Gelato Messina, Darlinghurst

Previously, I wrote about my brother B's birthday dinner at Ume Restaurant (link) and what's a birthday without a cake? Being only 17, the inner kid in him can't seem to get away from ice cream cakes. We had a couple of options to pick from, the ones from Baskin' Robins, Ben & Jerry's.. But we decided on Gelato Messina instead just because their gelato cakes are not decorated with cream. There's just something about the cream on cakes that really annoys me to death. Anyway, so we took a long slow walk to their Darlinghurst store to pick up a cake after looking it up their website (link).

Because B's birthday was ages ago in May, it was still autumn then and I managed to snap some photos of trees that are about to shed. Just gotta love autumn for the postcard-like photos #seriously.

We walked past this cafe on Palmer Street which caught my eye, loving the ceiling to floor glass panel doors #anotherseriouslymoment. 

We arrived at Gelato Messina and  met with their doors shut on us #boohoo, it was only after I googled their opening hours that we realized that they start at 12pm. So we got to walk around for a bit and decided on Forte' Cafe for some food, which I did a photolog on (link). 

Slightly before noon, we made our way back to Gelato Messina and hooray, they were opened! Pardon the nasty shots, I was in a hurry because I had to get myself to the airport before noon to meet with a long-time friend #badplanning. We actually looked up their website to see what sorta flavours of gelato cakes they offer and decided that we were to get one of their gelato cakes and one of their monoporzione. Seriously, we were spoilt for choices. The cakes looked so yummy, we wished we could have gotten all of them. But no, in our opinion their gelato cakes were pretty pricey, ranging from $20 to $90, while their monoporziones were slightly cheaper at about $10 each. 

The last I checked, they had new monoporzione flavours while the older ones had to go so you may not see the flavours that are featured here. I didn't managed to try all of the older flavours but I guess I'll never get that chance again. 

Two of their gelato cakes featured here - Dr Evil's Magic Mushroom (top) (link) and Tiramisu 'Smash) (bottom) (link). I reckon Dr Evil's Magic Mushroom is really a classic Gelato Messina cake, just look at how cute it is! It will definitely be talk of the town to be able to celebrate a birthday with this cake, but alas it was pretty pricey at $85. 

So we picked their Mini Me (I believe it was $9.90), which was the miniature version of Dr Evil's Magic Mushroom (unfortunately they don't sell Mini Me anymore) and a bigger Hazelnut Zucotto ($28) (link).

And nope, this isn't optical illusion. Our Mini Me came like it was toppling over and we didn't notice it till we decided to take it out for candle lighting. If you refer to the picture above, which displays some of their Mini Me, you can tell there are a couple which weren't standing very well. It was a pity really, it doesn't look as cute slouching and I'm not sure if that affected the taste of it. We didn't enjoy the Mini Me as much. The entire "cake" was made up of Dr Evil's gelato, with caramel and peanut butter cookie, also with a layer of flourless chocolate sponge cake to surround the gelato (refer to this link for a pictorial description of the cake). I felt the entire "cake" was a tad too bitter. There was nothing sweet about this cake, other than the popping candy crushed with biscuits. Despite it being a single serve, it was enough to share among the three of us just because we didn't quite like the overall taste of it. Nonetheless, it was interesting to have this Mini Me for phototaking.

We decided to have a bigger gelato cake as well because one Mini Me wasn't enough to justify as a birthday cake. We chose Hazelnut Zucotto ($28 for a small serve) which had a mixture of chocolate and hazelnut gelato (refer to this link for the pictorial description of the cake). This was amaaaazing! Despite it not being as fancy as the mushroom cake, this was indeed a better choice because of the combination of flavours and us wanting more. There are hazelnut gelato and gianduia gelato, which was a perfect match. It's like having chocolate with hazelnuts in it, who doesn't like that combination? The gelato was light enough that we didn't feel that guilty for already having so much food and of course, it left us wanting more. I highly recommend this, even though it doesn't have an outstanding appearance. 

We had another birthday celebration last month for K. Him being a big kid himself, he wanted to have ice cream cakes too and where else to get some but Gelato Messina!? We didn't wanna have too big a cake this time (also because we didn't have space in our freezer), so we picked two of their monos. It was also this time that we discovered they changed out their mono menu, so we were left to pick their newer flavours as much as we really wanted to try their older flavours, like Bitty Bitty. 

