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2010-04-25
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Noticed this shop undergoing renovation riding on the No.10 Bus and highly anticipated its opening - well it was certainly excruciatingly nerve wrecking during this waiting period as I had fears and grew skeptical as to what this upcoming shop was about to offer to us Hong Kong crepe lovers. You see, I couldn't help but pre-judge this shop as I WAS SO CERTAIN that it will again fail my expectation, turning out to be yet another pretender exploiting the theme of 'French Creperie' but never
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'Galette' La Broceliande -
As mentioned before in my Simplicity review, a savoury Crepe is actually called a Galette, even in a Creperie shop. Abnormalities do exists however, as something like a Crepe Complete or La Complete is savoury but named as a crepe occasionally, even though its still defined as a Galette de Bretagne. And that's not taking into consideration a Galette Des Rois, something still round but entirely different but resembling a tart. And just to make things the more confusing the modern iron grill used to make commercial crepes or galettes is also called galette.
This savoury galette is made of my favourite ingredients: crumbly blocks of fresh Chevre goat cheese, along with some salad and Walnut pieces. On top of the salad sat another piece of panfried Crotin de Chavignol goat cheese, a perennial favourite, not too dissimilar to say grilled Greek Saganaki or grilled Italian Scarmoza. The buckwheat flour derived galette/crepe skin was made pretty well, with a strong buckwheat flavour much like Japanese soba.
'Crepe' Le Krampouz -
According to my episodic memories, Crepes & Breton Galettes as served in Creperies in France are not always too definitive 'crispy' always. Even though most of the time the outer perimeters are crisp as they curl back from the edges, sometimes the middle remains steamy and moist rather than crispy, much like what I experienced in Saveur de France and Epoch and in certain creperies in France. The Galettes and Crepes in La Creperie however are more of the crispy type through and through, which I think many Hong Kong people had come to expect anyway as they're more used to Japanese crispy crepe styles. This Le Krampouz was made up of stewed Apple, salted butter caramel and cinnamon. The cinnamon spice wasn't apparent, but the home-made salted butter caramel was expectedly awesome (available for take-away!), the apples meanwhile stewed perfectly without being too mushy or crunchy. The crepe itself, rather than brittle like a buckwheat galette, was surprisingly very 'elastic' yet crispy. Very good. I thought this could have done with a few more pieces of apples or some ice cream though!
Val de Rance Apple 'Cidre' Brut
No Galette or Crepe meal is complete without a Northern France Cider. Although Bretons can proudly lay claims to being the inventor of Bretagne Galettes, the Normans and Bretons have been arch rivals for years when it comes down to sensitive things like French ciders, Butter, the Best Oysters, Mussels, milk, cows, cheeses, etc, if you have ever been to that area! Let's not include the Poitou area below! Normandy has probably already won battle over Brittany on who really owns Mont Saint-Michel or Calvados, but when it comes to Ciders, its still an ongoing battle. My personal preference has always been a Pear cider, which is what Domfrontais from Normandy is definitively famous for but unfortunately unavailable in Hong Kong. When that's unavailable I revert to the more traditional, basic Apple Cider which is still a lovely alternative! This Val de Rance apple cider is very orangey like a 葡萄色 and instantly likeable, but in the cup it has an acquired taste much like a slightly mouldy-water backdrop, so this fermented taste is not for everyone! As is expected, the ciders here are served in white ceramic bowls, as per Breton tradition - and this is what distinguishes it from its Norman or Mont Saint Michel counterparts.
Kerne Apple ' Cidre' -
When I left, I ordered this as Take-away Full Bottle for $120, which has won a Gold Medal in France. This drank very differently to the above Val de Rance version. It was instantly more clearer in taste, slightly more yellow than orange plus more acidic, its definitely more approachable as it carried none of that slight mouldiness taste as above. This actually tasted so similar to most Normandy apple ciders I've tried before, which are usually made from more rawer smaller apples which might otherwise be inedible. I personally enjoyed the above cider more as it had more character!
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I am glad my skepticism was proven wrong by La Creperie, and I'll rather I be wrong!! However the irony about La Creperie is that somehow it shares at least one common point with some of the shops I've mentioned in my previous Just Cafe review. What I'm trying to say, is that somehow, our city has once again been negated then relegated to a secondary city status somewhat, since just like FOFO by El Willy, Bairin, Romankan, Mos Burger, or even Bologne from Kyoto, ours citizens only finally became beneficiaries of what has been success stories in Shanghai or Singapore or Malaysia or Taiwan already for years! And I still can't foresee us getting any Daniel Boulud's or Jean George's landing here anytime soon either, ex-Vong doesn't count, even though they've already landed in Shanghai and will be present in Singapore. That's despite those 2 cities not even having a Michelin's Guide to entice more restaurateurs. Can we as foodies of Hong Kong, ever turn this trend around? ; - )
LA CREPERIE is owned by a Breton, managed by a French man, and the Consulting Chef is also of French origin, the all three musketeers certainly have very high expectations with their new Hong Kong outlet. Since this is only the soft-opening stage, it will take weeks for the kinks to be ironed out and currently unavailable items are still being scheduled to make permanent appearances soon in May!
One such item, as is common in French Creperies and worth looking forward to, is their Aumonieres - basically folded baskets with a filling inside which works as a highly addictive appetiser. Note that an aumoniere in a creperie shop is however quite different to the aumonieres served in a restaurant, as its actually made of crepes skins rather than pastry layers. Vice versa, a galette served in a haute cuisine restaurant resembles nothing like a crepe, its more like a folded blini. La Creperie will also host a Mussels night soon every week, served with fries. I'll certainly look forward to returning very soon indeed in May when it all materialises, amongst trying other crepe offerings.
張貼
