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.  :)

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.

On New York: Always a visitor, never a resident.

Every so often I go to New York, sometimes I post on it, other times I don't. This time, it was a rather pointed quick trip, but I feel like a trip up north hasn't been so welcome.

I think it has to do with how NYC is many things that Atlanta is not. In NYC, I will never have to drive. The M60 was so clean this time! (Money saver tip: If you're thinking about going on a quick trip to NYC, fly into La Guardia, take the M60 into Manhattan, have $2.25 prepared in change for the bus and save a lot of money! I spend freely on transportation based on convenience otherwise, but usually I will allot the appropriate amount of time for the M60).

This blog could otherwise be called, 12 hours in NYC with Christine.

Start: 10am. My friend and I debated on whether it was better to be a resident or a constant visitor of NYC. I think there's a good balance and argument for each. As a constant visitor, I enjoy the public transportation, because I'm hardly ever in a rush. I like to eat at fashionable places and I'm willing to travel cross town for them.

This is Momofuku Noodle Bar, which is cheaper and therefore yummier than Momofuku Ssam Bar in the East Village. I always eat as though I'm eating for an occasion. Here, I ordered an outrageous amount of food and almost succeeded in eating allllll of it.

First, as I was waiting for my friend, the hostess convinced me to get a large Soju Apple Cider from the slushie machine. It was a specialty! It was delicious...and it was $10. *gasp* Splurge #1 in NYC. Then came the flight of tamales, one kimchi, one sichuan sausage, and one jalapeno and cheese.

 The best things come in threes.

Sichuan sausage with veggies.

and finally, the namesake, the Momofuku Noodle Ramen!

Was it worth the $16? Probably not. Was it better than Setagaya Ramen down the street which has a similar bowl for like..$12? Yes. Plus, you have to add in the added utility of being able to eat those tamales and the drunken light feeling I have from the Soju Apple Cider slush. Totally worth it! The egg was perfectly poached, the pork fatty, soo fatty. The broth had a thick consistency that showed that David Chang obviously told he young chefs running the kitchen to brew those pork bones for hours.

Immediately after gorging myself past the point of no-return, I decide to stuff myself with the Blueberries and Cream cookie from Momofuku Milk Bar.

Oink! NOM NOM NOM

Afterwards, a jaunt up to the UES and Museum Row lands me in front of the Guggenheim to catch the Kandinsky exhibit in its last weekend. See the difference between the tourist and the visitor arises again here. It takes 40 mins via public transportation to get from the LES to the UES. I can't think of any New Yorker that would normally do this ever. Forty minutes? Yeah right! I have a hard enough time to have friends visit me in the UWS from the West Village, a 10 minute cab ride. TEN minutes, forget about FORTY. Everyday, I drive 25 mins to work. In DC, I traveled via metro an hour just to get to work. On the metro, you just sit. It's not even like you're driving. Okay. I stop ranting now.

 The lines were a bit insane, since it was the last weekend of Kandinsky. I loved the exhibit, but obviously I didn't take any photos worth showing compared to the actual works. Inside was a zoo, and the architecture itself of the Guggenheim was based on the works of Kandinsky, so the whole scene was a bit meta. At the conclusion of the exhibit, my friend and I decided that in order to be an acclaimed genius, you must be ridiculously removed from life and kind of an arrogant asshole. READ: Frank Lloyd Wright, Wasily Kandinsky. Who paints Compositions based on music, if you've got a wife, kids, and like to play outside? Frank Lloyd Wright = evil man, especially because you know he had a secret second floor plan to include a waterslide at the top of the Solomon R. Gugg. Just for kicks. Then ripped it in two. I hate that the Gugg ain't free. $18 bux, my ass.

The top! How satisfying a slide would that be? Like a tasty dessert at the end of the exhibit where you can review all the works, once more, whilst rolling on water.... Oh the pleausre that could have been.

