[Boondoggle de France] -- Paris Sweet Hunt II
As VB mentioned that we were at the entrance of Grands Boulevards, one metro station away from the famous Galeries Lafayette, “Why don’t we begin our city tour by strolling down Boulevard Haussmann, toward the department store?”
Packed with people (hey, it was an extraordinarily early afternoon on an ordinary Thursday; don’t Parisians have to work?), the department store wasn’t much of an attraction to VB and VBB, two Californians too unrefined and unsophisticated to appreciate the “shopping paradise”. But we faithfully and dutifully found its gourmet store.
Inviting as inviting could possibly be were Dalloyau and a little further into the gourmet store, Sadaharu Aoki . Now this IS heaven! As soon as we took out a camera – the very gadget that marked the “professionalism” of an amateur photographer rather than a green, unseasoned tourist – we were approached by the store guards with waving hands: no pictures! More unfortunately, what VB (and she assumed that VBB, too,) really needed at this moment, was something more “substantial” than the vast and dazzling display of well-praised Parisian sweets, to balance off the overwhelming treats of Au Pain Louise – it was actually a little nauseating looking at the sweets after having too much sweet, even for people like VB who claims to possess an unsatisfiable sweet tooth. We settled on a bottle of Evian instead.
But no worries: We Will Be Back!
We continued our walking journey toward – and amazingly, reached, by foot – Arc de Triomphe, approximately 3km away from Galeries Lafayette. As the afternoon wore on, that “Your body arrives one day...and your soul arrives a few days later” became reality. It was probably wiser to head back to BW and let our souls catch up.
Since we had promised to return, we had to stop by Lafayette Gourmet and picked up Eric Kayser’s sandwiches and Aoki’s pâtisseries: Opéra au thé vert and Dôme au thé vert .
Opéra au thé vert (Bamboo: green tea opera): the rectangular layers of biscuit and buttercream, subtly infused with aromatic matcha green tea power, were alternated with layers of chocolate ganache.
Dôme au thé vert : built upon a regular sized macaron base was a dome of green tea mousse with a nutty red azuki bean heart, finished with a miniature green tea macaron, which collided with the sidewalls of the carry-box and inevitably chipped out before picture time….
Their taste was beyond words – this again proves that VB could never be a true connoisseur of fine foods – Please indulge in your own imagination.
Shouldn’t we be happy and content and ready to call the end of the day? On the contrary, we grew more panic and regretful: too many places to cover, too many desserts to try, yet too little time! What were we thinking when planning the trip? And, why didn’t we bring a DICTIONARY?
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