Pâtisserie Sadaharu Aoki

There are only 7 Aoki Patisseries in the world, one of them is in Taiwan. It's open in the newest most decadent shopping center in Taipei, Bellavita. Everyone has a different story and who has opened it and how it came to be, basically it's down the street from Taipei 101 and inside, all the most expensive stores that you would expect on 5th reside here!

I heard about Aoki through the blog, hungryintaipei.blogspot.com, one girl's amazing blog, eating through all of Taipei. If you're there, I highly recommend giving it a read through.

After I saw some of her pics, I knew I had to go. I was salivating in anticipation and shamelessly took as many pictures as I could.

macarons. drool.

zooooooom. looking at them makes me starvingggggggg

not hungry for macarons, fine. get one of these babies in your mouth, stat!

splendid! they look like works of art. it's amazing how beautiful food reduces me to only complimentary phrases.

Bonbon? Oui!

Choco covered macaron? Seriously, do you get the idea?

I wanted to sample so badly!

I recommend that you should go and drool for yourself.

I just love all the colors and the attention to detail. If you're in Tokyo, Paris, or Taipei, you should stop by Sadaharu Aoki!

Obvi click to enlarge, .....this blog had no point except me showcasing how awesome food is.  :)

Love Letter to Taiwan

"From the west to the east I have flown to be near you, I have come all this way, to be close, to be here with you.. and now all my heart, I will lay down precisely at your feet..." The song may be called Love Letter to Japan, but the beginning is also true to me for Taiwan.


The weather may be humid, it has rained every day that I've been here and my skin is permanently damp but Taiwan just has a certain smell that I love. It's a combination of BO, sulfur, mildew, stinky tofu, and delicious delicious food. Damn, the food is good. I'm here now until after the 4th of July and I'm seriously trying not to feast on everything in sight.

Although I did eat this.

Then there's the hair washing. Anyone who is Taiwanese will tell you that getting your hair washed is a complete NECESSITY. Why pay for it when you can do it yourself? Please, fool.
If you're in that sort of frame of mind then you don't need to come to Taipei. Hair-washing, scalp massaging and cheap blow outs are exactly my style. 


Taiwan also specializes in cute things. So far I've only taken food pictures, but I also need to diversify back to cute things. I'll keep that in the back of my mind!


The only drawback of Taiwan is the most annoying of all things, mosquitoes. But seriously, beware of the mosquitoes. Taiwanese mosquitoes are persevering creatures that are beasts of the first order. Their bites are not like those of their American cousins. If you get bitten, it starts as a familiar nip, a rise of the skin, but if you touch, then you're in trouble. Where you touch, the poison of the sucker will spread and before you know it, what started as a needle prick has become an unforgiving quarter welt proudly displayed on your forearm that will not fade for weeks on it. Forget about it if you are careless enough to scratch it. Jesus. Game over.

Cupcake Cannon

Not a cupcake canon, but instead a cupcake cannon. A cannon that shoots le cupcakes.



Rawr! Me want!

Macaron vs. Macaroon

I just discovered that I may been craving macarons, while calling them macaroons for a very long time.

Macarons , pronounced mahck-eh-rohn, are beautiful French pastry creations that can be as basic or exotic as one wishes them to be.

Macarons! ... that I didn't make but are soooo pretty.

Macarons are light and fluffy, they have a light meringue texture with a light crust and a yummy filling!

Macaroons, on the other hand, are coconut based cookies. This is my blog. I refuse to show you what they look like because your mouth should be watering at the thought of these tasty babies!

Reason to go back to Tokyo!

There's a strawberry cake in Tokyo created by the artist Koozoo. It's fantastic how he's able to capture huge and cute all at the same time. It's in Roppongi if you're there! More pictures after the jump!

Brown: A Love Affair

It all started with a reunion with Audrey that happened in the autumn. Audrey and I reminisced of times' past and we ate at the Cheesecake Factory, a tradition a decade in the making....

Providence. I went, I saw, I fell in love. I went for one night only and discovered the glory of Fire water, GCB and sexy Scrabble, the board game of love.

Then, I randomly met Audrey's friends. Her fellow medical students. Take comfort in knowing that all the people that I've posed with in this blog are going to be doctors.

These were not your average bunch of medical students. Bigger (not really, actually they're pretty tiny), bolder (only in laughter), and better than ever (seriously), friends of Audrey's are friends of mine. Now, I'm no med student, but I do know how to have fun. So did they. Work hard, but play as well. My dears - that is my modus operandi.

Almost immediately after I left, Audrey and I planned for another meeting. Our schedules have been tight and still, it worked!

I arrived on Friday night and made future friends with Axel, then proceeded to have a rolicking good times with the ladies, who incidentally, while I was away, had discovered the power of the CHI.

This, plus two instances of Brunch (...which are always signs of a good time! Think about it, do you eat brunch all the time? Nope, only on special occasions),

GCB games, Eddie Izzard, all a good weekend make.