By the time I honored my affair with Kandinsky to the best of my ability, I was starving for Japanese retail shopping, no pictures were taken as I was savoring and purchasing the shit out of Muji and Uniqlo in Soho. Transport time: 40 mins. Next, after an hour in the cold, I remained surprisingly healthy. After a quick call to my aunt in DC, (man, where is my smart phone?), we found the restaurant, Stand, and I ate these things.

The famous, toasted marshmallow almond milkshake? Something like that. It was tasty.

 

Two fried pickles and a mushroom swiss burger. Can't go wrong!

End: 10pm in New York on a Saturday. LAME, but I got in a cab and headed straight to bed. I had an early day the next day!

(55/365) Creativity in 2010

Since starting my new job, I've realized that I need a continued creative outlet. A cheap, creative outlet that doesn't take up much room. I've made headbands, mustaches, and now... I've decided that I'm going to throw my hat in to bake cupcakes in 2010. Cupcakes, the cake in a cup - that I do not necessarily actually like eating... AND I can give them to my co-workers as well! They don't have to sit around and I've already bought the Martha Stewart cupcake holder.

As you can see above, I've started! It's carrot cake!

09!09!09!

I love the repetition! Nine nine, oh nine! If I were good, I would wait until 09:09p on 09.09.09 to post.. but.... I'm a nerd for even thinking of it!

I've always loved the month of September because simply, it's a good month! Good things happen this month, namely, my birthday and the birthdays of many of my friends! Sadly, this year, I will not be in the same town as Stepperoo so I don't know I will be cutting into Hello Kitty this year.

Cake 1

Cake 2!

It's delicious slaughter!

9.24 - I cannot wait!

FLIP Burger Boutique, a Critique

This is an almost exact post that I posted on yelp.com but you never know where your post will end up on that thing, so I thought I would post it on my blog. I will add more, since you've taken the time to read this.

I had pretty high expectations for Flip, especially after reading all the reviews posted! So many 5 stars! After a conversation with a few friends raving about the place (they said to absolutely try the Nutella milkshake), I lured another one of my friends to go with me, skipping out on a closer Vortex.

The menu was posted online, which was convenient, and from the looks of it, divine. We showed up early at about 11:30 on a Monday and it was not busy at all. The location was not hard to find, although for a second, I was confused on whether or not, I was in carrepairs-ville. Beware, parking is limited.

THE FOOD: I ordered a chorizo burger, and my friend ordered the sirloin. I also ordered the fried pickles and the fries. I won't quote the whole menu, but the choices seem awesome. NOTE: the special is not ANY burger, fries, and a shake for 12, it's the FLIP burger - which, why would you drive all the way to Howell Mill for a run of the mill burger at a specialty gourmet burger store, I just wouldn't understand. Here's how they looked. Drool at your own will.

Warning: Images appear better than they taste. Obvi, you can tell these are food art, but please remember art does not dictate taste.


PRO: I loved the smokey mayo with the fries.
The sauce that went with the chorizo seemed to have a bit of sriracha, which is always a winner.
The portions were JUST right, not too big, not too small. (They were on the small side and STILL, I couldn't finish.) The milkshake was yummy.

In this photo, this milkshake was split in half and looks incredible. I credit this entirely to my food photography and not to its actual taste. Pictured, it looks like a 10, in reality, it was a 5.5. I've had better, waaaaaaaaay better.

CON: The milkshake was yums but it did not taste AT ALL like Nutella. I'm sorry, I eat Nutella with my bananas very often and I know what Nutella tastes like. Where was the hazelnut flavoring? There was no remote essence of Nutella in this milkshake, it wasn't even busy. This was a chocolate milkshake that cost 7 bux. Good but not great enough for the 7 i spent, especially because it did not deliver on the goods.
There was too much heavy spicing on the bread and butter pickles and the ranch was runny - and watered down tasting. I place a lot of judgment on a place based on its ranch, and this ranch was not something to call home about, or come back to.
The chorizo burger was too heavy, as in, it was oily, yet I wasn't sure if it was cooked all the way through, there were cheese SHAVINGs on my burger that amounted to nothing but extra calories and my poached egg was so runny, that it might have ruined my burger all together. Half an hour after lunch, I felt a bit sick to my stomach - not pleasant.
My fries were a little cold, but delicious. Unfortunately, they were not the best fries that I've had
My friend's sirloin burger was not good all the way through for a medium burger, but overall - MEH.

