fumio café tour part 1 – Taipei

One of our missions in Asia was to try out the unique cafes.  However, with limited time we could only visit a few of them.  Here are the ones we went in Taipei.

Taipei is a unique city where old and new seems to blend well together.  One example is Fongda Café (蜂大咖啡 in Ximending.  Opened since the 50s, Fongda keeps its character as an “old style” café, from its décor to the traditional Taiwanese pastries, despite the fact that it is located in the middle of a vibrant entertainment district for young people.

We went first thing in the morning for breakfast and it was already very busy.  Seeing this giant coffee syphon at their coffee bar told us they are very serious about their coffee. And indeed their coffee was really good.

Other than the traditional café, there are many “theme cafés” recently opened in Taipei.  In the Xinyi area, near the Taipei 101 there is an area renovated from old warehouses and houses.  Among those is a unique café 好丘.

It’s a café specializes in gourmet bagels (yes, bagels!).

   

Attached to it is a very neat gift shop featuring locally sourced snacks and items designed by Taiwanese artists. If you buy a postcard, you can use the stationary and stamps at a table there to put your customized message and send your memory home!

Our next stop was Yongkang Street.  Over the years it has become an area known for small artistic shops and cafés.  This one is an antique shop in a café. When we went there two local artists were doing an interview so we didn’t stay.

FabCafé is another new café with a lot of character. It is located inside the libLAB of the Huashan 1914 Creative Park.  It’s a park dedicated for various artistic functions/exhibitions, with independent stores.  The atmosphere is just a perfect match with FabCafé.

It is a concept originated in Japan, combining a “café” with “fabrication”. In the shop there’s a machine that you can bring in your own design and make your own models.  Or you can choose the designs in-store and add your personalization.  The café also holds workshops periodically to make different cool items.

But don’t forget they’re also a café, with a menu of specialty coffees and light meals. I tried their iced coffee with orange. Very refreshing for a hot summer night.

If you are visiting Taipei, make sure you leave some time to check them out ^^

(…to be continued)

June means lavender!

OK girls let's admit it.  We have a thing about lavender. At some point we must have dreamed of standing in the middle of the purple lavender field, burying ourselves in their distinct and mysterious scent.

But yet this is a dream. Only a few of us are lucky enough to visit a lavender field.
There is never a shortage of lavender flavoured pastries/drinks/dishes. However, to us there're more misses than hits. Personally we think most of the time the lavender scent is too overpowering and it gets too strong that they reminds us of air refreshener (lol). And this is the main reason that we hadn't been including lavender in our macaron menu until recently.

We bought dried lavender from a neat market in southern France. When June comes we decided to give a shot. We started testing the flavour by making lavender tea. Searching for the right tea was also a challenge because we didn’t want the aroma in the tea leaves clashing with the lavender. So we ruled out earl grey and jasmine.

We settled on Japanese sencha.        

We mixed grounded sencha and lavender with our white chocolate ganache filling. At the first bite, you will first taste the subtle aroma of sencha mixed with some floral scent. After you finish the entire macaron you can still feel the lavender aftertaste flowing in your mouth.

Just like standing in a lavender field.

Our lavender sencha macarons are now in our summer macaron menu. If you're interested email us at order@fumiotreats.com or message us on our facebook page.

Special flavour for mother’s day

Last year we launched our macarons with mother’s day special, which are combo with tea and floral flavoured macarons.  This year we’ve been scratching our heads to think of a new flavour specifically tailored for these special ladies.

So we selected red dates (紅棗) – an ingredient that has been used in Asian kitchens for centuries. From a western perspective, red dates are also considered a “superfood” -- they are antioxidant food that is abundant in many vitamins.


In Asian kitchens red dates are either cooked with porridge or soups, or the fruits are boiled in water for a while to infuse the flavour into the water.  The red date-flavoured water is added to desserts or served directly as drinks. For our macarons we made a red date puree and added to the white chocolate ganache filling. The puree has a hint of fruity sweetness and the red dates give the taste a bit like figs. To bring out the flavour we also made the ganache taste less sweet.

Making the red dates puree involves more work than other flavours. But for mom it’s always worth it right? ^^

Canelés/canneles – the next macarons (or cupcakes)

Canelés are small pastries originated in Bordeaux. They’re dark brown on the outside with a thin caramelized crust, and a custard-like texture inside.

According to bakers in Bordeaux, the original canelés recipe is a highly guarded secret. The only thing we know is it calls for chilling a batter for at least 24 hours, then bake them in copper molds at a very high temperature for a very long time, then let them cool down to harden the outer crust. And only those ones made strictly following the original recipe can be called canelés. Therefore, all the treats made using modified recipes, or those with other stuff (like fruits, flavours) added are called canneles instead.

We first tried canneles when we visited Bordeaux few years ago.  But we wanted to try making them only recently after we bought a high quality made-in-Europe mold in Montreal.  We adopted the recipe from Tartelette except for the rum, since we didn’t have it readily at home (yeah really), and we put a bit more vanilla extract.  The result….they were DELICIOUS~! The caramelized crust was thin enough to give the crunchy chew but wouldn't stick to the teeth. It crumbled with the melt-in-the-mouth moist centre when bite into it.  We tried one and rushed to get the pictures taken so we could enjoy the rest. 

