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More from Pierre Hermé. The fabled Ispahan – raspberry, rose and lychee flavours (call me a heathen but I didn’t love it).
Le Plaisir Sucré – the Sugared Pleasure. Layers of hazelnut dacquoise, praline feuilleté, chocolate ganache, leaves of milk chocolate, and chocolate Chantilly crème.
Jennifer (Delicieux)
/ September 19, 2011What a shame you didn’t enjoy the Ispahan. It looks beautiful, but it sounds like it’s got a bit much going on for me with the raspberry, rose and lychee (not a big fan of lychee). Is that why you didn’t like it?
The Le Plaisir Sucré looks DIVINE and definitely something I could easily devour.
I got an email from my Mum today, who is still in Paris, and she was saying she could easily live on baguettes forever. What do you think of the baguettes? She also can’t work out how French woman are so skinny with all the delicious food available everywhere.
Jess
/ September 21, 2011I think it’s entirely unsurprising that I didn’t like the Ispahan – I don’t like lychee and I’m not a huge fan of rose. But the way I’d heard it described before, people talked about it as if the combination of the three flavours came together to create one new flavour, so that’s what I was expecting. It was definitely three separate flavours to me, which is again probably unsurprising, given that it’s rose macarons with lychee crème and raspberries sandwiched in – they’re not all combined in the one thing, really.
I didn’t really have any baguettes by themselves, just as sandwiches, but they were definitely pretty good.
I think that the French are better at portion sizes perhaps, which might explain how they eat such rich food but aren’t renowned for being quite as overweight overall as other countries. I think they cook and eat more at home, which makes it easier to eat healthily. Still, I had a look at the rates and apparently around a quarter of French people are considered overweight (compared to 53% of Australians!). So maybe for whatever reason the overweight French people are not so much in the areas that visitors to the city would be more likely to go – like tourists would go to Le Marais perhaps and I swear, there was not a single person in Le Marais who wasn’t slim and impeccably dressed. (I have to say, in Brisbane you see a lot more overweight people out in suburban shopping centres like Westfield Garden City than you do in the CBD, whatever the sociological/demographic influences are that explain that, so maybe it’s similar in Paris.)
Hannah
/ September 19, 2011Heathen!!
I remember being really disappointed when I arrived at Pierre Herme to find that there were no wacky creations available (I’d heard of a parmesan one that I was hanging out for), so went with the Origina Ispahan. I enjoyed it – I was in Paris, sitting in the nearby Gardens, with no responsibilities, so how could I not? – but it didn’t blow me away. Very subtle; I can’t even remember now what it tasted like. Nothing like the experience of an amazing Mont Blanc in Kyoto, where I proclaimed that I never wanted to eat anything else so that my memory of the treat would stay fresh in my mind! (Luckily, I do like living, so I did eat again.)
Jess
/ September 21, 2011Haha, I think I enjoyed everything I ate in Paris for the same reason – because I was in Paris, carefree (except for having to go to the conference from time to time – damn that conference, interfering with my leisure time!) and having an excellent time.
Maybe I can find a conference in Kyoto…
Cait
/ September 22, 2011If you’re smitten by Parisian pastry, check out this blog!
http://www.parispatisseries.com/
This is an American fellow who’s living in Paris part-time just sampling pastries! I hit most of the spots and pastries on his top 10(ish) lists and they all blew my mind!
Jess
/ September 23, 2011Oh to live that life! It’s amazing how creative all the patissiers are – they just keep creating such elaborate and amazing things.
Emma
/ September 30, 2011Even down in southern France, away from the big city lights, I didn’t really see overweight people. I don’t know where they could be hiding, because it seemed that the few times I saw someone rather hefty, they were stared at by everyone around them. Everyone. On the tram, at Monoprix, etc. It made me develop a creepy mindset by the time I left France, honestly.
At least these are incredibly gorgeous, if not delicious and inspired.