Daily Yume

Wishes for 2012

2011-12-31T15:30:00.001+01:00

May all your dearest dreams come true!

Keep on dreaming! Happy New Year!

Samouraï exhibition at Quai Branly

2011-12-29T18:27:00.000+01:00

What comes to your mind when you hear the word "Samouraï"? We usually think of fierce warriors slaying their katana swords, lashing on their enemies with style. Well, this exhibition show us other sides of the Samouraï's world. Through the armor pieces presented, you can see they cared about beautiful details and they had a sense of humor.

helmets inspired from fantastic creatures

helmets inspired from sea creatures

from more diverse inspirations...

the one in the middle is an eggplant helmet

Horses get theirs too

Masks are always my personal favorites

Noël à Bruxelles

2011-12-25T15:08:00.000+01:00

It was great to skip away from Paris for some days before Christmas to Brussels. It is just a bit more than an hour (by train) from Paris but Brussels is different enough. I like when I walk around a place and hear people talk in a foreign language I don't understand so it really feels like I'm away.

Photography challenge

2011-12-10T19:24:00.000+01:00

The girls on Culinographie had this fun idea of a Christmas photo challenge and the theme is "White & Gold". As I'm on the lazy side (and not a lot of time), I figured I won't do a complicate scene with props. So I tried hard to find a recipe on which there would be both white and gold colors. The result is this Saint Honoré with white chantilly cream and gold caramel toppings.

As there's not a single prop, I chose to put it on a black background. As I was playing with the lights, I found that the small directional lighting creates a kind of "Dutch golden age" feel. The main difficulty of this shot was the recipe itself: the cream that was melting. Note to self: shoot involving cream always need a second stunt replacement :)

My mini chocolate charlotte

2011-11-21T22:00:00.001+01:00

This is my first cake I'm presenting to you since I began my baking school last september at Ecole Grégoire Ferrandi. The past weeks have been filled with exciting new things. At the beginning of the course, we were all in awe every time the chefs showed us a new technique or a new recipe. They are the masters even when it's just about cutting an apple into slices.

Now that I look back at some things I've posted before like this (my chef should never see this) or this, I'm really ashamed... I'm getting better but have still a long, long way to go before reaching the master lever :) But anyway, I made these mini charlottes and my little goddaughter told me they were really cute and ate all her slice without a single word in 2 minutes, so I thought I could share this with you :)

Inside is a dark chocolate mousse at the base and

a praline mousse on top, topped with chunks of gavottes
for some crunchy contrast with the soft biscuit and mousses

Hallyu in Paris

2011-09-19T22:38:00.000+02:00

The Kpop wave has settled in Paris. In Chinatown, shops that used to sell Honk Kong music now had definitely more Korean items than anything else. Just see the shop's display! And they have all the idols collectibles! Hallyu collectibles shops in Myeongdong can't even compete with this one in Paris. They have SHINee note books, JYJ tumblers, F(x) pins, 2PM pens and even the pig-rabbit! Ah, these Chinese merchants, they never lose an opportunity!

A puzzled Chinese ahjussi in front of all this

King Sejong Story

2011-09-17T13:45:00.000+02:00

Didi you know there is a musuem hidden under the King Sejong statue on Gwanghwamun plaza? It's a little exhibition to illustrate the creation of the Korean hangeul alphabet and some other inventions of King Sejong.

At the end of the exhibition, there is a wall pasted with little block on which children drew about their dream. Close-up on two funny ones :)

The one on the right hand side is a little girl who dream to become a doctor.

Although the drawing of the guy lifting his shirt seems a bit pervy.

And I just can't figure out what is about the one on the left...

This musuem also connects to another part which is about the life of Admiral Yi Sun-Shin who has his statue on the other end of the plaza. You can find out more on Visit Korea website here. Both exhibitions are free.

Seoul by night

2011-09-16T10:44:00.001+02:00

Travelled four times to Korea, this is my first time up Namsan. I never wanted to go because it's such a tourist place. I've been tricked by a friend who convinced me to drag myself up the hill in the summer heat... Actually, it was okay, not that many tourists as it was already late at night. There were more Koreans who were there to take a walk. The night sky was specially clear so it was worth the hike after all.

Korea - Random 4

2011-09-15T22:44:00.000+02:00

Cute things I've found here and there in Seoul.

The little bell sign is the symbol of the center district of Seoul

Some serious kicking

While waiting for a friend , I found out there was more to the giant interactive information board in subway stations. Besides the basic maps and weather info, there are also tabs if you need to know how is your luck today. It's all complete with the Chinese zodiacs, astrological signs and even the fortune cookie. So, are you superstitious?

Seoul center

2011-09-03T02:00:00.000+02:00

Just some pics around Jonggak area.

Beesket

2011-09-02T22:43:00.001+02:00

While roaming around Jonggak, I saw this juice shop and went in. It happened to be their opening day in fact. It's a new concept where they propose a very large selection of ingredients for you to choose and compose your own mix in three different kind: smoothie, yogurt or ade. The ingredients are represented on little hexagonal capsules you pick and put in the beesket which is then scanned at the cashier.

The concept is based on the natural ingredients and the fun in picking and creating your own drink but it doesn't come cheap. I paid 6700W for a pumpkin/ carrot/ orange smoothie but I got a free mug as a special opening day gift.

You can find out more about Beesket here. They even have the whole list of ingredients, each with a spectacularly detailed chart of its properties (calories, composition, vitamins, etc...).

Korea - Random 3

2011-08-30T07:11:00.000+02:00

The Gangnam area is full of clinics for plastic surgery. It starts from inside the subway station where there are all the advertising with "before/ after" pictures of surgery services they propose. I think this one was the best with its name "Cinderella". But I thought Cinderella was just about getting the right shoe?

Seoul - Sinsa

2011-08-29T17:59:00.000+02:00

Garosugil, on the south side of the Han river, is known for its trendy shops, cafés and restaurants. I was there before noon so it was not still very quiet. As I stroll along the road, I noticed how the interior design here, in Korea, is always well done. In this trendy area, for sure, the shops and restaurants have the budget. But even in less expensive area, shops, and particularly cafés, manage to create a special mood for their interior. You can see that the design concept has included every detail. From the colors, materials, packaging till the font used on the receipt. I think that this reflects a trait of the Koreans. Things are never half done, every detail has to be well done.

For lunch, I chose this Japanese soba shop called Obiya. Their specialty is green tea soba. You can order with the soba a side of tempura. They serve chilled green tea and they fried the soba as chips. You get some salt mixed with green tea to dip the tempura.

Korea - Random 2

2011-08-27T08:16:00.000+02:00

A car ferris wheel!! Little scooter is not tall enough to get on it so it had to wait

on the side :)

Traditional folk dance

2011-08-23T13:49:00.001+02:00

There was a group of youngsters presenting a traditional folk dance. People gather quickly from the sounds of their drums and some joined in the middle to dance with them. I just took pictures on the side under the shade of a tree. It's already so hot!

Jeonju

2011-08-23T02:48:00.001+02:00

Thanks to the Korea Tourism Organization, I booked a free trip to Jeonju. Their program also offers buses to Busan and Gyeongju. You just have to book early online on theire website here. Although the online applications were overbooked, our bus was not even half filled. But Jeonju is less popular than Gyeongju or Busan.

I come to Jeonju every time I visit Korea. I come for the food and enjoy walking around the tradition hanok village. The university area is also great for shopping if not better than in Seoul. It's less crowded and you can get things cheaper than in Seoul.

