OL vs PSG

Rue St Jean, Vieux Lyon



Quiet street, Paris Saint Germain

Windows 2011

(Been back for nearly a month, I guess it's about time I post some of my favourite photos I took during my last holiday)


La Traboulerie, rue Merciere, Lyon.


La moulin de la Vierge, rue St Dominique.




Hotel Costes, Rue Ste Honore.


Oh nooo, I can't remember the name of this shop.




Pointe shoes and tutu, Repetto, Rue de la Paix.

and a massive bunny of pink roses on the window of Printemps Haussmann Lafayette.

Happy Sunday!

What a lovely autumn afternoon in Sydney. Walking around Surry Hills this morning under light sprinkle of rain but now the sun is out. Right now I am watching a Survivor repeat with Figgy sleeping nearby. Sun is streaming in, am lounging around in my pyjama pants. Can't get any more relaxing than this. Well actually, that's the slight problem you see, as to why I would be completely useless in a masterchef challenge. But after watching masterchef I feel so pumped up and so last Sunday after masterchef for example, I decided to make a cake and thought that I would finished in 2 hours so say around half past 10, but in the end I didn't get to sleep until after midnight! So kudos to those 3 who made the black forests on Monday in 1 3/4 hours.

This is the end result. I was going to type up the recipe but it's mighty long,


Might type it up when I got time, anyhow it is from Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan a book I borrowed from the library. I'm going to doze off for a little nap, before I hit the kitchen to prepare dinner. Toodle-oo!

Yeast baby

I must admit that I've been slack lately, the resolution to get off internet has failed so far. I even couldn't be bothered to take photos of the pizzas I made on Saturday, because I knew I'd be too lazy to blog about it. They were quite nice, I think but nothing spectacular. I finally made peace with delicatessens and purchased some ham, pancetta and salami for the topping, I even think that I could be friends with pancetta from now on. The P's came over in the afternoon with little Pumpkin. He is such a cutie pie!

It was C who referred to Eustace 'the yeast baby'... anyway then a bit of show (off) and tell ensued as I had taken a photo of my best effort to date with the scoring, thanks to this scoring tutorial.

After the pizza, for dessert I reattempted the creamy chocolate pudding that I had already blogged about. Thanks C for having taken a few quick snaps of my chocolate pudding.


Courtesy of Yecap Photography.

Ps: Figgy was MIA all afternoon. He was hiding upstairs and barely said hi. How rude! Thanks Paceys for a lovely afternoon!

New Resolutions

Meet Eustace, born the 1st of Jan 2010. Named after one of Bertie Wooster's mischievous twin cousins Claude and Eustace. Would really like to make friends with Bob and Philémon. (Nino II had been sent to retirement home, aka the rubbish bin, before I went on holidays.)

To keep him alive is amongst my new year's resolutions for 2010.
The rest includes:

1. To make my bed every day (if time permits)
2. To reduce sugar intake in general and not to eat sugary things every Wednesday
3. To keep track of my spending
4. To tidy up one corner of the flat every day
5. To spend less time on the internet
6. To re-pot and fertilise the 2 orchid plants at home and make them flourish or at least alive
7. To try out new recipes, same target, i.e. 50. In January I tried a new cheese loaf recipe, and a Jamie Oliver salmon and potato bake that perhaps will feature next time.
8. etc etc (I have so many)

I had no time

Hello to you if you happen to read this, Happy New Year and best wishes!
I had been lured by tumblr in December and completely neglected this blog.

Dear Mr internet inventor, you're a genius, thank you very much for providing me with so much fun and useless knowledge and life without internet would be a torture (for me anyway). But internet has been ruining my sleeping schedule, made me neglect my household chores, and my other projects... and so... for I am all for self-improvement and all that! amongst all my 2010 resolutions, there lurks one consistent message. LESS INTERNET IN 2010. 1-1.5 hours max everday. I don't know how long I'd last... mind you *gulp* I've broken that resolution already, I think, every single day and it's only been a week. So! Starting tomorrow! NO actually, starting next Monday!

1. Less internet, read more
2. Less internet, bake more
3. Less internet, cook more
4. Less internet, clean more
5. Less internet, blog more

...umm I'd need internet to blog though. Such irony.

