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Gourmet News, No. 36 "I love eclairs - not cream puffs, not Mont Blanc -"

Recently, a TV program aired a segment where they asked ordinary citizens on the street to choose between cream puffs and Mont Blanc, and had them guess which one was the majority choice. I guessed it was cream puffs.

The cream puffs, which were introduced as the latest trend, were custard cream topped with a dollop of butter cream, and I could tell they were a high-end version of the butter-filled dorayaki that we often see these days. The Mont Blanc, as always, seemed to be an extension of a past fad, with Japanese chestnuts and the requirement that they be eaten within a certain number of minutes after being made. While cream puffs come in a wide variety, such as "crochoux," a croissant filled with various creams, Mont Blanc's only future seemed to be in the high-end category. As expected, the cream puffs won.

Come to think of it, cream puffs and Mont Blanc are both familiar Western sweets that can be enjoyed at a relatively reasonable price, which is why they were chosen as the two options. Even now, cream puffs are basically filled with either custard or fresh cream, and can be found at any convenience store. On the other hand, when I was a child, Mont Blanc was a cup-shaped sponge cake with Chantilly cream squeezed into the center, and threads of sweetened chestnut, which I'm not sure was chestnut or potato, squeezed around it. It was usually topped with halved chestnuts in candied syrup. The color changed from yellow to a rich brown when the famous French Mont Blanc from Angelina was introduced at Ginza Printemps. Instead of sponge, it was topped with plenty of cream on top of meringue. It was quite a heavy treat, even when eaten at half the size of the French version, with the rich chestnut paste covering it. I realized that authentic French sweets are just that sweet.

Therefore, I would rather try the old-fashioned, dubious, handmade imitation Mont Blanc from the local pastry shop. Convenience store sweets are also diverse and delicious, but they still taste mass-produced. The same goes for cream puffs.

However, the writer was stuck on the choice between "cream puffs or Mont Blanc" because he thought it was "cream puffs or eclairs". Perhaps the eclairs are considered to be just one version of cream puffs. A popular eclair specialty store in Paris, "Leclair de Genies", opened a store in Takashimaya but closed down within ten years.

However, I believe that cream puffs and eclairs are completely different things. First of all, they are different shapes, even though they are made of the same choux pastry. This may also be important. In the case of cream puffs, if the choux is cut in half or has a slit in it and filled with cream, you remove the lid, put the cream on the lid and eat it, and eat the rest with a knife and fork. If there is no slit, you should use a knife and fork to cut off a small piece from the left side and eat it, eating only the cream, while trying not to lose the shape as much as possible.

On the other hand, the eclairs, like the small ones from "Leclair de Genie", have the feel of finger food. It's a distant memory from the writer, but when I was in the lower grades of elementary school and living in Kami-Suwa, my father used to bring me eclairs as souvenirs. The choux pastry wasn't coated with chocolate, but with coffee or caramel flavor, and the custard cream was also flavored to match, so even an elementary school student could eat them in one bite, and I could eat two or three at a time.

Even more elaborately designed, when we moved to Kobe, the company housing where I spent my last two years of elementary school was located on the eastern outskirts of Kobe, just a few meters away in Ashiya City. There was a Henri Charpentier near the Hanshin Ashiya Station, where my father used to commute to work, next to the police station. It must have been half a century ago already. Nowadays, it has become a brand with nationwide operations and even a research laboratory in Paris, but back then it was just a cake shop that people used daily as a Western-style confectionery shop in the city. Of course, the prices were higher than other stores, but when I ordered coffee at the attached cafe corner, a croissant was included, and even as a child I was amazed that this was Kobe and Ashiya for me.

There was probably a difficult French word attached to it. There was a cake that I liked, which my mother called "Caterpillar Cake". If I remember correctly, it was a rectangular ganache cake with a small eclair on top. At that time, all of Henri Charpentier's cakes were small and expensive. However, the taste was excellent, and although there was another Western-style pastry shop next door, I never bought anything there.

