I'm Back.

Wow, it has been a while since I've updated this blog! Once I joined the world of tumblr, I really neglected this place... Well, I'm back. Unlike my tumblr (found HERE) which captures the random thoughts and musings of my everyday life, I think I'm going to keep this for two of my favourite subjects - food and travel. With the Sydney International Food Festival just around the corner, there will be many food posts undoubtedly coming soon.

In the meantime, here is a snapshot of some food experiences I've had over the past few months that I have been M.I.A.

There have been delicious, rather perfect home-baked cheesecakes...

A new baby...a Kitchen Aid (hurrah!)

Homemade dessert souffles (courtesy of my baking-genius of a sister)...

And one of the most wonderful afternoon tea experiences at the quaint Hopetoun Tea Rooms in Melbourne. The cakes and pastries are divine! They also have a wonderful range of organic teas (from a brand whose name has escaped me for the moment). We tried the Ruby Sipper, which is a blood orange fruit blend and the Chocolatea, which is a blend of Chocolate, Vanilla, Organic Rooibos and Black Tea. There are other interesting ones that we weren't able to try, such as Congo Bongo (a coconut and mango flavoured tea) and Passion with Envy (a green leaf tea with passion fruit). Whilst there is usually a line out the door, the wait is most definitely worth it.

That's all I have for now. Until next time...

Happy Easter!

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last posted. Time flies when you're having fun...or in my case struggling under the demands of uni, work and trying to figure out my future.

Amongst all the craziness that has been my April thus far, my iPad finally arrived a couple of weeks ago (yay!)

I absolutely adore my iPad. In fact there are no words to describe how freakin' awesome it is, so I won't even attempt to express it. Sadly for my Macbook, it has seen it become rather reduntant and is now only ever used for serious uni work/cramming (and the occasional blog post).

Aside from the iPad, the past few weeks have seen both myself and my sister embark on a book buying spree - mainly from our beloved Barnes & Noble, but some have come from Borders for only $3 (what a bargain, right?!). These are just some of our purchases...

Whilst I love a bargain as much as the next person, my recent shopping trip to Borders was rather bittersweet. For the past 4 years, my local Borders store (well, local to my uni campus) has been the place where I've spent many a break between classes studying and catching up with friends over coffee. To walk into the store and see the furniture up for sale and the shelves bare, it kind of broke my heart :(

On a more festive note, it's Easter and we all know that means...CHOCOLATE!!

Happy Easter everyone! Hope you're all having a wonderful break filled with lots and lots of chocolate :)

The Cheesecake Factory.

It may be the weather but as I spend my afternoon researching exemplary damages I have found myself craving sweet potato fries. Not just any sweet potato fries, but specifically those from The Cheesecake Factory.

The Cheesecake Factory is a chain of "dining restaurants" found throughout the US. We stopped by the one at The Grove shopping complex (one of my favourite places in LA!!) on our most recent trip, and it was definitely an interesting experience. The portions of food, as tends to be the case in the US are HUGE! When I looked up The Cheesecake Factory online, reviewers (who I'm assuming to be US residents) complained that the service was bad and the food incredibly overpriced. While I understand that Americans may find food in their own country expensive, I beg to differ. By Australian standards to food is so cheap! Mains were not more than $25!!

The food was absolute deliciousness. We had The Incredible Grilled Eggplant Sandwich, which contains a large chunk of grilled Japanes Eggplant, Roasted Red Peppers, Red Onion, Melted Mozzarella (yum!) and Garlic Aioli on a Toasted Bun - it's really more of a burger than a sandwich. The best part (which we didn't pay much attention to when ordering) is it comes with a generous side of crispy, delicious French Fries AND a salad.

The other dish we had was the Grilled Salmon. Like the Sandwich we weren't sure what to expect when ordering, and the dish came out with a generous piece of Salmon and a pile of spaghetti. It was served with a basic butter sauce and some mushrooms.

(Apologies for the blurriness of the photo, can you tell I was in a hurry to eat?)

Not realising how much food we would be getting, we decided to order a side of sweet potato fries (just to be safe and make sure we wouldn't leave hungry lol). I seriously could have skipped the rest and just had the entire serve of fries to myself - they were so incredibly delicious (no joke, yum x 1000000!!).

The piece de resistance!

Needless to say, we couldn't finish the food (and there was no way I was leaving the sweet potato fries behind) so our lovely server packed them up for us. Sadly, we didn't try any of the iconic Cheesecake Factory cheesecakes. Next time, I guess.

