la crème de la crème

These aren’t the prettiest crème caramels in the world, but I can tell you that the taste and texture was amazing.

Alas, I was going to make a really awful pun-ny title and write something along the lines of ‘la crème de la crème des crème caramels’ (the best of the best of crème caramels) but I realised the tragic limits of my GCSE French – apparently getting an A* means all you’ll be able to remember six years afterwards is how to say ‘where’s the loo?’ and ‘I’d like a croque monsieur, please’. But I digress.

One of my favourite blogs of the moment is Coco&Me, written by the incredibly lovely Tamami of the Coco&Me bake stall in Broadway Market. It was actually her site that first inspired me to attempt to make macarons in my own home, because of the really helpful tips she’d always write into her recipes. This time her gorgeous crème caramel recipe caught my eye, and it seemed like something I could do easily in our tiny kitchen, and it didn’t require any fancy tools or ingredients.

Now that I’m in Hong Kong, there’s not a whole lot of baking I can do. It was never a big thing in my family, though my mom used to make some awesome birthday cakes back in Canada and would let me lick the whipped cream off the beaters! Also, we don’t have any of the proper utensils here for baking – we’re talking no scales, no rolling pins, no measuring spoons or cups, and no sieves apart from the tiny ones we use to strain our tea. We hardly ever have butter in our fridge, flour is only used for coating marinated meat, and when I trooped to our nearest supermarket, I was utterly shocked that there was no trace of single/double creams on the shelves. I chose the most promising one, ‘thickened cream’ and hoped for the best. It was pretty expensive, too, over a pound for 250ml! Ah, finally some things I can be grateful for back in England… With some quick purchases, I was ready to make some dessert!

The first batch failed, because I’d underestimated just how tiny egg yolks in Hong Kong chicken eggs are. The custard wouldn’t set and was awfully delicate and fell to bits. The second batch was brilliant, if I do say so myself – though the presentation leaves a lot to be desired..

Half-devoured… om nom nom!

Um, you can see that I went a bit overboard with the vanilla (what can I say, I love the stuff). I also didn’t make enough custard for my three ramekins, so that’s why the crème caramels are so flat. Anyways, in this version, I steeped some of my dad’s HK-style tea leaves (a secret blend which I haven’t worked out yet!) in the cream and milk and straining the leaves away before mixing in with the egg yolks. The result? Like silky pantyhose tea in a pudding – absolutely friggen gorgeous. The flavour of the tea cuts through the super sweetness of the caramel and the creamy texture was phenomenal… deary me, was that saliva that just ran down my chin?

Recipe (with lots of helpful tips) can be found over at Tamami’s site.

alain ducasse at the dorchester

There is, perhaps, no right way for me to go about reviewing Ducasse’s latest gastronomic offering. Save for the fact that I do like my food a little bit more than the average person, there’s nothing about my repertoire that says I can write a worthy play-by-play of a meal that probably cost more than all my meals in the past month. But then again, why not? Does one have to be brought up on caviar and truffles to tell what is good and what is not? I guess there will be some people who will disagree with me, but ultimately I was just slightly underwhelmed by the food today, though there were some brilliant instances of some serious culinary know-how.

welcome to the house of bertaux

I had a particularly disastrous hair cut at the Vidal Sassoon Advanced Academy on Thursday. Okay, I lie. It isn’t that bad, but vastly different to the usual style du chevaux on my head. So I wandered down the long route from Bond Street to Greek Street in Soho with one thought in mind – to drown my sorrows with hot cups of Earl Grey and a rich, fluffy pastry from Maison Bertaux.

I’d only gone to this quaint French patisserie once before, several months ago, after hearing many wonderful stories and seeing saliva-inducing photographs from a rather lovely blogger by the name of Anne-Marie (hello if you’re reading!). Once you step in through the door you’ll most likely be greeted by a kind old man by the name of Johan, who’ll be more than happy to guide you through the myriad of scumptious looking pastries and cakes in the shop window. After you make your choice, you go off to find a seat and the waifish male waiters will bring it to your table, along with your drink if you choose to have one (but why would you not want to have tea with your pastry?).

Luckily my favourite seat upstairs was still available – a light and breezy spot in the back corner where one can look out of the red chiffon curtained window (though admittedly there isn’t much to see but the odd van and Soho-ites passing through Greek Street). Sitting up there with a good read (a new book I picked up from Foyles: ‘How to be a better foodie: a bulging little book for the truly epicurious‘, tres amusing), it’s simply soothing being there. Compare this with the frantic buzz of a Starbucks or Cafe Nero. Non, here you can take your time and sip your tea leisurely while taking miniscule bites of your pastry (because you wouldn’t want it to all go at once, would you?) and savouring every little mouthful. Divine.

The tea is superb, my Earl Grey was light and fragrant and convinced me to go without milk (I usually find supermarket-bought Earl Grey too bitter and so I add milk and sugar to it. A sin, I know!). The smell of bergamot was calming and went nicely with the sweetness of the berries in my choux pastry. Believe me when I say that being at Maison Bertaux was like floating in a little sanctuary of bliss for about two hours.

What’s more, a waiter by the name of Menton came over and complimented me on my hair. Tea, choux and reassurance that I didn’t look as horrible as I’d thought! That made my day. Of course, he did then try to ply me with free cheesecake and an invitation to dinner later so I’m not so sure that comment was very genuine…

Maison Bertaux
28 Greek Street
London W1D 5DQ
Tel: 020 7437 6007

* This is my last post before I fly off to Hong Kong for a month. So brace yourselves for an avalanche of posts as I eat my way through the city, hurrah!