Tuesday, September 01, 2015

Cavalock and The People-Watching Patisserie

Ever since our first visit to Tokyo a decade ago, its amazing selection of desserts have been tempting and luring us back like some mythological Siren. We used to frequent supermarket basements or "depachika" during those early trips but have since kinda "upgraded" to more specialised dessert joints like the famous patisserie Hidemi Sugino at Kyobashi.


Some of the best French pastry you'll ever find in Tokyo is right here. It's like if you only have time to visit one French pastry cafe here, this is it! But first you gotta find it as it's nicely tucked in a rather narrow and quiet street. Once you step in, you'll be greeted by a dazzling myriad of gorgeous delicate cakes. I won't pretend to possess the culinary vocabulary needed to praise every single one of them except to say that you can't possibility go wrong with whichever one you choose. Our bill for 3 cakes, coffee and tea was almost S$39.

But believe it or not, the highlight of my first visit here (baker-at-home has already been there once) was observing the other patrons. As it was the National Day long weekend, I wasn't that surprised to spot another Singaporean couple a few tables away. But what was interesting was how young they were. They appeared to be in their late teens, early twenties tops. Hey, I'm all for spending daddy's and mommy's money (heh) but when you start that young by flying your dates to cities around the world, you sure are setting the relationship bar real high. <^:^>

Then there were these two young attractive Japanese ladies seated at separate tables across the room. We believe they were food critics or writers. They were served a parade of Hidemi Sugino's masterpieces one after another. We counted four each and still going on strong after we left! The way they each gingerly dissect every piece then sniff and carefully examine them up close, followed by a flurry of note-taking. All before taking that first bite. It's like an episode of CSI: Food Forensic Detectives. More importantly, I don't think they snapped a single shot of their pastries!


And now this. Fake olive trees for sale in Tokyo. I swear if I can find them here I would grab a pot, dunno why but I'm simply fascinated with them. Maybe cos they remind me of my trip to Tuscany.


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