Strawberry rose cheesecake

I loved Christelle's idea of using biscuits roses de Reims as crust base for a cheesecake. This makes a totally girly cheesecake! I preferred to mix in the crust a rose syrup because some people don't like a too strong rose flower taste. On top, I made a thicker (with agar agar) mint strawberry topping to keep it clean. This time again, I prepared mini sizes (10cm) and when cut, the tiny slices can be eaten in one mouthful with fingers.

Korea - Random 4

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?

Beesket

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 1

 Guess where are these cute figures in front of?

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

Mini choux - Popelini

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.

Daily Yume cookies

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

 

Setting up for summer

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

Apple rose tart

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

Happy Bunny Year!!

 Actually at Colette, Paris

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

Sadaharu Aoki - Round 2

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.

 

Last coffee

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.

Miss Lee's star coffee

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.

Hello Kitty Cafe

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.

Andrew's eggtart

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.

Jeonju PNG bakery

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.

NYC errand

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.