Ling

Thanks for the pictures! Which flavours were your favourite? Did you get to choose that box of 12 or are they pre-packaged? I haven't had a cannele before and the recipes are quite time-consuming...plus I don't have the molds. You said it was "pretty good"...meaning there are better things to try at Boule? I have never eaten a macaroon that made me think, "Damn, this is SO good!" but the gingerbread apple sounds interesting. Usually the macaroons I've sampled in Vancouver are way too sweet and quite light in flavour...so I don't really bother. The ringing endorsement for the Kouign Aman has me most interested though....

^Wow, what a compliment! I'm glad they are selling well in the store. If you ever feel like spoiling yourself, make a batch with the 99% Scharffen Berger chocolate. I like it a lot more than the 99% Valrhona, although I like the bittersweet Valrhona chocolates more than the bittersweet SB ones. I am thinking of starting a mail order bakery business since I've been getting such wonderful feedback from my baking.

I agree. Beautiful. Perfection. ← Patrick is way out of my league. I'll wash his dishes though, in exchange for a few tarts. Yesterday, I had a salted caramel (with fleur de sel) and a Poire Helene chocolate from Chocolate Arts in Vancouver. The Poire Helene is my favourite chocolate there. At Cru that night, I had a lemon tart with strawberry sorbet and vincotto. It was quite good. Today and I had a brownie, an almond cookie from a Chinese bakery, and the chocolate bar my friend bought me from Jean Maury Phillipe Patisserie. Unfortunately, the chocolate bar was disappointing.

Yes, Xian--that's where we got the mediocre potstickers, hot and sour soup, and the meat-filled pan fried cakes. It's right next to Beijing-Shanghai. (To clarify--I meant I think I recall you posting a picture of the potstickers at Xian. ) We probably just made the wrong choices though, because we did see some food coming out that looked good, including the lamb noodle soup. They even have that item (I don't know what it's called in Chinese) where it's a really dense pancake that's cut up into cubes, and then put into a bowl of soup. I want to try that! I don't know if BGBY is still open; the last time I was there was a year ago.

Thank-you!!

^Are you only looking for 3 Chinese (or dim sum restaurants?) Or are you considering other types of cuisine? Since this is the xiao long bao thread, I think the best ones are at Shanghai River and Shanghai Wind. (Many of the other posters here also like these two restaurants for XLB...and I wouldn't have found out about them if not for this forum.) There's also Ba Guo Bu Yi that some people enjoy--that's also in Richmond, only a minute or two away from the SR and SW. While the wrapper is very thin and delicate at BGBY, I didn't enjoy the broth as much. Other Chinese restaurants in Richmond I like at Traditional Taiwanese restaurant, Golden Szechuan, and Kirin. canucklehead has been to many more Chinese restaurants than I have though, and he's a better person to ask. I know he really likes Sea Harbour for dinner, but I haven't gone yet.

I went to Beijing-Shanghai Delicacies in the Richmond Public Market yesterday, and unfortunately the xiao long bao were probably the worst I've ever had. The wrapper was really thick and not even steamed long enough (top pleated closure, which is thicker, was still hard), and in our box of 8 xiao long bao, ONLY TWO had ANY soup in them--the rest were punctured. The soup did have a nice flavour, but the meat inside was very dense. (We also tried a number of items from the stall to the left of Beijing-Shanghai; were they had potstickers folded in the traditional shape. I remember canucklehead posting a picture of them. Those were really greasy, and the filling didn't have much flavour. The hot and sour soup was equally bad. The meat-filled "cakes"--dough wrapped around a flattened meatball, then pan-fried, were the best of the lot, but that's not saying much. I saw some liquid inside the pocket and slurped it up, thinking it was soup but all I got was a mouthful of tasteless grease from the meat. Disgusting.)

We've decided on El Gallo Giro because it's authentic and close to where we'll be staying that night. Thanks everyone!

I made a foie gras parfait with prunes, macadamia nuts, and sage and served it with Brillant-Savarin with truffles, and pecan rosemary crackers.

The cake looks awesome, FWED! What an awesome idea with the lemon cookies, binkyboots!

^She uses other chocolates besides Amedei. I stand corrected. (Her truffles are some of the best I've had, btw.)

Here are some of the kitchen shots the chef took for us: corn foam for the foie gras panna cotta fish searing and pea soup the fish waiting to come out in the kitchen foie waiting to be seared

filipe recently reported that Paul A. Young in London uses only Valrhona and Amedei in his truffles. click for pictures Also, I heard Genevieve Grandbois in Montreal only uses Amedei as well. Her fillings are delicious. (On a sidenote, I like the Porcelana a little more than the Chuao.)

I never order anything like tuna salad or chicken salad when I'm out because it's so easy to make at home...I didn't know there were horror stories associated with these items! I almost never order salad (even if it comes with blue cheese or something other little extra), unless it's a Caesar salad they do table-side. But even then, I'd probably skip the Caesar and choose a more interesting appetizer. I almost never order chicken--in fact, I think I've only ordered chicken once in a restaurant in the past...oh, 7 years? And that's because my boyfriend said the restaurant did really great roast chicken. He was right--I think they spatch-cocked it and weighted it under a brick or another pan. The skin was really crispy, and the potato puree was deliciously smooth, and not gloopy in the least. But unless a restaurant is known for a particular chicken dish, I'll stay away and go for something I don't always do at home as often, like veal, sweetbreads, venison, beef cheeks, lamb, or squab. Also, I don't order dessert at a restaurant unless I'm pretty sure they do a good job with them.

The things I enjoyed most on my day trip to Napa (other than FL) were lunch at Don Giovanni and the almond croissant at Bouchon Bakery. The pizza was the best I've ever had, and the pasta is even tastier! I've had probably at least 8 different baked goods (not including breads) at Bouchon, and the almond croissant is the best. The bouchons that they're known for were a bit underwhelming for me.

^What did you order at dinner? I've had lunch there once...we shared a platter of the smoked trout, I think...and I had the baked eggs with the brioche crumbs on top. I would have preferred runnier yolks, and less crumb topping. Food was good, but nothing spectacular. I would go there again for brunch/lunch though.

What a wonderful thing you're doing, Julia. I've put together smaller kits than you (just a sandwich and a slice of cake I made) and given them away around the holidays, but didn't think to include fruit for more nutritive value. When we did fundraisers in high school, we would go to larger businesses like Safeway and Subway and ask for food donations, and then charge students an entrance fee to the buffet. (The money went to an orphanage we supported in South America.)Places like Safeway donate to organizations like Second Harvest, so I'm pretty sure they'd be willing to support your project.

I love cream cheese, but it doesn't appeal to me on a hot dog. I guess they spread it on the bun for you? Or is it a squeezable cream cheese product that you squirt over the weiner....

If you would like some Mexican restaurants with romantic setting, I would like to mention: 1. Tortilla Flat, Mission Viejo Patio setting facing the Lake of Mission Viejo. The view is fantastic. Food is good. 2. El Adobe De Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano http://www.eladobedecapistrano.com/ Very famous locally, cozy setting. They offer champaign brunch on Sundays and have live Macchiata (sp?) band. (I hope they still do. ) ← Thanks! Romantic settings are nice, but I care more about how the food tastes, although I'm sure both restaurants you recommended are good! (Do the mariachi bands members look anything like Antonio Banderas? heh heh...)

Cream cheese on a hot dog? Is that an American thing? And I thought you're a pretentious f*cker who turns up his nose at the mention of Flying Fish! I haven't been in Seattle enough to have a stand-by restaurant yet, but if I lived down there, I could see myself eating pastries at Cafe Besalu in the mornings, hitting Salumi for lunch, TJ's for their dirt cheap Valrhona bars for a mid-day snack(although now I know they used to be even cheaper!!!), and ZigZag's (or littlemissfoodie's house ) for Happy Hour.

Holy sh*t! Tongue in a burrito? I'm so excited! Real Mexican food! Thanks for the tip, Shaun and SiseFromm.

^Yeah, Stacey spoiled me that night...the desserts just kept on coming! (2 of the 9 desserts I had that day were at breakfast though. )

Damn...that oozy pastry cream looks sooooo good.

I haven't heard of Musso and Frank...could you tell me a little about it? We are arriving in Orange County on Thursday, June 8th and I'm looking for a place for lunch. Originally, the plan was to go to Din Tai Fung for xiao long bao, but we've been doing some online research and it appears that the consensus is that DTF is not that good, and that Vancouver has better xiao long bao anyway. ETA: To clarify, I meant it appears the LA Din Tai Fung isn't that great, although the locations in Asia are very good.

Of course I was joking--I swiped a bit of bread over my sauce too, but no one got a picture of that.