Why we say they’re the next macarons? Because it’s a simple recipe with unlimited possibilities. You can add any flavour you can think of into these little devils, or put whatever garnish you like. We think sooner or later you will find these cuties in the patisseries.

We’re fine tuning the recipe and hopefully we can soon offer our taste of Bordeaux to you ^^

Osmanthus? What is it?

Osmantus (桂花) is one of my favourite flavours, from the traditional osmanthus jelly at dim sum to the osmantus sluch at bubble tea place.  So when we’re making macarons this flavour automatically came to my mind.


Osmanthus is also called “sweet tea olive”.  The name “osmanthus” is from the Greek words of “osme” (scent) and “anthos” (flower).  As its name suggests, it’s a very fragrant flower and it’s often used in Chinese cooking, particularly used in desserts and mixed in tea.  Unlike roses, which have a sweet scent, the fragrant of osmanthus is very dense but subtle.

Osmanthus blossoms in the 8^th month of the Lunar calendar (around September) so that is also called 桂月. But of course, with the dried flower this elegant taste can be enjoyed anytime of the year ^^

Quick and Easy Crepe Recipe

We love crepes with ice cream and this dish often shows up as our late night dessert. Our friends thought we made these with crepe pan and with some fancy crepe mix.  But guess what? We use regular pan and a simple recipe:

For 4 crepes

2 eggs

90g all purpose flour

30g sugar

250mL milk (I use skim milk but 2% is also fine. DO NOT use cream as the batter will be too thick)

Directions

1) Sieve the flour and sugar together

2) Add the milk and eggs in and mix well

Now here comes the answer to the biggest kitchen mystery for Asians. Like many Asians we wondered why we need an egg beater as we typically use chopsticks to beat the egg. Well to make crepes we found that the egg beater is the best tool to ensure all the dry ingredients dissolve completely and not sticking onto the tool (you will end up with crumbs sticking if you use a spoon or chopsticks).

If you don’t have an egg beater at home that’s also fine. Just sieve the batter through the strainer to make sure no crumbs in it.

3) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

4) After 30 minutes, heat the pan and brush it with a little bit of butter.

5) Reduce to heat to low to medium, use a soup scoop and pour 1 scoop of batter into the pan. Move the pan in circular motion to spread the batter.

6) Use a spatula and start scrape from the edge. When one side is done, you can life the crepe and flip to cook the other side. Then how “burn” you want the crepe to be is your preference.

Because we’re using a regular pan and we don’t have that little “T” shape thing to spread the batter evenly on the pan (btw I saw that sold at the St. Lawrence market), the edge is a bit thinner and might get crispy.  Just tuck the edge in when wrapping the crepe with ice cream/fruits/cream.

You can make the crepes ahead of time and put in the fridge. Just warm it with the pan when serving.

Now with chocolate drizzle and blueberries as garnish (or whatever toppings you like), a simple delicious dessert can be enjoyed at home in pyjamas! ^^ 

Vienna Sacher Torte Experience

We’re back!

After a 2-week vacation in Europe, we’re finally back. This time we spent most of our time in Austria, including Vienna, Salzburg and Innsbruck.

One of the items on my agenda for this trip was to try the Sacher Torte, a Viennese chocolate cake.  You can get Sacher Torte in almost any restaurant in Austria, but we’re interested in two main places – Demel and Hotel Sacher.

Sacher Torte was first “invented” in Vienna.  Throughout the 30s and the 50s there had been legal battles between Hotel Sacher and Demel for the name “Original Sacher Torte”.  At the end they settled and Hotel Sacher got to use the name “Original Sacher Torte” while Demel got the right to decorate the torte with a triangular seal that says “Eduard-Sacher-Tort”

You can find the details on the Sacher Torte on Wikipedia. But here we just want to share our tasting experience of the torte.  As with all food it’s a personal taste so our comments not necessarily mean one is better than the other.

Our first stop was Demel.  Its Vienna location is on the high end shopping street of Vienna, and you can see the Hofburg Palace from the patio.

Inside you can see the working area for the pastry chefs. We were there late afternoon so I guess they’re off already.

So this is the much anticipated Sacher Torte from Demel.  I-LOVE-IT.

I’m not a big fan of chocolate cake because the ones in North America are typically overly sweet. Yet the Sacher Torte is not supposed to be too sweet (Austrian taste I guess?).  Even though with the chocolate icing on top and apricot jam in the middle the sweetness is just right.

We went to Hotel Sacher after a concert.  You can see the big sign “Original Sacher Torte” there.

The four of us had a light meal at Café Sacher and then shared a dessert set for two. It included (from the bottom): pancake with plum jam filling (which is another common Austrian dessert and one of Empress Sissi’s favourite), Sacher Torte, raspberry and chocolate mousse cake, petite four.

For the Sacher Torte, I found Hotel Sacher’s a bit heavier than Demel’s.  Demel’s cake was fluffier and Hotel Sacher’s cake was denser. Reading Wikipedia it’s supposed to be a dense sponge cake but I personally like fluffier cake.  The chocolate icing of Hotel Sacher’s was also a bit heavier, making the torte taste a bit sweeter than Demel’s.  Of course I’m no foodie so I can’t tell whether these differences were caused by having them in different time of the day (afternoon vs. late night).  But if you like light fluffy cake Demel would be your choice.  But if you like more richness of chocolate, Hotel Sacher’s “Original Sacher Torte” would disappoint you.