Druckenbrodt

We've got some yams sitting in the kitchen. They look at me reproachfully every time I enter. They don't have to say anything; they know that I know that they know what I'm thinking. It doesn't help that almost all my cookbooks are mean to them - either ignoring them completely or bitching about how boring they are. But I believe every food ingredient has a redeeming aspect to its character, just as with people; even London traffic wardens are capable of being loved. It's just not always immediately obvious how. Anyone got any really 'yammy' recipes they'd like to share? Or prepared to pen an ode to the yam? Or just a simple defence? I'd really like to be converted but I think it will be quite a challenge. And to make it more challenging my boyfriend, who acquired the yams, is a very athletic vegetarian with worrying vegan tendencies who is avoiding overly greasy food while trying to lose some kilos for a fast marathon. So I can't liven them up with bacon, a kilo of butter, a vat of cream and a jug of brandy or anything like that.

This is probably a bit late to add now... But what's that cocktail made from Guinness & Champagne called? Really delicious... and celebratory...and sustaining (what with all that goodness in the Guinness) and nicely decadent for breakfast. With oysters of course. I had it once with coquilles st Jacques for breakfast. That was nice.

Thank you for the update on the Pierre Herme website naf, and for the recommendation on the 'Breton coronary bomb' John Talbott. It seems to me that there's something of a Breton theme with Parisian patissiers (is this well-established & documented and am I the last to notice?) Is the caramel/fleur de sel combination also a Breton idea? Just curious. While researching this I've also been noticing that there's a major love-in going on between the Parisians and the Japanese when it comes to cakes and chocolate which is probably worth a story in itself...

Thank you for the amazing feed back everyone! This has been an incredibly helpful, knowledgeable and inspiring thread! We've only just got a guidebook and a map so we're going to start working out where we're going to try to travel over the coming weeks. We are sort of thinking of bringing a tent but I think it will be a bit cold in November for that sort of thing. Not that it can't be done, but you need a few creature comforts... The food guidebook sounds excellent - another for my Abebooks/Amazon list! I have to establish what's happening when with the work stuff but it would be really fun to meet up with egulleters while in Tokyo!

Thank you for the excellent advice dornachu and senrensho. Thinking about regional food specialities and checking out that regional egullet thread is making me very excited indeed! I'm going to be there first half November. Are there any seasonal specialities/food festivals which we should try to check out?

Arigato Sanrensho! And thank you for the handy language tips. And thank you also for the website tip off - very useful! LOVE the idea of exploring hot springs - now that's my kind of touring holiday. We were in Taiwan last year (my boyfriend's work this time!) but somehow we always missed the hot springs and ended up cycling through the mountains in the middle of a typhoon. It was certainly... an experience. Great to hear back from a fellow cyclist and food lover! I may be misguided here, but I feel like you can always trust a cyclist. And by the same token, you can never trust someone who doesn't enjoy food. Also I find the two things complement eachother perfectly; the more you cycle, the more you can eat! We'll be on our beautiful steel custom built touring frames with fancy lugwork made by a small family company in Derbyshire in England called Mercian. They've been building frames for the last 50 years. Here's their website: www.merciancycles.com (check out the gallery section for a glimpse into the mad, obsessive world of Mercian obsessives, and yes, I admit, I'm a bike nerd.) I'd quite like to watch some keirin racing while we're in Tokyo. Do you have any tips?? So, back to food. I reckon the simple stuff could be really delicious, no? Refills for rice is a very handy thing to learn to ask for. Which is the word for rice in that sentence, out of curiosity? I love ramen and soba noodles... I love miso soup... I love pickles... I also love that thing when you grill a whole slice of aubergine (with a sweetish miso paste on top? I think?... I've only had it once.) No idea what it's called... I'm even beginning to like sweets with red bean paste although that is quite an acquired taste which I wasn't too interested in acquiring initially. How can you tell, from looking at it, whether a place is serving up good, honest, tasty food? (Apart from that fact that it's full of locals!) And do the Japanese eat at a very specific time in the evenings? (I guess that depends on whether you're in the country or a city?) I'd like to also visit the Tsukiji fish market while I'm in Tokyo - I've also heard that there are great 'hole in the wall' type stands cooking up maybe a big bowl of soup or noodles which sounds great. Also: Is 'arigato' ok in most situations for thank you? And is there a good word/phrase for 'excuse me' in the sense of "I'm sorry I knocked over your bowl of soup" and also in the sense of "can I get past so that I can take a closer look at that amazing stew thing?". Oh, I can't wait!!

