De retour...

ok, je suis de retour
à Montréal.
Je travaille dans un restaurant dans le vieux montréal comme pâtissière, et j'habite dans la ville avec une coloc. Je suis de retour à parler de la ville et de quelques péripéties de bouffe. En fait, je ne suis pas sûre que j'aime le concept de blogs... mais je sens que ma soeur et quelques amis que je ne vois pas assez souvent pourront voir un peu ce que je fais, quand ça leurs intéresse. Je vais pouvoir me défouler sur les trucs qui me font chier comme le fait qu'il n'y a pas de racs à béciques au centre-ville! c'est absoulement ridicule! et on arrête pas de dire qu'on veut faire du progrès pour l'environnement, blah blah blah. Peut-être commencer par ne pas mettre des rouleaux épais de plastiques sur les parcomètres, qui empêche d'attacher nos vélos! argh!
non, mais parler des belles choses de la vie aussi, comme manger un bon pain pita avec du baba ganouj à minuit en revenant de travailler! ah

What to do...

I got back from NYC and 2 days later I was replacing Michelle at Les Chèvres, who was going to New-York herself. After that, I started working -replacing again- at Decca 77, on Drummond corner René-Lévesque. I'm there for another week. And after that, well I know I have a dentist appointment on July 4th, and that's my biggest commitment right now. wo-ho. After, I'm free. I get to do what I want I guess, but have not decided what that was yet. Look for a job here? Go work in Barcelona? See what's going on in Sydney? Spend summer on Vancouver island? Go replace(again!) at Room 4 Dessert for the month of august in NYC? who knows? well I sure don't... argh!

NYC

I'm in New-York till tuesday, working at Bouley Bakery(bouley.net) till tomorow. It's going well, but I have to admit, it makes me realize how organized PH is... Damien, the chef over there is really great, he's fun to work with and he's doing great things with not much... Mango-curry pâte de fruit, apricot-lavender pâte de fruit, milk chocolate chantilly with vanilla crème brûlée, yuzu cream with mint-strawberry coulis, peach-saffron macarons... Nice, very nice, probably the best pastry shop in NY with Fauchon and Payard, but not as conservative. Sunday & Monday, I'm doing another internship with Will Goldfarb at Room 4 dessert(nyr4d.com). Should be very interesting, looking foward to it.

My New-York experience doesn't stop there...
Caitlin, my old friend from camp is great and welcomed me for this whole time with her roomate Carrie. We went out to a Mets game, then to the beach on the Jersey Shore, in Manasquan, for Memorial day weekend(a lot of fun and sun!). Monday, on our way back from the beach, we went to have a barbecue at Amy(Caitlin's friend)'s parents in Chattam NJ. Tuesday went clubbing in the Meatpacking district, wednesday night was stay in night, with Casey, Caitling's bother, made taco salad(delicious), and then yesterday was also stay-in night because there was a huge thunderstorm and the rain was leaking out of the AC unit in Carrie's room! We had to use bowls, a garbage can and pots to get the water, it was quite funny, running back to the sink to empty the containers. Tonight is going out night for Caitlin's birthday, in alphabet city. And there's a movie screaning on a rooftop in Brooklin tomorow night, I'll go check it out.

As for food, well I haven't done that much... Went to Chikalicious(chikalicious.com) wednesday, because it was sold out saturday. I had kiwi in a lavender soup with a yogourt sorbet, and crispy kafati. It was cute and nice. I also went to chinatown and had my cheapest filling meal ever, for 1.50$! Went to the Doughnut plant(doughnutplant.com) on thursday morning and had a great coconut doughnut and now they make churros! which was also very yummy. I had great pizza and chinese take out. And last week I went to Room 4 Dessert and had a great evening and interesting desserts. I'll tell you more about his place once I''m done with the 2 days, with pictures hopefully.
S*

The BIG apple

»There's no actual big fruit in the city Steph...» my cousin Claude
But there's many other things that I'm about to discover or see again. This will be my 4th time and hopefully not my last. I can't wait to go to the Donut Plant, El Laboratorio del gelato, chikalicious, WD-50... and discover new places like Room 4 Dessert and Bouley, the places I'm going to intern at. Should be fun, keep you posted on what's going on there.

