Sweet Dreams

There are times when teachers like to ponder alternative occupations. Tea breaks during training days, gathering for after school meetings and planning days before or after the official holiday breaks all seem to be prone to discussions about this topic. Revelations emerge in tones, from wistful to earnest of plans,  from feasible to fanciful. Inevitably someone will mention managing a bookshop and someone else will admit to nurturing the idea of owning and running a traditional tearoom. The really ambitious might have wished to combine both ideas and I can only wonder how many of these establishments across the country are run by former teachers. I am sure that the idea of owning a dessert cafe would feature in these fantasy plans if the concept was better known in the UK. The dream of concerning oneself with devising the most elegant and delicious confections that discerning customers would flock to devour and enthuse over has to appeal to anyone  currently concerned with any kind of mundanities, doesn't it?

So just what is a dessert cafe? Adelaide has several well worth investigation. One such is Eggless . OK, it is closed until January 19th by which time most resolutions to foreswear anything remotely dessert-like will have been abandoned by all but those who would never dream of admitting anything with sugar and cream past their lips anyway. It does offer some savoury dishes, but the main purpose is to cater for the sweet course of an evening meal. It opens later than most other restaurants, the idea seems to be that  having eaten your main course elsewhere, possibly at home, you then stroll out to enjoy your coffee or tea and something sweet at a dessert cafe. Monthly menus and daily blackboard specials ensure that the offerings make the most of the seasonal best.

 From Eggless's blackboard menu came this pannacotta. With its perfect texture flavoured with rose it was worth resisting the temptation of opting for the tasting platter. I know there are some who prefer to keep all flower fragrances inhaled rather than ingested but this was distinctive yet subtle, enhanced by the merest spoonful of elderflower syrup and decorated with chips of turkish delight. Green tea was the ideal accompaniment.
Of course there are those too for whom dessert equates to pudding expecting that their sweet course has at some point seen the inside of an oven or steamer and preferably comes coated with a sauce of some kind. Such people would opt for the ginger pudding of course.

 

This is not the kind of place where you go with a party of people who all sit down and order the same thing. Shared spoonfuls are all just part of the fun. And of course there are other dessert cafes to sample like the newly opened Patissierie Jin. 

A place to feast the eyes before the palate.

And as a 'once upon a time teacher' would owning a dessert cafe be my fantasy future career? No, I prefer to stick to the customer side of such businesses. Behind all those exquisitely presented creations and delighted customer feedback, there would have to be stacks of washing up to be faced late at night. Decidedly not my cup of tea, green or otherwise.