Anyway... I kind of regret not having posted anything in December... so here are some photos of things I made.


Made the brioche and the ice cream just recently. I attempted to make brioche maybe about three times... the results had been poor. This time I tried a recipe from the Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. At first I was quite intimidated by the length of the recipe but actually it is very descriptive and gives you expectation of how the dough will turn out so that you won't panic and start adding flour when the dough sticks to your hand like there's no tomorrow. HA! Now I sort of know how to handle the dough I'll re-attempt the recipe in my book by Michel Roux or Hermé. The recipe I used for the vanilla ice-cream this time is by Pierre Hermé, lovely and rich.



These are fail pains aux chocolats.



One from another fail batch *sigh* I'm taking a break from pâte à croissant :(


One word : Delicioso. I loved it! Recipe from Le Grand Livre Marabout de la cuisine facile : 900 recettes.



Made the paste from scratch. It was less yummy than one from Malay Chinese on Hunter street but I'm rather proud of it. Next time I will up the paste! Recipe from the Noodle book by Terry Durrack.


Somethings I made for Christmas dinner with E, as she is a girl who's into low fat things and has aversion towards butter. Crisp skin salmon with snow peas and coriander with thai style dressing, recipe by Bill Granger taken from a Delicious magazine, can't remember which edition.



I like this photo of prawns and cactus.



Some noodle salad, again from Delicious magazine this time by Jill Dupleix. Some tofu and greens for the sides, with nuoc cham.



It looks alright in this photo though honestly this wasn't great. The pavlova went soggy because I assembled it too early.

Otherwise, I roasted a couple of chickens... which turned out quite nice, next time I'll take a photo. I made some passionfruit tartelettes, a pot of asparagus soup, some vegetarian saffron risotto, some peas and zucchini risotto, some pasta salad, some friands, etc. Some fun project I did for 2 weeks was the monday-friday baking frenzy in order to cut down on internet browsing. It was great... I felt so productive! This monday-friday bake will definitely feature in my baking resolution this year. I haven't yet set my baking resolutions but I have some great ideas, so exciting! Best wishes again for you from me and Figo. xx

Note :
1. Sadly I am resigning from the daring kitchen (I've taken off the logo). My heart is just isn't in it anymore... Best wishes Daring Bakers!

Fast forward

Tuesday 13th, which was over a month ago (already!) I went for tea at Ladurée on Rue Royale even though I'd never been crazy about macaron (I however am secretly still obsessing about making thousands of them to sell, and get rich). I chose cassis violette, caramel au beurre salé and pistache... I asked the lady waitress to choose the last one for me, she got me a framboise. They were indeed nice but, what I was blown away with was the vanilla tea. It was beautiful and delicate! That day too I think I had a little pain aux noix from Moisan which was rather good.



The part where I think I'd fast forward is my excursion to Amsterdam. No offense but I thought I should be back into blogging about my baking asap. Anyway, here are some photos I took...





I was back in Paris on Saturday night, and rather sadly I dragged my suitcase to Gare du Nord and took the RER to Roissy and left France on the following Thursday. Here's a little recap of those last few days.

Sunday 18th October - to celebrate my return to Paris, I had a lovely lunch at Ladurée. After some nourishment, I wandered to the Jardin des Tuileries and to the Musée de l'Orangerie.

Les Nymphéas is absolutely b r e a t h t a k i n g.


I love this photo with the boy in orange shirt... after I took this photo I sort of followed him around, hoping to have another shot of him observing other paintings, but after awhile I thought it might alarm his parents.

Monday 19th October - I went to Delmontel on Rue Martyr (9th) and had the best croissant and pain aux chocolat (so far) and a yummy ficelle aux fromage. It's a pretty shop but I nearly missed it. I wanted to go Clotilde's favourite lunch place Rose Bakery just across from Delmontel but it was closed. I also tried to find L'Etoile d'Or but it was also closed.



So I walked towards Les Halles and decided to look for Stohrer on rue Montorgueil, and had the best croissant I had ever eaten. That day I ended up strolling around the 6th / 7th again. I found Pierre Hermé, there was a queue and I couldn't possibly eat another pastry so I only went in and had a look, then walked off to look for Poîlane. I bought a pain aux noix and a chaussons aux pommes. The pain aux noix I could eat whole in one sitting, bloody good! I stopped at half and a bit. The chaussons I had the following morning was also good! would've been better had I had it the day before but still!



