Cupcake business

These pictures were taken several weeks back when my niece, Keana - and nephew, Xavier spent the night.  They love love love baking with Auntie Pang when they are here. I promised them a cupcake night (We try to do this once in a while). They are true pastry chefs in the making!!!

La Belle Vie

As promised, I am giving an update on our "La Belle Vie" experience. Overall - I have to say it is memorable.  It is our best dining experience thus far.  When we arrived, we were greeted at the door by the maitre de.  There was a beautiful chandelier hanging from the high cieling. It was stunning.  To our immediate right was "The Lounge". It was chic, hip, and elegant all at the same time.  It was a bit more casual than the dining room.  The maitre de showed us to our Table. The dining room was beautiful.  It was a dim room lit with small lamps at each table, and a few crystal chandeliers hanging from the cieling.  There were several amazing art pieces / sculptures throughout the room as well. We were given water and drinks to start with.  On the house, we were served a piece of puff pastry with gruyere cheese to "get our taste buds going". Then the chef sent out a tuna tar tar dish.  It was fabulous. Pheng said he would have liked it if they used a higher grade of tuna - however I was content as my palatte for fish is not so developed =)  We looked at the menu and it took us about .08 seconds to decide that we were going to GO FOR THE EXPERIENCE. We did the 8 course meal. woo-hoo.

Our first course: Sweet pea panna cotta with king crab and brown butter vinaigrette.

Everything on this plate was just "good", except I thought the sweet pea panna cotta was wierd.  It didnt seem to compliment the crab and brown butter vinaigrette very well. I may have liked it by itself or with another dish - but if felt all wrong on this dish. Pheng and I disagreed on this dish. Although he didnt like the panna cotta - he thought the rest of the dish was amazing.

2nd Course: Littleneck clam and chorizo soup with white asparagus and smoked char roe.

I Adored this dish. Pheng felt it was much too salty, but I disagreed with him. I do, however, have a love for salty foods, hence the disagreement.  The salmon eggs were a nice addition to the soup and the smoked char roe...DELISH!!!

3rd Course: Sauteed Daurade with ramps, tomato and rock shrimp ravioli

I declared this my Favorite dish after taking the first bite.  The daurade is an easy fish to overcook - but the chef really out did himself here. It was cooked to perfection and still had the crusty skin (which is probably my favorite part).  The sauce was amazing..the ravioli ...AMAZING.  Pheng LOVED the rock shrimp ravioli. There was nothing about this dish either one of us could find anything bad about!

4th Course: Roasted Poussin with caramelized pork belly, broccoli raab and eggplant

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The poussin was so juicy, tender, and flavorful.  The pork belly...aw c'mon! how can anyone have anything bad to say about PORK BELLY??!! Of course that was our favorite part of this dish. Our waitress was like "Oh it just kills me when I see people NOT eat the pork belly".  Pheng and I were like "WHAT??!! There are such people???!!!!!!!!!!"

5th Course: Grilled beef tenderloin with morel mushrooms, jeruselum artichokes, and forme d'ambert

Again - amazing. The beef was cooked to a medium rare, but was so tender and flavorful - that Pheng and I really would not have liked it any other way. Amazing, amazing, amazing.

6th Course: Manchego with strawberry black pepper tart.

This was good - but I didnt feel like it was anything special. I didnt bite into it and say "OMGD!! This is amazing!!". I was just like "ay...it's good - but nothing to die for". The cheese was a nice aged cheese which gave it more of a crumbly texture - but I like it that way anyway. the strawberry black pepper tart was "different", but it was still just good.

7th Course: Black berry soup with lemon verbana

Pheng was like "Can I just get a gallon of this stuff to go?" HOLY WOWNESS!! A shot of this stuff was like cruel taunting! It really had you wanting more more more more!! It was just such a refreshing, and "clean" tasting dessert. Really something different from any other dessert either one of us has ever had.

8th Course: Orange chiffon cake with sauternes sabayon and orange-basil sorbet

Ok - first let me say that I was looking forward to this dessert ALL NIGHT. I was sort of let down when I actually had it because I had such high hopes. Don't get me wrong - it was still pretty good (most of it), but the chiffon cake was lacking! I was so bummed! I really wanted to adore this course, but was disappointed with the chiffon cake. It had TOO MUCH of an alcohol taste to it. It would have been nice to cook some of the alcohol out or use less of it. Other than that - the texture and moistness was great - and of course the orange basil sorbet was to die for!

Lastly, on the house, we were served one last plating of dessert. It was a plate of about 8 different petit four desserts. At this point we were so full that we could not even look at the plate.  We tried a few things and all was amazing.

So anyway - go go go if you've ever wondered if you should. It's defenitely an experience to remember!!

Oh - and see below for my mango-coconut sorbet after we threw it back in the freezer for a few hours.  I served it up at home with some fresh berries, diced mango, and toasted coconut.

ARGH?!?!!

What happens to sorbet when it's been left in a freezer...and someone LAME and INCONSIDERATE leaves the freezer door propped open overnight????? Yah. That's right. A bloody mess.

Today we had to present our sorbets and got to class to see someone had forgot to close the freezer door.  Chef still made us present...so low and behold...my mess of mango-coconut sorbet.  I've since thrown it in my freezer at home so that Pheng and I can enjoy it in some form of solidity!! It does, however, still taste wonderful even though it doesn't look so great here! I was fortunate enough that it still held together as much as it did because most of my classmates had icecream running off their plates and off the table!
**Pictured here is a mango-coconut sorbet.  I presented it with a coconut tuile, candied strawberry, spun sugar, and a mango coulis.

Chocolate Truffle Mousse Cake
This was a fun cake to make...and it was bursting with flavor.  It's pictured here with the piece of acetate still wrapped around it because it had not quite set up yet.  I decorated the top with shaved chocolate (both dark and white), and some fresh berries. This is by far my favorite recipe as far as taste.

Triple Chocolate Terrine
In all honesty - I did not particularly like this cake. The inside of this cake is layered with 3 types of mousse: Dark chocolate mousse, White chocolate mousse, and orange chocolate mousse.  I didnt notice any distinct orange flavor in the orange chocolate mousse. If I were to make this again - I would defenitely use more orange zest and liquer.  It's beautiful when cut into - but the flavor was lacking, I felt.