Monday, April 11, 2005

Artisan Gelato at De Luca La Cremeria

As you may now be well awared that I am a gelato-frenzy, so much so that I almost, at one point, picked up a nickname called "pinkgelato" or "the gelato crazy woman" (nicknames courtersy of ShinChan). I also have the reputation of "easy-to-feed-as-long-as-you-give-her-gelato" girl. Very funny! No?

De Luca La Cremeria
♥ De Luca La Cremeria
I know I have just posted about gelato at Dolcissimo last week. There was also one on Gelatomassi. We also love the chocolate gelato at Il Baretto. On my search for some of the best gelato in Sydney, how could I possible have missed out on Norton Street, Leicchardt - Sydney's Little Italy where there are streetful of Italian cafes, restaurants and food retailers!

This time we ventured to De Luca La Cremeria for some artisan gelato (the new word for high-up-there gelato?). It is one of the few gelato places in Sydney where gelato are made from scratch. Note that this is not "made fresh daily on premises" but it is made from scratch ie. from making and measuring fresh ingredients to mixing it to churning it.

♥ tabeshimashita @ De Luca La Cremeria on 10 April 2004
I have in fact missed out on a few opportunity to trying out De Luca La Cremeria in the past. Somehow we always just missed their closing time by a few minutes and we had to move further down Norton Street to Bar Italia to calm our cravings.

De Luca La Cremeria Gelato Cart
♥ Gelato Cart
On approaching De Luca, we spotted an antique (and very cute) gelato cart. Apparently it is the one that owner Luigi De Luca had been using to sell gelato back home in Sicily. This just reminds me of the ice-cream man on Orchard Road in Singapore. (Yes, I faithfully visit one of them each time I am in Singapore. Love the rainbow bread with rainbow ice-creams.)

Yummilicious Gelato at De Luca La Cremeria
♥ Yummilicious Gelato!
Now at the gelato bar are 18 flavours to choose from! Don't be shy to ask for a taste. Given the number of gelato flavours, it took us 10 long minutes to decide what flavours we want! I could not resist but requested for a taste of Rose Petal. Yes. Rose Petal it is. And oohlala! I have a mouthful of rose petal swimming inside and the sweet aromatic flavour linging on even after the gelato was down in my tummy.

Have I mentioned the Italians are very friendly people? I think I did and I never had much problems taking photos inside an Italian eatery. But of course, you'll have to kindly ask the shop first as I have learnt from the past.

How the gelato looks like behind the counter
♥ Pinkcocoa behind the gelato bar!
And look at how a little question turned out to be a super cool experience for pinkcocoa! I was allowed to go behind the counter and take some photographs. Yaaaahooooo~

Beautiful Gelato
♥ Beautiful Gelato
Flavours on top row, left to right:
Mixed Berries
Lime-Coconut-Ginger
Strawberry
Mango
Rose Petal!

Flavours on bottom row, left to right:
Chocolate Chilly (you can catch a glimpse of it at the corner!)
Tiramisu
Pistachio
Coffee

And more beautiful gelato!
♥ And More Beautiful Gelato!
Flavours on top row, left to right:
Sicily - a mix of citrus fruits
Lemon
Figs (A$1 extra)
Chocolate
Mixed Berries

Flavours on bottom row, left to right:
PannaCotta - vanilla & caramel
Italian Custard
Ferrero Rocher
Cinnamon
Hazelnut

Coffee, PannaCotta & Sicily Gelato
♥ 3 Scoops Takeaway A$5.50
After a few discussions, we decided to have Sicily, Pannacotta and Coffee. The Sicily proved very refreshing especially with the two other cream-based gelato we had. Pannacotta was smooth and silky. Please give me more of this! The Coffee flavour was creamy but not overly sweet with a strong bitter-sweet flavour from good coffee beans.

I regret about sharing the gelato with ShinChan. The gelato just made me want more, more, more and more! Oh yeah. I am a pig. I am glutton when it comes to gelato. :p

♥ De Luca La Cremeria
106 Norton Street
Leichhardt NSW
Australia
tel. +61 2 9564 1127