Saturday, May 27, 2017

Lady Eve Patisserie, The True Queen of Desserts

My premiere introduction to Lady Eve Patisserie happened at my friend's wedding, for which she ordered her naked wedding cake from Lady Eve, and she got me hitched to it at the first sight. Such a simple, rustic, and extremely gorgeous cake! Not to forget the most important one, tantalizing! Yes you heard me right guys, it did taste so good. It was carrot cake with cream cheese mixture at that time and I guessed it's the very first wedding cake that got me put my two thumbs up not only for its presentation, but also its taste!



Knowing that they now officially open a physical cake shop close to my residence at Serpong, I was extremely excited to pay a visit there. Not only that, it did mean I had to worry no more going forward when I had to choose the place to buy cakes for celebration. Yeaaaayyy, call me one happy kiddo!



Just like the patisserie's name, it was indeed established by ladies who loved to bake and indulge others' palate particularly with sweets. They used to accept online order only and take this business as a side-job. Nonetheless, it's not the case now when they're going more successful and it got too cumbersome to manage running multiple jobs at the same time. 



OK, enough sharing the history and who're behind the kitchen, and let's go to the most awaited part - the output of the kitchen. The selections of desserts were beautifully arranged in the showcase at the petite-sized outlet which occupied the first floor of a shop-house. They only provided a couple of tables as the venue's indeed not intended to be made for dining-in, but more for buy-and-go only. All cakes were freshly made in the pink-and-white-themed venue, serving both the customers who made pre-order as well as those who just bought on the spot. 


Call me lucky, I got the privilege to have the cake tasting right at their kitchen located just behind the showcase. It's not that spacious one, but able to accommodate up to 6-8 people, so there we were, my friends and I, ready to get sugar-high. 



Lady Eve's team had well-prepared everything, arranging all the cakes and cookies for the tasting. They were extremely generous, sharing almost all variants so we could taste every single one of them. 




Cookies

Cookies
Starting from the 'appetizer' of the 'full-course' dessert session, we began with the cookies available in 4 flavors, namely Earl Grey, Coffee, Triple Chocolate, and Oatmeal Raisin. It came with the texture in between crispy and chewy. While the Chocolate was mentioned as the most favorite, my palate said the last one suited it best with rich combination of ingredients including nuts, perfectly suited my preference for cookie! 

Chocolate Devil



Moving on to the cake, the chocolate lover was the one to be satisfied the first. When I first heard it's called as Chocolate Devil, my thinking was nothing like this cake. It's surely beyond expectation as the mind behind it was awesomely creative, combining light and moist sponge cake with dense chocolate paste at the middle layer. The nice combination made it enjoyable till the very last bite. Delivering something beyond, it was even served with variants of toppings including Hazelnut and Coffee as well as Milk Chocolate. The coffee one was my pick, coming with bold taste that balanced the sweet base. 

Chocolate Devil - Hazelnut and Coffee
Chocolate Devil - Hazelnut and Coffee
Chocolate Devil - Milk Chocolate

Almost Flourless Cake

Almost Flourless Cake - Lily Rose
Almost Flourless Cake - Lily Rose
When the cake was firstly presented to me, I wondered what it actually was as it looked the shortest compared to the rest. Upon asking the crew, I then figured out they were the flourless ones and hence they couldn't have the same height with the other cakes. 

Almost Flourless Cake - Lady O Grey
Coming with several toppings, I tried the quartet of Lily Rose (vanilla rose tea), Lady O Grey (orange,  lemon, chocolate, and earl grey), Midori (green tea and red bean paste), and the brand new Mr. Grant (milk chocolate with berries). 

Almost Flourless Cake - Midori
Almost Flourless Cake - Mr. Grant
This time I was in the same boat with the crowd, opting for Lady O Grey and Mr. Grant. The first one would suit the tea lover best, while the latter was perfect for those who demanded refreshing fruits taste. Regardless the toppings, the base cake was unquestionable. You needn't worry when it's mentioned as flourless that the cake would be tasteless or whatsoever, trust me this would be another one any chocolate lover would be sold to! The strong chocolate flavor was impeccably served in indulging dense cake <3

Almost Flourless Cake - Mr. Grant
Almost Flourless Cake - Mr. Grant

Cheesecake 

Mango and Passion Fruit Cheesecake
Mango and Passion Fruit Cheesecake
Mango and Passion Fruit Cheesecake
The one that got me hypnotized the first, the stealer of my attention, the absolute winner of insanely marvelous presentation, and the irreplaceable winner of my all-time-favorite dessert award, CHEESECAKE! Well, sorry for the capslock but I guessed it could already represent how much emphasize I wanted to put on that as a cheesecake addict. To describe it simply, Lady Eve's version would certainly deserve my approval or it's even more suitable to call it my recommendation. Compact texture, thick cheese taste, coddling crispy crumble, and extra addiction from the toppings and fillings. 

