Asian Sugar Rush!

To be honest, the first time I had Meet Fresh, I was not so enamoured by it. My first and foremost rookie mistake was choosing 'hot' when they asked me whether I wanted it cold or hot. Never order these desserts 'hot'!! It was a cold day and I thought that having something warming would be awesome. But they only ever heat these to the stage of lukewarm, almost as though you left a hot dish sit for a while and it's almost gone cold. Not the best of stages I think. Second reason would be because of all the hype there was surrounding Meet Fresh. All my friends raved about how delicious it was, so I think I did have my expectations raised through the roof. Which all came crashing down when I was eating my lukewarm dessert.

However, with all Asian desserts, I believe that the more you eat it, the more you enjoy it. You become appreciative of all the different textures in the dessert that vary from chewy to soft to icy! Definitely the highlight.

I had a strong craving for Meet Fresh the other day, and I dragged my younger sister with me - who has never had Meet Fresh! We walked to our local one in Burwood and I'm glad they open so early in the morning. Yes I did have this for breakfast, so please don't judge the fact that I had this first thing in the morning!

Taro balls no. 4, $5.50

Definitely a magnificent sight, that huge tower of ice! Surrounding the mountain was taro which had been marinated in honey, taro balls, pearls, and red beans. The shaved ice is doused with a sugar syrup made out of a type of sugar that we Chinese people often use in our dishes called rock candy. They normally come in huge chunks that look like rocks, hence the name. It is a very sweet syrup, but it definitely has a different sweet flavour profile compared to the sugar that you would normally find in your local supermarket. There are taro and sweet potato balls which are chewy like pearls, and paired with the sweetness of the taro and red beans, this dessert is always a winner.

At first, my sister did not see why I had such a craving for this but she definitely got more into it the more we ate. I think she began to see why you would want it the more you eat it.

Meet Fresh
169 Burwood Rd
Burwood, NSW, 2134 

Opening Hours
Monday-Friday: 11:00am - 11:00pm
Saturday: 11:00-12:00am
Sunday: 110:00am - 11:00pm

Herbal jelly with ZenQ signature Q balls, pearls and red beans, $6.50 + extra sweet taro, $0.80

Remember those awesome grass jelly drinks that had so much sugar added to them but you loved it anyway when we were kids? This is exactly what this dessert was like! But instead of little pieces of grass jelly, there were huge chunks of grass jelly which were sweet and slipped easily down our throats. Thank goodness it wasn't like the grass jelly that came canned as one huge chunk in the shape of the can - those were nasty! If the dessert wasn't sweet enough, there were chunks of palm sugar on top of it all :P ZenQ's signature Q balls have three flavours (matcha, taro and sweet potato) instead of the two offered at Meet Fresh (taro and sweet potato). I'm really in love with marinated taro!

Do any of you hate the textures of Asian desserts, or are you the complete opposite and are in love with them? I, myself, am the former ;)

ZenQ Desserts
181/569 George St
Sydney, NSW, 2000
9267 9880

ZenQ Desserts, CBD

Spent early afternoon tramping around Cockatoo Island with the boy trying to get photos for my studio project which is actually due very soon... Crap. But trying not to think about that... I wasted time until mid afternoon with the boy. I was going to buy some macarons from Laduree but the line was so incredibly long. What are people doing at 2:30 anyway?! So I suppose I will have to wait until next time.

I met up with A, F and M for an afternoon dessert snack! Since A is back from Melbourne for a short few days and F is also leaving for Adelaide once again this weekend. But gee, I really ought to cut down on some of that sugar. But it really was delicious sugar! I love Asian desserts because of all the chewy extras that we can add in.

Coconut sago with taro, $6.80

Ok, this really does not look too appetising. It really just looks like a pool of white... But the taro pieces were really deliciously sweet and the coconut sago was amazing! Though to be honest, it's really hard to mess coconut sago up unless you dilute it waaay too much...

Red bean soup with ZenQ signature Q balls and pearls, $6.50 + jelly cake, $0.60 + sweet potato, $0.60

This was a bowl full of chewy goodness! The Q balls were apparently sweet potato, taro and matcha flavoured. I could taste the difference between the three, but I couldn't really tell they were these specific flavours... But they were really good regardless. The jelly cakes were slippery suckers and the sweet potato was also extra sweet as it had been marinated in honey.

The honey toasts looked amazing as they were being brought out for other tables - I know what I'm ordering next time! They also have a lot of $5.50 afternoon specials which we somehow missed after zooming in straight for the menu... If we had only gotten the red bean sago that was on the specials menu! Oh well.

I love how we can so easily talk about nothing and everything for almost 3 hours straight and it still felt like no time had passed whatsoever. I really do miss having all of you here constantly to talk to whenever I want and it really was wonderful being able to catch up with you girls again and can't wait until summer break!

ZenQ Desserts
181/569 George St
Sydney, NSW, 2000
9267 9880