NYC Fashion Week + Food = Fun Times!

So having been in NYC for two fashion weeks, I cannot stress how much fun and alive the city becomes (well, admittedly the city is pretty awesome and bustling anyway but there is a certain air about it when all the fashionistas come out to play). Whilst it may at times be a trip down struggle street trying to find a cab during fashion week (not ideal when you are weighed down with bags from a shopping spree) there are a lot of fun things that you can do to partake in the fashion week festivities.

This year my sister managed to score a reservation at a Fashion Week Afternoon Tea at the Mandarin Oriental's Lobby Lounge - needless to say it was a lot of fun and once again an absolutely incredible experience (and I know I keep saying that about everything NYC related, so I apologise and will try to think of another way to describe it).

The Mandarin Oriental is so plush and nice, that by the end of the afternoon I was tempted to max out my credit cards just so I could stay.

The Lobby Lounge is located on the 35th floor and has AMAZING views of South-West Central Park and Columbus Circle.

Food-wise this is the BEST afternoon tea I have ever been to, ever! Sydney High Teas do not even compare. The service was brilliant, the waitstaff were super friendly and accomodating - and like many restuarants throughout the USA they actually ask you if you have dietary requirements/allergies upon your arrival, which is music to the ears of a vegetarian (me) and a sufferer of an insane amount of allergies (my sister).

Then as if the service isn't enough to make you feel all VIP-like, the food is simply amazing. To start as with all high/afternoon teas there were a selection of savory sandwiches. They were good but I can't say I remember all that much about them as I got distracted by the arrival of the Lobby Lounge's signature ginger scones.

The scones are infused with a hint of ginger and then accompanied by the kitchen's signature ginger marmalade. I was worried that it may be too overpowering but the two combined to create a very delicate flavour.

And then the sweets arrived...

I have only one word to describe it all...YUM!! Unfortunately, as is the case with afternoon teas you tend to get full really quickly. The portions are all deceptively small and you think you'll be able to eat it all but alas that is not the case. Thankfully, in the US of A, restaurants around the country pack up your left over food so that you can take it home with you (hurrah!). I only wish they still did that here in Australia.

The sweets were so adorable and were all fashion themed...

Diane von Furstenberg Biscuits.

Hot Coco Chanel - a delectable chocolate mousse.

This was a plain old strawberry and vanilla cake. I don't recall it being fashion house inspired.

Jimmy Choo Caramel Tart.

Apple Brown Betsey Johnson - an apple crumble/tart of sorts.

Donna Karat Cake (aka Carrot Cake).

My only regret about the afternoon tea was not selecting a black tea to accompany and counteract all the sugar being consumed. Instead I decided to be adventurous and try a herbal tea (herbal teas are generally outside of my comfort zone so I don't know what possessed me).

I selected a Mountain Berry tea which was a beautiful, rich, berry red colour and tasted like bubblegum. The tea itself was nice but because it had a mild sweetness to it, it wasn't the best accompaniment to such sweet food. Even so, the fashion week afternoon tea was by far the best food experience I had in NYC and was a nice way to be a part of a NYC Fashion Week festivities.

Farewell 2010.

The last week of every year is always an insanely busy time in my life. This might have something to do with the fact that there is Christmas, followed by my sister's birthday (which always leads to lots of celebrating) and then of course more celebrating to ring in the new year.

Christmas was a super quiet affair this year, in fact if it didn't really feel like Christmas time at all. My sister and I have a tradition of watching 'Meet Me in St Louis' and baking Christmas cookies together every year - sadly this year I baked by myself, and we simply never got around to watching the movie. I did however hang out with some of my favourite people on the day AND I went to the movies. I don't know why I've never thought to go to the movies on Christmas before, it's fantastic! You get to see new releases without the accompanying first-week crowds. Think I know what my new Christmas tradition is going to be :P

The rest of the week has pretty much been spent helping my sister celebrate reaching the quarter century milestone in her life - and it has been lots of fun! I don't like to get too sentimental when blogging but I have to say I am so lucky to have such a great sister and am so proud of all her achievements this past year.

I must admit the highlight of my sister's birthday (aside from spending it with her, of course) was the cake. I absolutely love chocolate, so by default I absolutely love Lindt's cake collection. The birthday cake selected was the Chocolate Hazelnut Gateau. It is three layers of vanilla bean cake soaked in frangelico, layered with roasted nuts and gianduja (a hazelnut and chocolate paste). I highly recommend it...so delicious!

