Tuesday, April 29, 2003

Back home again. Life here is so different that I sometimes wonder: "Did Paris really happen or was it just a dream?" Nevertheless, it's great to be home. Was starting to get sick of all the Sundays spent alone doing laundry. I spent my first Sunday swimming with my niece and nephews -- my 3 year old niece Yanna loved it so much, she didn't want to get out of the pool till it was dark out.

Just spent the night in Tagaytay with my mom. It's an hour and a half drive from Manila and probably 10 degrees cooler, especially at night. My mom's staff and their families spent the afternoon swimming, sunbathing, and eating there -- it was a summer excursion, and most companies usually give one yearly as a treat to their employees. After everybody went home, my mom and I checked out the local market -- lots of fruit stands around but my mom always frequents this one place, I think it's called John and Kim or something like that. For them, she is a suki (loyal customer), and once you've established that relationship with them, you can expect to always get a better price. You, in turn, have an unspoken promise to choose them over all the other fruit stands in that area. So my mom filled our big van with fruits and vegetables -- chicos, mangoes, watermelons, bananas, sweet potatoes, pineapples, okras, upo, papayas, etc. After that, we walked around our village for an hour and went to dinner at an Italian restaurant called Massimo. Since it was a weeknight, there were only two reservations, and I think that's what made the food so great. My mom and I enjoyed tomato soup, yellow tomato and arugula salad with feta cheese (they grow their own veggies), tarragon chicken (suprisingly juicy and very tasty), sea bass with risotto (i think it's better to order something else because this is a bit too pricey for what it's worth). For dessert, we had a creamy panna cotta with dulce de leche, and then we finished it off with chamomile and mint tea. We chatted with the chef for another half hour and headed back home -- a 3 minute walk away.

Now am back in Manila and just finished an hour long workout. I am aiming for a bikini body by May 8 because my brother and his girlfriend, KC, invited me to go with them to Boracay. Must have flat abs by then! Heh.

Posted by Karen @ 11:20 PM PST [Link]

Friday, April 18, 2003

Oh la la. It’s been a while. What have I been doing the past two weeks? Well, my mom arrived and we’ve been traveling around – Vienna, Milan, and Florence.

Vienna – Wanted to be part of the kaffeehaus scene, so I brought my mom to a local café called Pruckel. It looked like a cozy place to hang out, but it proved too smoky and run down for my mom. We ended up eating lunch at a place called Plaschutta, where I tried the boiled aitchbone, or Tafelspitz. It was the Austrian variation of Pot au Feu, and I loved it, although the soup was overly salty. Mom and I weren’t too happy with that place, because when the bill came, we saw that they charged us 5 euros for the bread they put on the table, and about 8 euros for all the sidings that they said were included with the Tafelspitz – well apparently not. I also dragged my mom to some Café Konditoreis like Demel and Lehmann, which serve pastries and food as well as coffee. Tried the usual Dobos Torte (cake with layers of buttercream and caramel on top), Plunder (croissant with hazelnut filling) -- always with a mélange (café au lait). Although it was freezing for most of our trip, I enjoyed Vienna a lot because you can just walk around and you’ll stumble into something interesting, like a palace or a museum, or even an easter market! At the easter market I tried a glass of Grüner Veltliner, a popular Austrian white wine, then I went to watch an Apple Strudel show at the café at Schonbrunn Palace. My mom was busy shopping around – she found a nice boutique and was bargaining with the owner. She got me my very first leather outfit – jacket and stretched leather pants. Very cool.

Milan – was cold and dreary. There was a furniture fair going on so the hotels were fully booked and we had to pay 350 euros a night for a tiny room. Not a lot of touristy things to see here, but if you’re into fashion, this is the place. My mom was in love. She said she probably lived here during her past life. The highlight of this trip was a wonderful lunch at a restaurant called Il Semaio, by Via Monte Napoleone. I just had a Spaghetti Pomodoro, and my mom had some fresh pasta with porcini. Perfectly al dente. Squisito.

Florence – enjoyed it a lot here, probably because the weather started cooperating with us, so I was able to walk from piazza to piazza, visiting churches and enjoying gelato with the rest of the tourists. I made a side trip to Pisa to visit the Leaning Tower, but wasn’t too impressed with it. It wasn’t as tall as I thought. Mom and I went our separate ways for most of this trip, because she claims she’s gained so much weight because I always want to eat. She’s a shopper, I’m a gourmande – different priorities I guess. Highlight of this trip? Sfogliatelle (Italian pastry filled with rice, ricotta cheese, chocolate, or cream) and a café latte by the bar at Gilli for 2.50 euros.

