Review: Awana Malaysian restaurant, 85 Sloane Square, London

There are some restaurants that you go to expecting fairly ho-hum desserts. Awana restaurant was one of these. But after ‘ooh’ing and ‘ahh’ing over the unique flavours in the savoury dishes, I was wowed by both of their sweet menus.

The cocktails not only had cute names like ‘passion hedgehog’ and ‘goodbye my love’, but they came in unique cocktails glasses – my ‘blooming hibiscus’ with gin, lychee juice, lime juice and a yummy hibiscus flower, came in an ice cream cone style glass that sat inside a little bowl of ice. And it tasted amazing (anything with lychees and hibiscus flowers: my two favourite things, has me won over in a second though).

The dessert we chose – ‘kuih campur’ (desserts to share) – came out on a little tray looking like pretty little splotches of colour on an artist’s pallete. There were two of each mini pancakes, cakes and sorbets – one for each of us to try. Even Steve, who doesn’t usually like Malaysian desserts, was impressed. I loved the coconut-filled pancake, but the clear winners were the sorbets. I don’t normally rate sorbets, but these were bizarre and amazing at the same time. Who would have thought chilli and lemongrass could work as a sweet sorbet? Truly inspired!

My dessert rating: 8 out of 10.

http://www.awana.co.uk/

 

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Review: Chocolate cupcake from Ella’s Bakehouse stall at Covent Garden market

When I spied this beautiful cupcake at the Covent Garden markets one weekend, it was love at first sight. He was tall (icing-wise), dark and very handsome. And he even came with bling (well, edible purplely glitter on top). I left my husband at the oyster stall and made a beeline for him straight away.

But it was all a facade – as soon as we locked lips, I discovered he was actually a dull, vanilla cupcake in disguise! Even his gorgeous spirally icing top was a bit of a waste of dessert stomach space – it was a bit hard, and not as gooey and deliciously chocolately as I’d pictured in my vision on the way to the stall.

My dessert rating: 3 out of 10.

www.ellasbakehouse.com

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Review: Tiramisu at Barcelona Tapas restaurant, St Botolph St, London

Any restaurant where the maitre d’ meets you a few streets away to lead you to his restaurant must be special. And the tapas we ate at Barcelona Tapas restaurant was – it’s just a shame our dessert experience wasn’t.

After circling the block enough times to pass a Jack the Ripper tour group at least three times, we still couldn’t find the restaurant. Luckily we were saved by a phone call from the maitre d’ who came and found us. “We’re not on GPS maps – it’s the Jack the Ripper street,” he said. Hmm … an ominous start to the night.

After being lost with empty bellies and full bladders, we probably would’ve been happy with anything, but the meal was better than your average tapas and so was the price thanks to our friend’s Taste London card which got us 50 per cent off.

When it came to dessert time, I probably should’ve known better than to order tiramisu in a Spanish restaurant, but it was the only dessert that looked OK in a dessert desert of 80s looking icecream-filled lemons, pineapples or coconuts. My friend Chris best described my tiramisu after tasting it as “moderate”.

It was a bit like eating a giant circle of sweetened mascarpone sprinkled with cocoa powder – I think someone forgot to tell the chef that tiramisu has sponge in it! It also came with a gooseberry on top of a big dollop of cream which I didn’t touch, but my friends said tasted like UHT milk. My friend Ems got quite excited about it, saying it reminded her of her Nan! Hmm, not quite sure that’s a good thing food-wise.

Gooseberry virgin Chris tried the gooseberry and his screwed up face said it all. Maybe it was just a particularly sour one, but Chris was convinced that the papery gooseberry leaves would taste better and even chowed down on one just to prove his point.

My dessert rating: 5 out of 10.

http://www.barcelona-tapas.com/locations_EC3A7DT_E.htm

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Welcome to my wonderful world of desserts

What better time to bring my little blog to life than National Dessert Month? OK, so it’s only in the US, but since desserts are a cause worthy of a global, month-long party, I’m celebrating the month here in the UK too.

If only I’d known earlier that this week is also UK Chocolate Week (http://chocolate-week.co.uk/index.php/site/events), I could have added it to my celebrations too. Alas, I think I’ll have to wait for next year’s event as my eating agenda is full for the next few days!

In the mean time, you can read some of my dessert reviews.

Bye until next time sweet tooths and remember: there’s always room for dessert! I’ll leave you with a random (and a little bit grim) dessert quote I found during my googling adventures the other day.

“Seize the moment: think of all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart” – Erma Bombeck, American writer.

~ M

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