Coffee and Cake Saturday #2

Saturday again.. wow it rolls around quick.. but Im not complaining :-). 
As the title said its coffee and cake saturday Yahoo! My carpet needs vacuuming, my bathroom is a bomb site and there is a screwdriver doubling as a doorknob on the door of my bedroom and who cares? Not I! Priorities have to be maintained and that priority is seeking Cake..Todays mission was to maybe find a different cafe in Hokitika to indulge our sweet sides, but alas it was not to be. After visiting every cafe and nearly getting sideways by Fat Pipi's for a whitebait pizza, it was back to Cafe de Paris.
Cafe de Paris is one of the last bastions of originality in an otherwise bland cake landscape, when everyone else has lolly cake, caramel slice and tray cake most likely brought from a wholesale distributor, Cafe de Paris makes all its own goodies, and its never the same twice.
Todays offerings were: an exceedly dense looking chocolate cake (definately a contender!),
pecan pie, carrot cake (ohh I love carrot cake), raspberry frangipani tart and a slice that I forget the name of right now.
BombGuy went straight for the pecan pie almost without hesitation, while I dithered over chocolate or carrot cake.  I had decided on choc when a high end tour guide added his two cents worth about the awesomeness of the carrot.. Damn! Decision rendered void! Ok so I went with the carrot cake.. with cream, thank you!
The cake and pie arrived shortly, quickly followed by our flat whites (always consistantly good at this establishment) and both were extremely good ... BombGuy dug in to his pecan pie with gusto and was shortly to be seen grinning foolishly as pure sugar and butter cast their spell on his taste buds and blood sugar system. I tried a bite and it was rich, caramelly and nutty with a good crisp crust..in all honesty though, way to rich for this kid.
Ok Carrot Cake.. mmm perfect mix of spices, plenty of walnuts carrot and fruit. The texture was slightly on the dry side but i'll take that over an oily grease trap cake any day.  The icing was perfect, just enough to enhance the cake without killing the flavour with sugar. Only complaint here? Not enough cream.. it only made it half way through the cake. Never mind I'll ask for extra next time :-)

Pecan Pie





Carrot Cake

So Coffee quaffed and Cake scoffed it was off round the corner to the West Coast Wine Bar, An awesome little spot, but that is for another blog.

Verdict: BombGuy rates the Pecan Pie a solid 4/5

               I rate the Carrot Cake 3.5/5

Cheers

The Brunette

Chardonnay and Greymouth Street Races

Inside everyone lurks a subculture - I mean were you once a punk, a goth, a bogan, a complete geek or someone your parents would tell you not to go out with? admit it, somewhere deep down inside you belong to a subculture, BombGuy and I are (not very well disguised) petrolheads.  So we took our once a year journey down "if only I had bigger balls and more cash"  lane and trotted off to Greymouh Street Races.  As the commentator is fond of saying its one of only five events of its kind in the world and Oh My God it ROCKS... tight corners, imminent "get offs", Cops weeping into their coffee as bikes of all shapes and sizes go hurtling past on town streets at frightening speed. This year was no exception. There was definately not as many people due to certain natural and not so natural disasters, but I'm pretty sure the bikes were faster, the riders more insane and the crowd more emphatic than the last few years.

 BombGuy and I would just like to say big ups to the Sun for blessing us with its presence, The Doo Duck Inn for awesome spectator snacks and Ryan Hampton on his CBR1000RR and his impressive clean up in the formula 1 and formula Greymouth divisions and Toby Summers on Bike 777, YZF450, in the super motards.. these guys were untouchable and slightly insane :-)  Special thanks and much love to the guy who had the huge off at the round-about in the second round of the F1'S, hope it doesnt hurt too much.. We are in awe of your skill!!

Starting Grid - Formula Greymouth 2011

So all of that said, its still a long weekend, the rugby world cup final looms (in 2 hours) so its time to bust out a drink.. Goldridge 2009 Gisbourne Chardonnay anyone?? Oh why not. 

We've never had this before I myself prefer chardonnay but BombGuy is a staunch supporter of reisling and sauvignon blanc..we've never come to blows over it but eyebrows have definately been knitted.

So the chardonnay.. got a bronze at the nz international wine show, Label says things about ripe apricots, crisp grapefruit, butterscotch and toasty oak.. Great sounds good. I dont know about you but I dont go for this unoaked chardonnay bizzo.. Chardonnay should be big, fat, and uncomparably rich, Chardonnay is not a wimp, if you want light go find a pinot gris.
This Chordonnay .. you couldnt spread the buttery-ness on toast but its actually quite nice.  Its very approachable there are definately apricots and peaches, a slight honey and a butter on the finish, showing a malolactic fermentation. Its not hideously dry or sweet and would pair really well with chicken apricot pizza or a creamy pasta or seafood, very tasty. I wouldnt cellar it, its probably only premiem good for another year.  Go buy some and get it down you, We did :-)

Verdict: Street Races 5/5
 Chardonnay  4/5

Cheers,
The Brunette.

Cheesecake

Well Saturday is cake and coffee day and another break from tradition (BombGuy and I prefer cake at Cafe de Paris in Hokitika) but as we were meeting friends it was off to the Bonzai in Greymouth for this once a week assault on our insulin system.  Ok so the Bonzai definately needs to sort out its web site and really dated interior but they do great cake that you just can not get anywhere else in Greymouth and add to that the prices are very inexpensive its a boon for the cake loving individual.

BombGuy and I stared into the cabinet and the usual discussion insued.. what are you having, what are youuu having????  We both went for cheesecake (we loove cheesecake, very high on our must eat list). In this instant it was a non baked number topped with a hearty layer of chocolate and ganache decoration on your classic malt biscuit base.  We opted in on the whipped cream (nom nom!) and well the verdict?  Absolutely perfect for a basic classic cheesecake. Nice creamy texture, with a slight lemon twang, biscuit base was just right for attacking with a spoon, no chainsaw required although chocolate was a wee bit too hard and caused the cake to explode sideways when attempting to insert a spoon. The portion size was just right, just enough to make you feel seedy (no breakfast) but not enough to send you into the starfish position wishing you eaten fruit instead.

We capped it off with a double shot flat white with caramel syrup, which in hindsight, was overkill but hey we only do this once a week!

So very nice basic cheesecake gets 4/5.

 Cheers,
The Brunette.

James Speights - deCIDERly good

Summer's coming, not that you can tell by looking out the window here in the murk capital of New Zealand. Its Labour Weekend and all over the country barbeques are being dusted of after a long winter of being ignored, sausages are quaking in fear of the incineration that lies ahead and bottles of booze are being opened in celebration of the summer to come.

The Supermarket beer chiller was pretty much empty last night when BombGuy and I rocked in with a friday night cider in mind. Long Weekend, Greymouth Street Races and the imminant Rugby World Cup Final had all taken their toll on Countdowns meagre stocks, so scoping around we spotted a small pile of Speights Cider lanquishing quietly in a bottom shelf, so the decision was made that we would break from our ususal and give it a try.

Verdict:  Well if the small pile of empty bottles lurking by the rubbish bin was anything to go by, which its not, It was really quite good. This was a pleasant surprise as we've tried quite a lot of cider and usually we've been disapointed and always fall back on our favourite when the need arises.

Crisp, clean and refreshing sum it up. Light and very drinkable, not too sweet and went well with the chinese I whipped up for tea.  Ours wasnt chilled and the flavour was really good, and well balanced, and if anything is going to give away a poor drink its not being chilled when its supposed to be will do it every time.

So 4.5/5 - Give it a go at your next Barbeque! Good work J. Speights :-)

Cheers,
The Brunette.