It’s 9pm on a Friday night and every shop in the area is either empty or closed. Except for Cremeria De Luca. This is the only place with any sense of life in it and there’s even a line going out the front when we arrive! We hop on the end of the line and wait. There are waiters constantly walking around, people screaming at each other in Italian and items on the menu that I can’t pronounce. I’m feeling very confused and yet relaxed at the same time. Possibly because it reminds me of the feeling I get when I walk into a busy Vietnamese restaurant in Cabramatta…
Anyways as we stand in line trying to figure out what all the items on the menu are, the Nutella Arancino catches our eye. I mean they had me at Nutella, but this Arancino I had never heard of. The lady in front overhears our discussion and goes on to explain what Arancino is.
Nutella Arancino ($6.50)
So for those of you who don’t know, Arancino are stuffed rice balls that have been coated in breadcrumbs and fried. She explains that it is usually a savoury dish and filled with a sauce like Bolognese and goes on to reminisce about the ones she had in Italy. So we go ahead and order ourselves a Nutella Arancino and a Gelato Burger with the lot.
What a lovely surprise.
First up the Nutella Arancino. There are essentially three layers to this that work really well together. You’ve got the crunch of the breadcrumb coating, then the stickiness of the rice underneath and finally you get the oozing Nutella in the center to finish it all off.
Gelato Burger With P&N and Two Scoops of Gelato ($10)
Next was the gelato burger with the lot. That’s two scoops of gelato with panna and Nutella in between two brioche buns. The brioche is delicious. It’s both soft and fluffy and about halfway through eating we here that it’s been sold out, which is no surprise there. The cinnamon gelato really hits you with that cinnamon flavor while the Italian Custard was simply smooth and sweet.
I love how they’ve gone out of their way to try something new here. It’s looks incredible and each aspect of the burger tastes amazing on its own. However, would I order it again? No I wouldn’t. And here’s why.
It is difficult to eat. Ever had that problem eating a burger where the filling just keeps on getting pushed to the other end? Now add to that the fact that the filling is now also melting, and you’ve got yourself a messy burger. Also, biting into a burger may be easy to do, but biting directly into ice cream is a completely different experience especially if your teeth are sensitive to the cold.
Despite my issues with the gelato burger, I’ll definitely be coming back to Cremeria De Luca in the near future for the amazing atmosphere and food.
-Dennis
Fight The Craving 