REPLAY ESPRESSO - TURRAMURRA, SYDNEY

Replay Espresso
2A William St
Turramurra, Sydney

Tucked away around the corner from the highway in suburbia Turramurra is the quaint, quirky and somewhat hidden Replay Espresso.

It's cosy but uses its space well and focusses on good coffee, a selection of tasty looking cakes and pastries on display at the counter and a range of hot cooked meals from the menu.

While they do a mean coffee here - and have people queueing for take aways - the green tea is also done well.

It arrived at our table brewing in a beautiful purple cast iron teapot that looked great - and fortunately tasted just as good as well.

Then there's the coffee. It's done well and having tried their brews it's easy to see why its popular.

Hasn't acai become popular lately?

This berry like product from a type of palm tree has a name that half the world struggles to pronounce correctly - including us originally - ah-sigh-he.

Not that this growing popularity is a bad thing as it's good for you and goes well with so many things.

This version was an acai bowl with fig and maple granola in clusters served with sliced banana and shredded coconut.

It was a big, bold, colourful and tasty serving that was extremely filling.

 Apart from the cooked to order meals there is also a good selection of pre-prepared sandwiches, croissants and other bread filled goodies,

On this occasion the choice was a simple ham and cheese toastie.

This was already prepared and just had to be toasted. Nevertheless, it had good fillings and was nice and tasty.

Back to the good-for-you goodies and this selection was gluten free muesli with yoghurt of the day and seasonal fruit. It was another big serving that had plenty of colour and flavour.

It did look spectacular when it arrived at the table with a big dollop of purple yoghurt beside freshly cut pieces of fruit all on top of crispy muesli.This was a feel good dish - you feel good for eating healthy and the tasty is a bonus.

However, if you're looking for that big cooked-to-order breakfast/brunch that you've earned after a week of moderation - um - whoever this may hypothetically apply to - then there are plenty of choices here too.

This was crushed avocado, grilled halloumi, roasted tomato and basil pesto on organic sourdough with a soft boiled egg. The egg was a side and you can order more eggs or other sides. It was a hearty brunch and we do love halloumi any time of the day!

Replay Espresso is secluded but worth finding.
Venture inside - you have to anyway as you need to order at the counter - and check out whats there before you choose.

If you like good coffee they will keep you happy too. 

There are a few outside seats too if you want to people watch - but you can also do this from inside at the counter looking out onto the street. 

THE MISSING PIECE - NORTH RYDE

The Missing Piece
Macquarie Centre
197 Herring Rd
North Ryde, Sydney

We spied The Missing Piece at Macquarie Centre and it looked impressive with its selection of cookies, scrolls and cronuts.

We'd heard good things about this place and so we decided to grab a few bits and pieces to take away.













There was a good selection of cronuts and cakes but the scrolls took centre stage and stole the show here.

Mlady chose a Nutella and banana scroll

The scrolls were simply amazing - fresh and full of flavour. Mlady loved hers and thoroughly enjoyed devouring every bit of it.





Sir chose (no surprises) a salted caramel scroll.

He's a BIG salted caramel fan and had no qualms of having to eat the salted caramel scroll.

The caramel just oozed out of the spiralled layers of the scroll as he bit into - nice!

It was such a good way to have a sweet hit.



















We also decided to grab a cookie as well - especially as it was billed as "Worlds Best Muesli Cookie" - we're suckers for a pitch like that!

The cookie really tasted like a good cookie should and held together very well when you broke pieces off.

It was fresh and you could taste the lovely oats and the sultanas sweetened this very yummy cookie.

The Missing Piece certainly doesn't seem to be missing out on willing and loyal customers. There was a queue when we went past earlier! They seem to handle it well though, and their selection of drinks and food had everyone there happy. We'll have to drop back some time and stay to try more of their things. 

 

SWEETFEST 2015 - SYDNEY CBD

Sweetfest 2015

Do you haver a sweet tooth - or two? We do - so we dropped in to Sweetfest 2015 - and we're glad we did. It was understandably busy - cause people love sweet things.

The concept was straight forward. They had stalls there selling their sugary sweet wares, and they had a series of masterclasses from some of the best in the sweet business. Tick and tick!

It was very busy there, both inside at the Masterclasses and outside at the stalls. It was all running so smoothly though. At the stalls, the food was moving quickly so people didn't need to queue, or when they did, not for long at all. It was great food too. 

Inside the masterclasses the crowds were being entertained, educated and impressed by some of the best around. We dropped by the masterclass with Andy Bowden which was being expertly compered by the dynamic Myffy Rigby. The crowd loved it. He was making sort serve desserts - sampled by an impromptu dance-off winner. The big screen up behind them meant everyone in the audience could see what was going on. 

We also had a chat with the next "sweet act", the lively  Alistair Wise who had come all the way from Sweet Envy in North Hobart.

Now we wished we'd been able to stay for his session as we've been to Sweet Envy in North Hobart. We therefore have some sort of connection.

Alistair is a real character - he literally bounces - he's a ball of energy.

His session was "salted caramel, pecan sticky bun and the expanded theory of everything".

In a weird way it summed him up perfectly.

Next to us was a cake made earlier by Katherine Sabbath - adorned with lollypops and dazzling everyone with its bright colours.

It certainly lived up to its name of "Water Coloured lollypop cake".

Katherine was arriving just as we left and this was another missed opportunity for us to hear from a sweet legend.

This was the first year for Sweetfest. It was popular, it had great food available and great demonstrations from some of the best around, all expertly kept together.

We left with plenty of goodies from a number of the tasty stalls there. We'll be back next year!