Good Bye Joël Durand, "Liegeois"

My favorite chocolate shop "Joël Durand" was closed on December 23rd. It was suddenly announced...There must be something reasons...

I enjoyed last Liegeois twice before it closed. My favorite flavor was "Clove & Lemon" and I had it a week before its closing. Everytime I ate it, I felt like it takes me to Summer France with one bite of it. 

I don't know customers know closing or not, there were no empty seat while I was eating it.

The day before the store closed, I went there with my friend again. My last Liegeois was Almond & Pistachio. I realized the Macaron was on top instead of a chocolate they used to have.  

The store stuff told me two new shops will open next year, and one shop will have smilar parfait on a menu. I want to try it at the new shop when it opens.

Christmas Cookies

My friend got me the royal icing cookies! I bake cookies and do icing, so I know it takes a lots of time for the icing if it's a complex pattern. They're too lovely to eat. I'll keep them for a while.  

Ladies Champagne Social

"The Champagne Bar" at ANA Intercontinental Tokyo, Akasaka
They have the plan "Ladies Champagne Social" only for woman . Their home page introduced the plan as "The Champagne Bar is pleased to introduce an added food menu to its popular Ladies’ Champagne Social plan. To accompany the free-flowing champagne, guests can now choose one of three food menus: class, trendy or elegance."

After work, seven of my co-workers joined this ladies night and enjoyed champagne and the foods for two hours with chatting.

As they explained in their website, they have three choices of food menues. 

When I see the menu, the dessert "Pistachio Cream Brulee with Almond Croquant"got my attention.

I had "The champagne elegance" because of the dessert :)

Top of the plate was "Vegi sandwich" (Roasted tomate, mashroom, rocket salad with pesto genovese)

Second plate was "Sauted foie gras on toasted apricot bread with balsamic vinegar and blueberry"

It was very samll...but it was REALLY SO GOOD! I don't remember how many times I said "so good" while I was eating... I wish I could have it more...

The dessart was "Pistachio Cream Brulee with Almond Croquant"

Two other foods' plates "The champagne class" and "The champagne trendy" are like above.

My last two drinks were champagne cacktails, "Mango Passion" and "???"(I don't remember the name...it could be somthing Blue Hawaii.) I usually don't drink, but the night I probably drunk 6 glasses of bubbles. :)

I can't stop thinking about the sauted foie gras...I already decided to go back there next month again! 

Fresh Cheese in Tallinn, Estonia

In September, I traveled to Tallinn, Estonia while I was staying Helsinki during my summer vacation. The restaurant "Olde Hansa" is the only place I had the meal in Tallinn, and it seems it is the popular place for the tourist because of the Medieval-themed restaurant. I ordred the "Thick Meat Soup" and it came with the bread and fresh cheese. The cheese was really good, and I just remembered the taste couple weeks ago. Since then, I felt like I wanted to eat that cheese again.
Of course, I can't go to Tallinn just for the cheese. I decided to make it at home, and I found the recipe which looks simillar I had it at the restaurant. 

Here is the homemade cheese I made. It was really soft and creamy right after it was made. It smells more milk than the cheese I buy at a store. It was really good, but the taste and texture were different from the one I had in the restaurant. Next time I will try to make it again with a heavy cream.  

I couldn't wait to eat it until next morning, and I had it after the dinner... one bite:P  

This is the last weekend branch and I had it with the scrambled egg. It was nice!

Joël Durand, "Liegeois" Mania - Marron & Thyme -

I got the ticket for joining the tasting event "Liegeois(parfait) Mania" in Sep and Oct again. 

SEPTEMBER

The new taste of  Liegeois in September was Marron, and I could have it at the event. Since last time event, they have started collecting money for the drinks, and I paid 1000 yen before the event. This was the one thing changed from last time, and the drink we could have was limited. We could order only three drinks from the menu they prepared.

  

The event started from 7:30pm and the staff brought the new Liegeois to our table. The image of the new one is sunset

Later they served the small foods for the guests.(I don't remember what they were...the taste was good :p)  

It was announced that they just started selling the birthday cake and they served the small portion of the cake for us, too. It is the lavender schiffon cake covered by the whipped cream

OCTOBER

 Next month(November), the new taste will be Thyme. I usually don't use it when I cook, because I am not fan of Thyme... When I got the invitation email from the shop, I was a little bit hesitate to apply for it. Anyway, I asked my friend whether she wants to try it or not, and her answer was "YES!". Thanks to my friend, the Liegeois was really good, and it places in the top 3 that I had in the past.

They served the fresh mint and thyme tea while they were explaining us the new Liegeois.

Can you see the flower? The smell wafted in the air. I felt I smelled it somewhere, but I could not remember it where it was... It didn't taste much, but it made me relax with the smell. 

As usual, they prepared the small food, too. Salmon was covered by the cabbage. Thyme was also used in it.

"Ta Dah~! "

The cake looks like was the thyme hotcake(pancake). We needed to remove the chocolate from the cake first, and then pour the syrup into the little valley of the cake. The syrup was also made by some herbs. The cake soaked it, and the taste was much better than I ate cake only.

Bubby's

Bubby's is from tribecca, NYC and there are thier restaurants in Japan, too.

I haven't been to this restaurant either in NYC and Japan yet.

