Thursday, June 30, 2011

Bosie Tea Parlor

BOSIE TEA PARLOR Where are we..?BOSIE TEA PARLOR What's your first guess?
BOSIE TEA PARLORMe too. Just like Paris no?
BOSIE TEA PARLOR But no, it's New York City!
BOSIE TEA PARLOR We're at Bosie...
BOSIE TEA PARLORBosie Tea Parlor on 10 Morton Street in the Village.
 Kathy YL Chan of A Passion for Food told me about it.
BOSIE TEA PARLOR I doubted real French pastry could be found in NYC but I have been proved wrong again. Voila! L'eclair de creme with Chamomile tea filling.
Chambre de Sucre Gourmet Sugar Kathy brought along these exquisite Japanese sugars, Chambre de Sucre fit for a king. They have been supplying the Emperor for centuries and perfect for my mint tea and Kathy's Matcha Latte...
BOSIE TEA PARLOR Et oui, Bosie has a full array of fresh macarons...
BOSIE TEA PARLOR A darling shop just the right size for a friendly cuppa - very French in size and ambience - New York needs more tea salons like this.
BOSIE TEA PARLOR At least 80 kinds of tea brewed to order...
BOSIE TEA PARLOR How does one attack such a pretty eclair?
En garde! Touche!
Bonjour Bosie Tea Parlor!

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Paris Was Ours

The top book I'm reading this week is Paris Was Ours.I can't put it down and neither will you. 
It won't tell you what to wear in Paris, though there's a chapter on 'Understanding Chic' by Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni but I haven't read it yet...
It won't tell you which patisseries to go to either...
It will tell you what it's like to be an ex-pat in Paris and feel lost. Editor Penelope Rowlands starts off the introduction with,

'I'm a PARISIAN of the recurrent, revolving door kind.'

Later she reveals, 'We hated Paris and loved it all at once, and when we headed back to New York (after a year) we did so reluctantly.'

32 writers contributed their experiences of living in Paris, so there's something for everyone here.
The first exerpt by Veronique Vienne, (a terrific art director I illustrated for at SELF Magazine) tells of her tres difficile return to live in Paris - she'd forgotten many French ways after years in New York. "Living in Paris is "priceless," but it will cost you."
Veronique created one of the best and earliest how-to books on 'French Style'. I wish someone would reprint it...
Alicia Drake (of The Beautiful Fall) writes of those grey, metalic Parisian skies - it's not always champagne and roses bien sur.
Patric Kuh, now an LA food critic and author,
Gives the best description I've read yet of what it's really like to work in a French restaurant kitchen. Put your knives back in the drawer. And I thought only women had a tough time over there...
Why are French women thin? Could it be the strict rules and boundaries French parents set up in childhood? Dessert comes at the end of dinner, never first. I loved 'Parenting French-Style' by Janine de Giovanni.
Valerie Steiker in 'Fledgling days' remembers spending a year in Paris at 23, with high expectations of reliving her mother's inspired year abroad at the same age. The pursuit of her mother's joie de vie eludes her. 'I tried to comfort myself by thinking of one of my mother's sayings for not letting things get to you - "Let it glide over the back of your indifference" - but it didn't work.' Her story is poignant and endearing...
David Lebovitz tells all in the last entry, 'Enfin.' And David Sedaris admits his addiction to books-on-tape in English early days in France.
These are the stories we wish we could tell, not the tourist tales. As Judith Thurman writes "one of the greatest charms of having lived in Paris is the Proustian glamour of being able to claim that one did so.”
If you read Paris Was Ours on the subway as I did, be aware your laughter may frighten the other passengers. Now I'm off to read 'Understanding Chic' Bonne reading!

BONJOUR PARIS WAS OURS!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

My Studio 2011

WELCOME! You're invited in to my studio 2011
Not that much different from my studio 2010 is it?
OK maybe it is.
Amazing how many ways you can throw stuff up in the air and it comes down in different patterns like pickup sticks.
These macarons are only 3 months old.
I use a pastry box to reflect the light - another Eureka moment.
Do you believe if you surround yourself with the things you love, eventually they'll sink into your brain by osmosis? I do.
I love Morandi, Wayne Thiebaud, Japanese prints, and Fr pastry.
The studio exhibit is constantly changing.

Here is a pile of Parisian gifts-with-purchase I send out with your watercolors.What BEAR is reading these days.
BONJOUR STUDIO 2011!

Monday, June 27, 2011

Paris Pastry Meditation

Religieuse Violette, watercolor, 9" x 11"
Religieuse Dalloyau I thought I was posting on the lovely, orderly way Parisian patissiers.
Dome Delmontel Line up their creations.
Patisserie CadorLike soldiers standing to attention in perfect rows.
my studio Then I had one of those Eureka! moments. Is it possible my obsession with French pastry has everything to do with a desperate need for order and nothing to do with chocolate or whipped cream?
La Grand Epicerie These perfect disks lined up with such precision.
Rue Mouffoutard Labeled and priced, measured centimeters apart, are the exact opposite of my chaotic studio.
Moulin de la vierge I fight a losing battle with entropy daily,
Fauchon Yet the vision of glossy tartes.
Religieuse Laduree Is like a Zen meditation.
La Grand Epicerie gateaux passion Do I start an ashram in Paris and spread the joie?
Should I go to pastry school?Would you like a peek at my studio 2011 to see if there's been any improvement?

Do tell PBers.
BONJOUR PASTRY MEDIATATION!