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2009-05-12
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I have had it highlighted with a virtual red marker on my to-do list, travelled to and past the SOHO SIFT a few times on a pre-calculated trail, but inadvertently always ended up leaving the tummy with no room to spare due to surrounding temptations, which there are plenty. With multiple sources quoting 'French Trained', 'Thomas Keller' and 'Signature Chocolate Cake' in the same sentence, I have re-scheduled again and again to do a solid revisit one day, just to validate the truth behind the
Fortunately in this little shop, the range of cakes, cupcakes and macarons, etc., available are as close to the real thing as one can wish for from a 'take-out' only outlet, obviously minus the thoughful decorations, sauces and ice creams and other tasty bits as evident in the SOHO shop's photo reviews by follow bloggers. Nevertheless, this time I wisely succumbed without resistance and strolled inside at once, even knowing with foresight that I might struggle to bring home with finesse a tray of fragile desserts for the next 1 hour or more (as I was meeting someone else first) - unfortunately made the more inconvenient by almighty SIFT's insistence on the idea of 'coolness' being a rather slippery, handleless brown paper bag that made my fingers cramp not even after 5 minutes, with 55 minutes still to go..
Had to wait in line too...... tick, tick, tick... Patience is virtue. Yep, I understood the concept completely, on paper. Excuse me, did every other customer just arrived via the same plane from New York, all girls too, as they spoke with a thick, assertive American accent, even the shop assistants. Are the desserts here really that good, they think it a real substitute to Keller's offers? Why are they all buying so much and the display shelf contents were being emptied at an alarming rate - did they even think about my feelings as the last in line?
A few minutes have passed and still not a single nod of acknowledgement and no nothings for what seemed like an eternity, despite the no. of servers outnumbering the customers. I was clearly the odd one out in here. Then it happened - a faintly inaudible yet imposing voice originating from the highest primal-cortex order has spoken - "you should get out of here...." I could almost visualise it, the initially translucent thought evolving into a more tangile reality by the second, sitting transversely inside my head and motioning me to backtrack and make a detour, perhaps to another shop..... but where?
FINALLY, I left the shop.
BUT NOT before I got my fair share of desserts and macarons in those annoying paper bags. I've won. Not because of my developing 'maturity' and 'patience' training having attained graduation, but through my raw & unruly 'desire' to land a few of these coveted possessions now and then at all costs.
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SIFT 40% Chocolate Cake with Crunchy Pralines, Hazelnut:
Love this cake, as it had a really strong chocolatey and Gianduja-hazelnutty taste inside, outside and anywhere in between. It has a 40% poured fondant consistency chocolate coating on the top, above all this, sprinkles of very crunchy toffee flecks that makes a delightful crackly noise when biting on it together with the rest of the cake, almost having a pop candy effect. The inside was a delightful moussey, smooth texture that was to-die-for. The only complaint is that this was probably slightly dangerous for diabetic patients, with a very high and sweet sugar content.
Rose Pedal Macaron, Raspberry, Lychee & Buttered Cream 'Ispahan':
This was perhaps slightly more disappointing than the previous prime example of a cake done amazingly well. My gripe with this dessert, is that the Macaron base had a very wet texture, perhaps suffering from condensation build-up in the fridge. It has a potent Rose pedal flavour and aroma, but the 'Macaron sandwich' was still overly sugary in flavour balance so it literally screamed for some red tea to wash down with. The raspberries meanwhile did not carry a lot of raspberry taste probably due to being out of season (?), also perhaps overwhelmed a bit by the finely chopped lychee in the middle of it all and the slightly over-sweet buttered cream. I've had a better version at 帝苑饼店 unfortunately to make a comparison, and I'm sure that the Pierre Herme Ispahan version I've tried before had a stronger, integrated taste between all the separate components.
Small Macarons (spelt as Macaroons on the official website by the way)
Rose (Again) - Sorry to say, but this macaron wasn't upto standards in multiple measurements, especially with so much competition in Hong Kong. Tt was almost the same as the ones in Antique cake shops, albeit smaller. Exterior was correctly crunchy but perhaps overly so, but the internal had none of the chewiness that one really desires from a correct Macaron. This also had less Rose pedal taste than the Ispahan from the above - in fact I bought the Rose macaron deliberately to compare with the aforementioned subsconciously, don't ask me questions.
Vanilla - Similar story. Unfortunately, could not taste the vanilla essence at all behind the coying sweetness, in fact it had a stronger almond like taste than vanilla from memory. I must say that the Joel Robuchon Le Salon de The 'macarons' were at least a few notches up from here and price pegged at the same level, better too are the Jean Paul Hevin, La Maison or even Cere's Patisserie versions, etc.
OVERALL, the cakes and macarons here do have a problem of being overly sweet but of a very high standard, and very different to the types of cakes available at the Mandarin Oriental Cake shop or Robuchon's Le Salon, whereas 帝苑饼店's selections are slightly similar in style yet generally lighter and less sweetened. Next stop, when I manage to lose weight back into controllable levels again, I will certainly try the rest of the selections here and also at COCO in TST which I've yet to suss out.
And despite what I might have insinuated earlier, the service turned out to be Top Notch and every staff member were ultra-friendly and very beautiful, they were just pre-occupied with their own designated jobs. It was just me drowned in my own selfish immersion, longing to get my hands on those fast disappearing desserts that day..... if you only knew how I felt. I've planned to eat here for nearly 6 months without much prior success, somehow Robuchon and Mandarin have managed to tame my dessert craving so far, but now, there's a really good alternative!
Cakes - mid-high '4's, close to '5'
Small Macarons - low '2's
张贴
