PastryBoy

Does anyone know where I can find more specialized pastry equipment like petits fours moulds, metal cake rings, silicone moulds, polycarbonate chocolate moulds, etc? Are the stores listed below geared more for home cooks or for professionals. I guess I'm looking for stores that supply equipment to restaurants and pastry shops in the Toronto area(that are still open to the public of course!) I'm asking since I'll be heading to Toronto for a few days and though i'd pick up some equipment that I can't get at home. thx for your help!

is this equal parts almond meal and powdered sugar? i.e. 1K almond meal and 1K powdered sugar? you got it! TPT (tant pour tant) means equal weight sugar and almond flour/meal.

neil! i have to agree wtih alanamoana. my school was nothing like yours as well and i'm quite envious! would you consider yourself a typical student (i.e., how did you compare wtih the rest of your class)? very inspiring! best of luck!

nicolekaplan, is there a recipe you could post where you use italian meringue to make macarons as you had explained? or can I simply use a normal macaron recipe and simply boil a sugar (with a little water) to the soft-ball stage and pour it into the whites to make the meringue. one more question, you had mentioned that you worked in pierre hermé's kitchen. I wanted to ask if you knew the composition of the filling of the sesame macaron sold at his boutique? is it some almond paste flavoured with black sesame? thanks for your help!

WOW! What a trip! Thanks again for all the useful suggestions. I definitely had a fruitful day touring Tokyo. The day before my free day, I had a chance to sneak into Mitsukoshi and Matsuya (I think) as well as to Dalloyau's shop in Ginza and got a brief taste of what was in store for me at the depachika! What a shock (in a good way)! The sheer enormity of offerings. I would take an hour to peruse all the stalls on the basement floor when all of a sudden I find another floor below devoted to food. Plus it was so packed! Especially all the stalls selling wagashi and yokan (I had the most amazing yokan from Mikimoto) which makes sense seeing as the New Year was approaching. During my free day, I managed to visit Tobu and Seibu in Ikebukuro, Isetan, Mitsukoshi, and Takashimaya | Times Square in Shijuku. By the end of the day I was totally exhausted - but it was well worth it. Some of my favourite shops included Plus Herb, Juchheim die Meister (hooray for baumkuchen), and Gramercy | New York, plus many more (I know, I know... some of these pastry shops aren't Japanese but we don't have them in Canada). I should have kept a little notepad with me so I could keep track of the ones I visited. For some reason, all the cakes, pastries, and cookies I tasted seemed much more delicate and lighter in texture than their equivalents here in North America. I just couldn't seem to figure out how they made their sablé cookies and génoise in order to make them simply melt in your mouth! By the end of the day I was sooo stuffed (and my wallet much lighter, btw) from eating sweets that I almost didn't make it to the huge sushi dinner my family had planned that evening (I say almost... ). I loved the food in general in Japan. I mean even the rest stops along the highway were intense. Here, we have the usual MacDonald's or Wendy's along highway rest stops. But in Japan, they had the best sushi, udon, soba, and ramen shops along with little kiosks (is that what you call them) selling grilled rice balls, crêpes, okonomiaki, takoyaki (I must get one of those takoyaki making implements that you showed us in one of your pictures torakris), grilled fish, etc... I could grow used to this kind of food. As a pastry student, I must say that I have been impressed and thoroughly inspired from this trip to Japan! I'll have to post some pictures of some of the my favourites when I get the time! cheers!

torakris... thanks for the info! only 10 more days till my trip. have you (or anyone else) gone to this theme park? is it worth a look whil i'm in tokyo? if so, is it expensive? any and all info would be appreciated!

Also, check out this page which lists a variety of French-style pastry shops in Tokyo. Too bad I only have one free day to explore! All the pictures posted by each pâtisserie are so inspiring! You gotta give it to the Japanese!

Thanks for all the responses. I'll definitely have to stick mainly to the depachika to avoid having to travel too much. Hopefully I'll be able to post up some pics when I get back! I'm also thinking of heading to Pâtisserie Mont St.Clair which some of my Japanese friends have said is apparently really good. Cheers to all!

I'm heading to Japan for 10 days in December and I only have one day out of my busy schedule to explore Tokyo on my own. I wanted to make the most of this limited time so I was wondering if any of you had any suggestions of which pastry shops I should visit? I'm going to try to make it to the depachika at Seibu and Mitsukoshi. I know Hermé, LeNotre, and Fauchon all have shops/boutiques in Tokyo as well. With only one day, I wanted to take in the best pastry shops in Tokyo! I am so enamoured with the Japanese take on French pastry and can't wait for my trip! Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for all your help!