It has taken me about a year to visit Bea’s in Bloomsbury, but I’m glad I finally made it. This tour de force bakery, cake house, coffee & tea shop produces top notch sugary things from their massive kitchen on site on a daily basis. Needless to say, their cupcakes are superb, personally I quite enjoy the pillowy buttercream Bea uses, a uniquely ethereal texture, slicker than your usual icing. I really enjoyed the peanut butter cupcake I ordered.

The heart & soul behind this operation is none other that the super woman herself, Bea Vo. Notable Nobu alumnus, who had turned down the chance to head the pastry-works at Nobu (spot the Nobu cookbooks in her shop) for a shot at making a name for herself, which as of 2010, in my opinion, she has gracefully achieved. An inspirational story, in itself. I am led to believe that she spends half her life at her labour of love, and when you eventually visit and meet her, you’ll be glad to find she’s an energiser bunny of abundant joy – probably a sign of a woman who relishes every moment of working on what she is most passionate about.

Bea is slated to expand into the City soon, so things must be going well for the petite baker, critics, bloggers and women – in general – love her work.

This is one of the few times I feel there is no need to pontificate about the steadiness of cream. If you are yet to visit this cafe that looks as fabulous as the cakes sitting on the counter, then I believe you should put this on your list. Inside the shop, one can sip coffee at a table next to the open ended kitchen, read his raunchy novel (which has won numerous bad sex awards) and occasionally look up and watch the chefs scoop icing onto cake. Life could not be more perfect.

A photo essay for the girls.

Note: We ordered afternoon tea set with scones, cupcakes, assorted marshmallows and meringues for £9.90.

Even more photographs from Bea’s on my flickr stream.

The Gist of It

Bea’s of Bloomsbury
Sweets, cakes, coffee & tea £7pp
44 Theobald’s Road London WC1X 8NW
Tel: 0207 242 8330
Tube: Chancery Lane

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The high adventures of ‘ParisEater’ continues. And now, we go to the shrine of macarons (and other such sweet delights) at the Pierre Herme boutique in St Germain.

I have never really paid much heed to the technical artistry that is the perfect macaron, that isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy the painstaking creation, its just that I haven’t come across any ambassadors of this supposed fine art, until now that is.

I have the eloquent SuperCharz to thank for this tip, otherwise, the only other big macaron name I know of, is Laduree; who incidentally, have their shops just a few steps away from the ‘jewellery’ boutique. We’re along Rue Boneparte in the general St Germain area. Mark told me to brace myself for long queues with Japanese tourists, and sure enough, there was a queue, which meandered out to the shop front and overspilling from relatively tiny boutique.

The short queue moved ever so slowly, and as I inched closer and closer to the front door, I saw satisfied faces exiting with see-through bags and shiny boxes. Actually, they were more like ‘Hah, in your face sunshine, I’ve got a box of goodies and you don’t’ faces, as if they’d won the lottery, or had just became one of the first few to snag an iPhone or a PS3. Oh the fanfare is rousing, and I was so excited.

Finally passing through the doors, I was within touching distance of the edible gems; if not for the glass display it was under, the anticipation from the queue would have compelled me to simply throw myself across the bed of sweet things and cackle madly. Naturally these jewels are not cheap; 1.85 euros for a single macaron and 3.80 euros for the bigger ones. I bought a couple of loose ones and I also picked up a box of seven which contained the ‘summer’ flavours, so I’m told by the shop assistant. 17.50 euros for a box of seven: the ‘Les Macarons D’Ete’.

So this is the summer box. Faultless presentation, the box is so shiny, you can actually see the distorted reflection of my arm in it. Years ago when he began, Pierre Herme actually opened his first boutiques in Tokyo, before coming back to his motherland to satisfy French sweet teeth. I settled on a bench outside the nearby St Sulpice church to break open the box.

I actually wanted to save this until I got back to England, but I took a bite out of the loose macarons I bought, and I was blown to smithereens. It was Huile D’olive & Vanille and it was gobsmacking. The spongy exterior had only a very slight crunch, the texture akin to mildly toasted bread and the flavour was amazingly fragrant. An understated vanilla custard that quietly exploded on my tongue. It was out of this world, it was not too sugary, but in its place was sweet flavours.

