Merry Marie Belle!

I am no connoisseur at tasting chocolates compared to Chloé Doutre-Roussel, and though as we all know we should engage the 5 senses, I can't bear to engage the 5th test (to taste it!!!) on these Marie Belle chocolates! They are like small pieces of art, and it's the first chocolate I feel bad about imagining them melt in my mouth! Arghhhh... yet.... the smell of it lingers below my nose as I work on my laptop, continuing to entice.





I hope my pictures do them justice, as these little gems really are utmostly lovely to look at. Each flavour come with a different picture, most of which are French-flavoured and some others are retro prints. There seems to be little correlation between the print and flavour except the passion fruit flavoured, which is a silhouette of a kissing couple, but who cares about what makes sense when they all look so pretty!



C.M. did a big favour to help bring these back from NY, and asked me to try them, but I still can't give her a verdict on the taste. I am trying to stretch my utility by looking at them, and will put them in the fridge to keep fresh (though I hate to, because I am afraid of blooming). Silly as it may sound, I will only taste them close to their expiry date. "No! Please don't do that!" is a little voice at the back of my head. Chocolates taste BEST when fresh. Nothing beats fresh melt-in-the-mouth ganache. *dilemma*




The great thing about having chocolates in a box secured with ribbons (no sticker seal please), is that (I am going to sound very stupid)... is that... you can still keep the box, package it like how you had received it, and voila! it's brand new and it's easy to pretend you had not eaten them. I must sound like some psycho to you now, well, now that I had typed it out, I am starting to feel I am one. (*_*)




I will definitely hit the Marie Belle Cacao Bar when I have a chance. Friends who have visited said it's utterly French and pretty. I can't wait! Also a visit to Kee's Chocolates, Black Hound, Jacques Torres Chocolates are musts!

Gourmet luxurious bread

It's a pity the pecan roll was hungrily chewed up before it could make its way before the camera. I wanted to stop myself midway of the relishing moments, but it was hard (and not to mention unhygienic) to make a half eaten roll look good. I continued chewing, and chewing, and chewing. It's hard to tell you how much was packed in that portion of bread. Crusty, heavily-textured, moist, chewy (sorry I have to use this word again!) with a generous dose of pecans, flavoured lightly with cinnamon. Mmmmm..... Mmmm.... "Maison Kayser..." I looked at the paper bag and checked out their website. For those who can read French, you have more luck than me to check out their product lines and bread making stories.

I don't eat a lot of bread though I love them. There are loads of native carbos in Asia (and I do like them too) and great bread is not too accessible where I reside. And when you do feel like having a sandwich for lunch (and spot a cafe with good loaves) you could face some mild objections from friends/colleagues who have cravings for laksa, fish noodles (鱼片米粉）and many other local delights. Huh... "okie lor, chew kee chicken rice also can..." is an usual answer. I am not very picky on food, though I enjoy good food tremendously. I guess I don't qualify as a foodie do I? ^^




What a sidetrack. Back to the pecan roll. The reason why I am writing about it is because I found it exorbitantly priced. Though NTD 85 (SGD 3.90) did not burn a big hole in the pocket, I start to wonder why this bread (the size of 2 fists put together, about 9 cm in diameter) costs more than the usual, and why people were making a beeline for them. Most have an average of 4-5 rolls/loaves on their trays. It was more out of curiosity that motivated the purchase. Conclusion: I enjoyed the bread tremendously and I do think I would buy it again (probably the same flavour as I tend to eat the same good thing repeatedly) when I get a chance to go back. Probably only 1 roll though... ^^




What started out as a trip to the Dean & Deluca store in Taipei gave some other nice surprises. The French gourmet bakery and chic haven for food lovers are just side by side in basement 2 of Breeze Centre (微风广场）at No.39, Fu Hsing South Road Section 2.

Darker Than Dark Chocolate Cake

Good morning Taipei! I was craving for some hot you tiao (deep fried dough, 油条), but ended up getting some chocolate cakes instead when I saw 2 interesting looking cafes. Just a side track, and it's purely my guess:- I noticed there are plentiful "Yong He Dou Jiang"s (永和豆浆) in Singapore, China and Taiwan. Please don't quote me on this, but I think I have chanced upon the place of origin. Yong He （永和）is a district in southwest Taipei, and yes I witnessed more than a handful of shops with the same name, with almost the same palate of delightful morning snacks, with a steady stream of patrons on scooters and regulars from the neighbourhood.



Yes! Back to the cake. And no, I have not added a black filter over the picture. I had a shock when I unwrapped the translucent wrapper, (though I had expected it won't be a regular choc cake since it's named Black Chocolate Cake "黑炭巧克力蛋糕" and I hope I remembered that correctly as I don't read traditional Chinese too well). It revealed to be charred-er-than-charred-brownie cake! Pleasantly amused and not-too-hungry, I decided to keep it back in the fridge for some better photos tomorrow morning.




Having bought 2 cakes from 2 shops just 3 metres away from each other (added some night shots of the 2 when I passed them again), it is interesting to find similar looking packaging in similar colours. I got home with a choc mousse cake from Cafe 85°C and a dark (a-hem, i mean a really dark) choc cake from Cafe 8. The cakes don't come with ribbons actually (sorry to mislead!). They are some of my rewards from 2 hours of ribbon shopping at the wholesalers'. I am not sure if anyone of you reading this share this fetish (or being anal, as a friend has put it), but I really have this thing for double faced ribbon; They do a neat job of completing a knot effortlessly. You need to twist and turn single faced ones to have the shiny-sides-up! If you bother, that is. ^__^




I am overall very impressed with the cute and chic appeal of the cake boxes. They are especially neat in such small packages. I don't do them justice with such bad lighting and photography. If someone have some good tips on photography (especially for food), please do drop me a note!

On a finishing note and a prelude to some sweet dreams, I will try to hit the Taipei store of Dean & Deluca tomorrow. It would be tempting not to window shop, and almost insurmountable to exit the shop without aa long and big lunch, but we should always press on when we are in a city with such a street-food galore and some of the best Chinese food around yeah? (in my opinion that is!)

Amazing Cocoa Discovery

I attended my first ever chocolate workshop last week, and it opened up a whole new world. Had a peep into some chocolate handling techniques, chocolate tempering process and had my first bite into a 45 minute old ganache coated with Valrhona Equatoriale Dark 55% (ganache not prepared by myself unfortunately, but of which recipe I do have). I got to bring the entire box (as above) home! If you are a baker or chocolatier reading this, and think my work (remember it's just an hour of experience) is worthy of consideration for an entry into your kitchen, please doooooo let me know!

Marvelicious... I cannot describe well enough how satisfying that feeling was. Melting ganache in the mouth, with freshly chopped and toasted nuts on the outside to add good texture and a swelling sense of pride; these really made my weekend.

The rest of the week was spent reading about the subject. I have just gotten hold of The Essence of Chocolate: Recipes from Scharffen Berger Chocolate Makers and Cooking with Fine Chocolate by John Scharffenberger, Robert Steinberg, and Deborah Jones and Chocolate: The Definitive Guide by Sara Jayne-Stanes. I can't wait to get hold of some equipment to try making my first Devil's Chocolate Cake. (Is it a valid excuse to replace good old Kenwood for Kitchenaid?) I shall continue eating the self-made chocolates in the meantime.

Oh... by the way, if you love macadamia and milk chocolates, you might love Meiji's. I find it a little too sweet but it's a generous dose of nuts in a small box. I would have some friends going to New York next week, I am hoping they can help bring back a box from Kee's Chocolates and Marie Belle (can't resist great packaging).