remember the last time i said i was really lucky coz i got to try pierre herme's macarons from both tokyo and paris just two weeks apart from each other? this time i'm even luckier coz i got to try sadaharu AOKI's macarons from both taipei & paris on the same day, thx to my two lovely friends angela and claire! since claire returned from paris for almost two weeks already, i ate the macarons straight without taking any photos :( here are the ones from taipei that angela got me.

i've never really been much of a tea drinker but i still find myself buying lotsa tea for baking nevertheless coz i think they taste better in cakes and desserts than just drinking them alone. i've been eyeing on this recipe for quite sometime but i wasn't sure how it would turn out coz this is actually a fatless sponge as it doesn't require the use of oil or butter. i was pretty doubtful intially coz i've not made cakes that didn't require butter but ever since i made the butterless biscuit joconde from hidemi sugino's fruits rouges entremet i realize it actually tasted pretty good. the original recipe uses sencha (i think) but i decided to be adventurous and use gryphon's pearl of the orient instead. its actually jasmine tea infused with rose and its really really nice!

while making a fresh batch of kimchi yesterday, i decided to make some kkaktugi as well using the same chilli paste. this is really easy to make and very yum! all you hv to do is just cut the radish into cubes, sprinkle with some salt, leave it on for 30 mins and give it a good rinse afterwards then proceed as usual like how you would make kimchi. the recipe for the chilli paste is from maangchi. enjoy!