Patisserie Chou Chou

What do you do when there's a French patisserie right around the corner of your house, as in, 4 minutes walk away?

The college girls fear the freshman-15, I fear the foreigner-20. Can you blame me?

You would never guess that behind the door of the quaint little Patisserie Chou Chou is a tall and stern-looking Japanese man in his chef uniform. But don't let his mask scare you. Evidently, he's a sweet, sweet man ^.^

The first time when hubby brought home some Chou Chou sweets for me, we both gobbled them all up before I could take a picture. This time, I was able to stop myself to take a photo :) Check out this Japanese review site for even more pictures, including a photo of the store front, which I was reluctant to snap. These are not the best little cakes I've had (and the Japanese review site agrees with me!), but for a mere 4 minutes walk, they'll certainly hold me over for a while. I must note that I do appreciate very much the fact that Chou Chou's pastries are on the light side and are not overly sweet at all!

Clockwise from top:

- Coffee eclair

- Pistachio mousse cake

- Strawberry mousse cake

- Cream puff

Taped to the left side of the box is a mini icepack, just to keep the sweets chilled in the melty Japanese summer.

And where have I had the best little cakes?

I have had the best coffee and chocolate eclairs as well as different flavor napoleons (original, pistachio, strawberry, raspberry, etc.) at The Little Chef Pastry Shop, but his cakes and tarts are a bit too sweet for my taste.

Chez Alice has the most delicious red velvet cake. Ever. I generally love their cakes, but overall my experience with Chez Alice was marred by 2 incidents in which they sold me moldy cakes. As in, I bought the cakes, brought them home, ate a slice, thought it tasted funny, dumped the slice into the trash bin only to see medallions of green and white fuzzy mold at the bottom of the slice, dumped the whole cake into the trash bin and saw the same on the rest of the cake. Yep, not once, but twice. I stopped buying their cakes unless it was a special order and made fresh.

I think my favorite cake shop would have to be Andre's Confiserie Suisse. I learned of them several years back when my cousin, J., had a Mocca Torte cake made there for a special occasion. I became a devoted fan since. Their mini pastries can be a tad on the sweet side, their Mocca Torte, Tiramisu, or just tortes in general, are to die for. Need proof? Here.

Tiramisu Torte

The Mix Torte, for when you can't have just one, like me, with a quarter each of (clockwise from top) Rum, Chocolate, my beloved Mocca, and Pistachio Torte.

A slice I can't have enough of.