Creams and Lotions for Winter

Breaking out bottles and jars of creams and lotions for winter. In the cold, my skin can't get enough of moisturizers. Growing up in Hawai'i I never used cream - there was always enough moisture in the air. Seriously paradise. Here in NYC I slather it on when the temperature dips below 60F. Legs, neck, arms, and all in the middle. Otherwise, dry skin in a day. No wonder they say people age faster on the east coast.

Kiehl's Crème de Corps is a lifesaver and a staple. One big jar, we store it on the nightstand. Smother on at night and in the morning. It's a decadent feeling, whipped body cream made with soy milk and honey. Sinks right into your skin, no oily feel.

Now you realize. It's never just about the cream/lotion. It's also about the packaging and design. Cannot emphasize how important the packaging is. Bonus point and sways for containers and clever vessels that come easy on the eyes.

Hello Tocca. This Italian brand is best known for their amazing candles, but the creams and lotions deserve just as much attention. I'm working my way though this glass jar of Florence Crema Da Sogno, the Orris Rose scent at the moment, but will move on to a different scent (maybe the Bianca - Green Tea and Lemon) after we finish this jar. They just opened a shop in the West Village and you can test out all the creams there before settling on a scent. Too hard to pick only one favorite!

Tocca also does hand creams in cute little two-ounce squeeze bottles. The scents are too strong/girly for Pierres' liking, but it's perfect for myself. I buy them in a three-pack set, the "Crema Mani Viaggio." The set includes a tube each of Cleopatra (grapefruit cucumber), Stella (blood orange), and Florence (Orris Rose). They also sell the three hand creams individually if you don't like all the scents in the set.

And for the days it's extremely cold outside, I use a cream that really just coats you completely and thoroughly. But one that also leaves you feeling non-greasy and still light. Enter the Royal Jelly Body Butter from Savannah Bee Company. I'm a fan of their honey and many people don't know they also have a line of beauty products (it's not only food!) Lightly scented soap, body and lip balms.

The body butter uses pecan butter and "royal jelly" from the beehives. According to the box, this jelly is "a 'Cinderella' substance that turns a worker bee into a Queen.... and allows her to live 40 times longer than the average bee." I can't promise you this, but I can assure you that the cream is amazingly voluptuous, really thick and doesn't slide off anytime you wash your hands. Besides, the glass jar is a nice bonus, no? ;)

...don't even get me started on face creams, heheh. We'll touch that subject next time!

Hot Chocolate

There are only two things...

...I can imagine doing on an October day where we get rain, snow, sleet, and thunder. All at the same time. Did you see this photo of Washington Square Park in the NYT? That's exactly what it looked like when we walked though the park this afternoon.

1. Early dinner at Babbo. First time in history we've stroll in for two corner bar seats with zero wait time. A decadent dish of Warm Lamb’s Tongue followed by Gnocchi with Braised Oxtail and Lamb Chops. Winter food. Two glasses of wine, one cocktail.

2. An evening at home with hot chocolate on the stove.

I wrote about La Maison du Chocolat's Tasse de Chocolat on Serious Eats. One of my favorite hot chocolates for good reason. These silky dark chocolate pearls are just as fine whisked and melted in hot whole milk and cream as it is straight up for snacking.

Whisk, whisk, whisk.

Drink up in little espresso cups. Precious. Too decadent for anything bigger.

Huggable Tea Cups

Late Friday afternoon at Le Gamin. I love these tea mugs, don't you?

Warm and huggable. A little doily and matching saucer. There's a hand knotted tea bag housing peppermint-based blends in the center. Bright and minty, honey on the side. It's hard to imagine a more inviting cup, especially at this authentic French cafe. Le Gamin's very charming owner, Robert Arbor (whom I first met at Olivia's apartment in 2007!) also serves his signature iced tea here. That you must try on a warmer day. But as of now, the weather forecast calls for snow tomorrow and so hot teas and tisanes it is. For big cheerful mugs also look in the direction of...

...Harney & Sons, love the elegant foot and handle on this one, and...

...Le Pain Quotidien, saucer-less but still adorable.

Sugar Rush'ed...

Happy Friday! I write the 'Sugar Rush' column + other sweet stuff for Serious Eats.

