la fin: supérieur pâtisserie!

Last Thursday marked the final class of Le Cordon Bleu, which was also known as my final exam in pulled sugar. I must not have been fully awake as I made a few clumsy mistakes which resulted in a blister that remains inflamed 3 days later. It's about the size of Jekyll's tumor that was on his face. It's hurting me so much that I can't imagine how much pain my baby hamster was in. Then again, blisters are nothing compared to tumors... Anyhow, I digress again.

Here's some photos that summarizes the classes focusing on tempering chocolate and working with sugar. These two areas of study took up the latter half of superior pastry.

If you were to ask me what I enjoyed most out of this experience in culinary school, I'd have to say pulled sugar was my favorite. Needless to say, working with 165°C (329°F) sugar was no easy feat at the beginning but as time went along, my hands began to grow accustomed to the constant heat. One of our chefs work with sugar bare handed. It was a jaw dropping moment when we first watched him do it but one can understand why he has what he calls "gants au naturelles" (natural gloves). He's been working with sugar for so long that his skin must have grown thicker. My hands have turned quite ugly after these lessons but it was well worth it. It's a pity that the 5 hours put into these pieces of display only gets thrown into the trash bin after being graded. I cringe at the sound of pieces shattering.

Graduation is happening later this week on June 3. My long time friend from Canada will be arriving to Paris in 2 days just in time to attend the ceremony. We'll take a side trip to Switzerland for a bit. Lausanne and Geneve: here we come! I'm still not giving Greece up. Occasionally I check on the flight fares but it's so ridiculously expensive! On another thought, it's even more expensive to fly from NY. Why can't money grow on trees? There's so many in the courtyard outside this building harboring so many insects instead! (One of which just flew across between me and the screen)

Unfortunately, I have withdrawn from the externship opportunity due to several reasons. I am extremely excited about sleeping in my own bed in Brooklyn again though. I miss everyone so much and look forward to meeting up with them to reconnect. Hopefully it won't take too long before I can get my hands on some flour and butter again in a professional kitchen.

Paris, it's been fun. Time surely does fly by.

Au Chocolat and an Excursion to Lyon

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.

Fickle Weather and Trip Planning

It's been a little more chilly these days around again while the previous week I had to open the windows because it had felt so warm. It's like a tug of war between winter and spring! Or something of the likes.

Anyhow, we had our Lessons 05 and 06 this week thus far. (Lesson 07 tomorrow but I'll post that next week). We learned to recreate typical restaurant dishes such as the Crème brûlée au caramel and layered cakes with buttercream and ganache. Oh yeah, we also learned ice cream for the first time. I totally missed where they took the bowl of freshly made (not frozen yet) ice cream but it went out the room and was brought back in later when it was needed. There is a freezer in the classroom... I don't know. Anyway, pictures below!

Why yes, we made a fancier style of macaron known as Macaron Anis-Framboise (which is a raspberry filled macaroon with anise flavored pastry cream) and my favorite cake, Opéra. I forgot which way the accent mark for the "e" went so I didn't pipe it on. Unfortunately, Chef caught it and commented about my lack of an accent proceeding to draw into my glaze with his palm pilot stylus. Hence, that mark you see there is obviously not piped on. Don't ask what that horrible design on the corner is. He was stopping everyone from continuing on so I randomly rushed to just fill up some surface area.. Meh.

Onto other things outside of school, I had my first fondue here in Paris with some classmates. We ordered two different pots of cheeses. It was so tasty dipping bread and potatoes into them! Extremely tummy satisfying but a few hours later, I was hungry again. hehe. One meal a day does that to you.

And now with regards to the trip planning, there's quite a bit going on! This weekend will be a mini trip to Lyon by train. There will be an exhibition focusing on trends in the food and catering industry. There are a few schoolmates who are also attending. (It is an event that our school is promoting and participating in.) While we are there, might as well check the city out, right? The month after, two friends and I will be flying down to Milano for a bit during our break between classes. Hope the weather will be good.