There's been quite some changes in the hanok village. They are renovating lots of houses, probably to turn them into shops, restaurants and guest houses. More modern coffee shops also bloomed. The feel is definitely different now compared to the first time I came here three years ago. The houses they rebuilt now has only the roof and the structure from the origins. They tear down everything inside and use new materials for the inside. It's not quite as same as a tradition house that has been maintained in good condition. I hope the city will try to save the authenticity of the place.

Now, the food. My yearly pilgrimage to this beef soup restaurant Omokdae. Food is still so good but side dishes are getting smaller each year. The owner of the guest house I'm staying at explained that these days, vegetables have become so much more expensive that restaurants are now reluctant to give refill for the kimchi and vegetables.

And I ended up the day with an iced berry tea in one of the new coffee shops on the main street in the village.

Korea - Random 1

2011-08-22T04:53:00.001+02:00

Guess where are these cute figures in front of?

Answer is the police station. They don't have these in front of every station. This one was near Gwanghwamun.

Food and drink

2011-08-21T18:22:00.001+02:00

Seoul is packed with coffee shops. At some area, you might have in every two shops. It makes me wonder how they survive with all the competition... and how you're supposed to know which one is good or not. As I don't drink coffee, I need a coffee house just to sit and get the aircon. So how do I choose? My most important criteria is... free WiFi!

I chose Miru as it was calm with only two persons inside because it is on a quieter street behind the main Ewha's shopping area. I ordered an iced yuzu tea, so refreshing.

After the geekette's pause, I walked around Hongdae, shopped some and then stumble on a street concert. The only I hate when traveling alone is dinner. Especially in Korea where lots of meals (like barbecue) can't be ordered unless you're two. So it's also a challenge to find a place where I can eat by myself which is not some franchised fast food chain store or the basic sandwich. And apart from the places for bbq and other group meal restaurants, the small ones close early around ten. This Saitamaya ramen shop was the best I could find for the night.

Crispy kolokke

Grilled cha siu rice served with their miso soup

They also have rice and not just noodles. I'm gluten free happy :)

Green Seoul - Hangang park Seonyudo

2011-08-21T16:04:00.000+02:00

Next stop was Seonyudo. The Chinese characters 仙遊島 means the island where the fairies travel.

It's a little spot of land in the middle of the Han river. It's like L'île Saint Louis in Paris but instead of the Berthelot ice creams and the luxury apartments, here, they left it all green.

The center of the park has different sections created for walks

and children playing area

There's just a small snack and coffee shop so this was lunch.

Green Seoul part 1 - Hangang park Yeouido

2011-08-21T08:41:00.000+02:00

Seoul has a lot of parks and greens. Hangang park is a serie of parks along the Han river dedicated to leisure and sports for the citizen. I've come to the ones of Yeouido and Seonyodo.

It rained a bit in the morning but it has refreshed the air for just about an hour. The sky was all fuzzy so the pictures didn't come out great :( The area of Yeouido has a marina for tour boats and leisure. There are bike rentals in every park. I did not take the bike because it's not possible to leave it after at a different station. I originally planned to ride the bike from Yeouido to Seonyudo.

Families, couples or just alone, everyone comes to enjoy the open space. Some bike, some play, some sit, some sleep and some come with the 6 persons tent! I don't know if they invested in the tent only to come at the park for the day?

And I took this picture because the grass has been mowed like a mess. I guess the guy doesn't really like his job?

National Museum of Korea

2011-08-20T10:06:00.000+02:00

The National Museum of Korea has a free permanent collection that consists of mainly items related to the history of Korea. On the main floor, the visit begins from the prehistoric fossils and moves along the timeline of Korean history illustrating each different era. On the second floor, one half of the floor concentrates on paintings and caligraphy. The other half is dedicated to collections donated from some famous people (I guess... as I don't know them). On the third floor, there are halls with some artifacts from other major Asian cultures and more specific halls of sculptures and crafts.

Even though the museum is free and so there were lots of people with children, it was not unbearable. But I did walk a lot. All the people usually stays on the main floor and the place where it were the most crowded was the cafeteria. Indeed, we're in Asia. Food comes before anything in our culture :)

Main entrance and the central alley

Ancient tiles. The oldest one (left bottom) is from 300 BC.

There is an entire section dedicated to the art related to Buddha. Lots of sulptures, bronze arts and paintings.

Sculpted Buddhas

Sometimes when you see these huge stones brought in museums, it feels not right for them to have move these treasures. But then, selfishly, I also think "wow, that's cool to get to see

them in air conditioned comfort". Because chances are to get to see these kinds of things, one would have to climb high in the mountain.

Pensive Bodhisattvas. Left side is the national treasure n°78.

Painted hanging scroll of 995cm high.

And to finish, some ceramics.

Water droppers : dragon, frog shaped, peach shaped and unicorn lion shaped.

Jars: very simple almost modern to the pomegranate shaped

Vases: painted rope design (also a national treasure), painted flowers,

flattened sculptured.

You can get all the info about the museum on their website here.

Changgyeonggung

2011-08-20T04:58:00.000+02:00

Changgyeonggung (yeah, there's a whole bunch of g's in this name :) ) is smaller therefore less know palace. It is right next door to the beautiful Changdeokgung. I always enjoy being places where it's not a tourist packed attraction. There was not a single foreigner. I saw just 1 group of Korean tourists and the other people there were some seniors enjoying the park. And the prove that it is hardly visited, I was able to shoot some "wildlife" there. There were birds causally walking around and fishing their food and dragonflies and butterflies cris-crossed around me.

A palace like the other ones in the city, less renovated

but it adds to the authentic charm

It has this western style glass greenhouse at the back of the garden

And the wildlife :)

Korean sweet pancake - Hoddeok

2011-08-20T02:06:00.002+02:00

After all the hard walk in the museum, this man has chosen the perfect spot to park his pancake truck. Actually, I noticed the queue before I could see what was the attraction. So I checked out what were written on the trucks then there was a queue of 10 persons. Yes again, for food, we, Asians, are ready to stand in queue under the sun. :) It was funny how everyone in the queue was standing but slightly bend on the left side to peek at the pancake making process. You see how fast the man is making the dough, put it in his special grill plates, flip sides, take out the cooked ones, serve them and do the cashier all at the same time. And the more you watch him, the more impatient you get to taste that pancake and you get so jealous of the people who just got theirs hot from the plates!

The pancake dough has completely risen during the cooking and it became this thin crispy and chewy (it's made of rice flour) crust with a filling of, I guess, cinnamon and brow sugar. We had some in Myeongdong last year and they were nothing close to this. The guy didn't lie on the signs on his truck saying "traditional hoddeok"!
It's always this kind of surprise encounters that I love the most in a trip. That's why I like to wander around places off the tourist route. That's when you get to see and taste the real thing! :) But it's also sad because even if I wanted, I could probably never eat this man's perfect pancake ever again.

Seoul's Times Squares

2011-08-18T15:37:00.000+02:00

I have been offered this opportunity to visit Korea again. I have been invited to participate in a special event that will gather teachers and students of the Korean language from all over the world. As the events will be held in and around Seoul, I won't be able to move around the country as much I'd like to. There'll only be a day trip to Jeonju. I could never miss that beef soup!

So I will try to do stuffs I haven't done yet in Seoul like museums and other parts of the city that are more off the tourist's route. I have included in my plans a mountain hike and some biking along Hangang river but with the heat... I guess you have to come check back to see whether I would have mustered the courage... or not.

Today was a slow day as I arrived early in the morning. With the 10 hours flight, first thing on my list was a little hour at the jjimjilbang (korean bath/sauna). This time, I tried the Sealala in Yeongdeungpo next to the mega mall Times Squares. The facilites were okay but the big problem was it was filled with Chinese tourists who can not control their children running while shouting.... Okay, Sealala: done and to never do again.

