Cafe Rosamond

When my friends start asking me what a 'degustation' is, I firstly, find it quite adorable and secondly it makes me realise how much of a 'food authority' I've become amongst my friends. Small sense of pride? Maybe just a little.

Once I explained to Teagan what a degustation was, and then told her and Rashi I knew of a place that did a dessert degustation, I didn't even have to convince them to go with me one Thursday night!

I kind of feel like I should come back to Cafe Rosamond during the day and see what it's actually like as a cafe, as I've only ever seen blog posts and heard how amazing it's dessert degustations are!

But come on, who can pass up sweets?

Cafe Rosamond is quite subtly hidden, just off Smith street and a very small, sweet intimate space. Wood everywhere and candles burning away for that slightly romantic touch.

We had a lovely pot of chai tea between the three of us, thick, creamy milk and lovely cinnamon-y tea.

So if you don't know about this dessert degustation deal, this is how it goes, Cafe Rosamond, only on Thursday nights do a 1, 2 or 3 course degustation, the 3 course degustation being $40 (if I recall correctly). Every Thursday it's different, it's experimental, it's dessert.

And if you wish, you can start your night with these dessert test tubes ($9 a pop), which also change every week in flavour. This week it was vanilla, pear and chocolate, called something in French which meant...well...vanilla, pear and chocolate.

Between the three girls, drinking/sucking/eating this, was absolute hilarity. Both ends are open, so the trick is to actually block up one end with your finger or thumb and suck from the other. It took us a while to discover this though and we were nearly bawling with laughter at the silly sounds and things we were doing to try and get all of the deliciousness out!

So after creating a new decibel record in the cafe (it wouldn't surprise me), our test tubes were cleared away and we were presented with our first dish of the night (we had all decided to go with 3 courses. Of course. None of this sharing business!)

This was apple, fennel, black tea, raisins...and some vanilla ice-cream...jelly thing...or those are the ingredients I could figure out at least. Fennel? Black tea? This equals dessert? Surprisingly it does. And surprisingly, very very well. I loved the earthy-ness of the black tea and the crisp bite of fennel through the sweetness of the apple and raisins.

There's just no way to describe how amazing this was!

We were left all very excited and giddily tippling on the edges of our seats to see what other dishes we were to get next!

Next was 'The one in the middle', which acted as our palette cleanser. I was tickled by the bright burst of pink, and not just as a cream, or ice-cream or glob, but small little particles, it was just so interesting!

The cleanser had lime, strawberry, passionfruit and interestingly...eucalyptus sponge. Rashi, Teagan and I looked at each slightly baffled when the waitress told us. Don't judge a book by it's blurb though, the eucalyptus was amazing, it does taste somewhat what it smells like, but it's a very rich and full bodied flavour. This was balanced out and compensated for though by the sharpness of the lime, so that it was not too overwhelming. They complimented each other very nicely...and of course, the passionfruit added a comforting level of sweetness to it all.

Oh hi Rashi! n____n

And to finish, the absolutely sculptural orange blossom, almond and coconut dish. Whilst the flavours didn't excite me so much (but I'm not overly fond of orange desserts, so that's just me), I did love the mix of textures, there was a firm and crunchy meringue, a slight sort of honeycomb crispness from the dried out oranges (or I assume that's what they are..?), soft and moist almond cake....I think I have talked enough!

Surprisingly, the courses are all very well sized, so even through three courses of desserts sounds quite like a sugar-coma, it's actually well proportioned so you don't feel like (too much) of a round ball afterwards.

And yes, $49 (my total) for just dessert sounds excessive (it baffled my mum), but look at what you're getting, incredibly original and creative desserts and each dish apparently has about 10 ingredients in each (and after watching Top Chef I know (haha) having a lot of elements and flavours in a dish is a delicate balancing act). You're not just paying for food, you're paying for a little bit of a sweet adventure. Or dessert heaven. Something along those lines.

Sure, if you're not a sweet tooth, maybe this is not the thing for you, but for someone like me? This is right up my alley.

I only wish there was a way to know what courses they were going to have each week...I'd be totally there for an elaborate chocolate concoction....

Cafe Rosamond

Rear/191 Smith St
Fitzroy, 3065