As I didn't have much time left, I went nuts and ate so much pastry but I hoped I walked every calories off. Everyday I must have walked equivalent of a demi marathon, surely that's enough exercise.

Tuesday - 20 October. I wanted to go to Delmontel again but Argh! closed on Tuesdays so I crossed the road and bought a quiche from Rose Bakery. I followed the same route as the day before and this time L'Etoile d'Or was open and in I went. Mme Acabo was as charming as everybody says, and yes she had the pigtail hair and tartan skirt. She was having a little tub of chocolate mousse... weight watchers she said, pour ne pas faire grossir... try and she handed me a spoonful. I sort of promised her to send in the articles and photos of her I had seen in my magazines but I hadn't had the time... she has in a cabinet all the various publications featuring her shop that people sent her from all over the world. I bought a couple of chocolates to have with tea and a bag of Henry Le Roux caramel. I didn't buy much but I walked off feeling like I was a precious clientele, Mme Acabo she's lovely. I had both chocolates with tea at cafétier épicier Chez Jean on rue Lafayette, where I bought their eco bag of a bespectacled dog with a newspaper. Feeling refreshed I continued on to look for G.Detou on rue Tiquetonne that intersects with the delightful rue Montorgueil where La Maison Stohrer is, so I went in and bought a pain au chocolat. Mmmm Mmmm...

At G.Detou I bought a tin of pistachio paste (very exciting because I had wanted this for this pistachio ice cream recipe I have) and some poudre de caramel d'Isigny because this caramel au beurre salé thing had become my flavour of the month (my all time favourite is vanilla, bien sûr). I also found another Kayser nearby. (Honestly I hadn't been impressed much by Kayser but was willing to give it another chance) I bought their bread of the month, a loaf of pain aux pistaches-abricots. It was ok, again I wasn't very impressed. That's why even though I saw his book I wasn't particularly interested.



Wednesday 21 October - was my last day :( I had the left over Kayser, then took the metro to Trocadero. I thought people would say I'm crazy if I didn't seek out the Eiffel Tower.



It was drizzling, I took one shot and it was perfect so I left and walked towards the bridges because I wanted to go to the 6th and 7th again. I stumbled across a market on avenue President Wilson, and saw a particularly beautiful and unusual products on a stall where it read Joël Thiébault, I was sure I had heard of him before.. (after I returned I researched a bit and of course from Chocolate and Zucchini).



I found Stéphane Secco on rue Jean Nicot and bought a chaussons aux pommes (which I wolved down in record speed, it was very good, the apple compote had a bit of cinnamon in it, and I was rather hungry) after I finished it I really was going to walk back and get something else from the shop, but then I found another charming looking bakery on rue de Saint Dominique. I crossed the road to have a better look at the sign, and it was the Moulin de la Vierge, so I went in and got a little pain aux tomates/mozzarella and their calico eco bag. The bread was Yummo! I could smell and taste the tomatoes and from time to time got bits of mozzarella. I need to research on tomato/cheese bread recipe because I really liked it.

I was on my way to Le Bon Marché when suddenly as I looked to left and right before I crossed I spotted a Dalloyau. So I went in to get a little croissant. Of course it was good what do you expect? I got another little croissant again later on at la grande epicerie... which was less good. On the same street rue de Sevres, I found Malo and got a chaussons aux pommes, for later.



Then I went to Fnac, and browsed for ages, bought a book 'Cuisine Facile' which turned out to be based on materials from ACP publishing of Australia. Grrrrr I knew I should've bought that Conticini dessert book instead. My last destination that day was supposed to be Pierre Hermé but guess what... I lost track of time in Fnac and arrived at 19.15 and they've closed. At 19.00. Ah well, next time I thought rather somberly... I walked towards St Germain and saw that rue Buci was very lively and strolled along. Carton was still open and I said to myself, last one. I walked out with a little parcel of chaussons au citron.