The day after my sister's actual birthday, the celebrating continued with a day of shopping, and this is where we finally tried this American-style diner that I've wandered past countless times over the past year but have never had the time to stop in and eat. The decor screams American diner with booths lined all along the walls, and the menu has typical diner fare with extensive burger and fries options, as well as all-day breakfast (featuring a dozen or so pancake options). We opted for pancakes, which were absolutely delicious and completely transported me back to my time in the States where I consumed insane amounts of pancakes (though the portion size was considerably smaller than American standards).

While I would definitely return, I have to say Melbourne has much better options when it comes to American-style diners. Guess I'll just have to get my year's worth of diner food fix when I return to the States.

***

Well, I can't believe 2010 is about to come to an end. While it hasn't always been great, I have had some of the most wonderful times of my life this year. Thank you to all the wonderful people in my life that have made it a pretty awesome year, I'm so lucky and grateful to know you all. I hope 2011 brings good health and happiness to all!

Happy New Year!!

A Disastrous Thanksgiving Meal.

I realise that the US Thanksgiving holiday was almost 2 weeks ago, and this post is long overdue. It would be easy for me to say I've been busy finishing up uni for the year, returning to work and just generally getting back in control of my life. But in truth, I think I'm embarassed about what a disaster my 3rd attempt of cooking a thanksgiving meal turned out to be and was simply dragging my feet about posting up the disastrous result.

So, to begin my quest to find a turkey was a complete disaster. I was in the middle of exams, and did not take into account that fresh turkeys will not be available until closer to Christmas. There were literally no turkeys available at my local grocer's. There was a sign telling me I could place an order for Christmas but that didn't help me in the slightest. This should have dissuaded me from pursuing this dream to make a traditional thanksgiving meal...but alas it didn't.

Instead I used the only whole chicken available to me, and it turned out to be the tiniest chicken I have ever cooked with. It was so incredibly small that I actually felt bad eating it... and considering turkeys are about 10 times the size of this chicken, it was really sad to even be calling it a turkey substitute.

At this point I was so upset about not having a turkey that I cheated and instead of making a potato side dish out of real potatoes I made mini-potatoes.

Because the chicken was so tiny, it was near impossible for it to produce sufficient amounts of fat/drippings to be turned into a gravy. So I supplied bottles of different ready-made sauces instead. I skipped making stuffing as well as cranberry sauce (though this is because it is so hard to source frozen cranberries!!).

The only thing that turned out was the pie. I took the recipe for Cranberry and Blueberry pie from the 2010 Thanksgiving issue of Bon Appetit and substituting raspberries for the filling (again, the reason being frozen cranberries are not easy to find).

The dough is a standard pie crust recipe (available here). To make the filling that I made (which varies slightly to the original Bon Appetit recipe - is as follows:

Ingredients

Approx. 3 1/2 cups of frozen (not thawed) Raspberries (or any other frozen berry combination you like)

1 1/4 cups of sugar (I actually put 3/4 cups of sugar because I didn't want it to be too sweet, so do whatever you like - it's a really flexible kind of recipe)

About 3 tablespoons of corn flour (though this may vary depending on how thick you want to make the filling)

About 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and some grated lemon zest

*The original Bon Appetit recipe includes adding cinnamon, but this doesn't go with ALL berries. I also left it out in my variation due to dietary requirements of my family members.

Method

Place everything into a pot and boil over medium heat (which the magazine said is approx. 15 mins - I found it did not in fact take that long).

Also remember to stir it constantly, as it's like making a jam and if it boils too quickly it will stick/burn to the sides of you pan, which is a complete pain to clean (trust me, I speak from past experience).

Once it's come to a boil, and thickened to a consistency you like, leave it to cool in a glass or ceramic bowl.

Then to assemble the pie - line a pie dish with crust (the standard size is a 12-inch dish, but you can use whatever you have it generally works), place cooled filling in centre and then you can either cover it completely with more crust or make a lattice top.

Brush dough with fresh cream, or milk, or butter - generally anything dairy to help it stick.

Bake for approx. 1 hour or until golden. Leave to cool a bit.

Bon appetit!

Cake Boss and Cannoli.