I would have liked to check out the largest screen in the CGV cinema but the chimps just q
started this week so abandonned. Change plans to find some energy refill.

Tonkatsu ramen

Then that left me nothing else but shopping in this mega mall. The mall has also a Shinsegae department store attached to one side and a small garden on the 6th floor rooftop. I feel like they wanted to create a high class mall but the crowd I saw while I was there (a weekday) were not the clients they expected. There is also an underground market in the subway station where it was much more crowded. I guess the prices are much more adapted to the people who lives in the neighborhood.

Côte d'azur

2011-08-16T16:49:00.000+02:00

This is my first time going all the way to the south of France. Why haven't I gone there yet? Well, first, the 10 hours drive (or more, depending on traffic) are enough to scare me off. And I've never been a beach person either. But then you never say no to a all girls trip.

Below is a little recap :)

Blue is everywhere, sky and sea.

Everyone needs these under the cloudless blue sky.

Upper right: boy selling ice creams literally in the sea.

Besides the beaches, there are lots of old and cute villages

to visit up the hills.

St Tropez with its crowd and the huge yachts.

Some vintage authentic styles.

And last but not least, the tarte tropézienne!

This is called "tarte" which means pie but it has nothing of a pie. Some say it is a kind of brioche cut in half and filled with pastry cream. We bought this one from THE bakery that claims to be the original creator of the recipe. To me, the bread is something between a brioche and a focaccia. The cream is a sturdy pastry cream. It is more digestible than it looks. They also sell them in mini sizes, also a derived product to imitate macarons...

If you want to know more about the original tarte tropézienne, it's here.

Mini choux - Popelini

2011-08-12T23:52:00.000+02:00

Here we are, back to Paris. Popelini is a pastry shop located in the Marais, newly opened this spring.

The concept of the shop is to turn the basic cream puff into different flavors, dress them up cutely so they can be competition to macarons. Their looks only make you want to buy them.

I tasted 6 of them and my favorite is the simple dark chocolate. Don't look down on their tiny size, they are fully filled up inside their thin pastry crust. I found some of the icing too sweet so it's a pity it took over the flavor of the cream. I would say that eating two of these equals eating a regular éclair.

The idea, presentation and packaging are very interesting but they are quite pricey, equivalent to macarons. I would buy them again as a gift but surely not for myself.

If you want to know more about all the flavors and the story of Popelini, check out their website here.

Marrakech - ancient vestiges

2011-07-16T11:00:00.011+02:00

In the southern part of Marrakech city, there are the Saadian Tombs.

After lunch and shopping for spices and herbs, we were heading casually to the palace Dar Si Said. At the entrance, the guard told us it was closing in 10 minutes but he was nice to still let us in. We weren't aware that most monuments to visit close around 5pm. If you go to Marrakech, I'd advise to do all cultural visits in the morning while the weather is cooler. When we were there, morning or evening, it was over 40°C, there wasn't much difference tough. There is also a musuem right next to the palace which seems to be worth visiting.

And this is the final post on Marrakech. Soon, I'll be back with news from Paris I've been stacking. See you...

Marrakech - spices and flavors

2011-07-15T19:30:00.000+02:00

Marrakech - streets views

2011-07-07T23:15:00.000+02:00

It's quite amazing how cars, horse cars, buses, camels, taxis, bicycles, motorcycles can be all on the same roads.

Marrakech, the red city?

2011-07-06T23:06:00.000+02:00

Oranges are everywhere, it's the orange juice kingdom!

You get the most freshly squeezed glass of juice for 30 cents.

Olives... I wonder... are they edible just like this?

I've ever only eaten them seasoned...

Grapefruit, not ripe yet...

The spiky ones...

the bizarre spiky ones...

and the huge graffitied spiky one.

Different views of the souk

2011-07-05T23:59:00.000+02:00

The narrow streets of th souk are so different between early morning and after when all is open and filled with people. It was kind of difficult to find our way back in the maze of crowded streets.

All quiet early morning

Windows are all open to the inside courtyard.

Only doors are seen from the narrow streets.

Farmers delivering to shops with their donkeymobile

Bargains, bargains...

And the carpets, of course!

Want some tea?

2011-07-04T22:46:00.000+02:00

The last weeks were crazily buzy. I just couldn't find time to post. I haven't been lazing around though. I've been trying new addresses in Paris and collected the pics. Now that I'm back on track (almost), you'll soon be bored to get updates every day.

But before getting to the "older" Paris items, I'm gonna share images fresh from my recent trip to Morocco. Everything there is so colorful so it needed no effort to get these nice pics.

Riad Magellan - Day and Night

Quiet haven hidden in narrow streets

right in the middle of the souk

First tastes of local cuisine... Miam...

Daily Yume cookies

2011-04-30T21:43:00.000+02:00

I'm proud to present the first Daily Yume branded cookies :D

The best waffle recipe

2011-04-27T23:41:00.001+02:00

I have, at last, found the best waffle recipe and it is from "Cakes in the city".

The recipe is not only easy, the waffles come out all crunchy on the outside and soft in the inside. What's more wonderful is you can freeze them! I've tried it. All you have to do is to take one out right from the freezer in the and toss it in the toaster. They come out almost as crunchy as if they were just baked! Now, you can just sleep as much as you want on Sundays (or any other weekday you might afford) then get up and toast some waffles to start :)

Here is the translation of the recipe:

All credits go to Cakes in the city which is a treasure's box of recipes of simple everyday sweeties that reminds us of our childhood.

For 16 - 20 waffles (depending on the size of your waffle griddle)

500 g of plain flour

30 g of sugar

1 pinch of salt

5 eggs, slightly beaten

250 g of melted butter

500 ml of warm milk

350 ml of warm water

2 packages of dry yeast for bakers (Francine is a French brand, a package from this brand contains 5 g)

powder sugar (or any thing you want) for topping

Disolve the dry yeast in 100 ml of warm milk and keep aside for 10 minutes.

Mix the flour, sugar, salt, eggs, water and the rest of the milk until smooth. Add in at the end the yeast and milk and the melted butter.

Leave it to rise for about 1 hour. It depends on the temperature of the place where you'll put the dough. It should double in volume.

Heat the griddles, brush with butter then stir a bit the dough so it goes back down a bit. Pour dough on the griddles and bake till beautifully golden about 4-5 minutes.

Sprinkle with powder sugar and enjoy.

They are so crunchy that I don't need to put any topping on them. So when I make them, I add in a bit more sugar in the dough. And you should think about setting an alarm to check on the dough during the rise time. Several years ago, I had a freaky experience with a waffle dough left unwatched that turned into a monster! Hours after, we found the dough literally like a living form, bubbling and trying to escape from squeezing itself from under the lid we put on the bowl.

Real dim sum

2011-04-21T19:55:00.000+02:00

After the fusion dim sum, I had an urge to have some real ones :)

I was so in a rush that I forgot to bring my camera. So just take this as a preview, I'll get more drool inducing pictures. This gives me another excuse go back to Chinatown for more chicken legs :P

Dim sum @ Chine Masséna

Dim sum @ Yoom, Paris

2011-04-19T22:28:00.000+02:00

The sushi trend has lived its days but it's dying out slowly. The novelty combined with the healthy aspect of sushis started probably about ten years ago in France. Since then, many fast-food/ delivery chain stores have appeared selling classic or fusion sushis.

Now that people have already adopted sushis, a new trend must come to satisfy people's curiosity. Korean restaurants are spreading but due to the spicy food, I think it'd be difficult for Korean cuisine to conquer the French that easily.