The Friday on the week that we return to Paris, Sally will be visiting! I'm pretty psyched about that! Shortly after, my brother will fly in and we'll be heading down to where else but Italy again. Florence and Venice are on the itinerary. I would have preferred Athens but I guess that will have to wait. The calendar is quickly getting filled up with events! On the other hand, my wallet is quickly emptying out. Traveling is a bad addiction.

Anyway, until next time!

A Love for Fruits

Our second lesson involved making tarts with the fruity fillings of raspberry, passion fruit, and lemon. It was a somewhat light and refreshing taste to the palette. Low in carbohydrates and butter. Yum.

The one with the white cream piped on top is the Tarte Légère au Citron (Lemon Tart). It has an almond cream spread at the bottom of the tart and lemon cream piped over it. The other one is the Tarte Passion-Framboise (Passion Fruit and Raspberry Tart), which is also the one we made in our practical. It consists of 2 layers: raspberry jelly and passion fruit cream.

I obviously need to work on my decorating skills but I guess it could pass as a simple design. They brought out strawberries at the end when I was done shaping my "S". Alas, I didn't want to bother with trying to somehow fit it into this design without it looking so apparent that it was a last minute addition. I'm sure there'll be some of you who are glad I didn't get my hands on the strawberries hehe.

Another afternoon class today. It appears my schedule this time is more broken up than previous. Many of the demonstrations and practicals for the same lessons are held on separate days. I suppose that will make these months go by quicker since there will be more or less something to do nearly every day.

Wow, we're already almost halfway into January. Chinese New Year is coming up soon. Of all days, that is the day that we will have both demonstration and practical from 12h30 on. I was all excited and looking forward to attend the parade in Chinatown just to see how is it conducted here. I guess that won't be happening after all! Boo. Enjoy it for me, guys.

Ringing in the New Year with Puff Pastry

Bonne année 2011! Intermediate Pastry began today with both demonstration and practical for my group. At first, I was dreading it a bit but it wasn't too bad after all. We received an entirely new binder full of recipes for the semester!

Lesson 01: We learned Streusel (Streusel Cake), Pavé aux Amandes (Almond Cake), and Écossais (Scottish). So, Streusel Cake was the only one that incorporates puff pastry. hehe. Pictures below!

Yeah, I tried to be fancy with my powdered sugar decoration but I was horrible at cutting the shape out the cardboard. At that angle, it's not as easily noticeable how my "flames" are not smooth and curvy. hehe.

My critique for today: be more generous with the garnishing! Oh, and also improve on crimping the edges of the Streusel Cake. It's very similar to how a "Gok Jai" (fried Chinese flaky crescent pastries with peanut & sugar inside) is sealed up. Whenever I tried to help my mom during all those times when she made them, I would never be able crimp them nicely. If I had done it more back then, it would have paid off today!

Onto other things: I finally took a quick stroll through Jardin du Luxembourg yesterday. Who knew they'd close up the park at 4:45pm! Luckily I was able to snap a few photos before I got whistled out the gates. I kind of wished that it was a snowy scenery instead but bare trees also signify winter just as well.

I'll leave it at that for now. I took more pictures but it's time to hunt for some food. :)

2nd to Last Day of 2010

Of course I'll have to write an entry in here before it hits 2011! It's been a while since I have last updated. So what has happened within these 1.5 months? Visits here and there, seeing him and her.

My ex-coworker, Sue, visited me from November 12-18. We took a mini trip to Venezia and it was a pretty sight with all the canals and bridges. If only the weather was less cloudy and rainy. We enjoyed ourselves nonetheless and ate many dishes of pasta. Yum!

We both flew back to New York on the 18th so I was able to spend Thanksgiving with family and friends. I decided to make some palmiers and an apple tart while I had access to an oven at home! Results weren't as great as they were when I made them in school but people enjoyed them still. That's all that matters I suppose! I found that I was missing New York more than I had anticipated. I admit that I felt a little out of place perhaps due to culture shock but it didn't take too long to adapt.

