Brunch extravagance

Started the day with Brunch with S at Smith of Smithfields today and I really can't believe it took me this long to get here. Amazing atmosphere, great (real British) food - I had the smoked salmon, scrambled eggs on bagel while she had thick cut ham, 2 eggs and chips and of course a Bloody Mary and Mimosa Champagne to wash it all down :D Sunday Brunch hasn't been this perfect for a long time.








































And we spent pretty much the whole afternoon wandering the streets of amazing Eastside.

Oh, and the coffeeboard menu of BrickLane Coffee Shop read 'In Life you get 1 shot at Bricklane coffee, you always get 2'. What's not to love?

Choux Finalement

Remember a few postings ago when I lamented on my no-show lemon tart? After doing the post-post-mortem on it, I realised that it was not the meringue but the CURD that was horribly wrong. The curd that I casually dismissed as easy to get right was anything but the assumed.

I went through at least 2 dozen lemons, making big mistakes and small mistakes each time and finally, I got my curd to set proper. You have no idea how deep a breath I hold each time I disect my tart. But each time, or at least till the very last tart that I did, the curd would part like the Red Sea. And so, back to the drawing board I'd go, in an attempt to find the underlying casual factors prohibiting me from reaching lemon tart nirvana. Guess all that fretting and frantic practicing paid off and someone up there must have liked me because instead of lucky-draw picking the tart for the finals, I got choux.

To be honest, the choux was the item on the list that no one wanted to get. Let's face it, the choux is the main component of your dessert. And if it doesn't puff up, there's no way your cream (however lump-free and flavourfully yummy) can salvage it.

Thankfully, mine puffed up and actually looked quite good! Yay me.

I didn't bring a camera into the kitchen, so I have no pictures of my final product. According to the chefs, pictures will be taken for us (So we can't dispute and say we didn't make that) and hopefully I can put the picture up soon.

Fingers crossed.

Take Home Bounty

As we saunter into September, with London waking up finally after the sleepy Bank Holiday weekend, reality is slowly sinking in. Term is drawing to a close (and I'm only reminded because my exams are tomorrow- double uh-ohs).

I'll be leaving in a fortnight! A proper, quantifiable number now, no longer an abstract oh-around-x months.

Yet, it feels like although everything is drawing to a close, I'm still soaking up (and eating up) lessons at the LCB. We made a rather impressive array today- ranging from the Chequerboard Sables, Batons de Marechal, Palais aux Raisins, Langues de Chat, Florentins, Macarons and Fudge!

I'm pretty sure that I'm about to swear off Fudge. Thou shalt not divulge contents but the artery-clogging-cellulite-inducing-little-square-of-dark-chocolate-fudge is seriously one hell of a bite.

And because these things are bite-sized, they become incredibly addictively easy to pop in your mouth! So much for eating a little bit of everything.

Then again, we only live once, so what's a little indulgence now and then? Oui?