I know this sounds a bit silly - if you have no budget why go to Japan? To explain: I'm going on a work related trip, however it's my first time there so I've also booked two weeks off to explore and I really can't wait. Although am rather worried about the hole it's going to burn into my bank account. Basically it's a once in a lifetime opportunity, at the wrong moment, financially... I reckon there must be some great food things to try out that are cheap, and thought this might be a fun challenge for you Japan experts. My boyfriend is also coming out and we plan to spend a lot of our time out there touring on our bikes, which we are also bringing! We'll be aiming to cover about 100 miles a day, which means we'll be needing lots of carbohydrates (rice, rice and more rice perhaps?) and looking for lots of road side stall/street food snacking opportunities Not sure exactly where we'll be travelling to yet but we'll start and end in Tokyo. There's a vague plan to zip up to Hokkaido and then cycle back down. We're not afraid of mountains either since we regularly do bike races in the Alps in France where we live. I bet there's some good hearty mountain food just waiting to be pounced on. I'm particularly interested in weird and wonderful things that you rarely come across in the West, or simple rustic 'peasant food.' I'll have a few days on my own in Tokyo too - so also interested to hear any survival tips for a lone girl with zero language knowledge!! Of course we're not just going to eat boiled rice - will definitely find the budget to push the boat out on occasion, before you get too concerned... My B.F. is vegetarian so any thoughts along those lines would also be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Oh I LOVE this thread! Long may it live! Can't think of anything I'm looking for though...

meant to also say thank you for letting me know about Larher, naf. What a great looking site! Definitely another one I need to check out... He also looks really cute with his smiley face. Ooh, just found a page featuring one of his creations in the September issue of 'Le Journal du Patissier'. Yup, he's definitely hot.

Louisa - thank you for the feedback and the blog links. No: useful, educational distraction is ALWAYS good, so don't apologise! I always find the best discoveries come from grazing off on tangents, while the best ideas come when I'm out jogging, mentally digesting the tangents I've been nibbling on. The draining of the fromage blanc makes sense now you mention it - isn't fromage blanc normally like/the same thing as fromage frais? There was something a bit like Shrikhand about it (one of my favourite things in the entire world, especially when eaten with drippingly ripe mangos), although obviously nothing remotely like Shrikhand. But with that mildly cheesy taste and buttery richness. I really urge you to try that cake if you're passing there again. It was sublime. Vertical millefeuille at the Grande Epicerie... will have to look into that. Sounds fantastic. I tried getting info out of one of the Grande Epicerie PRs on stuff they'd been doing but she sounded like she was about 12 and was completely uninterested in helping generate any pr for her employers. I get annoyed with crap PRs. Having done the job myself for many many years I know that journos are always bitching about them and making out they're idiots, when most of them aren't, and work extremely hard in a thankless job. So when you come across ones who live up to the reputation you feel like they're really letting the sister- (and occasional brother-) hood down. I think Fauchon are trying to make their eclairs and madeleines 'the new macarons'. I really like what they're trying to do, encouraging their patissiers to come up with fun and interesting things. Some might argue they're chasing trendiness at the expense of quality but that doesn't seem to be the case as far as I can tell... There's a really nutty kitschy Mathew Barneyesque croquembouche display in a Dalloyau window on the rue due Colisee off the Champs Elysees. I think this must be the Dalloyau head office or a show room or something along those lines - doesn't appear to be a shop and isn't listed in the phone book either. I cycle past it occasionally and the first time had to do a double take. There's spun sugar, pink icing and giant poppy stuff going on. I love the way it's presented too, just two of these towers on pedestals, with a white curtain behind, like a stage! Only in Paris. (Or perhaps Las Vegas?)

Yes it was the Rabat school. I think the lady I met was Madame Bensdira. Not 100% sure on that though. The walking trip was truly amazing - everyone should do it at some point in their life. The friends were from the walking trip (it's a fairly intense bonding experience sharing tents, getting up 6am every day, and gradually getting increasinly smelly & grubby together for lack of running water in which to wash...) The family who invited me to break the fast however were not royal (!) but Marrakesh society types who had restored and converted a Kasbah outside the city into an exquisite hotel using local craftsmen & traditional textiles etc. A friend of mine was working for them helping to run it and PR it and had become 'part of the family'. I always regret not joining in that meal!... Looking forward to reading about your trip on your blog!