After a quick and short 2 weeks, I flew back to Paris with my buddy, Pocky. The day after, my high school friend, Frankie, came with his girlfriend. We visited the touristy spots and had many French dinners. Wow, I had never eaten that much French food in a single week before. Thanks to Pocky for feeding me so generously! It was a great opportunity to try dishes and restaurants that I had never before. Paris also experienced one of its unusual snowstorms, canceling many international flights and delaying many others. Pocky's flight was canceled so he was able to soak in the French culture for a few more days.

Upon their departure, I had a week to myself before my boyfriend would arrive. Christmas in Paris with the boyfriend: can't get any more romantic than that! Well, maybe if it were less frigid and icy, it would have been better. I was finally able to visit Disneyland Paris! It wasn't as magical as I had envisioned due to the lack of nightly fireworks! The Christmas decor was festive and appealing though. We also took a mini trip to Amsterdam for a few days. Drugs, prostitutes, ollibollen. What more can you ask for? hah. I was pretty bummed out when he had to leave though but I'll save you all from my mushy talk.

That brings us to today! Less than one week until Intermediate Pastry begins. I have both demonstration and practical on our first day. Bonne chance tout le monde!

Patisserie de Base: C'est Fini!

Wow, we're done for the year! Our group had our exam at 8h30 with Chef C. He was just screaming at us for the first half of the time. "Depechez vous!" "Dans le four!" "Maintenant!" - "Hurry up!" "In the oven!" "Now!". Yeah it was full of pressure but in the latter half, he calmed down. So onto the exam itself, I picked out the green chip which denotes Saint-Honoré. Obviously, we only find out what each color had meant after we were holding it in our hand. The other two were: yellow for pithivier and sacristains and red for dacquoise. In addition to making the Saint-Honoré, we also had to recreate the pâte brisée sucré, the tart shell. No baking was involved with that one though.

I am just glad we finished. Now, onto an entire 1.5 month vacation! I'll be going to Venice, Italy for the first time next week for 3 days. After that, I am home bound for New York! Of course I could have just stayed in Europe and traveled around but I promised my boyfriend that I'd resist the temptation and travel with him afterwards instead. Yes, travel is my love but boyfriend gets prioritized this time. .

So onto the photos!

The first photo presents the demonstration by Chef Tranchant and Chef Cotte individually. The second photo are my messy products haha. L to R: Sacristains, Mogador, Chocolate Pistachio Log, Pithivier, Alhambra, and Pear Charlotte. A lot of chocolate near the end getting my uniform all dirtied! Unfortunately, I failed to bring my camera with me during the exam so I was unable to snap a memory of my final presentation. I believe I have marginally improved on piping. Eh, maybe just in my perspective. hah Chef Cotte gave me a high-five when he finished commenting on my burnt sugar for my Saint-Honoré. Way to go!

In celebration on completing our Basic Patissiere course, later on that night, my classmates and I went out for a dinner at Cafe Constant in the 7th Arrondisement. Good times :)

Oh before I forget, here's a nice photo of us in our uniform during our last demonstration with Chef T sitting among the students. He's such a joker sometimes. Can you find him?

Today also marks the last day of our French course with Hélène, which also marks my last day of being called Evelyn, my French alter ego. To clarify, throughout the entire course, we were stripped of our names and went by a "French name" just to spice the lessons up. The past 3 Saturdays, our lesson became more like a tour of Paris. There were worksheets with questions in French to encourage us to practice reading and speaking. It's been fun. Was it worth the 625€? That, I am not so sure about. haha.

Autumn has fallen upon us! The leaves are changing colors; the shades of yellows and reds. It's so beautiful especially when you're walking along the Seine River. Anyhow back on track, so we had done both sightseeing and bakery/cafe/supermarket visits. Everything looked so tasty that we occasionally stopped to make some purchases. A pain au chocolat along the way or a cup of moka au café! A yummy and educational tour. Can't get any better than that!

Too bad the weather was not cooperating today but I think the umbrellas sort of gives it some flavor and color? haha.

