Laduree

I love my desserts but I don't like them too sweet. Sugar in all my recipes are always cut down to the minimum so much so that my niece and siblings shun my cakes -_-

But I do have a weakness for the super sugary ice-cream and macaroons. Best macaroons I have tasted so far are from Laduree.

Macaroons nestled inside pretty butterfly box

My favourite flavour is salted caramel followed closely by pistachio. I find they taste best on the second day.

Left: La Maison du Chocolat's vanilla
Right: Laduree's rose

Praline Millefeuilles

Well made puff pastry with praline filled vanilla custard sandwiched in between. I want to cry after first bite, when will I have another chance to taste this again?? I am so many thousand miles away............ The famous apple strudel from Perth can't even compare, to think I used to rave about it, how ignorant was I, Chinese has a saying,"one mountain is higher than the other........." too right, too right....

The famous Mont Blanc. I don't find anything special with this, sorry not a fan. Big King took one bite and "ran until no shadow" kakaka......I have to finish the darn thing in sour face ><

London May 2006 - Sweets

Fortnum & Mason

Window display

Cakes - Berries Mousse and Coffee Opera??

La Maison du Chocolat

Rumour has it they sell the most expensive chocolates in the world (in what aspect I can't remember perhaps by weight). I've tasted some in the shop, well, I've had better.......

Anyway I was not after the chocolates, I was interested in them babies...


Oooo yes, macaroons!!

Can't get any decent ones in Asia except well obviously Tokyo where the Picasso of Patisserie, Pierre Herme, has a shop as well as Sadaharu Aoki and Dalloyau. Of course I must stuff myself silly when I see them in reputable shops such as this one. I bought the only pack left. Review see next post.

La Maison du Chocolat's display - Chocolate goodies galore!

Laduree

What's inside those pretty boxes? To reveal in next post, for Laduree warrants an individual mention.

Haagen Daz

We visited the flagship cafe in Leicester Square after a forgettable meal in nearby Chinatown.

New summer flavours - cantaloupe (left), berries and cream (right) and cappucino with caramel and chocolate fudge chip (bottom)

My absolute favourite is cantaloupe! No chemical flavourings aftertaste, very refreshing on a warm summer night. Both other flavours were equally good.

Krispy Creme

Picked up two couples from their branch in Harrods. Certainly lived up to its reputation being the best doughnut in US of A. Yay! I love doughnuts!

Ooops, missing one. Gobbled up in the car on highway. Frosting did not go all melty and sticky the following day, amazing (weather's hot here!)

Yummy Yum Yum

Neapolitan yum yum

There are only two British sweets I will eat, vanilla slice and yum yum.

Vanilla slice is just vanilla custard sandwiched between two sheets of puff pastry. Simple but delicious. I love all things custard.

It's a bit hard to describe yum yum. It's like doughnut but dough is drier and much like a wetter puff pastry and the surface frosted with icing. It comes in all sorts of flavour but my favourite is triple chocolate which is always SOLD OUT when I want to get a couple ><

I wonder if I can get them down under in Oz?

Tong Palace, Leeds

I spied this newly opened restaurant one weekend in April 2006 and made mental note to visit soon. It occupied the exact same spot which was previously Jade Garden which served awful food in my opinion so no prize for guessing why it closed it's doors.

One sunday, after our park rendezvous, I was in no mood to cook. So we made our way to the very posh Red Chilli for some northern Beijing nosh. There was a queue and not wanting to wait, we left. No further luck at the nearby Nando's (oh, don't the chicken smell good!). Fate brought us to Tong Palace, the restaurant was near empty. Oh oh, not a good sign. But 即來之,則安之.

I ordered roast meat platter, salted vegetable fish and belacan kangkong.

Roast meat platter included roast duck, char-siew and soy sauce chicken. Roast duck was surprisingly passable. Nice tender meat with cripy skin albeit a little fatty. Char siew was too salty. Chicken was of average standard.

I haven't had kangkong in such a long time. This version was ok but the squid was overcooked hence rubbery.

The favourite of the day was this deep-fried whole bass cooked in salted vegetable gravy. Seasong was subtle and the fish was juicy and soft.

High Tea at Betty's Harrogate

Determine to enjoy a traditional English high tea for the last time before we left for good, we found ourselves in Betty's early April 2006. Betty's, a famous British institution for fine tea, coffee and pastries, is very popular with both locals and tourists.

Shopfront at historic Harrogate

We arrived a little after 2pm, there were only 2 parties waiting. Ten minutes later we were seated in a rather nice booth area. Princess were presented with not one but two TOLO toys which only kept her interested for 5 minutes :(

I had, naturally, the high tea set for one GBP12.50


The scone was delicious! I mop it up with ALL the clotted cream!

Which came with full silver (plated?) tea service.



Big King ordered Chicken wrapped in ham with rosti (a carnivore through and through)



The ham was so salty but balanced with the unseasoned (read:tasteless) chicken. Rosti is nice and crispy. Salad tasted a bit weird, I guess it was pre-made in bulk and just dish out onto plates for every order. Ewwww, I don't like..........I can't remember what the sauce taste like. All in all, a rather disappointing dish.

The sister company, Taylors of Harrogate, stocks some rare single estate coffee, which some had made their way into Betty's menu. Yemeni Mocha Ismaili stood out like pop-up art cos I've never even heard of it (sakai, sakai). It came in a cafetierre, which I am not keen on.

