Cannelle Patisserie - April 17, 2011

“Consistent, Affordable and Exquisite” is the tripartite motto of Cannelle Patisserie, and which I whole-heartedly embrace and uphold. In order to live by such a motto, I am willing to sacrifice my personal property – a pair of new shoes – and bleed my own red blood – in the form of blisters – and start a revolution.

Starting with affordability, Cannelle truly cares about the equality of his patrons; compared to the aptly named, blue-blooded Lady M, their cakes are equally and fraternally available to all comers, provided that if one is willing to venture out into the middle of nowhere – a strip mall.

Little Brown - March 12, 2011

Life is full of pitfalls. With my stomach stuffed with enough body parts to almost reconstruct an entire galline anatomy (thanks to Tori Shin), well, to be quite honest, a whole bird with some leftovers (unless this particular Frankenstein chicken has two hearts, no head, four buttocks, etc…), I might have shortchanged my brain for that small avian one in the process. Why else would I have mistakenly walked into this Ozian trap of artificial and superfluous gaiety reined over by the bald wizard?

Bee Dessert - January 1, 2011

My friends used to love to come to my house because we always had at least a couple of kinds of potato chips, chocolates, juices and other nibbles that their mothers told them not to eat. Among all the snacks, sweet or savory, sometimes we got a treat: Lotte’s Choco Pie, which, in the far gone days of diet-free oblivion, I used to devour three or four after school. Bee’s honey cake with marshmallow was a more sophisticated and mature take on my childhood favorite.

Cafe Au Lait (Puerto Rico Importing Company & Roasting Plant) - November 6, 2010



Cafe au lait at
Roasting Plant

 Cafe au lait, an often neglected relative of cappuccino in a city infested by Starbuck's and myriad other self-deluded coffee shops, seems to be finally gaining some recognition, perhaps as a part of the efforts by the coffee shop industry to differentiate and to offer more varieties without venturing into the vulgarity of, for instance, gingerbread latte.  However, just as most of the cappuccinos are distasteful, if not downright offensive (with only one exception - Fika), cafe au lait suffers the same sad mistreatment in New York. I suppose as long as the New Yorkers are getting high and mighty on venti latte and frappecino for the caffeine and sugar, little attention will be paid to the taste. Mind you, I am not saying Starbuck's does not have its merits:  I prefer Starbuck's to most of the other establishments on offer if I am in need of a shot of caffeine up my blood stream for they are at least the lesser evil and relatively consistent in quality - the only benefit of mass-branching.  I do also feel a certain degree of sympathy toward Starbuck's:  They did have a high corporate philosophy and ideal, at least in the early stage of its growth, as I had once wet my hands behind the barista machine in the bygone days. 

MarieBelle (Cacao Bar / Tea Salon) - October 22, 2010

Leftt: Spicy; Right: Dark

I remember the first time I had their European-style "hot chocolate," which should have changed its name to "liquid chocolate" for that was what it was - a melted and molten sensation. Lovely. Do not underestimate the power contained in a little demitasse cup:  There is enough stimulant to rouse a hibernating bear. However, what has happened to their liquid bomb?

Financier (The bigger one downtown) - July 1, 2010

Macarons at Financier, where should I begin? Should I begin by lamenting that they came closer than others or how they missed it at the end?

One day, I will write a treatise on macarons, but for now suffice it to say (and just take my words for it) that Pierre Herme has the best flavor (rose, apricot-saffron or olive-vanilla, who would have thought?) if the texture is a bit on the softer side, Sadaharu Aoki gets the texture right with the golden ratio of crispness, chewiness and meltiness (I am told by Merriam-Webster that this is not a word, but I say it is) with some distinctly Asian flavors (sesame, genmaicha, delicious, but wasabi...it is hard to be perfect), and last but not least, the temple of macarons, Laduree, with sweeter and denser texture, which I would leave it for you to decide.

At Financier, mind you, I only tried the big macarons, but the texture is erratic. Coconut-Passion fruit had decent passion fruit flavor, which got me excited for a moment before the hell broke loose. The texture was close to the crumbling Herme, but that was the problem. Due to its size (bigger is not always better), once it started to crumble, there was no stopping it. Oh, did I mention the flavor was "coconut"-passion fruit? Sorry, I misspoke. The coconut was mere decoration or how can it be so tasteless?

Now the pistachio, one word - tough. These khaki-colored tough soldiers will surely survive very well in the army. I dropped it, by accident (stress, by accident), but it did not make a dent. Maybe I can wear it as a hard hat in case I need one, huh?

OK, enough said. Next please!

Georgia's - June 28, 2010

My raspberry and apricot macarons...aren't they lovely? Don't they make your mouth water and crave for the crunchy and chewy exterior? Can't you feel the burst of intense flavor awaiting you?

Well, looks can be deceiving, and in this case, they are indeed deceiving. As everything else in life, don't trust just the looks. Smell it, hold it, bite it, and taste it. What do we have then? Another failed attempt at macaron. This macaron is chewy for sure. You chew and chew and chew without getting to the reward - which flavors did I get again? (Check the colors - pink and yellow.) Right, raspberry and apricot they were supposed to be, but were not. If I close my eyes, all that was in my mouth was a pile of sugary chewed mass of a mess. Next, please!