Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio, Melbourne

Burch & Purchese is an amazing shop tucked away discreetly in Chapel Street, not far from the Toorak Road intersection. They sell cakes, individual dessert concoctions and a range of other products like chocolate, jams, and much more. They also have a pretty incredible wall full of jars of all sorts of ingredients that they use in their dishes, and an open kitchen where you can see creations in progress.

We shared three stunning desserts. First was the 'Rhubarb, apple, crumble, cheesecake'. The desserts are packed into boxes, and they thoughtfully include a piece of paper that lists the components of each dessert. This one has caramelised apple, custard cheesecake, malted walnut crumble, rhubarb compote jelly. I don't recall finding any apple, but it was a rather nice cheesecake.



Next up is 'Raspberry, white choc, honey, lychee', with components of white chocolate and raspberry mousse, raspberry and lychee jelly, muesli and honey nut sponge, raspberry and hibiscus jam, honey, lychee syrup, exaggerated raspberry cream, white chocolate velvet spray.



This one had heaps of components, and they all added up to a pretty tasty dish! Here's a shot of the innards. The mousse was rather lovely but I found myself wishing that there was a bit less mousse and a bit more of the rest. The best part were the lychee pieces - one of my favourite fruits.



Finally, we had the 'Passionfruit, chocolate, caramel'. Components are chocolate shortbread, passionfruit curd, passionfruit salted caramel, dark chocolate dome, dark chocolate jelly, toasted macadamia, passionfruit marshmallow, milk chocolate velvet spray.



And here's the innards shot. Damn, this was good - absolutely my favourite of the three. The caramel, curd and jelly within the dome were AMAZING.



Here's a glimpse at some of the other desserts on offer. It was really hard choosing just three!



I definitely want to go back to try more (and maybe get another of the passionfruit, chocolate, caramel!).



We got a few goodies to take home with us. I got the raspberry and pistachio chocolate fudge and a jar containing half chocolate hazelnut spread and half spicy pineapple jam.



Burch and Purchese website. They also have a blog!

Cumulus Inc., Melbourne

It's been a little while since my last post - oops! Life has been pretty busy, but I enjoyed a brief getaway to Melbourne recently. Lots of delicious food was eaten - posts to come - and I knocked another restaurant off my wishlist: Cumulus Inc.

We were seated at the bar which overlooks the kitchen - it was a great spot to watch all the action! We were very impressed with how calm and organised the kitchen is. The staff conversations were entertaining at times!

We enjoyed a bottle of white wine with dinner, with is unfortunately not listed on the restaurant's website... drat! All I recall is that it was from a Coal Valley vineyard.

We were served complimentary bread which was fantastic - it seemed like the crust had been lightly fried. Very moreish!

We started with the kitchen charcuterie selection ($26). It was brilliant, and very good value. Clockwise from top is a fennel-laced salami, wagyu bresaola topped with beetroot and horseradish, jamon, bread, duck terrine and a rabbit rillette in the center. EVERYTHING was tasty, but my favourite was definitely the rillette.



The mustard crumbed pig's tail, celeriac remoulade and caperberries ($28) turned up next. This is the first time I'd tried pigs tails, and they were pretty good! The meat was incredibly juicy and cooked to perfection. I wasn't so keen on the remoulade though - it was tangy and rich. It would have been nicer to have something light and fresh to offset the richness of the crumbed tails.

We also ordered the cracked wheat and freekeh salad with preserved lemon, barberries and almonds ($12). It doesn't look like a big bowl in this picture but it was a very generous serving, and tasted great - I did avoid the dollop of somewhat-tangy dressing though (because of the previous dish!).

We were hoping to order another dish on the menu that was out of stock that night, so instead we were offered a duck and leek special (I think it was $39). Duck is a favourite meat so getting it was a no-brainer! It was again cooked perfectly.



I'd hoped to have enough room to try the infamous lemon curd madeleines for dessert, but we were stuffed! Next time...

Website.