Following: The pastry--a recap

Sunday, October 25, 2015

The pastry--a recap

You got a brief report of our pastry experiences of the last few days, here's the extended version:

Thursday
Arsicault Bakery, croissant and Kouign Amann. Both were fine, but not fantastic.

You already heard about b. patisserie.

(Aikido stories coming soon.)

Friday

The plan was John Pence Gallery to see our neighbor's paintings displayed, Cocoabella chocolates, Nuubia Chocolates, Chantal Guillon macarons, Choux bakery, Thorough Bread and Pastry, The Lab, and Craftsman and Wolves, then off to Aikido.

Here's what really happened:

We went to the gallery, saw the paintings, learned that yellow parking meters mean 30 minutes, all of that went as planned.

Then we were supposed to go to Cocoabella, but couldn't get there between traffic, lack of parking, and construction.

So we got to Nuubia (which happens to be in the lobby of the Twitter building), and parked. We got a calamansi and basil chocolate, an almond-coriander praline, and an "OMG bar" which is hazelnut praline, salted caramel, and caramelized rice crispy dipped in chocolate.

Walking towards Chantal Guillon we happened across Christopher Elbow Chocolates, which I've heard a lot about, but thought we couldn't go to. We started chatting with the person working there and ended up trying Earl Grey, Champagne, and Yuzu chocolates. They were all great. This is the Yuzu:

Off to Chantal Guillon, where we had chocolate orange, salted caramel, and raspberry-rose-lychee macarons. (You might think raspberry, rose, and lychee sounds weird, but it's a thing. Called "Ispahan" it's Pierre Herme's signature flavor.)

Walking to the next bakery, we passed a liquid-nitrogen ice cream place, and of course had to stop. The creme fraiche ice cream with pear caramel was tasty, although I thought the texture would be better.

Next up was Choux bakery, and all-cream puff establishment. Now, none of us really like cream puffs, so this was a little bit of a stretch. The lemon curd filled, and and chocolate pudding filled puffs were both okay, but nothing amazing. The shop was tiny! We could barely all stand inside.

Then to Thorough Bread and Pastry, which supposedly has fantastic almond croissants. Yeah, not so much. It was dry, and had basically no flavor.

And now the tale of The Lab. On a previous trip to San Francisco, we had tried to go there. The Lab is SF-based chocolatier Michael Recchiuti's cafe space and test kitchen. So we're walking down 22nd street, where the map said it was. The neighborhood was looking really different than we remembered, but none of us really thought about it. Trust in Siri! But we got to the address, looked all around, and finally saw the sign: The Massage Lab. Oops. There were some happy, relaxed-looking people leaving, but no chocolate to be found. (There's more to this story, you'll find out soon.)

Next we were off to Craftsman and Wolves, which I had heard about on Yelp, but didn't really know much about. Wow. Probably the non-Aikido highlight of the trip so far. We got a croissant which was quite good, but it seemed awful in comparison to the rest of it. The "stone" was amazing. I liked it, and I hate coffee! It was whipped coffee (??), yuzu, gianduja (which you should look up, but don't pay attention to the Wikipedia page, because it's wrong), and coconut. And so, so much prettiness.

Here's the croissant.

And the hot pepper and smoked cheddar gougere. IT WAS AMAZING!! The texture was perfect, soft and squishy on the inside, with little cheese pockets all over, and a crispy and almost leathery outside.

And here's the Craftsman and Wolves pastry case.

On the way to Craftsman and Wolves, we passed a cute looking frites place and had to stop on the way back, because we were pretty desperate for some salt. Our frites came with ponzu ketchup and orange-ginger mayo. Both were good, although I loved the orange-ginger.

And on the ketchup pump was this sign:

It was quite a place. They were definitely some characters.

So then we walked back to the car, and decided to drive to The Lab to try again. We get there, and what happens? Yep. They're closed for a private event. Nooooooooo! Maybe it's not meant to be. And we couldn't even get a massage this time!

From there we drove to Bodega Bay to see the ocean.

Then off to Aikido of Tamalpais for class. There are many Aikido blog posts to come, but not yet. Right now we're off to day to of class at Aikido of Santa Cruz. Where Linda Sensei and Jan Sensei are taking turns teaching, AND TRAINING WHEN THEY'RE NOT TEACHING! Turns out the two of them aren't 6th dan for nothin'.

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Aikido Glossary

These are the most common terms you'll see here. We've also prepared a more detailed glossary (see below).

Dojo: “The place of the way”. The training hall where we practice our art. In the US, many dojo are decorated with a Japanese aesthetic, but some are in racquetball courts or gyms. In the end, the dojo is wherever the people are who show up to practice.

Gi: Training uniform consisting of jacket and pants (normally plain white for aikido) and an obi, or belt. In our federation, belts are either white or black, but in many federations, there are colored belts, most commonly blue and brown, but sometimes there are more gradations. Some aikido practitioners also wear a hakama.

Hakama: The pleated pants (that look like a skirt) worn by some aikido practitioners. In some organizations, it is (or can be) worn by students of any rank. In others, it is reserved for black belts, and in still others, there are different rules for men and women (which are derived from some interpretation of Japanese ideas of modesty). It has no real practical purpose, but serves as a sort of historical link to samurai tradition.

Hanmi: “Half body.” We use it to mean an aikido stance which is sort of triangular. Front foot faces the partner, back foot points out at about a 45 degree angle. It provides a great balance of agility and stability, while offering only half the body as a target for attack.

Musubi: “Connection” or “joining”, although the word is also used to mean “knot”. A key principle of aikido because it helps avoid confrontation and collision, which lead to destruction.

Nage: The person “doing” the technique, generally the person being attacked in some way.

Seiza: Formal sitting posture, kneeling with a straight back. Tough on the knees if you are not used to it.

Shomen: The focal point of the dojo, the proper direction to face. Most aikido dojo have some sort of shrine to the founder on the shomen. Shomen is also shorthand for Shomen uchi, which is an overhead strike to the forehead with an open hand, like a classic karate chop. It's a stylized attack when performed with an empty hand, but would be devastatingly effective with a weapon.

Uke: The person taking ukemi. A good uke is more precious than gold, because he or she will help you learn better aikido not by teaching, but by creating the conditions that allow you to discover how to make sense of Sensei's teaching.

Ukemi: “Receiving” is the closest translation from Japanese. When someone performs an aikido technique on you, your are taking ukemi. It encompasses a lot of stuff, including the punches, grabs, and kicks that we use to simulate attack, as well as the falling and rolling we use to keep ourselves safe.
On a deeper level, it refers to the act of connecting with and following your partner. Great ukemi keeps you safe, allows you to be alert for opportunities to reverse a technique, and helps your partner learn better.