What I ate. I mean, it was a great presentation.

SERVICE: friendly, and amazingly all the waitstaff that I could see was incredibly good looking - I don't know if this helps anyone, but just putting it out there! There was hipster music playing in the background and most of the staff looked like they were out of the the Urban Outfitters, American Apparel crowd. CON: I did seem them drinking like Chick-fil-a cups before it got busy. I guess this shit it too rich for them, bitch.

Overall: For a $20 burger experience, I did not flip out for Flip. Good while I had it, but will not be returning.

PS. For people that don't live in ATL, this is Richard Blais's burger joint, he was on Top Chef.

Egg Tarts

Because my cousin likes them so much, I took pictures of the ones I ate abroad. The KFC was incredible, freshly out of the oven, it tasted like heaven that only fast food a la Asia can produce. The Lord Stow ones were well known, the perfect marriage of Portuguese with Macanese cuisine.. and the others? Well, when in Hong Kong, you have to eat them where ever you see them!

Fried Chicken! in NYC

Courtesy of Grubstreet on NYmag

I can't stop drooling over the Momofuku Noodle Bar Fried Chicken. For $100, you and up to 7 other friends get two chickens, one fried Southern style, the other Korean style. This plus all the accompanying delights have brought me an unnecessary lust to go to New York.

Apparently all three Momo chefs have been eating and testing fried chicken non-stop for the past month in order to get this recipe right. According to NYmag, David Chang has said that "What you're trying to do is separate the skin from the meat and almost create a pomme souflée effect. You want the skin to be super-crisp and crunchy. In a way, it protects the meat while it's cooking."

I. can't. stop. drooling. Go here for more.

包 Wow! Making Baozi (包子), SUCCESS!

This is a not yet steamed baozi (包子!). Inside hides some tasty delights.

lonely bun!

Yeasty buns filled with savory meats and veggies, they are steamed to perfection and can be eaten whenever you want! In China, baozi are commonly eaten for breakfast, although I have eaten baozi at every hour of the day. Now that I live in Georgia and baozi are not as easily accessible as they were in Beijing [shoutout to that baozi man that made amazing baozi!], I begged my grandmother who has always made the best, delicious baozi to show me how to make them!

There are two major parts in making these baozi. The filling and the dough - it takes forever!
The filling is composed of chopped bokchoy, pork, clear noodles, green onion, shitake mushrooms that have been stirfried with onion. The bokchoy is washed and soaked in salt before it is strained of moisture and chopped and diced. Shitake mushroom diced and stirfried with onion to bring out the flavor before all three are combined with the raw pork. The clear noodles need be chopped into small bits. The purpose of the clear noodles are to soak up the excess moisture inside the bun when it steams so that the inside isn't soupy. Soupy buns are delicious, but dry ones can be just as tasty without being excessively fatty. Soupy buns can also explode all over your shirt and ruin clothes - maybe that's just me? It should look something like this as it's waiting to be wrapped!

this would be delicious, if it were not raw.

The dough is a simple flour and water plus yeast that mostly just takes time (4 hours) to rise. Then, you cut and roll the dough out into small flat circles that are about 4 inches in diameter with centers that are slightly thicker than around, so that the meat won't wa. I raced my grandmother in being able to roll the dough out faster than she could wrap it.

yes i know these aren't round circles. they should be. should!

After they're wrapped, we put them in a waiting zone because we could only steam 10 at a time for 25 mins each.

包 wow! steam us up!

After their 25 mins sauna experience, they become big and puffy marshmellow poofy cuties! This is them right out of the steamer!:


We put them in a rack and let them cool before eating them.

grandmother, as she is taking them and putting them on the rack.

Here is the inside of one of the experimental batches. The more we made, the bigger and fluffier the baozi became! I hope you enjoyed looking at these pictures because I enjoyed making 50 of these baozi in an all day food-speriment with my grandmother... and eating these yum baozis.

click to ZOOM!