The mind boggles with the kind of variety which has been distilled into this selection of macarons. The simple Carrement Chocolat was simply divine, the Satine was a tangy cream cheese and orange compote that gelled to make a sour jam; the Celeste was a passionately fruity rhubarb but the one that left a real impression was the pink glitter dusted Ispahan which was a mellow rose scented delight that envelop a raspberry jewel in its centre.

Oh yes, I ate it all on the spot, it was so good, so complex that it forced me to take time to really savour and enjoy every single bite, it really was magnificent. The sour, sweet, jammy and custardy were lingering on the tongue; if jewels were edible, they would indeed, be Pierre Herme macarons. I thoroughly enjoyed what was a masterclass of fine saccharine arts.

Pierre: please come to London, you will make ridiculous amounts of money, from me and from the rest of the city.

Pierre Herme Official Site

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I have been living in and around the Kensington area for little over seven years and I’m glad to say that there are lots of sweet offerings in the vicinity. Since it’s friday, I’d like to keep this one short and sweet. Three spots to hit the next time you are feeling sweet. Your choice of frozen yogurt, freshly baked cookies or the best fairy cakes in town.

You might like to start your journey into the West with a sit down and a cuppa at the Hummingbird bakery. The low ceiling, wooden interiors are furnished with dinky tables and red velvet sofas. I have never seen so many women packed into such a confined area before this cafe. Hummingbird is best known for their dense cakes with ultra sweet and super rich frosting. The sweet offerings come in two varieties, the cupcake or a large slice. I’d suggest you try the red velvet, the sponge bits are a deep red colour with a rich vanilla frosting, myself I’d go with the pictured vanilla cake – the flavour of the egg is just fantastic. Next to it, is the bling bling cupcake which is an obvious chocolate flavour. With so many females in the cafe, it can only mean that the cakes are well and truly sinful.

About 10 steps outside the station is Ben’s Cookies , which are freshly baked in the shop everyday. These little babies are best had warm and the highlight is the large chunk of chocolates they are baked with. The cookie dough is sticky and moist, coupled with melting chocolate makes it oh so great. They come in a variety of flavours too with ginger & white chocolate, rum & raisin , cranberries & white choco being some of the more interesting ones. They sell them by weight and each cookie is pretty large and generally costs about 110p each (I think). Here’s a money shot of the insides….

Seriously, these cookies are pretty good and they are the real deal. I love the white chocolate. The one pictured is the triple chocolate chunk, but the melting white chocolate is 7th heaven as far as I’m concerned. Speaking of the shop, it’s take away only so no sit downs, I think you get a buy 5 get 2 free deal, a tip for when you get home: bung it in the microwave for about 5 seconds, you will appreciate the heat and the melt. Oh, they also do these ice creams too – avoid at all costs, I cant remember the ice cream brand they are selling in conjunction with the cookies, but whatever it is, they’re not really good. You are better off getting your favourite brand (haagen daz me).

Finally, there is a quiet new player in town and they call themselves SNOG. No, they dont sell kisses, instead they sell you healthy frozen yogurt either in classic plain , or green tea. Yes, you read that right, green tea frozen yogurt. These pioneers of frozen goodies plan to dominate the sweet tooth world – and make you healthy too. The small pot ( which is pretty big in itself ) is only 78 cals, that’s what it says on the label. To make the yogurt even more palatable, they offer a smattering of toppings which include potent fresh fruits in blueberry, strawberry, kiwi, mango, all colourful & juicy. They also have nuts and naughtier stuff like mini oreos. Myself, I went for the blueberries and mochi ( japanese rice cake, which are not quite distinguishable from the yogurt , but it’s there ) . Each topping is about 65p and the mini pot is about £ 2.15. Cheap, cheerful, lots of females hanging out there too and folks, I’d just had my first snog.

Thank you for taking part in this sweet trip to South Kensington, if you’re ever in West London, hop on the tube (underground) and head westward either on the District (green) , Circle ( yellow) or Piccadilly (blue) line, and make sure you knock on my door too and come say hello. Time for abit of snogging of me own now. Have a lovely weekend peeps.

