a chance to grab a nice screenshot with all our faces. But if he reads this, IT WAS NICE TO SEE YOUR FACE!

This post has taken me forever to write. I've been so distracted with various things throughout the whole day. Including making vietnamese rice paper rolls - I am terrible at making those. HOW DO I STOP MY RICE PAPER FROM STICKING TO OTHER THINGS?!  But everything else is so simple and delicious. <3 p="p">
OK, talking about that has made me hungry again. I'm going to raid the fridge now.

HAPPY HUMP DAY :)