Maison Kayser August 2017

I always feel the need to show off the items at Masion Kayser. It is one of my favorite spots in the city, and they are opening more each day. I would be quite happy with one of these on every corner like Starbucks. Their savory items are just as good as the desserts, and the whole atmosphere is so lovely.  

AUTHENTICITY

Everything that comes from our stores is created with the highest standards for quality, a respect for tradition and a love for our craft without any compromises. All of our products are made without additives or preservatives, prepared from only natural flours. We use the essence of the bread, the natural liquid leaven that gives our bread its unique texture and develops various flavors that you cannot find in industrial production.

PATIENCE

Patience is the answer. It takes a lot of time and effort to become a good baker. And it takes the same time and effort to make a great bread. At Maison Kayser, we allow at least 12 hours for all of our dough to rest before baking. The same goes for our pastries and viennoiserie. Can you believe that our pastry chef is meticulously icing each éclair by hand, one by one, every day?

CREATIVITY

Being authentic does not mean you cannot be creative. We truly believe that combining the ancestral techniques with a pinch of the most innovative standards of gastronomy can give birth to brilliant creations!

For 18 years, we have been developing original recipes in the respect of the French artisanal bakery tradition, using exotic ingredients, and maintaining our focus on our core values that set Maison Kayser apart!

The items regarding authenticity, patience and creativity come from the Maison Kayser website. Every item here is perfection. Even my Arnold Palmer drink is the best I have ever tasted!  

I LOVE these little desserts for just a small sweetness with a cup of coffee or tea  

Make sure to add Maison Kayser to your "to-do" list when in the city. You will never be disappointed. You can check their website for the many wonderful locations within the city. 

To be assured not miss a post, sign up for each one to be emailed to you HERE. Be sure to check for your Feedburner confirmation email, or your subscription will not be processed. Your email is not sold or shared with anyone. Thank you so much for visiting! 

Would be thrilled if you gave me a follow here: 

Instagram / Facebook/ Bloglovin/ Pinterest 

Cafe Valley Dr Pepper Cake Review

I was contacted by Cafe Valley to try their new Dr. Pepper cake, and  I couldn't turn down that opportunity! I remember my Mom making my birthday cakes with soda inside, and they were always so darn moist and tasty!  

The new cake will join an array of soda cakes including 7UP®, Orange Crush®, and A&W Root Beer™. The new flavor will be available in grocers nationwide in June with a suggested retail price of $5.99 per package. 

The cake is quite wonderful, fabulous for parties and the office. The price is very reasonable, and easy to pick up more than one! Just look at that icing! I love drizzle icing because it's not too sweet with the cake. This ring cake is their flagship product, and you can tell.  

The cake itself is really very good, so moist and not too sweet. The Dr. Pepper flavor is not overwhelming, just the right amount.  

Made with real Dr Pepper, the soda cake is exploding with the spicy taste of the popular soft drink made from a unique blend of 23 flavors.

You can check in your area who carries these cakes on Cafe Valley website. 

"Our partnership with Dr Pepper will guarantee consumers the real, genuine soda taste, just as delicious as our other fun soda cake flavors," said Brian Owens, chief executive officer of Café Valley. "This cake features premium ingredients and the high-quality taste our customers have come to expect. We look forward to bringing the latest delightful flavor and enjoyable experience home to your family."

About Café Valley Bakery 
Since 1987, Café Valley Bakery has been producing high-quality bakery products for in-store bakeries, club stores, food service and convenience stores throughout the world. Through innovative bakery techniques and unique recipes, Café Valley produces the most delectable croissants, muffins, Bundt cakes, ring cakes, loaf cakes, Danishes and turnovers, and their signature Café Bites. Café Valley's delicious baked goods are designed to complement every bakery's existing core items and add new excitement, profitability and growth to the bakery category. For further information about Café Valley Bakery, please visit www.cafevalley.com.

About Dr Pepper
Dr Pepper, a brand of Dr Pepper Snapple Group (NYSE: DPS), is the oldest major soft drink in the United States. Since 1885, the 23 flavors of Dr Pepper have earned legions of fans that enjoy its unique, refreshing taste. The brand is available in Regular, Low Calorie, Diet, Caffeine Free and Cherry varieties. DPS is a leading producer of flavored beverages, marketing Dr Pepper and 50-plus other beverage brands across North America and the Caribbean. For more information, visit Dr Pepper. For the brand's latest news and updates, follow Dr Pepper at Facebook.com/DrPepper or Twitter.com/DrPepper.

Disclosure: I was provided sample cake from Cafe Valley for this review. There has been no monetary compensation for this post. I only recommend products that I feel will be of interest to my readers, and that I am truly impressed by. All opinions are my own. Thank you!! 

To be assured not miss a post, sign up for each one to be emailed to you HERE. Be sure to check for your Feedburner confirmation email, or your subscription will not be processed. Your email is not sold or shared with anyone. Thank you so much for visiting! 

Would be thrilled if you gave me a follow here: 

Instagram / Facebook/ Bloglovin/ Pinterest 

A Stroll Through Paris Baguette

I just love that building!! Cannot look at it enough quite frankly. While I was in the Upper West Side, I popped in one of my favorite places, Paris Baguette, to see what they had new. I really love these shops, there are quite a few of them located around the city. They have actually been in business since 1945. Their desserts are truly works of art, and taste pretty amazing too! Hope you are not viewing on an empty stomach, if so, I apologize! 

Be still my heart! This one was really calling to me! 

 

To be assured not miss a post, sign up for each one to be emailed to you HERE. Be sure to check for your Feedburner confirmation email, or your subscription will not be processed. Your email is not sold or shared with anyone. Thank you so much for visiting! 