42390 - thank you for the Sonia Rykiel / Christian Constant tip off - genius! I knew she was a bit of a foodie (in fact interviewed her recently, but a fashion interview, not food...) however didn't know about the Christian Constant cake. Mmmm. Just spoke to his very charming assistant. Going to check out that cake right NOW. She's also done a collaboration with Laduree with her distinctive drawings on the packaging. I've also been coming across a chap called Marc Bretillot who sounds intriguing, a professor at ESAD in Reims, the Ecole Superieure d'Art et de Design. I think Louisa Chu also mentions him on her blog. He did some interesting things with the Grande Epicerie last year. TarteTatin - actually I dream of tarte tatin... I'm going to have to investigate Fromage Blanc further - it was really delicious and just right amount of 'cheesiness' without being too 'cheesy'.

I probably shouldn't really be posting findings at this stage since I'm in that neurotic pre-getting-down-to-writing point where I'm not really sure what I'm thinking anymore. If you know what I mean. (Maybe it's just me that suffers from this.) Anyway MobyP suggested I look at Louisa Chu's blog /www.movable-feast.com/ which was of course fascinating and totally distracting. She wrote about a patissier she discovered in the rue Mouffetard in the summer called Xavier le Quéré, who I thought I'd take a look at. It's a very nice set up and the sales people front of house were charming and intelligent and very happy to make thoughtful recommendations. At this point I was hoping to drag some pictures from his website onto this page, of the Carré Blanc les Pieds-aux-Mures and the Paris Brest which I took home with me. But don't know how to do it... Does this work? //forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=module&module=gallery&cmd=user&user=19214&op=view_album&album=1861 probably not... Anyway the CBlPaM was great; a cube of 'fromage blanc citronné' - not sure what exactly 'fromage blanc' is. A sort of fluffy, not too rich, crumbly in texture kind of soft cheese... I'm sure there's a regular English name for it. Underneath nestled a pile of plump, perfectly ripe blackberries, neither too sweet nor too tart, the sort you rarely find in hedgerows because others/birds have got to them first or there hasn't been enough rain. They tasted of autumn. A smidgeon of red fruit jam glued them to a thin vanilla macaron base. There was a tiny mint leaf tucked in amongst all this. It was one of those wonderful moments like hearing a beautiful chord for the first time, a revelation that makes perfect sense, with nothing unnecessary or lacking. That was before I got to the mint leaf where I started going cross-eyed. But anyone who takes such care over the selection of blackberries alone deserves some kind of a medal. The Paris Brest was a bit of a let-down after that. It was perfectly decent - and not as cloyingly rich as they can be, but it didn't make my toes curl with same degree of pleasure. Anyway you can check out his website which is www.xavierlequere.com. Menton1 - thank you very much for the tip-off on Patrick Roger - I love all the crazy sculptures on his website! I definitely want to check his shop out although for this piece I have to focus more on 'cakes'... I like the word 'cake', but it's not really appropriate when discussing patisserie, is it?!...

I went to Morocco a few years ago on a walking holiday in the Jebel Sahro in November, and ever since have been yearning to go again. I think you will have an absolutely wonderful time, especially if you have local contacts. Wolfert made an important point about Ramadan. In the past I've had to organise a press trip to Kuwait during Ramadan and it's not something I'll be doing again in a hurry - those who take Ramadan seriously get very tetchy with all that food and sleep deprivation! You're not even supposed to smoke! (which is the only way I would cope with fasting...) My client was a devout Muslim who insisted on the press trip taking place then, but then insisted he couldn't do any interviews during the day because he was too tired, so I had a crew of very p...off high maintenance fashion journalists - already tetchy about the fact that alchohol is illegal in Kuwait, even in hotels - stressed about not getting their stories. Having said that, Marrakech seemed much more relaxed and tolerant of tourists during Ramadan than other Muslim countries I've been to at that time. I also had the great honour of being invited to join in breaking the fast with a Moroccan family. Unfortunately I couldn't because I was already running late to meet friends (ah, the price of loyalty!), but it looked like an incredible feast and I imagine it would have been a wonderful experience. So if you're invited to break the fast with a family while you're there you really should! I get the impression it's a bit like Christmas every evening! I only spent a day and half in Marrakesh but I was amazed by how incredibly friendly, honest and gentle people were. Everyone warned me in advance that I would get terribly hassled for being female but that was never my experience. (Of course I got the standard 'why don't you buy my straw camel toy that you can't possibly need' hassle, but that's OK.) I would say Paris is infinitely worse for unwanted attention from men... The pastries and sweetmeats in Marrakesh are absolutely sublime. There was a wonderful shop in the Medina that sold endless different little things all in abundant piles. I think you bought them by the kilo and could have a random selection or choose what you wanted. There's not much point in trying to describe where it was... I brought a couple of boxes back - gave one away and scoffed the rest! Also, many moons ago I was involved in PRing a Moroccan food promotion that was organised in conjunction with the Moroccan embassy and tourist board. The Moroccan consultant told me that the very best cooking in Morocco is a housewife's art. If you have a chance to spend a day going to the market with a local matriarch, and then preparing a feast with her, you'd probably have an amazing time. The other thing I was told was that housewives never make their own cakes or sweetmeats - they always buy them from their favourite bakers/patisseries. One more thing I remember about the Moroccan event - there was an incredible chef who came over whose name I have completely forgotten, but she is famous in Morocco. I believe she is responsible for the royal household's meals, and she also runs a cookery school which was set up by the King to preserve and protect the country's culinary heritage. I believe the chefs are women only, and Touareg. Apolgies to sound so vague about this but it was a long time ago and I'm sure I've got lots of it wrong. Maybe someone else on this thread knows much more about it. You should also try the dates. I had some incredible ones that tasted like fudge, but better. Finally, when we were out walking in the 'wilderness' for the most part of the two weeks I was there, the Berbers who were our guides baked the most delicious flat bread every night, which was sort of dry 'fried' on a large earthenware 'plate' over an open fire. I still dream about that. Sorry to ramble on, this thread got me reminiscing about favourite food moments...

