Review: Pierre Hermé Chocolate Bar

Where do I even begin? Sigh.

If heaven was a food, it would be embodied by these hand crafted Pierre Hermé (PH) macarons.

Composition
A basic macaron consists of a delicate cookie shell with some sort of filling in between. The cookie shell should be very delicate, crumbly, and fall apart in your mouth. Each half of the shell is a shiny round flat cap, followed by the “foot” or base. The two halves can be filled with just about any filling, though the most common tend to be whipped ganache types.

On this visit to the Aoyama PH (THE original), I was greeted by a lovely display of confections on the first floor of the shop. But what drew my attention the most was the macaron counter – a vast array of rainbow colored cookies in all sort of interesting flavors – Mogador? Ispahan? Rose? The clerk explained to me that like any major house of couture design, PH macarons come in seasonal collections. The current Spring Collection featured creative flavors like Isaphan (lychee, rose, and raspberry) and Mogador (milk chocolate and passion fruit). With so many choices, I just HAD to get a box – of 6 – for myself. Going at about 220 Yen, that’s about $12-14 USD for macarons. Oops. I then proceeded upstairs to the Chocolate Bar to enjoy more of the infamous PH desserts.

My first thoughts were – Hello cute waiter! My initial impressions of the PH chocolate salon were disrupted by the presence of a very tall, polite, multilingual Cantonese boy who offered to take my umbrella and shopping bags. After seating me at the counter overlooking the busy shopping street below, he offered me a menu as well as the dessert tray. Being completely in awe of the fact I was at PH (and him – ahem), I was tongue tied but did manage to ask for an explanation of EVERYTHING on the dessert tray. And it was fantastic.

Like I said, where does one even begin? I deliberated for a looong time and finally decided on the trio dessert sampler that featured the seasonal sorbet flavors. Fabulous. While I waited, cute Cantonese boy [with the popular Hong Kong shag hair cut, angled jaw line, ivory skin] entertained me with convivial conversation. He’s a foreign exchange business student, just a few years my senior, working part-time at PH. He offered sound advice about traveling through Japan as well as help with directions and other tips. Any way, I digress. This is a PH Review NOT a cute boy review. Sorry!

So my seasonal sorbet trio included: Lemon sorbet + whipped cream topped with ginger candy lace; Rose sorbet + lychee fruit + whipped cream; Caramel & chocolate sorbet with candied hazelnut and biscotti cookie. The Lemon sorbet was tarty but paired so well with the sweet and light-as-air whipped cream. The ginger lace was sweet and delicate, melted right in your mouth. Of the 3, this was the most delicate in flavor and least complicated in texture.

The Rose and lychee Sorbet (Isaphan) was a complete surprise! How does one pair rose, lychee and raspberry? The rose sorbet was very subtle, much more subtle than the Ici flavored
Rose flavor, and in my opinion MORE delicious. The floral fragrance and sweet lychee made for an olfactory orgasm. The raspberry added the tart, the lychee the sweet, and the rose the fragrance. Essentially, a feast for the senses – my favorite flavor.

The last one I tried was the caramel and chocolate sorbet – very robust and full-bodied flavors. The chocolate sorbet was NOT as good as Ici’s, as it was too bitter on its own. However, with a bit of the sweet and salty caramel, the combination was delectable. I really appreciate contrast in flavors, and I love it when ALL flavors are allowed to star together. The nuttiness from the hazelnut and biscotti was additional texture, and helped round out the overall sweetness of the dessert.

In addition to 3 sorbets, I HAD HAD HAD To try at least one of my macarons, and the Cantonese server happily put one on a plate for me. The Mogador – milk chocolate and passion fruit – was delectable! The flaky, delicate, soft, moist cookie was absolutely perfect for the passion fruit chocolate filling – the slightly tangy passion fruit flavor helped cut through what would have otherwise been a cloyingly sweet and dull palette of flavors.

So, I spent something like $35 on dessert alone. Wow. It was fabulous, and I have never spent a better $35 (ok well maybe…), but the experience was incredible! I am soo inspired to go home and make them – too bad the PH Macaron book is only written in French But I am so glad I tried these. I can now say my life is complete.

