Croydon Park

Now here is a suburb that doesn't appear often on the foodie's radar. My favourite gelato place was having their annual fundraising day, which I have attended for the past 2 years, so that's how I found myself wondering the streets of Croydon Park on a Tuesday night. We arrived at Pure Gelato around 6:30pm, and found the place pumping, with a DJ spinning the tunes, lots of kids going crazy on the jumping castle, and the parents having a good old yarn. The smell of BBQ filled the air. I love to eat for charity, so we gladly parted with $3 for a sausage sizzle, cooked up by the local Lions Club. The sausage was average, the bun was better than average, combined with sauce, is just comfort food.

The sky was clear, the air was chilly, but that didn't stop us from indulging on ice-cream, all in the name of charity. A couple of gold-coin donations later, we walked away with caramelised figs,ricotta and honey,oreo, and bounty. I have to admit that these 4 new flavours were the only ones we haven't tried from their counter of about 12 flavours... we've been there that many times. Most of their gelatos have won awards, and you can't really fault any of the flavours, and believe me, I've tried enough of them. My favourite though is still the hazelnut, creamy and with the unmistakable flavour of fresh ground hazelnut. Following close behind though is the new flavour, caramelised fig. They've always had figs as a flavour which I have dried and is very good, but this version just beats it hands down. Is it the caramelisation? There are chunks of figs mixed with gelato with a caramel swirl. Yum! The 2nd best for tonight was the ricotta and honey, which was a bit less creamy but the honey added another caramel flavour. 3rd was the oreo, which was like chocolate with biscuits, and last bounty. I was surprised because I really liked their coconut and mango and coconut gelatos, but I found the coconut flavour in the Bounty a bit fake and the chocolate flakes didn't have a strong enough cocoa taste.

We watched people enjoying gelato with their friends and family, but was disappointed that they weren't running the gelato eating comp or the factory tour, so we decided to depart. Oh, they also raised more than $10,000 for charity, so good on them, and I will be back next year.

I hadn't paid much attention before, but there were quite a few Middle Eastern food places on Georges River Rd. In the interest of comparisons, we stopped off at Samir Abla's Pastry. After deliberating for about 10 minutes, finally decided to get a mixed plate of pastries, which came on a plastic plate, nicely wrapped and tied with ribbons. Their pastries are sold for $16/kg, so our platter came to $20.

When we got home, I brew up some lychee teas and tried their offerings. The verdict? The pastry is not quite as flaky as El Bahsa Sweets in Bankstown, and the filling not as nutty. But it was better than Baladna Pastry in Auburn. I prob won't be back because Bankstown is closer, but next time I go to get gelato, I will def swing by.

Info

Pure Gelato
30-32 Brighton Ave
Croydon Park
NSW 2133
Phone (02) 9716 4488
Website

Samir Abla's Pastry
159 Georges River Rd
Croydon Park
NSW 2133
Phone (02) 9797 9697
Also at Guildford