The chinese dim sum is a new little trend blooming in Paris. While it's easy to find dim sum in London, it's really hard to find in Paris because there are less Cantonese natives here. I've tried the chain store Sum and the restaurant Yoom. Both have a high-end concept with fancy interior and the food is fusion.

So, more about Yoom. I've heard about it since it opened maybe a year ago? But I also heard that it's doing so well that you can hardly get in without a reservation. At last, I went there last week with some friends, I've called for a reservation, of course. The restaurant is small, canteen style, with long tables and benches. Interior design is clean with gray, beige and red accents. Menus and plates are printed with vintage Shanghai style illustrations.

You'll find on the menu items inspired from Cantonese dim sum such as Ha Kao and different kind of dumplings, steamed or fried. There's also items inspired more from Vietnamese cuisine like sticky rice crepe or steamed in banana leaves. For dessert, they have some home made and also serves 3 items from Sadaharu Aoki.

Everything I tasted were good. I most liked a set of beef dumplings that had a complex mix of ginger and herbs. I think the tastes are balanced, not too crazy fusion, just an enhanced version of the classic.

Obviously, as a true fan, I had to order an Aoki dessert to finish. There was 2 out of the 3 on the menu that I haven't tasted yet. I hesitated before choosing the lemon tart. Because I tend to always have issues with lemon tarts. More on that in another post, maybe...

Conclusion, as a pure Cantonese, I can tell you the dim sum you find at Yoom are not the "real" ones but it's still worth the experience.

Setting up for summer

2011-04-10T00:02:00.000+02:00

We are lucky this year to get an early glimpse of summer. Everyone are already heating up the barbecue, I need one urgently! Mine finally got defeated by the rust cancer last autumn. I went to IKEA but seems like their marketing team didn't plan with the weather forecast. They were just starting the spring collection. So what I got back are these little lights. They remind me of Chinese lantern festival which was my favorite holiday. My mom would take me to buy the lantern I want then I'd stuff myself with mooncakes. Why don't they make mooncakes all year long? TT

Cherry blossom... All my blessings to people of Japan

2011-03-16T21:53:00.000+01:00

Spring is definitely here in Paris. I hope Japan will soon overcome this difficult time and that Nature will now have mercy so the people can start a new life.

First batches of macarons

2011-03-02T17:10:00.000+01:00

I've never understood why macarons are so trendy these days. Don't get me wrong, I do like them (Hévin's are my favorites) but I've never been inspired to try to make them until I found this "carrot cake macaron" recipe from Tartelette. When I was reading her post, I was already imagining the carrot cake baking smell and the taste all wrapped up in a tiny bite size macaron. So I got all excited and went shopping for ingredients to bake my first macarons. The truth is I'm not a genius so the first ones came out looking more like whoopie pies than macarons. I guess I should have started with a basic recipe... But the taste of carrot cake was definitely in there!

They were quite photogenic too AND gluten free!

I was surprised how little time it takes for the preparation. So, as I'm kind of lazy, this encourages me to make other trials. I've gone back to a more basic recipe in order to understand the meringue correctly first, yet I couldn't help adding some raspberry in the ganache. I'm happy because these second ones are looking more like macarons. There's still a lot to experiment...

Second batch, almost there...

Apple rose tart

2011-02-20T23:03:00.000+01:00

A prettier version of the apple tart I made some time ago. The apple roses peeling still need some perfecting.

Spring is coming

2011-02-13T16:06:00.000+01:00

Year after year, the first flowers popping out from the grayish winter always bring me so much comfort, as this period of time has a special meaning to me.

The definition of "comfort" from Merriam-Webster:

1: to give strength and hope to : cheer

2: to ease the grief or trouble of : console

Soon, the naked trees will turn light green covered by their tiny leaves buds. Days are getting longer each day. It spurs me to get out of hibernation. ^^

This is my favorite season.

Happy Bunny Year!!

2011-02-02T22:14:00.000+01:00

Actually at Colette, Paris

Wish everyone lots of energy and wealth to hop around wearing lovely jewelry like these bunnies.

Choux experiences

2011-01-29T18:23:00.000+01:00

My first trials of making choux (cream puffs). It's really fun to make, to see the dough blow up into the golden balls. I'll need practices, none of the choux looked alike.

I don't like pastry cream much so I made a version of the cream with peanut butter and another one with Nutella. I love the peanut butter ones :)

Sadaharu Aoki - Round 3

2011-01-29T17:54:00.000+01:00

No words needed for these. They taste as good as they look.

Cassis Chocolat

Millefeuille

Masks from Nepal

2011-01-27T22:32:00.000+01:00

I haven't gotten around to post about the exposition I saw last week of December. It was at Quai Branly (now, my favorite museum) titled "Dans Le Blanc Des Yeux" about primitive masks from the Himalaya region.

It always awes me how people from so long ago and so far away could have made art or objects that still speak to us today. One particularity of theses masks was that they were mainly masks for entertainment. Often, masks are traditionally tied to sacrifices and other spiritual rituals. These ones were almost all smiling and fun and not scary at all.

Only after uploading these pictures that I noticed

how beautiful the turquoise lightings were.

The various aged wood colors pop out nicely from it.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-18T17:17:00.001+01:00

Like last year, here are some pictures of the seasons windows decorations. They are a lot less attractive compared to last year's. Due to financial crisis? For consolation, I added a nice version of my 2 favorite xmas songs.

At Galeries Lafayette, there was no special theme this time,
just random windows with dressed up teddy bears etc...
There were 2 windows that had sort of a common theme on musicals.

Printemps have nicer displays because they have, at least, a color value.

However, I don't see how the contents are related to Christmas...

Okay... I guess it's a pink Christmas dinner feast.

Isn't this more Halloween than Christams?

With the flying white sheet ghosts? O_O

And what's this one? Hand sewn puppets dancing and playing piano...

How creative...

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Sadaharu Aoki - Round 2

2010-12-11T18:06:00.000+01:00

It's been a hard week... So I deserve a treat!

Around Opera's area, Christmas season is definitely here, with all the twinkling lightings but also all the Christmas shopping people, the parents bringing the kids to see the animated window displays, plus the usual tourist crowd.

It was a battle to get through the crowd to enter Lafayette Gourmet.

This time, I fell for the Saya for its color and the tiny macarons on the side. It's a strawberry mousse with a pistachio heart. I'm not a strawberry fan so I don't have much impression to share here. Let's just say that this Saya didn't impress me a lot. It's mostly beautiful for the eyes so I'll just let you see for yourself.

Black sesame éclair from Sadaharu Aoki

2010-11-26T23:08:00.000+01:00

I've only recently read about this Japanese patissier. He creates beautiful pastries by mixing flavors from Asia, such as green tea, black sesame or yuzu in traditional French desserts. They also have chocolates, biscuits and macarons, of course. Macarons are so trendy these days, it seems like everyone is making them. Sadly, it starts to become kind of common, methinks.

Okay, let's get back to the main topic. So ever since I saw on the website that he makes a black sesame éclair, I've been craving to try one. The shops' locations are not convenient for me but I couldn't bear any longer so after work, I went to the counter they have inside the Galeries Lafayette Gourmet. I restrained myself not to look at all the yummy art pieces (because of possible drooling that would lead to great embarrassment) but still, a green tea millefeuilles and a chocolate raspberry cake caught my attention. These are the next one on the craving list.

I managed to ask for just the black sesame éclair as intended. The price helped a bit. We're talking about highly luxurious delicaices here, pastries are around 5€/piece. Now, let's admire it!

