Friday!

Yesterday I took the day off as it was officially M's birthday weekend! We had a really nice relaxing day. I started my day with a spin class, followed by a trip to Fashion Island to get some new work boots. Unfortunately, the boots I wanted were not in stock so I had them order it for me. Can't wait to get my hands on them. It was a beautiful day in Newport as always.

Le Pain Quotidien...coming soon!

I may or may have have stopped in here. Okay, I'm guilty...I heart this place.

Later that evening we headed down to Laguna Beach to see a show!

But first dinner! Mark's is located just adjacent to the Pageant grounds next to the Laguna Culinary School. So we took a short walk over. Mark's got some good reviews on Yelp but to our surprise they have closed down so don't bother.

Sister K was meeting us at the Pageant grounds later on so I picked up these macarons for her from the Laguna Culinary School! She said they were good. They are!

See my house up there. Yeah, I live there in my dreams.

After finding out from the parking attendant that Mark's was no longer in business we asked where the next closest restaurant was and he told us that there was another restaurant around the corner. So we walked over to Tivoli Too! Sounds Italian but they actually serve Mexican food. Don't worry, I'm confused too.

It was a charming patio dining al fresco kinda place.

With a cute little garden in back.

I decided on the Chicken Walnut Salad!

Dessert- just looking! ;)

Yeah, I asked M to take a photo of me while we waited for our meals to arrive. You're welcome. Seriously, I was having a bad hair day and yes I *am* wearing Nike's.

We He ordered some Taquitos for appetizer! These were tasty! I may have had 3 or 4.

Good chicken salad, the slight hint of curry mixed with the mayo gave this traditional dish a kick! Plus the fruit was just what I wanted at that moment. Needless to say, I enjoyed this dish.

He ordered the Tivoli Burrito. I didn't get a taste as it was covered in cheese but M said that this was really good.

Tivoli Too! was connected to the Sawdust Art Festival so we strolled around looking at some cool art pieces.

Stuff like this...

...and this!

Look at that blue sky!

As it got closer to show time, we headed back to the Pageant grounds.

We shared a sno-cone!

Inside there was a DJ bumping 70s dance music complete with a checkered dance floor. People brought picnics and enjoyed the beautiful weather and wine as they waited for the show to start. They were a happy crowd.

I thought this piece was so amazing!

A portrait composed of screws! Wow!

One of my favorite display was located at the amateur K-12 grade art area. It was this dragon made with plastic utensils...as in forks and spoons. I love this! Truly amazing young talent!

 
No photos of the show because it wasn't allowed but it was really fun. We had some amazing seats. It gets chilly since the show is outside in a bowl so bring something warm to throw on. The theme this year is Only Make Believe! and there is a humongous dragon involved. If you have never seen it, you must! I took a walking food tour today which I will post about soon. It was a lot of fun. I'm headed out to a party shortly so blogging will commence tomorrow. Happy Saturday!

Paulette Macarons - Los Angeles, CA

Last weekend I finally made my way to Paulette Macarons inside a shopping center in Little Tokyo with Sister K. It's been a couple of weeks since I did my last macaron review and I thought it was time to do another one. A couple of weeks is just too long a span of time to go without macarons. Know what I mean? So what lead me here? Well Sister K was searching for a place to have breakfast one morning and came across a cafe near where I lived. I told her that I was actually working on a post for Macaron Battle 2 and that was one of the contenders. She told me that they did not make their macarons in house and instead purchased them from Paulette Macarons. Interesting, I said. Turns out that Paulette has two locations. One in Beverly Hills where the macarons are actually made and a retail location in the heart of Little Tokyo. We went to the closer location which was in Little Tokyo.

Grand Opening! This location in Little Tokyo is brand spankin' new!

The interior of the shop is white with simple modern decor. Kind of like a lot of frozen yogurt shops these days. In fact, there was a frozen yogurt shop right next door.

Just look at all these beautiful colors!

My thoughts on these macarons? Well Paulette has a wide range of flavors but they just did not rank very highly with me. They were of the correct size (some places tend to make them too big or too small). The outer shell was not very delicate. In fact, Sister K was flicking at one with her fingers to illustrate to me how durable the shell was, which is not how they should be. When made correctly, the shells would break if you were just a little too heavy handed with them. I purchased a box of 12 to sample the different flavors. Sister K actually purchased one of each on display that day, which came out to 14 different flavors. My favorite flavor was coconut and sweet wedding almond. I still like the ones from Pacific Bakery in Little Saigon more. However, I will likely buy the two mentioned flavor should I ever walk pass this place again but I won't be making the drive just to get them.