I think I have written enough for tonight. I've been having this massive headache that won't go away despite sleeping for a few hours. Maybe I should cook some dinner now. My tummy is calling out to me since all I really had today was this horrible onion soup that was doused with half a bottle of wine. Oh and some crackers afterwards. Graduation next Wednesday! :)

2 Weeks Remaining

So I had actually delayed publishing this post by a week. Two weeks remaining is currently one week, however, I am too lazy to retype the post below so you're stuck back in time. Or rather I am. Um, okay... carry on.

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Wow, two weeks passed by just like that and now we are left with two weeks remaining to complete the Basic Patisserie course. The earlier half seemed to be more relaxed and this second half seems to be more intense. Ironically, I feel that I am gradually picking up pace and speed only during this more challenging stage whereas I was fumbling around often during the earlier weeks. Regardless the reason, I am feeling more motivated. Our first and only written exam will be next week. The week after that is our final exam. We will receive a list of 10 recipes to focus on studying. It will be exciting but I am sure as hell that I will be extremely nervous.

I'll just cover what we had learned thus far within these two weeks of no updates with photos of pastries our chefs made and the ones I made during practicals. To sum up, we learned tartlets, Moka Genoise, croissants & pain au chocolat, and brioches & pain aux raisins.

I also had my one-on-one Chef Meeting with Chef MOF (of all chefs!) this past week. It was weird because I have only had him once for practical. I wasn't sure whether the chefs discuss among themselves about our performance in class. In the end, he was the one who provided me with the most encouraging words. I think my intimidation has lessened and I am growing more fond of him now.

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Back to the present: I took my written exam today. It was more complicated than what we were told. Sneaky translators trying to throw our expectations off! Never listening to the gossip from school faculty anymore!

Since we finished early, I decided to stroll around in search for a coiffeur. How are you supposed to distinguish the trendy ones from the mediocre ones? I went for the one that had fancy bordered mirrors. Alas, it had cost me more than what I would have liked to have paid. Let's just say in New York, I could've dyed my hair in addition to the haircut for the same price. Heck, in Chinatown, they might even be able to fit in a one-time bonus hair treatment! It was for the experience I guess...

I made french toast with the brioche that I had left. Then realized that I didn't have syrup! So with whatever ingredients that I had on hand, I made a mush of banana purée with some milk and sugar. Don't ask.

Anyway, it's been colder lately yet I still wore a dress out today. I felt a little pretty in this foreign Parisian land. Until next time!

Happy October and Rainy Days

October marks the beginning of a rainy season! It's not just about Autumn and its changing leaves. I have only seen sunlight for a brief moment in the morning a few days ago... then unfortunately I fell back asleep. When I woke up, it was gray and cloudy (as it has been lately). I have also turned on the heat two times so far because my blanket just isn't warm enough. Sooner or later, I am going to have to dish out 250€ to buy another. Can I hold up for one more month until I go back to NY? The cool weather has come too early compared to NY's seasonal transitions.

Anyhow, let's move onto Lesson 09: Pâte Sucrée (Sweet Pastry Dough) and Lesson 10: Petit-Four Secs (Petit-Fours Biscuits) and Petit-Four Moelleux (Meringues Petit-Fours). Photos below!

Creepy but my favorite Chef C is seen here smiling directly at my camera as I was photographing him making the Tarte Meringuée aux Poires Caramelisées (Caramelized Pear and Crisp Almond Crust Tart) filling.

I wish we had made the Barquettes au Miel (Honey Filled Barquettes) during the demonstration instead but I guess that would have been too simple of a task. As shown in the photos are the: Bâtons de Maréchaux (Marshal's Batons), Cigarettes, Macarons (Macaroons), and Palets aux Raisins (Raisin Biscuits). It's weird. I thought "raisins" was French for "grapes" but here it's translated as "raisins". "Raisin sec" should be "raisins". Am I confusing anyone here? haha Anyway, je ne sais pas!

Here's a photo of my finished products. Apparently, my midterm grade was not very satisfactory (at least according to me). I need to try harder! Chefs telling me "Bon travaille!" were just lying to me! Meh. We have this thing called "Meeting the Chef" going on in two weeks from now. I'm assuming it's a one-on-one evaluation on our performance. Double meh!