I'm writing a story for a British weekend supplement on the close relationship between patisserie and fashion in Paris (happy me!) If anyone felt inclined to share their thoughts on the subject here I would be really thrilled. Pierre Herme, Laduree, Delicabar and Fauchon seem to me to be the main 'culprits'. I love the fact that Pierre Herme talks about 'haute patisserie' - and that he launched his autumn/winter collection on Tokyo. And that the new CEO was interviewed in the Herald Trib a while back talking about wanting to make their eclairs as 'iconic' as a Chanel tweed suit or a Fendi 'baguette' bag. But I'm sure there are others, and I'd like to look at smaller/lesser known 'boutique' outfits like Sadaharu Aoki. The other thing I love is how these Patisseries are treating their window displays like jeweller's shop fronts - treating their patisserie with the same degree of respect as you might a diamond necklace. I'm also looking for examples of 'iconic' cakes from these trendy 'new' patissiers - like Herme's Isphahan or the things Aoki is doing with green tea. 'Macarons' are obviously at the centre of this discussion ( I noticed the perfumers Iunx on rue de l'universite are even doing macarons now which are inspired by their fragrances...) but I'd like to broaden it out to include other 'hyper Parisian' things too. Is anyone doing weird and wonderful things with the 'croquembouche' for example? (I believe this was originally a Careme invention, and so would be a nice link with the past and suggests that patisserie has always had a history of high fashion, of breaking boundaries and taking things to extremes.) I think it's a fascinating subject and will update this with further findings as I go along if people are interested!

This thread is making me desperate to rush out and make clafoutis with all those inky black cherries on sale at the moment. At the risk of encouraging this thread to be shunted into another forum, please could someone supply their favourite clafoutis recipe?... I could check in one of my books, or perhaps elsewhere on Egullet, but it wouldn't be the same after all the poetic descriptions and fascinating discussions that have already taken place on this thread... Going back to the 'pit or not to pit' question. On a purely practical level; if you don't pit and you warn everyone in advance, no-one can blame you if they're not paying attention and crack a tooth on a stone. If, on the other hand, you pit - but missed a cherry or two - then it's an even nastier mistake for the person who's let their guard down...

I can't believe this thread is still alive after more than a year!! And it was my first post on egullet. Seems that there are quite a few macaron fanatics out there! Anyway, to add to John Talbott's post regarding the FT and Rowleigh Leigh - I happened to buy the paper today and also saw his piece. He starts tantalisingly on the subject of French macarons but then veers off into the land of Italian macarons and implies they're better (to make) because they're not so high maintenance and you can get away with being a bit cheeky with them. So doesn't really shed any further light on the temperamental French (macarons.)

A question for David Lebovitz and Chefzadi - why Auchan at Porte de Bagnolet specifically?...

Thank you Ptipois - will be rushing out today for some farine de sarrasin. I sense a glut of galette experiments coming on.

