Friday night festivities recently found me trudging around Sydney's Chinatown with my other half in the wind and rain, desperately searching for a dumpling restaurant I had been wanting to try. Alas this was not to be but we did manage to stumble down a flight of stairs into Asian cuisine Wonderland, an underground food court with umpteen miniature store fronts serving up plates upon plates of piping hot deliciousness.
With bellies full to bursting point with the cheapest, and possibly tastiest, dinner I had ever had we waddled to George Street cinemas to catch one of the quirky films from the
Japanese Film Festival when along the way something intriguing caught my eye -
Sweeties Paradise. I was as intrigued by the name as by the eye-catching Asian desserts and vowed to come back for a sweetie after the movie.
A small sampling from Sweeties Paradise
Although they have an extensive menu my mind was already made up. I'd had a quick sticky beak before the movie and as soon as I saw the words
black glutinous rice together with
mango, I knew exactly what I'd be ordering.
The Mango, Black Glutinous Rice with Vanilla Sauce was a nice way to top off the night. Although I wasn't quite sure what to expect with 'vanilla sauce' it was delicious and definitely vanilla-ry, whereas some vanilla-flavoured foods can be pretty bland, and chilled just right. The mango was deliciously sweet and there was more than enough glutinous rice to fix my craving, although it was a little on the grainy side.
Mango, Black Glutinous Rice with Vanilla Sauce $5.50
My boyfriend, on my insistence, got the mango pancakes. I'd heard a lot about these from my boyfriend who is a big fan and I had been keen to try these for a while. Two decent-sized parcels came out and I was eager to take a bite. Wrapped in sweet dumpling-esque wrapping was a chunk of sweet mango with, much to my delight, a shed-load of whipped cream. It was like love at first bite and although these are the first mango pancakes I have ever tried and so I might be a little biased with nothing to compare them to, they were in a word delicious.
The delicious interior of a Mango Pancake $5.99 for two
Definitely a good place to get a dessert fix in the city especially as they're open till 12am, I will be back for some more of the morish
Mango Pancakes. And with some of the cheapest desserts I have ever come across
Sweeties Paradise is definitely a winner in my dessert books.