Test conclusions: The size is perfect, it's long and lean so when you bite in it, the cream inside doesn't spill all over. The choux pastry dough is thin and not chewy. The main character of the story, the black sesame cream, might scare you with its greenish gray color but its taste get you to forgive its rough color. The black sesame flavor is hidden deep in the cream. You get the taste of a basic crème patissière when you bite in, then the strong black sesame flavor comes out as the cream melt in your mouth. (Aren't you drooling now? I am... )

At the end, little black sesame éclair won me over completely and I even think that its black, gray and white look is awesomely luscious.

Home made

2010-11-13T21:25:00.000+01:00

This is the first post of something I made at home. I'm not trying to sell this (yet). It has been too long since the last food porn shot I've made so I just wanted to share this. The yellow lighting is a pain though... and my choice of a yellow dish was the cleverest one either, anyway...

This is a apple tart with a fromage blanc filling and topped with almond flakes. The crust is the best. Quite proud of myself in fact, since it came out well with this first try.

Last coffee

2010-11-02T20:09:00.000+01:00

After dinner, we finally decided to test one more place before we leave. Also right at the corner of Sophia's, there's this cute little coffee place named "Egg". They serve hand drip coffee, tea, and also wine and waffles.

Last dinner in Seoul

2010-11-02T17:30:00.003+01:00

Oh crap, holiday is almost finished now : ( As we still need to pack, we just went to the restaurant in front of the alley of the guest house to save time. Nothing fancy here, a simple basic place where you can choose from all the basics: bbq, kalguksu, bibimbap, etc.. I went for mandu soup.

Daytime Hongdae

2010-11-02T16:01:00.002+01:00

It's strange how this area can seem completely different from day to night. I like the bustling crowd at night better but this day tour let us discover some kooky places.

That is not a church but a bar restaurant.

The guy obviously has to park his car in the street so

he can show off his matching garage door...

Gwangjang market

2010-11-02T12:15:00.000+01:00

Visit of Gwangjang market! People are rushing here... to where?
Are they all motivated by food like us? I came for the bindaeddeok (mung beans pancake) and I can tell you there was no deception!
You get to see the beans being ground to a pulp which is the main base of the pancake. Then we saw the lady add her big bag of chopped kimchi, leek, onions and soybean sprouts in the bean juice. Back on the grill plate, the pancake are being fried. We ordered one for 4000W, they are about 20cm large. First bite: so crunchy on the side and moistly yummy in side. I knew then I would not stop just at a single one of theses.

After 2 servings, we went on to see the various alleys where you can find fresh and dried seafood, spices shops, veggies, fruits, candies and also lots of bedding shops. There's also another central alley where food stalls continue to spread. On this side, you can find fresh sashimi, boribap or mandu.

Miss Lee's star coffee

2010-11-02T10:00:00.000+01:00

Starbucks closes too early here (10PM) so we went to this cute coffee shop at the beginning of Insadong hoping to catch some free WiFi. The place is designed in a school days theme with colored wood furnitures, and a giant wish tree where couples customers hang their scribbles.

I chose the very thick daechucha (dried jujube tea). It's similar to the Chinese one my grandma would make me.

Namdaemun noodle alley

2010-11-01T21:36:00.003+01:00

Once you stepped beyond the plastic curtain into the tiny noodle alley, all the ladies try to lead you to their stall. The first seats were empty but I thought it was best to go where it's packed. Once seated, I looked around and in fact and realized they all pretty much sell the same things, mostly boribap (kind of bibimbap with barley rice, naengmyeon (cold noodles) and kalguksu (handmade noodles). And all the stall has a poster with pictures of when they were featured on a TV show. It's impossible for a foreigner to know which one is truly the best.
We ordered one boribap, and 2 kalguksu. Finally we were served each a small bowl of naengmyeon for free. And my friend who had boribap got an extra small bowl of noodles so she could try. So basically, she got 3 servings for the price of 4000W, which is so cheap already. How do they earn their living?

The lady saw me with my camera and eagerly got in action for my shot

Boribap

Naengmyeon

Very spicy kalguksu

Tea house

2010-11-01T17:25:00.001+01:00

Up th hill in Bukchon, at a corner, we went in this beautiful tea house. The wall has been changed to glass panel that allows you to see the mountains at the back and the inner garden. We came in too early at 10:30 AM, the ladies weren't done with their cleaning. But they still served us.
They thought we were Japanese; she says because only the Japaneses come so early for tea. The lady was friendly and explained us all the different teas they serve, and showed us how to serve and drink our tea.
She recommended us a traditional Korean cake to go with the tea. From what I understood, it's made with corn starch. It had a sticky spongy texture.

I chose a Korean persimmon tree leaves tea. She said it contains like 20 times more vitamin than a lemon. Korean tea has usually a subtle aroma, not like chinese tea that are a lot stronger in taste. I think that if you're not used to it, you can find it dull. After eating a piece of the cake, I was surprised that it brings out deeper tastes when we drink our tea.

See the cake was still steaming

Bukchon traditional village

2010-11-01T16:16:00.001+01:00

This morning, we went up the hill to tour the Bukchon traditional village. There are some pretty places here! I wish I could have a house like that... But in a less sloped area though. How do these people get to their homes when it snows?

Banpo bridge fountain show

2010-11-01T14:45:00.000+01:00

After the yummy bbq dinner, we went for walk to to the Banpo park to see the water show. There were a lot of people doing some night biking. It's great that people can have a place like this right in the center of a big city for leisure.
The show was almost 20 minutes long! I had the time to test my camera, I'm posting just some of the better ones I achieved. Of course, they are the purple ones :)

If you'd like to watch a video of the show, you can check out Evan and Rachel's View from the Gu.

Spicy chicken bbq

2010-11-01T14:10:00.001+01:00

We've found this restaurant in a side alley from the main road in Hongdae for dinner. They advertise their coal heated bbq for spicy chicken and pork belly for quite a cheap price. One portion of 300g chicken or pork for 8000W. Usually, we've seen more like 200g of meat for 10000W. Of course, we cannot really verify the weight of what we've been served.
The chicken was hell spicy and so good, the pork less spicy and not fat. We had enough meat but not lettuce for wrapping. The lady was also friendly.

The down side was that the place was filled with mosquitoes :{ I don't remember that there was this mosquitoes problem when I came last year. But this year is really bad. We have to chase all of them in our rooms before going to sleep.

Non this is not a faucet!

It's the vent "hood" directed right on top of the cooking food

to prevent us from smelling also like bbq chicken after eating it.

Can you smell it? :p

Kokoro Bento

2010-11-01T11:50:00.001+01:00

This is lunch at Kokoro Bento inside Dongdaemun's Doota. I chose one with teriyaki chicken ,and it came with all these different things in it. The presentation was beautiful, tastes of each ingredients were fine but eaten all together at the same time kind of lessen their specialness. Loved the buzzer that "calls" you when your meal is ready, it buzzes with blinking lights so it feels like you've won jackpot minus the coins dropping sound.

Hello Kitty Cafe

2010-11-01T00:27:00.000+01:00

The Hongdae branch. We've asked many people to find it and they didn't know it even existed. We finally found a girl who knew it.

Indeed, inside the shop, there were mostly tourists, people from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. We didn't come for the drinks or food quality, of course. My cafe mocha was okay with a very think whipped cream.

I noticed a good side in Korea is that the hot drinks are served just hot and not boiling. In Paris, when I get my tea in Starbucks, I have to open the lid and wait for at least 10 minutes before I can drink it.

The interior has a reddish ambiance due to the walls color and the lighting. I wonder if it's just for ambiance or a way to prevent people taking pictures... The girls were excited to visit the washrooms for more pictures but came back without much.

