HK style milk tea

I was told by the lady at Juice Bar that you can usually tell if a person is from China or Hong Kong, based on the drink they order. If someone orders milk tea, they are most likely from Hong Kong and someone from China would order coffee.

I don't know if this is true, but milk tea for me, please.

Juice Bar is the best place in Chinatown for drinks. A few years ago, they closed, I was devestated. So when they reopened, it was heaven for me.

Many Merry プリン

プリン (purin) is Japanese for pudding. It's not the typical pudding you find at the market, in vanilla or chocolate. It's more of a baked custard pudding.

My sister was in Japan last winter; each time I skyped with her she was eating a pudding. She'd tell me how good it was and I was missing out. Trust me, the very fact that she was in Japan was good enough reason to murder her. After her experience with "real" Japanese pudding, she have declared that whatever version America has is incomparable.

So here is my shot at making Japanese pudding.

It's not pretty, but who said good food had to be pretty. According to my sister, my pudding resembled real pudding. It wasn't bad, but could definitely be perfected. 

The pudding was sweet and creamy. I might have browned the caramel a bit too much, since there was a hint of bitterness. It might take a few times to perfect the pudding, but it would definitely be worth the effort.

Oh yeah, check out this video. The Japanese love プリン.  giga purin

Many Merry Cafe au Lait Memory

Every time I get a cup of crappy coffee, I'm reminded of the best cup I've ever had. Sadly it was not found in the US, but overseas. I went to Paris a few years ago (god, it was so long ago). I was waiting for a shop to open, and since it was February at the time, it was freezing out. There was only this tiny cafe that was opened, so I just went in.

The shelter of the cafe and the smell of coffee immediately melted all my frozen senses. Every customer before me ordered espresso, but that was just too strong for me. I just settled for a cafe au lait. From just the smell, I knew it was going to be really good...and it was the best.

I guess I captured the name of the cafe.

Something about me

As much as I love baked goods or other sweet-tooth satisfying products, I'm actually not a big fan of candy. Hard candy, gummies, cotton candy, etc. I don't really like them.

Candies are more tooth ache causing than sweet-tooth satisfying. I get so sick after the first piece, that it's not really worth eating. For example, this weekend, I saw a bag of hi-chew (a Japanese chewy candy) and I was like, "I want some." After the first piece, I wanted to die. Regret sat in every crevice of my teeth. It took all day before the sickening feeling went away.

Lesson learned. Now let's wait for me to make another stupid mistake, when I think I want some candy.

Many Merry Ice Cream

Who doesn't love ice cream? Bad question, I can already hear "I don't" from various people. Anyways, I love ice cream. It can be really bad ice cream, but I'll still eat it.

I stopped by Emack & Bolio's the other day for a sweet treat. After standing there for a good five minutes, overwhelmed by the various flavors, I decided on the Beantown Buzz. The "B" in Beantown Buzz was cleverly written with the Boston Red Sox "B," but that's not the reason why I ordered. I have zero love for the Red Sox. Well, it's actually baseball in general.

Beantown Buzz consists of strong expresso ice cream with chocolate covered coffee beans and chocolate cookie crunch. An absolute combination for a coffee and chocolate lover, like me.

They have various locations in the Boston area. Most importantly they have so much original flavors, which makes it hard for their customers to pick from. What will you order when you go?

Yesterday, I was at Porter Square to get my glasses fix. Whenever I'm in the area, I always stop by Porter Exchange. Inside are various small Japanese restaurants. No matter if I was eating sushi or ramen, afterwards, I will always stop by Japonaise Bakery.

Over the past two to three years, I find the quality of their products have dropped since the first time I was there. Despite this tiny issue, their pastry and baked goods are still more to my palette's liking than most other places.

This time I ordered Ichigo Cream. Ichigo is Japanese for strawberry. This is simply puff pastry filled with custard cream and strawberries. 

Ichigo Cream is one of those pastries that are so simple to make but I wouldn't be bothered to make it at home. Maybe when the next strawberry season comes by I'll give this a shot.

If you ever stop by Japonaise Bakery, do give their Izuki Cream and Chocolate Horn a try, if Ichigo Cream is not available.

Many Merry Hi

Welcome to "Many Merry Sweets."  I love desserts but I have a picky sweet tooth. So I'm constantly in search for some delicious sweets. For the past couple of years I've really been into baking since I've been disappointed time and time again by restaurants and bakeries. 

In "Many Merry Sweets," I'll share with you the sweets I love, show off some of my own creations, and blab about various things related to sweets.

Welcome!!!!