Qkies + Cookies

For my birthday, my mother bought me a subscription to one of my favourite food magazines, Bon Appetit, and had it sent to Prague.  I just got my first copy two weeks ago and decided to try out their Almond-Cranberry Quinoa cookie recipe in the January 2012 issue.

a little of this

to make these

small taste test

While the recipe was only so-so, not enough flavour (a tad bland) and crunch for my taste, I wanted to post about a funny cookie idea that I read about on The Urban Grocer and Springwise called, Qkies. Qkies is a company based in Germany that was created by Juchem Gruppe and DFKI, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (not your typical baker combination) and makes QR code cookies.

In this new level of technology-meets-cookie, customers can order a box of Qkie mix, bake it in their own kitchen and apply the edible QR codes that come programmed to the website of their choice, which can then be scanned by the end “eaters” by using a smartphone.  The educational video on the Qkies website shows a girl using the Qkies as invitations to a big party she is hosting.  Unique? Yes.  Quite the unique way to invite guests? Absolutely! Now, do I think I would feel a bit funny and uncomfortable “eating” technology like that?  Yes.  While I am sure it is safe to eat, there is something about the idea of eating a barcode that turns me off.  That being said, is eating royal icing dyed with food colouring any better system? In my ideal world, I would like to think so.  What will a little red and yellow dye do to you?

via iurban

via cnet

via trendhunter

Something like Byrd’s, seems much more appealing to me.  A one pound cookie jar of homemade cookies.  Just like the convenience of Qkies, you can even order cookies online from Gilt Taste.

via nic108

$315,000 Wedding Cake: Black Swan Bakery

Hold the presses.  Here I was, all eager to write a post about the delicious pumpkin chocolate chip bread I baked over the weekend with photos and my recipe to start off my Monday.  My idea and intention has just been interrupted and derailed by a story I just read about a bakery in Beijing called Black Swan Luxury （黑天鹅蛋糕） that sells a wedding cake for $315,000 USD.  My chocolate chip pumpkin bread can wait for later this week.  Doing some basic calculations here, let’s estimate you have a 300 person wedding, that means you would have paid approximately $1,050 per slice of wedding cake.  Last time I checked, wedding cakes ranged in the $7-$15 per slice category for something half decent.  The cake in question from Black Swan Luxury is 70-80 times the price.  Yikes! I wonder how many of these cakes they are selling.  I guess it doesn’t really matter because if they sell more than one, it has generated some significant revenue for the company.

Where did I come by this outrageously priced wedding cake, you ask?  I am a regular reader of the Business of Fashion, a site that specializes in curating a collection of business news articles and interviews about the fashion and luxury goods industries around the world.  Having lived in China and having written my thesis on the Asia luxury goods industry, when I saw the article titled “Chinese are up to speed with life in the fast lane,” published by the LA Times, it caught my attention and I decided to give it a read.  Did I know that one paragraph three quarters of the way down the page would have me nearly falling out of my seat.  Black Swan Luxury is part of the bakery group, Holiland 好利来. Ironically, Holiland’s website, translated in English, means buy cake (买蛋糕)- smart if you are asking people to spend a small fortune for a cake that typically doesn’t even get cut.

While the cake is not my taste, I’m sure Black Swan Luxury will have some eager brides and grooms clamouring for a slice of luxury.  I even found a YouTube video filmed by a customer who shows you a clip of the cake in the window and the wedding consultation area on the second floor.  Happy Monday!

via Rich Times

via Friend Feed

Asian Food Fix Berlin

Two weekends ago, my fiance and I drove to Dresden to stock up on groceries and go check out an Asian food market that he read about somewhere.  After driving around in a couple circles, we located the Asian food store where we proceeded to buy lots of random items such as rice noodles, soba noodles, chili chicken sauce, lemongrass, curry pastes, canned lychee, jasmine rice and mirin.  What can I say, we’ve been craving Asian food.

Living in Prague is certainly not like living in Shanghai, Hong Kong or Toronto where you have access to ingredients such as the ones I listed, in most mainstream grocery stores and food markets (not much schlepping involved).  As another example, On New Year’s Day, we went to a restaurant in TTTM SAPA, the large Vietnamese market in Prague 4 (very far), and despite the fact that most restaurants and stalls were closed, the one we found was only so-so.  I will return to SAPA on a regular day to try that shopping and dining experience again. There is a point to all this talk about Asian food and cravings. It is gearing up to the topic of this post:  Where I want to eat Asian food in Berlin!

