Posted by kathryn in Blogging

On the second to last night of the GFM Night Noodle Markets I met up with a group of other Sydney bloggers: Grab Your Fork, Morsels&Musings, Cucina Rebecca, Initiales JB, PiCkLes PeRks, Jenius and Sweet Little Treat. It was lovely to put names to faces . . . or should I say blog names to fully-rounded, real-live human beings. It was also fun being with a group of people who don’t think twice about photographing their food and are probably more obsessed with food than I am.

After the noodle markets we headed over to the Sofitel for a Sugar Hit . While I don’t normally blog about desserts, I’m not adverse to the the odd cakey thing. Sugar Hits are a GFM invention: 10 Sydney hotels offering a dessert plate and glass of dessert wine or whisky for $15. It’s a lovely way to round-off an evening.

And the Sofitel’s Sugar Hit is a good one – white chocolate creme brulee; a Valrhona dark chocolate praline nugget and milk chocolate mousse topped with raspberries in a shot glass. I particularly liked the latter combination, with the sharpness of the berries balancing the richness of the chocolate.

The Sugar Hits have become popular in the last few years. At 9.00pm, on the dot, the hotel lounge changed from it’s normal half-empty state, to being chock-a-block full of people all demanding their sugar hit. This means that reservations are a good idea. It also means that the desserts are not made fresh. All the plates are made earlier in the day and then refrigerated, ready for the onslaught of people at 9.00pm – in fact two of our party saw them being wheeled out, on huge layered trolleys. I do understand the expedience of this – after all it’s logistically difficult to get fresh dessert plates out to a mass of people, at the same time. However, bear in mind that dishes like creme brulee suffer when they’re not fresh – the sugar topping becomes soft and soggy during refrigeration.

It’s still good value and worthwhile making a trip to one of the Sugar Hit venues during Good Food Month.

For more about Good Food Month, have a look at Cucina Rebecca’s weekly round-up.

21 October, 2006