LuxBite

You may know LuxBite as that fancy-pants patisserie, creators of the Lolly Bag cake, who combine French techniques with Asian flavours to put their unique spin on dessert. (In my house, a LuxBite cake is mandatory at Chinese New Year!) Well, now they're entering the croissant game, adding Viennoiserie to their already impressive range of cakes and macarons. I'm a huge fan of LuxBite, and an even bigger fan of all things butter, so when I received an invitation to a special breakfast to launch their Viennoiserie range, I was totally there!

LuxBite
38 Toorak Road
South Yarra, VIC 3141
Ph: (03) 9867-5888
Website


It was hard getting out of bed early on a Sunday morning, but this gorgeous display of pastries made it all worthwhile.

Luxbite's full Viennoiserie range

So, the new Viennoiserie range. They're doing some traditional croissants - plain and almond croissants...

Almond Croissant; 100% French Butter Croissant

... as well as pain au chocolat (my favourite), chocolate almond croissants, and fruit danishes.

Raspberry and Apple Crumble Danish; Chocolate & Almond Croissant; Pain au Chocolat

The range also includes some fun cruffins (that's a croissant muffin hybrid doncha know) - a kaya toast one with kaya and whipped salted butter, and a decadent Ferrero one with hazelnut praliné cream and dark chocolate.

Kaya Toast Cronut - kaya coconut jam & whipped butter; Ferrero Cronut - Hazelnut praliné cream, hazelnut dark chocolate; Apple & Almond Frangipane Danish

And there is also "Le Not So Traditional" range, with really unique Asian-inspired flavours. This is where Chef Bernard's creativity really shines. There's Le Hong Kong (bamboo charcoal cruffin with golden lava salted egg yolk), Le Japan (matcha croissant with confit yuzu peel), the Malaysian-inspired Le Hometown (a kouign-amann with corn and salted peanuts, like an apam balik), and even a Taiwanese-style savoury croissant with spring onions.

Le Hong Kong: Bamboo charcoal cruffin with golden lava salted yolk; Le Japan: Organic matcha croissant with confit yuzu peel; Le Hometown: Salted peanut & creamed corn kouign-amann; Le Taiwan: Spring onion croissant

Le Hong Kong - Bamboo Charcoal Cruffin with golden lava salted egg yolk

In addition to all the pastries, the new range includes cannelés - both vanilla and pandan. I've found that cannelés here in Australia can be hit and miss, but LuxBite's ones are spot on. They've got the requisite intensely dark and crisp exterior and almost custardy interior.

Le Hometown salted peanut & creamed corn kouign-amann; The 'OG' Vanilla canelé; Pong Dong (French for Pandan) Canelé

Pastry display

Overall the Viennoiserie were excellent. I loved the base croissant dough - so flaky and buttery, with a lovely subtle hint of salt. And just like with their regular cakes, the flavours in the Viennoiserie are very well balanced, not too sweet, not too rich. Just right.

And in case you're wondering, I tried almost all of them - except for the danishes and the almond croissants. Yes, even I have limits! I'll just have to pop back to try them once they're launched. (That apricot frangipane danish is calling my name). For now, let's take a moment to appreciate those layers in the pain au chocolat.

So many layers

So many pastries

Korean-inspired Meal Prep

Well, hello there! It's Monday again, and you know what that means - another Meal Prep Monday! Today's meal prep is inspired by Korean flavours. We have a base of brown rice, with marinated steak, broccolini namul, julienned carrots and finely shaved cucumber. Plus a little garnish of extra sesame seeds, fresh coriander, chilli and spring onions.

Recipes are down the bottom of this post, but let me talk you through the elements right now. The beef was two beautiful steaks, marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, spring onions and chilli.

Steak marinade

Frying the steaks

Normally I like my steaks very rare, but because I was planning to eat it over four days, I decided to cook it through.

The marinade was based on Nigella's black and blue beef (from Forever Summer), and is really delicious. Knowing that brown rice is kinda a black hole for flavour, I decided to cook the marinade and use it as a sauce. Bonus!

Marinade being cooked

Ok, broccolini namul. I don't know a lot about Korean food, but as far as I can tell, "namul" is the general term for vegetables in a seasoned sauce. After Googling dozens of recipes, I decided to toss the cooked broccolini in a mixture of sesame seeds, sesame oil, garlic, soy sauce, sugar and salt. And boom - broccolini namul!

