I had no plans to visit the Ladurée in New York.
Hard to believe, I know, but apparently there wasn’t room in our bloated itinerary of things to do in New York for a trip to ‘a sweet shop’.
So there I was, having a nice stroll in Central Park on my way to Belvedere Castle when I spotted a cute couple perched atop a rock having a little picnic, I stopped when I spotted the pale green bag… and with a daringness usually reserved for people I know, I asked them where the Ladurée shop was.
“71st and Madison” they said, “it’s pretty close too, you could be there and back in twenty minutes tops”
That’s all I needed to hear – I cut through the park, meandered through the Upper East Side and minutes later I was in pastel coloured confectionery heaven…

The macarons are flown from Paris everyday, which I guess works, because macarons are best eaten two days after they are baked.
Luckily, the wait wasn’t long; they were unfortunately out of the salted caramel (my favourite).
I went for the classic vanilla, pistachio and rose.
The macarons were delicious – smooth, slightly chewy and soft.
And I added another jewellery box to my collection of cute Ladurée boxes.

Maison Ladurée
864 Madison Ave
(between 72nd St & 71st St)
New York, NY 10021
(646) 558-3157

After much wishing and hoping, Vancouver finally has its very first macaron shop.
Yep, a little shop solely devoted to macarons (and tea)… right here in our pretty city.
Of course, most of the French bakeries and pastries shops have macarons, but a macaron-only shop surely deserves special mention.
Soirette, it’s called and I’ve been twice since they opened a few months ago – a testament to my self-control, since it’s only a block out of my way on my daily route.

The macarons from Soirette are quite possibly the best macarons I’ve had in Vancouver.
I shan’t compare them to Ladurée or Pierre Hermé because that’ll be unfair, besides everything just seems to taste better in Paris.
Case in point, the Ladurée macarons I had in New York (which are flown from Paris) were awesome but wasn’t as sensational as an afternoon of ‘macarons and Rosé’ at the Tuileries.

Admittedly, Soirette makes fine quality macarons; the texture is airy and delicate, the ganache layer is just the right amount, soft, with flavours that taste fresh and natural, there’s nothing artificial about them.
The macarons are not overly sweet, allowing the natural flavours of the almond and ganache to come through.
My favourites are pistachio, caramel fleur de sel and matcha .
The shop is in Coal Harbour on West Pender with an adorable modern chic tea-shop interior.

Soirette Macarons and Tea
1433 W Pender Street
Vancouver BC V6G 2S3
604 558 3308

We took my mom out to dinner for her birthday last weekend.
I’ve been meaning to go to Il Nido for a while now; I haven’t been since the summer of 2005.
I remember this because the cast of a new Fox show (Reunion) were also there that night, and by winter Fox had cancelled the show.
I wrote about it here.
I remember my dinning experiences there fondly; the food was consistently good and I always had an amazing time there.
So why has it taken me so long to go back? It’s just a silly case of ‘out with the old’

This restaurant is truly a hidden gem, tucked away in a quiet plaza just a few steps away from the hustle and bustle of Robson Street.
I knew my mom would enjoy the food, and the quiet, cozy and simple ambience.
I ordered the soup of the day; a fresh and delicious minestrone to start, it was loaded with hearty vegetables, and quite comforting – I pretended my mom made it!
My mom asked the owner (Franco) for the recipe and he gracefully gave her his card and asked her to call him, when she’s ready to make it.
For the main, I chose a simple penne with artichoke hearts tossed in broccoli pesto, and it was perfect.
The pesto was so good… I used the foccacia from the table to sop up the sauce at the bottom.
My mom had ossobuco with risotto and greens – she loved it!
She said the meat (lamb) was succulent and divine! and she loved the wine sauce.
Dessert was a trio of tiramisu, panna cotta and blood orange gelato which we shared, our waiter called the gelato ‘revitalizing’ and I agree, it was quite refreshing.
The tiramisu was wonderful and my favourite was the panna cotta.

The best part though, was spending time with my mom.
I don’t always have time to do things with my mom, so having moments like this with her is nice.

I had dessert every night when I was on vacation.
Every.  Single. Night!
I also had a glass of rosé with every meal (except breakfast) but that’s a story for another day.
Desserts are like rainbows and perfect sunny days, they make everything better.
We settled on Boulangerie Julien after several days of boulangerie hopping in search of the perfect bread.
Apparently the baguettes here are award winning. The croissant and pain au chocolat has won awards too.

The location in Beaubourg was half a block from where we stayed, and they have the best baguettes I’ve ever tasted.

The shopkeepers were amazingly nice and accommodating (Aren’t French people supposed to be rude?).
We went by later in the day once, in search of dessert; I was intimidated by the sheer awesomeness and variety of pastries.

It all looked so good and colourful, like art pieces.

I chose the prettiest piece that caught my eye; a slice of raspberry mille-feuille.

It was amazing! I don’t have the right food-description vocabulary to describe how marvellous it was.
It had layers of light flaky puff pastry, tart raspberry sauce, pastry cream, and real fresh raspberries.

It’s one of the best desserts I’ve had.
It was definitely the perfect way to end a perfect day.
I still dream about that dessert sometimes.

I almost want to say that I can’t live without my phone but that would be ridiculous. Of course, I can live without my phone. I just wouldn’t feel complete. Two Mondays past, I exposed my phone to the elements; rain, slush and cold, for about 2 hours.

It flickered on and off for a while and later died; faced with the prospect of losing my phone I had a mini panic attack. Surely, I can live without my phone but do I want to?

I once read that no one loves their phone completely, there’s always something you’d like to change or add to your phone. This is true; my phone is far from perfect but it brought me so much joy, convenience and ease I feel it’s perfect enough.

I’ve had my I-mate Jamin (aka HTP Prophet, Qtek S200) for almost a year now. It’s my first ever pocket PC.

Prior to this, I had an Innostream 55, a very cute little phone, great conversation piece… but not so great phone. It shipped with an application called Lady Scheduler and a slew of other wacky stuff. The battery got wonky on me and I got tired of carrying a cell phone, MP3 player and a PDA.

I did a little research and opted for Jamin (ok, I liked the name!)

I won’t bore you with the details, there’re lots of reviews on the internets.

First thing I did was to get a 2GB SD card; I have so much awesome crap on there it’s daunting.

The Good:
• My songs, podcasts and videos on the go
• WIFI
• EDGE
• Word, Excel, PDF viewer
• Outlook with calendar, contacts etc.
• MSN Messenger, Skype and any other IM type compatible with WM5
• 2 Mega pixel camera – Most of the pictures on this blog were taken with the phone’s camera
• Bluetooth
• Voice dialing for contacts and applications
• A slew of downloadable third party applications
• Charging via USB cable
• OK battery life considering all it does

The Bad:
• Sluggish (200 MHz CPU), not as fast as I’d like it to be, although you get used to it
• Poor quality speakers, I barely use this, I normally hook it up to my Bose computer speakers
• 2.5MM headset jack, I have a 3.5MM converter, tragedy averted.
• Camera lag and not so great night time pictures
• Requires frequent resets to keep it sane

That Monday, I took out the battery and the SD card, and laid it out to dry overnight. I put it back together in the morning and… viola! Like magic it worked.

I appreciate my phone now more than ever, I wonder if there’re other people out there who feel the same way about their phones.

del.icio.us tags: i-mate jamin, htc prophet, mobile phones