A dozen macarons

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After my less-than-impressive visit to Pâtisserie Sadaharu Aoki Paris (パティスリー・サダハル・アオキ・パリ) in Taipei, I went back the following day to pick up a load of macarons for my friends back in Hong Kong.  I picked up a dozen of these babies for myself - basically all the flavors available except for chocolate.

I waited 2 whole days before I had an opportunity to bite into them... not exactly ideal since they should be eaten fresh.  I ended up skipping a regular meal and had half of them as part of my dinner last night. 

ume (梅) - I liked this a lot.  I think the inspiration came from the single preserved plum that often sits in the middle of the rice in a Japanese lunch box, surrounded by a sprinkle of black sesame seeds.  The taste was sour yet a little savory at the same time, with the fragrance of the sesame seeds added that little bit extra to the overall experience.

yuzu (柚子) - another surprise on the upside.  I've had yuzu macarons before, but this one was the best.  The tangy flavors of the rind were very upfront, and the taste was so "alive" it made all the others I've had seem half-dead...

pêche cannelle - the flavors were a little too muted, and I couldn't quite get the peach flavors.  The only reason I was even able to identify this was from the mild cinnamon flavors. 

fraise - the strawberry flavors were upfront and fruity.  Very nice.

sesame noir - definitely liked the black sesame flavors...not bad at all.

houjicha (焙じ茶) - possibly the weakest of this batch.  I couldn't really taste the flavors of the toasted tea leaves...

I decided to finish the remaining 6 this morning as my breakfast, since it's already at least day 4 for the macarons (they were made on Monday if not earlier).  Not exactly a light breakfast, calorie-wise...

citron - very, very nice... flavors were more intense than I expected.

macha (抹茶) - this was pretty good, surpassing my expectations in terms of flavors.

genmaicha (玄米茶) - this turned out as I expected...more subtle in terms of flavors compared to the macha, as genmaicha itself is milder due to the addition of roasted rice.  Not a bad interpretation.

caramel salé - this was really good... You get the intensity of sweet caramel but there is something extra.  But...not as good as the caramel macaron I had at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon in Taipei a few nights ago.  That was almost perfection.

café - also a surprise on the upside.  The fragrance of coffee and the flavors were more intense than I expected. 

Now I'm happy I bought these macarons... I haven't done a direct comparison with the other famous pâtissiers (like Pierre Hermé), but I really liked what I tasted.  Next time I just need to eat them on the same day that I buy them, to make sure I taste them as fresh as possible!

A little tongue n cheek

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I finally got a chance to check out Otto e Mezzo Bombana tonight.  Umberto is one of Hong Kong's first "celebrity chefs", and many of us were sad to see the old Toscana close down, and eagerly waited for his next venture.  The Drawing Room opened some time ago, but doesn't really count in my book.  Now with his name displayed at the restaurant's entrance, this is the place to come and get a taste of his cooking.

We were here for a celebratory dinner of sorts, so I brought out a little something special.  I've been cellaring the 1996 Gaja Sperss for a little more than 10 years, and this seemed like a good occasion to pop its extra-long cork.  Lots of fruit right from the start, with a little mint, a hint of floral and some forest notes.  Very sweet on the nose, and it just kept on giving... Full-bodied, elegant and smooth on the palate, but gained weight after aeration and became a little tart on the finish.  The alcohol level became pretty apparent after about 2 hours.  A very beautiful wine, which can only get better with another 10 years of aging.

For a first visit, I wanted to stick to something simple and classic, so I deliberately stayed away from their tasting menu.  Instead I chose to start with one of the classics from Toscana - pappardelle: lamb ragout, porcini mushroom, rosemary.  This was as wonderful as I remembered from the old days... the lamb ragout with mushrooms, highlighted with some rosemary to bring out another layer of flavors without being overpowering.  I could have this all day...

I saw beef tongue and beef cheek: braised in red wine with orange and spices compote on the menu and knew instantly that this was what I needed.  I love beef tongue, and can't find enough restaurants in the city that serve it.  Mom loved her braised beef cheek at Robuchon last night, so it was perfect that this should be on the menu.  I got two little cubes of tongue and a slightly bigger block of cheek, but I was definitely expecting more!  The tongue was very tender, and I liked the thick cut.  The cheek was as tender as could be, with the collagen giving that nice and smooth mouthfeel.  The mash was decent, but how could it possibly measure up to what I had last night at Robuchon?  It just wasn't as creamy and smooth...I could still feel the graininess from the potato.

I had my eye on pina colada: passionfruit cream, rum granite and coconut sandwich, served with lemon tart... as I wanted something cold and refreshing.  Interesting how this combination was kinda similar to something else I had at Caprice a few weeks ago.  The combination in the glass was not bad, but I thought the coconut ice cream sandwich was more interesting.  I also liked the lemon tart, with the acidity cutting down some of the fatty food I had earlier.

