A Food Lover’s Day

Today was one of those days… It was a day I used to only dream about, but ever since I have embraced my life as a woman immersed in the pleasures and joys of food, these days seem to be happening more often. It was a day of adventure and exploration, of sensuous delight and comfort, and happy-making gifts devoured with beloved ones. Today was a food lover’s day 🙂

This morning, AngelKitten and I ventured out to the wilds of Taman Megah to find Bake With Yen. We had gone to the Taman Tun Pasar Besar outlet, but to be honest, it was a bit, well, rough. And it really didnt have all the supplies we were looking for. AngelKitten and I are on a big baking jag – we are going to be refining and baking cookies, with the possibility of offering some for sale over the Christmas period. We needed to go to a real baker’s shop, and we had been told about Bake With Yen and really wanted to go and see for ourselves.

The Taman Megah shop was wonderful! So many pretty and useful baking supplies – we were like kids in a candy store!

Every kind of flour and nut you can imagine, in any presentation you might like. Green pea flour? They had it! Ground hazelnuts or almonds, yes yes! All broken down from huge bags at the back, direct from the supplier, and sold in 1 kg bags. Brilliant, and very inexpensive compared to supermarket prices.

Food colouring, flavouring, spices, herbs, vanilla beans,honey, treacle, sugars, coconut – anything and everything you could imagine to add colour and taste to a cake, pastry or cookie – they had it. And in bulk too – often for less than you would purchase a tiny amount in the supermarket.

Every kind of baking tin, pan, roll that you could imagine, in every shape and size. Amazing selection, and really good prices. A little cat shaped tin, yep, they could find it for you. Hearts and teddy bears, squares and rounds and octagons and quiche, pie, flan and chocolate tins. I was totally overwhelmed.

And for decoration, every kind of sugar flower that you could think of, for a few cents each. And pretty decorations for sugar cookies and cakes. And loads of different decorative pieces including stencils, fondant rollers, sugar work tools, and an entire aisle of colourful cupcake holders.

I’m telling you, we were both in an advanced state of happy. So we got what we needed (meringue powder for sugar cookies! almond meal! loads of extras we didnt mean to buy but couldnt resist!) and headed on to our next stop….

Well, actually, we stopped at the Warung Kek (Cake Shop) next door – very old school. Huge loaves of bread, blistering hot from the oven, blueberry cheesecake tarts that reminded AngelKitten of her school days, mee with sambal and packets of nasi lemak, and big moist slabs of chocolate cake. Could we resist such take home temptations? Of course not! 😉

But then it was time to rest and revive our senses…

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At the unadulterated sensuousness of lunch at Nathalie’s Gourmet Studio…. Oh bliss.

We shared a starter of a tangle of lightly sauteed green vegetables, atop a crispy puff pastry circle, elegance and deliciousness combined with a light and sure touch.

And our main course was a mindblowingly gorgeous, light, yet rich ink lasagna with ratatouille, and a ratatouille foam scented with parmesan. Smooth and sexy, perfectly balanced, indulgent yet restful.

And finally, we shared a pot of tea and this dessert – chocolate espuma, over chocolate cake dust (which coated the entire inside of the bowl) – textures of smooth silk and rough chocolate, and in the centre, in all its subtle glory, mascarpone sorbet.

What a meal. We were so happy. And we went away with 2 kgs of Valrhona chocolate to bake with…

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And this evening, AngelKitten and I put the chocolate to good use. First I made a batch, and then AngelKitten made a batch, of Starry Starry Night cookies. The batter sits in the fridge at the moment, doing its magic and firming up so that tomorrow we can roll in sugar and freeze them before the final bake. I love this part of cooking – imparting my knowledge, my rhythm, my sense of balance and taste to my niece. Well, the niece of my heart. I love the sense of continuity it gives me, and joy and peace.

And after the melting of the chocolate, the whipping of the eggs, the folding of the almond meal, and the washing up, cleaning and drying… we rewarded ourselves.

We sat down, and shared an entire box of Pierre Herme macarons which had been brought home to me all the way from London by my beloved Goddess. What a lovely gift. What pleasures to taste these macarons. Such amazing complexity of flavours – grape and bittersweet chocolate, green tea, apricot, vanilla, hazelnut. These were macarons to be savoured – each one painstakingly cut in half, looked at, smelled, tasted, discussed. There were great depths to the macarons, amazing flavour combinations, varying textures. We had such a great time, immersed in our macarons, intent on discovering the flavours of each new bite. As AngelKitten said to me, these were like no other treats she had ever tasted … they were a feat of enfolding complex and deeply layered flavours into one tiny little pastry. Astonishing and wonderful and such fun to share, and to be given, such a treat!

And on that note, I will look at my now almost empty box, and bring myself to bed… perchance to dream of another perfect food lover’s day…

Sweet dreams!

Tags: bake with yen, baking supply shop, chocolate, cooking, food, macaron, macarons, nathalie gourmet studio, nathalie's gourmet studio, pierre herme, valrhona