Playing Catch-Up

I am sooo behind!! Days of no blogging, depriving hundreds of people of my Japan experience – well mostly my mother. But still. I’ve been playing catch-up a lot these days – with my blog, my friends, with my adult self. If anything, this trip has certainly reminded me that my inner child still exists – carefree and playful as ever before. I thought I had lost it, having grown up soo quickly (in my opinion) in the last two years or so. Somewhere along the way, I had suppressed and packed away the tomboy who use to run through muddy fields in long white gowns to slug the boys [you know who you are], the rash girl who’s mind and mouth were never compromised by silly things like social propriety, the girly girl who ooh-ed and aw-ed over Hello Kitty and gelly roll pens while passing notes in class. Yes, sometimes I forget I was ever that person. Sometimes, I forget how my childhood friendships even formed, because I am (we all are) such a different person now. And it is only when the inner child is liberated that you remember. And it is like a familiar, old companion you wear – a bit of a snug fit but still soo comforting nonetheless.

A few days ago, we went to Kyoto, the old capital and a rich city preserved in heritage and history untouched by war. Essentially put on the map by Memoirs of a Geisha, Kyoto is dotted with tons of beautiful gardens, shrines and temples, and in our 2 day trip there, we tried to hit all the major sites.

While in Kyoto, I was introduced to a number of unique Japanese sweets that I did not see in Tokyo – Mochi type of triangles with sweet fillings; green tea and sesame dough balls skewered on sticks and slathered in black sesame sauce; green jelly things sprinkled with grounded sweet and salty peanut. I can’t name half of it, and sadly don’t have the pictures to do them justice. BUT I do know that these are Kyoto-unique, and that they are absolutely delicious. The vendors do a good job of giving out samples, and I am ever ready to put my test tasting skills to use.

In addition, I also OD-ed on green tea while in Kyoto. As if the tea drink was not enough, I had Green Tea Mochi, Green Tea Cream Puffs, Green Tea Shaved Ice and Red Bean. Oh gosh. It was nauseating, but soo cooling and refreshing. I will attempt to recreate some of these babies the second I get home to the states.

Kyoto was an amazing break from the rush of the Tokyo city life (it’s maddening!). Lush greenery, fewer people and cars, I felt so much more at home and at ease. The day after we came back from Kyoto, we immediately checked in for some adrenaline rehab at the famous DisneySea Theme Park – and it was such a different Disney experience!! The water-themed park was home to 5 different ports (Arabian, Mediterranean, NYC, futuristic Discovery, etc) and a variety of rides. Besides the rides, the decor, the fact that both Harrison Ford and Mickey Mouse speak Japanese, the best part was all the LIVE SHOWS! As in, there were live musicals like you would see on Broadway; street bands as you would see in any large city; acrobats and dancers like on a Cirque du Soleil show. It was an incredible experience. The DisneySea focuses A LOT on these shows – full of talent, rich in detail and innovation.

And to top it off, the night BraviSEAmo show was a mechanical performance in water of how the powerful Spirit of Fire falls in love with the elegant Spirit of Water. It was quite magical, and showcased the best of Japanese artistry and ingenuity. I highly recommend it unless you are a thrill seeker, in which case, DisneySea would be too mild for your taste. But it is still sooo worth the 58Yen or whatever I paid.

This trip has drastically drained my bank account, sigh – what to do? My inner child says, who cares – you only live once right?

Spirited away,
AnhD

I go to Kyoto!

Sorry Everyone. I’ve been exhausted these last few days and haven’t had much time to update. I am leaving for Kyoto by bullet train in about 5 hours, and won’t have access to Internet. So here’s a short preview of what I’ve been doing thus far, and what is about to come. Hope it will be enough to keep you satisfied until I get back.

Au revoir my lovely!
AnhD

PS And for those of you anxiously waiting my Pierre Herme entry, it’s coming!! I think I need to get a second tasting for a more accurate account.. you know – all in the name of journalistic ethics.