All things Italian
I think the Buffalo Mozzarella with Truss Tomatoes at Cafe Sopra is probably one of the most Italian dishes I've ever seen — it's basically the Italian flag colours beautifully stacked. When I ordered it I thought it would be quite a boring salad ie how good can cheese and tomato be right, but everything tasted so fresh and it was substantial enough in size to share. When I first visited Cafe Sopra I saw another table order the Arancini which were stacked up like a pyramid and thought to myself, now that would make a cool food photo — unfortunately my dish was served flat today but nevertheless they were bite sized pieces of tastiness. The affogato was a hit again and I think will be a must have each time I visit. The glasses of Italian house wine were very reasonable at only $3.50 each and pleasant on the palate — I'm assuming they were low alcohol wines.
On my last blog post I received a comment that highly recommended me to try the Banoffie Pie. Cafe Sopra seem to spell as 'Banoffie' although most people I think spell it as 'Banoffee' — did you know it's an abbreviation of Banana and Toffee, I actually didn't know this at the time. The well presented large slice of cake looked great and I noticed the fresh slices of banana throughout the cream topping. Such a simple idea of ingredients which seems to work together so well. Unfortunately the base of the cake was definitely too hard, probably due to the crust and cake being refrigerated, so trying to cut pieces with a spoon was embarassingly loud when the spoon kept hitting the plate when it broke through — I felt like I needed a steak knife to cut the base. It was very much like the moment when Masterchef judges were sampling the Adriano Zumbo Chocolate Mousse Cake prepared by Julie in the pressure test challenge. I'm assuming it's not actually supposed to be that hard to slice?
Other visits to Cafe Sopra:
• 12 Sept 2009 - Buffalo Mozzarella and Tomato, Arancini, Affogato, Banoffie Pie.
• 22 Aug 2009 - Osso Buco, Frittata, Roast Pork Panini, Vitello Tonnato, Witof Salad, Hot Chips, Affogato, Coffee.
Buffalo mozzarella with truss tomatoes $18
Base shot
Rosso Sangiovese, Bianco Trebbiano $3.50 each
Revisited 7 April 2012
Campari and fresh orange juice ($10.45) — a good 'Hair of the Dog' starter
Pancakes with lemon curd and strawberries ($15.95) — nice flavours and lemon curd inside works well in the dish
SIMON FAVOURITE :-)
Almond & Maple Granola with Rockmelon and yoghurt ($15.95) — crunchy and toasty
Crispy bacon ($9.35) — could perhaps be even crispier but was tasty and not too salty
Frittata with goats curd and basil ($15.95) — nice flavours, toast maybe a little hard to cut, would prefer thicker style as well
Torte banoffee ($15.95) — nice flavours but crumble base too thick and hard to cut through with spoon, would prefer a much thinner base
Video of attempts to eat banoffee with a spoon
Affogato ($7.15) — good flavour but would prefer more ice cream
Seating at 9.30 am on a long weekend Easter Saturday
8 comments:
The base looks very thick indeed and like it has a lot of butter in it which also makes it difficult to cut and it shouldn't be that thick from my experience.
Went there yesterday for a birthday lunch in the alfresco terrace. We had the degustation menu and I seriously can't think of a better lunch experience that the one I had yesterday. Service was amazing also.
Highlights - the osso buco and the frittata w/ goats cheese.
Yes, the base of the banoffee pie looks too thick. I would have loved to pick it up by my hands and bite into it....hahaha I'm all class ; )
hmmm the banoffee pies "looks" fantastic, too bad about the base being too thick!
hi lorraine, i thought this might be the case. hopefully the next time i try will be better.
hi geoff, good to hear. i've tried both osso buco and frittata as well. both really nice.
hi brenda, i should have actually thought of picking it up to eat, that would have been a lot easier :-)
hi maria, it did looked amazingly yummy
The caramel layer and base layer of the Banoffee need to totally switch thicknesses!
hi brisbane devoured, that would be a great start although I thought there's definitely enough caramel already but if the base as the same thickness at the caramel it would have been perfect.
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