Empire Macarons

@ Rockwell last Saturday on my way to Rustan's grocery for a bit of errand-shopping, I spotted a row of bake sales with free samples so naturally, thesugarbug eyed the foodies and sampled the samples. :-) Among them, a colorful display caught my eye and after much deliberation, I bought some macarons from the Empire booth



shown here: mocha (spackled), strawberry (red), and pistachio (green)

A macaron actually

"is a traditional French pastry, made of egg whites, almond powder, icing sugar, and sugar."
[Text credits]

We see them in familiar coffee shops and I'm just glad a lot are making macarons nowadays. The price can get pretty steep at Php30.00 for a piece due to the difficulty in making them. As traditional macarons were sweet, dry, and crunchy, like your regular biscotti, this macaron and all other macarons are crunch and crisp on the outside but chewy inside intermixing with the icing/cream filling in between the two cookies. It's actually spelled macaron instead of macaroon, which is a totally different pastry (a dense cookie made out of coconut), and these two should never be interchanged

Although Empire participated in Rockwell, they can also be seen at the Saturday Salcedo market. They also pack macarons per dozen or for 10 pieces, which could be given as gifts. Aside from the regular flavors of chocolate, white chocolate, cookies and cream, lemon, strawberry, pistachio, classic (probably a vanilla flavor), mocha, chocolate peanut butter, cherry, and blueberry, they make premium flavors of caramel-pecan, rose ganache, triple chocolate, blueberry cheesecake, Irish creme, and Hazelnut Ganache (Php 35.00 per piece or Php400.00 per dozen).

They also make cheesecake balls which can be a quick sugar treat or a pasalubong for kids or a gift for your boss or a special friend who loves cheesecake. I'm a fan of the strawberry chocolate cheesecake ball, which is not too rich but they've got that chocolate.

I recommend the lemon flavor, which doesn't taste very tart and this is a perfect meal-ender. Not to mention the yellow color looks cute. Other favorites are strawberry, mocha, pistachio, and blueberry, which together look pretty good in a gift box.

To order and for more information, contact Empire at (02)4671995 and (0917)8861190.

A Beach Vacay Idea

Whenever you're out going for a vacation, if you want hassle-less meals, head over to Monterey or SM for pre-marinated meats that you can buy per kilo at an affordable price. Then, all you have to do is fry/grill/ 'em up. No need to bring additional bottles of sauces that could spill!

I was chatting with my friend and he was asking me what else would we bring for food for our beach shoot/trip. My mind immediately shot up suggesting "SPAGHETTI!" but when i found out how hassle it could be, remembered during one out-of-town trip where we were served pre-marinated barbecue and it turned out good. So i suggested to go to Monterey and buy pre-mixed meats that we can just cook in our destination

That's barbecue and korean beef plus rice. It was served with a siding of tomatoes, onions, and salted egg (not shown). It took I think less than 30 minutes to prepare or prolly a little more. But still, it does give you more time to have fun in the sun 'no? :)