Grand Mint Festival 2010

2010-10-31T17:30:00.002+01:00

One of the most exciting thing on this trip for me is this festival that features Korean indie bands in the Olympic Park of Seoul. Once again, I was over impressed by the logistic organization. I bought tickets on internet and I planned that it'd need at least 30 minutes of queuing to retrieve our tickets at the booth. In fact, there were 20 booths, each one attributed to some Korean letters alphabetically. We went to the "ABC" booth, no one in line, the girl exchanged our tickets with my printed confirmation and told us to go the booth at the left where we then again exchanged the tickets with a bracelet for the day. All the process took us 5 minutes.

We've arrived late because of the delay with the samgyetang lunch and

missed some gerat performance :( We had to queue for

1 hour before getting in the stage.

The sun setting, it became chilly so I had to buy this nice purple blanket.

The saturday evening highlight show, No Reply feat. Han Hyo Joo

We were so cold that we decided it's be better to get in the crowd up front than sitting around on the grass. Also; people around on the big picnic area were annoying. They kept on talking, going up and back to get more food. Concentration 0 on the music. And why?! Why do people come to this kind of event with babies?!

Tosokchon's samgyetang

2010-10-31T16:50:00.001+01:00

I've read that this is the best samgyetang place in Seoul. I think the queue in front of the restaurant at 11:30am confirms its celebrity.We were afraid when we saw the line but after observing 5 minutes, it seems it's moving, so we got in the line. We've waited just about 15 minutes to get in and from the inside, we can see how it is managed so that the queue is moving so efficiently. We got our table and ordered our samgyetang that arrived 10 minutes later. I'm not a fan of ginseng and I was afraid of the smell it'd have. But the taste is not as strong as I thought. Each bowl has half a chicken in it stuffed with rice, ginseng and a chestnut. This is my first samgyetang ever so I can't say if it's the best but it was yummy and you feel that's it's doing good to your body while eating it. Happy to eat some healthy food after yesterday's junk food day.

The artistic tissue tower

The number tag for going to the cashier afterwards

The soup was still bubbling when it arrived on the table

Stuffed with rice, ginseng and chestnut

You eat the meat with some large grain salt

Gwanghwamun

2010-10-31T16:15:00.000+01:00

A beautiful morning at Gwanghwamun with its gate all freshly renewed. And on top of that, we arrived right when the guards changing started.

Already preparing for the G-20 summit?

I like the all matte black bad-ass look.

Myeongdong street food

2010-10-30T21:30:00.001+02:00

We grabbed some street food as dinner while shopping in Myeongdong.

Very bad start... Since we got back into the city, we've been eating just junk food...

Okay, tomorrow, there's a samgyetang planned.

Andrew's eggtart

2010-10-30T20:45:00.001+02:00

After the buns, we went for some sweets at Andrew's eggtart. The story is that Andrew came from Macau to sell his egg tarts. Their star product is the basic egg tart. They also have some fancies like sweet potato tart or pumpkin tart. You can just buy to take out. There's a table and some seats outside if you want to sit a bit. The tart was good, the pastry not too dry and the egg part is cooked nicely soft. The thing doesn't crumble into pieces when you bite in it. And it's not too sweet. In fact, every dessert we taste here are not sweet for us, with tongues that are used to the extra sweetness in the French pastries.

Cheonjin Poja - 天津包子

2010-10-30T18:26:00.002+02:00

After having settled in our rooms, we went next door to 天津包子 for some mandu as a late lunch. (I've romanized roughly the shop's name.) Koreans call all forms of dumplings "mandu". Even when they're as big as a bun. I find this confusing. If you see "mandu" on a menu, you never really know what kind you'd get. In Chinese, each kind of dumplings/ buns have specific names, depending on their sizes, if they're steamed, cooked in soup, grilled...

The ones in here are the sizes of half a tennis ball. In this rounded form and steamed, I'd rather called them mini buns. In fact, the 包子 in Chinese would translate to little bun.
They shop is tiny, they also have another one just a few shops further. On the menu, there's only 5 kinds to choose from. You get 6 buns for a serving. It's more a snack than a meal.

Sophia's Guest House

2010-10-30T17:15:00.000+02:00

We're back to Sophia's in Bukchon where there're lots of coffee shops and tea shops. (More on those later.) It's really a nice place to stay. Gyeongbukgung and Changdeokgung are from walking distance. Insadong is just across the road. Other main areas are at most 30min by subway. The only down side is that, as it's a traditional hanok, the walls are thin, doors are made of paper. If you're not lucky, you can get annoyed by noisy fellow guests.

Pinky

2010-10-30T16:09:00.002+02:00

Pinky tailed fellow met in Jeonju. He was kind of grumpy, I guess he didn't like what his/her master did to his hair. Poor guy, he's already an albino... But I think it's quite a funky style.

Jeonju PNG bakery

2010-10-30T15:09:00.000+02:00

It was hard to grab some good and free conncetion after we wer back in Seoul, so the posting had been interrupted. Here come the last parts of our trip.

I've read* about the PNB bakery and their famous giant choco pie! (*Check out Paul Ajosshi's blog here.) Indeed, so giant I couldn't finish the whole thing.

Also got the chestnut like cake even I had no idea what it is. It just look pretty :) And the lady gave us some free stuffs.

The beef ribs soup

2010-10-22T03:21:00.000+02:00

Remeber the beef soup I talked about last year? I've come back for that! And it is still SO good! Everything is perfect in this restaurant, all the way to the kimchi.

the so sweet pumpking

Traditional tea shop

2010-10-22T03:16:00.000+02:00

Again in hope to catch some wifi, we went to try a traditional tea house on a second floor where we can overlook on the main street. We were the only customer... Is that a bad sign?

I chose pine tree leaves tea and Anne chose a classic jasmine tea. Mine smelled somewhat weird but it was okay to drink. And we got some apple and some crackers. Then we stayed for an hour until the night falled sorting up our pictures. No internet again :(

Jeonju Hanok village

2010-10-22T03:07:00.001+02:00

This is the Hanok village. Right now there's a bibimbap festival going on through the weekend so there're lots of events in the village.We got to see some traditional crafts demonstrations. There are stands selling various hand made items and a mini indie concert. It was funny the faces of the grandpas watching the singers yelling and rocking.

The bibimbap

2010-10-22T03:02:00.000+02:00

Here we are for the famous Jeonju bibimbap!

We we're served some entrees first.

Japchae, jelly, a Korean cole slaw with pink mayonaise

and a sweet fried fish.

Lots of banchans again. I think the number of banchans might be proportional to the size of the table. The lady who were eating alone next to us had as many dishes as us.

Then the main thing arrived, with the rice aside in a hot pot. You get some crispy rice bits in the bottom.

The lady come to demonstrate her technical skills of bibimbap whipping. Wow! Now I know how to, will need some pratice tough to not throw everyting out of the bowl.

Too much, couldn't finish

They left us a kettle of water, we didn't know what to do with it. We watched the other people and saw that they put it in the rice pot then they eat the rst of the burnt rice and drink the water. To not die an idiot, I did the same, but beurk >< not good! It's just water with a burnt taste.

Last, we got a yellow tea? It tasted like rice.

Pause

2010-10-22T02:35:00.000+02:00

We've reached town and it's too early for lunch so we've settle up here for a drink. Also to try to get some free wifi connection. But I wasn't successful :(
Things have changed... Last year I was here, I got wifi everywhere... Now you have to pay for it.

I got hot lemon tea

Jeonju - Bibimbap city

2010-10-22T02:26:00.000+02:00

Bibimbap signs every 300m!

