Food Review: Canele Chocolate Patisserie!!

Hello friends! Here as promised, is my latest food review! It concerns the Canelé Pâtisserie Chocolaterie (which by the way, I cannot pronounce) a classy little boutique based out of Singapore.

Anyway, as you my notice, the quality of my food porn pictures has increased by quite a degree! This is because I now have a DSLR camera which is uber awesome. Yes. Awesome. I encourage you all to click on the pics to see them in HUGE AWESOME QUALITY.

But enough babbling, onto the food!

I'm not exactly sure why they called themselves a chocolate patisserie since it didn't really seem like it had much of a chocolate emphasis. The place was very classy though. Black. A lot of black decor. Nice bags.

This little beauty was called The Jupiter. Anyone want to suggest any reasons why? The most brilliant icing job with the ganache; it was just SO smooth. And the sides were so vertical. It was wondrous to look at....

...tasting it however, was a different story. I'm not sure who thought putting passionfruit puree in the middle of dark chocolate mousse was a good idea, but let me just say it is not. It made it feel like there was something sour and greasy in my mouth, like the mousse was off. Not a good taste.

But it was so bloody pretty, so have another look. Ah! Sigh.

This next cake was called the Matcha, for reasons I would completely not have know had I not joined the Daring Bakers. They seem to like incorporating matcha powder into a lot of things, those Daring Baker people. Green tea powder.

This one was much better than the Jupiter; it had a bit of a graininess to it though. I'm not sure what it was. It was meant to be a green tea mousse or something. The biscuit at the bottom was kind of nice as well.

Last of the cakes, and probably the least, is this weird triple layered cheesecake thing that just tasted weird. I'm probably doing it a big injustice because I ate it when it was a bit warm, so I'm not going to say anymore about it. Not as pretty as the others though.

And now for the fun part...

!! THE MACARONS !!

[Haha. Like as if you didn't know it was coming :P]

Caramel, Raspberry, Chocolate, Rose, Passionfruit & Pistachio.

So here's my macaron review:

1. Passionfruit: [6/10] It was not too chewy, no air bubbles at all, a reasonably well made macaron. Little bit grainy/dry but it was still very nice. The passionfruit flavour was very strong. Very nice flavour.

2. Pistachio: [7/10] Very moist. Texture was very very good. The pistachio flavour was very delicate and soft but it was clear. Good flavour.

3. Rose: [8.5/10] Much much better balance of the rose flavour than macarons I've had in Australia, which tend to be too overpowering. A delicious buttercream that reminded me so much of a Malay drink called Bandung (which is basically rose syrup + milk). So moist. Again, the rose flavour was the perfect amount.

4. 80% Chocolate: [7/10] A well made macaron with a good strong chocolate flavour.

5. Raspberry: [7.5/10] A moist macaron filled with raspberry jam, which was sweet and slightly tart, which was a good offset too all the great sweetness.

6. Caramel: [9/10] My favourite out of all of them! Such a delicious salted caramel taste! Ah the caramel flavour in the moist macaron was just heavenly. Just so good.

I hope I don't sound too pretentious. I'm just writing down what I truly felt about everything I tasted on that day. At the end of the day everyone has their own set of tastebuds. I hope you found the pictures enjoyable!

[Fed to my little sister. I know, I'm so nice right?]

Food Review: Patisserie Le Renaissance

I HATH BEEN REDEEMED!

LIFE ONCE AGAIN HAS MEANING!!

I was so upset that the Lindt macarons sucked so frakkin much that today after uni I caught the earliest bus to The Rocks and navigated the winding paths of the Old City area to find a little French patisserie French-Man told me was quite exquisite.

Yes. I take my food seriously.

This patisserie, Le Renaissance, which sounds amazing pronounced in the true Francais accent, is according to French-Man a very decent place for pastries, comparable to true Parisian pastries (he would know).

When I walked in the shop I was really nervous cos I knew this was where all the rich business dudes hung out for coffee and I was in full povo wear with not so much cash on hand. But I went in anyway.

The cakes were so beautiful! Oh! The presentation! Ah! The prettiness! What patisseries in the inner west (a.k.a. The Ghetto, i.e. where I live) so miserably fail to realise is that it is ALL about the presentation. And the taste too. Of course.

I bought an Opera Cake (just for the sake of all you Daring Bakers ;D I just had to!) as well as one of their resident creations, whose name I can't quite remember.

Not to sound too bitchy or anything, but the cakes were not all that great. I think I could have done better with alternate choices. Opera cake had a strangely high ratio of jaconde to buttercream and chocolate creme patisserie so the experience was too much of overwhelming greasy mouthfeel. Maybe it's meant to be like that. The other cake was amazingly well presented but the outer sponge was quite dry. They could have done much better.

And now, to the core of my post.

They had...

Macarons.

*Heart skips a beat*.

