The sweet, many splendors of London

While it’s undoubtedly fun to window-shop, cocktail-sip and gallery-hop with my brother in London, next time I’ll have to save a little more time for sweet-touring.

All over town, I was astounded by the variety…

The artistry…


The oh-my-god-get-in-my-belly-now impulses.

At Daylesford Organic Market, I was tempted by the rustic tarts.

But I succumbed to the chocolate chip cookie. (How predictable.)

William Curley’s tropical and chocolate cakes made my knees tremble.

The remedy? I took home a box of 12 bonbons. Heavenly.

At Tom’s Deli, the cake display would do any American bakery proud.

I liked what passed as “mini” cupcakes.

But, next to the juggernaut muffins, it’s all relative.

Hummingbird Bakery? Sigh. Another time, I’m afraid, when there isn’t a line snaking out the door.

And lastly, there was this little place named Ottolenghi.

Carol had instructed me to get the passionfruit meringue tart.

She said it would change my life.

And sadly, incredibly, inexcusably, I didn’t. Who wants to go with me next time??

New macaron flavors that make me happy

When you live in Paris, you can't help but fall in love with macarons. And with so many incredible flavor combinations—peach and ginger; litchi, rose and raspberry; caramel with salted butter—there is always something new to tickle your taste buds. Even though I’ve done considerable research and tasting, last weekend I sampled two brand new flavors that I loved.

The first was at Rachel Khoo’s dinner party. You might look at the lovely tray of petit green delights and think, Pistachio? Passionfruit? Green apple?


Wrong, wrong and wrong. Rachel made savory macarons: wasabi and olive. I didn’t try the olive one as I was saving my appetite for the five-course extravaganza that was ahead of us, but the wasabi macaron was delicious. The same delicate and creamy, moist but crisp texture, but it was a mouthful of savory instead of sweet. Surprising in a good way.

The next day I had lunch at Gaya and, after indulging in the heavenly chocolate praliné cake with rhubarb and hazelnut salted caramel ice cream (seriously)…

… we got a lovely little plate of petite fours, including macarons in another flavor that, shockingly, I’ve never seen or sampled: mint.


There is much to love in this city.

Fly me to the moon

I’ve always loved Patrick Roger’s chocolates and his chocolate sculptures. But with the window display at his new Faubourg Saint-Honoré boutique, my appreciation is going to new heights (hardy har har).


To commemorate the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landing on the moon, he’s whipped up this clever little chocolate sculpture. My American pride prompted me to celebrate with a few bonbons—among them, lemon-basil, passionfruit, salted caramel and a couple good old pralinés.

199 Faubourg Saint-Honoré
8eme

Dueling cakes

It’s been sixteen years since I’ve seen my friend Bessie’s cousin, Bessie, but I had the chance to catch up with her this weekend. After her own stint in Paris, she’s living in Switzerland and came to town to visit friends do a little shopping. With a plan for lunch, I suggested that we meet at the salon de thé at Jean-Paul Hevin.

We were modest and French enough with our meals—quiche for Bessie, salad for me, wine for us both. Less so with dessert. It’s a chocolatier, after all—my favorite one at that. We had to have chocolate cake.

For all its poshness, the salon has these weird oversized, laminated menus with pictures and descriptions of the cakes on it—like something you’d see at a carnival. But they were admittedly helpful in narrowing down the selection. From the 30+ varieties of cakes—most of them chocolate-based—Bes chose the Choco Passion, and I went classic with a Chocolat Framboise.

My chocolate-raspberry cake was gorgeous. Layers of fluffy chocolate mousse and dense chocolate cake rested atop a cacao biscuit and beneath a layer of raspberry preserves. But for all its beauty, it lacked that famous je ne sais quoi. It had nothing on Bessie’s Choco Passion.



The Choco Passion was rich and complex, nutty and fruity. A flakey praline base and dark chocolate ganache made for a thick, savory base that was offset with chocolate mousse whipped with tart passionfruit. It had so much depth and was so irresistible, I just wanted to keep sneaking bites of Bessie’s cake. But I figured that wasn’t very French of me.

231, rue Saint-Honoré
1eme