I seem to be going through a Ladurée phase at the moment and luckily my friend’s are more then happy to join me in my current addiction.
I generally run in, buy a box of macaroons and run out again, but Ladurée at Covent Garden has the seating area upstairs and we can then indulge in these lovely delights and sit in lovely surroundings and eat a little piece of heaven.
I also bought some delights home as treats and today, as it’s such a horrible, drizzly and very grey day, I have decided to have a bright, colourfull and tasty pick me up (well that is my excuse).
Look at the gorgeous colouring. So bright and cheerful, tasted darn good too. I thought at first, hmmm, rose, litchi, raspberries, but it works, it really does and I throughly enjoyed every bite. The macaroon biscuit of the Ispahan was lovely and chewy and you had the crunch that you get with it, then the taste of rose came through, which was not overpowering and the litchi really came through as an individual flavour and you had this swirl of rose crème nice and thick and held it all together and then you were hit with this sharp, tart taste of the fresh raspberries which I just love. I always love it when the fruits in desserts are tart, to me that gives it a bit more oompf.
This dessert is named Ispahan because it’s named after a fancy rose that grows wild in the city of Isfahan in Iran (my father’s home town). Whenever I smell roses or taste it, it takes me back to my childhood, to my grandfather’s rose garden in Shiraz and also the amazing parks and gardens that I explored as a child in Iran.
Fancier still is that the guy who invented the Ispahan pastry was none other than Pierre Hermé, from back when he worked at Ladurée. Interesting bit of info eh...
I want more!!
Yum! That is beyond decadent :) I may have to go back again soon. So many pastries to try, so little time ...
ReplyDeleteBTW, my French colleague caught me reading the blog of that guy who's eating his way through all those Parisian patisseries, and off-handedly said, "Oh, when I was at university, I used to walk by this patisserie every day that had all these fantastic fancy-looking pastries, and there were people queuing out of the door all the time, but of course on a student's budget I could never afford to buy anything there. Now what was the name again...?" Turned out it was Pierre Hermé's shop, LOL.
Well, I say, honey, you have to make sacrifices in life. Even as a student, I might have had to do without a lot of other things, but I probably would have treated myself occasionally to something from there!
Love the photo of the raspberries close up - yum!
ReplyDeleteI wish Pierre Herme still made nice things like this rather than trying to put wasabi and black pepper in everything!
I don't know, pepper can do surprisingly nice things to sweet stuff, but I definitely draw the line at wasabi in my pastries!
ReplyDeleteYour colleague has skew priorities - I would never have denied myself Pierre Hermé's delights if i walked past there every day. But then, my priorities are different, dessert wins all the time.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand the whole craziness of fusion crap, wasabi is not meant to be on dessert I'm sorry!
Anytime you want to head off to try more tasty delights, I'm game!