When I lived in Kobe, my father was a banker, and many of the stores that did business with us were famous confectionery stores. These included Hirota's cream puffs, a popular souvenir, Hontakasagoya, famous for its kintsuba, and Goncharov, a long-established chocolate confectionery store. My father took me to tour the Goncharov factory. There were also many liquor companies, and I was taken to Kiku Masamune. Gifts were sent not only at the end of the year and Obon, but on every occasion, and often wine was sent as well. My maternal grandfather worked for the Shizuoka Prefecture Sake Brewers Association, and my mother's brother's uncle worked for Godo Shusei, so I was interested in wine from around this time.

Now, I don't know if it's Hirota's influence, but I think that custard cream goes well with cream puffs, but chantilly cream is the best for eclairs. Chantilly cream is fresh cream with sugar. This is because chantilly cream goes better with the chocolate that coats the puffs. If you think of chocolate pie, it's obvious. It's a butter-based cream, but it's a white cream, not an egg yolk-based cream.

So, I want to buy eclairs without hesitation at convenience stores, but I hesitate because they are all filled with custard cream. When I think back to when I was a child, the eclairs at the pastry shops that sold cream puffs were also filled with Chantilly cream, and I was impressed by the simple yet exquisite harmony of chocolate and cream. They were also reasonably priced. I'm not talking about Mont Blanc, as I mentioned at the beginning, but I don't think that the luxury and complexity of Western confectionery is necessarily a bad thing, but I think what we need now is simple, delicious, affordable, handmade Western confectionery.

This month's recommended wine: "Amarone, the hidden gem of Italian red wine"

"Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2017 DOCG Amarone della Valpolicella Monte Santoccio" 13,020 yen (excluding tax)

The third series of this series is about to end. For the past three years, I have been systematically outlining French and Italian wines. To complete this series, I would like to introduce some hidden gems of Italian red wine. As with French wine, you can get by with just the two major regions of Italian wine production, Piedmont and Tuscany.

However, just as France has a red wine called "Côte Rotie" from the Rhone region, which is mainly made from Syrah, there are also other Italian regions that produce famous wines that represent Italy.

That is "Amarone della Valpolicella" made in Valpolicella, Verona, Veneto. Incidentally, Verona is famous as the setting for Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet."

Amarone is a word that means bitterness, derived from bitter (amaro), and is an exception to the basic Italian wine names that do not indicate grape varieties. As a wine, it is a different production method of Valpolicella, mainly using Corvina grapes.

After harvesting, the grapes are dried in the shade (appassimento) for an average of three months, nearly half of the moisture is removed, and the grapes with increased sugar content are fermented. The wine is released after a minimum of two years of barrel aging and six months of bottle aging. It is said to be dry and "brings out the powerful charm of Burgundy wine" (Anderson, "Italian Wine").

The maker of "Monte Santoccio" introduced this time, Nicola Ferrari, worked at the famous Amarone cantina "Quintarelli", and founded "Monte Santoccio" in 2006 to make his own wine. He is a winemaker with a strong desire to explore Valpolicella, and continues to support Quintarelli.

This Classico 2017 is aged in tonneaux for 30 months. The varietals are Corvina 40 %, Corvinone 30 %, Rondinella 25 %, and Molinara 5 %. Deep ruby ​​color. Dried prunes and balsamic aromas. A masterpiece that has been carefully crafted to inherit the traditional Amarone flavor with a spicy aftertaste.

This is a rare wine that requires a lot of time and effort to make, so it is a little expensive, but we hope you will take this opportunity to try it.

For inquiries about the wines introduced, please contact AVICO Co., Ltd.

Biography
Osamu Seki Born in Tokyo in 1961. Currently a part-time lecturer at Meiji University and other institutions.
He specializes in contemporary French thought and cultural theory, and is a director of the Reefer Wine Association.
His books include "An Introduction to Beautiful Men" (Natsume Shobo) and "My Neighbor is Arashi-kun" (Cyzo), and his translations include "How Should We Read Foucault?" by Oksara (Shinsensha) and "Mr. Pydrow, What Use Is a Gastronomic Critic?" by Pydrowski (Shinsensha).
Seki Osamu FACE BOOK
Seki Osamu Official Website

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