What could be better than spending a beautiful weekend at The Rocks enjoying a delicious high tea with friends and family?

One of my favourite high tea places of all time is situated right in the heart of The Rocks just next to The Rocks Weekend Market which is pleasantly enjoyable to walk through and immerse yourself in all the wonderful exotic stores.

When walking past the row of shops parallel to the weekend markets, you will see an inconspicuous shop house The Irish Design Shop with a sign saying "Freshly Baked Scones", if you love scones, this is the perfect place for you to go to and have a delectable afternoon tea.

When you walk into the shophouse, you would immediately feel like you're walking into a homely and warm little cafe with little teapots lined up by the sides of the staircase. The front of the shophouse is a small Irish store that sells traditional Irish gifts, tea sets and celtic jewellery.

The Tea Cosy is all the way at the back of the shophouse where it is beautifully decorated with a very traditional Irish feel and lovely little accessories.


I absolutely love their decor! It makes me feel like I'm in a totally different place altogether! Don't you think?



The thing about The Tea Cosy is that it only sells scones and that's that! So it makes it so much easier to decide what to eat! They have a fairly wide choice of tea to choose from to pair it with the scones.

The great thing about The Tea Cosy is that they change the scones selection every month so you will never get bored with the selection! The last time I visited The Tea Cosy, the scones were Apple Strudel, Plain, Cheese and Onion, Date and Apricot.

The scones for the month of October are plain, spinach and feta, currants and white chocolate berry!

This is the tasting basket for 2, it has 4 scones, 2 jam selections. The tea comes seperately

I absolutely adore their scones! Their scones are piping hot and huge, it is very moist on the inside while slightly crumbly on the outside. The best thing about their scones is that it is baked fresh in the morning and afternoon so you won't have to worry about eating old and overnight scones! I love their teapots too! All of the teapots come with their own little tea cosy and every one is hand knitted and all different and its so cute!

The tasting basket for 2 which we ordered comes with 2 selections of jam, if I remembered it correctly, we ordered raspberry jam and triple berry jam which is my favourite jam from the teahouse! The clotted cream is really smooth, light and fluffy and we could not stop spreading generous portions of cream on our scones! I heard from the waitress there that they make their own jam and cream which makes the scones even more delectable.

You could also order a scone set instead of a tasting basket! The scones set comes with 2 scones, a jam and a clotted cream along with tea of your choice for only $9.50!

The outdoor area is really small but really pretty and simple, looking out of the window from the cafe makes my mood perk up immediately. It is really different from all the other cafes I have been to and I feel that you should defintely visit this place at least once!

My family absolutely loves their scones and on one occassion I wanted to take their scones away and the scones were priced at $1.50 per scone which is really much more affordable than I expected!

Delicious and fresh scones at such affordable prices and with such a homely and comfortable ambience, what more can you ask for?

FYI: The Tea Cosy is only open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays while The Irish Design Shop is open on all days.

The shop has vibrant posters all around, they are absolutely gorgeous!

The Tea Cosy

Address:
33 George Street,
The Rocks, Sydney,
Australia 2000

Opening Hours:

Fri:	10:00 am	-	4:00 pm
Sat - Sun:	10:00 am	-	5:00 pm

Telephone: 02 92473233

Website: http://www.irishdesign.com.au/g/4145/the-tea-cosy---tea-room.html

Or you could visit their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Tea-Cosy/178079518915595


Hope you guys have a great weekend!

Bain taitneamh as do bhéil!

Foodling 3

I love baking, and in fact baking is not as difficult as you think it is! One of my favourite recipes of late is this orange chiffon cake which is really light, fluffy and delicious and most importantly, really really easy to make as well!

This recipe is a hit among our family! Everyone loves it and have it really often!
If you love eating cakes, the citrus fragrance of oranges and have a sweet tooth this is the absolute perfect recipe for you!

Let's just jump right to it then!

Orange Chiffon Cake

I always loved my little egg seperator, it really comes in handy if you aren't a pro at cracking eggs right down the middle, saves tonnes of time as well! You can easily get them in Target or Big W or here!

Heh, apologies for the messy cake tin, I was rushing (:

Mum didn't like too much hazelnuts in the cake so I added them sparingly, you can always add as much as you want!

My Home-Made Chirashi Sushi

Even though the name implies a 'sense of randomness' these dishes can be considered as works of art.
Each restaurant produces their own art piece and I will always order a Chirashi-zushi if it is on the menu  and compare these edible masterpieces.

• Purchase a variety of sashimi grade fish and seafood at your local fish markets. I purchased salmon, tuna and kingfish sashimi, seaweed and and a jar of salmon roe at the Sydney Fish Markets in Glebe. (If you havent been to Sydney Fish Markets it really is worth the visit!) 

• Cook sushi rice as per instructions on the packet. Once cooked, place in a non-metalic bowl and sprinkle over Japanese powdered vinegar onto the rice, fanning and turning until rice reaches room temperature. Cover until ready for use

• Using a very sharp knife, cut fish into even sized strips and place on a board ready for assembly.

• Mix three eggs with some salt, sugar and mirin. Beat eggs well. Cook omelet in a non-stick pan. Fold the egg as it sets. Once cool slice into thin strips.(The Japanese use a special rectangular pan for this).

• Heat a sheet of Nori over a gentle flame, this will make the nori nice and crisp! Cut into thin strips. At this stage all your ingredients for your Chirashi-zushi should be ready for assembling.

• The trick to Chirashi-zushi is to have a balance between fish and rice. There should be a good combination of flavours, textures and colour. I placed the vinegared rice in the bottom of each bowl and topped it with a combination of the fish, seaweed, egg and finally topping with the luscious looking salmon roe and crispy nori.