Train to Jeonju

2010-10-22T02:20:00.000+02:00

I've always only traveled by bus, so this time we're taking the train to our next destination, Jeonju, the bibimbap city. The ticket was even cheaper than the bus (half the price) because this train is the most basic one. They have different categories of train. Like the next one to the same destination is 30% more expensive. It took us only 30min more than if we have taken the direct bus.

And this is breakfast to take on the train.

Suncheon - last dinner

2010-10-20T16:08:00.000+02:00

Tonight we went to the same restaurant as yesterday. We ordered pork ribs bbq for 3. That's not because we are pigs, buy because they don't serve for less people. In Korea, there are lots of food you can't enjoy by yourself.

Aren't these beautiful?

Suncheon bay

2010-10-20T15:52:00.000+02:00

This is the last visit on the program at Suncheon. The bay is a large wetland with a specific flora and fauna like crabs, cranes and a bizzare ugly fish that flaps around in the mud. People seem to love these fishes though, and restaurants besides the Suncheon bay park serves a soup made with these fishes. You can walk in the middle of the reed fields on a wooden board walk.

Check closely, you'll see the tiny bizzare fishes and some tiny crabs too.

There's a crane there in the middle.

More crabs

Boseong green tea fields

2010-10-20T15:26:00.000+02:00

Boseong, about an hour and a half by bus from Suncheon, is famous for its green tea production. Autumn is not the ideal season to visit this place, but it was still interesting and beautiful. Again, it was quiet, not too many people.

And as usual, you must find food everywhere. This is green tea ice cream!

I think we are the only two crazy people who goes around by the city's buses to go visit all these places. Everyone else are either in a tour group or they come with their own car. But really, everything is accessible by bus if you just want to find the information. Today, we had our first error though. For the way back, we waited for the bus at the same place where we got off. We were just wondering why the bus is not on schedule, which is pretty impossible here in Korea, even in the tiniest city. Luckily, an empty taxi passed by and asked where we are going to. So we asked for the price to take us back into town, 4000W, so we went with the taxi guy. Then he told us we couldn't have taken any bus waiting where we were because the place to board the return bus is on the other side of the highway.

Suncheon - Day 4 breakfast

2010-10-20T15:07:00.000+02:00

Quick breakfast before boarding the bus to Boseong to see the green tea fields.

Mine is a plain bread with some kind of crumble on top

Anne's filled with sweet potato

I added a hot choco from the coffee machine, 300W

Suncheon - Day 3 dinner

2010-10-20T01:49:00.000+02:00

Back into town after our 6 hours of mountain. We limped from the bus terminal to the nearest restaurant for dinner. I'm really happy I chose a motel close to the bus terminal. We ordered beef soup but it was nothing like the one in Jeonju. Wait for the Jeonju's version! ;) In fact, we didn't eat much. I guess we were too tired.

Gurye - Jirisan, Nogodan, Piagol

2010-10-20T01:47:00.000+02:00

This is our mountain day! We plan to walk off all the fried chicken from last night.

First thing first, breakfast! We got up at 6:30am to catch the bus so couldn't eat earlier.

Very lyophylized Udon...

I guess one can't ask for more at 1500m

On the program, around 6 kms from Nogodan at 1507m down the valley of Piagol 500-600m (couldn't find the exact number). The ridge part was spectacular, with view of all the peaks in the clouds.

starting point

Nogodan peak

Then we headed through a pass a bit below the ridge. This part was easy, all flat, and the road was boarded by small bamboos and interesting trees and roots. Also found some wild hydrangea.

The red leaves! It's just theb begining of the season, we found some nice red ones though.

Then we began our crazy descend! But again, the calling of the stomach!

We sat down here to have our kimbap picnic, bought this morning nest to the bus station.

The trail was a real natural one... Besides some crucial part where there were stairs, all the way down it was just rocks and rocks and more rocks. It was a nightmare for 4 hours... But we got a lot of attention from fellow trekkers. These Korean people are really nice. We got an apple, some chocolates because we must have looked exhausted :) This is the reward though.

Finally arrived! And in fact, we did way lot more than what we thought! 8.8km!

And I met this little friend at the bus stop we waited for the bus to take us back in town.

Suncheon - Day 2 dinner

2010-10-19T15:26:00.002+02:00

We visited the other newer side of town. I heard that was the new downtown, I thought there'd be more animation but except the late night market nothing much to see.

Then we got fried chicken and ice cream to take back to enjoy in the room in front of the TV. Hey, we've got to keep our good habits, drama time! :)

Suncheon - Naganeupseong folk village

2010-10-19T15:10:00.000+02:00

This is traditional village where people still lives inside and there're lots of guest houses. It's a touristic place but we came down here pretty late so there wasn't a lot of people.

Suncheon - Day 2 lunch

2010-10-19T14:40:00.000+02:00

We missed the bus down so we had 2 hours left to roam. Not yet hungry so we took a pause.

Then we decided to go for lunch. There are lots of restaurants just down the entrance of the temple. You'd never die of hunger anywhere in Korea! A special dedicace to my friends, the Lacoste team ;)

Bindaeddeok: green soya bean pancake

Mountain veggies bibimbap

How nicely mixed, by me ^^

Banchans: from top left to down right

eggplant, kim (seasoned seaweed, yummy),

mysterious mountain things (*_*),

kimchi (very little dose) + celery-like greens

Suncheon - Songgwangsa

2010-10-19T14:13:00.000+02:00

We took a bus from the city for Songgwangsa which is on the west side of Suncheon. It was a long ride. We did almost the entire line of the bus, some 45-50 stations for 1100W, not even 1 euro! We've turned so much around the moutain and with the fog, I couldn't tell in which direction we were heading. We finally arrived and got off at the temple 1 hour later.

This is the first time I see paintings on the outside of a building at a temple.

Suncheon - Day 2, breakfast

2010-10-19T12:59:00.001+02:00

Yesterday's schedule got a bit messed up with buses. Also, preparing the images to post take me a lot of time with my tiny netbook... So theses posts are late but hope they'll still be fun for you.

It's monday so we waited for the bank to open to get some won exchanged before heading off the city for the day. While waiting, we stopped at this little sandwich shop for our breakfast. I chose a bacon egg and a hot choco. Anne had a grilled chicken sandwich. And she got a free tea, again because people are happy that we can say some words in korean.

1st day in Suncheon

2010-10-17T14:50:00.000+02:00

Actually, with the time difference, this is the second day of our trip. After arriving in Seoul, we left our luggage at Sophia's, then headed down to Suncheon which is 5 hours of bus. As we haven't slept much for the last 24 hours, I was not in full photograph mode yet. I took just a few at the highway stop, of course filled with food stands all over.

food stands

I found Captain Zorg, the korean version

When we arrived in Suncheon, it was already 6pm. The sun was already setting, so soon? The air feels good, the city is surrounded with mountains. After settling in our motel, we went in search for food. It must be because it's sunday, the little downtown was calm.

Jongan market

And here comes the food porn of the day!

My kimchi stew

Anne's dumplings ramen

Banchan - side dishes

ooh, my favorite tiny fishes!

The shop lady first said that she was out of Kimchi stew. But then she saw that we're foreigners, she explained that they're suffering a shortage of kimchi in Korea due to the heavy rains that spoiled the cabbages. But we showed her our excellent language skills and she finally decided to sacrifice her precious stock of kimchi for me :) The stew was explosively hot, as I have feared, but she was nice to serve me her kimchi so I had to finish it all up. It was manageable after all, very nice.

Tune in tomorrow for some gorgeous temple scenes and more food, I suppose.