Strawberry and Raspberry Cheesecake
Strawberry and Raspberry Cheesecake
Strawberry and Raspberry Cheesecake
While toppings might sound quite common, I believed it's not the case for fillings but again Lady Eve proved they made it happened. For each of their cheesecake selections, there would be hidden treasure in it, serving a layer of special flavors of your choice; for which they provided the options ranging from Mango and Passion Fruit, Strawberry and Raspberry, Hazelnut Praline and Cookies, and even Banana!! Please don't ask me to pick my numero uno for this as I would end up requesting to have the mix of 'em all LOL. 

Travel Cake

As new stuffs typically brought sparks and excitement, Lady Eve seemed to understand it best by bringing out this Travel Cake, the mid-sized cake coming in various flavors, which was perfect for gifts or sharing by small group. Or if you were a dessert freak like me, perhaps this was your individual midnight snack. When I said it's for takeaway, please shoo away your thought that the distinctive presentation would then be invisible as you would have it in a transparent box! As my dessert party was still on-going, I continued to the trial session of 4 out of the 5 following variants for the travel cake. 

Passion Fruit Alunga
Passion fruit, milk chocolate, caramel, and peanut
Passion Fruit Alunga
Passion fruit, milk chocolate, caramel, and peanut
Lemon Poppy
Lemon and Poppy Seed
Lemon Poppy
Lemon and Poppy Seed
Chocolate Banana Hazelnut
Carrot Pineapple
Earl Grey Creamcheese
Again, they went beyond my expectation as I initially guessed they would be simple sponge cake just for comfort foods. Whereas in actual, they were generous in variants of components and the blend was definite perfection. If you're not that much into sweets or desserts, you would love Lemon Poppy as the flavor's not overpowering and it's quite a light one for sweets after heavy meals or for your tea/coffee companion. PS, Lady Eve's crew did mention that those who were usually having high concern on calories would go for Carrot Pineapple due to its natural and healthy ingredients as well as low fat content. Calling those who're currently struggling on their tough diets :p

Brownie

Last but not least - or I even should say the pioneer, the most favorite, and still the best - Lady Eve's brownies!! Why pioneer? Because this particular cake was the one firstly introduced by Lady Eve at its initial establishment. Moreover, it's also the one bringing this patisserie to be madly loved by people. You might first underestimate as you thought what could be so special with brownies, but guys, you'd better keep those opinions untold before you gave them a try. Let me also uncover a surprising truth for you that these brownies were so special as they're made of couverture chocolate instead of compound one. That meant you would have the super fudgy brownies literally melt in your mouth and you wouldn't get any issue with chocolate being stuck on your teeth or getting toothache. So when you're asked to pay slightly higher price, you needn't worry as what you paid was worth what you got guys. Lady Eve was even dare to use the hashtag of '#expensivebutdeliciousbrownie' ('#browniesmahaltapienak') meaning they're truly confident for that.


Furthermore, not only the cheesecake that gave you hidden treasure, these brownies seemed didn't want to lose as they amazingly had fillings as well! Lady eve did take it seriously when developing the variants of flavors for each of their cakes even for this brownie as they provided tons of them! The 10 I could recall were Milk Chocolate Truffle, Salted Caramel, American Cheesecake, Raspberry Cream Cheese, Apple Cream Cheese, Cherry Brandy Black Forest, Irish Coffee, Green Tea, Popcorn, and Passion Fruit. When I was asked to try some of them, I had my mind keep telling me that it's extra fat but my hands and my taste bud simply told me that they couldn't stop! Picking the dynamic duo for your first trial, try their Irish coffee and raspberry cream cheese. Risk of addiction's on your own fellas ;)


OK, I guessed I've talked too much already and you might hate me a lot now for making you badly drooling. So you might want to browse which one to order now :)




Taste: 9/10
Place: 7.5/10
Service: 8.5/10
Price: 8/10


Thanks for reading! :)


LADY EVE PATISSERIE
Address: Jl. Spring Boulevard Selatan, Gading Serpong, Tangerang


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Inputs & comments: jessicagaby@ymail.com

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Mao Ki?