This week we ate golden canelés from Petrossian...a good one is almost impossible to find in NYC, so take note. Tons of pumpkin desserts, including a top ten round-up for the season. Can't miss the pumpkin doughnuts in cake and yeast form at the Doughnut Plant. Speaking of Doughnut Plant, they recently introduced fresh nut milks...think raw pistachios and cashews. Each milk is scented with different spices (cinnamon, nutmeg) and they are heavenly. Pies, apples tarts, and earl grey cupcakes, enjoy!

Sugar Rush: Canelés at Petrossian

Sugar Rush: Pumpkin Cheesecake and Whoopie Pies at Tribeca Treats

Cool Drinks, NY: Fresh Nut Milks at Doughnut Plant

Our 10 Favorite Pumpkin Desserts in NYC

Sugar Rush: Earl Grey Cupcakes at BabyCakes

Sugar Rush: Plum Crumble at Four & Twenty Blackbirds

Sugar Rush: Apple Tarts at O Cafe

Facial Sprays, Mists, and Waters

Forgive me while we venture off the subject of food for a second, but something else has consumed my mind. Facial sprays, facial mists, facial waters. It is technically food...but for the skin. Ahaha.

I've always been a little nuts for sprays. There's something rather nice about carrying a tiny bottle of elixir in your purse...this is magic, this shall hydrate me to youth. Whether it actually works or not, I love the idea of spraying a potion on your face. Hold the bottle six inches away...that's the perfect distance. Press down, and out releases a cool dreamy mist. Some are scented and some are not. I could go either way. Little travel size bottles of Evian always come with me on the plane. It's the most basic of facial hydration mists...and you have to love the packaging.

Some people poo pah the sprays: it's water - why don't you just wash your face?! You know who you are. And for you I whisk out the Moisture Bound Skin Energy Hydration Delivery System from AmorePacific. The name is so long, but the faint sweet scent is addictive. Inside...no water but bamboo sap. Pure stabilized bamboo sap and not a touch of water. The mist feels slightly thicker (almost like a clear liquid spray lotion) than other water-based sprays. AmorePacific thoughtfully puts a reflective sticker on the cap of each bottle - that "mirror" has come in handy more than once.

And then of courses, there's my collection of rose waters. I bottle the Mymoné and Nielsen-Massey rose water in empty Jurique bottles just because those don't come with spritzer caps. Store in the fridge and I use these for not only my face but the entire body right after I shower. It is...how do you say? Ahh right, heaven.

This is Breakfast

Okay guys, I'm pretty sure this is what I'd like to have for breakfast every morning. Petrossian hosted their annual media breakfast earlier this week. They baked pastries in miniature just for the occasion - you know how I love miniatures. Tiny croissants of the super flaky and butter-rich sort. Little financiers studded in melting chocolate shards and pecans. Then there was silky smoked salmon slices presented in tidy pairs and caviar and quail egg atop blini. A dish like this each morning and no day could possibly go wrong. Don't forget the hot tea + coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice.

Breakfast

Good morning! Do you eat breakfast every day? I weave in and out - sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. But I figure it's about time I established some consistency. Wake up 30-minutes earlier than usual, prepare a quick meal. I'm not a cold breakfast person, especially during fall/winter. Hot dishes and "real" food preferred. Today, two scrambled eggs topped with trout roe and olive oil crackers. I beat some crème fraîche with the eggs to make it extra-rich, but usually just add whole milk or cream. The trout roe is gifted from California Caviar Company, so decadent, and this particular one is infused with bourbon. And that's how we'll start the day off right.

Halloween Macarons!

Happy (early) Halloween. Orange-Passionfruit Macarons from Ladurée, six lined in a row. Limited edition treasures, brightly colored, just for Halloween. The tart of the passionfruit/lilikoi balances out the sweet orange. Pistachio and rose still tie as my favorite flavors, but this is mighty fun. They've been available at the shop for a few days now, and come appropriately in a noir case trimmed with gold. More sexy than scary, it's a keepsake to add to our ever growing collection of macaron boxes.

I'm not a Halloween person (you'll catch me avoiding crowds, inside with a movie that night)....but as far as these macarons go? Yes, please. And for once we have a leg up on the Paris locations of Ladurée: this flavor is available only in NYC, heheh.