Currently, my (growing) Berlin Asian restaurant wish-list is as follows:

1. Monsieur Vuong– Upbeat Vietnamese- reviews here and here (clearly states it has the best spring rolls EVER)

2. Cocolo Catering– A mobile Japanese soup kitchen with a dinner only ramen bar in Mitte- see menu here, and a review here.

3. Co Co– Bahn Mi heaven- except the Wednesday Chef says not enough kick in the hotsauce which is a bit disappointing but I will still give it a shot.  Foodspotting seconds the sentiment with chili is not standard. Hrmff!!  I like spicy food.

4. Sian– Vegetarian Vietnamese with a bit of meat on request

5. Dudu– Pan Asian restaurant which I’ve already been to but want to go back- see Unlike.net’s review here and I mentioned briefly in this post here.

6. Transit– Thai/Indonesian food that I read about on the Berlin Loves You blog.

6. Chen Che’s tea party- aka afternoon tea Vietnamese style- Read more about the Vietnamese tearoom here

via Transit

via fotocommunity.de

via lovely wee days

Moeder Babelutte: What Candy Should Be

Last week in Amsterdam, I had a make-up session with the talented Joeri Vanhove, owner of the amazing store, Red Carpet Queen.  In conversation with Joeri, we were talking about all things food and dining related in our respective countries and he mentioned that Belgium is home to delicious, and gourmet food.  Everywhere you go, they do it gourmet in that country.  I hung on to this gem of information and decided to do a bit of research, having never been to Belgium myself.

I came across a delicious looking candy and confectionary shop that has 10 locations across Belgium called Moeder Babelutte.   The story behind Moeder Babelutte began in 1850 when a woman named Rosalie Desmat and her husband moved to Heist, Belgium. While her husband worked, Rosalie made batches of her mother’s recipe for a candy called Butter Babelutte, which she sold to weathly English and French children who were visiting the coastal town.  A babelutte is like a caramel made with brown sugar, milk, wheat flour, cinnamon and biscuits.  The candy became so popular with the residents of Heist, Rosalie’s candy making turned into a business, Moeder Babelutte.  Over 100 years later, Moeder Babelutte has been revived and expanded.  Has anyone been to Belgium and tried a Moeder Babelutte caramel or chocolate?  I can’t wait to go.

All photos via Moeder Babelutte 

Cupcakes from Lithuania: Kepejai

I’m always a fan of writing posts on baking; an activity near and dear to my heart.  The location of this post may be a bit exotic to my North American readers but I love it as it demonstrates how universal the cupcake trend has truly become.  Kepejai, is a bakery in Vilnius, Lithuania.  How did I find out about Kepejai you ask?  I’ll tell you.  If you don’t mind a somewhat convoluted web search story that I am about to type…..  Here it goes:  I discovered their shop while reading through a cool, new, online Lithuanian (English) design magazine called “Llamas’ Valley” (page 122).  I came by Llamas’ Valley in a post written last week by one of my favourite blogs, Vosgesparis.  Complicated web-searching aside.  I fell in love with Kepejai’s contribution to a wedding photo shoot by Fotopastele (seen below) and decided to share it with my readers.  I hope I have the opportunity to visit Kepejai in Vilnius while I am living in Europe.  I was already planning on making a trip to Riga, Latvia sometime in the future to check out an old-world Jewish bakery in the city that I read about in this article.

 All photos via Fotopastele and cupcakes from Kepejai 

kokoro chocolate

I recently read about Kokoro chocolate and I am loving this cute brand.  Based in Belgium, Kokoro chocolate makes beautiful, mouth-watering chocolates which have some pretty stylish packaging if you ask me.   The chocolate flavours are innovative as well ranging from white chocolate sake pearls and dark chocolate piemonte hazelnut to dark chocolate fleur de sel citrus confit and dark chocolate mint passionfruit.

The website is also great.  On the home page, when you scroll over a chocolate, the chocolate breaks and you get to see what is inside; every chocolate eater’s favourite part.

via trendpress online