Back Home...

Comming back home from a long journey always feels weired... Now that I'm here, I feel that I wasn't even gone! I feel like this past year was a dream, it's so weired! So since I finished work, I went to Turkey with Aurélie, and had a big goodbye party. Thank you all for supporting me in this experience, it was a great one. Hopefully there will be many more to come... Next stop, NYC!!! I'm going to work with Damien, a guy who used to work at PH who is now at Bouley. Leaving sunday or monday, not sure yet(family function on sunday night, I mean haven't seen them in 10months!) for about 2 weeks. Keep you posted.

C'est fini

This morning was my last at PH...
I guess I'm not realizing that it's over. We had a drink after work for my departure. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to M. Hermé, but I,ll go by the boutique before I leave the country, Colette said he really wanted to say goodbye.

I'm going to miss it. Really.
This was a wonderful experience. The hard times are when I learned the most. I feel so accomplished, and what is great is that I want to learn and do many more things, and that's the best feeling.

blooming

Gardens here never close. Even in the winter, you can go in the Jardin du Luxembourg and sit in one of those famous green chairs or even go on a terrace and have a coffee with outdoor heating to toast you up. The first sign of spring here is not defined by the opening of the first terraces like on St-Denis, but by the blooming of trees and flowers which to my memory is way earlier than back home. Trees were already blooming last week in the Jardin du Palais Royal near the Louvre. Lovely sunny day off.

Falafel please!

The Marais, also known as the 4th arrondissement, is one of my favorite areas to walk in. I've been many times and there's just so many little streets that you can't help but discover new things everytime. It's a hip quarter with a large gay community, many bars,restaurants and trendy shops. I used to spend more time in the Beaubourg area but never really got a chance to explore the Jewish area. Needless to say, that changed today. La Rue des Rosiers is where it's at. Jewish bakeries and restaurants everywhere. This(what I'm eating on the picture)was the best fallafel I have had in Paris, but I have to admit, it doesn't beat the place on St-Laurent corner des Pins at 2am! Although, I was told the best falafel and shawarma is in Ramat Gan, which is about 10 min outside of Tel-Aviv. I guess I'll have to verify that myself one day...

no KK

this is no Krispy Kreme donut. This is from la pâtisserie Julien in the 15th and it was DE-Lish! It was so moist and just coated with sugar. really good!

Besides that, I've been going to pastry shops to check out what they have for Easter this year. Nothing exciting anywhere I must say... I was kind of disapointed. Fauchon has a really taky looking diamond shaped egg(but I must say it is presented in a beautiful box...), La Durée has a lot of eggs, chickens and rabbits, but they also have 3 special macarons with chocolate chips on them. Red, green and orange. As for where I work, there's nothing special, and I'm quite disapointed... Eggs made with swirls of chocolate(all too thick) and traditional chicken and bells molds. I mean where do the chocolate bells come from anyway? so PH on this one is disapointing me... but the Montebello(my personal favorite cake,pistachio dacquoise, filled with pistachio mousseline(buttercream with crème pâtissière) topped with strawberries) is back for the season, and new macarons are comming up. More on that later this week.


There was a staff night on tuesday. We went bowling. It was fun. I got to chat, I mean really chat with M. Hermé. it was weired, he gave me compliments, it was sureal...! anwyay, but I'm comming back home, but I'll definetly keep in touch with these people. Here's just a few guys with whom I work with, Julien(macarons), Lucas(chocolaterie) and Fabien(tarts at Bonaparte, he took my place).

in a bubble

OMG! I just had the BEST religieuse EVER! I regret I didn't have my camera because it was also the nicest I've ever seen. zut! So I decided to treat myself and go to the Plaza Athéné and have tea with a pastry signed by Mister World Cup 2005, Christophe Michalak. I opted for the chestnut religieuse, and I must say it was the best religieuse I ever had. Pâte à choux filled with a chestnut pastry cream, perfectly balanced, not too sweet, just enough chestnut. The glaze was a suttle mauve with a perfect mini rosace of buttercream with the tiniest piece of chestnut topped with gold leaf. I could've eaten 5 in a row...! I was in a little bubble, enjoying it fully. So few weeks left to try and enjoy some of Paris unique treats.