Namul mixture

All the ingredients

Of course, kimchi would be an obvious addition to this meal prep, but I had the cucumber and carrot sitting in the fridge, and wanted to use them up. Lots of crunchy freshness there! I'm also not always in the mood for punchy flavours of kimchi, so wasn't sure if I'd handle it for four days in a row.

Brown rice

I used brown rice for this, which was wonderfully hearty, but my preferred rice for this meal prep would have been Korean purple rice. I had a few packets in the pantry, but unfortunately they were out of date. D'oh! Next time, next time.

This was such a great meal prep! Lots of different vegetables and textures, and it kept really well throughout the week. I ate it cold, straight from the container, but you could always keep the raw veggies separately and heat the rest up.

Speaking of which, on the Thursday, I felt like something else for lunch (the nasi lemak craving was strong that day), so took the last lunchbox home. I picked out the cucumber and carrot, microwaved the beef, rice and broccolini, then reunited it all in a bowl and topped it with a fried egg. Delicious!

Korean rice bowl with a fried egg

Seared Beef

Winter in Germany

As you know, we’ve been to Germany heaps recently (three times in the last 18 months), so I’m not planning on doing a series of super detailed posts. (I'll include links to all my previous Germany posts at the bottom of this post). There were the usual pretzels, bread, schnitzels and beers, of course, but for today I’ll be sharing some snapshots, mainly showing off new or different things that I haven't blogged before. Let’s take a look!

We flew in just before Christmas, and were lucky to get to the Mannheim Christmas market on its last day. So pretty! Such fun! (PS in case anyone’s curious, following the Berlin Christmas market attack, there was slightly more police presence than usual but there was still a strong turnout at the Mannheim market, with lots of people enjoying this well-loved tradition).

Mannheimer Weihnachtsmarkt - The Mannheim Christmas Market

Feuerzangen Bowle! This is kinda like Glühwein (mulled wine), but extra special. They take a loaf of sugar, soak it in rum, place it above the cauldron of mulled wine and set it alight. As it melts and caramelises, it drips into the hot spiced wine. Super delicious and very cosymaking.

Feuerzangen Bowle

All the Stollen!

In addition to Feuerzangebowle, we also got regular Glühwein. So good with the Kartoffelpuffer (fried potato pancakes). But to be fair, everything is good with Kartoffelpuffer.

Potato pancake, apple sauce, Glühwein

This stand really caught my eye, selling Lángos. I'd never heard of it before, but I now know that Lángos are a Hungarian speciality of deep-fried bread dough topped with all kinds of goodness. Unfortunately, after three huge Kartoffelpuffer I was way too full to try one. (I have regretted this ever since).

Langos Stall

Definitely not too full for a waffle though!

Waffle

Mannheim, lit up at night

I’d gone off German cakes for a while, generally finding them too big and filling, but I got back into German cakes in a big way this time!

Streuselkuchen (yeasted cake topped with crumble) & Quarkini (quark donut) & Coffee

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Black Forest Cake), Bienenstich (Beesting cake - yeasted base, creamy filling, crisp almond top) from Schmitt's Backhaus on Bürstädterstraße

Nußkuchen (nut cake) at Cafe Schafheutle in Heidelberg

Krokant Torte (crunchy nut cake) & Himbeerkuchen Raspberry cake from Cafe Schmerker (plus a Bailey's cappuccino and a Schokocappuccino)

Sandra's dad's birthday cake! A Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Black Forest Cake) from Bäckerblüm

Inside of the Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Black Forest Cake)

Frankfurter Kranz (Sponge cake with buttercream and crunchy nuts) and Käsesahne Torte (cream cheese cake) from Schmerker

One day we went to the Odenwald for lunch at restaurant Zum Schorsch. I had goose with Calvados-cream sauce, dumplings and red cabbage. From memory, the other food here wasn't that great (the sauces had a distinct Maggi flavour), but the atmosphere was good and it was a nice outing.

Goose drumstick with Calvados cream sauce, dumplings, red cabbage at Zum Schorsch

New Year Pretzels are a cool tradition in Germany! Specially sold around New Year's time, they're made of a sweeter, richer dough, and are generally much bigger than regular pretzels. This regular sized Neujahrsbrezel was my breakfast on New Year's Day...

