PIQ's macarons coin purses are cute enough to eat!

As a certifiable macaron FANATIC, I am ashamed that I've lived this long without one of these in my life! Nordstrom's French Fling pop-in shop brought these to my attention. They are little coin purses that are even scented to match their "flavour"!! Too cute! 

They're already sold out from Nordstrom, but you can still snag one up directly from PIQ for $16. Which colour will YOU be getting?

Another Weekend in Montréal

I've quickly gotten into the habit of taking a few days off every month or other month, certainly not a bad thing! I went up to Montréal again this past weekend. I left very early Sunday morning and came back late Tuesday night. Here's what I got into while there. 

Sushi at Bistro Isakaya to celebrate my Mum's birthday!

Festival Juste Pour Rire | Bouffons Montréal food truck festival | Ritual pilgramage to Bilboquet

Fou d'Ici | Bikini shopping at La Baie | Another ritual stop at Pizzédélic

La Maison du Macaron | Stade Olympique | Cooling off with a cider

Mosaicultures Internationales de Montréal | Le Marche Bonsecours 

Quick and packed with awesome sites, great food, even better coffee. I'm going back in September but for two long weeks! That should be pleasant. Where have you been to lately? Be sure to follow me on Twitter and Instagram for my day-to-day adventures in real life. Thanks so much for stopping by and hope to see you again soon!

Out and About in New York City!

I went down to New York to visit my friend, Sara, over the weekend and much like my trip to Montréal in April, it was filled with shopping, ALL of the coffee, eating (gluten-free!) and drinking, and lots of walking. It was great to spend time with her after not having seen her in person for a year and lots of fun being in the Big City. If you follow me on Instagram, then you got a glimpse of our shenanigans in real time. Here you can get the whole rundown.

Burgundy Wine Company | La Maison du Macaron | Baby Sparrow

After picking me up at the bus drop off (I traveled with Megabus), Sara and I made our way over to the Chelsea area. On our way, we passed this wine store with the amusing sign in the window. I definitely recommend popping in to this shop for any and all of your (French) wine needs (but seriously, what other wine needs would you have anyway?). The owner was in and wonderfully nice as well incredibly knowledgeable. Added incentive: they do wine tastings all day every day. The two wines that day were a Rosé and a Pinot Noir. Continuing on our way, we stumbled upon La Maison du Macaron where we naturally had to pop in. We managed to keep our cool and limited ourselves to only one macaron each. I got the Orange Blossom flavour and am happy to report that it was divine. Now onto the baby sparrow story.

Baffled, while holding a baby sparrow | Bareburger | Having a Trop Pop after a spot of shopping 

Yes, that is a live baby sparrow in my hand. Why? Well, Sara and I were walking down 8th Avenue and we passed this poor baby on the sidewalk. Before having even a second to think of what to do, a man walked up to it, picked him up and just dropped him into my hands. We probably stood there for at least five minutes completely baffled. Thankfully, New York loves its animals and a quick Google search showed plenty of animal hospitals around, one of which was conveniently just a few blocks away. He was totally cool with the walk over - bobbing his head with each step and either pretending to fly or just drying his wings. The animal hospital was SO nice. They immediately took him from me to check on him but had us wait to know how he was. It turns out that he was dehydrated and he had a minor infection on his back, probably from the fall out of his nest. One of the nurses there fosters birds and offered to take him home and nurse him back to health until he's ready to be released. They gave me the option to do that myself if I wanted, but how on Earth would I have gotten him back to Boston? I'm ecstatic that I was able to help a tiny little life.

Still trying to get over that after dousing our hands with hand sanitizer, we headed over to Bareburger for lunch (where more hand washing and sanitizing ensued). Widely acclaimed for their all-natural, free-range burgers, they're also very popular for gluten-free! I've had to be gluten-free since early June due to my inflammatory polyarthritis and let me tell you, it has NOT been easy. Sara was absolutely brilliant and searched for a variety of gluten-free eateries before my arrival so that there wouldn't be any worry about breaking my diet during my stay. I got a wild boar burger on their tapioca bun and it was delicious! I am wicked excited about the fact that Bareburger will be coming to Boston sometime in the Fall.

Pie Face | Iced "Kick My Arse" Cappuccino | Oren's Daily Roast

It was a bit past midnight at this point, but we were walking around the outskirts of Times Square and stumbled upon this interesting spot. Pie Face is originally an Australian concept that has made its way to New York. Their claim to fame, and also their name, is their mini-pies with faces on them. Quite cute and I imagine probably delicious, but sadly something I couldn't try because of gluten. I did however try one of their coffees. They have four coffee "settings", if you will. Decaf is "still asleep", medium strength is "open my eyes", strong is "start my heart", and super strong (the one I naturally went for) is "kick my arse". Well, it wasn't kidding*. We went to Empanada Mama around 2 in the morning, where the gluten-free empanadas and delicious margarita made me envy New Yorkers for a hot second (I wish Boston was more on its A-game with the 24-hour/gluten-free accommodations/empanada scene). The next day, we started off at Oren's Daily Roast which in my opinion, is still the best iced coffee I've had to date thus far.

