bistro cbd followed by cupcakes

Spring is the best time of year, I think, because the weather is brighter, the birds are singing and the flowers are out (great if you don’t have hay fever). It’s also when lots of friends have birthdays, so there are lots of opportunities for birthday lunches.

Such as when C. and I celebrated her birthday at Bistro CBD, in King St (CBD). It’s one of those ‘business lunch’ places that are filled (mostly) with blokes in suits. An upside of this is that these places usually have good service and are pretty quick if you have to get back to work.

Aside from the a la carte menu, they also have a ‘fixed rate feast’ where you can have 2 courses for $30 or 3 courses for $40 (available only at lunch). It’s excellent value, though naturally the course sizes are a bit smaller than the norm.

We both went for the ocean trout for starters. It was beautifully marinated with bits of cornichon and a piquant fennel and radicchio salad. My pork belly main was just right – right size, right crunchy skin, right moist meat. For dessert, we both had the tamarillo, which consisted of a poached fruit with matching sorbet. I thought the serving sizes were perfect, considering you probably wouldn’t want too much food before that afternoon meeting back at the office.

However…on the way back to said office, I passed by the Cupcake Bakery outlet underneath the Ivy complex in George St. So I thought I’d get some cakes to motivate my team. Well, everyone was certainly motivated! I (greedily) snaffled the red velvet cake mainly due to the little red icing love heart. The cake itself was a wonderful deep shade of red, but a bit dry. The overall voted winner was the tiramisu.

…Adventures in Auckland

I’ve just returned from a couple of days in Auckland, New Zealand. Frankly, though NZ is supposed to be a haven for the adventurous, I didn’t really do that much because I was there for work and spent most of my time in the office. The hotel I stayed it did have a bungy jump off its tower though.

It only takes 3 hours to get there from Sydney. Not bad except you have to endure the worst airline food. I had the ‘baked pasta’ which was olive green broccoli and cheese pasta. The best part of the meal was the bread roll. I ate it because I had to (we were arriving after 10pm). Why can’t they make up a bento box with some sushi rolls and katsu chicken or something? Not aussie enough, probably, though most people would gobble it up.


Because I was at work all day, I felt I had to take some pictures of the little bit of Auckland on the walk from the hotel to the office. Here it is. Also had lunch at a really nice place, Divan Café, which is in a laneway off Queen St (next to Louis Vuitton). The hotel left some complimentary chocolates because they thought we were return customers (we weren’t!).

Dinner on night 1 was at Merlot Wine Café in O’Connell St. When in NZ, have lamb. Lamb cutlets, which were delicious (no photo because it was too dark).

The 2nd night was at the Sky City Tower revolving restaurant. It sounds touristy, and it is, but the food was excellent, as was the view. Had NZ salmon, then ‘Valrhona guanaja chocolate curd’ cake & passionfruit sorbet to finish. Best meal so far.

On the flight home to Sydney, we got breakfast. It was pretty ordinary. I ate it because I was hungry.

When I got back to work, a kind colleague gave me a cupcake. So nice.

… what I made

I’ve wanted to do a cupcake decorating class ever since reading about it at lemonpi. So, after booking months in advance, I rolled up last week (together with 9 other ladies) to the Planet Cake course.
The lovely Amanda and Anna Maria showed us the intricacies of cutting icing and creating cute kids’ cupcakes that grownups would have no problem devouring as well. You have to work fast, though, and not just because the icing can harden before you finish with it – if you fall behind, you’ll miss out the details on the next cupcake design to be worked on.

My report card says that I am a bit slow at the decorating (it comes with practice), but I am very proficient at ganaching. Can I live with that? Sure.