So the following will just be more photos of what else but food! I mean that's all Paris really is about, right? hah Kidding. That's just what I'm all about.

This is just some more examples of home cooked meals. Primarily Asian food, I know. My mom recently just told me to stop eating so much Asian food and start developing a palette for French cuisine. I can't help it sometimes!

There's quite a few desserts here but not all were mine! Only the bottom left one was. So as I had mentioned before, less Asian food, which means no sashimi for me. Instead, I went for a Salmon Tartare. I have my ways about it!

It appears that I've had salmon quite a few times when I've went out with my classmates. It's pretty common and tasty here at restaurants.

The smoked salmon in this photo belonged to my friend.

We also had a go at KFC. It tasted like any other KFC you would find in New York. Nothing different.

Last but not least, the macarons! I don't know why the right one came out looking brown but it was supposed to be a dark yellow. These were bought from Sadaharu Aoki. The flavor on the left is Hojicha and on the right is Yuzu. I really found the Hojicha aromatic and flavorful just like the soft serve back at Mitsuwa. Oh how I miss thee.

I like Aoki so much that it gets its own photo collage as shown here.

They had so many variations of desserts that I wanted to take a bite out of each item! Its interior is so pristine and simple. The walls are all white, chairs are white, tables are glass, and a black tiled floor. They even have macarons lined up in their glass case display on the wall behind the counter! Whether they're real or not, I'm not sure.

I could sit in there all day tapping on my netbook (if I had one) with a cup of café au lait and a Matcha croissant (I'm making this up because I saw croissants that had some vibrant green coloring in it).

I would definitely go back again to try all those flavors! Visitors, I'll take you there if you want to try as well. It gives me a perfect excuse to experiment their other menu items.

I think this is long enough of a post. Tomorrow night is the Nuit Blanche, also known as Sleepless Night. It'd be interesting to check out but my train is not running during those hours so perhaps not. New York is having it too on the same day. Maybe you guys can check it out since MTA is 24/7!

Well, until next time! I have only one day of classes next week (not including French class of course)!

Class Photos and Dark Cherries

Lesson 08: Gâteau Basque (Butter cake with Pastry Cream) and Crème Diplomate (Diplomat Cream). We made the Gâteau Basque during practical (thank goodness!). It's so nummy with the dark red cherries! No, I was not allergic to them if that causes any alarm among those who know of my food allergies. I didn't particularly like the taste of the Crème Diplomate. It had those candied fruits in it again. It also had golden raisins, which is somewhat acceptable but yeah I don't like chewy items in soft mushy food. Okay, I just don't like the taste of candied fruits in general.

Look, we learned a bit of plating with Raspberry and Apricot Coulis along with pistachios and fruit pieces for the Crème Diplomate. It was also drizzled with some Crème Anglaise (English Cream). The decoration sauce was tasty.

I ate more than half of my Gâteau Basque already now. Yes I am a fatty indeed! I always remind myself to bring my cakes downstairs to give it to the sushi people but I get lazy. It's odd how I don't mind running down to throw out the trash and come back up but I mind carrying a cake down. Maybe because I'd have to use people skills to socialize using my amateur French. "Bonjour. Je suis une étudiante chez Le Cordon Bleu. Souhaitez-vous quelque gâteau? J'ai trop beaucoup." And it'll end there as they stare at me like I'm a madwoman. Actually, perhaps I should start off asking if they speak Chinese.

Anyway, we also took class photos for the Basic Patisserie groups. Here shows Groups D, E, and F. I am in Group D. I look like a boy, I know. It's that darn hairnet and hat. I found that no one wore their hairnet for the photo. I have sacrificed my femininity for the sake of not having to put the hairnet on later for the demonstration class that was coming up.

I haven't done much walking around taking photos lately. Instead, I've been clothes shopping! I couldn't help myself. I had brought such casual clothes with me that I had forgotten that I'd be socializing here. I think it would be a little silly to be wearing jeans and a tee to the school dinner next week. Well, maybe some dude might but it looked like a nice restaurant so the least I can do is try to dress up a bit.

