Fat Tuesday

I love New Orleans! I'm lucky that sugarhusband comes from such cool city and that we get to visit several times a year. I don't think he is as excited to visit New Jersey as I am to visit New Orleans. (He can just live his life eating disgusting bagels and pizza in ignorance).  I've never been to Mardi Gras, but I did have a recent trip to the Big Easy and I celebrated a few weeks early.I thought I'd share my top three dishes from this trip in honor of Mardi Gras today!

I stopped into Sucre before brunch one day (you read me. Brunch appetizer). I've been meaning to get there on my past couple visits, but this was my first time -- so naturally I had to try some of everything! We tried a slice of King Cake (pictured above), some macarons, and a salted caramel eclair. That's right, filled with salted caramel pastry cream.  Eclairs were one of my favorite foods as a little kid (ok, actually, the favorite food was Boston Creme donuts, but they are essentially the same thing right? I lost my ish the first time I tried an eclair) - this was a fun spin on a classic favorite. 

 

In addition to being delicious, the eclair was also covered in gold glitter. Boom.

After our brunch "appetizer", we headed to Coquette, where the brunch is pretty freaking amazing. Some of the dishes we tasted included sweetbreads (which are basically like offal nuggets), a pickled veggie plate, and some ballin shrimp and grits. The winning dish dish was pork cheeks over a biscuit with braised greens. It pretty much melted in the mouth. Accompanied by a delicious bloody mary, it was pretty much the ideal Sunday morning brunch!

On Friday night, I attended a rehearsal dinner at Calcasieu, Donald Link's event space above his tremendously popular restaurant, Cochon. This was a pretty baller rehearsal dinner - the number of forks and knives set at our seats was almost overwhelming. Some of the pre-dinner highlights included a giant charcuterie plate at each table and an artisinal moonshine tasting.  The star dish of the dinner was this chicken agnolotti with crisped prosciutto on top. The pasta was perfectly cooked! I need to try and recreate this dish at home.  

There were a lot of standout dishes in this meal, but for the most part I kept my camera hidden to avoid being a rude poodle and enjoy the event. The weirdest dish served was a mushroom, fried lemon rind, and mint salad. It was both refreshing and earthy, except I don't like mint or mushrooms, so it wasn't really my thing. There was a course of pork cheeks (they are seriously in vogue right now!) and a pineapple upside down cake for dessert. I thought the cake was amazing, but most people were too stuffed to eat it!

These are just 3 of the awesome dishes I had in NoLa for my last visit -- there were also plenty of chargrilled oysters, grits and grillades, gumbo, and more than enough Bloody Marys to go around. I'm telling you, if I lived there, EVERY Tuesday would be Fat Tuesday. It would just turn into Fat 2014… and 2015…. and 2016. 

I hope that everyone had a sinful treat today! I am having some salted caramel gelato as we speak. It's bringing me back to that killer eclair from Sucre!

 

YOTM, installment 2 - Macaron Battle Royale

You guys. I was lucky enough to visit Paris last week. I don't know how I ended up in this crazy life of mine,  where it's somewhat normal to hobnob with friends who are living abroad, sipping wine in a posh Parisian apartment. I'm not complaining. 

Winter storm Pax was quite the saboteur (side note: have you ever slept in an airport? It's quite unsavory. Although if you're strong, pushing two rows of airport seats together makes quite a spacious bed), but I made it to France and had an awesome time with my friends.  Can you believe it's been two and a half years since I studied at ENSP and finished my culinary internship? Yeesh. 

Anyhow, I'll cover some of the culinary high points of my journey in a later post, but of course no visit to Paris is complete without binge eating millions of macarons. Since 2014 is the year of the macaron, it seemed apropos conduct a taste test between the two of the most famous macaron producers: LaDuree and Pierre Herme. 

Disclaimer: unless you are really, really interested in macarons or cookies in general, this post is going to be a total snooze for you. I won't be offended if you skip the rest (as long as you come back later).

LADUREE VS PIERRE HERME: MACARON BATTLE ROYALE

LaDuree

Pierre Herme

Taste: LaDuree
This is a tricky one. PIerre Herme features more ambitious, out-there flavors ( some of our favorites were a jasmine macaron and the passion fruit, rhubarb and strawberry macaron.  Seriously, DID YOU JUST PUT ALL OF MY FAVORITE FOODS INTO ONE COOKIE?!) but they lacked some classic flavors that I'd expect to find at a macaron shop.

LaDuree hit all of the classic flavors, but even their special seasonal flavors were pretty standard. They didn't have anything off the wall or with crazy flavor combinations, except for one flavor called the Marie Antoinette, which contained: some French word I don't know, a second French word I don't know, and honey.  Generally, their seasonal flavors are pretty tame (lemon verbena, green apple, etc). 

Reglisse (licorice) was a flavor choice in every macaron shop I stopped in. French people, get a grip. That's disgusting. I am pretty sure we've kicked licorice jellybeans out of 90% of bags here in the US. 

For the purpose of this taste test, I used chocolate and vanilla macarons so that I'd have a fair comparison between the two shops (I wanted raspberry as the third flavor, but it wasn't available at PH).  For these flavors, LaDuree killed it. Their vanilla is fantastic and has a super rich flavor.  The chocolates were both good, but Pierre Herme uses a darker chocolate that's slightly bitter - it tastes delicious, but it overwhelms the delicate flavor of the meringue. 

