Macaron Journey - Part 2 (featuring Nadège)

Although my I lost most of my files when my computer hard drive decided to stop working, I still had pictures on my camera to upload, so thankfully, this is the next part of the Macaron Journey!

My friends and I celebrated a birthday last month, and Keiko and I decided to get some macarons for the mini-party (and it was also a temporary....gift since we had not found anything suitable yet.) These macarons are from Nadège, a cute cafe and patisserie on Queen St. W. I've passed there many times to get some supplies but I would forget to pop in to try their macarons. My sister has tried them before, and said some flavors were too sweet or lacking. So it's time to try them out!

I think their packaging is very sophisticated, no?

Keiko and I decided to get the 12 piece set. It was very interesting watching the lady pick and choose which macarons to put into the box. We asked for one of every flavor (they only have 10), and the remaining two to be chocolate and pistachio. None of the macarons were the same size...some where very large or small in comparison. And you couldn't fit all 12 into the box because of the size difference. That is why we have one sitting out by itself. Lonely macaron :(

The pistachio macaron! Nadege's macarons aren't as creative as On's, and this is probably the most decorated they have. But it's not always about how they look, it's more about the taste!

Don't they look yummy! From my recollection, they have these flavors:

-Chocolate

-Raspberry

-Mojito

-Pistachio

-Vanilla

-Orange Chocolate

-Cappucino

-Rose

-Cassis

-Salted Caramel

In order for us to try most of all the flavors, I was dividing them up in halves or quarters. This one is the Mojito. I personally wouldn't recommend it, as it tasted like fresh tooth paste. It had a very strong mint flavor to it.

Keiko also bought some Pecan Milk Chocolate Nougatine at Nadege to share. I don't normally eat chocolate anything, but I decided to try a bit of it, because the others were saying how good it was. It had great texture, but I'll leave it to the chocolate lovers to eat it while I deal with the macarons :)

I thought the nougatine looked a bit like beef jerky, it has to be the way it photographs. Bossu brought out some of his homemade green tea short bread cookies. They were very good...wish I knew how to bake! So here are some of the general opinions of some of their flavors. 

I thought the Vanilla was not very good. The texture was gritty and very sweet. I only had a quarter of it...and I don't want to know how sweet a whole piece would have been. Laduree is still #1 when it comes to Vanilla.

Cappuccino was very interesting. It had a very strong coffee flavor and between the 4 of us who shared it, we really liked it. 

Rose, unfortunately, did not fare so well among us. It tasted like liquid hand soap, something from Bath & Body works, it was quite awful. :(
Cassis was recommended. However, Bossu ate it all, so I can't comment on the taste. ^__^"

Orange chocolate was another flavor I didn't personally taste, however it apparently was sweet with a strong chocolate flavor. The orange taste was similar to orange jell-o. 

Overall, I don't think I'd buy macarons from Nadege again unless it was for specific flavors. Some of the flavors were just too over powering and too sweet. I do think Cappuccino is worth going back for...but the other ones are a bit too mediocre. I think the desserts they offer there would be a better option rather than their macarons. 

This is a little extra!

This is the other item I bought that day. I actually really like their marshmallows. Lemon flavor is the best! They're a bit pricey...so I only indulge in them one in a blue moon.

The Macaron Journey blog series will feature other macarons we've tried around the world. Please stay tuned for more and my comments about them! ♥

My computer has blown up...

(Image shamelessly stolen from google images...LOL)

Not quite like the image above...but my computer has definitely blown up.

Don't know what happened, but I just couldn't get it to work properly and it kept saying my hard drive had an internal error...

So the result is that I've lost all my pictures, music, movie, whatever was on my computer is now floating in hard drive cyberspace or just gone forever. I have a feeling it's the latter :(

My dad is helping me re-install Windows 7 onto my computer..since Vista had so many problems with it to begin with...so maybe this is for the better?

I'm a bit annoyed about loosing all my pictures though...all the travel pictures and stuff, gone just like that! :(

I had some pictures lined up to post for another Macaron Journey update and a new face up I did for my friend's doll. I don't have the before pictures of her doll's face up since they're all gone...but I suppose the after ones are ok. The macaron ones are still on my camera, oddly enough. LOL

Gonna be a few days before I get my computer in decent condition...all my programs have to be re-installed, how frustrating!!

Another random question to ask not really relating to this post, but how does everyone feel about the new interface blogger has gone to? I don't really like it...I prefer the old one better for some reason. I think it's to stale or...well, maybe I'm just not use to it..

Until next time! More updates with food and doll stuff! :)

Macaron Journey - Part 1 (featuring On Patisserie)

One of my little hobbies with my sister is going around the world and trying different macarons from different Patisseries or cafes. What are macarons?

A macaron is a sweet confectionery made with egg whites, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder or ground almond, and food coloring. The macaron is commonly filled with buttercream or jam filling sandwiched between two cookies. Its name is derived from an Italian word "maccarone" or "maccherone". This word is itself derived from ammaccare, meaning crush or beat, used here in reference to the almond paste which is the principal ingredient. It is meringue-based: made from a mixture of egg whites, almond flour, and both granulated and confectionery sugar. (Shamelessly copied and pasted from Wikipedia.)

Ladurée's 12 piece set. Lots of vanilla (my favorite!) and some seasonal flavors. I'll blog about it later :)

My cousin was visiting from England for the past couple weeks, and we got together earlier this week before she left. We went out for tea and she treated me to macarons since she knew that I was obsessed with them. These macarons are from On Cafe. Imported from London! Haha...they weren't fresh obviously, but she kept them in the freezer while she was here...and by the time we sorted out where we wanted to get a drink, they had defrosted. (It's not the ideal way to enjoy a macaron...but refrigerating them does help a lot :) Especially if you have a 12 piece set you want to enjoy...!)

A small 5-piece set from On Cafe! I love the simplistic yet very attractive packaging. Must be the colour scheme that makes me happy... :)

I thought the way the 5th macaron was arranged was kind of odd. It was the buffer for the rest, so it got crushed and banged up a lot more than the others. I think if it was on some sort of tray to keep it in place it would have been better, although Ladurée, Jean Paul Hevin or Pierre Hermé are just boxes too. It's not a big deal. However, it happens, once in awhile a stray macaron does get crushed :(

Black sesame Glaced ginger & a smooth chocolate ganache. Poor thing got smushed!  It tasted severely of chocolate...so I was gagging for a bit...but then the sesame flavor came out.. which made it more bearable.(Let's recap a bit: I don't like chocolate, I don't like the taste of it and the texture. Yes, I'm odd and strange, but I do eat Green Tea Kit Kat bars from time to time...and the Sakura ones are bearable too.)

Cointreau Vanilla. So lovely!!! It tasted lovely too..although you don't taste too much of the cointreau...and overall the macaron is very creamy/buttery compared to Laduree. I really like the attention to detail they have for these macarons.

Mango. Tasted very delicious. The flavour is subtle and not overbearing, very nice. It is also very rich in texture and creamy/buttery. We were splitting all the macarons in half to share, I liked how you could see the layering of the buttercream.

So pretty right?! Chocolate Strawberry. It looked lovely, but the chocolate kind of killed me. My cousin started laughing at my facial expressions. More strawberry, less chocolate! (However, I think for the chocolate & strawberries lover out there, they would love this.) I really like the light glaze of silver they added on top of the biscuit on top. It may not add to the flavour but it does make the macaron seem so special.

Pink Peach & Champagne. This tasted like fluffy happiness. It was also very rich and creamy, but the taste was very lovely ♥ I think this was my favorite of all of the 5. It wasn't overly sweet, but it had just enough peach flavor and the buttercream just worked very well together. 

I think overall On Cafe has some great macarons. It seems that they are also a feast for the eyes, but it's not a cover up for lack of flavor. I think having a few of them at a time or sharing them with another person is a great way to enjoy them. It's a bit too rich and heavy. We couldn't place what exactly it was that made it a bit too much, but we suspect it's the buttercream.

I don't know when I'll be back in England again, but I'll think my sister and I will go there to get some more in the future :)

The Macaron Journey blog series will feature other macarons we've tried around the world. Please stay tuned for more and my comments about them! ♥

Lareine, the bratty princess

I've kind of fallen off the earth lately...been busy with work and hanging out with family. I just came back from a two trip to Buffalo. It was amusing and fun, but I didn't really buy much. Nothing really caught my attention.

My sister brought over Makoto, so she's visiting for a bit. I'll have to start making some clothes for Lilith, so I can finally give her back to my friends. LOL She's been sitting on my guitar case for awhile...and I've just been delaying developing and making patterns and clothes for her...oops.

Then I'll have to start making some stuff for Makoto....which should be interesting. Those boobs o-o;; LOL

Time to upload a couple of Lareine's looks... :)

The lighting kind of washed her out a bit...but I love this look on her. She really looks like the bratty princess that she is meant to be. The outfit was bought off DoA and made to resemble Rosen Lied's clothing. I decided to not bother with the shorts she came with and made a skirt to match the outfit. 

I whipped up the skirt very quickly and I luckily had fabric and trim very similar to the top :) The skirt looks much better...and I like how it's so poofy.

Cool Brat look? lol

She was in this outfit for a bit...I thought it all worked well together. I really like the hat...I might have to get another one from the seller on DoA...it's just so amusing :)

You get to see all my stuff that sits on my dresser in the background. Lots of Gundam Seed stuff...I had a huge obsession with that series...especially for Lacus and Kira ♥

Delilah's been hiding for a while so that mom can't see her and realize how many dolls I actually have....doesn't have that I have extra dolls visiting...even if I did bring her out I don't know where to sit her!

That concludes Lareine's photos for now. I'll probably have more spam later :)