#tasting spoon

Chef Tasting Delicious Soup

This PNG image is a cartoon illustration of a female chef. She is fair-skinned with long, flowing blonde hair. She wears a traditional white chef's hat and a white apron over a dark teal long-sleeved shirt. The chef has her eyes closed and mouth wide open, suggesting she is savoring the taste of something. She holds a silver spoon in her right hand, filled with a red liquid, presumably the food she's tasting. In her left hand, she holds a white bowl filled with the same red liquid.

Tasting Spoon ONIBUS COFFEE original

テイスティングスプーン（ONIBUS COFFEEオリジナル）

イングランドのシルバーウェアブランドW. Wright Silverwareに別注した、ONIBUS COFFEEオリジナルのテイスティングスプーンです。フィニッシュは全て手仕上げというこだわりです。持ち手にONIBUS COFFEEのロゴが刻印されています。店頭では実際にカッピングの際に使用しています。

材質

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In Tasting Spoon, I dish out my latest adventures food-related.

Amidst the everyday hustle and buzz of city life, one cannot but too oftenly miss bits of felicity found lying in almost every block. But that is not for me, for neither my schedule is always crammed nor am I in the business of denying myself the simple pleasures of existence―say, a visit to my favorite bookstore or an afternoon splurge in a café. And that is precisely what I've been up to last Thursday. Accompanied by a friend, I set sail for Chez Karine Bakery. (I've been meaning to do this for months now, frankly.)

A bit of information: Chez Karine (pronounced as "shey karin") basically is French for "in Karen's," short for "in Karen's place."

Upon walking in, I instantly took notice of the glass display. Colorful macarons invite customers as well as mini cakes and jars of panna cotta and pudding, all looking decadent and sophisticated. Chez Karine boasts of luscious treats and a thoughtful balance between neatness and charm. I love how the minimalist interior give way for the products to have the center stage.

Chef Karen Yang, owner of Chez Karine, had her short course in pastry in Le Cordon Bleu Paris twice. An IT by profession, she once dreamt of opening her own pastry shop. She started with a home baking business for six months while living abroad but got quickly burned out for she was still studying Computer Science in Stanford then. After returning to Manila, Chef Karen finally embraced her true calling and Chez Karine pushed from conceptualization through actualization. A testimony, I may add, that things that are worth while take time, not excluding finding one's life vocation.

I had a brisk chat with what seemed the store manager and she told me that, like the case in Ladurée, France's premiere maker of Parisian macarons, their macarons are put to hold for two days before going on sale. This, I believe, is to make sure of the highest standard of quality as this allows the little treats to acquire perfect harmony in texture and flavor.

The macarons are exquisite, I tell you. They're crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside with proportionate dabs of filling. In fact, while I was taking the photo above, the dainty begun slightly melting between my fingers. The flavors are subtle but distinct, albeit not even my sweet tooth can mask the excess―very marginally―in sweetness. But, hey, it's tolerable. We tried a box of 7 and the varieties that stood out for me were salted caramel, speculoos and early grey, while maple bacon was kind of disappointing―I was looking for the richness of the maple but failed.

We also sampled a jar of muscovado royal pudding and I absolutely adore it! I'm fond of leche flan, our version of créme caramel, but it's softer than that, lighter than crème brûlée and made even better by the characteristic taste of muscovado sugar. Plus it has just the right amount of sweetness. And oh. I almost forgot, the quaint container!

The mini cakes and other pastries, which we haven't tasted, look very Japanese in presentation but with names not to be mistaken for not having French ancestry.

Verdict: amazeballs!

Chez Karine Bakery is located at:

In Tasting Spoon, I dish out my latest adventures food-related.

93% of the human populace loves food, that is in the form of eating for the most parts, with the exception of myself. (I was tempted to use the phrase "everybody loves food" but how cliché does it sound!) Wait, what? No! That was a double blunder in the sense that (a) I cannot prove my statistic; and (b) of course I do love to eat. But anyway, point is I've decided to add a new feature here in the blog. It will be called Tasting Spoon, in which I will relate my latest adventures food-related.

Helming this new collection of entries is the Krispy Kreme's Kroissant Rings.

(Photo source: Krispy Kreme PH)

So doughnut-and-coffee chain giant Krispy Kreme finally resolved to follow suit with the cronut trend here in the Philippines. While it is a bit late, given Wildflour's bold first step a couple of months ago, I have reasons to believe that their recipe-testing center―or whatever fancy name it is called―have been busy with the subsequent releases of their Delectable Desserts line and Speculoos Cookie Butter doughnuts so that their cronuts, dubbed as Baked Kroissant Rings, just had its debut today. The latest baked creations come in four varieties (chocolate, strawberry, apple cinnamon, and vanilla cream) and availability runs from 10am to 2pm.

How unfortunate I shall be left with only one choice on the first day, with the very option (apple cinnamon) I most like the least. But I tried it anyway and had a pleasant experience. To begin with, I like the fact that it is baked, creating a crusty outer layer. The flavors are subtle; the kroissant is topped with bits of glazed apple and splashed with vanilla cream with just the right hint of cinnamon around its mid-core. And the serving size is highly satisfactory―not skimpy but not too big, although I reckon such category as the latter doesn't fall on the appetite with the likes of me. The problem, however, is that it is not as flaky as I would have wanted my cronut to be, which is, pfoo!, the whole business circling this sweet-tooth-craving-appeasing-craziness.

Verdict*: good enough.