Gotham Magazine: Tea Pairings at Union Square Café

Happy Tuesday! My article on tea and dessert/cheese pairings for Gotham Magazine just went live today. Union Square Café recently introduced this program, run by the really sweet and knowledgeable Karen Dunlap. Teas are by In Pursuit of Tea and the desserts/cheeses are of course, awesome. Click here to read the article and enjoy ^_^

International Afternoon Tea Books

Lisa recently lent me a ton of great afternoon tea books to explore (she has them all!!) - I was truly surprised by how many books on this subject exist.

If there is one conclusion I can draw from these books, it's that international afternoon tea books are decidedly better than ones published in the US. Not even a close call. The US books are often repetitive, boring and Victorian frou frou. There's a time and place for frou frou, but based off US books alone, you'd think that afternoon tea couldn't be chic, classy or elegant. When in fact, it should be all the above. Enough with the rant ;) These are three of my favorite international books on afternoon tea.

1. Tea & Cake London. This mini-book reminds me of the afternoon tea version of Patisseries of Paris (which I briefly mentioned in this post).

It's a visually driven book of all the spots in London where you can have...tea and cake! Categorized in reader-friendly sections like everyday specials for cafes and tearooms, grand affairs for a formal afternoon tea, and tea with a twist for alternative and themed tea spots. The grand affairs section is my favorite, with teasers into The Ritz, Palm Court at The Langham, and Fortnum & Mason...I will get there one day.

2. The Australian Women's Weekly Afternoon Tea. It's technically a magazine, not a book. But given the high quality printing, material, and structure of this "magazine," I'll sure be treating it like a book.

This one is all recipes - mostly sweets with a few savory tea sandwiches. How can you resist rosewater meringues with fairy floss! Expect to find everything from fig and walnut friands to lilikoi cream biscuits.

Conversion chart, tea menus, and colorful ingredient grids fold out the cover.

3. The Vintage Tea Party Book. The cover of this British book is little scary. This is not your cutesy afternoon tea book.

It's a sassy, very complete and in-your-face book that starts with recipes, but also includes a lot of DIY activities. Like how to decorate a hat (you can't attend a tea party without a hat of course), how to make candles, and how to pick the "perfect" vintage dress. Vintage dresses (and vintage anything for that matter) also creep me out, but it's surely the thought that counts.

Keep your eyes out for the rose petal tea sandwiches :)

Weekend Snapshots

1. Sunday movie. Cambozola Black Label - buttery blue cheese, crackers, red wine.

2. Afternoon gelato stop at La Cremeria on Mulberry Street

3. Blending ink colors at Shann's graphic design studio in Gowanus. I should have figured when we became friends in middle school (we've known each other for 13 years now!) that she'd eventually become an expert at letterpress.

Shann did the design + printing for my business cards. She's seriously amazing at this. The machine behind her is a giant paper cutter - the "guillotine," heheh.

Letterpress machine! The entire open studio set up was both foreign and fascinating. Most of the day involved me oohing and ahhi-ng. So this is how you make it....that's how card comes together? ...this is how you turn xxx dark/shiny/awesome? Forgive me, I'm usually surrounded by food and computers. Thanks a bazillion Shann!!

Afternoon break with mugs of hot tea...and a late lunch of Thai food. Can't go wrong with curry and drunken noodles on a cold day.

4. Da Bao from Mei Li Wah. Only $1.60 apiece. Stuffed with lup cheong, pork, and chicken. It used to come with a hard boiled egg inside as well...but not anymore. The one from Bale in Honolulu is still my favorite, a super big Da Bao worthy of the name. Filled with everything including the egg, mushrooms, and vermicelli noodles.

5. 5pm at Buvette in the West Village...

...daily specials on the board. That foie gras aux pommes sound especially good ;)

6. Friday night dinner with Nikki at the James Beard Foundation. A lovely 5-course meal from Chef Abraham Salum of Komali and Salum in Dallas. The sight of so many wine glasses at the table always makes me smile.

7. Saturday morning breakfast with Shann at Four & Twenty Blackbirds. The people who work here aren't very nice, but the pies are delicious.

8. Dim Sum at Jing Fong. Pierre calls this place "dim sum football field," and that it is. I love the steamers piled high on rolling carts, the energy, and the fact that we scored a whole table (no sharing required!) to ourselves today.

Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend!