Madeleine Patisserie

Address: 132 west 23rd Street, New York (btw 6th and 7th avenue)

Phone: 212-243-2757

http://www.madeleinepatisserie.com

Macarons, the ever so popular French cookies actually originated from Italy and was introduced to France as an almond meringue type cookies similar to amaretti. This beloved French dessert was brought over to France in 1553, and made seriously popular worldwide by Pierre Desfontaines Ladurée, cousin of Ladurée founder Louis Ernest Ladurée, when he brilliantly created French macarons with two macaron shells joined together sandwiching the ganache filling. Macarons with vibrant, pretty colors are also Ladurée signature.

Now my box of macarons was not from Ladurée, it was from Madeleine Patisserie in Chelsea. You wouldn't believe me if I told you I went to Ladurée at Champs Elysee in 2006 without trying their famous macarons, only to fall in love with macarons after eating one at Stohrer in Les Halles Paris. I finally tasted some Ladurée macarons when Nan brought home some from Paris, and they were heavenly - chewy, crunchy, perfect!

Madeleine Patisserie has an impressive collection of macaron flavors, but the meringe is not as soft and chewy as I would like. They offer classic macaron flavors such as pistachio, chocolate, caramel as well as more exotic flavors such as pear brandy, lemon espresso, sangria. Chocolate Eclair there is pretty nice as well.

Now that I've tried macarons at Madeleine Patisserie, Bouchon Bakery and Cha An, next stop will be Payard, Cafe Macaron and all the other participants of Macaron Day NYC 2010!

sangria, mango, pistachio, caramel, chocolate flavored macarons

chocolate eclair and chocolate cake

Aldea

Address: 31 West 17th Street, New York, NY

Phone: 212- 675-7223

http://aldearestaurant.com

George Mendes is no doubt one of the hottest (and hottest looking) chefs in New York right now. Armed with impressive culinary training with legendary chefs such as David Bouley, Alain Passard, Roger Vergé, Alain Ducasse, Martín Berasategui (of San Sebastian!), the talented young Portuguese American chef has been creating buzz around town since he left Tocqueville and opened his own Iberian/Portuguese restaurant, Aldea in Spring last year.

After reading about the restaurant's attractive lunch deal at serious eats website, I gathered an army of male yaokuis and we marched to Aldea on a beautiful good friday afternoon to enjoy its sweet $24.10 lunch deal. I was not disappointed, and I'm pretty sure the boys were equally happy as well. The lunch menu was short and simple, with a good selections of appetizers, entrees and desserts, and you can go with prix fix or ala carte. We ordered Jamon Iberico, Jamon Serrano, Mussel Soup, Potato Soup, Skate Ala Plantxa and Arroz de pato etc. I'm a soup person, so I really enjoyed the mussel soup and potato soup. Arroz de pato, which is a rice dish with all the good stuffs such as chorizo, duck confit and cracklings on it was also the crowd pleaser. Skate a la plantxa was done nicely as well.

Aldea is perhaps one of the more exciting restaurants to have opened in NYC lately; it has a lot of potential. It also reminded me of the Alkimia or the Arzak/Mugaritz of Barcelona and San Sebastian. with less emphasis on the science of molecular gastronomy. I like this place, I really do and I can't wait to return for more good modern Iberian/Portuguese food!

MUSSEL SOUP with mushroom, coconut, linguiça sausage

JAMÓN SERRANO

SPRING NETTLE AND POTATO SOUP with crispy ham, leeks

SKATE “A LA PLANTXA” zucchini ribbons, pea shoots, caper-brown butter

ARROZ DE PATO with duck confit, chorizo, olive, duck cracklings

CHOCOLATE BRIOCHE PUDDING with exotic spice milk ice cream

*photos taken with iphone

Demel New York

Address: The Plaza Retail Collection, One West 58th Street, New York

Fax: 212-572-0989

http://www.demel.at

On a lazy Sunday afternoon, all I want to do is to hang out with close friends, drink tea/coffee and eat cake. But finding a nice tea, coffee house for dessert is not as easy as it sounds. Most of the tea houses/dessert places I like have closed: Toraya near Central Park (closed long time ago), Amai tea house near Union Square and Tafu at Midtown East. So my quest for a new tea place brought us to The Demel at the Plaza today and it was just the perfect tea/dessert place I was looking for!

Founded in 1786 in Vienna, Austria, Demel was the imperial and royal court confectionery for the Austrian-Hungary monarchy before it collapsed in 1918. Demel lived on, went through several change of ownership before it finally became part of DO & CO group, an international restaurant/catering company. There are only three branches of The Demel in the world, two in Austria and one here in New York City at the Plaza (the only shop outside of Austria, thank you The Plaza!)

Gan had Sachertorte: very traditional Austrian chocolate cake and I couldn't resist the Russische Punschtorte: biscuit/vanilla cream/rum. They also offer finger sandwiches so some of us ordered that as well. If you love coffee you will definitely love the Milan coffee here; it's incredibly smooth, possibly one of the smoothest/best tasting cappuccino -like coffee in New York City.

The Demel is definitely one of New York City's best kept secret. It's great to have pastry shop like this in New York City which makes amazing Austrian pastries, and we get to eat it without actually going to Austria. Now we just need Laduree to open a shop in New York City and I'll be so happy.

Russische Punschtorte: biscuit/vanilla cream/rum

Sachertorte: very traditional Austrian chocolate cake

We got these mini cakes complimentary of the Demel. They were cleaning up around 6pm for their closing and gave us these free mini cakes.

Ming Court

Address: Langham Place Hong Kong Hotel, 555 Shanghai Street, Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Phone: 852-3552 3388

Have u ever had to wait 30 minutes for dim sum, after seated? Well we have, and at a two Michelin star Ming Court restaurant in Langham Place Hotel Hong Kong. I think the waiter messed up our order, I didn't believe it took that long for our food to arrive because the dim sums there were made to order, as the manager claimed. But I have to admit, when the food finally came and when I finally tasted the best har gao and awesome char siu bao and har cheong, as well as the restaurant's award winning "best of best" dish with lobster, abalone and angel hair pasta, the thought of strangling the waiter for messing up my order and my grumpiness immediately disappeared. The crispy marinated lobster, simmered abalone with vinegar served with shao xing wine infused angel hair pasta dish was one of the most impressive Chinese dishes I have tried - it was truly an elegant dish worthy of the award it received.

Deep fried lobster with cheese, simmered abalone with vinegar accompanied with angel hair- Gold with distinction award 2005, best of best culinary award. Served with dessert, deep fried mashed taro with hazelnut and twin chilled pudding.

shrimp cheong fun

har gao - refined and delicious

cha siu bao - can't have dim sum in Hong Kong without trying cha siu bao. Hong Kong has the best cha siu bao

Hung's Delicacies

Address: Shop 4, G/F, Ngan Fai Building, 84-94 Wharf Road, North Point, Hong Kong (北角 和 富道84-94號銀輝大廈地下4號舖 )

Phone: 852-2570-1108

Hong Kong is a food haven, and one of the things you absolutely need to do when you visit Hong Kong is to eat. I was there a few weeks ago and I can hardly remember all the places Gan and I have tried because we were practically eating something at every hour. But some of the more memorable places I have tried during this trip were Hung's Delicacies, Ming Court at Landmark Hotel, Bo Innovation, For Kee pork chop rice and Lung King Heen at Four Seasons Hotel. There were some places such as Tim Ho Wan, a one Michelin star dim sum place in Mongkok and Tim's Kitchen, a two Michelin star restaurant in Wan Chai that I didn't manage to try because they were closed when I was there during Chinese New Year.

I like Hung's Delicacies. There are quite a number of Teochew/ChiuChow restaurants in Hong Kong but I heard Hung's is one of the best. The shop is tiny, with 4 to 5 tables only, and it was recently awarded One Michelin star, which explains the long wait. When we got there, there were already people waiting in line for more than an hour and they were still waiting. Gan suggested we join the take out line since it's quicker, and he was absolutely right; we got our food after waiting for just about an hour.

If you are not familiar with Teochew/Chiuchow cuisine, it's a regional Chinese cuisine originated from Chaoshan in Guangdong province. Teochew/Chiuchow cuisine is more delicate than other regional Chinese cuisine (such as Cantonese) and most dishes are cooked using poach, steam or braise techniques. Hung's Delicacies offers mostly braised items; they have braised goose, braised chicken, braised pork, braised pork knuckles, braised goose tongue, braised beancurd etc. We ordered half a braised goose, a jelly fish appetizer, a cucumber appetizer and a Chua Lam (蔡瀾) noodles. The braised goose was done nicely, one of the better ones I have tried. The other dishes like jelly fish appetizer and Chua Lam (蔡瀾) noodles were pretty good as well.

I have read some bad reviews about the restaurant's service on openrice.com but the lady who helped us with our takeout order was really nice and helpful. I would definitely go back there for authentic Teochew/Chiuchow food if I'm in the area.

Takeout menu at Hung's Delicacies

A photo of Chef Hung checking out the crazy lady taking photo of him and his restaurant

Jelly fish with sesame seed - one of the best jelly fish appetizers I've tried

cucumber appetizer

Gotta tried this Cai Lan (蔡瀾) noodles, it was supposedly created specially for Chua Lam (蔡瀾), the famous Hong Kong food critic (an Asian equivalent of Anthony Bourdain). Ingredients: oil, soy sauce, ginger, scallions, Chicken ham shang tan ( special soup stock made from Chinese ham)

Braised goose with eggs. Gan: We got the last braised goose of the night in the line. If we had waited for the table (probably another hour in addition to the 1 hour for take out line), we would have not tried it. Btw, there's a big population of Chiu Chow people in HK. The most famous is Li Ka Shing, who's the richest person in Asia.