Monday 13 April 2009

Little Chan's patisserie excursion continues...




Only managed a couple of patisserie visits this week but both were fab.

First up was Blé Sucré, a quaint-looking place situated in a quiet square and just down the road from Bastille. A classmate had raved before about the glazed madeleines here and a friend had also made the trip up here a couple of weekends ago and given me a flower-shaped madeleine/financier to try which was very nice. Went on a bit of a splurge and bought some madeleines, a salted caramel religeuse and a croissant. Was feeling a little peckish so decided to sample the croissant on the way home on the metro. Am not sure whether I was just hungry but it was the best-tasting croissant I have had in Paris to date!! Despite buying it late afternoon, it was still wonderfully flaky, crispy and full of buttery naughtiness! I found out later that Blé Sucré is famous for its pain au chocs, I can tell you now that their croissannts aren't half bad either :) The glazed madeleines were delicious, which is probably a general consensus as there were only 2 packets left when I arrived. The salted caramel religeuse was yummy without being too sweet - all perfect and satisfying purchases!


My final stop for the week was Arnaud Larher whose shop is up a hill on Montmartre - another ex-Pierre Hermé patissier which generally means highly talented individual. As usual, there was too much to choose from and since I had other chores to do, I decided to pick things which would travel well - a moelleux aux framboise (very rich, wished there had been a bit of coulis to cut through it), macaroons (matcha and passion fruit, rose and lychee, mango and mandarin, salted caramel) and some cute Easter eggs/chicks as a treat. The Easter display was so cute!! I did not manage to taste the macaroons until I got back to Ireland and sampled them together with Ma Chan. She thought all of them were nice bar mango and mandarin. My verdict was:
  • Matcha and passion fruit: no taste of matcha whatsoever.
  • Rose and lychee: quite nice, bonus points to AH for slipping in a tiny morsel of fresh lychee in the middle! :)
  • Mango and mandarin: mango tasted nice but mandarin made the whole thing taste artificial.
  • Salted caramel: a serious contender to my favourite from Ladurée!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Good news from Stephanie, I GOT IN...Wooohooo. I must say that I have read all of the blog, and went to many of the places you mentioned...I sadly have to move a belt-hole eastwards due to a uncontrollable macaroon and salted caramel tart addiction.......I stopped by the college and was given a tour...i certainly looks like the right choice! :-)

Little Chan said...

Fantastic news - many congrats! I hear there are already 15 ppl on the waiting list for Sept intake so the program is getting more and more popular. Heard from Stephanie that you dropped in to have a look, she was impressed by how much you knew about the school!

Unknown said...

Yes, she was very good to spare her time to show me about. Most of what I learned has come from reading here, and other peoples blogs/comments. THe vast majority were very favourable, which is a good thing..LCB didnt fare as well, that is for sure........I am unsure if my e-mail account shows up on your page, page if you get a spare sec, perhaps you can send me the name of the landlords to AVOID....I guess it is time to start finding a place, and at the same time learning to parlay the ol' francaise! I will be finishing work end June so I thought I may go and plonk my kitchen-white butt on a Phuket beach for 2 months and go the Alliance Francaise!!! :-)

Little Chan said...

nope - unfortunately ur email doesn't show up? the best thing might be for me to ask Stephanie for ur address and i can mail you direct - lemme know if this suits. back to school 2moro after a week break...aaah!

Unknown said...

Hi there, thanks that would be cool. I have asked her for a list of accomm, though I was looking at getting my own place over there, but the market hasnt dropped sufficiently to warrant an un-needed apartment on the other side of the globe yet! It seems you get a fair amount of time off, so it isnt all work work work, which is great...or should htat have been, "back to school, urghhh!" :-)