I had both chaussons the following morning... the one from Malo, good! should've eaten it on the day, would've been better. And do you see what I mean when I mentioned that the croissant from Carton didn't look flash ? Why their chaussons didn't look fancy either, but man! it was so good! even on the following day.

The first few days after I came back, I hadn't the time to bake and I had weetbix for breakfast, Y U C K. But then I started baking again and things have gotten a bit better. Then one day I was feeling melancholic and missed France, I went to Bourke St Bakery and got a croissant for breakfast... was a consolation but, was not great. Said to self, I must must try to make my own. The End.

Come to think of it

I think I got the days mixed up hummm... On Sunday, I did go to Cojean at Bon Marché but I had the poached egg salad, then I was heading towards Musée Rodin and came across la Pâtisserie des Rêves on Rue du Bac (7th). I recognised the name because I was reading about it in the latest Elle à Table, in I went and left with a brioche feuilletée sort of thing, called la folie. Nice! By the way this Phillipe Conticini just published a new baking book called Sensations (if I remember correctly), it is 45 euro, and weighs approximately 2kgs, filled with recipes that I might never practice... still I'm filled with regret not having bought it. That evening I think I bought a baguette from Phillipe Gosselin, somewhere on Rue Rivoli? I think? apparently winner of best baguette in Paris in what 2002 or something. Good! Very Good!

Monday 12 October - I lined up at Opera Garnier, wanting to buy a ticket for Giselle, but after nearing waiting for ages and finally got so close... did I realise that it was a queue for the tour of the Opera. There was a much shorter faster moving pace queue for the performances. (I saw the ballet in the evening, was beautiful. I paid 10 euro for a sit so high up with partly obstructed view. I had to lean to the left crouching then extend my neck, but it was worth it.)

One hour wasted, and I hadn't had any breakfast. So afterwards, I went to Lafayette Gourmand. I didn't actually have much because the hunger was already gone by then. I got a mini croissant from Kayser, but didn't think it was great. Then I walked all the way to St Germain again... and went to Mulot and had the quiche and the tart (see previous entry) au Bon Marché, went next door to la Grande Epicerie de Paris then walked back to the hotel to change and then to the said ballet.



... to be continued.

I'm back

Pink window of Stéphane Secco on Rue Jean Nicot (6th)

hummm... left Paris exactly 2 weeks ago :( and I miss it. I loved wandering around in such a lovely city, with bakeries everywhere... really, so good! I hadn't been to Paris for 5.5 years and I had never spent so many days there that this time I was sad to leave at the end! I hope I could go again soon. Dear Singapore Airlines, please do another great sale asap! I love flying with you and even enjoyed the long flight, and didn't mind the 5 hour transit.

Maybe you had seen this list before somewhere on the big world wide web but here is Le Figaro's list of the best croissant in Paris. (Kind of my itinerary - I ate several pastries a day, everyday, convinced that all the walking would counteract all the calories.)

1 - Pierre Hermé
2 - Triomphe
3 - L. Duchêne
4 - Mulot
5 - Lenôtre
6 - Boul. de Monge
6 - Vandermeersch
8 - Julien
8 - Delmontel
8 - Grande Épicerie
8 - A. Poilâne
8 - M. de la Vierge
8 - Secco
8 - Nicolle
15 - Kayser
16 - Angelina
17 - L'Autre Boulange
17 - Blé Sucré
17 - Fauchon
17 - Martin
21 - Cléret
21 - La Fournée d'Augustine
21 - Maître Pain
24 - La Croissanterie
24 - Carton
24 - Paul
24 - Ladurée
24 - Gana
24 - Dalloyau
30 - Moisan
31 - Stohrer
31 - Malo

So that I could re-read and reminisce, some notes on what I ate and liked... in chronological order.

Day 1 - Saturday 9/10. I arrived in the morning and stayed in the Bastille, that afternoon I found this little place that Clotilde mentioned Le Bar à Soupes. So I had lunch there, it was quite nice... I had a bowl of carrot soup and a slice of homemade citrus tart.... near Place des Vosges I came across a Lenotre but I didn't go in because I was still full. After hours of walking around though, I came across Carton on Rue Buci (6th) so I had my first croissant. Honestly it didn't look too flash, but surprise surprise! it was very good.
Day 2 - Sunday 10/10. I went to the organic market on Boulevard Raspail, then as I wondered around Boulevard St Germain I found a pink delivery car that says Gerard Mulot, 76 Rue de Seine. Ha! Just around the corner so there I went. The window is so lovely, really exquisite I think. I bought a slice of quiche, and a sugar plum tart.