Thanks for all the great responses everyone! I'm looking forward to trying out your crepe recipe Ludja! Also excited about the idea of using buckwheat flour in bread. Thank you for sharing your disaster with us Marco Polo - you've saved many other egulletters from a similar mishap! I didn't know you could get buckwheat in flour form - any ideas about places in Paris where I might be able to buy it? I don't think it's Monoprix standard fare... Perhaps I need to find a specialist Polish or Breton shop. Or perhaps there's a Jewish store in the Marais? I've eaten delicious buckwheat in Poland and my boyfriend likes cooking it up every now and then with caraway seeds. I think it's great with peasanty food like red cabbage... The beer we had certainly looked like trendy, non trad 'microbrewery' stuff - like those heather beers you get in Scotland or Wales. It was dark, a bit sweet but also pleasantly bitter (I'm not too keen on really sweet dark beers) and had an intriguing, rooty sort of taste. It seemed appropriately 'Breton' in the sense of somehow reflecting the knotty landscape, which has a 'come hither' beauty but doesn't give anything away (not if you're cycling across it, anyway.) Marco Polo - you should join my other favourite forum - Cycling plus! (You'll find my postings there under I.B.) That's quite an epic feat completing Paris Brest Paris! I'm quite tempted to try it in a sort of hypothetical semi-suicidal flirting with danger way. We cycled from Chateaulin to Moncontour (which I believe Paris Brest passes through. It has a lovely 16th c/18th c B&B in it's tiny main square, opposite which was the best creperie we experienced that weekend - where they also served the buckwheat beer) and then via St Malo along the coast road to Le Mont St Michel. We covered just over 200 miles which would have been fine had it not been for the literally breathtaking wind from the North. When we cycled into it we were reduced to grinding away at 9km an hour - or even less! Just keeping the bike on the road and not ending in the ditch was a challenge. But then on the very few occasions where it was behind us, we experienced some exhilarating 40km/hr free wheeling. The whole weekend I kept thinking about the early fixed gear cyclists training in similar conditions up and down those rolling hills and not even being able to free wheel on occasion. No wonder Brittany has produced such cycling champs!

I just spent the weekend cycling through Brittany, which was wonderful, even though we were blasted with wind and rain... (Never put too much faith in weather forecasters.) Of course the rewards for our stoic efforts were numerous pancake stops to 'refuel' which made me curious about a couple of things. What is the difference between a galette and a crepe? Apart from the fact that galettes seem to be used for savoury dishes and crepes for sweet ones. Galettes seem a bit 'heavier' or rougher. All the galettes we had were made with 'ble noir' - which translates as 'black wheat'. What is black wheat? Is it like spelt? Or something else? We also had some great beers made with 'ble noir'.

Thank you for all the great feedback everyone. It's really useful to know how everyone rates Dehillerin. It's always mayhem whenever I've sneaked inside to gawp at their wares. Perhaps early morning on a week day is the best plan. We're just trying to find some decent, honest, heavy bottomed pans and I reckon you probably can't go too far wrong in a proper cook's shop. We were in Le Mont Saint Michel on Sunday - if only we'd known about Villedieu Les Poeles! But perhaps the factory would have been closed anyway. And it would have been quite a feat trying to transport a heavy copper pan on a bicycle with my rack pack already stuffed to overflowing...but where there's a will there's always a way!

Does anyone have any suggestions on the best place/s in Paris to get good, honest, professional quality pans without having to pay an extra fancy shop/fancy brand premium? (For civilian use.) Obviously really good pans are expensive, but would rather get them from a proper caterer's type outfit, which would be more fun to visit and would have a broader range of makes/sizes etc available. For example there are quite a lot of cooks' shops around rue Etienne Marcel/Les Halles - does anyone have experience of using any of these shops and recommend any in particular? Or would you suggest going somewhere else? Are there any brands you particularly recommend? Or alternatively, any tips on if/how/where one might get second hand restaurant pans? Any advice on the matter would be really pantastic.

I wasn't aware about the law of buying dough from other suppliers/factories which is reassuring. Thank you for putting me straight, Bleu. I do know however - because I worked at one point for a French brand of bakeries - that most of their patisserie dough was made in their own factory and then delivered to the different stores for baking. So I was making an ignorant assumption that it was but a small step from getting your dough made in your (own) factory to getting your dough from someone else's. Being made in a 'factory' doesn't necessarily make it worse necessarily either - the word 'factory' simply means a place where things are manufactured, usually in large quantities. It doesn't describe the manufacturing process. I know from experience that there are delicious things made to a very high standard in factories. I was just trying to come up with an answer to Keith Talent's question of why so much tastes the same. I'm not familiar with baking standards in North America, but while I would argue that - in general - French baking standards are infinitely higher than in the UK, they are not all entirely, unquestionably the epitome of perfection in every instance.

I'd also be tempted to check out the new one in the 11th that zoeadler posted about recently which sounds like it would be in your budget. Not sure how to do links to posts but it's called something like 'wonderful new restaurant discovery'. She certainly got me very interested in it. I think it might also be near the Canal St Martin which is probably rather romantic to wander around when Paris is empty.