My friends and I were pretty happy with our meals, and I made a mental note to try the rack of lamb - a recommendation from a fellow blogger which I passed on to one of my friends.  I'm actually coming back in 4 days!

Le meilleur restaurant français à Taipei

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It's the parental units' anniversary again, and this year I finally have somewhere else to take them other than Paris 1930.  Since their 40th anniversary last year, L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon has opened up inside Bellavita in Taipei.  I first heard about this over a year ago, and I can't even begin to describe my excitement level.

As expected the place was practically empty on a Monday night.  We took our seats at our requested table instead of at the bar.  The basket of bread was pretty decent, although noticeably inferior to what we'd find in the Hong Kong counterpart.

L'amuse bouche - duck foie gras mousse with parmesan foam on top.  Very yummy.  Instant hit with mom.

Le caviar oscietre: et l'oursin dans une delicate gelée recouverte d'une onctueuse crème de chou-fleur - nice and refreshing, full of flavors of the ocean thanks to the caviar, but with the acidity of the jelly and the sweet creamy tastes of the sea urchin as well as the cauliflower.  Apparently the little green dots on top are made with chlorophyll...

Le thon: en tartare, poivron rouge confit à la bergamote et au jambon séché - pretty decent tuna tartare, and I liked the layers of red capsicum.  The very thin strips of Parma ham on the sides was more for visual effect, and the quail egg on top was kinda cute.

L'asperge blanche: couvert des fines tranches de jambon Saint-Daniele, sauce au beurre - what a dish!  The poached white asparagus was very tender, and the combination with ham and creamy butter sauce was just awesome.  The tiny bits of chives and the chervil garnish were nice.

La daurade: <à la plancha>, en barigoule et ses artichauts épineux - I could smell the fish immediately as the plate was laid out in front of me, and the oily, "fishy" smell was goooood...  Excellent execution...skin was just crispy enough but the flesh was soooo succulent and juicy it made no effort to resist the knife.  The sauce was yummy, as well the fine brunoise of veggies.

La caille: farcie de foie gras et caramélisée avec une pomme purée - a Robuchon classic I was happy to have again.  In fact I had it the first time I dined at L'Atelier in Hong Kong.  Lots of gamey flavors in the quail, and the famed mash potatoes needed no further introduction.  I insisted that mom finish her portion, since I knew she liked it so much.  The hell with worrying about the calories...not tonight!

Le fromage: de France sélectionné par nos soins - a slice each of Brie and Fourme d'Ambert.  The ammonia flavors from the Brie's rind was a little stronger than usual.  The accompanying toast ws very, very delicious.

L'exotique: goyave à la vanille de Tahiti, légèreté aux fruits des îles - a delicious combination of pink guava, panna cotta, passion fruit sauce as well as pistachio powder.  Gone in no time.

Le sucre: sphère à la violette et litchi avec une glace au lait - an interesting violet-flavored shell with cream inside, along with wild berries (unfortunately frozen) and lychee (not sure if they were fresh as the season just started).  The jellies and sauces on the sides were interesting, but the milk ice cream was a little bland...

This wouldn't have been an anniversary dinner without the wine...  After last year's performance, I brought another bottle of Burgundy.  Unfortunately, this bottle had to get banged around in my checked in luggage and only had a little less than 3 days to rest.  The fine sediment of this old bottle were still floating around instead of being completely settled at the bottom...

My last bottle of 1969 Leroy Echezeaux drank better than I expected.  I had it dunked in some cold water when I arrived to cool it down, and we decided not to decant the bottle (or pass the wine through paper coffee filters, as I have done in the past).  The sweet grass in the nose was upfront and center, and it was there all evening.  There was also a little bit of wet dirt, damp cellar, mushrooms... the question of whether the wine was lightly corked cross my mind.  Otherwise the nose was very sweet, and plummy notes emerged about 2 hours later.  Not quite the perserved plum drink (酸梅湯) that mom loves, but not bad.  Most importantly, the palate was still there and didn't turn acidic all night. 

The parents seemed to have been happy with their meal, which was a relief as mom hated her visit to L'Atelier in Hong Kong 3 years ago - my fault for ordering the wrong stuff for her...  I thought the food was excellent, and certainly worthy of many return visits. 

P.S.  I am reminded of a conversation with a friend where he described - and I nodded in agreement - L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon as the haute cuisine version of McDonald's.  I'm sure many people would cringe and start throwing darts at the target I just painted on my forehead, but let's just think about it...  There are now restaurants bearing the Robuchon name in 10 cities around the world, and that definitely qualifies it as a "chain".  Quality control is also impeccable, and one is able to have the same dish executed to the same standards at any of the outlets.  My mashed potatoes tastes pretty much the same whether I'm sitting in Taipei or Hong Kong.  Isn't that exactly what McDonald's excels at?