The quiche was yummo... I decided to hold on to the tart until I find somewhere to have tea. So lucky because I was there around the time sale started, not that I cared much about the sale, but then Le Bon Marché was open exceptionally on that Sunday. I was excited first and foremost because I was dying to go to toilet actually. Relieved I then went on browsing around the book section, next to the cook book section I found a Cojean.
So I ate my tart there with a cup of tea. It was really nice but not as lovely as I thought it'd be... the plum on top though were beautiful. Really.

... to be continued

OMG! Puddle Woman!

Julie is in the grand final of Masterchef Australia! She's my personal favourite because of her cooking love philosophy, but towards the end I was running for Justine. She's amazingly talented I thought, I teared up when she got booted out of the top 4. But Julie, man! who would have thought that she'd made it to the grand final. I am so loving this show, sad that it's ending on Sunday! By the way it's my colleague M who labeled her Puddle Woman after her passionfruit (puddle) pie disaster.

I've been so lazy this days. Haven't been exactly the most productive, I'd have to pull a valiant effort (either George or Matt who used that word valiant effort after everybody managed to pull that last toothache inducing cake of a pressure cooker test, good word I like it) to conquer (I think that's another word used by Matt) my 2009 resolution

ps. I skipped DB challenge last month, and I'm not inspired to do this month's. I need to make sure I attempt next month's lest I get kicked out *frown*.

Since last week

I'm another year older *sigh*
though I did receive cool presents *grin*
one of which is a bread baking bible courtesy of A *wheeee*
It's true that I do love baking bread more than most things (started when I was young(er) you see...)

Anyways, I didn't make the list. What list you ask? Ummmm, the London Times 50 of the world's best food blog, I didn't make it... but do check out the list, it's quite cool. Cream Puffs in Venice of the daring kitchen made it, that's cool... otherwise a few favourites of mine such as Chocolate and Zucchini made it of course! and the Chubby Hubby...

Weather is beautiful, I'm going to the market just behind my place and walk to Balmain and catch a ferry to the city... ta ta!

ps. be back soon.

Masterchef

I am not averse to reality TV, and lately my favourite is the Australian version of Masterchef. Last week, to avoid elimination... 3 of the finalist who performed the worst in the rabbit challenge, had the last opportunity to redeem themselves by preparing a tarte tatin. So obviously last week I was itching to bake one myself, but I haven't been feeling 100% fit so let's just say that I've been lazy.

In the end, the girl with a slight penchant for molecular gastronomy got eliminated, sparing Aaron another molecular gastronomy fan the cut. The last of the 3, is perhaps one of my favourite in the show... not that I think she will win it, but Julie is an IT consultant, working mum of 3 who cooks out of love. She said that cooking is for her a way to show and share her love with other people, and how she would like the opportunity to share it with even more people outside her friends and family, that's endearing I think... and definitely resonates with my fondness for food preparation. Because beside the thrill that I get when I test out a new recipe, more often than anything I am a domestic kitchen slave out of love. And nowadays more and more I prefer to eat food that I know had been prepared with some care too. I'm sure the people at Smiths chips are very caring people...

note :
1. I finally rolled up my sleeves yesterday and made some chaussons aux pommes out of the pâte feuilletée I made the other day. To my delight, they were rather wonderful. Blog to follow.
2. My mum is here for a visit! my dad to come a bit later! plus I'm moving hopefully before my birthday. Excuse my untimely blogs between now till end of june.

Lady of leisure

I didn't bake anything new all week, nor cook anything to blog about. May so far has been dud. Plus I'm sort of planning to do a mini detox what with my birthday coming up, am trying to preserve the last ounce of youthful appearance left in me *sigh*. Refined sugar apparently is a no no, so perhaps in the weeks to come either I'll go awol or I'll strive to bake delicious wholesome stuff like those I found in this bakery I went to on Saturday.



