Today we had a far more relaxed start to the day. My gorgeous guy and I slept in, Kerry watched her trio of Sunday morning TV shows - Insiders (I watched the latter part of it with her), Inside Business, and Offsiders, and somewhere about 11am, we headed out to find a patisserie high on Kerry's Sydney Wish List - Patisse. It was supposed to be somewhere in the Danks Street, Waterloo food precinct but the website was missing the exact street number, so we grabbed a parking spot where we could find one (it's always a challenge) and we headed out across the street to go exploring.
Turns out we didn't have to go far. Patisse, it's windows filled with gingerbread houses with beret-wearing snowman in their front yards, was on the first corner across the street. The signs weren't all that obvious and it was only because my guy wanted to check out said gingerbread houses (his sister was a chef and makes them every year) that we paid much attention to the large brick building at all.
Inside the place was an absolute delight. It is decorated with macaroon trees, and Christmas trees festooned with macaroon-filled baubles, and the atmosphere was bright, shiny and friendly. The people behind the counter were generous and happy to talk, and even brought out replacement coffees for us when the first ones arrived during the food service, and not before. The food itself was beyond divine - the eggs benedict, I am told by my guy and Kerry were delicious (they used real ham!), my mushroom and goats cheese on sourdough bread superlative, and the patisseries were varied and suffused with the most amazing flavours. We could choose from five different flavours of meringue (hard on the outside, gooey soft inside - lavender, pistachio, apricot were three of the flavours I remember), salted caramel eclairs, lime and green tea cheesecake, macaroons (or 'macaroons' as the French term them) and so much more. I even tweeted how awesomely delicious these sugary treats were, and the patisserie responded within an hour which was damn fine customer service.
This is a fantastic discovery, and I have no doubt all of us will be back, with Fahmi too no doubt, for more food and even a cooking class or two...
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| Lime and green tea cheesecake |
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| Rosewater & pistachio cake |
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| Lavender meringue |
Full up to pussy's bow with sugary treats, we headed off to get some kulcha at the Art Gallery of NSW. We had tickets to the Picasso exhibition and it was so worth going to see. He was an amazing man, prodigiously talented, with a one-of-a-kind eye for colour, shape and perspective. He was also very intelligent, using his art to make all sort of pith statements on the state of society. I loved every last moment of the exhibition as did my gorgeous who loves anyone who can create both paintings and sculpture, and sometimes, merge the two.
It was a wonderful afternoon.
Back home, and we finished off the most perfect of weekends with a mostly healthy dinner - we each had a slice of the birthday cake from the night before... as if we couldn't! - of chicken tenderloins cooked in lemon pepper seasoning before we took Kerry to the airport and bid her a sad farewell.
I loved having her here for my birthday and it was the loveliest gift I could have got from a person who is my dearest and closest friend, and always knows just how to make something already special even more special. Thank you my wonderful special friend.
Labels: Kerry Ward, my beautiful guy, My birthday, Patisse, Picasso