Norma's, Nino's and Seredipity III, Oh My!

Yesterday, on Stephen Colbert's Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert dines and "dashes" on some of the most famous four figure meals in NYC. Colbert "does his part to keep the industry alive."

At Norma's at Le Parker Meridien Hotel, he tastes the Zillion Dollar Lobster Frittata. According to Luxurylaunches.com, "the breakfast dish rolls in six eggs, the tail of a roasted Maine Lobster, 10 ounces of Sevruga caviar, all priced for a $1,000. The caviar used in the Zillion Dollar Frittata supposedly comes from the Caspian Sea sturgeon and retails for $80-$170 an ounce." Doesn't this look like a better way to spend $1k USD than burning it as firewood?

Colbert uses the bathroom run as an excuse to dash on the check.

Then he heads over to Nino's. Nino's Bellissima Pizza has a $1,000 pizza, the Mamma Mia, which is composed of (12") thin crust topped with caviar, lobster, creme fraiche and chives. If that lobster and caviar from breakfast wasn't enough, then you should eat this for lunch! He asks about the pizza, "Does this come with crazy bread? If you think about it, any bread you serve with a $1000 pizza would be crazy." After tasting it, he tells Nino that "this is one of the best 1,000 pizzas that I've ever had....Right up there."

For dessert, Stephen Colbert goes to Serendipity III, like the movie, to finish his food-sploration. He has the Golden Opulence Sundae, costing $1000.
Consisting mostly of 24k gold power, paper 24k gold, and imported chocolate, vanilla, fruits, nuts, all made of money.....then, Stephen Colbert covers his face in gold foil. It is amazing. Please watch the clip.

Things I ate in New York, a Catalogue Continued

Momofuku Milk Bar: David Chang's most recent addition to his East Village empire, Momofuku Milk Bar features all the desserts served at his restaurants, created by Christina Tosi. Miss Tosi's creations are delectable to the extreme. They soundly reintroduce basic desserts and incorporate a combination of homey tastes and treats with an exotic new flavor. This is their menu:
I particularly enjoyed the Banana Green Curry bread, which I slice and heat for breakfast. It's a light banana bread that isn't particularly sweet, but has tons of dimension in flavor. Mixed within the banana is the green curry that adds complexity in it's spiciness. Then, I discovered these:

For $4.50, I purchased three cookies. The chocolate-chocolate, the compost cookie, and the cornflake-marshmellow-chocolate chip cookie. The most obviously delicious cookie was the cornflake-marshmellow-chocolate chip cookie. Completely sweet, the cornflake gave the cookie an additional crunch, the marshmellow provided a strong sweetness and the chocolates were quality.

I was the most wary of the compost cookie, which sounds a lot like trash. The sweet girl behind the counter explained enthusiastically that it was a conglomeration of potato chips, pretzels, coffee grounds, oats, graham-cracker crumbs and chocolate and butterscotch chips, which sounded disgusting and amazing all at once. After biting into, I realized that I had never tasted a cookie so interesting. It kind of tasted like a huge meal. Salty and sweet, but neither in particular, it starts off sweet, but ends savory, much like a potato chip.

The chocolate-chocolate cookie is one that must be savored. I started eating it quickly at a Starbuck's store, which did it much of a disservice. This chocolate-chocolate was deep. It's something you eat alone, savoring slowly! Like biting into a deep dish chocolate brownie cookie, you can taste the chocolate morsels in each bite, the chemistry of the cookie a fullbodied creation that has a salty edge to make you appreciate the chocolate taste even more. How much more poetic can I be about these?

This is a photo of the pies. There is a Crack Pie. I wanted to taste, but it was physically impossible.

A sample of the Old-Fashioned Donut soft serve was actually what I was most looking forward to. They used to have Cereal Milk soft serve. I was hoping for some sort of frozen Krispy Kreme but instead, this soft serve is a little too complicated for my palate. Derivated from an actual cake mix, the after taste is exactly like a donut, but the taste is too salty for me. A sample is all I could consume.