Anyhow, that's all for today. Another 8:30AM class tomorrow. I think I am getting adjusted to that now. If it was for work, probably not. haha. I will post up food photos in my next blog. Too lazy to grab them off the camera tonight. It's also very cold here but I am too cheap to turn on the heater. Meh!

Carbs Galore Among Other Edibles

I find myself eating my pastries for lunch now. Partly because I am cheap and do not want to spend additional money on food and partially because I feel like it's a waste of tuition if I just throw it out. And so as a result, I sacrifice my figure (Not that I have a notable one to begin with). Ah, the tragedy of a poor culinary student living in a foreign country where its currency is against her advantage.

Anyways, onto Lesson 06: Pâte à choux and Lesson 07: Meringue. See below!

Left to right, top to bottom: Éclairs with Crème Chantilly, Chef C piping the Choux Chantilly (Chantilly cream filled puffs), Éclairs with coffee and chocolate fondant and pastry cream filling, Choux Chantilly, Glands (Acorns), Chouquettes (Choux Pastries in front) and Salambos (behind).

Left to right, top to bottom: Dacquoise with Praline Buttercream decoration #1, Dacquoise with Praline Buttercream decoration #2, Dacquoise with Praline Buttercream decoration #3, Meringue Française (French Meringue), Chef DW demonstrating how to make the marzipan flower, and Meringue Suisse (Swiss Meringue).

Here is a photo of my finished products! Wow, I have never exercised my arm so much before in mixing and whisking. I will never take my KitchenAid for granted ever again.

And just for kicks, here's some photos of the food that I've been cooking at home. I rarely cook at home in New York so I can't help but record what I've been making these days. They're very amateur as I don't know any recipes and whatnot. They were edible though! *Pat on the back. :)

Left to right, top to bottom: Sautéed onions and mushrooms with chopped tomatoes alongside spaghetti topped with homemade alfredo sauce (yes, I used the wrong cheese and I didn't have milk), spaghetti with steamed vegetables, meatballs and cherry tomatoes, red onion soup with beef cubes and rice topped with cheese, and beef with red onions mixed with chili paste over rice.

Did I successfully make anyone drool? haha Anyway, two days off! W00ts! Then another 8:30AM - 9:00PM schedule on Thursday. I shiver at that thought. Hopefully it'll be sunny these two days so I can stroll the Parisian neighborhoods again.

Today Marks My Official Residency

Today was my appointment at l'OFII to get my medical examination and resident permit approved. Paid my 55€ in taxes first. Afterwards, I hopped from room to room to get eyesight (near and far) checked, weight and height checked, lungs x-rayed (first experience ever and I even get to keep the copy), and finally a face to face discussion about my health in general. Overall, I passed! They stamped and signed my medical certificate and stuck the resident permit into my passport. "C'est fini!" is what they said to me after all that was done and over with. Finally! All legal documentation done.

With that completed, I took my stroll through Paris once again but this time from the 11ème to 4ème to 1er. I just basically went from East to West but this time on Rue de Rivoli. Here are some pictures!

There's: Hôtel de Ville on top left (going clockwise), a neighborhood filled with streets like these near Forum des Halles (a mall), Tour Saint-Jacques (Saint-Jacques Tower), L’église Saint-Eustache (a church in Les Halles), and Colonne de Juillet (July Column) with L'Opéra Bastille in Bastille. This is not the order of where I walked. It's just for the sake of fitting the photos in proportionately. Lots of cultural buildings and monuments that I passed by. So breathtaking!

Since I was in the area, I decided to check out Bubble-T. As seen in the photo, the letter "T" seems to be missing. hah.

I ordered a Green Bubble Chai. It was okay... I should've went for Matcha au Lait or something. Yes, it came with the tapioca that I never really liked. BUT the nifty thing worth mentioning was that the lid had my astrological sign!

On a side note, I really liked the portraits hung on the wall. Very artistic. It seems like with my logo there, it's as though I'm claiming credit for those pieces of art. I'm just claiming credit for photographing them!

So here are also some nummies I have came across today shown below. Times like these, I really do wish I had the polarizer lens filter. Horrible window reflections of light and sometimes of me holding the camera...

