Wednesday, October 31, 2012

ET Artisan Sweets

Okay.. I gotta admit that it sure isn't easy juggling 2 blogs.

Not that I'm fretting. I love doing these. While this lifestyle-turned-foodie blog is my passion, my motherhood blog makes a great keepsake for kiddo's childhood memories.

Well, I was actually trying to explain my brief absence... and… oh well! Let's just move on with the topic. Pfft!

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Pretty packaging

If you followed me on instagram, you might see just how 'pampered' us girls in this office really are. My lady boss is very fond of buying desserts just because she likes to. And she will buy a lil' bit of everything and make us share (yes, she'll nag if we never eat what she's bought... how liddat?!).

Not that we complain... but our waistline sure suffer the effects of all these buys.

And when she went away on holiday, I thought our poor waistlines get a break but little did we know, her normally-not-a-sweet-tooth brother kind of took over her position as a dessert buyer or 'indulger' (if there's even such a word).

We happen to have a client who sells these awesome desserts and pastries at The Grandstand (formerly known as Turf City). Apparently, they're pretty known for their delicacies, especially their macarons. This colleague of mine had been harping on that whenever we discussed this project. And it seemed that, after a visit to the 'site' (as we normally term it at work), he gleefully came back with a bagful of goodies from there.

And no, they were not even complimentary. Whoa.

I was really impressed by their packaging (top picture). The hard-case cardboard box was really pretty! And when I opened the cover, expecting some cakes (as what normally happened with my lady boss), I was greeted with this sight:

Macaronssss!!!!!!!!

Oh, make that a double WOW!

Colour pallette

Aren't they just shoo pwetty...??!

What you see here is just the top layer. There's another dozen below! My colleague excitedly bought TWO DOZEN macarons at one go! Has he gone nuts??!

A box of 24 pieces cost $55, btw. That makes it $2.30 per piece.

Hmm… Maybe the girl at the counter was really gorgeous and he bought these much to impress... HIGH-CHANCE, that could be the case (he just shrugged and refused to tell us why)!

Macaron directory

Can you match the macaron graphic with the ACTUAL macaron?

We tried. And we somewhat failed. Not too terribly though. My colleagues did get what they intend to choose (I think!). But that was after a looooong time figuring it out.

It took me more than 15 mins trying to figure out which one is the Salted Caramel piece (fave flavour!).

Got it!

Check out the Salted Caramel (SC) bit in the centre! It's surrounded by chocolate ganache actually. Super exhilarating for SC lovers like me!

Chocolate Hazelnut
(taken from Sri's instagram)

My colleague chose this one. I expect it to taste like Nutella but it came off as pretty... different. There was actually hazelnut puree (or fudge??) in the centre.

For my 2nd piece, I made another attempt to match the graphic to an actual macaron and this time, I actually got a macaron that wasn't even on the list… FAIL!



Yuzu macaron

I was kinda' curious about that 'Passion something-something' flavour so I picked out the yellow one. I did take an initial whiff and smelt something citrus-y but I mistook that to be the scent of the passion fruit.

When I took the first bite, I tried really hard to decipher the taste. Can't help it, when I expect to taste something and ended up with something else instead.

Only after sometime, do I realize that I've gotten the Yuzu one, which was a seasonal flavour (no wonder it wasn't in the list!). Btw, 'Yuzu' is a citrus fruit that's most commonly used in Japanese cuisine. Pretty expensive, actually but if you are really curious about the taste, Peel Fresh do sell Yuzu juice in their carton packs.

Goodness, I can't believe my luck!

I LOVE YUZU! And this macaron... it's just super-duper awesome, lah! Nice, tangy overtones from the Yuzu rind, presumably.

At the end of the day, my colleague complained that we didn't eat enough. Gah! So he made us pack some home for our families.

So I decide on a chocolate piece for myself at that point.


Some chocolate macaron

Really, really no idea which 'chocolate' this one is.

I chose to pack the Black Sesame, which my adventurous niece eventually walloped (and gave the thumbs up to) and gave my hubby a chocolate one (pls don't ask me which SPECIFIC chocolate one..). I secretly enjoyed the Summer Berry one in the kitchen, long after everyone else were asleep.

Really nice (what else can I say??!)!

Almond Croissant

He also bought two of these Almond-Croissant that's sprinkled with icing sugar on top. I was still warm when he brought it back and nicely buttery, crispy and hardly sweet. And the almond flakes were really crunchy.

I've always been crazy about Almond croissants but that one was topped with chocolate fudge. A simple one like this is equally awesome!

I'm surprised that not many confectioneries actually make a really decent rendition of this.

Black Forest cake

Yuzu cake

He also bought some fresh-cream cake slices which we didn't try… Sugar overload!

Honestly, I much prefer thair macarons to the ones from Canele, which was a tad sweet. Or from Nectarie, where the flavours came off as pretty underwhelmed. Obolo was alright.

Just to bad the location is out-of-the way for me. I would love to try more of their pastries! Especially their croissant! Better than Tiong Bahru Bakery or even Maison Kayser?

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