Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Recent Gastronomical Exploration

I firmly believe that in order to make good food, one must eat them first. That's how the palate learns to discern what tastes good and what doesn't; so when you're cooking, you know what flavor works with what. That's the main reason why I go out to eat...that and it's a good excuse to indulge....
Dolcetti Gelato, again. Every time we go to this place, they always have at least one flavor we haven't tried.

Clockwise from the top (the yellow gelato): Passionfruit, Mixed fruit, Nutella, Lavender-Honey. The Mixed Fruit one tasted like...a mixture of fruit, literally. I tasted cantaloupe, mango, and peach, but it was delicious. The lavender-honey had a subtle lavender scent, not overpowering, but still there, just a perfect balance.
Next up...La Bonne Vie, at Grand America Hotel, revisited. We liked their macarons, and their Orange Mousse was good...but I doubt I'll get it again. I mean, don't get me wrong, it was a high-end pastry, not cloyingly sweet with sophisticated flavors, and very good; but it wasn't good enough to make me want to go buy it repeatedly.
This time, I went in the early afternoon, so there were more selections to choose from. After sampling their gelato selections--one of which was Lavender-Honey, which tasted suspiciously like the aforementioned one at Dolcetti Gelato--I looked over at the display case of pastries. I spotted the Matcha/Green Tea Gateau and immediately picked that one. I then chose two macarons--Ginger-Apple and Red Velvet. The rose macaron we got the last time were texturally close to perfect, with soft center, although lacking in the rose flavor. When the cashier girl went to package it, she accidentally smashed in the delicate shell of the Ginger-Apple macaron--which actually shouldn't happen if the macaron wasn't hollow. She apologized profusely and offered a replacement, so I got the Lemon flavor. That was so nice of her!

I love their packaging....

Here they are: Lemon, Red Velvet, (smashed) Ginger-Apple, and Matcha/Green Tea Gateau.

The closeup of the Matcha Gateau. The chocolate decoration partially melted on the way home. Green tea genoise layered with milk chocolate ganache. Great green tea flavor, the milk chocolate gave it a nice accent and added sweetness to the not-too-sweet genoise.

The smashed Ginger-Apple. Great flavor on the ginger filling--I think it's like a curd or a jelly made of ginger and apple juice. Although it was hollow, the inside was still soft. The Lemon also had good lemony flavor, but couldn't really discern the taste of Red Velvet. Granted, the cake version itself has sort of an ambiguous vanilla-chocolate hybrid taste. And I wasn't sure what was in the filling either. I was expecting cream cheese, but that wasn't the case.
I'll definitely come back here for more macaron flavor selection...since this is the only place other than Les Madeleine that sells macarons here. Maybe I'll open a macaron boutique in the future...??

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