On another food related note, one of my favourite shows at the moment is Cake Boss. The show follows the crew at Carlo's Bakery located in the heart of Hoboken, New Jersey. Let me just say, these guys are amazing. They make some pretty phenomenal looking cakes, to suit any requested theme. On the whole, the show not only showcases their amazing talents in the cake/baking department, but is generally entertaining following their (often hilarious) family dramas.

The bakery is apparently renowned for their cannoli, and so without fail every time I watch this show I think of cannoli and then crave cannoli. To satisfy my latest cannoli craving, my sister and dad kindly offered to drive out to one of my favourite little Italian patisseries to get me some of the best tasting cannoli in Sydney. The place is Pasticerria Papa and all their desserts are divine! In fact, they are famous throughout Sydney for their Ricotta Cake, which is indescribably delicious.

After 2 hours stuck in ridiculous amounts of traffic, they finally got there. My sister was worried that they might have run out of cannoli, as the place gets extremely busy on weekends (where the line is out the door) and by lunchtime most desserts are no longer available. Thankfully, they were able to get cannoli - both vanilla and chocolate - and some of slices of our favourite Pecan Pie.

Yum!

Mini Potatoes.

So a couple of weeks ago I started watching Nigella Lawson's new show Kitchen. It's no secret that I'm not a big fan and don't quite buy into this "Nigella - the Domestic Goddess" business. My sister on the other hand doesn't mind her and actually ordered her latest cookbook - aptly named Kitchen after the new series.

The main reason I'm not drawn to Nigella's brand of 'cooking' is that she has a tendency to use a lot of pre-prepared/out-of-the-packet food. I prefer to cook from scratch whenever I can (and therefore admire people like Ina Garten who encourage this way of cooking and show how easy it can be). Nigella also has a tendency to over narrate when showcasing her recipes, which I find irritating and mildly pretentious.

However, I must concede that on occasion, Nigella offers up some interesting and surprisingly decent recipes. For instance, I do enjoy her recipe for Chocolate Pear Pudding (available here). It lives up to her claim that it is quick, easy and delicious.

More recently from this new series Kitchen, Nigella promised us a quick, easy side dish of "mini potatoes". What are mini-potatoes I wondered? I had never seen such a product in grocery stores. And then she revealed that these mythical mini-potatoes were in fact a packet of store bought "potato gnocchi" fried in pan. My sister, fascinated by the whole thing, ended up at the store buying a packet of gnocchi to see if was any good.

Turns out this is a superbly delicious way to serve up and eat potato gnocchi (and they're pretty addictive... once you eat one it's kind of hard to stop). So, I must concede - despite the initial bizarreness behind this Nigella "recipe" it isn't half bad and is certainly a different way to present potato gnocchi as a side dish.

Surprising deliciousness aside, what does strike me as odd is that this counts as a recipe and gets a whole page in the cookbook. It may be a twist or a useful tip, but does placing gnocchi into a frying pan with some oil and salt really require a recipe? So here I am, back to being thoroughly unimpressed by Nigella's unique style of "cooking".

NB: On a slightly unrelated note, the post on my attempts at making a traditional Thanksgiving meal is on its way...soon! :)

Bon Appetit.

Today I received the latest issue of my Bon Appetit magazine subscription in the mail. It's the Thanksgiving special and despite having exams I'm excited that it came just in time for me to attempt my 3rd Thanksgiving meal, this coming Thursday.

It may seem unconventional to celebrate Thanksgiving in a country where many people wouldn't even know what it's all about, but I've always loved the idea of this North American holiday - and so a few years ago I decided that I'd like to make a Thanksgiving feast for my family.

Now, it hasn't always turned out the way I planned. Last year for instance I did not leave myself enough time to make all the usual accompaniments, such as cranberry sauce and stuffing - giving up after making a side of potatoes and gravy. I also had to substitute chicken (well, two whole chickens) in place of a turkey - as my mother forgot to source one for me. The other problem I find is that it is really hard to be in the kitchen for a long period of time when the weather this time of year is so warm! It makes me see the appeal of a cold, wintery North American Thanksgiving.

This year I'm determined for it all to turn out differently. At this stage I still need to buy a turkey (which sadly, may or may not happen in time) and all the other bits and pieces necessary to make a pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce and traditional stuffing. I'll be chronicling the result here on Thursday. Fingers crossed it doesn't end in disaster!!

SIFF 2010

I love Octobers simply because it signifies the celebration of good food around Sydney. Unfortunately due to work and uni commitments I haven't had many chances to check out many of the offerings at this year's Sydney International Food Festival. One thing, however, that my sister and I knew we couldn't miss out on was trying one of the special brunch offers.