Neujahrsbrezel

And here's a gigantic one, the base of which was basically a huge Zopf/Challah loaf. (The whole family shared this). Delicious.

Neujahrsbrezel from Schmitt's

Sandra's sister, Tina, made Weisswurst and Süßer Senf for dinner one night. That's white veal sausages with sweet mustard, served with freshly baked pretzels and beer. Awesome combination!

Weisswurst & Süßer Senf

We visited Heidelberg one day, and I tried a local speciality I'd never seen before - a Schneeball (AKA a "snowball"). This sweet treat is made of long strips of shortcrust pastry, formed into a ball and deep fried, then dusted in icing sugar. You can get other flavours, like chocolate, marzipan and more, but I went for the classic. Apparently these are very common souvenirs, and there are Schneeball stalls all around the world. I enjoyed my Schneeball - I mean, crisp buttery biscuits are fab - but don't think I'd make a special trip to go get these again.

Schneebälle in Heidelberg

Another day we visited Mainz. I love visiting old timey-towns and admiring the architecture!

Mainz

Statue of Johannes Gutenberg

Because it was winter, and there was heaps of food and sitting around, I tried to do as many little walks as possible. There are a lot of beautiful places in this part of the world. And despite my initial hesitations about what a German winter would be like, it was actually lovely being outdoors as long as we were all rugged up and it wasn't raining. Clear skies, crisp air, no biting cold winds.

Neurhein

Neurhein

Der Waldnerturm in Hemsbach

Hemsbach

The Biedensand

The Biedensand

Germany has a significant Turkish population, and has awesome Döner Kebabs. Y'all know I'm super into Halal Snack Packs, and as soon as I realised that the local Döner shops sold "Döner Tüte" (Döner bags), I just had to have one! Unlike HSPs, Döner Tütes aren't really a "thing", they're just a normal snack, so I think the family thought I was weird for getting so excited about them. Either way - chips, meat, sauce. Awwww yeah. Also for your consideration: Döner Teller - meat, chips, sauce, and salad on a plate.

Döner Tüte and Döner Teller (Döner bag and Döner plate)

So as I mentioned above, it was Sandra's dad's 60th birthday, and he had a huge party at the local Greek restaurant, Paradies. There was So Much Food! All the mezze, gigantic mains (I had moussaka), and even a bonus plate of chips that the nice waiter brought out for me when he saw me steal a chip from my mother-in-law's plate. Whoops. (Super embarrassing, but I had to eat all the chips out of politeness, you see). Also, much beer, prosecco and cocktails. (Quote from Sandra's dad: "Sarah, why are you ordering water! You know it's more expensive than beer!")

Dinner at Paradies

This is the Thermen & Badewelt in Sinsheim, basically a huge bathing, swimming and sauna complex. No photos of the inside, as the are some nudie sections and photos are strictly verboten, but let me assure you it was a super fun place to come on a winter's day. (You can see safe photos of the extensive interior on their website). I skipped the nudie saunas, but swam in an outdoor (heated) pool with snow falling in my hair, did a hot tub, salt bath, calcium-lithium bath, smashed a huge currywurst with chips, did a water aerobics class, took a little steam and had cocktails at a swim up bar!

Thermen & Badewelt Sinsheim

Ok, maybe one classic pretzel picture to finish off this post. Yay!

Pretzel and Coffee

Previous Germany posts:

• Germany 2006 - My first trip to Germany! Backpacking in Berlin with my friend Clarice during the World Cup.
• Germany 2007 - My first trip to Germany with Sandra! It was winter, it was cold, it was Christmas!
• Germany 2011 - A summer trip: Ice-Creams, Gulaschsuppe, Pig on a Spit, Mushroom Picking in the Lorsch Forest, Oma Resel's Potato Sauce and more
• Germany 2013 - Another fab summer trip: Supermarkets & Snack Foods; Bread, Bakeries, Breakfasts & Bacony Goods; BBQs & Parties and more
• Germany 2015 - Late summer, comprehensive posts: Breakfasts; Lunches at Home; Snacks; Restaurants; Trier & Bernkastel-Kues
• Germany 2016 - Early summer! One big round-up post full of German deliciousness