Visual Appeal: Pierre Herme

I'm on the fence about this one. Again, the two powerhouses had a really different approach here - it depends on your aesthetic and whether you prefer a look that is classic but flawless or a more edgy, stylish look.  LaDuree macarons are bold colors with perfectly consistant size, both in the roundness of the meringues and the thickness of the filling. As for decorations, the cookies speak for themselves. They are in assorted bright colors, but beyond that, there is little additional decoration. 

PIerre Herme is another story. Luster. Dust. Galore. Now, I'm a girl who lusts for luster dust (you should see how many bottles I crammed into my suitcase coming home from the trip). The PH macarons were definitely snazzier. Here's an example - this macaron was pale yellow with a dark pink luster dust airbrushed over the top. The bottom side of the macaron was plain, giving it a cool two toned effect.

Generally, PH had a more exciting look to the macarons, but LaDuree was more consistent. In the photo above, you'll notice that the bottom meringue is slightly smaller than the top (but the SPARKLY LUSTER DUST totally distracts you).  It was a close draw, but ultimately my love of glitter gave this round to PIerre Herme. 

 Here's the Laduree chocolate - classic and rather unadorned: 

And here's the chocolate from Pierre Herme, coated with a coarse grain sugar for a little extra chutzpah: 

 

Texture: LaDuree

The texture of the LaDuree macarons is what I expect from a perfect macaron: crispy on the outside, chewy and delicate on the inside.  Some of the fillings (for example the green apple) were gel-based, and some (such as the raspberry) were jam based. 

The Pierre Herme macarons were too soft. Though their deliciously pillowy texture was like eating a cloud, they were missing that crispy crunch factor of the outer shell. Additionally, they had a little too much filling for my taste. The majority of Pierre Herme fillings are buttercream, and this further impacts the texture, making it overly soft. 

Packaging: LaDuree

I mean, they both nailed it. As  someone who sells macarons, I can tell you that they spare no expense in the packaging - this stuff ain't cheap.  As I mentioned, the PIerre Herme macarons were bigger, and thus their box was larger as well. Both companies offered several selections for their boxes. 

The inside packaging was really similar. LaDuree uses a seal to fold over their parchment, while Pierre Herme does not. I found this extra touch to be the one thing that could push LaDuree over the edge here, but honestly, they were pretty similar. 

 

Price: LaDuree
For six macarons, LaDuree charged just under 15E.  Pierre Herme was 18E for seven. LaDuree has a slight edge here, though you could argue that their food cost is lower, since they use less flair to decorate their macarons.

Overall: LaDuree

Shockingly, LaDuree swept 4 out of 5 categories. The mega disclaimer here is that Pierre Herme macarons are also awesome! If you give me a box of either of these for my birthday, I will be thrilled. 

This macaron taste test was really fun! I've already decided that on my next trip to Paris I'm going to do a battle royale of chocolate. Who's in? 

 

 

Be mine.

How awesome are the "conversations" on conversation hearts? Last year I bought my husband a little box of "scandalous" conversation hearts for V-day. Let me tell you, if those were scandalous, I should probably go to prison immediately because my standards of scandal are extremely skewed (I guess I have Olivia Pope to thank for that).  The hearts above are the regular ones, but their sentiment is tepid at best. If my valentine ever tried to seduce me by whispering "LOL" or "BFF" into my ear, I'd probably shove him through a window. BFF???? Isn't that the opposite of what you want to hear on Valentine's Day?? 

Anyhow, I've been dying to make this cake for months since I saw it on Pinterest (inspired by gimmie some oven).  As much as I detest the chalky taste of conversation hearts, I thought the idea was stinking adorable! 

 

I mean, that is pretty awesome, right? It was oddly therapeutic to put all of those hearts on there. It reminded me of my childhood days playing with legos. 

The inside of the cake was almond pound cake with blackberry frosting. The hearts became grossly soggy after sitting on the cake for awhile, but they were easy enough to toss off the outside of the cake before eating.  It was definitely a huge waste of conversation hearts, but if my target is any indication, there is definitely no convo heart shortage happening this year. 

So Valentine's week has been CRAY, you guys --  mostly because of my newest nemesis, winter storm Pax.  I'm currently cozied up in my bed listening to giant ice pellets slam on my roof. NC is getting hit by one of the worst winter storms in a decade, and of course it's the week of a) Valentine's Day and b) my sister-in-law's wedding in New Orleans, for which I'm relying on safe airport transportation, which is currently nonexistent. Le sigh. At least I can wallow at my plight, curl up on my couch, and read the Divergent books. Ok, who am I kidding… RE-read the Divergent books. 

Luckily - or perhaps more accurately, due to my obsession with weather.com - I saw Pax coming and shook my tail feather to get all of the VDay packages out two days early. I've gotten a lot of excited text, photos, and instagrams (KEEP THEM COMING - love it!) today with people's excitement over their early sugarboms. Better to get your valentine two days early than two days late, amiright? Then it just looks like your valentine forgot and frantically ordered tasty treats at the last minute. 

 

Look at these cute little sugar cookie bags! Who WOULDN'T be your if you gave him one of these? Barbie pink frosting certainly makes me swoon. Happy Valentine's Day to my super sweet readers!  Lots of xoxos coming your way from sugarbomb!