Joyeux Noël!

Merry Christmas to all around the world!

*Plaza Athénée's bûche for 2010 - layers of strawberry jam and violet/vanilla cream between thin layers of biscuit, atop an almond nougatine base

soupe à l'oignon

Soupe à l'oignon. French Onion Soup. Cheese. Onions. Bread. Salty broth. More cheese. Deliciousness to warm you up during a chilly Paris winter day.

Need I say more?

You, too, can partake in this tummy-warming experience at:

Au Pied de Cochon

6 rue Coquillière, 75001 PARIS

Les Galerie des Gobelins - Salon de Thé

I wish I was able to take more photos at work, and I think I'm allowed to, however, with all the hustle and bustle going on, I dare not. I mean, sure, I can go into the walk-in fridge and snap some shots, but everyone knows the lighting just isn't good and if someone comes in, it just kind of looks strange... if you know what I mean.

Anyway, everyday, one of us from the pâtisserie centrale has to prepare the chariot for tea time in the Galerie des Gobelins around 15h. Sometimes I'm given this task, and that's fine, however, the time to add the finishing touches to the desserts can be a disruption to the rest of my work. I hate being rushed, especially when it comes to presentation. Fortunately, one particular day when I had time to breathe, I remembered to get my camera and take advantage of this opportunity. Here is the selection of desserts for the Autumn/Winter 2010 collection:

Les Galeries des Gobelins (photo courtesy of linternaute.com)

the chariot for the Salon de Thé aux Galerie des Gobelins

in the background, there's the traditional millefeuille, while in the foreground, we have a tarte passion-framboise (biscuit, raspberry jam, and passionfruit/banana cream, all layered on a thin sablé crust)

Zuccotto: a biscuit with layers of caramel and café mousse on top. One of the best, I think.

Poire d'érable: maple syrup bavaroise with a pear purée filling, atop a pear-filled financier

Red Power: Soho litchi chantilly with a strawberry bavaroise/strawberry jam insert, resting on a strawberry filled financier

Mont Blanc: a ball of chestnut bavaroise filled with a mini baba au rhum, coated with vanilla whipped cream and dotted with meringues

Religieuse au caramel salé: pâte à choux filled with salted caramel pastry cream

selection of cakes: lemon, marble, and fruit... with "American" chocolate chip cookies on the right.

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

It's finally winter here in Paris, and after a week of temps in the mid-20s during the day, it actually snowed on Wednesday! Apparently it was a record snowfall since 1987.

brrr!

0°C! I guess that's cold enough for it to snow, huh?

Even some of the buses had pertubations and were eventually shut down due to intempéries (bad weather) for the day.

I guess you could take a Velib instead?

Plaza!

I think going to school in Maine helped me deal with this a little bit, but I think I'm a true southern Californian at heart. Definitely warmed up with the help of a little stand attached to Le Comptoir at Odeon:

a buckwheat crêpe with ham, artichokes, mozzarella, marinated red peppers, and roquette salad

can you say anything but yum??

a few bites of plain crêpe can't hurt anyone before digging in...

...digging into this delicious goodness! Yup, you definitely saw me sit on the bus stop "waiting for the bus that would never come" just so I could enjoy my lunch during the snowy blizzard.

when it rains, it pours!

Salut! Just wanted to let you know that I haven't abandoned this blog! My computer has been HS (hors service = out of order) for the past month or so... apart from grieving this loss (and how rainy it's been and how COLD it's gotten), I'm astounded at how much I depend on a computer to function on a daily basis (or at least during my days off). Might be back in action by the end of the month though!

Other than that, I've been busy dealing with visa stuff as well as a leaking shower... causing the wall on the landing of my floor to suffer a little. Still working though and even staying late to practice making whatever I want (and whatever they want...). More on that later but below are some macarons I made after work one week:

chocolate-caramel ganache macarons

A bientôt, j'espère!

Happy Halloween!

~Happy Halloween~

Taken at the Salon Pari Fermier where all of the stalls were farmers who produced and marketed their own goods. I happened upon this pumpkin "patch" and decided to get some autumn decor for my apartment... as I was picking through the mini pumpkins, more than one elderly woman came up to me and asked if they were good to eat or not. Not ever having tried the minis before, I instead explained that I use them for decoration around the house in addition to pointing out how cute they were!

Their perplexed reaction tells me that the French aren't big fans of pumpkins used as decoration...

Moulin Rouge!

So I know this blog is supposed to be about pastries and sweet stuff but just had to share this experience with you all...

yea, that's right. I went to the MOULIN ROUGE!

opening number - they weren't kidding when they mentioned the abundance of plumes for each costume!

watch the movie I sneakily took!

I think they tried to do acts representing cultures from around the world...

one of the mini "shows" between each act... a pool not only rose up from the ground but was filled with water and some snakes! And of course there's the naked one-woman-wonder about to jump in...

the pool's still rising, and you can see her trying to capture one of the snakes.

she's practically naked, why wouldn't she be a part of the show?

another clip of what happens at le Moulin Rouge!

oh la la!

racing season has begun... with mini ponies!

interesting one-legged "underweggings" (underwear + leggings)

what kind of show DOESN'T include a circus act?

and it wouldn't be complete without the traditional cancan!

grande finale - last picture before I was kindly reminded for the second time that photos weren't allowed... oops!

Is Nice as nice as it claims to be?

A few weeks ago I was able to get away from the autumn chill that has recently possessed Paris and head down south to Cap d'Ail (near Nice)! I stayed with family friends Karen and Jacques in their villa just on the rocky coast.

view from the train... yea we were right along the coast.

one of the many ports lining the Côte d'Azur

after Karen picked me up, we drove to her villa just above the water. Here's the view from the parking area, while waiting for the funiculaire... see that wooden elevator box on its way up?

when I have a villa one day, I'm totally going to have one of these to transport me up and down the hill.

as we strolled along the coast, I noticed this former "docking station," which has seen better days. Where are those steps on the left supposed to lead to?

good morning! view from my room.

and from the terrace.

obviously you can see the view from the bathroom, but that's not why I took the picture. Look at the window and how it opens... and the same window in the next picture...

not only can it be opened just a crack from the top (as seen above), but it also functions as a typical window/door! NOTE: the door leading out to the balcony was also of this design... totally cool.

the Hotel Negresco

old town of St. Paul de Vence

love it.

Maeght Foundation, with a courtyard of various sculptures... we went to visit the Giacometti exhibit.

and the backyard garden dotted with Miros

my new favorite breakfast. Tartines. Basically butter and jam on toast, this simple meal is upgraded when I have it at Karen and Jacques', be it in the mountains in Annecy or along the coast in Cap d'Ail.


and since we were so close to Monaco, why not visit the former palace of Princess Grace?

despite the exotic allure of this tiny country, I can only think of Hong Kong when I see all these high rise buildings covering the mountainside... not as magical as I had thought.

view of the port with France in the background

perhaps this is more like what I would've imagined for Monaco... cute bustling streets, unfortunately lined with tourist stalls

have no idea how many tunnels we drove through...

THE Casino at Monte-Carlo! 3 red Ferraris in front, among others.

we got to enter the Casino/Opera (same building) under the guise of buying some tickets...

taken just before I saw the sign forbidding photographs... hehe.

and of course the shopping mall there has to have these extravagant chandeliers... just had to document that.

And after those few days under the sun, I returned back to Paris: