Moving...

Hey...I've since moved here, at http://ladymacaron.blogspot.com/ a blog all about french macaron & french itzy bitzy stuff. See you there!

xoxo Emmelyn

Molly Ringwald in The Breakfast Club

I love Molly Ringwald and her teen 80's flicks. The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, and I thought she and Robert Downey Jr. were the perfect couple in The Pick-Up Artist. My cousin who lives in Sydney is the one who introduced me to all her movies and she used to teased me about it. After commenting a few times that Molly always reminded her of me, especially in Pretty in Pink, as we both love making clothes, her curly short bob were like mine when I was small. That aside, I found out that we are pretty moody characters, she in her movies, me in real life. Again, That aside, I thought I'll introduce you to some of the greatest teen flicks of all time. Let's start with The Breakfast Club, a group of five students who had to spend detention together in small classroom and guess what, the whole film is mostly set in the detention room.

John, Andrew, Allison, Clair and Brian, all wondering and thinking what in the alien world do I deserve to be in detention...stuck with all these people! and yet...each has something that they can relate to each other.

What's so ironically fun to watch is that all of them each represent a different stereotype of teens, from the spoilt Claire played by Molly Ringwald, to the geeky Brian played by Anthony Michael Hall who teamed up again with her in Sixteen Candles (and reportedly dated when they filmed together!) Then there's the strange Allison, grungy and slightly mentally disturbed who has a therapist. John, the naughty kid who endears his father's physical abuse and of course it would not be complete without the popular sporty Andrew. Unlikely to be friends outside of detention, they all somehow bond and tells their story, with often hilarious upbeat scenes. The classic teen film of 1985 that made all of them the brat-pack nickname.

The princess of the group, she started off being a very spoilt and arrogant character, who later humbled herself and won the audience.

Aside from the classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off, I think Molly did a pretty awesome job cementing herself as the teen actress in her time with Matthew Broderick as the all time teen actor sensation. Don't you think so?

This is Molly in Pretty in Pink, she is not as wealthy as most of her peers in school and makes her own clothes. She falls for the most popular guy in school, a rich boy who is pressured to be in the same 'rich' group as everyone else. He falls for Andie played by Molly but in doing so he failed to withstand the peer pressure and at one turning point left her. She took it hard and...well you just have to watch the film to find out what happens, don't worry, it's a happy ending...bo-ha!

Anyway if you have not watched any of the films mentioned above, you are missing a huge chunk of your teen years, so to make it all up, do rent them and make sure you are watching them with a bucket full of popcorn! caramel flavor..yum.

Tien! It's 4th of July

Happy 4th of July friends in Paris, french people in Melbourne, francophiles all over the world and for Americans as well for their l'independence! What better way to do than to escape the crowds from the street than a morning scroll through Le jardin du luxembourg and munching on a nice sweet croissant au buerre. Lovely.

Le Multicouleur

Steamed Bun in multicolor craziness, made by my sister and I this afternoon. We decided to go 'imaginative' with the greens...ha ha ha actually she put too much green coloring. I think it should be called Le Monster instead. But they taste yum though. In my native country, they're called bolu kukus. 

R.I.P Michael Jackson

It takes a life to entertained a world.
Michael Jackson, Rest In Peace.

Here are some of my favorite MJ songs that you can see from you tube. Enjoy

Stranger to Moscow

The Just Don't Care About Us

Liberian Girl

Remember The Time

Billie Jean

main picture from zonamusical.net

Le Hamburger Macaron

Mesdames et Messieurs, je te présente, le hamburger. Taa daaaaaa...dripping with ketchup (red strawberry sorbet) stacked with Kraft cheese (white chocolate), patty beef (chocolate cream), fresh sliced tomato (sliced strawberries) and minty peppermint leaf (exactly what it is) and two very delicious buns (do I really need to explain myself?). So here it is, the joke of the day. Enjoy le hamburger macaron only in Melbourne.

Cours de MACARON

Voilà! The winning MACARONS: flavours left - right: Citron (lemon curd) -Chocolat Caramel (with baileys caramel)- Framboise (raspberry coriander infused)- Fidel Castro (w chili flakes) - and finally Menthe Glaciale (peppermint chocolate filling).

Here it is le cours de macaron that I participated today from 8am-3pm at Savours School in Brunswick today! I had such a wonderful time, the chef or le chocolatier by profession, Paul Kennedy guided us (...did most of it actually..ha ha I was told to stay put...) *cough* I'm accident-prone :O

So there were six Macarons flavors, each made differently according to it's country of origin, ranging from Italy, Spain and France. Surprisingly the most widely-used being the Spanish ones, the sugar doesn't need to be dissolved and less ingredients. However the macarons that I saw in Paris had a very nice gloss, and if you want to create that, then you must follow the French recipe, using more Almond flour.

Squeezing the paste from piping bag is tricky at first, you squirt from the bottom of the surface, be still, don't make a snake out of it, when you get the right size, flick the bag. Flick Flick Flick it! It will raise in the oven and it takes only 12-15min tops, bring it out and leave at room temperature for 20 minutes until it's ready for the filling.

Chef Paul said that Pierre Hermé leave his unfilled macarons for 24 hours until they softened, he is the iconic créme de la créme of French patisserie chef, however even the macarons from Ladurée are very chewy whereas the ones we made today are crunchier.


Of course ideally we would leave them for more than half a day until they softened. It's up to you really whether you'd prefer more of an Italian meringue texture or a gooey bite. I prefer the gooey gooey. To get the colours we wanted, you must experiment, trial and error, the raspberry macaron flavour should be in a rich red colour, but the chef opted for something subtle, which I also liked. In the future, I would really like to use natural colouring...from fruits perhaps or jams...??

This is the French recipe, they are flatter, more chewy and is my favourite because we sprinkle them with expensive metallic powder (70 dollar a pop!). The filling today is changed to blackberry, frozen then mixed with sugar, melted to become a liquidy sorbet. Refrigerated and then glazed on top of the macarons.

Aaaah don't they look so beautiful? he he he, these are done, the top rack holds the raspberry flavor with metallic glaze, and the second rack is caramel macaron with baileys cream filling. Next time I'll use a bit amount of butter for the filling as I don't really like that creamy mousse taste in my mouth. I'd prefer the caramel to be pure melted sugar, dark and clear.

I really enjoyed myself today, I wish I could rewind and go back again. I told my friend who came with me that for a day, I felt I was back in Paris. I didn't feel like I was in Melbourne, sorry, I have this love-hate relationship with this city.

Moreover, I can't wait to practice baking them, it'll be a challenge but I'll let you know how it goes of course. Next time, I'll tackle it using natural coloring perhaps, more classic flavors like vanilla, coffee, and pistachio. If you are interested in the course, go www.savourschool.com.au It's worth it! and you'll meet fancy characters while at it!