Puppet show at the Easter Market	Lots of Hand-painted Easter Eggs for sale at the Market
Easter window display	To make good strudel dough, it should be rolled so thin that you can read a newspaper under it
Cakes at Demel Konditorei	Pastries from Demel
Magnificent view of Vienna from Schonbrunn Palace	Pastries from Gilli in Florence
Leaning Tower of Pisa	Florence landscape as seen from the Boboli Gardens

Mom and I have been busy packing our balikbayan boxes. We're going back to Manila tomorrow. 95 degree summer heat -- will I survive? Heh.

Posted by Karen @ 05:54 AM PST [Link]

Friday, April 4, 2003

You know the feeling you get when you work hard at something and at the very end of it, you feel some sort of ‘high’ from accomplishing it? Well, that’s how I feel now – this whole week actually. I’ve just been a happy camper at work. I feel a part of the team, and most of all, I feel appreciated. I’m surprised because they’ve kept true to their word, I haven’t done any Ispahans. Every morning, Alban asks me what I want to do and he lets me do it! I guess they understand that I’ve slaved for them for 3 months so they’re taking the time to make it worth my while. Yannick even made me do the glaçage (icing the cakes) today! We ended up messing a whole tray of cakes, because I glazed them upside down! Not really my fault – it was all a misunderstanding between me and Yannick, but I still felt really bad. Ça arrive. (It happens.)

When we finished everything, Mr. Hermé called me to his office and presented me with an autographed copy of his book Plaisirs Sucrés. He said thank you for the work I’ve done and to let him know when I do open my patisserie. I went back to the kitchen holding my book and a big smile on my face. When André saw that they gave me a book, he said (translated version): “We must like you a lot here, I’ve never seen them give a stagiare a book.” Then Alban answers: “That’s because she’s done a great job.” Aah, music to my ears… ;)

Alban (Head Chef of Finission) finishing the Ivoire	Yannick doing the glaçage for Tarte Cafe
Olivier (Chef of the Chocolaterie) making chocolate decorations	Hermes preparing the Tomato and Raspberry Tart
Snagged a quick picture with Mr. Hermé when he came to say Bonjour. I look like a mess.	Team Finission -- (clockwise from left) Saori, Hermes, Alban, Yannick, Quentin, Asana, Me, Andre, Olivier

Posted by Karen @ 09:30 AM PST [Link]

Thursday, April 3, 2003

Tuesday, Alban receives a phone call in the kitchen, he turns to me and says (translated version): "Karen, take off your gloves and your apron and go upstairs -- Mr. Hermé wants to see you." I was expecting this because I told Mme. Petremant I would like to talk to Mr. Hermé before the end of my stage, but I still felt quite nervous. The past few days, I’ve been dreaming about what I was going to say to him, but when the moment came, I was still unprepared. He’s a very quiet person like me, so we didn’t talk much. He asked me what I was planning to do after my stage and if it went well. I struggled to explain my plans in French, and I can see he was struggling to understand me as well. I hope I didn’t sound too retarded. I’m just glad to have met the best pastry chef in the world – in my opinion.

I’ve been hanging out with more patissiers. Saori and I had a really good sushi dinner last Saturday. She brought me to a place called Isami by Ile St. Louis, and we had fresh uni, squid, toro, unagi, oysters, and more – mmm. It was my first time eating sushi with a Japanese person, and I highly recommend it because I got to try dishes I’ve never tried before. After dinner we met up with her friend Nick, who worked with Saori at Daniel in New York. He was a sous chef there and just finished doing a 3 month stage in a patisserie in the Alps. Sunday I hung out with Saori and her friends – 3 Japanese patissiers working in France. One of them competed in the Coupe du Monde (World Cup for Pastry) and won 2nd place for his chocolate pièce montée (centerpiece). He’s a real master chef. They were all excited when they found out I had plans to open a patisserie in San Francisco. I said they have to learn to speak English first. It’s funny coz’ we communicated with each other in French, but Saori would feel left out because she doesn’t speak French but speaks English perfectly. So there was all this translating going around – Japanese, English, French.

I’ve been working in the boutique since Tuesday and it’s been great. They all know it’s my last week and they’re all trying to make it a good one for me. Alban said: “Pas des Ispahans pour Karen – Il est interdit.” (No Ispahans for Karen – It is prohibited) They let me do the Tarte au Citron (Lemon Tart), Montebello (from the Spring Collection – Pistachio dacquoise and mousseline topped with sliced strawberries), Mont Blanc (chestnut puree with whipped cream and meringue). Note that we don’t actually bake or cook much in the boutique, we just do the finission or final assembly which usually consists of filling and glazing cakes and tarts. There are 3 new stagiares from Le Cordon Bleu coming to work for Pierre Hermé. I’ve met one of them, Marianna, from Venezuela. It’s too bad they’re just starting when I’m about to leave. It would’ve been fun to hang out with them. I feel like a senior in college, and they’re the freshmen. I was like: “How was your first day?” Marianna said: “It was good, but very tiring.” I said: “Well… it gets worse.” Heh. It’s fun to scare the freshmen.

Posted by Karen @ 06:21 AM PST [Link]