The coffee has an exotic taste, kind of acidic but will not linger long. I've never been a fan of acidic coffee like Blue Mountain. Blue Mountain leaves an acidic aftertaste which is unpleasant to me which of course other people appreciate how the perfume 'lingers' in your mouth after a sip. No no to me, I don't like lingering taste. Drinking this Yemenic coffee reminded me of drinking wine, it has a somehow liquor feel to it, very special.

A nice British experince but I must say there are other better choices with the same amount of dosh.

Chocolate souffles from GU, a premium chocolate dessert manufacturer. Didn't rise like how souffle is supposed to rise. It tasted ok. Personnaly I don't really like souffle but souffle lover will like it. It's kind of a self-saucing souffle if you like. Make no mistake even if it did not rise much the batter came out nice and airy and springy and extremely light.


Yes, it looks like those melt-in-the-centre chocolate pud but the texture is really souffle-ish.

German Christman Market in Leeds

All the photos were taken with my new Kodak V550 except the first one which was taken with Sony DSC V1.

The photos taken with V550 has not been edited in any way and I reckon they give stunning pictures under maximum lighting circumstances and didn't do too badly in dimly lit surrounding but need the help of a tripod. The first photo has been edited both brightness and colour.











Princess, pretty in pink, enjoying the cold day out.

Leeds Chinatown

Sien, I haven't make anything or did anything exciting to blog about lately. Some failed cakes and dishes which I have all blog about before......

Took a couple of pictures of Leeds Chinatown, or street more like, a while ago. Take a peek......

Not very exciting, that's why I visit Manchester's every now and then.

Hope to get out of this food rut soon........

Chocolate Tasting

The freshest chocolates from renowned chocolatiers in Europe. The small bag of pure chocolate shavings drinking chocolate is FREE.

Chocolate menu and scoring card.

My favourite is the delicious dark Gianduja which melts in your mouth the second you pop into your mouth followed by the more-ish caramel chocolate buttons. (Both are lower left hand corner)

Dumouchel Cakes

Pretty packaging from Dumouchel

I am not going to bake my birthday cakes, nooooooo.................

I came across an article in the September issue of Olive (eating/makan magazine which I STUDY religiously every month hehe) on patissier Thierry Dumouchel.

Hailed from Normandy, Dumouchel has worked all over the world and finally settled in Leeds (hurray!) after marrying his wife from (yes you guessed it) Leeds.

He produces exquisite chocolates destined for Harvey Nichols. If it's good enough for Harvey Nichols, it's good enough for me! I told Big King he must drive me there to have a look see and pick up a cake or two........

A tiny shopfront with magazine features (several) pasted on the door. Tacky, I thought to myself........

When I entered the shop, only two trays of cakes greeted me :( plus odd pieces of quiche and one danish. It was only a little after 11 am! Surely that's a good sign that they are almost sold out so early...........

I went home with 2 slices of cakes, 1 danish and 1 Pain Normand (Normandy loaf I think).

The cold pastry was still crispy! Only fresh and seasonal fruits are used, nice............

Left: White chocolate mousse and raspberry slice
Right: Raspberry or strawberry? mousse slice

The cakes are delicious! Easily one of the best or the best I have tasted so far! Even Big King (whom sometimes I think has lost all taste sensation....) gave a thumbs up

I will definitely return for more! Oh, L'Opera wait for me...............

Yum Cha Encore at Glamorous Restaurant

My earlier post on Glamorous, click here.

British Strawberries

Sunday Yum Cha at Glamourous Restaurant

Big King was on leave last week. With Chloe in tow, we cannot venture very far. So we decide to visit Manchester which is 45 minutes to 1 hour away. First stop is always Chinese restaurant for yum cha.

Glamourous Restaurant entrance

Glamorous restaurant is situated strategically above a large chain Chinese supermarket just off city centre. By far the BEST yum cha place in Manchester in my opinion. But the local ang moh (English people) will beg to differ, to them, Yang Sing in Chinatown symbolises the epitome of Chinese cuisine.

As you can see from the picture above, the entrance is decorated with very eye-catching neon-lit sign-board. The windows were decorated with Christmassy like (or Hari Raya if you like) light décor, fully lit, even in broad daylight. Very glamorous indeed from the outside alone.

There were many goodies on offer, our first order is this steamed chicken with chestnut. The chicken is very tender, delicious even when cold, however, chestnut is not sweet and not soft enough to my liking. Almost forgot to take picture, too eager to tuck in, hehe.

A waiter passed by carrying a tray full of plates of Fried Squid Cake fresh from the kitchen. Looks very appetizing. "One please, waiter."

Squid cake was piping hot, lovely eaten with the Thai style sweet chilli sauce.

Regular yum cha fare, love this version which comes in claypot.

One of the highlight from among the dim sum fares. It's called 'thousand shred pastry'. The pastry is made up of many many flaky shreds and the filling made from yet more shreds of white radish. Very moreish. My MUST order.

Another MUST order is lomaikai (glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaves). We tapau 4 home!

For dessert we had mango pancake. Fresh mango encased with whipped cream rolled up inside a pancake. The mango is fresh and sweet, I scooped out half the cream to cut down the guilt but it's delicious with the cream!

Hustle and bustle inside the restaurant.

My princess loved the hustle bustle, observing every happenings surrounding her. Giggling all the time! Too bad the picture is blur :-(

Went shopping at the Chinese supermarket downstairs and bought these from the bakery counter.

Top left is polo cocktail bun.

Lower right is ham chin peng.

Cross section view of the polo cocktail bun. The filling is made of sugar, butter and dessicated coconut. Delicious!