Blisstix*

Saturday, October 21, 2006
8:33 PM

Sorry for the long delay between entries, I usually update my personal blog with food a lot more often: witchstone.blogspot.com

Anyway! My dad went to Canele the other night to buy pastries for us because I adore their products.=)

At such places, it's all about the presentation as you can see from their lovely box. Their cake box for whole cakes is equally lovely and you get a plastic bag covered in the words "Canele". Canele refers to a type of cake that is cooked in little copper moulds by the French.^_^ I love looking at the packaging because really.. You're paying so much anyway, you might as well get beautiful packaging as well.=) The Japanese and French asthetic is a good one to follow.

Anyway, besides the packaging, their presentation for their products is very pretty as well. The taste of course remains my number one priority and so.. I present the first pastry:

The Marron Tart.=) Marron means chestnut in French and this has an almond tart base with chestnut cream piped on top. I thought that this was quite light for so much cream but felt that it didn't have enough oomph in the chestnut department. For some reason, there was also a strong sense of butter in the cream, which made it taste less light than I would have liked. I loved the tart base though, it was done very well having the right consistency of crispness without overwhelming the topping and was full of flavour [unlike the kind you get from Delifrance.O.o]. My mom thought the cream had a subtle hint of chestnut and to be fair, I had just eaten the chocolate pastries so chestnut would have seemed bland to me. However, my mom says it can't compare to Fauchon's version in Paris.^_^"

This interesting looking one is called the Exotique. It's made up of a dense chocolate cake with a graham crust base topped with a chocolate cup filled with mango and cranberries. It looks amazing. I loved how the fruit cut through the richness of the chocolate cake though I was quite displeased with the crust which I felt didn't work well with it. The cake is also very dense and hard to eat on it's own [at least for me] but has a nice chocolate flavour. It is prettily presented and the fruit add a nice touch of colour to the whole pastry.^_^

My favourite! Le Royale. I think everyone loves this: the combination of chocolate and hazelnut is simply irresistable. The different layers of Le Royale contribute to different textures and flavours that meld together to form this amazing cake. The nougatine layer adds a delightful crunch that gives this cake a lot of interest. The chocolate to hazelnut ratio is also just right and neither overpower the other.=) I love this creation. It's quite hard to beat.

Canele is located at Robertson Quay and has a takeaway counter or a sit down area for you to enjoy their creations with tea or coffee in a lovely setting.

- witchstone

Painted
Chopstick Fairytales.

Monday, June 26, 2006
5:32 AM

Hello

My dad just came back from Paris with a box of fabulous macarons [or macaroons depending on which side of the pond you're from] from the famous store, Laduree.

They have a store on the Champs Elysees and loads of other random places. The one thing they are truly famous for, are their macarons. Of course, I'm sure they've got other fabulous things to sample but most people just go there for their macarons.=D

And here we are! Lucky enough to get a box. Unfortunately, I just flew in from New York not too long ago and thus was far too tired to actually take some photos so all that's left are crumbs and..urhm.. Not much else. ^_^"

The macarons are absolutely delicious though. Far from the ones I've tried before, these are light, crunchy and not too sweet! The meringue portion is amazingly light and yields to your bite easily without crumbling into a million tiny pieces. The middle filling is wonderful! The chocolate one melted in my mouth nicely while the raspberry one was sour without being overly so.=D Sadly, I got a ginger one as well and almost died. xP It was so darn spicy. I chucked most of it to my brother who loved it. =)

So. What's the point of this again? Buy me Laduree macarons the next time you're in Paris!!! And you know what? Pierre Herme's are supposed to be even better. ;) You have been nudged and given a hint!

- witchstone

Painted
Chopstick Fairytales.

Sunday, May 14, 2006
7:17 AM

Ooh. I found this Japanese Food Glossary here:

http://www.jfc.com/recipes/jlist/glossaryj.html

It's rather detailed. =) Too bad they don't have recipes to show you how the ingredients are typically used..

- witchstone

Painted
Chopstick Fairytales.

Sunday, May 07, 2006
6:38 AM

Hello

Well. Tonight, my mom prepared cold green tea soba with the dipping sauce, chicken in bulgogi marinade and miso soup! =) Ended off the meal with red and green bean soup.

I found the organic miso my mom got a bit too salty, possibly because she added it in the regular concentration we use even though it isn't the low-sodium kind. However, after diluting it with water, all was well in miso-land. =) My mom usually does miso soup with veggies, mushrooms and tofu. Tonight, we used long cabbage which my mom thinks should be readily available in the US so my brother can take note of what veggies he can cook with. =)

The chicken was on the sweet side, due to the vast amounts of sugar. O.o Thankfully though, they provided a nice caramelization on the outside of the chicken that gave it really yummy intense flavours. It looked very pretty on the plate because of the bits of spring onion and garlic used in the marinade that made up the sauce. The chicken was really juicy and nice though I think a tad more salt or soy sauce would have done the trick. O well. The only way to go is up! ^_^

I've passed my mom the magazine with Japanese recipes in it. It's rather simple actually, nothing too difficult or anything. They are mostly home-cooked fare, simpler to handle than restaurant stuff certainly. Kaiseki is one long, difficult to master form of eating. =)

I wish we could have more Japanese food at home.. *sigh* Am trying to get my mom to do her really yummy mixed Japanese rice: basically sushi rice with bits of carrot, stewed mushrooms and egg which you can eat with seaweed. ^_^

Will try to include pictures next time. ^_^" Sorry.

