SIFF 2010 Sugar Hit - Sheraton On The Park, Sydney CBD

Conservatory Bar @ Sheraton On The Park

Okay, I lied, the Sugar Hit at Azuma Kushiyaki was not the last one this year hehehe :P

After seeing mademoiselle délicieuse's post on the one at Sheraton , I just had to try it or I'm gonna regret it forever !

It was Sunday night and when we rocked up to the Gallery Tea Lounge (where it was supposed to be held at) there was no sign of it being open.

Lost and confused, I went up to the concierge desk with both concierges busy tending other guests' needs. After waiting for a good 10 minutes, finally a kind bell boy asked if he could help.

Unfortunately he had no idea on what Sugar Hit is 0_o

So he did a search on the net and advised us the Sugar Hit is at Bungalow 8 on King Street Wharf o_0

You can tell at this stage I was getting annoyed and confused, I even went behind the desk and trying to help him do the search. 

It was at this point that the receptionist finally told the bell boy that the Sugar Hit has been relocated to the Conservatory Bar on the first floor.

Super annoyed !! I'm not blaming the bell boy who had tried to help but annoyed at the others for not helping him until I get behind the desk *arrghh*

Conservatory Bar & Brown Brother's Orange, Muscat & Flora

I braved myself tonight and give the dessert wine a go instead of swopping it with something else.

HUGE mistake ! I only drank less than half of the content on the glass and I was red as a boiled lobster !

And today, I'm coping it, scratching like a monkey the whole day in the office.....welcome to my world of alcohol allergy *sad*

Tropical Tonka Bean Pannacotta on Boysenberry & Finger Lime Infused Compote
w/ Crisp Almond Chocolate Biscotti

Originally I though I would get the standard pannacotta, but instead it was more of a pannacotta gateaux.
There was an alternate layer of very soft vanilla sponge and tonka bean pannacotta, it would have been perfect IF only it was sweet.

Both me and my cousin agreed that the cake was bland - like "Oops! I forgot to add sugar" bland. I suppose the dessert wine is already sweet, but having dessert that is not sweet is just wrong.

Gold dusted almond ; Layered cake

We couldn't taste the finger lime at all in the boysenberry compote, it just tasted like the berry.

The biscotti was quite nice though, chocolatey and super crispy.

Sheraton's Sugar Hit offering this year may be pleasing to the eyes but not to the taste buds :(

After having 7 Sugar Hits this year ( record for me !!), my favourite would have to be the one at Guylian and Shangri-La.

I hope next year's offerings would be more interesting ^_^

SIFF 2010 Sugar Hit - Azuma Kushiyaki, Sydney CBD

I think this would be the last Sugar Hit outing for this year (I think...).

When my friend made the booking, she was told that our group might be seated either in Azuma Patisserie next door or TonTon across from Azuma Kushiyaki. 

Because we were the first few groups that arrived, we got seated in the back area of the restaurant, didn't even know it existed until tonight :)

Sugar Cookies by i.eat.sweet

Look at what i.eat.sweet brought for us ! She just finished an order for some wedding cookies and we got the leftovers - yay for leftovers !!

At this particular wedding, the personalised sugar cookies acted as name plates as well as bomboniere. 

Girl in floral dress and boy in tuxedo and cap.

Drink Options

The 3 drinks option that you can choose from : Hennessy V.S.Cognac, Azuma's special blend Japanese green tea or Brown Brother's Orange, Muscat & Flora.

Azuma Kushiyaki - East Meets West 

Like last year, the Sugar Hit comes in a 2 tiered lacquer boxes. The concept is still the same as last year, western style desserts with eastern flavours.

Although, I must say, compared to last year's version of East Meets West this year's just doesn't deliver. 

The desserts were a bit on the heavy side compared to last year's more delicate and refined flavours. 

2009's Sugar Hit @ Azuma Kushiyaki
Belgian Chocolate Mousse ; Vanilla Cheesecake ; Green Tea Roll Cake w/ Chestnuts ;
Mochi w/ Kinako, Vanilla Ice Cream and Brown Sugar Syrup ; Nori Langue de Chat

The previous year's Sugar Hit had much more impact in terms of flavour combinations and creativity, which is why it was the most popular Sugar Hit last year. It was so popular that they actually extended the offer into November.

Anyway, back to this year's sweets :

Vanilla Pannacotta w/ Strawberry Coulis
Belgian Chocolate Mousse Cake w/ Raspberry Centre & Freeze Dried Raspberry Flakes

The vanilla pannacotta was delicious, delicate yet creamy topped with not too sweet strawberry coulis.