Would be thrilled if you gave me a follow here: 

Instagram / Facebook/ Bloglovin/ Pinterest 

A Visit to Trapani in Sicily for Cannoli

This amazing post would not be possible without my favorite social media website called Twitter. I am such a big fan of Twitter, my followers are some of the nicest people on earth. I am always meeting new folks, and Francesca Polisano is one of them. She writes the blog Saucy Sicliana, and is the mother of Sayaka Alessandra . Francesca is from Trapani, a city and comune on the west coast of Sicily in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an important fishing port and the main gateway to the nearby Egadi Islands. Of course she has a love and fondness for cannoli, or cannolo as they say in Italy, and agreed to do a guest photo post for me. The first thing I noticed of these "original" cannolo is the size. They are MEGA huge. They are filled from side to side, as I hate when you bite into a cannoli and the middle is empty! I do not think you would have that problem in Trapani. I think you will enjoy this wonderful little visit with Francesca:  

Bar Erice, where they make the biggest cannolis. The bar is located in Napula,  a little town just a few minutes drive from Trapani.  Below photo is Francesca sitting at the Bar Erice ready to eat their cannolo.  

This looks like pure heaven! Look how that is filled and it looks so creamy! Oh my word!!  

The Pasticceria Colicchia, the most famous cannoli shop in Trapani.  In the above photo Francesca is standing on the side of the shop with their cannolo, the other picture she is with Cavaliere Francesco Colicchia, the owner.

CAFE' DEL CORSO, one of the most popular cafè in Trapani's historical center, and Francesca sitting at the cafè ready to eat the cannolo. This cafe' is really gorgeous! 

 DATTILO, a tiny town near Trapani, famous for its cannoli and Francesca below enjoying their cannolo 

The size of these just amazes me! That would be my dinner, for sure!!  

Francesca holding the cannolis of Dattilo

BAR LUNA, a popular cafè in Trapani

Francesca in front of  Cafè ORONERO, on the main road of Trapani, Via Fardella. Cafè Oronero is  the only bar in Trapani which serves cannolis from Napula. For people who are too lazy to go to Napula :) 

CAFE' DEL CORSO

I hope you enjoyed this little visit of some "real" "authentic" cannoli from Francesca in Trapani, Sicily. Be sure to check our her blog, Saucy Sicliana, and give her a follow on twitter HERE. She has some great recipes on her blog as well as shows you around Trapani. If you are not currently on twitter, I say give it a try. There are some fabulous people you can meet, and I would love for you to follow me as well HERE.  

A BIG Thank you to Francesca for these amazing photos & lots of cannoli ♥ !! 

Today's Words of Wisdom: If I could marry cannoli cream, I would - Unknown 

Subscribe Us

Get free daily email updates!

Follow us!

The Debate of Taking Photos in Restaurants

My photo taken by my Samsung Galaxy III in Cafe Sabarsky 

I just read an article in The Telegraph titled "French chefs hit back at 'food porn' photos in their restaurants" and it had me thinking maybe a post was in order on this very talked about subject. Some of the points brought up in this article are interesting, to say the least.

I take photos of food just about everywhere. Well, not just food, but many things. Since I started this blog in December of 2009, my photographing has increased quite a bit. I want to be able to show you what I find, what great places I visit, and the gorgeous food they offer. I take photos with a Canon Rebel camera as well as my Samsung Galaxy III phone.

When I go into a place, if I am planning to shoot a variety of shots for a post, I will advise the folks working there why I am taking the photos. Some places are not keen on visitors taking photos, not just restaurants. When I do this, I either get an okay from the staff, or a no and I adhere to their wishes. When I shoot photos of my food in restaurants or cafes, I am pretty quick. I do not stand on a chair, or re-position the table to get my shot. I do my best to be quiet about it, if I am using my Canon camera, the flash is always off. When I use my phone, the flash can be turned off there as well, sometimes the phone does better than the Canon, if you would believe. I do not take endless shots of something. I take a few, and then I am done. I am not keen on bothering folks dining at the place by causing a commotion. I was in a La Maison du Chocolat one day, and got this great drink I had to shoot, and these girls next to me said "Oh cool, you photograph your food too. So do we."

I would hope my photos encourage my readers to maybe give a thought to visiting that restaurant. If a restaurant made a no-photography policy would it make me not visit? Possibly. I can understand a very exclusive high-end restaurant doing something like this, where the checks run $500.00, but I don't see it as a positive move. I think it is hard to control folks to photograph, but in a polite manner. It reminds me of in a museum where they say "No flash photography" yet people still do it and have to be reminded.

The article talks about the photography being bad of their dishes. I do not know about you, but most of the food photography I see on blogs, and my favorite photo site Instagram, are quite good. Every once in a while, I will come across a bad shot. If I do see a bad photo, I do not blame the chef, I blame the person taking the photo, and I don't really use that as a good reference of what the food is like at that establishment. The other comment I found interesting is that someone can copy their dish. I think that is quite silly as a photograph is not going to tell someone how the food tastes and what has gone into the dish. I personally cannot re-create a dish from a photograph.

I do not see this trend ending any time soon. Social media and the internet is just growing and growing, it is the way many folks find their news and what is the hottest restaurant or craze to try. I wish there could be a way the two could meet in the middle to make both parties happy.

What are your thoughts on this highly debated subject? I have found articles on this from back in 2008, so it is quite a talked about subject. I would love to hear some of your thoughts here, and do you think the restaurants are correct in their complaints?

Today's Words of Wisdom: “Manners are of more importance than laws. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in.” Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Statesman, Author, Philosopher

Subscribe Us

Get free daily email updates!

Follow us!