Baclava Ice-Cream at Mesa Johnston Street Fitzroy

On Saturday night we had a delicious dinner at Mesa in Johnston Street Fitzroy.  For starters we enjoyed saganaki, soft bread, chargrilled beef rissoles, zucchini fritters and calamari.  For main I had the moussaka (divine) and for dessert, the boss and I ate baclava ice-cream (I'm watching my sugar these days).  It was excellent, but I realised how sweet honey is.  I haven't eaten honey for months and the sweetness hit me with surprising ferocity.  The nuts in pastry were also very rich, but the creamy ice-cream was delightful. Yum 9/10

Hall's Gap, Grampians Victoria

We ventured out to Coola's ice-creamery in Hall's Gap on the weekend.  They had home made cones and Norgen Vaas ice-cream. I tried the ginger (nice big chunks of ginger in a creamy ice-cream) and passionfruit (real pips and sauce swirled through the ice-cream).

My other half had boysenberry and mango.

 

 

Lunch at Wen & Ware in Ballarat was very nice.  Especially the passionfruit fizzy drink and cake!

 

 

 

Yum!

 

Noerdenfine, Torquay

We discovered a wonderful artisan ice-creamery on Bell Street Torquay over the weekend.  I tried Cherry Ripe (excellent fine chocolate pieces, coconut and real cherry) and passionfruit (great flavour with real passionfruit pips) in a nut-encrusted chocolate dipped waffle cone.  The other half tried jaffa and cherry ripe.  He was not sure if the jaffa was more gelato style (his taste buds were exhausted after a long weekend of very rich food).  He thought the cone was fantastic.

The shop is opposite the caravan park and I couldn't help wondering if a Scandanavian backpacker came to Torquay, fell in love and decided to open an ice-creamery so they could stay.

This was probably the ice cream highlight of my summer holiday.  We also visited Jock's in Middle Park and I was very impressed by his passionfruit flavour as well as the coconut lime.  Unfortunately I ate it too quickly to take a photo.

Federal Diner, Auckland

The Federal Diner is opposite Sky City in Auckland.  However it is a world away from a casino.  It is like stepping back in time to an American diner... The staff are dressed in quirky uniforms and the decor is fantastic.  I enjoyed the NY steak for dinner one night and a rueben sandwich for lunch another day.  Both were delicious and reasonably priced.

Auckland desserts at the Heritage

The winter has been a little quiet for ice cream.  However now that spring has sprung, I am back on the ice cream bandwagon.

On a recent trip to Auckland I had a couple of good desserts at my hotel.  The Heritage doesn't have much ambience in the dining room, but they make an effort with the food and service:

Sticky date pudding with vanilla ice cream

Flourless orange cake with vanilla icecream:

Breakfast at the Deli Counter, 211 Queen Street Melbourne

I read about a new cafe in the Epicure this week and so we decided to try it for breakfast.  It has a rustic charm with friendly staff.  Downstairs there are benches to sit by the window and upstairs there are larger tables for groups.

We all had the smashed avocado with feta, chilli, lemon and poached eggs on a light crisp of turkish bread.  It was served on a glass plate and tasted absolutely superb.

Messina moves to Melbourne

We walked to Smith Street Fitzroy to try Messina's new store.  It was fantastic and even nicer than the Sydney shop, because there is more space to sit.

Mr Critic had a double scoop "East Meets West" (lane, pistachio, with fig and date jam, a little sour and yoghurt-like) and Giandua (hazelnut and chocolate):

I had the rosewater and pistachio (light and nutty... delicious):