(no subject)
Today was a beautiful day and Kelsey and I met up with Heidi, ashi_moto, and the three of us wandered around Boston and tried to get help her buy enough presents for all her friends in Chinatown. Afterwards, we went to the place where all the awful tourists go to die: Quincy Market.
I took them with one objective: to try Beard Papas, a popular and well-known Japanese chain bakery. The company earlier this year has begun opening franchises in the States...well so far only in Boston, Hollywood, Honolulu, and New York. Made famous for their cream puffs, naturally I bought one a vanilla and a 'belgium chocolate'. The texture of the puff's shell was a bit rough and thus the crust was a bit hard for a desert. They explain that this is because the outside of the crust is pie crust (Bullshit, pie crust is crumbly not hard) and that's what helps make it 'so unique'. This doesn't make it taste better or more fun to eat, it just makes it seem like it's a cream puff with a harder crust than normal. The inner part of the pastry shell is very soft, sweet, and eggy just as you'd imagine a cream puff to be and was quite good.
The custard was very much above average as it contained real vanilla flavoring and boy could you tell. The vanilla flavor was appropriately strong, not overly sweet, and chilled to the correct consistency without being too cold. The Chocolate custard on the other hand was completely unimpressive and bordering on bad. It didn't even taste like chocolate or cocoa, disappointing since I was so impressed they had used real vanilla to flavor the custard and it made such a difference. The custard was also much colder and subsequently not of the right consistency. I imagine they sold significantly less of these, and after tasting one it was not hard to imagine why since they paled so much when compared to the classic kind. Not bad, but just very average.
Overall, I'd have to say Beard Papa is pretty good, but I hate to say I was rather disappointed with all the hype I'd heard from my fellow food snobs and with the reputation it carries in Japan. Oh well, it can't all be great, I guess. At least they don't rob you at a $1.65 a pop which is an acceptable hit, especially with fancier places that offer an inferior puff for the same price or worse.
After Beard Papa, we trekked onto the North End. After walking into a very busy Mike's Pastry and several unsuccessful sabotaged attempts to be a rude prick and get served, I gave up and we left. I just wasn't feeling the will to compete with angry, impatientl, selfish tourists and yuppies today. I'll just save my Mike's Pastry love for before I leave. We then went to one of the ancient dry goods stores that the North End has where I purchased some really fantastic smelling loose leaf Earl Grey which I can't wait to brew up tomorrow and where Heidi purchased some fancy Italian coffee for her mother.
We then wandered back to the house, stopping to take photos and take a gander through Haymarket. Altogether a pretty good day. Kelsey's got an entry on the day, as well as some really beautiful photos. Heidi who bitched at me to make sure I journaled about the day still doesn't have her's up. The Bitch.
More Hype for the Christmas Invasion
For the newly initiated Who fans (or those with more to do than follow the day-to-day occurrences) the BBC has opened a new site to help hype the upcoming Christmas Invasion: British Rocket Group.
The page itself doesn't give any direct spoilers although gives one a bit more to go on when trying to figure out the plot of the special. The page also has a bit of humor to boot. Enjoy being as curious as the rest of us.
Moment of Zen:
Only one tonight because I'm tired!
Hundreds of millions of years from now, long after mankind will have probably left this planet or driven itself to extinction, the North East will pwn the South yet again, in a agonizingly slow but satisfying second crushing defeat. You know the best part is? This time we're taking Florida down too.
I took them with one objective: to try Beard Papas, a popular and well-known Japanese chain bakery. The company earlier this year has begun opening franchises in the States...well so far only in Boston, Hollywood, Honolulu, and New York. Made famous for their cream puffs, naturally I bought one a vanilla and a 'belgium chocolate'. The texture of the puff's shell was a bit rough and thus the crust was a bit hard for a desert. They explain that this is because the outside of the crust is pie crust (Bullshit, pie crust is crumbly not hard) and that's what helps make it 'so unique'. This doesn't make it taste better or more fun to eat, it just makes it seem like it's a cream puff with a harder crust than normal. The inner part of the pastry shell is very soft, sweet, and eggy just as you'd imagine a cream puff to be and was quite good.
The custard was very much above average as it contained real vanilla flavoring and boy could you tell. The vanilla flavor was appropriately strong, not overly sweet, and chilled to the correct consistency without being too cold. The Chocolate custard on the other hand was completely unimpressive and bordering on bad. It didn't even taste like chocolate or cocoa, disappointing since I was so impressed they had used real vanilla to flavor the custard and it made such a difference. The custard was also much colder and subsequently not of the right consistency. I imagine they sold significantly less of these, and after tasting one it was not hard to imagine why since they paled so much when compared to the classic kind. Not bad, but just very average.
Overall, I'd have to say Beard Papa is pretty good, but I hate to say I was rather disappointed with all the hype I'd heard from my fellow food snobs and with the reputation it carries in Japan. Oh well, it can't all be great, I guess. At least they don't rob you at a $1.65 a pop which is an acceptable hit, especially with fancier places that offer an inferior puff for the same price or worse.
After Beard Papa, we trekked onto the North End. After walking into a very busy Mike's Pastry and several unsuccessful sabotaged attempts to be a rude prick and get served, I gave up and we left. I just wasn't feeling the will to compete with angry, impatientl, selfish tourists and yuppies today. I'll just save my Mike's Pastry love for before I leave. We then went to one of the ancient dry goods stores that the North End has where I purchased some really fantastic smelling loose leaf Earl Grey which I can't wait to brew up tomorrow and where Heidi purchased some fancy Italian coffee for her mother.
We then wandered back to the house, stopping to take photos and take a gander through Haymarket. Altogether a pretty good day. Kelsey's got an entry on the day, as well as some really beautiful photos. Heidi who bitched at me to make sure I journaled about the day still doesn't have her's up. The Bitch.
More Hype for the Christmas Invasion
For the newly initiated Who fans (or those with more to do than follow the day-to-day occurrences) the BBC has opened a new site to help hype the upcoming Christmas Invasion: British Rocket Group.
The page itself doesn't give any direct spoilers although gives one a bit more to go on when trying to figure out the plot of the special. The page also has a bit of humor to boot. Enjoy being as curious as the rest of us.
Moment of Zen:
Only one tonight because I'm tired!
Hundreds of millions of years from now, long after mankind will have probably left this planet or driven itself to extinction, the North East will pwn the South yet again, in a agonizingly slow but satisfying second crushing defeat. You know the best part is? This time we're taking Florida down too.