*Partially related side story: on Tuesday, I kind of, sort of went through what I'm assuming was caffeine overdose. I woke up that morning as if I had just woken up from the dead - one of those sit-straight-up, gasping-for-air kind of moments. That was before I looked at the time and saw that it was the exact time I was supposed to arrive at work. Heart palpitations, noticeable twitching, and uncontrollable fidgeting made up the next four hours until I finally calmed down. Then I went through what I'm calling the spectrum of misery. I went from wanting to kill everyone in sight, to having a horrible headache, to crashing really hard, to feeling physically sick and back again. I did the math, and between Friday and Monday, I consumed 45 shots of espresso. Yes. That happened. I don't recommend you try this at home.

Brunch at Nook | Mini-Me's at the LEGO Store | Chocolat Michel Cluziel

We met up with Sara's friends, Caitlin and Kenneth, for brunch at Nook. Located in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, this tiny little place was fantastic. Sara, Kenneth, and I all got various scrambled eggs (mine were with cream cheese and smoked salmon) accompanied by salad and sweet potato hash, and Caitlin got the smoked salmon eggs benedict. The iced Belgian chocolate was superb. We went to the LEGO store by the Rockefeller Center afterwards, which has a station where you can build your own LEGO people! We each made our own likeness. Don't ask why I decided to be a Musketeer. Moving on, we stumbled upon another shop with macarons and once again showed great self control by only getting one each. I got a lavender one and it was also wonderful. 

Daily dose of deliciousness | Grand Central Terminal | The Art of the Brick

We passed through Grand Central for the hell of it, which is celebrating its 100th year, then made our way to Discovery Times Square to see The Art of the Brick exhibit before I had to catch my bus back. Open until January 5, if you are in the area or will be in the area before then, please go and see this. The pieces Nathan Sawaya put together are incredible and a must-see for anyone that has ever enjoyed LEGOs in their life. At the end of the exhibit, there's an interactive piece where you are given a LEGO and you write your name on it; once the exhibit closes, Mr. Sawaya will take all of those pieces and will create a special work with them. 

This was definitely an enjoyable little weekend. I look forward to going out and having more of these. Do you enjoy these sorts of posts? Let me know if you happen to go to any of the places I listed and do follow me on Instagram if you aren't already, to keep up with my day-to-day adventures. Thank you for reading and hope to see you again soon! 

Macaron Marathon: Cakeology

Back in November, there was a weekend where I was pretty under the weather. My Dad brought me two dozen macarons that had been left over from a function he helped with. Ziggy (my chihuahua) and I spent the day nibbling on them one by one and they made me feel so much better. I thought they were excellent and wanted to get more. I asked him him to find out who made them but no one seemed to know so I resolved to go around all of Boston and its surrounding areas to try and track them down. Even if I never found them again, I would still be eating lots of macarons and hopefully finding some fantastic spots along the way. I decided to name this segment Macaron Marathon because if you say it in French, it rhymes. Whenever I go to a new place, I will report back with pictures and my thoughts.

The macaron hunt began at Cakeology, located in Boston's Downtown Crossing at 45 Province Street. It's a vibrant little shoppe with big open windows to view the workspace and the products from the outside.

Their primary specialty is cupcakes and special occasion cakes, but they make two macarons of different flavours that change every day. When I walked in, the pastry chef was in the middle of filling a fresh batch of macarons, something I really appreciated knowing that some places sell frozen ones. The inside of the shoppe is kind of small but open so that you can watch the sugary treats being made behind the counter. Metallic pink paint stains the hardwood floors and the walls are painted a vibrant purple with multi-tiered modell cakes on various shelves. There are three tables, each one with potted grass and (rainbow and chocolate) sprinkle shakers as center pieces. All in all, a very cute spot to enjoy a hot beverage and some sweets tucked away behind the hustle and bustle of downtown.

The two flavours that day were pistachio and hazelnut. I got two of each, priced at $1.75 a pop. The texture of the shells was a bit firmer than I normally expect for a macaron; these were not the type that literally disintegrate after each bite. Do not take this as too much of a negative, their being thicker made for less mess and longer enjoyment. They were both visibly grainy, a result from not grinding the almonds finely enough - a problem of aesthetics, not taste. A macaron snob would write these ones off completely because of these slip-ups but my heart is big enough that I still have room for leniency. My only issue was the filling in both of them. It was a very sugary cream, so sweet that it sadly took away from the both the pistachio and hazelnut flavours of the shells. Regardless, I did enjoy these macarons and I would recommend Cakeology if you're looking for a spot in downtown Boston.

Also in the Boston area? Let me know if there's any place you know of that I should check out by leaving a comment or tweeting me. Thanks so much for reading and stay tuned for more dainty delights!