Sweet Sweet Date at Laduree and Debauille

Laudree

(Harbor City, Tsim Tsa Tsui)

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Once in a while there are these inexplicable days when my soul, body and mind join forces in craving chocolate. That's literally the way it seems! It's as if i NEED chocolate as much as I need that gulp of water after running on the tracks.. or sometimes it's even worse!

Yet, I always find myself reluctant to indulge myself in a sweet-sweet-heaven, for the simple reason that I fear I will not be able to control myself. Those of you (especially boys) who do not have similar cravings will never truly understand how deep this lust for cakes, chocolates, macaroons, cupcakes lies.. but for those who "suffer" with similar symptoms  I think you'll get my point of how much will-power it took to go crazy and eat a whole box of chocolate.

Anyhow... that's why on occasion one must enjoy a day of indulgence. Pure Pure indulgence without thinking about calories, exercises, abs, sugars, butter, chocolate or WHATEVER. You just enjoy the company, the taste and the inexplicable magical taste of chocolate.

After trying out Laudree for the first time in Paris, I fell in LOVE with macaroons. I mean I always though they were these overly sugary and sweet 'candy' like things but... after having a proper macaroon (or dozens) I was mesmerized at how many flavors, sweetness and depth a cute little macaroon can bring! From there on I went to convince and bring many of my friends to show how we asians are missing out on these lovely little treats. 

For some bizarre reason, we only decided to buy ONE chocolate macaroon each... and although they were sublime (but..... the ones in Paris were just so much better) it was simply not enough for a proper dessert. It was probably not a good idea to be out with a friend who loved chocolate (possibly even more than me).. but after convincing ourselves that macaroon was not enough we marched off to the other end of the Harbor City.

Debailleul

I had never heard of this shop before but it had good reviews on open-rice AND us being disappointed at the limited cakes left at COVA, we decided to give it a try... We had arrived there around 8:30PM (the shop closes at 9:00PM), and the place was totally deserted. Although we had initally felt uncomfortable at the lack of customers, we were happy to know that there were no more minimum service charges and that we also had the waiter's full attention to provide was lengthy recommendations and explanations...

THey did have a very wide range of cakes (and cupcakes too) and after a very tough and heated discussion we finally settled on Black Forest Cake with Chocolate Mouse and Vanilla Cream as its filling.

Oh...man.. you thought this looks good? Wait till you crack the thin layer of crispy chocolate to find...

This gorgeous layer of chocolate mouse, vanilla cream and biscuit layer soaked in coffee.... I had originally thought it would be a little too sweet but there was none of that artifical sugary flavor but just the deep smooth richness of chocolate mouse with vanilla cream. 

We had originally planned to share one, but after finishing the black forest cake so quickly... we simply had to try a new one! Alas, here it is Rubico - dark chocolate mouse with pistachio cream and chocolate brittle covered with raspberry paste. IT was heavenly.