I bought 6 macarons. 2 chocolate, 2 passionfruit, one jasmine and one vanilla. I was out of the dreamy fantasy state. Like a divorcee who is no longer under the illusion of blind romance.

But I had hope!

I went home, and when it was time to break my fast, I tried the chocolate maracon.

Joy!

It was good! Full and chewy and strong and chocolatey and enjoyable to eat~! The shell was crunchy without being dry and the inside was soft yet chewy and not sickly sweet and smooth but with texture ah!

And then there was the passionfruit macaron! Ah! What a dance on the tastebuds that was. Amazing amazing AMAZING flavour. Vanilla was very enjoyable as well. Jasmine was a bit too floral and too sweet but still enjoyable in small amounts.

I am happy.

Food Review: Lindt Cafe Macarons...

[Due to popular demand I HAD to finish the story :P]

My brother works at the Reserve Bank in the city at Martin's Place and it happens to be right next to one of the Lindt Cafe's in Sydney. He gets to eat their tasty stuff often. Lucky!

Anyway, one day I found out that Lindt Cafe has MACARONS! Yes! Those evil little circular devil pastries that dance all over the internet and poke their creamy little tongues at me full knowing I'll never get to taste a real one any time soon. Did I tell you how I bugged my french-uncle/soon-to-be-boss to get me some Laduree macarons from Paris??

YES I AM THAT OBSESSED.

So one day I bugged my brother enough and he finally went and got some for me. Man I was like crapping my pants in excitement. I was like SO WET. I practically smashed the door down when I got home to taste one.

I carefully took one out of the box...

...and took a bite.

[Edit]

Where was I? Oh yes.

I took a bite...

And was crushed. So many hours of fantasising about wonderful flavours and Lindt's reputation and whatnot but unfortuntately only one word can describe the experience.

Meh.

Just so incredibly boring. The shell was so dry and felt very flaky and gross in my mouth. Not a pleasure to eat at all. Such an unfortunate texture. So hollow! It was like a air bag that once the shell cracked it just all fell apart in my hand.

Right now I'm consoling telling myself that it's just Lindt that sucks and that in Paris they'll taste like I fantasise but until I go there, we'll have to wait and keep trying to make them.

Sigh.

Food Review: Cupcakes on Pitt!

Cuppy cakes cuppy cakes cup cup a'cuppa CAKE! Let's all sing the cupcake song! After uni today (MATH1151 tutorial ARGH) I had THE STRONGEST cravings for cupcakes. I was meant to take the train straight from Central back home but I was like stuff this and took the 394 bus to Pitt St @ Town Hall.

Straight to Cupcakes on Pitt!!

[Link]

A Young Foodie's Short Review:

Seeing as how cupcakes, mini-cakes, baby-cakes and all that sorta stuff is all the rage in Sydney right now I thought I might as well try it out. NOT! I JUST WALKED PASSED THE STORE BY ACCIDENT AND SAW THE PRETTIES AND HAD TO GO IN. Haha.

Well, for starters they make the best looking cupcakes out of places I've seen in real-life. Seriously pretty. They have a wide range of pretties. I bought 6 today. They're very pricey though. $2 a cupcake. Sigh. Here's the ones I bought:

The flavours I got were (starting from bottom-left going clockwise): Dark Chocolate, Pineapple Coconut, Tiramisu, Peppermint, Lemon-Meringue and Sticky Date Pudding. Now, the almighty question.

How did they TASTE!?

Well. For starters, I thought the muffin bases were a bit dry. I know! *Sob*. I didn't like how they used the same chocolate base for the tiramisu, the peppermint and the dark chocolate. They were all very dry. The peppermint was probably the worst. The buttercream on top was so fugly, and the mint flavour was too light. Almost bland. Tiramisu was nicer, still dry, but the coffee buttercream was much nicer.

The dark chocolate was nice. The moist ganache off-put the dryness of the muffin base so as long as I took big munches it was good. The coconut pineapple was quite nice. I'm very partial to pineapple so I might be a bit biased. The dessicated coconut pieces were a bit big and poking out everywhere. Not a nice feeling in your mouth, but very tasty.

Now for the big hitters. Sticky date was just DELICIOUS. The muffin was so moist (they didn't use the lame basic choc or vanilla base) and had bits of dates in it. YUM! And the caramel icing was so good. I microwaved it for a bit and it was so warm and good! Lemon meringue was also so very amazingly delicious. They used a vanilla cupcake base, but the core was dug out and filled with the lemon curd. It was so good. It's my favourite one!! Here's a close-up:

I'm not gonna do some out-of-10 kinda thing as it's so tacky. So, all in all, a nice experience. Not to mention I almost got hit by a truck crossing the road in peak-hour frenzy traffic to get there. Do give the place a visit! The service is very good and follow my cupcake recommendations and you should leave as a happy fellow.

Ciao!