Jack (Euro) Snacks!... Ladurée

Yeah.. it's been ages since the Europe trip and I've still got loads of photos which haven't been posted! But recent news that Ladurée will be opening at Sydney Westfield reminded me of our visit to the Champs Elysées store in Paris. I _will_ get around to posting the other Europe photos but it doesn't hurt to make a start with  Ladurée.

Travelling with a large group of relos spanning 3 generations meant that anything but a quick visit was out of the question. The shop and tearoom are very popular, the shop is sooo crowded. Crowd aside, the place is picture perfect - the building and tearoom, window displays, the uniforms worn by the staff and the gorgeous cakes. But what most people are here for are of course the macarons. And why not? Macarons in their current double decker form were invented by Ladurée and they are considered one of the best around.

Looks crowded even from out here...

Tiny door, big crowd inside! Pretty window display and first glimpse of inside from the end of the queue.

We had to line up of course and so I took some snaps as we moved along in the queue until we were told "no photos!" - in my defence there didn't seem to be a sign saying so and I hadn't spotted any staff member free enough to ask beforehand heehee. It's been so long so I have no idea what the prices were - let's just say you wouldn't call them 'cheap', but they weren't so expensive that I felt it necessary to remember the number. We got a box with various flavours which included caramel with salted butter, chocolate, pistachio, green apple, raspberry, orange blossom, lemon, blackcurrant violet and rose.

Pretty cakes and macarons.. look at that cute strawberry cake in the middle shot, I wish I'd bought one!

And how were they? The family convened in one of our hotel rooms and scoffed them! They are indeed good - delicate and light with a lovely filling. I especially liked the rose, the flavour was just right. But I regret not getting one of the little cakes shaped like a strawberry which looked super cute. Maybe they'll have them at the Sydney store... I'll definitely be interested to see if that's the case!

Ooh.. they almost look too pretty to eat!

But the family digs in and they disappear quickly, rose (center) is easily my favourite!

What: Ladurée

Where: 75 avenue des Champs Elysées, Paris

How much: Can't remember sorry... not 'cheap' but affordable for a treat.

Jack UK Snacks!... Aero bubbly Lamb

I'm usually a saver. I always save the best bit of food for last. If I get some fancy chocolates I'll save them for a special occassion or eat them when I need a pick me up. But there are times when this 'strategy' backfires.

For example - Jess went on her first European holiday to Italy back in 2002. I was in serious envy as I was still an impoverished student at the time. Luckily there were spoils to be had when she came home - including Fonzies (the Italian version of Twisties) and some Italian chocolate bars called Tronky and Duplo. Yum!

I saved the last Tronky bar but alas I saved it a little too long. It expired in April 2003 but I didn't eat it until April 2004. Chocolate expired by a year? No sweat for me usually. But this Tronky bar has wafer in it and, well.. let's just say stale wafers have never been tasty.

So now that I am back from my recent trip, I am going to try and eat all my goodies early, instead of letting them go out of date. What's the first snack from overseas? It's a cute Aero chocolate. Ok, nothing special about Aero cause we have them here, but this one is a cute lamb that Jess bought me! I was a little worried it might have got squashed in my luggage despite being careful but luckily it was still in perfectly cute condition. Taste wise, well it's just an Aero chocolate, but it's so cute I wanted to post up a photo of it for everyone to see.

Yes I still have the wrappers. It's not "hoarding", it's called "sentimental".

How cute is that!

What: Aero bubbly Lamb
Where: Somewhere in the UK?
How much: Not sure... that's the best thing about treats from Jess, I don't have to worry about the price - thanks sis!

On the roof eating cake is on the road!

Yes, that's right - we are on the road! Tomorrow I'll be flying with our mum and extended family to meet up with Jess and Dave in London. We'll be spending about a week exploring Jess' hood and then we're heading over to France for what will hopefully be a patisserie filled week of eating and fun. More than anything else, I am really looking forward to spending time with family, especially Jess. While we're away, there'll be a few posts to keep the blog alive.

I've travelled to Europe a couple of times but only been to the UK once. That was when Dave was living in Southampton and Jess was living in Amsterdam (yes, why didn't we start this blog earlier? We've done so much eating in so many different countries, what a shame!). Anyway, the man at immigration thought it funny that Southampton was the very first place I was visiting in the UK as we had flown there directly, and knowing this he took extra special care when stamping my passport.
 
As for London, we made a day trip as it wasn't really up there on my list of places to go. Of all the London sights we managed to squeeze in on that single day, my absolute favourite was Borough Market - what a food lover's heaven! There's lots of fresh produce and artisan products but since I'm a tourist we're only here for eating and there was so much good food to be had including canelé de Bordeaux, raclette, an awesome roast pork roll (with just the right amount of fat and crackling) and a hot apple drink which was really good as it was a cold day. I hope we'll be going back there this time around as I'd love to try more of the foods there but in the meantime, here's a few snaps from the market.

Look at the bits of fat and crackling in that roast pork roll! And check out the melty cheese. Oh my melting-cheese heart!

Loads of delicious goodies to check out at the market.

 
What: Borough Market
Where: London, check the website for details
How much: Really can't remember, it's been 2yrs.. it wasn't too expensive, and worth every penny!