paris: Guimauve

Showing posts with label Guimauve. Show all posts

Marshmallow Madness

Should you happen to go to Motorinos for a clam pizza (tres delish) on 349 E. 12th street...

You're a 5 minute walk from Birdbath Bakery (at 223 1st Avenue)and the best home made marshmallows on the planet.

I do not say this lightly, especially after 3 days of intensive research and furtive gobbling.

Birdbath is a 'green' offshoot (one of 5 in the city) of City Bakery

You can buy a 10-pack ($10) or by the piece ($1) as I prefer for freshness...

I spotted packets of marshmallows at Balthazar but none sold individually.

I thought I was addicted to French guimauve but last weekend I was converted to the American way.

Why is it that when you've eaten something all your life you think you own it. Not so. As a candy, marshmallows go back to ancient Egypt when mixed with honey and for medicinal purposes using the marshmallow plant. The 19th century French version of the recipe, called pâte de guimauve (or "guimauve" for short), included egg white meringue and was often flavored with rose water. French candy shop owners used to make it on the premises. La Mere du Famile makes wonderful loops of marshmallow but they are much dryer and less sticky than City Bakery's (they must have a longer shelf life).

In 1948 American Alex Doumak invented a way for marshmallows to be manufactured in a fully automated way - extruded in soft cylinders and then cut.

Thank you Wikipedia

Photo by Jacob Margolis/NPR

Recipes for the homemade marshmallow abound. NPR has a nice one. Smitten Kitchen and David Lebovitz will show you how to do it yourself.

I don't trust myself around the lava-like marshmallow. I'll stick with picking up a few daily at City bakery and then seeing how long I can keep them in the house (24 hours is tops so far)

Birdbath (but not City Bakery) has nice stocking stuffer 10-packs of small gingerbread men for $5.

Shhh...here's a hot chocolate tip: Trader Joe's for the holidays has a peppermint hot chocolate($4.95) exactly like William Sonoma's hot chocolate ($19.95). TJ's tin is green but the inside is exactly the same yummy chocolate flakes.

ENJOY!

Bisoux Market

You might think you're in Paris if you saw these croissants...

You might think you were at Balthazar in Soho...

You're not. You're at the new Bisoux Market in the Delta Terminal at LaGuardia Airtport.

Bisoux is loaded with French classic sweeties like Barnier lollies...

And typical Provencal calissons d'Aix...

Dragees anyone?

My favorite French sweet - sticks of guimauve/marshmallow.

Bisoux has savory French things to eat like salade Nicoise..

If you can't get to LaGuardia Airport or Nice, my petite niece, Louisa of Lucid Food, will show you how to make your own salade Nicoise at ehow.

I shall be diving with the lobsters...

Into this tub at The Slipway in Thomaston, Maine...

I really ate steamed clams and mussels. I'm saving lobster for later..

BONJOUR BISOUX & MAINE!

French Pastry Loves Andy

Andy Warhol was the absolute master of color...

And multiples of color were his specialty...

It makes perfect sense pastry chefs would flip for Warhol. Let's face it, not all French pastry is wildly colorful like these famous caneles of Bordeaux. So why not box them up in a Warholesque version?

And what about the wonderful but dreary old cacao bean - well it is colorful for the short time it's in the shell. Here Chocolat Cluizel has cleverly colored giant chocolate 'beans' in brilliant Warholian colors..