Hello laaaaaaaaadies. ;)

After this most delightful brunch, Audrey and I attended a little thing called Roller Derby on Sunday, Bloody, Opening weekend, Sunday. At first we didn't understand...

 

Butch ladies in fishnets beating on each other? WHO WOULDN'T want to be apart of that? Evidently, many people agreed with us. Including...

 YES. EVERYONE came!

Not necessarily our friends, exactly.. but..  Seriously. I have a crush on Sky Rocket.

If every life brings to you a roller derby, please go. Brown, I love you.

Castella (ella ella!) Catastrophe

Castella. I've always relished hearing the word emerge from my mother's mouth. One of very few that I can bear, and is always welcome. Eaten at random times and places, I have eaten castella around the world, in Taipei, in Japan, New York and straight from the refrigerator in my house, relishing every bite. Castella is a honey pound cake that originated in Spanish Castile, which was then carried through trade by the Portuguese to Japan and made into a special craft in Nagasaki. It's also known as Kasutera, in other words, mouthwateringly, delicious.

The only problem with the castellas that I've consumed is that they've have been quite small, rather expensive and worth every bite. Since I've been on a baking spree, I thought that I could conquer easily, the castella. It actually all started with Pichet Ong's cookbook.

CASTELLA. Two years of not eating castella, and I see the word again... and it's on. Ca-stel-la. CASTELLA. Castella. ella ella. Really, you have to admit, it rolls right off zee tongue. Obsessed as I was, I researched for hours which recipe I should follow. Recipes, opinions, photos, videos, more links to more recipes before finally settling my heart on one. It warned that this recipe was not for the novice baker. I have experience cake, no worries. I shrugged off the warning.

First, the pan must be covered. I used parchment paper and took my time to cover, snip and fold the paper to fit into my 8" by 8" Wilton pan (new purchase). I totally got this. Next, I sifted the flour. Sift! Sift!

I was still good. Then, I created a honey and milk mix. This is the secret of the flavor! Following the directions to the T, I must have read the recipe 100x just so I knew what was going on.

Eggs. Whisked.

I added sugar.... put it in the pan and let it rise!

At this point, the smell was intoxicating! Maybe I had gotten it right on the first try!

Yummy! I wrapped it in a bag to keep it moist.

This is what I wanted to see (from wiki): delicate, with a velvety texture.....

Are you ready for what I created?

Dim Sum so good, it needed its own post

AMAZING.

I STILL CAN'T GET THESE OUT OF MY MIND.

SO JUICY. HOT and STEAMY. JUST HOW I LIKES IT. RAWR.

CONCLUSION: INCREDIBLE. DIM SUM IN SEATTLE > SAN FRAN > NYC > DC > ATL.

Christine goes to Seattle! 2010!

What's a more welcome beginning of a trip than a Flight Delight? The person who created this box obvi knows what I like. Thanks, stranger! You know what isn't a welcome treat? Sitting next to an insane woman on the plane. I'm always lucky enough to get on the flight and lucky enough to have a compelling enough face that people feel like they can tell me their story. The woman next to me was a psycho that spent hours telling me about the conspiracy theories of the North Koreans who were shipping lumber into their country from South Korean, that somehow built some sort of machine that was busy shifting tectonic plates around Earth. Chile, Haiti, Taiwan. Earthquakes and other natural disasters, not so natural after all. At least, according to her and didn't I know it? She was hellbent on telling me about her decision to fly down to South America and charter a flight to Easter Island where she and a friend would be saving the world by preventing the shifting of any more tectonic plates................................. RIGHT.

So.. I decided to embark on a weekend wild adventure cross country to Seattle. The city by the ocean. Home of Starbucks, Microsoft and other big companies that I depend on to live... and home of my friend Tree. What's a happy change from sunny, hot, Atlanta? Why not rainy, cold Seattle? Rainy it was.

welcome.

After a short ride into the city, I met up with Tree  (short for Teresa, it's a long story, and I'd love to explain but it's frankly not any of your business) on the campus of UW at Seattle. We proceeded to begin an Asian Food Odyssey like none other. By myself, I enjoyed some Vietnamese style congee. With her, we had sushi and yam fries, Korean rice cakes, okonomiyaki, Thai food, dimsum, and wine to top it all off. I also met a few of Tree's friends and friends of friends. Booze makes people friendly and when I'm friendly, there are photos taken. Shall we take a peek?

I thought you might be curious! First, a glance at a bar that we went to. It had scotch and whiskeys and scotch whiskys.

scotch scotch scotch.

The inside had two things I enjoyed most, books and booze.

The bartender was a bitch, and yet, I still made her take a photo of Tree and me!

Yes, we were carded.

Soon thereafter, I was treated to meeting Youngjoo and some other friends of Tree. Here are some cute pics
.

Also apparently, in Seattle, there is a store called, Utilikilts, a seller of quality men's kilts and various other masculine skirt accessories...yeaaaaah about that.......

