filipe

It seems you've had a quite nice trip Hope you've enjoyed enough for a soon return

Hope you'll have a pleasant stay therese. Best wishes, Filipe

hope so done it before and - although it is not a very "wintery" dessert - the combination between chocolate and red fruits works fine for me. Fresh, subtle and sweet enough

Haven't posted for a while... because I haven't baked for a while either... This one I've made yesterday night for a friend's party tonight. Chocolate Chiffon on the base, and two panacotta layers : red fruits and chocolate

It was green sprayed indeed, but just to get a shade of green, not to paint the entire surface

Thank you very much Michael I've recently bought the 2005's edition of the El Bulli book's colection. They come with a new techique which they call the inverted-spherification. The sodium alginated solutions react in the presence of calcium, so that is to say if the liquid you're willing to turn into spheres has calcium in it, that will ruin the entire process as the reation will occur when you had the sodium alginate to the liquid itself. For example that would mean no milk chocolate caviar... or anything that has cream or milk in it. The way they've dealed with it, opening a new range of possibilities, was to invert the process : since the liquid has calcium in it, instead of mixing it with soldium alginate and then drop it on a calcium chloride solution, they just correct the calcium ammount of the liquid by adding some calcium chloride and then drop it on a water+sodium alginate solution. This way it produces a similar spherification reaction but just on the outskirts, leaving the center of the sphere still soft.

I have never done one nor ate one, as we have no gingerbread house traditions here in Portugal. Anyway I'm trying it for the first time this week as I've bought one ready to assemble gingerbread house at IKEA (and no, this is not a joke!) I hope to do something really kitsch. Do you think buttercream will work for gluing the pieces?

I'll hold my breath about this topic... the same way I do when passing through the cheese section on supermarket

I need your help/advice about this subject. Do you think (in a general way, not in any particular geographical situation) that a Dessert ONLY catering service has market? What kind of costumers might there be for a service like that since no savory food will be catered? (It does not include traditional birthday or wedding cakes, although some non-traditional proposals for the same purposes can be held)

Thanks It's a blueberry+strawberry+raspberry panacotta topped with strawberry jelly laying over a chocolate financier This next one is a coconut panacotta laying over a lemon genoise on which I've used the apple caviar

I've tried a red fruits caviar What I've noticed is the lack of flavour - which was very intense before adding the sodium alginate - but it's kinda lost after being shaped into spheres. It looks nice , but on what concerns to its flavour things go a bit different

One of the best fleur de sel's I've tried is portuguese but I had to go to London to buy it, at Oliviers & Co.. It's common Algarve's fleur de sel, from Ria Formosa, but really moisty and very pure

Ok, I'm starting this thread now, with this confuse title, as it's subjet I'm very interested about. We saw a lot of different paths being followed on savory cooking but when it comes to pastry things tend to go a little slower... El Bulli has opened a huge range of new techniques/ingredientes/combinations/methods that can also be brought to pastry (not that anyone is doing that, but it's not a very common topic - as a whole- around these P&B threads) I've bought some products from the Texturas range, by El Bulli, and for me it's a great excitement to start experiencing them. Today I've made my first caviar : apple caviar. I've tryed a peach caviar first but it didn't went very well... This is how it turned out (the apple one) For now I'm just experiencing... but I can't wait to be using it for real on my pastry adventures. Anyone wanna join?

Low quality chocolate than the one used on previous times? Lack of water draining from the gelatin sheets before adding them to the milk? The chocolate+milk+gelatine mix that you add to the whipped cream might have set up more than what was desired? Try to mix part of the whites with the chocolate mixture, using your mixer, and then mix it over the remaining whites by hand... That's how I do on every mousse I make.

I'll ask my friend to take a picture This is the "grown-ups" cake I've made for the same party, a cococnut pana cotta

Yes, EL Corte Ingles is a spanish department store and retail chain. They've opened two department stores, one in Lisbon and the other one at Oporto (Vila Nova de Gaia). They also have a supermarket at Quinta da Beloura (near Cascais and Sintra), called Hipercor. Their supermarkets are great because they offer a lot of spanish products that you won't find at other supermarkets, althought they're not the cheapest in town... Other advantage is that they have a "gourmet" corner where you can find a lot of exquisite products. I forgot to mention another very nice supermarket, opened every day of the week until 11pm, which is "Pão de Açucar" at "Amoreiras" shopping mall. It belongs to the french retail chain "Auchan". If you're curious about products from Madeira island you should visit "Sá" supermarket, which is located at "Campo Pequeno" mall (under the bullfight arena, with direct exit from metro station Campo Pequeno). They have Madeira wine, sodas, cakes, beer...

I went kitsch yesterday night...but I just couldn't help it after I've watched Sofia Copolla's Marie Antoinette This is for a friend's daughter birthday party, it's what I've called the Marshmalow Queen Decadence Cake, it's a chocolate mousse layered cake, filled with chocolate mousse, topped with strawberry jam (self-made), covered with marshmalow buttercream and decorated with marshmalows and candy jelly's

It's a short way walk from Largo de Camões to Mercado da Ribeira. As we say here "all the saints help on the way down..." but even the opposite way it won't be that hard. Mercado do Rato is like 100m far from one of the subway exits at Rato station. Mercado de Arroios is near Arroios metro station, but like Alvalade, it's a bit far from Chiado and Bairro Alto. My supermarket choices would go to El Corte Ingles department store supermarket (direct exit from the metro at São Sebastião station) and to Pingo Doce (this chain you can find it almost in every neighbourhood). There's one closer El Corte Ingles at Rua Tomás Ribeiro 97. If you want to buy some fine wine or grocery there's a gourmet shop called "Mercearia da Atalaia", at Rua da Atalaia, on Bairro Alto, a short way walk from Largo de Camões. There's also "Charcutaria Moy" at Largo do Principe Real, not that far as well, and "Delidelux", near Santa Apolonia train station, side-by-side with "Bica do Sapato" restaurant and "Lux" disco-club.

Probably one of the best locations on where to stay in Lisbon. Lots (and i mean LOTS) of restaurants at Bairro Alto neighbourhood. Most of them are typical restaurants, with "every day" food. Anyway, I guess you should try one or two. For a more propper meal you have "Flores", at Bairro Alto Hotel (Largo de Camões). You can also check "Le Brasserie de l'Entrecôte", which is just around the corner at Rua do Alecrim. I would avoid Pap'Açorda , unless you like spending money just for the pleasure of spending it and being rudelly treated as a gift. About markets... good supermarkets are a good option, but if you want to feel the vibes of a fruit & vegetables daily market shopping you have a few choices : Mercado do Rato, Mercado de Alvalade, Mercado de Arroios. You can also check Mercado da Ribeira, very nice building. If you need a more detailled advice feel free to PM me, I'll do some research.

You should have not lefted your hotel... your description of what you had at Eleven is EXACTLY what I feel for it : a mistake. 1 Michelin star after one year oppened tells a lot about how the Michelin ratings are obtained as well.... Eleven is not a place where you go to eat, it's a place where you go to be seen... unfortunately that's how it works here in Lisbon...

Fauchon has a Chocolate Eclair Tea... i don't think it really tastes like chocolate eclairs but it tastes very good anyway... and pate a choux is a good vehicle for some tea flavours...

I am definitely in the wrong business. I need to start selling pomegranate juice, which I can get here for about 3USD for a liter. ← Well..as for me I've already ordered some yuzu-tree seeds...maybe in ten years I might turn myself into the only european yuzu-farmer eheh As for the prices... I've bought bottled yuzu juice at a japanese grocery store in Paris for 8 euros per each 75ml bottle, that makes around $140,00 per liter ...

You're wellcome Yes, this is an anual event which occurs every year by mid November

That "strange, sad looking cake that has so many yolks that it really does simply sag in the middle" is one of the most common/well known pastries (along with the custard tarts (pastéis-de-nata) here in Portugal. It's called Pão-de-Ló. "Pão" means "bread" and it relates with the sponge cake itself. "Ló" is the name given to the yolks cream that are sagged in the middle. The "Pão-de-Ló de Alfeizerão" is the name given to the pão-de-ló made at this small place called Alfeizerão, which is like 15km from Alcobaça. But there are many other similar paõ-de-ló, then named according to the place where they're made (Pão-de-Ló de Ovar, Pão-de-Ló do Painho, etc). Anyway, every portuguese grandma has her own Pão-de-Ló. My grandma's one was great and mine is not that bad either eheh

All the yellow comes from the yolks the ones with wallnuts on top are a mix of yolks, wallnut paste and syrup, glazzed and topped with a wallnut. Can't remember their name...