So today, battling the insane windy weather conditions we ventured out with the family to have brunch at Hyde Park Barracks Cafe. We did the SIFF Brunch here last year and based on that and the set menu that they were advertising it sounded promising.

The 3-course brunch began with a homemade granola, vanilla yoghurt and poached fruit. This was followed by Eggs 3-ways...

Being vegetarian I had the meat-free version. This included - eggs florentine, a mushroom and fetta omelette with ciabatta bread, and an egg and roast tomato tart.

The third and final dish was raspberry waffles with white chocolate sauce, vanilla gelato and berries.

Overall, the food pretty tasty but I can't say that I was overly impressed. It might have been the service that put me off a bit, as at times it was plain offensive (I won't elaborate too much, but I think 90% of the people dining there had been personally insulted by one particular waiter)...but with 3-courses for $25 I can't really complain.

10.10.10

It's been a crazy busy couple of days for me but for the most part it has been crazy in a good way. I spent the most part of my weekend at work but this led to me being introduced to one of the best dumpling places I've ever been too. It also reminded me of the age-old adage to not judge books by their covers. In this case I'm referring to the little dumpling place. Upon first glance it doesn't seem all that welcoming or enticing but appearances aside the food was authentic and absolutely delicious.

After work today I headed down to the Rock's Markets to check out the Australian Cheese Showcase 2010 with a couple of my lovely coworkers, after sampling (and purchasing) some delicious organic goat's milk cheese we wandered around the rest of the markets. This was followed up with a stop in at what is by far my favourite French patisserie in Sydney, La Renaissance. They do THE most divine cakes and their hot chocolates are pretty delicious too! Today my sweet of choice was the Fleur de Lys...

(Source - http://larenaissance.com.au/images/savouries/Zulu.jpg)

It's simply divine. It's a rich chocolate mousse made from Valrhona 70% chocolate, with a crunchy praline and biscuit base. Yum!

Other lovely things that have made my weekend a good one included my newly acquired book bag.

I have been going on about these bags for a while (previously mentioned here), and my lovely sister surprised me by buying me one...and in my favourite pattern too! (Thanks F!!)

In return for my sister's generous and most thoughtful gift of the coveted book bag, I stopped by kikki.K and bought her the 2011 Inspiration Diary that she has been eyeing for a while. In fact the diary is so neat and has some great inspirational quotes throughout, that I ended up going back and buying one for myself.

Tulips, Parades and the Elephant Boy.

Just got home from a wonderful day out with the family. We decided to go for a bit of a drive down to Bowral for lunch, and it just so happens that the locals were in the midst of celebrating their annual Tulip Time Festival.

For lunch we stopped in at the Elephant Boy Cafe. The cafe has a quirky decor, filled with all sorts of odds and ends, and shelves lined with old books.

The food is (for the most part) really good. I opted for the Vegetable Lasagna was supremely tasty with it's fusion of Indian and Italian flavours - while it had a traditional bechemel sauce it was spiced with a lovely pancha masala.

My dad and sister tried the Fish Cakes (made from Salmon and Potato), which is a dish Elephant Boy is quite popular for. I, of course, could not resist and stole a bite from their plates and decided that they were indeed absolutely delicious.

Because I had trouble deciding what to order my mum decided to get the Sweet Potato Tart so that we could share and I could have both the lasagna and tart. It too was spiced with some uniquely Indian flavour and with the accompanying Mango Chutney was incredibly tasty.

After lunch we decided to go for a bit of a wander around the main street and check out all the stores we like to visit whenever we head to Bowral. Despite the fact that I'm in the middle of a mission to save money for a holiday I couldn't help myself and had to buy something. I opted for a little bar of Herbal Clothing Protector. I figured it was practical, protecting my clothes from potential moth infestations, and so it justified the spend.

Then my sister and I went into one of the many antique stores. There is simply so much character and history behind each piece, I love it!

While we were out on our little wander we noticed the street was beginning to fill up with locals, and it was then that we discovered that today was in fact the main day of the Tulip Festival, and because they were celebrating it's 50th year there was going to be a parade through town. The parade itself was pretty standard, showcasing the organisations and things that make the Southern Highlands unique.