The chocolate mousse was equally good, the mousse has a tight crumb texture and had a lovely dark chocolate flavour. At the base of the cup you'll find a chunk of sponge cake and the freeze dried raspberry was refreshing.

Premium Matcha Ganache Tart ; Almond Financier ;
Orange >_< Macaron ; Wasabi Ganache Tart

The tart bases were unfortunately quite thick and dense not as buttery and crumbly as it should be. The matcha ganache filling was good as it was not too sweet, although it was pasty and gummy.

The wasabi ganache tart was very odd......all of us but one just couldn't eat more than a bite or two of it. The taste of the wasabi was so strong that it just ruined the whole tart, and this is coming from someone who loves wasabi and wasabi Kit Kat.

My friend who had the cognac as her drink commented that the combination of wasabi ganache tart and the cognac is like a battle of the flavours in the mouth - it just doesn't work at all.
I got an orange macaron who looked like it needed a chin implant since I accidentaly crushed it while transferring it back from the "photoshoot" below into the box *oopsie*

Emoticons Macarons

The macarons were surprisingly small, no bigger than a 50cents coin. Nonetheless, they are super kawaii >o<

First time ever I couldn't finish my desserts *the shock and horror !* 

Left the one bite off wasabi ganache tart and half of the pannacotta, the later is because I started to feel sugar overdosed.

So what do I have to fix the OD ?

Bukkake Udon w/ Yamato Imo & Zansai

Mappen at 10.00pm is good.....mmmmm....

SIFF 2010 Sugar Hit - Bacco Chifley Plaza, Sydney CBD

Bacco Sugar Hit

After dinner at Bilson's, me and my friend agreed that we can still fit another round of sugar hit :)

Bacco's Sugar Hit has been on my list since I saw Sugarpuffi's post on it and it was only a short stroll to the Chifley Plaza.

We didn't have a reservation since it was unplanned, but it was not an issue and we were seated straight away. 

I didn't have a chance to request a substitute for the dessert wine as the next time the waiter returned he placed 2 glasses of Brown Brother's Orange Muscat & Flora on the table. 

So me and my friend who can't drink alcohol had no choice but to just have a sip of it. 

Luckily we just had our coffee & tea right at Bilson's.

Chocolate Tasting Plate

The tasting plate consist of 3 different chocolate desserts , a tart, a gateaux and a macaron.

Glacé Apricot & Milk Chocolate Ganache Tart ; Berry Chocolate Fudge ; Gianduja Macaron

The berry chocolate fudge gateaux tasted a bit stale and it was very dry, very dissapointing. 

The gianduja macaron was good, crisp and chewy with a delicious gianduja ganache.

The tart....well.....

!!!!

Excuse me...but what happened to half of the tart ??  To add to it, it was poorly disguised with some mint !

It would be nice if they explained why are we being served only half of the tart rather than just leaving the platter on the table for us to discover ourselves. 

The pastry was a bit hard as well, we couldn't cut through it. The milk chocolate ganache was nice, not to sweet and worked well with the apricot, though I found it too gelled.

I'm sorry to say but out of all the Sugar Hits that I've been to this year, this had to be the most disappointing one. 

Which was a surprise since I've always liked Bacco's cakes, tarts, etc...so I don't know what happened.

The service was pretty much non existent as well that night, very different to the others where the service was great.

I end up canceling the high tea reservation I had for the end of the week as I am not risking wasting  $45 if it is going to be as inconsistent as their sugar hit.

SIFF 2010 Sugar Hit - Shangri-La Hotel Lobby Lounge, The Rocks

Lobby Lounge @ Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney

Time for another Sugar Hit after 48hours of detox !! Original plan was to hit both Guylian & Shangri-La one after another on Monday night, but the later had to be rescheduled as the event was not offered on public holiday.

Aren't we glad it got re-scheduled *phewww*

Drinks to choose from
Hennessy V.S Cognac ; Brown Brothers Cienna

Non - Alcoholic
Skim Cappuccino & Green Tea

We were served a bowl of mixed nuts & rice crackers to snack on with our drinks while we wait for our desserts, which was good because the desserts took more than half hour to arrive ! 

A tad long, but quite understandable as the lounge was packed for the Sugar Hits, and there were 2 big groups of 10 when we were there. It appears that there was only one pastry chef that was preparing all the desserts, I feel for her...imagine the pressure...

