Macarons and Lightning, very, very frightening (and tasty too!)
Posted: July 13, 2012 Filed under: Warsaw | Tags: 10th floor, apartment block, art, bakery, bang, biscuit, Blackcurrant, Bohemian Rhapsody, cake, centre, chocolate, city, complex, Cooking, flash, Food, formation, gooey, green, Home, huge, le roy & louis, light, lightning, lightning strikes, louis, Macaron, macarons, macaroon, macaroons, music, photo, photography, pistachio, posh, queen, restaurants, roy, rumble, sakura, sencha, shopping mall, squidgy, stall, storm, strobe, sweet, taste, tasty, tea, the great tea scape, three shots, thunder, travel, treat, vacation, vista, whole sky, yummy, zlote terasy 3 Comments
Try reading that title to the tune of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen….
So, Marta had never had Macarons/Macaroons before, and we came across this little stall in a shopping centre that was selling them, so I decided to get some as a little treat. Previously she thought they were some sort of wafer with a flavoured centre, but despite my attempts to explain them I couldn’t quite describe them properly. I guess you really do just need to taste them to find out. These ones from the company Le Roy & Louis (maybe an attempt at ‘poshing up’ the name Leroy?!?!) were pretty good, nice amount of crunch on the outside with a good squidgy centre. The Pistachio and the Chocolate were the best, the other two (Raspberry and Blackcurrant) were also good, but I think the Pistachio and Chocolate are a bit more classic. We munched them down with gusto when we got home, alongside a nice cup of Sencha Sakura tea.
That night there was the most spectacular thunderstorm, I have literally never seen or heard anything like it before. The amount of lightning strikes was just amazing, the whole sky was lighting up like a strobe in a smokey nightclub. It was just amazing. We went to the top floor of the apartment block, 10 stories up and watched the three storm formations circle around us. Despite the number (literally hundreds) of strikes it is surprisingly hard to take a photograph of the lightning. It took me the best part of 700 photos to get just three shots of the lightning, and only one of those was really something special. They are all below.
Enjoy!
A Tea-cap.
Posted: July 8, 2012 Filed under: Berlin, Tallinn, Warsaw | Tags: 5, 5 o'clock, assam, Berlin, black, blog, caffeine, cake, Cape Verde, chado, china, doing the rounds, drink, estonia, everyday, flower blossom, flower blossoms, Food, free, ginseng, golden chariot, good earth, granulated, green, green tea, high tea, holiday, life saver, magic punch, mate, night, o clock, oolong, perfect, Poland, power, powerful, quality tea, roasted, rolled, rosamonte, sakura, scone, sencha, smooth, Tallinn, tea, Tea house, tea shop, tea time, the great tea scape, thegreateascape, thegreatteascape, travel, vacation, Warsaw, wordpress, yunnan Leave a comment
So, those of you who have followed me from the very beginning will know that this blog all started with a tea everyday, and usually a little something was said about the teas. This hasn’t really been happening in a while, but I just want you to know that I have not abandoned tea, far from it in fact. This is a little round up, a tea-cap if you will, of all the teas currently doing the rounds in my cup. Some have been with me a long time, some are much newer, some are good, some less so. But here you go!
The Golden Chariot tea above is not very good quality tea at all, hence it costing so little, but I bought it because I really love the packaging!
I think that I am a bit obsessed with Yunnan Teas. This one from 5 o’clock, a smallish shop in Warsaw is a good everyday Green tea, but is nothing out of the ordinary.
I bought this Mate in Berlin for 1Euro. It is a roasted variety and is quite pleasant, being much smoother and less bitter on the palate than a normal Mate, but it lacks the magic punch and stimulation of the unroasted variety.
This tea, which is not strictly ‘mine’, is delicate and sweet, with the smoothness of the Sencha balanced well with flower blossoms.
A good quality and clear variety of Sencha tea from China.
Definitely just for night-time!
I’ve not tried this yet, and it is again not strictly mine, but I will let you know when / if I get my hands on it!
A standard Green Tea, but in a Cape Verde packet.
This is probably my most coveted tea, from Estonia I have been carrying this around since February. It is excellent, you can steep the leaves several times and it is delicate yet nourishing. If you happen to leave it a little long the Ginseng, in which the Oolong has been rolled, will start to create an odd, but not unpleasant, sweetness.
I love Mate, ever since I found it tucked away in a little farm shop in the middle of nowhere in England when i was about 16. This one is good, actually quite delicate in flavour, but it definitely does the job!
Last, but by no means least, is my Yunnan Green Oolong. I brought this with me when I started my trip and it has been perfect every time. I am running extremely low on it now so will only drink it occasionally. It is perfect for lifting the spirits and refreshing the soul. This tea is a life saver!
A Travel and Tea Diary 