Following the parade there was going to be wheelbarrow races and lantern parades but we decided it was time for a break from festival-watching and decided to grab some coffee and cake instead. We usually head to the Bowral Cafe and Patisserie, but having enjoyed our earlier meal at Elephant Boy we decided to head back there. Sadly, this second visit was a bit of a let down. We ordered our coffees, as well as a slice of Carrot Cake and a slice of Pear and Almond cake to share. When they arrived we were shocked to discover that there was in fact mould on the Pear and Almond cake. This put a major dampener on our afternoon.

Despite the mould debacle the coffees were in fact really good, living up to the claim on the door that they have "the best coffee in town". Predictably I ordered a Chai Latte, and not only was it perfectly made it came in a little bowl, which I thought was pretty neat - even if it did present a slight challenge when it came to drinking it.

All in all it was pretty great day :)

Good Food and Graduations.

Today has been absolutely wonderful. My sister graduated with her law degree after what feels like an eternity at university (for her) and many days and nights filled with stress and tears, as well as great achievements. I am so proud of her. Seeing her glide across that stage and accept her degree has filled me with much inspiration and determination to get through the next year so that I too can experience the tremendous relief and excitement of being a graduate.

The day has been filled with many lovely things. There have been flowers...

Giving my sister flowers on her graduation (although common practice at graduation ceremonies) was actually the product of a personal joke that my sister and I have shared for a couple of years now. My dad was the one who ended up organising the flowers, and I must give credit where credit is due and say that he made an awesome selection. Unknowingly, by picking the arrangement that struck him as the nicest, he managed to select my sister's favourite flowers - pink roses and gerberas.

This second bunch of flowers was a surprise from a relative who happened to be at the ceremony attending as a guest of another graduate.

Then there was the celebratory dinner and OH-MY-GOSH it was absolutely fabulous!! The highlight of the day (well, second highlight, after the actual graduation ceremony of course). My sister requested that we dine at Sepia, and I'll be forever grateful for her decision.

Sepia recently received 2 Hats in the SMH Good Food Guide Awards 2011, and Head Chef Martin Benn was named 'Chef of the Year 2011'. So, as you can imagine we were incredibly excited to see what Sepia had in store for us - and let me just say the experience did not disappoint!

As we approached the restuarant the doors swung open and one of the lovely owners greeted us (by name, might I add). This set the tone for what seemed to be a promising evening and dining experience ahead. The menu is full of wonderful and delicious sounding options, so we opted to go for the set Spring Menu, which consists of 4 courses. It seemed like a good way to sample the various offerings without having to go with the degustation - which required a leisurely several hours that we simply did not have.

We began with an amuse bouche (which I can't recall entirely but was a seafood emulsion of sorts). This was followed by the first course, which featured poached Ocean Trout and was soooo good. Probably my favourite course (aside from dessert). Next was a Spanner Crab and Buckwheat Risotto with a Mustard Butter and Shellfish Essence - which my dad and sister argue was the best course (again, aside from dessert). The third course consisted of Poached Coral Trout, Marron, Onion Cream, White Asparagus and Beetroot-infused Trout Roe - and I'll admit I couldn't bring myself to eat the roe. Just the idea of caviar makes me feel a bit queasy.

Undoubtedly, the best part of the dinner was dessert (well, for me dessert is ALWAYS the best part of any dinner). First we had THE MOST delicious pre-dessert, which was a creme brulee of sorts with corn and other tasty elements (at this point I had stopped paying attention to the waiter who explained exactly but I was too distracted, excitedly waiting to dig into it). Then there was dessert...

I had this 'Chocolate Forest' which consisted of soft chocolate, lavender cream, a sour cherry sorbet and licorice...and it was DIVINE!

This was the other dessert on offer, which was something to do with a Mandarin or something. Once again, I wasn't paying attention because as soon as I saw my 'Chocolate Forest' everything else seemed unimportant.

What made the experience so great was the fact that everyone at Sepia is so incredibly nice, knowledgeable and accommodating. My sister with her 101 allergies was so at home here, they made her special meals including this absolutely delicious dessert (it was sooo good! Possibly the best out of the three desserts at our table.)

It was a wonderful Strawberry concoction of some sort. Can't remember the specifics (again, distracted by the chocolate) but it sure looked and tasted great.

These were the delectable Petit Fours that accompanied our tea and coffee. The Pistachio Macaroons were to die for!!

All in all, Sepia lives up to the hype and more than deserves all the accolades and awards it has received. Definitely one of the best fine-dining experiences I've had - making it the perfect way to end a pretty perfect day :)