- witchstone

Painted
Chopstick Fairytales.

Sunday, April 30, 2006
4:15 AM

Tau Kwa Pau from Joo Chiat

Ahh! The joys of this creation.=) *beams*

Essentially a stuffed piece of tau kwa [a form of beancurd with a "skin" around it and a rather crumbly inner texture], it is usually served with lor [braising sauce that is generally used to cook Duck and other meats] and chilli sauce. At this stall, they make a stuffing from chopped up egg cooked in the lor, cucumbers, fishballs, crispy bits that I presume are from chicken and garnished with coriander. Other places also add ngoh hiang [deep fried pork rolls seasoned with 5 spice powder] and bits of duck or pork cooked in lor.

The entire creation is incredibly simple to create but very difficult to make well. It serves as a wonderful appetiser, or you could eat many pieces as a meal. It would also please those who are paranoid about avoiding carbohydrates since tau kwa is essentially protein.

It's delicious when eaten with lor and many also add chilli. But I'm not quite the chilli type so I stop at just pouring lor generously over it. It's delicious! The lor gives the almost tasteless tau kwa a whole lot of flavour and adds to the yummy savouriness of the filling as well.=)

It's generally quite healthy so no worries! Just that there aren't enough vegetables.=P

-witchstone

Painted
Chopstick Fairytales.

Thursday, April 06, 2006
5:00 AM

I've just finished reading Jeffrey Steingarten's latest book after The Man Who Ate Everything, It Must've Been Something I Ate. It's incredibly interesting as usual with wonderful writing. Both books are composed of articles Steingarten wrote for Vogue when he was their Food Editor [or is he still their food editor? I'm not sure because the author introduction merely states: Jeffrey Steingarten is a former lawyer turned internationally feared and acclaimed food critic of American Vogue magazine.]. It's amazing really, the lengths he's go to in order to achieve the perfect recipe for something or to find out something.

The blurb reads:
Jeffrey Steingarten is a man obsessed. His heroic, irrational passion for eating has led him to dedicate his life to searching out the world's best food - at considerable expense to his waistline - for your reading pleasure. Now, in this stunning new feast of provocative, witty and erudite essays, he reveals the global secrets of gastronomy in his own inimitable style.

Favourite articles of mine include Scraping By, a research into how to achieve the perfect gratin and he is absolutely convinced that only the French have a word that means gratin! The article ends with the recipe for Gratin Dauphinois, something I adore. However, it seems just slightly complicated.. Lining Up is another fabulous article in his discussion behind the "secret" reservation hotlines of top restaurants in New York, where he lives. Haute Chocolate delves into the mystery behind the perfect hot chocolate, and comes with a convenient recipe at the back! The Loaf That Nearly Died is quite possibly one of the funniest commentaries I've read on finding the perfect baguette in Paris.

The book comes with delicious sounding recipes behind the articles, not every article of course, but some of them. Especially when the article's contents pertain to such ingeniousness that Steingarten has to share the joy! =D However, many articles are a tad complicated so I don't think I'll be trying them all out. The simple ones like hot chocolate however, sound marvellous and relatively easy to do on our own.

What I love besides the amount of effort he puts in to discover the secrets behind the "perfect" dish [he tested at least 10 espresso machines in order to find out which makes what is supposed to be the perfect espresso] is his witty way of writing. His obsession with food can lead to tears of laughter as he struggles to find out exactly how to replicate dishes in a home kitchen. Strenous testing [and tasting of course] are recorded in hilarious prose in each article and he spares no expense in hunting down what he loves. A mixture of slightly air-headed sounding phrases with knowledgable content without the jargon makes for easy reading. His articles aren't overly technical and when he has to use those terms, he explains them thoroughly so that he is easily understood.

I feel that this book is slightly more enjoyable than his first book, The Man Who Ate Everything. His first book had some rather technical sounding articles that delved into much detail. The articles in this book however, tread on the line of snippy stories so you can read the each article in one sitting without having to stop halfway through. But his curiosity and determination remain constant as he trudges about the world in style, looking for all things edible.

It was, in all, a very enjoyable read. I recommend you get it immediately! =D

- witchstone

Painted
Chopstick Fairytales.

Monday, March 13, 2006
9:34 AM

hello!

it's been a long time since either of us posted anything.and it's been difficult actually, with all the work we have.so we're on a mini-hiatus! that's not to say we won't update at all.it'll just be extremely infrequent.

haven't had a chance to bake in a very long while.sigh.my hands are itching to get down to it again.the last time i baked was for fun-o-rama.all those apple crumbles!!! they were incredibly yummy.but really.baking many many apple crumbles at once is a painful process.especially peeling the apples.i love making the topping though.=D *beams* not so much the dough..but i love making the topping.except that it caused cinnamon to be stuck under my nails for at least a week after baking.groan.not the best thing really.xP

alright.have a great time with food everyone! =D
witchstone.=)

Painted
Chopstick Fairytales.