After a long walk into the East Village, into Washington Park, only to realize that the izakaya that I had wanted to go to was definitely not open until nighttime, my friend and I arrived at Setagaya Ramen in St. Mark's. Hello, yummy-lish.


For dinner, I went to Oh! Taisho where I had a sample of the okonomiyaki. Wiki states the okonomiyaki as:

"Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き ^?) is a Japanese savoury pancake containing a variety of ingredients. The name is derived from the word okonomi, meaning "what you like" or "what you want", and yaki meaning "grilled" or "cooked" (cf. yakitori and yakisoba). Okonomiyaki is mainly associated with Kansai or Hiroshima areas of Japan, but is widely available throughout the country. Toppings and batters tend to vary according to region......The batter is made of flour, grated yam, water or dashi, eggs and shredded cabbage, and usually contains other ingredients such as green onion, meat (generally pork or bacon), octopus, squid, shrimp, vegetables, kimchi, mochi or cheese. Okonomiyaki is sometimes compared to an omelette or a pancake and may be referred to as "a Japanese pancake", or even "Osaka soul food"^[1]."

Needless to say, it is something that I didn't know that I was missing and have been craving ever since. Please expect a blog where I strive to create my own okonomiyaki!

The next day, we stopped at Le Pain Quotiedien where I had an egg salad tartine that was beautiful and delicious but I was too engrossed and sad that I was leaving NYC to take a photo. NYC food, I loves you!

Things I ate in New York, a Catalogue

Defonte's of Brooklyn. Introducing the Nicky Special, no. 1. This sandwich was featured on an episode of 30 Rock and frankly, if it's good enough for them, then I freaking need a taste. It recently opened up a satellite branch on 3rd and 21st on the East side and proved to be delicious. Seating was a minimum, which lead my friend and I to sit and feast on the outside sidewalk of Gramercy Park.

ham, capocollo, salami, fried eggplant, provolone, hot salad, marinated mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, oil and vinegar for 9.95. A sandwich the side of my head. This spells quality, for I literally could not put my mouth around this sandwich! It was so big, I could only eat half at once. The sesame loaf was delicious and the hot salad, actually very spicy, so spicy that the sides of my face that came in contact with the sandwich tingled in delight. The biggest hit of the sandwich would have to be the fried eggplant. This is the first of many sandwiches that I will need to try at Defonte's of Brooklyn.

Next: Bergdorf Men's Cafe - Bar III:
Really, I came here for the free water. NYC tap is delicious and I wanted to drink this instead of some shit Trump Ice that they were selling inside Central Park. Apparently when it is nice outside, everyone gets naked, lays out, and soaks in the sun. I followed the trend and in order to get out of the heat, headed over a block to Bergdorf Men's - which is across the street from Bergdorf Goodman's to grab a snack.

Rich, moist, and juicy. This carrot cake was a perfect complement to my buckets of ice water that I was downing to escape the heat.

In addition to this cafe, there is also a cafe in the basement level of the Takishimaya that is also worth visiting.

Next on the list: Joe's Shanghai/Joe's Ginger: I always eat the following things here and I refuse to explain what they are. If you are curious, come with me to New York and I will take you there.

If you have been with me before, you know what I'm talking about and these dishes are yummy delicious always worth going back to!

A follow up snack! Red Mango. I needed have a taste of Red Mango to know the difference between that and Pinkberry. Red Mango is creamier, probably made with a milk with a higher fat content. Pinkberry's flavor is lighter, making it taste like frozen delightful Yakult. So if you're in the mood for creamy, icecream-esque frozen yogurt, Red Mango is your game. Fortunately for me, that's what I wanted. Mine is the special, regular size, with mochi and mango. How fitting!

Sadly, the seating in K-town location is very little and my friend and I were reduced to standing and waiting for benches as those high school Korean bitches refused to yield their seats, 15 minutes after they were finished. Damn Korean bitches.

You think that's all? You would be mistaken.