And so we're in the month of February already! 2 more days until Chinese New Year. I should really clean up the apartment even though I'm not all that traditional about it but I can imagine my mom instructing me to do so if she were here. Tomorrow night is also the student dinner so I hope that I can get all my errands done prior to that! Not to mention I idiotically left my phone in my locker at school so I'll have to waste some time trekking there to pick it up.
Anyway, so the past lessons have all involved chocolate! I've washed my uniform 3 times already because it just can't get enough contact with that ingredient. First, we learned to make the Bavarois aux trois chocolats: 3 layers of [dark, milk, and white] chocolate bavarian cream over a lady finger sponge disc covered with a cocoa glaze. Melted white chocolate was used for decoration. The following 2 lessons after that were Chocolat au lait and Chocolat noir. Here was our first time finally to pop the battery into our thermometers and temper chocolate. Lastly (tonight), we made the Douceur Chocolat (Heavenly Chocolate). By that name, you must know it tastes pretty darn good! It's like eating Ferrero Rochers but in cake form. Its main ingredients basically consist of chocolate and hazelnut. It even has that crunch in the center! The downside about it is that there's no pretty way of cutting into it. I tried heating up my knife to slice through but it still came out a mess. Oh well, it will only end up in my stomach anyway!
Examples from Chef T and D's demonstration.
I actually shipped home a box of those chocolates since they're more practical to send than say mousse cakes? I hope they'll still be edible by the time it reaches my brother's office.
And not to forget, I went to Lyon two weekends ago with 2 classmates. We did a little sightseeing on our first day (there were Roman ruins! My favorite!) then spent the next day at the Sirha Exposition. The expo was HUGE. If I could've stayed a few hours longer, I definitely would have. There were so many different foods to taste from savory to sweet in addition to a wine section (which of course I did not have the courage to try). Luckily for me, there were other non-alcoholic beverages such as cinnamon orange hot chocolate among other flavors. All sorts of kitchen equipment, restaurant equipment, and furniture were placed on display. The grand Pastry World Cup was held on the day we went also. That was exciting. In the end, I found out on Facebook that Spain won. USA, you weren't too shabby. I rooted for you.
After that one little weekend excursion, I'm now tempted to go on more of these 1-2 day trips outside of Paris. Hopefully I can find people to join me. If not, I guess I can also go alone since I'll be returning home on the same day anyway!
By the way, this past week or so, the weather has decided to dip below 0°C. FREEEEZING... someone please buy me a better heater. Thanks.
