The blog is called 好Gourmand which is a combination of 4 languages ─ English, French, Cantonese and Mandarin. “好” is the written form of Cantonese (pronunciation [hou]) and Mandarin (pronunciation [hao]) meaning “very” and “super”. “Gourmand” is both an English and French word. The blog is in these 4 languages aiming to share my wonderful experience with as many gourmands as possible.
As the name suggests, HouGourmand is built for people who love eating (and people who like traveling/exploring different cultures). I am also a gourmand, adoring especially desserts. Hong Kong has a reputation as a food paradise. Paris is definitely worthy of the reputation of “food paradise” and “food capital”.
Pastry shops, bakeries, ice cream parlors, chocolate sellers, tea houses and so on are everywhere. Some restaurants and hotels also do delicious (homemade) desserts. Desserts here, on this blog, bear a broader meaning. They include all sweet food that you can name ─ cakes, pastries, pies, cookies, tarts, puddings, ice creams, sorbets, chocolate, sweet drink, confection, Viennoiserie, crêpes, etc.
The French cuisine and the deep food culture are well known. The charm of desserts is sometimes overlooked by the gourmets of various countries and the Michelin Star restaurants. Out of curiosity and because of my fondness of eating sweet things, I started my journey of exploring desserts. I have tasted more than 60 pastry shops and bakeries in Paris such as Pierre Hermé, Angelina, Sadaharu Aoki, Carl Marletti, A. Lacroix Pâtissier, Il Gelato del Marchese, Kaffeehaus, Jean Paul Hévin, Blé Sucré, Plus 82, Guimi House, to name but a few. They include French, Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean, American, Italian, German, Oriental desserts. I still have a long list of pastry shops to try.
HouGourmand presents you with different dessert shops, their “luscious” photos and their scores. In the section “Minicha’s Choice”, identical desserts, for example, macarons and pains au chocolat (chocolate bread), are bought from different shops to do a detailed comparison to see which one tastes better. This gives you some tips on how to choose some of the best desserts among the plenty of choices you have here in Paris.
I hope to share my dessert experience using this blog and give a reference to those who travel to Paris or live here. Come and explore the dessert world together!
