Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Le Bazar de Cuisine

There is a beautiful little cooking shop located in Haidhausen called Le Bazar de Cuisine. Every time I pass I feel as though I am in a magazine spread. The windows change frequently and there is always some kind of interesting table decor or cooking instrument that beckons for me to do some cooking and baking myself. Another thing I love is how personal it seems - they have old fashioned price tags, which are just adorable. It also reminds me of an old Grandma's house that is filled with treasures... even though these treasures are all new.


Today after a long day of spring cleaning I am trying to decide just what it is I want to bake. I am considering a Caipirinha torte with the recipe being entirely German. Caipirnha is a drink that is very popular here and it comes from Brazil. It combines muddled limes, brown sugar rocks, ice, and Cachaça - which is a sugar cane alcohol (typically the brand 'Pitu'), for a refreshing drink. I'd assume the torte (or in my case mini cupcake tortes) can't be too bad either.


US style Brown sugar is a hot commodity here in Germany. I have found a decent substitute called Mascobado, which is whole cane sugar that is unrefined, however, I am going to let you in on a secret. Often times obscure foods from America can be found at the Asian groceries here. They have sweetened condensed milk and just yesterday I happened to find some brown sugar from Thailand that looks quite promising. It has the same wet sand consistency as the brown sugar from the US and I'm quite excited to try it out.

Hopefully between my deciphering of a German recipe and this brown sugar, I will be able to create something like the one pictured in the recipe. If not I guess I will have the ingredients to create a 'caipi' for myself.

(Caipirinha Torte photo courtesy of Kraft foods)

1 comment:

JoernandAllison said...

A Caipi torte, sounds perfect for the spring. Good luck with the German, and please, let me know how it goes!
I have heard lots say they have found a good brown sug. substitute in Asian food stores. They also sell "Milk Mädchen," in the stores, which is sweetened condensed milk, just in a very small amount. Aah, the joys of living in Germany.