Saturday, July 31, 2010

Chocolates? Yes, Please!

Dearest Friends,
I must admit that when faced with choices for desserts, I will almost always choose something that is not chocolate. It's not that I don't like chocolate, but a lot of the time, the non-chocolate desserts seem more interesting to me. But when I saw these chocolates, I couldn't help but be interested! They speak the language of simplicity on one level, yet on other levels they are nothing but rococco!

Fauchon in Paris has a new line of chocolates called "Choc Made in F". Decorated only with numbers for the solid chocolates and the letter "F" for the ones with fillings, the new line includes the essential flavors one expects to see in chocolates, but of course done in Fauchon style, described by them this way:

Solid
Numbered 0-9, these morsels offer the ten simple tastes most desired by chocolate lovers, truly universal tastes: vanilla, creamy, coffee, full bodied, fruity, caramel. . .

Filled
A complementary line of ten sweets
Ultra gourmet for more sophisticated characters, multiple buds and notes.
This real range of fruit flavors combines nuggets of voluptuous aromas of flowers and spices to better reveal the facets of chocolate, ganache, praline, dark or milk.

All the simplicity of a praline revisited through the prism of coconut and hazelnut from Piedmont or associated with the more unexpected zest of lemon. Fragile aromas and seductive violet curve along the raspberry in an intense black blanket...

This collection can be enjoyed with eyes closed, a furtive trip to the sensual emotions while immediately-recognizable perfumes envelope textures, leave room for other notes and end on a pure taste of chocolate.

Until you can sample them in real life, please tempt yourself here.

Rococo Chocolates in London just goes out of their way to make sure that everything they make is beautiful! I am just afraid that if I visited, I would not be able to lift my own shopping bag! How could you resist anything they have to offer?

The chocolates above are their floral creams, topped with candied violets and rose petals. According to Kevin Gould writing in Waitrose Food Illustrated, "Rococo's chocolates simply sing in the mouth." and the floral creams are just a small example of the beautiful things they have!

Please let me know if any of you have tried any of these! Since I won't be able to visit either Paris or London for a bit, I would love a review!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

An Evening at The Tearoom. . .

My Very Dear Friends,

Won't you please join me on this sultry summer evening
for a treat?

I have made a fruit salad from yellow nectarines, white nectarines, white peaches, black velvet apricots, saturn peaches and plums, just for us!!

And won't you please join me in a glass of iced tea? My favorite tonight is another from Tazo called Om. It is a mix of black and green teas, haunted by essences of peach and cucumber. It is the perfect match with our salad.

For a night when you can bear only the lightest of meals...

As the velvet of night grows deeper, the fireflies are gathering on the lawn behind The Tearoom for their evening dance. . .

If you walk through the French doors, you will find that I have spread blankets on which you may sit. . .

I will leave you with a poem that I wrote several years ago, which I believe is in keeping with the mood of the evening. . .

the nectarine

on this warm and cloudy night,
at 11:37,
i want to give thanks for nectarines.
i was feeling somewhat gloomy
until i remembered him, small, happy thing he was,
waiting for me in the chill of the fridge.
in the dark, i padded into the kitchen in my favorite pair of bare feet.
as i removed him from the white plastic sack, the kitchen was filled with cool, white refridgerator light.
i held him in my hand.
he was cold but his skin was smooth
and
he glowed burnished yellow and dark orange.
he even blushed dark red on one side where the sun had kissed him.
he submitted himself to my bite.
and his juice, like stored sunshine
dribbled itself down my chin and my throat before i could catch it,
trickling all his sticky coolness,
making me happier than i’d been all day.
what a miracle that such a small thing could make me so happy!
so,
on this warm and cloudy night,
at 11:37,
thank you, little nectarine!


Thursday, July 1, 2010

We Have Winners! Are You One?



Oh, My Dear Friends!
Thank you so much for your patience! It has been one of those days that has kept me away from The Tearoom for longer than I would have liked!

But, as promised, I have randomly drawn two winners of the give-aways from The Mad Tea Party!

First, the winner of "My Life in France" by Julia Child is . . .

. . .Waterrose!!!

and

the winner of "The Patisseries of Paris" by Jamie Cahill is . . .

. . .julietk!!!

Please e-mail me at gossamertearoom@gmail.com and leave your address so I can send your books out to you!

It makes me so happy to give these special books to these nice ladies who came to visit and take tea with me on Saturday!

I would like to thank everyone who came and visited and left such lovely comments!!!

Have a good evening and to those friends in the US, Happy Fourth of July to everyone this weekend!!

Betty