Sadaharu Aoki: the first nibble

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I have two missions during this trip to Taipei, both involving French cuisine, and both destinations are within the same building - Bellavita.  I managed to hit the first place tonight.

Pâtisserie Sadaharu Aoki Paris (パティスリー・サダハル・アオキ・パリ) opened a boutique in Taipei at the end of last year.  Somehow I totally forgot about its existence and only remembered a day or two before my trip.  It's not everyday that Hong Kong gets bypassed in favor of Taipei when it comes to haute cuisine (does a pâtisserie count?), so I figured I owe it to myself to check it out.

My friend and I ordered two little gâteaux to share after doing a quick dinner nearby, and I had my iced Earl Grey tea as the weather is pretty hot these days.

I chose bamboo, which is actually an opéra made with green tea.  To be honest I have had some not-so-great experiences with fusion products involving green tea, such as green tea cappuccino.  This is probably going to be relegated to the same category.  Somehow the combination of milk and macha (抹茶) just doesn't do it for me, and I always find the combination too...milky and can't stand the taste.  I don't think there's anything wrong with the execution, just not up my alley.  The layers of chocolate didn't seem to help...

The cassiser was equally weird for me.  For some reason I found the acidity of the cassis out of balance with the creamy top layer.  Thankfully there was chocolate and hazelnuts.

I have to say that it was pretty disappointing first experience.  Maybe my expectations were too high; maybe it was just an off day for me; maybe the local climate meant that things spoil quickly and everything must be consumed immediately after they've been made; or maybe the Japanese pâtissier who made everything locally with imported ingredients isn't really that good...  I don't know, but I will give it another go sometime and hope for better results.

A little taste of Yilan

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I'm spending some time with family in Taipei, and we decided to have a casual meal around "my" neighborhood.  Lu San (呂桑) is a casual place specializing in cuisine from Yilan (宜蘭), so we thought it'd be interesting to try it out.  We ordered up a storm, sat down and the food started arriving in no time.

First on the table was the pig intestine in miso (味增大腸).  I didn't taste any miso but it didn't matter...it's intestine and it was really tender!

Then came the shredded duck (宜蘭鴨賞) that tasted a lot like one of mom's dishes during Lunar New Year.  It's basically dried/seasoned duck served with garlic shoots and chili peppers.  A little chewy but very interesting.  It's called "moon-gazing duck" because the ducks are hung outdoors and moon beam shines upon them during full moon, so the locals quip that the ducks are actually moon-gazing (賞月)...

Fresh oysters in garlic sauce (蒜味鮮蚵) - the oysters are lightly blanched so that they're not fully cooked...and mixed with the classic garlic sauce and shredded ginger...

Sliced pork with red lees (紅糟肉) - the pork was just too lean and uninteresting...like those really lean char siu (叉燒) that I hate.  The red lees of Shaoxing wine made the dish look interesting, but that's about it.

Sweetfish with roe (有卵香魚) - the fish roe took up most of the space inside the fish, and there was only a very thin layer of flesh on the outside...but it was sweet and delicious.

Marinated okra (秋葵) - with some vinaigrette and bonito (鰹) flakes.

Sliced pig's liver (粉肝) - very, very soft and tender...cooked just enough and retains all the moisture.

Yilan gaozha (宜蘭高渣) - not having been to Yilan before, the only times I've had this was at Da Shan Wu Jia (大山無價).  The version here is obviously a lot more down market, but still very good nonetheless.  It's basically deep-fried chicken soup, with some starch to solidify the liquids a little.  Grandma kept eating this since it requires almost no chewing effort...

Marinated eggplant and Chinese yam (茄子拌山藥) - this was OK.

Steamed chicken (白斬雞) - pretty nicely done.  There was just enough seasoning, and they dunked the chicken into ice water to make sure the skin has bounce.

Liver flower (宜蘭肝花) - basically chopped pig's liver with water chestnut, spring onions...etc wrapped into tofu skin and deep-fried.  Pretty good actually...

Japanese deep-fried tofu (日式炸豆腐) - basically 揚げ出し豆腐... Very juicy inside so that when I bit into my piece, it squirted all over the place...

The two desserts were pretty interesting... The pan-fried kumquat cake (宜蘭棗糕) was made with...you guessed it...pieces of preserved kumquat (金桔/棗).  Needless to say it goes very well with the preserved kumquat tea they've been serving.

The last item was deep-fried longan rice cakes (桂圓米糕).  Basically a rice ball with pieces of dried longan (桂圓), coated with a layer of flour and deep-fried.  The flavors were subtle and nice.

It's always nice to come home and get a taste of Taiwan...