NYC fair "New York Week" was held in Mastuya Ginza department store from 10/9 - 10/15. I didn't know the fair when I went for shopping, and I saw many pies in the showcase. It looked all good. I got the apple pie and New York cheesecake for myself :P 

The taste was quite normal... Because I do bake apple pies and New York Cheesecake at home, so I thought it's nothing special... maybe. But it's good if I just want to eat one piece of apple pie or cheesecake. One thing I surprised the Japanese price was less expensive than US. :O 

Apple Pie with Vanilla Ice creaam. Great Combo!

Liegeois "Almond & Pistachio"

The humidity and hotness in this summer made me sick... It was the hottest summer known for yeards. I remembered I can have the perfait(Liegeois) at Joel Durand for free(please see the story "Joël Durand, "Liegeois" Mania"), and it was closed to the expiration date.I had to use it for cooling down my body before it expires. My favorite Liegeois flavor is lemon, but it was sold out the day I was there... Instead of the lemon, I had the "Almond & Pistachio Liegeois" which I haven't had it yet.

The size of every liegeois is big, but I always eat it up quickly. The size of almond & pistach looked the same as others, but it was not...It was much bigger than others. I was too full to eat the dinner, and I could not have it...

I want to try other flavors next time I visit there. :)

(The story was written in September.)

Afternoon Tea at Chinzansou (Hotel)

A month ago, I had the afternoon tea at CHINZANSOU (椿山荘）hotel with my friend.

Pagoda room where we had the tea is located on 12th floor and it's actually the room that is renovated for the limited afternoon tea customers. You don't see the sign anywhere when you go up to the 12th floor. The staff starts calling your name at 2:30pm.(The time I booked the afternoon tea was 2:30pm)

 

Everybody can have the afternoon tea there, but the number of people are limited. Only 5 or 6 gourps were there when we had the tea this time. If you want to have tea there, you need to make the reservation in advance.

The afternoon tea we had this time was called " Summer Afternoon Tea." You can enjoy many different kinds of tea they have during your stay. Unfortunately, the time you can stay there is 2 hours, so you need to drink very fast if you want to try many kinds of tea :)

SUMMER AFTERNOON TEA

Tropical Fruites Sandwich
Tuna Ciabatta Sandwich

Coconut Chiken Sandwich

Tortilla Roll with Shrimp and Mango

Scones(Pinapple, Tomato and Plain)

Balinese Taiwan Red Rice Mousse

Fruit Yogurt Flavored Semifreddo

Fromage Blanc with Papaya Cateau

"Miserable" Almond Dacquoise Layered with Pineapple Buttercream

The hotel owns very nice Japanese garden. We could have the tea with the nice view from the window. After we left the Pagoda room, we walked in the garden a little bit. It's worth to walk there, it's very nice!

Three-Story Pagoda "Entsukatu"

Entsukaku was registered as a “tangible cultural property” of Japan.

Fujiko F. Fujio 80th Anniversary Exhibition

Tokyo Tower celebrated the 80th anniversary of Fujiko F. Fujiso with the special light up for four days from 7/18.

 

The exhibition “Fujiko F. Fujio 80th Anniversary Exhibition” (creator of Doraemon) was also started from 7/19 at Tokyo Tower. I believe there is no people who doesn't know Doraemon in Japan. Doraemon is one of the most famous animation character in Japan. The exhibition will continue to 10/6/2013.

On Friday night after work,  my friend and I went to see the exhibition.The time we got there was around 700PM and didn't see much people there. First, the staff told us to take the elevator to the top floor.

Just got off the elevator, life sized Doraemon figures welcome us. Each of them holds a different secret gadget which he always pulls out from his four dimensional pocket.

"ANKI PAN"                          "TAKEKOPUTA"

"Anki Pan" is one of the gadget what I wanted the most in my childhood. This is the fantastic gadget you can remember every word written on a slice of bread in a second right after you eat it. I never thought how many slices I had to eat, but I always thought about it before the exam.

"Takekoputa" is the flying gadget, and you can put it on your head when you want to fly. This is one of the most famous gadget, and you can see it many times in its manga, animation and movies.

It's cute to see them from behind.

It was prohibited to take a picture inside the exhibition such as original drawing. Down to the fourth floor, there is a another entrance for the exhibition. Once we got inside, the staff announced us the SF movie will start soon. Well, SF is not the abbreviation of Science Fiction…it is the abbreviation of “Sukoshi Fushigi,” that means a little bit mysterious(maybe). 

SF theater is one of the main attractions which is the first indoor 4D projection mapping in Japan. I felt like I was in the Doraemon's world for a while, but it made me dizzy a little bit at the same time.

There is another fun attraction, and it is called "NARIKIRI Chara Hiroba" where is the only place we are allowed to take a picture inside the exhibition. There are some imitated manga scene from Fujiko F. Fujio's manga, and we can be the hero or sub character. If you knows his manga well, it must be really fun. We were so much excited and got tired after we took the pictures... 

We were planning to go up to the Tokyo Tower after we see the exhibition, but we spent about 2 hours there and got exhausted... I will see the night view from the Tokyo Tower next time I visit there.

There is a souvenir shop and we got Doraemon's favorite "Dorayaki."