One of the mono that K picked was their Gula Melaka ($12), which had gula melaka (aka palm sugar) gelato, rosewater praline fudge, hazelnut feuilletine and raspberry gele (link). I was particularly attracted to the flavours of gula melaka and the hazelnut feuilletine. I imagined the sweetness within the gelato and the texture of the feuilletine, which sounds like perfect. But nay, it was far from it. The raspberry gele was way too sour that it doesn't balance with the sweetness of the palm sugar gelato - pity. We didn't enjoy this at all, despite it being a rather refreshing taste. And $12 for this tiny piece? Money is better spent elsewhere. 

Another interesting flavour we decided on was Pop Porn ($10) - wildflower honey gelato, gianduia gelato, dark chocolate fudge and caramelized popcorn. This one looked fancy on their website (link), but somehow it looked really different from what we had even though ours gave way a little. The spilling chocolate fudge wasn't meant to happen but it did, which made it look ugly as a cake. Oh well. 

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I like the soft texture of this cake, which resembles slightly like a fondant. You pierce a spoon or fork into it and the chocolate innard just spills out like no one's business. There are caramelized popcorns at the base of the mono as well, which makes it difficult to cut through. Unfortunately, the honey in the wildflower honey gelato was so faint that I couldn't even detect any honey in it. Everything about Pop Porn was sorta ruined by the chocolate fudge because of its bitterness. 

If there is one thing I am allowed to pick on, I would definitely say the packaging. No dry ice was given to ensure that the cake doesn't wither. You'd have to bring your own cooler bag if you're walking, or.. just bring a cooler bag no matter what or you'll end up in a sorry state like we did. It's also a pity that the monos are becoming increasingly pricey for their size. I may end up buying the gelato cakes rather than the monos the next time, but I don't think I can resist the idea of trying more flavours rather than having more quantity of something. 

Gelato Messina (website)

Shop 1/241 Victoria Street

Darlinghurst NSW 2010

Opening times - Sun-Thu: 12pm to 11pm / Fri-Sat: 12pm to 11.30pm

The French House, Waterloo

I've been feeling like a parent since the beginning of this year. My brother B is here in Sydney for school and I became his guardian. I remember bringing him to school for orientation on the first day and it was overwhelming. All the other parents who attended the orientation were real parents, whereas I was just a fake and probably looked like one of them (the students). I just couldn't wait to leave the school before I was mistaken to be one of the students #phew.

My duty as a guardian included collecting the result report. Hence, I had to make a trip down to the school and also had the chance to walk around Waterloo area. We were in search of a good cafe where we can sit, chat and eat. We walked passed The French House, which looked really fancy and classy and decided this is it. The interior was all Parisian like, with antique-like seats and round wooden tables. You have to order at the register, so if you meet a brunch/lunch crowd then you gotta be prepared to be standing for quite a bit.

My chamomile tea came in this metal serving tray! Somehow, I felt like Belle from Beauty and the Beast all of the sudden, except that my teapot and tea cups can't sing and dance around. However, that entire tray was way too huge for our mini round tables, despite having two stacked together. 

We ordered french toast, which was served with bananas and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Unfortunately, the french toasts were really bland even though the choice of bread was a perfect one to make french toasts. Also, it would have been heaps better if the bananas were caramelized rather than served as is. 

It was really difficult to decide what else to have because the menu was only available at the register. When it gets to your turn, you will have the cashier waiting for your order and the line behind you waiting to order so it is stresses quite a bit. A regrettable decision was to have their chocolate croissant.  

Despite the pastry being really thick, it will be perfectly fine if there was sufficient amount of chocolate innards to go along. But no. Looking at the photo below, you can already tell we didn't enjoy this very much. 

The fruit and chocolate tarts they have on display looked really yummy, but we didn't make it to have some of them mostly because we were not satisfied with what we had. Apart from the ordering system, the food also took ages to come. Perhaps, if we ever walk by The French House again we'll have their tarts to takeaway, but otherwise, we probably wouldn't return. 

The French House (urbanspoon)
1 Danks Street
Waterloo NSW 2017