In Short: A innovative High Tea featuring some of Malaysia’s best fruit in Honey Jackfruit and Durian. Both sweet and savoury creations wowed the diners at this most unique High Tea organised by the Thorny Fruit Co. and featuring amazing pastry work from Textbook Patisserie and Makmak.
Anything Malaysian usually piques my curiosity but combine that with tropical fruits and some of the best pastry creators in the city, and you had us almost instantaneously responding affirmative to our attendance to the Malaysian Fruit Culinary Showcase hosted by The Thorny Fruit Company. The Thorny Fruit Co is a family run fruit concierge service specialising in procuring and advocating for tropical fruits from south east Asia and the northern regions of Australia.
Thorny alludes to the king of fruit, durian. It’s a polarising fruit with a controversial aroma that often disguises and dissuades many from sampling an amazingly delicious fruit with a rich custard texture, sweet pulp with varying touches of bitterness. Whenever I talk to friends about durian I suggest rather than going all in on opening up a fruit, it is better approached by first trying an ice cream or in the case of this showcase trying it in a pastry which is quickly becoming the norm now. From that point and having being acquainted with the flavours, the ultimate is, trying a fresh durian. Let me assure you once you have tried a Musang King Durian, it may be hard to consume durian in any other way.
At Ho Jiak, Townhall, durian lovers packed out the venue to sample a high tea featuring jackfruit and durian. Like any high tea there was a savoury section, followed by a pastry tier and finishing off with a sweet tier. To wash it down we had teh tehrik, lime juice and jasmine tea to wash it all down. I started my high tea with a finger sandwich of Sambal Tempoyak Sardines. Now for me this offering brought back memories. In primary school Mum would mash up sardines with chilli and spread onto a sandwich for school lunch. It sure got some strange look from classmates when I opened my lunchbox to this muddy brown filled sandwich of pungent sardine. This though was an entirely different experience. I loved the sambal hit, that added a spicy, smoky layer of flavour along with the cooling of the cucumber.
In the Gulai Tempoyak Chicken Pie, the fermented durian added a pleasant sweetness that beautifully balanced the gravy chicken filling. Flaky, buttery pastry made this one of the standouts of the high tea. Would love this in a proper meat pie size. So delicious.
From the savoury it was onto the second tier to try the croissants and danish. First up was a Durian Croissant. Ribbons of green on the croissant may be a little deceiving, but one bit reveals the sumptuous flavour of durian that dances on the palate. Laminated layers of croissant that flake apart to reveal a soft, silky smooth centre of durian goodness. It is classic croissant skills by the team at Textbook Patisserie.
Just as flaky and crumbly was a Honey Jackfruit Danish. A tiny parcel yet packed with the sweetness of the diced jackfruit. It really does make you look at danishes differently when it can work so well with jackfruit. Here’s hoping we see more jackfruit type pastries popping up around Sydney.
Macaroons and meringue really are the eye candy when it comes to a high tea tower and it was not any different at this Showcase High Tea. A Durian Meringue Tart was so pretty. I love it’s classic meringue shape and it is perfectly blow torched with just the right amount of caramelisation. The base is perfectly shot and the meringue is like biting into fairy floss(without the stickiness). So soft, and pillowy. It just all melts in the mouth and of course the unmistakable durian flavour comes through.
While the Durian and Honey Jackfruit Macarons have a classic shape and almost shiny finish, their flavours are more unique. Like many of the offerings prior, there is that custardy flavour of durian and tropical sweetness of the jackfruit along with a nice sugar hit.
Rounding out our experience were Honey Jackfruit Choux Au Craquelin. I loved the texture of the craquelin. It had a crunchy, crackly top but once I bit through it, it gave way to an airy centre of jackfruit delight. A fitting way to crown a truly unique yet stunning high tea.
Entirely satisfied I then reflected how bold an effort this was, and how well it was received. While some may think this a novelty, there were genuinely delicious pastries and savoury offerings that could revitalise the traditional high tea concept. My hope is that we do see more venues working with suppliers like The Thorny Fruit Co to bring in high quality, fresh tropical fruit from countries like Malaysia than can be incorporated into show-stopping high tea creations like what we saw this Malaysian Fruit Culinary Showcase. If that happens we will be be encouraging our Sydney friends to give this a go.
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