November 8, 2004

Bar à Veloutés, Take 2

On Saturday, Marion and I hosted our second Bar à Veloutés at the Printemps department store, during the Invasions Gourmandes event. We had served savory veloutés last Thursday, and served sweet ones this time.

Our guests could choose one of three veloutés :
- Velouté coco (a kind of coconut mousse)
- Velouté pistache (a pistachio-flavored crème brûlée)
- Velouté williams (a velvety pear compote)

They could then choose to sprinkle on :
- Raisins granités (chopped frozen grapes)
- Eclats de fruits (dried fruit flakes)
- Framboises brisées (frozen pearls of raspberry)

And finally they could dip in one of the following :
- Caramel de tournesol (sunflower seed brittle)
- Meringue gingembre (ginger meringue)
- Polochon carotte (a pillowy carrot biscuit)

I'll let you guess which is which is which on the picture above -- a little game to brighten your day, how's that?

This second edition was very successful too, and we were very happy to have over 350 visitors -- perfect strangers mostly, but also friends, family and C&Z readers -- come by to taste our concoctions. The pairings worked well, the little tasting tumblers looked pretty and appealing, and we had more than enough of everything to please everyone. We even kept the bar open for a little longer than scheduled because we still had supplies and guests.

Being behind a tasting stand is always an fascinating experience (I don't know, free food does strange things to the human mind), this one particularly so : since the Bar à Veloutés concept had been especially created by us for this occasion and didn't fall into any obvious category, we got interesting reactions. A handful of people were somewhat dumbfounded, wondering what the use was (um, none) and what we were trying to sell (um, nothing), having the hardest time imagining something that was free and just for fun and tastebud pleasure. Thankfully, most of our visitors were surprised and intrigued, their interest tickled, wanting to taste it all. And this is exactly what we were trying to achieve, offering an original tasting experience, one that would be rich in colors, textures and flavors.

Post-scriptum about the recipes : they are creations of Marion and myself, and as much as I'm usually willing to share my own recipes (surely you've noticed!), I need to check with her first and see what our "policy" is on these...

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