great little cakes at this popular cakery in millenia walk – so popular, in fact, that they’ve now expanded twice their original size. and for good reason, I think – if the cakes I had were anything to go by, they know their desserts.
and it’s almost friday, people – here’s to giving the weekend a head start!
okay pastries at this newly-booming german-sounding-but-actually-french chain. I’m not sure I get all the hype about this place – it certainly churns out decent pastries, with separatably-flaky laminated doughs and picture-perfect breads behind the counter – but it just didn’t wow. to my estimation, it holds the same position paul’s holds in london: a reliable stop-for-lunch-or-tea, but not the sort of place necessarily worth queueing for.
this is such a long post – and so many photos! – but see those tau sar piah up in the first photo? they might be gorgeous to look at and perfectly-sized for rapid consumption – but they take a crazy amount of preparation and time, so much so that you start to wonder in between if it’s worth it. I’m really happy I went through with it though – it taught me new techniques, came out really much prettier than I’d expected, and was just the thing for a relaxing (entire) day’s project.
tau sar piah are traditional chinese bean pastries, with a cooked split mung bean filling surrounded by a layer of flaky pastry. these pastries are sold in those old neighborhood bakeries, or brought back in boxes from malaysia – the malaysian ones are supposedly tastier because they they still do things the old way and aren’t shy about using lard. I never thought I’d want to make these for myself since I don’t much eat them anymore now, though that sweet-savoury bean filling is rather addictive once you start.
these were my first attempt, and I made them slightly different with a filling that used the entire green mung bean – as opposed to just the skinless yellow split mung bean – and though there is room for improvement, I was pretty stoked with how they turned out. asian recipes are really difficult to master actually – and very tedious to complete. I have complete admiration for cooks that churn these pastries out regularly, but it also reminds you that it’s the very same reason our old cornerstone bakeries are starting to close.
recipe and steps in the next post! that last photo is a sort of fantasy of mine – I’m not sure I’ll want to be selling these particular pastries, but there is a sense of satisfaction in even just printing out that first box.
great little bakery in near the central train station in lyon. I have just come back from a week’s holiday in the south of france, where we ate our way through lyon, marseilles, nice and monte carlo, and I have some food photos to document our journey. and of course I’m pleased to share with you the best of the things we ate on this trip!
of course, while in france, the only thing I really want to eat is bread. not pastries, just lots of baguette and rustic bread. they do so well with its myriad forms, and I have blissful memories of my first trip in france with a baguette on my bag and a jar of nutella (new-tell-uh) as a constant snack.
we flew into Lyon, and this was the first boulangerie we saw upon arrival. it had a remarkably long queue (that picture above is taken on a second occasion when it was closed) and so as the curious hungry foreigners we were, we joined the queue to grab a spot of lunch.
andmorefood 