Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Jin Patisserie

Ah... how I adore macarons. I still remember my first macaron was from La Boulange Bakery from San Francisco several years ago and I instantly fell in love with it. I've searched near and far for macarons in the LA area (Paulette's is my next stop!) and have been utterly disappointed. Rumor has it that Bottega Louie and Euro Pane serve some great macarons - LIES! When I was about to give up looking for delish macarons in LA, a pastry chef recommended Jin Patisserie. While I like food recommendations from others... obviously it adds alot more weight when it comes from a chef. So I trekked all the way to Venice one weekend for some macarons and afternoon tea.
Located in a renovated cottage home on Abbot Kinney in Venice, Jin Patisserie serves light lunches, desserts, tea, and MACARONS in a small intimate courtyard.

Box of Macarons

My box of macarons... flavors from left to right (hopefully I remembered them correctly): yuzu (tart citrus fruit), hazelnut, pistachio, strawberry, rose, salted caramel, raspberry, green tea. My faves were the yuzu and salted caramel. After biting into the crunchy crust, the center was soft and chewy with a buttercream filling... it wasn't too sweet and the flavor combinations complemented each other very well - simply divine! So delish that we finished the entire box right there. I think I was in heaven for a bit... 

- $12 -

Afternoon Tea

The afternoon tea was somewhat of a disappointment. Not that it was bad, but with the caliber of the macarons, I really thought the tea set will be better. The egg sandwich was good... not too heavy, but I missed my cucumber sandwiches. The orange scones were a bit too fluffy for my taste- I like my scones the traditional way with more butter and a bit denser. However, the blackberry preserves were quite excellent. The tiny mushroom spinach quiche was a tad too oily for me as was the pound cake. Of the three other mini cakes served (chocolate mousse with a rice krispies crust, mango, raspberry), the chocolate mousse definitely hit it out of the ballpark! Silky dark chocolate on a crunchy chocolate rice krispies crust- who would have thought of using rice krispies as a crust!  

- $19 -

Jin Patisserie is such a gem - well, at least their macarons are! Why must it be so far away? 

Jin Patisserie
1202 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 399-8801

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