Firstly hearing the name of Maoki, I was making a joke with my sister as 'Mao Ki?' in the local language of our beloved hometown Makassar meant 'Do you want?'. Over-hearing our conversation, my friend who had been there surprisingly told us that what we're talking about was indeed the meaning behind the name, as the owner of Maoki was from Makassar as well! What a funny coincidence!



The minimalist venue resided at the ground floor of Dharmawangsa Square, close to the main entrance and connected to a hairdresser. As the building had dedicated parking space, thus finding your parking spot wouldn't be a big deal here (I spotted some smiles on the face ;) ). 


Despite that the outlet's not that spacious, they did provide outdoor seating with few tables. I even admitted they're smart in arranging the venue's setting to make it get to the most optimum level in relation to capacity. Moreover, though it's not a single-stand building, the design was pretty homey with calming white-dominated walls, beautifully complemented by simple hanging plants and flower pots. 



The arrays of dishes listed on the menu might be something in between snacks and heavy meals especially for 'Indonesian tummy', which mostly get its complete satisfaction only by rice. Perhaps the only dish fulfilling that requirement would be fried rice. Nonetheless, I still found this place favorable as I was anyway not that much into rice. Whereas for you who loved rice, you might treat this as your light meals or snacks, or even tantalizing breakfast idea since they open their doors starting early in the morning!




Mao Kopi? (IDR 24k)



Trying to find the thirst-quencher first, my eyes spotted this signature drink of Maoki on the menu. Such an attention drawer as the name was written with a question mark in the end. It didn't take me long to call it out as my order, especially because the waitress did mention that it's indeed one of the most-frequent picks of the guests. It was said to be iced milk coffee mixed with pandan syrup, yet my taste bud could barely find the pandan flavor in it. For me it's similar to common iced milk coffee, so not a bad one yet nothing in particular that stood out. 

Grandma's Magic Cake (IDR 35k)


Another lucky coincidence for me (gladly, believe it or not, I experienced quite much lucky coincidence recently! Or perhaps I'd rather mention it as I received abundant blessings lately), the day I visited Maoki was also the day they're offering 'Buy-one-get-one' promo for their Grandma's Cake. Called as their favorite cake, I surely wouldn't miss to order it. As we had promo, so 1 for each and said bye to sharing this time! 



When I first spotted the cake's picture, I thought it would be a cheesecake-alike one. Nevertheless, this 3-layer cake made of fudge, custard, and sponge cake, was nothing like what I had in mind. Despite that the slightly eggy taste didn't really suit my palate, the vanilla flavor was kind of balancing it and kept it stay indulging. The 3 different texture was also a nice combination that altogether melted awesomely in the mouth. It's such a great idea to serve the cake with strawberry coulis and vanilla ice cream, giving the overall dish a richer blend of taste with additional sweet and sour flavors. 

Classic Quiche Lorraine - Mushroom (IDR 40k)


Surprise surprise, this time my favorite wasn't the dessert but the savory dish! Yessss I loved this mushroom quiche to bits as the marriage of flaky pastry crust and moist stuffings of spinach and mushroom was so tantalizing. My biggest crush would doubtlessly be the bold cheese taste in the quiche, so good that I was even already craving for it when writing this sentence. The happiness didn't end there as you would have creamy custard, sour cream, and veggies to accompany the quiche itself. Paying IDR 40k for this scrumptious fulfilling quiche? You might call me nuts if I said no. 



Having said that, for you who were having your radar around South area, you were surely the lucky ones, being able to stop by Maoki early in the morning and get your day kick-started by their champion breakfast menus!


Taste: 8/10
Place: 7.5/10
Service: 8.5/10
Price: 8/10


Thanks for reading! :)


MAOKI COFFEE AND FOOD
Address: Dharmawangsa Square City Walk, GF no. 58 - 59, Jakarta
Operating Hours: Mon - Sun 7am - 9pm


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Inputs & comments: jessicagaby@ymail.com