But...the dessert was worth the wait....voila !! \^o^/

Black Forest Cocktail

A dessert cocktail, of course served in a martini glass complete with a paper umbrella decoration ROFL ! A gold umbrella at that, how lavish....

Now this has become my favourite of the Sugar Hits so far.

Deconstructing In Progress

It was too pretty that we didn't want to destroy it, actually...we don't know where to start hahahahaha !

First up was the chocolate "legs" followed by the delicious Chocolate Bon Bon...mmmm...

Underneath the bonbon was the cherries macerated in Kirsch on top of chocolate cream. The net of chocolate ring encasing them was pretty, and hard to break too, had to do a few hard rap to crack it hehehehe.

Then you reach the disc of chocolate ( another few hard rap was required here) and underneath it is a layer of of cocoa sponge soaked in syrup. Last but not least, the final layer, a soft and creamy vanilla pannacotta.

Loved it !! So many different flavours and textures in the one glass. It may look very decadent but it was surprisingly easy to eat and didn't leave us feeling sugar overdosed by the end of it.

Another one for the chocaholics I'd say :)

Oh, and why not have some fun with the gold paper brollies ^_^

Here are some ideas that we came up with that night....

Pretty beside your BlackBerry ; Pretty on your hair (pixelated for privacy reason LOL) ; Pretty in a vase

It appears that this Sugar Hit at Shangri-La is one of the more popular one, so make sure you make a reservation ahead of time.

Lobby Lounge
Shangri-La Hotel
176 Cumberland Street
SYDNEY   NSW 2000
(02) 9250 6123

SIFF 2010 Sugar Hit - Monkey Magic, Surry Hills

Perhaps I'm getting old, but 3 Sugar Hits in 4 days is too much, I'm on dessert overdose and I do not want to see another so soon.

In saying that, I'm booked in for another hit tonight LOL 

Just hoping that a 48hours break would be enough to reset my sweets appetite.

So, the 3rd Sugar Hit this year is at Monkey Magic, a Japanese/Western fusion restaurant in Surry Hills.

Brown Brothers "Patricia" ; Choya Plum Wine

There were 3 alcoholic beverages to choose from to accompany your dessert, a Brown Brothers "Patricia" Late Harversted Riesling (King Valley, VIC), Choya Plum Wine (Osaka, Japan) or Hennessy VS (Cognac, France).

I had a sip of the "Patricia", it has a fresh and sweet stoned fruit (peach or apricot ?) and honey aroma. 

Pot of Green Tea

Tonight I swopped mine with green tea. I was actually expecting to be served matcha, but got an ordinary green tea instead. The pot of tea comes with a matcha white chocolate coated almond slivers, which has started to melt due to its close proximity to the hot teapot :P

Black Sesame Creme Caramel

The creamy, nutty black sesame creme caramel was served with red wine poached pear wedges, a scoop of coconut ice cream topped with cracked pink peppercorn, interesting combination of spice and sweets :) A crispy sesame pastry stick lie resting on the creme caramel, a nice contrast of texture to the plate. 

Monkey Magic's Sugar Hit

Another one that looked deceivingly small on the picture posted on the SIFF website - it was huge !

The creme caramel was probably almost 4cm tall and 4cm wide, quite big for something so heavy and creamy. 

I was struggling again to finish the dessert...I was eating it ever so slowly and had to stop a couple of times to take a breath.

I stand sat defeated from Sugar Hit ....with a spoon in hand....

SIFF 2010 Sugar Hit - Guylian Belgian Chocolate Cafe, The Rocks

One day break and we are out again for a Sugar Hit, this time at Guylian Belgian Chocolate Cafe. We made our reservation at The Rocks branch but you can have it at the Circular Quay one as well.

I arrived too early so walked around to the nearby bookshop that opens very late (till 11pm). While walking back to the cafe, I spotted this in one of the tiny laneways. Perhaps it has always been there but I've never noticed :P

Suez Canal @ Night

Suez Canal is one of the laneways here at The Rocks, before a proper drain system was installed, rain water would pass through this lane down to George Street hence a canal. Back in the 19th century, this laneways is notorius for its gang activities, robberies and crime. Now of course it is safe albeit quite spooky actually...especially late at night....*uuuuuuooooooo (ghost sound)*

Anyway....that completes a quick info on the canal and let's return to the main reason we are here this late at night.

Brown Brothers "Cienna" Wine ; Cappuccino

Unlike previous years Sugar Hit where we have only an option of Brown Brothers "Orange & Muscat" with the dessert, it seems like this year the wine at each participating restaurant varies.