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Following my scoop! post a few weeks ago, I went on abit of an ice cream rush before summer ended. Ciao is smack in the centre of Leicester square..ok that’s an exaggeration, its more like behind Leicester square and yes that headline is not a joke, they really do spaghetti ice cream here. Got your attention yet? Cool, keep reading…

As promised: spaghetti ice cream 

There are actually two menus here.  A ‘standard’ café menu that feature sarnies, pastas, you know, the basic stuff. But I mean, you’d come to cafe ciao not for the savoury food,but for the ice cream. This place is abit of an ice cream heaven. The colourful menu is a photographic odyssey of sweet creations including tiramisu with mascarpone and dairy ice cream. Archie comics style banana splits, complete with hot fudge sauce. And of course, spaghetti made completely of chocolate ice cream strands.

I ate fried eggs ice cream

I ordered the fried eggs. Its made of two half peaches (for the yolk) and vanilla ice cream (as the egg white), with a chocolate wafer stick in the middle… topped with some very juicy glazed cherries. Yeah it was good.

Yogurt Ice

Jennie wanted to be healthy so she ordered the yogurt ice cream, with lots of whipped cream on top and walnuts and fudge sauce…. its debatable whether this is actually more healthy. If you’ve never had yogurt ice cream before, it tastes abit like sour vanilla ice cream.

Melted chocolate drink

No this is not the melted hot chocolate, which they do here. Instead this is the ‘normal’ hot chocolate. To be honest, its nothing really special, but you know, a good hot chocolate is a good hot chocolate.

Thoughts and more thoughts and extra thoughts

As of writing (4th October 2008), the temperature has come right down. I think it’s about 10C outside, brrr… I’m not cold-resistent at all. In fact, I shiver when Im in the cold, even though I don’t feel it. Maybe I need to grow more bodily hair. Well, not much I can say about desserts, anything with lots of sugars generally taste good (if you like sweet things), they put an interesting twist on things here, so it’s a nice place to settle down. Prices are reasonable and portions are huge. The woman who runs the place is very warm, like a loving italian mummy making sure all her kids are well fed. So what are you waiting for? Get the melted hot chocolate and some fried eggs…made of cream. 

Hot weather can mean only one thing after spending hours pounding the streets of London, ice cream.

the five families of gelato

We’re fortunate to be blessed with family run businesses setting up shop here in the UK. Especially in London where you will find lots of italian gelato shops and most of them are located quite centrally too. Scoop is in the heart of Covent Garden. It is a little hidden away, on one of the side streets behind the Marks & Sparks outside the station. It’ll be abit of a treasure hunt, but once you find it, its like you’ve struck a gold mine!

In case you didn’t know, gelato is Italian ice cream made with all the goodness of milk & cream. The hallmark of gelato is the dense and creamy texture, I would say almost sticky nature. This is opposed to something like soft ice which is light and whippy. Gelato is generally made with less than 55% air, thus giving it the luxurious feel and making it, in my opinion the king of ice creams.

the scoopy story

A quick gander at their website and philosophy : “Scoop introduces for the first time in London the pure italian gelato experience.”

Wow, these guys sound serious, their ice-cream is not just cold milk & honey, its an experience. With such a bold selling point and the fact that the sun is melting me by the minute, I had to indulge in the pure Italian experience.

lets talk flavours

There are a lot of flavours to choose from that generally fall under either the sorbets or the milk based stuff. Among the sorbets you’ll find a pretty formidable list including pear, pineapple, watermelon, melon, blueberry.

The gelato selection feature a few famous italian puddings such as tiramisu and panna cotta. Some of my favourites are fior di latte, cookies and cream, triple chocolate and stracciatella.

Do have a quick flick through scoop’s flavour page here. They give a pretty insightful look at what goes into their product and what each flavour really means, its clear ice cream flows through their veins.

So how good is the Italian experience?

I got to to admit, it’s pretty damn good.

Generally speaking, the ‘base’ of the product is very rich and creamy, but it won’t make you queasy. The flavours are all very nice and does indeed taste ‘real’ as opposed to being artificially too sweet. Comparing against the benchmark Haagen Daz line, Scoop gelato is a little lighter, more balanced and less sweet and for some strange reason, it taste livelier, like it’s indeed more ‘fresh’.

Today I had the green mint flavour. Look at how vibrant that green is! It taste exactly what mint should do, its just so nice.

Scoop also doubles as a cafe too, I never got round to trying the cafe bit, but something interesting, is that they make ice cream cakes, and they deliver. Something to consider for any upcoming celebrations perhaps?

Bottomline: It’s so good, if you scoop that special someone you’ve been after all this time – she might just say yes.