Giant bibimbap in Paris

2010-10-09T21:37:00.000+02:00

This afternoon the Korean cultural center and Jeonju city prepared a giant bibimbap in front of the St. Eustache church. I arrived a bit late but fought through the crowd to get you these pictures, and of course a sample of the food for myself.

notice how the women are busy working, the men stands waiting

Bibimbap mixing

I wonder how much gochujang (pepper paste) has been added in there. They were about 10 women doing all the work.

This is the sample!

Then everyone enjoyed their bibimbap. I don't know how much impact this kind of event can produce. From what I saw, there were a lot of youngsters who came were already familiar with the asian culture. Of course there were some people who just happened to be strolling around. Maybe this will get the Korean restaurants here more clients. But this isn't good for my selfish me who wants to keep the good things to myself.

Late mooncake

2010-10-07T21:57:00.001+02:00

This is late but anyway...

Mooncake - the chinese version with white lotus and egg filling.

NYC errand

2010-09-12T20:59:00.000+02:00

A summary of my two and a half day in NYC. I'll only show the fun parts and spare you the awful part (job related, of course).

With the immediate jet lag in the stomach, we asked the hotel's concierge to recommend the best and closest place to get some light lunch. We were told to go to The Redeye Grill. Nice outside seatings and we ordered our salads for a 4pm lunch.

Hollywood Cobb Salad with king crab

Yellowfin Tuna Niçoise Salad

Trip to work and hotel view

NYC sweets

Landmarks

Last lunch happened to be Korean, I swear this was not my choice. We didn't have a lot of time, and this Korean little fast food was the first restaurant in sight.

Organic tofu bibimbap

(not my meal)

Bibimbap with very healthy chicken breast version

(not mine either)

Vegetables japchae

(yeah this was mine, me not a healthy food addict)

Kimchi mandu

(this was also mine :p)

Last hours in Soho and then off to catch flight home.

Moon festival is coming up

2010-09-12T15:40:00.000+02:00

The Japanese version: usagi manju from Minamoto Kitchoan. The yuzu filling was awesomely light and fresh.

Galettes et crêpes bretonnes

2010-08-22T00:32:00.000+02:00

Today's menu: galettes and crêpes!

Theses two are specialties of the Bretagne region. Galettes are made with buckwheat flour served with salty ingredients (as main dishes). Crêpes are made with wheat flour and served with sweet things inside (as desserts). You eat them with cider served in a little cup-mug.

Lots of cafés would set up stalls in front of their door during the summer to sell crêpes, especially near the tourist attractions. Don't think that they're just thin pancakes! They are commonly too thick, spongy and greasy. It's really difficult to find a place to eat real ones.

The best ones I've eaten are of course in a restaurant well hidden in a little town near the Quiberon shore. But sadly, the place's owner retired, sold the place to some other guy, and it became a total mess.

So, not long ago, I finally found this place "Le Cap Breton", just a bit off the main avenue of Opéra, where both kinds of galettes and crêpes are good. It's the best I've tried in Paris so far. The menu list is not very long but they keep the basics and change 2,3 items along the seasons. And I guess that's how they manage to have fair prices for the area.

The place is tiny, there are about 25 seats on the main floor, I think they also have a tiny mezzanine but I've never been up there.
Therefore, on weekdays, at lunch hours, I'd not even try to get here unless you can come before noon.

My main was the "Brunchy" = bacon, egg, potatoes and cheese.

Dessert was the basic butter and sugar.

I think that sampling the more basic thing in the menu is always the best way to judge. I find it particularly true when testing Chinese restaurant. I'd always try their fried rice and I would fairly know how I'd like or not the place. So here, for a crêperie, the basic "beurre-sucre" should be done properly.
There wasn't too much butter so it'd become oily, sugar was a bit on the plus side, but overall, it was good enough. The galette was also nice, the pancake itself had a perfect texture, not too thick, and was grilled just enough to get it crispy and not burned. The different ingredients inside were well balanced, no one flavor took over the other ones. I'd like the egg more runny though but that's just my personal preference.
I do make them sometime myself at home. And I realized the difficulty lies in how to measure the right heat and cooking time so that the pancake and the ingredients inside are cooked perfectly. And of course, depending on the ingredients you put in, cooking time of each one is different. So let's not look at these as simple French pancakes anymore! ;)

Musée du Quai Branly

2010-08-13T23:00:00.001+02:00

I've been telling myself I should go visit this museum since it opened. (That was in 2006.) But then time went by, busy living everyday life . . . So here I share a little recap of my first visit to Quai Branly.

Quai Branly displays indigenous art and culture from Asia, Africa, Oceania and America. The building has been designed by Architect Jean Nouvel. It's right next to the Eiffel Tower at the left. To get to the museum, I'd recommend to get off at Iéna station (line 9). It's about a 5 min walk and on the way, you can get some nice angles of the Eiffel Towel.

Follow directions to exit the station, then you should go strait down on the same sidewalk. Take the stairs down at your right 100m later. (There, you can get glimpses of the tower already.) At the end of the alley, on your left, there's the underground path to cross the busy road. Then cross the Passerelle Debilly, the entrance is straight ahead.

I liked the garden with mainly bamboos and high grasses; it convey a kind of wilderness that matches the museum's theme. There is a restaurant in the garden. Just took a peek at the menu so I can't tell you the quality of the food. There were large salads, pasta, grilled salmon, prices are around 12€.

Inside, you begin to walk up a "river". Then you get to the main collections area. The architecture is very pleasant, it's basically a large open space but where you walk through the different continents. The path is very intuitive, it goes gently up and down in elevation. You flow around the globe from Oceania, Asia, Africa and America. There's almost no sharp angles, walls are curvy, you won't get lost between different separate rooms like in most museums.

I took too many pictures so obviously I won't put them all up in one post or you'll get really tired scrolling. So here's a recap, all photos can be found on my yumesan picasa log if you want to have a closer look.

This one is my personal favorite!

And this is the bonus!

Even my shots are blurry, I still wanted to show you these. They are so funny, completely opposite all the other objets. These are masks from Ammasslik, Greenland. Most of them had a twisted nose or mouth. I wonder what's the idea behind this . . .

read more about these here

C'est l'été chez Hermé

2010-08-04T00:36:00.000+02:00

Haven't tried them yet...

Barbie's car?

2010-07-26T09:22:00.002+02:00

Spotted this morning in front of the

Westin, Paris

It matches almost perfectly to my blog design ^O^

New toy!

2010-07-18T18:12:00.000+02:00

Introducing my new toy which will follow me everywhere so I would be able to bring back more dreamy images.

Isn't she pretty? Yeah, I feel that it's a "she". Don't you think so? Look at her flaming red body!

Tibetan - Panthéon

2010-06-22T22:40:00.000+02:00

If you want to try something exotic, there are 2 or 3 Tibetan restaurants around the Panthéon area. You would also find some shops selling different crafts from Tibet, mainly clothes, accesories and some very beautiful hand painted wood cabinets.

I haven't tried them all yet and I'm not an expert about this culture. I'm posting this time about the restaurant "Kokonor". I've been there 2 times, once for dinner and once for lunch. I liked the dinner better. Not that the lunch was awful but it seems like for lunch hours, they are in the rush mode, so menus and the food are much simpler.

The roasted barley soup is my favorite!

I'd describe Tibetan cuisine as in between Chinese and Indian. You can see that there are dumplings or meat pots, which are like Chinese food. But the taste is much more complex, with more spices and herbs.

Some pics around Panthéon. I know that the interior is really beautiful. I should visit it someday. But the entrance fee is not cheap...

Almost summer...

2010-05-21T23:19:00.000+02:00

It's time for this...

Pistachio and hazelnut

They present the ice cream as a flower, it's really cute

but not very convenient. You need to eat it real fast

so it won't end up all dripped on you pants.

Amorino shop at Bastille