Tonight we were served the Brown Brothers "Cienna", a ruby red sparkling dessert wine with berries aroma. I actually prefer this than the one that was served at Bel Mondo, this I found was lighter and more pleasant.
Of course I swopped mine with a cup of coffee instead, had a sip of the wine for research purposes only hehehehe :P

Grand Forest 

It was sooo pretty ! The "Grand Forest" is very grand indeed, it was shaped like a thick hockey puck but so much prettier and adorned with gold leaves.

Grand Forest is a baked chocolate cake layer with grand marnier strawberries, kirsch dark cherries and raspberry creme patissiere sandwich between 2 thin white chocolate discs and then sprayed with white chocolate.

It might looked like such a small dessert on a huge plate, do not let its appearance deceive you, we struggled to finish it as it was a very rich cake.

Grand Forest ; Strawberry Popping Candy Chocolate ; Caramel Honeycomb ; Dark Chocolate Stick

There were a lot other components to this dessert, the cake was resting on a moist biscuit with lovely ginger flavour secured with some chocolate ganache. Next to it is what to me tasted like a caramel honeycomb, it has a lightly aerated texture but melts instantly in your mouth, it was very good. The strawberry popping candy chocolate unfortunately didn't have much popping action :( I only got one single pop *sad*. Then to top it off, a stick of smooth dark chocolate with some bits on it, sea salt ?

The layers of Grand Forest

The verdict : 2 thumbs up !! The cake was really moist and tasted just like Black Forest, but with a twist :) It was fun eating the different things on the plate , it is definitely a dessert for chocoholics.

But, try not to go there straight after dinner as it is a very rich and filling dessert.

SIFF 2010 Sugar Hit - Bel Mondo, The Rocks

The first of many Sugar Hits this year is at Bel Mondo, a Mod-Oz / Italian / Mediterranean located at The Rocks' Gloucester Walk.

My fellow sugar hitters was fashionably late for 20minutes, while waiting for them outside in the dark and cold, a group of The Rocks Ghost Tour passed by. 

The thought of just joining the tour came across, might as well be in a group of ghost hunters rather than bumping into one all alone right ? 

It was getting spookier waiting all alone outside at 9.20pm, so I went inside and bumped into a friend with her hubby having their Sugar Hits as well.

They did mention they are coming here as well the same night as us, I totally forgot about that ! *DOH!*

The Sugar Hit is served as the bar, as you come in, just let the bartender know that you are there for Sugar Hits and he will sit you somewhere around the bar lounge area. Which turns out to be a tad uncomfortable as the table were lower than the chairs so we have to rest the plate on our laps to eat it. Not so easy when it's a plated dessert.

Brown Brothers "Sticky" Dessert Wine ; Hot Chocolate

As with any Sugar Hits events, you get a glass of Brown Brother's dessert wine with your plate of dessert. I cannot recall what was the actual name of the wine, but I kept hearing "sticky" at every mention of the wine.

It was quite funny when I told the bartender that I'd like a hot chocolate instead of the wine, he didn't want to give it to me straight away LOL.

He insisted that I gave the wine a try first so I was given a glass with a little bit of wine to taste. The wine itself was quite pleasant, sweet and has clean palate, the problem is I'm allergic hahahahaha.

After I told him that, he gave in and said will make a hot chocolate for me with "something special" - oh dear.... -__-;

If you want to see what was the "something special" that the cheeky bartender whipped up for me, click here - some might find it offensive, so proceed at your own risk ^_^

Medjool Date, Poached Pear, Hazelnut Praline Ice cream, Spiced French Toast w/ Butterscotch Sauce

The medjool date was presented as a rectangular sticky paste and formed the base of the other 3 components. The poached pear was nicely done, but the best part would be the french toast & the ice cream. The french toast is made out of a square of buttery brioche, pan fried until till crispy on the outside. I personally would have liked it better if I just had the ice cream and french toast as I was never fond of dates :P Except sticky date puddings where I can't pick or left them out I suppose.

I gave my strip of dates for my friend to polish off :)

This Sugar Hit outing turned out to be a night of fun and laughter, thanks to the cheeky bartender !

He was buzzing around like a busy bee , attentive but made sarcastic but funny remarks now and then. 

Whatever he is having, we want it too ! LOL

All of Sugar Hits for the SIFF 2010 cost $20, which include the dessert and a glass of Brown Brothers Dessert wine ( can be substituted for non-alcoholic drinks ).
Click HERE for a list of restaurants participating in the Sugar Hits events this year.