Well, actually, the bottom left photo is savory. There's cheese and meat in them. Anyhow... since we're on the topic of food, here's a recap of Lesson 05 at le Cordon Bleu: Feuilletage (Puff Pastry)

During demonstration, we learned how to make Chaussons aux Pommes (Apple Turnovers), Palmiers (Palms), and Pailles aux Framboises (Raspberry Strawmats). Layers and layers of butter. Yum. In demonstration, we only made the Chaussons and the Palmiers. See below!

I'll need practice with this puff pastry. My layers weren't exactly puff enough. Boo. Oh and we ended up having Chef C as our practical chef. I was happy. Anyway, that's all for tonight. Tomorrow will be back to pâte à choux with both demonstration and practical in one day. Oh and it will be the start of my French language classes! Huzzah.

The Saint Honoré That Nearly Broke My Arm Off

Lesson 04: Choux Pastry. It's always so easy when watching Chefs demonstrate the method but when it's hands on for yourself, you realize that it's harder than it seems! Try beating and mixing a ball of dough into soft batter by hand. Then shortly after that, whip your own Chantilly Cream again by hand. Plenty of arm exercise in that lesson! I'll try to keep my blogs short and concise without too many boring details. So, here's some pictures to drool over!

Yes, I have realized that mine does not look as spectacular as Chef C's examples. I'll need some more practicing on piping skills. So many students burned themselves when dipping the choux into the cooked sugar syrup (I included). They warn you to be careful, otherwise, you'll get your finger cooked! Indeed, some students did cook parts of the hands. Minor though, luckily.

So I ended up piping too many balls of choux so I decided to put sandwich some ice cream in them. They made a nice after dinner dessert. Yum. So now I still have half the cake occupying my container which I will need for tomorrow's class. What do I do?! All my containers are used up. I seriously need mouths to eat these... because the next mouth I'm thinking of right now is the trash can's.

Another 8:30AM class coming up today. My classmate and I are the assistants for this week. I hope I won't screw up and forget some ingredient. Chef MOF could possibly be the instructor. Let's see how this will turn out. We will be making Chausson aux Pommes (Apple Turnovers) and Palmiers (Palms). Until then!

A Conglomeration of Things

Lesson 03: Cake aux Fruits (Fruit Cakes), Madeleines, and Week-Ends (Lemon Pound Cakes) were shown during the demonstration by a new Chef that we haven't had before! I think he has become my favourite Chef to learn from.

He is Chef XC. Very light-hearted and free spirited with a good sense of humour. Very much unlike the Chef who had us for the practical. They were nearly two complete opposites!

Chef NB was the one who taught us for the practical. He was the MOF of 2004. Perhaps that is why he seems to be the most strict of all chefs? He had some slight sense of humour as well but was predominantly just yelling at students or lecturing them. Yes, I was one of the victims.

But in the end, this is the result of the war zone in the kitchen. My Cake aux Fruits and Madeleines.

Chef MOF criticized me for having laid my Madeleines on the bump to cool off so they were ugly. I suppose that I should have laid them out more neatly before I had rushed off to wash the molds. I was just afraid he'd yell at me for not having washed the molds yet!

Anyway, the Cake aux Fruits weren't too bad despite having soaked with a rum syrup. It doesn't taste like the much appalled fruit cakes during Christmastime. I think the toasted almonds and the rum makes it better. I mean, who doesn't like alcohol?!

Today, we learned Pâte à Choux during demonstration but I'll post up pictures after we have completed the practical. I'm still trying to finish up the aforementioned pastries. In fact, I still have the Diamonds!!

Instead, I'll just show some photos during my stroll around the 1er, 2ème, and 8ème Arrondisements. I have already posted some of these on my Facebook photo album so you can just skim through if you have seen it.

Doesn't the Arc de Triomphe make you think of the background used for this blog? haha That's the first thing that came to my mind. And here's just for fun: the nummies I have come across that I remembered to take a photo of :)

Sigh. And now I dread the 8:30AM class to come in just... 9 hours from now. Saint Honoré, here I come!