Paulette Macarons
333 S Alameda St #103
Los Angeles, CA

(213) 621-4457

Macaron Crawl: Battle 1 (Au De Paris vs. Pacific Bakery)

Last week the OCWeekly did a write up on Macarons in Little Saigon. They made mentioned of names of such heavy weights as Laduree. Laduree is like the Piccaso or Van Gogh of the Macaron world. I'm still surprised by the fact that you can get Macarons in Little Saigon. It's obvious that I'm just simply missing the big picture of that article...lol. I'm a huge Macaron fan. Did you know? or care? No? Whatever!

Ever since I had my first bite a couple of years ago, I knew there was just something special about these little gems. In case you didn't know, Macarons are little pastel colored French cookies. They are shaped like little hamburgers with two delicate shells sandwiching a creme type filling. These are not the same as the coconut mound shaped cookies. They are just worlds apart.

Naturally, after reading the OCWeekly write-up, I did what any normal Macaron loving person would do and devised a Macaron crawl for a party of one but then Sister K got wind of this crawl and wanted in. I was happy she came with me because she has actually had Macarons from Laduree's so I was excited to see what she had to say about the ones from Little Saigon. So the very next day, which happened to be a Saturday, Sister K and I headed straight to Little Saigon to seek out these little gems. Our first stop was Au De Paris Pastisserie and Boulangerie. This was the place the OCWeekly had written about so we thought it was appropriate to come here first. It was actually really hard to find this place. I drove right past it and didn't see it until I circled back. It is located amongst a multi-level white/beige nondescript type strip mall. The sign was really tiny as well.

As soon as we walked in, we saw them. Au De Paris only had 5 flavors available when we went.

One of the things I love most about Macarons are their pretty pastel colors. I mean really, what girl in her right mind wouldn't like this?

Coming in at $1.25 a piece, these were a deal! I got three of each of the hazelnut, pistachio and vanilla. Plus Sister K got a pistachio creme brule for later. :o)

This is the what the inside of the store looked like.

Aside from Macarons, they also sold cream puffs, cakes and varies pastries. It was not a very big place.

And as a point of comparison, we headed to Pacific Bakery. Why there? Well because after a quick search on Yelp, this was the place that many people commented had really good Macarons. This bakery in located in the same strip mall as the very busy and crowded Boiling Crab. If you know where I am talking about, you will also know that parking is a pain in the rear. If you can, avoid coming here around prime meal hours as it will take you a while to find a parking spot.

As you can see, not only do they have Macarons but they also serve ice cream, shaved ice, tea, crepes and cupcakes. What more could one ask for?

Check out the inside of this place. I love the Victoria Secret's theme wall paper...lol! This was such a hole-in-the wall. There wasn't even anyone at the register. She was in the back cooking. She finally came out when another guy came in to buy a soda. She was sweet, I forgive her for not minding the store front. :o)

I have a "thing" with taking photos next to very large food displays.

 We saw the writing on the wall...LOL!

And there they were. These cost $1.50 each here if you buy 7 or more. So they are $0.25 more than at Au De Paris but I noticed right away that they looked a lot prettier. Plus they offered more flavor. I think I remember 12 in all.

I picked out 2 hazelnut, 2 pistachios, 2 caramel and 1 coffee. The cookie shell was shiny and smooth looking and these looked so much more appetizing than the ones from Au De Paris. This is just based on my first impression.

Here, I did a side by side comparison of the pistachio flavor. The one on the LEFT is from Au De Paris and the one on the RIGHT is from Pacific Bakery. Even the coloring is a little different. I took a bite of both and they were both good in the fact that they were not too sweet. These things normally hurt my teeth at other places because they are over the top sweet. These were perfectly sweet. I then noticed that the one from Au De Paris had a more delicate shell while the one from Pacific Bakery was more chewy. However, after carefully sampling the two, Sister K commented that neither was anything like the ones from Laduree. She did say that the caramel filling of the ones from Pacific Bakery reminded her a little of the ones from Laduree.

Overall, not having ever had Laduree's Macarons, I say the winner here are the ones from Pacific Bakery. I just liked them more. So far, they are the best ones I've ever had. I really don't care about hype or snobbery, I just go with what tastes good to me. And Pacific Bakery has something amazing.

Up next, Battle 2...who will dethrone Pacific Bakery and take over the hold on my dessert loving heart? Stay tuned!

Au De Paris Patisserie and Boulangerie
9441 Edinger St., 
Westminster, CA
(714) 775-8465

Pacific Bakery

13908 Brookhurst St
Garden Grove, CA 92843

(714) 636-9866