I also visited Pikes Place Market, spied really cute Asian babies peering into a window at Beecher's the cheese-makers, and witnessed a giant fish being thrown. Yes, I admit I am a creeper.

Oh hey, LOOK, pretty flowers. (fresh tulips @ PikesPlaceMarket!)

I'm not sure what else to rave about. You KNOW I will be posting more random food porn later. Right now, I need to sleeeep!

The Great Cake Debate

Jezebel magazine is conducting a very important bracket regarding the best of the best of cakes vs pies. THIS is a very important topic guys! Personally I'm surprised that French Silk cake was able to make it as far as it did...I'm sad about the performance of the Funfetti. I am a lover of that Funfetti.

Voting is closed, but you can read more about it here.

Parish Foods & Goods, not so goods

A friend and I arrived at Parish at 5:30 pm to an empty restaurant. That’s fine because who eats that early? People who are at work at 7:30a, leave at 4 and have no place else to go, and no other thoughts in their mind but delicious food on their minds, that’s who. Let me tell you my expectations to begin with…

Previously at work, I had glanced, nay stared at the menu, and I have to say I was impressed. Cajun/Southern/American/local/organic…. AND, I realized that the head chef was the ex-boyfriend of one of my friends, an ex who my friend said cooked really good food, no matter whatever the circumstances of their breakup.

So my expectations, I would say on a scale of 1-high, at about a strong 7. I wasn’t expecting new flavors, but I was expecting a meal of solid quality, artistry, and flavor explosions.

BTW, here was the menu:

Course 1

Choice of:
A: Smoked Ham Hock Hushpuppies w/ Black Eye Pea Caviar and Goat Cheese Buttermilk
B: Pimento Cheese Bisque w/ Pickled Celery “Chow Chow”
C: Georgia Creamed Grits w/ Sherried Shrooms, Applewood Smoked Bacon and Poached Yard Egg

Course 2

Choice of
A: Lemon Pepper Roasted Pork Shoulder: Creamed Collards, Warm Potato Salad, Natural Jus
B: Kenny’s Fish Fry: Buttermilk Fried Catfish, Garlic Potato Wedges, Tart Coleslaw, Malt Vinegar Butter
C:  Roasted Eggplant and Smoked Tomato Jamabalaya

Course 3

Choice of
A: Chocolate Pudding w/ whip cream and nilla wafers
B: Spiced Apple Cake w/ Brown Sugar Icecream

I love choices and all of these looked worthy of considering, except for the veg choice on the entrees because who’s kidding who here, I’m not paying $$$ for eggplants, dude.

The service was interesting. The server had a trainee shadowing him. I felt as though he was overly cheerful trying to demonstrate the definition of good service. I liked him enough but he was a chatty Cathy. I wish I remembered his name. I probably shouldn’t have waited so long. But I needed something to think about today and this is going to be it.

Before we got our food, we each ordered a drink, I ordered a Pimm’s cup and Leana ordered a glass of wine. Pimm’s cup = delicious spring treat! We were each served a single slice of bread that looked like it had just been pressed inside a George Foreman…questionable but who turns down free carbs? In retrospect, I wouldn’t have eaten this.

Leana ordered the hushpups and I ordered the grits. These grits I loved. Creamy smooth with mushrooms, I loved what I could taste. The poached egg was a little bit overdone, but I don’t mind, that’s my preference. If you want a perfectly poached egg you should go to Momofuku Noodle Bar, David Chang has a $1000 perfect egg poacher. Obvi Parish doesn’t have that bad boy. I dug around in the dark looking for the applewood bacon, I found more mushrooms, which I’m not complaining about… but… bacon probably could have made this even more divine. The bite of hush pups that I got were a bit dry. I definitely won on the appetizer order.

Main course, I ordered the pork shoulder, Leana, the fishfry. I didn’t bother to taste hers, it looked like Long John Silver’s catch of the day, and she said as much. Mine was interesting. On paper I ordered the “Lemon Pepper Roasted Pork Shoulder: Creamed Collards, Warm Potato Salad, Natural Jus.” What I saw on my plate were two slices of pork on top of potatoes and creamy greens. After some oral experimentation, the pork, too dry in some areas, just right in others, was over salted. That was just my first bite. The potatoes had been soaked in lemon jus or something for TOO long, I literally couldn’t put that stuff in my mouth and the collard greens were creamy and delicious. I devoured the creamy greens, choked down the pork, and deserted the potatoes.

For dessert, I ordered the apple cake and Leana, the pudding. My apple cake seemed like an apple tart, very dry at the tip, similar to what a tart tastes like when it’s stale. Mixed with the vanilla ice cream, we were able to eat it.  Meanwhile, Leana’s pudding was made like a mousse, with the thick consistency of a pudding. It was too rich for this bitch… and the “nilla” wafer… was more like a greasy cookie that unsettled the stomach.

Overall rating: C+

Likes: Pimm’s Cup, Grits

Dislikes: Everything else, including, sadly the service.