I had an apple and berry turnover which was nice, and they offered to heat it up for me, with a cup of coffee. Very decent. I wish this bakery is in my neighbourhood.



Organic Republic Bakery
98 Glenayr Avenue
Bondi, 2026
ph. (02) 9300 0985

Note :
1. I have a work in progress sitting in the fridge so haven't been exactly twiddling my thumbs. I am attempting to make puff pastry, wish me luck.
2. Figaro now has a secret private diary.

Woot!

Everytime I see this word I wonder what it means. I'm not hip (read: young) enough to have used it in my correspondence / conversation the past. Not that I am going looking forward to be actively woot wooting people but out of curiousity I consulted the urban dictionary for some enlightenment.

1. Woot originated as a hacker term for root (or administrative) access to a computer. However, with the term as coincides with the gamer term, "w00t". "w00t" was originally an trunicated expression common among players of Dungeons and Dragons tabletop role-playing game for "Wow, loot!" Thus the term passed into the net-culture where it thrived in video game communities and lost its original meaning and is used simply as a term of excitement.
Example : "I defeated the dark sorcerer! Woot!"

2. a) An interjection similar to "YAY!" or "Woohoo!" used to express joy or excitement, usually about some kind of accomplishment. Primarily used by gamers, spreading rapidly to anyone who chats online. Gaming origins: We Owned the Other Team or Wonderful Loot (Everquest gaming slang)
Example : woot! I got an A on this test.
b) To express agreement.
Robyn: Eric is such a tool. Let's put packing peanuts in his desk.
Stefanie: woot!
c) As an acronym, can mean Waste of Our Time or Way Out of Topic (online forums) Less common.


A gave me 3 tablettes of chocolate. Woot!


Note :
1. The weather is fair this weekend so I haven't the urge to stay in to bake. I was planning to make some raviolis but I have a feeling that it will be postponed.
2. I took a peek at May's Daring Bakers challenge. It's very exciting!! I'm pumped! Woot!
3. (I didn't overkill the usage, did I?)

Dishwasher required

No monetary remuneration. Apply within.

Inspired by the likes of the Julie/Julia Project, and Sarah Discovers How to Eat... I am to commit myself to a personal baking challenge this year, on top of the monthly Daring Bakers challenges. By the way, regretfully I couldn't carry out December's because.... (don't laugh!) I don't have a freezer :(.
(I would have loved to make une Bûche de Noël. What a bummer! *sigh* See amazing results here, here and here or click on db's logo for a complete list of daring bakers.)

So! Here are my baking resolutions for 2009 :
1. 50 recipes in 365 days, sweet or savoury... old tested recipes don't count, crap results certainly don't count.
2. 3 versions of pàte à croissant... Pierre Hermé, Michel Roux, and Lenôtre.
3. Pluck up my courage and reattempt macarons making.
4. Bake better sourdough breads like this.

That's it! Nothing too crazy... Me and little kitchenette will give it a red hot go.

Stay tuned.

xo

ps. Figgy, you're fired!

Woof woof !

Oh dear! It's Sunday night and I forgot to blog! I could've just blog any other time except that I wouldn't want to break my new years resolution so soon.... (that is to post something every Sunday night).

I haven't had time to bake as work has been demanding these days and the thought of having to wash the mixing bowls and pans leaves me cold.

Therefore let me introduce you formally to Brandy and Brownie, my parents dogs. The third one is of course little Molly.

Brandy used to sleep in my room when I went home to my parents, though these past few years she had became very attached to mum and follows her around when she's home and would wait near the front door for her when she goes out. If mum goes on a trip, she sometimes wouldn't eat for a couple of days! Her other activities: lounging around keeping dad company when he reads newspapers, and mouse hunting.



Beautiful... isn't she ? A relatively newbie to our home is Brownie, in fact last Christmas was the first time that I met her... and yet she must have heard stuff about me because she snuggled up to me straight away! She's such a darling, rather shy and sits with her front legs crossed... adorable.



Little Molly Monster is crazy about me! She couldn't help but get quite ecstatic when she sees me and with her sharp baby claws jump around my legs. A little baby she still is, every so often she would collapse without warning and power nap.



Note : Figgy, should you read this, let it be a reminder that I may replace you one day for a poodle if you give me too much attitude!