Sugarhit: Bollywood

Sugarhit is a clever trio of monthly events dubbed as a “pop up festival with music and dessert” according to varying Asian inspired themes – Bangkok, Bollywood and K-Pop. These nights are put together by a trio of close businesses, Mork Chocolate, N2 Extreme Gelato and Lux Bite, working together to create something bigger than all of them individually. I was lucky to remember the Bollywood night was on and managed to arrive before everything was sold out and closed up for the night.

http://bernard462.wix.com/sugarhitmelbourne

Set in a small space off Guilford Lane in Melbourne, Sugarhit fill up the space with a DJ and many people clamouring to get their hands on the limited edition concoctions. There are a few market-type stalls on the peripheries, as well as some savoury food provided by Krimper but I made a B-line straight for Mork’s Hot Chocolate station and ordered a Cardamom infused dark 70% hot chocolate with warm orange custard ($6). This truly was a dark and bitter 70% chocolate mix. The hint of orange came through but mostly as an aftertaste at the end. The cardamom flavour definitely made the drink more ethnic in line with the theme, but I wouldn’t go back for this hot chocolate. (My friend said it was the worst hot chocolate he had ever tasted in his life lol).

Moving on undeterred, I excitedly placed my order for all of LuxBite’s special desserts, as well as the LuxBitexN2 collab dessert. Looking back I probably should've opted for one of the special N2 ice-creams which sounded pretty interesting:

• Tea Orgy: Darjeeling milk tea gelato with Ceylon shortbread, whipped assam tea cream & an orange pekoe tea caramel syringe (I love syringes!!)
• Bombay Alaska: Mango sorbet, toasted coconut threads, meringue shards, tamarind & a torched meringue swirl.

The warm baba, citrus syrup, sweet neem leaves, custard, saffron honey gelato by N2, raisin, mukhwas, and yourself ($10) was a pricy dessert considering the serve you got. You only got half a small baba on your plate, and as expected it was very sweet and saturated with syrup. The saffron honey gelato was delicious and the best part of the dish. The custard helped bring down the sugharhit (ha!) but I feel the raisins didn’t add anything but a cheap attempt at adding texture to the dish.

The vanilla & cardamom rice pudding chocolate tart, pistachio cream, caramelised almond and awesome jalebi ($9) was strange. I don’t think the chocolate mixture had enough clarity to stand on its own, and there were a lot of nuts dispersed through the filling which meant you had to chew a lot rather than enjoy its taste. Everything just seemed to get lost amongst itself. The awesome jalebi was indeed awesome however; I can picture myself eating a whole lot of these snacks if I can figure out where to get them. The Jalebi is essentially a deep fried indian pretzel soaked in sugar syrup – the end result is a savoury sweet tasting morsel. That was a very nice inventive addition to the tart in line with the theme.

The tube of orange blossom panna cotta, mint compressed cucumber, watermelon yoghurt mousse, pistachio crumble and jasmine macaron ($9) was the best dish of the night. I am hesitant to lather praise on this idea as it seems very similar to what the titans of the tube, Burch & Purchese, are known for… except not as refined. But what’s good is good. The panna cotta was creamy, lovely and light and the cucumber crunch went really well with the whole dish (vegies in dessert whodathunk it! Pierre Roelof that’s who). The watermelon mousse really had a burst of watermelon flavour in it which was great, and the jasmine macaron tasted really nice.

I also bought The Wondersnack Co.’s limited edition Curried Popcorn with cold-brew & brown sugar caramel ($4) which was delicious and gone before I even realised I was nearing the end of the pack. There was a very strong curry flavour which made it strange initially, but then the cold brew caramel kicked in and it was a great flavour combination! I could snack on these all night long if only they weren't so expensive.

I am excited to see what the K-Pop theme has in store next month (6:30 - 11:30pm June 6^th 2014).

TL;DR Check it out if you are a fan of any of the three stores, or are in need for a late night sugar hit!