2011-01-09 Exploring Edmonton: Duchess, Credo, and Downtown

I often ask myself one question: why did we move to Edmonton? Of course I know the reason but knowing that makes everything ten times worse. Edmonton is pretty much deadmonton in my opinion. WEM is probably the only place that keeps me from feeling completely suffocated.

In attempt to make myself like Edmonton, I sought out interesting shops to visit...to fool my head in thinking this place can be interesting. Luckily, I found Lightside Photography and their 30 Days of Edmonton project. The project featured a local shop everyday that offers unique products/items. While I have visited mostly of the shops since my school is just at Whye, I still found some interesting ones. And during Christmas Break, Jessie and I made a little adventurous expedition into the heart of Edmonton and explored them. We visited Duchess Bake Shop in Westmount and Credo in Downtown.

Duchess is this elegant little bake shop with the best bakery I had ever tasted! It is the cutest little shop ever with a really classique feel to it!! I really wanted to just sit there and do nothing. hahaha And we tried so many different goodies I can't get enough of! My favorite one is the "Duchess" cake. It's a chiffon cake layered with pastry cream and raspberry, topped with vanilla bean whipped cream (omg it was delicious!) and encased with naturally colored marzipan shell (a sweet layer! ^_^). It looked so smooth from the outsider, we were unsure in how to cut it! haha. When you bit it, you taste the sweet from the shell, citrus from the lemon pastry cream, and raspberry jam! This cake has the perfect combo of sweetness and citrus. It's really refreshing too because of the whipped cream and the cake is perfectly moist! yum yum yum!!~~~

We also tried the chocolate cake, the Duke. omg I had never tasted chocolate like that before. It's chocolate cake layered with salted caramel. It's creamy and rich but it's not sweet (more like dark chocolate). The moisture of the dark is just perfect. Apparently the chocolate is Valrhona chocolate from France ~~ maybe that's why it tastes so good. haha

meringue

That day was my first time eating a meringue. When I first looked at it, I thought it would be soft, like cream puffs. But when I touched it, it was really hard! Then I ate it, and it was anything but hard~~ very soft and gooey (like marshmallows). We tried one with chocolate chip inside and one with coconut. Personally, I thought the coconut one was too sweet; the chocolate meringue was not as sweet because the chocolate balanced it out. Though it was well made, I'm not a huge fan on meringue.

chocolate-covered madeleine

I also tried a madeleine. I had no idea what that was either. haha. It looked like a cookie (like those Danish biscuits) but it actually tasted like cake! It's a lot softer and tasted like chinese egg roll cookies! Apparently madeleins are classic French tea biscuits! It was good but it tasted a bit plain and a little dry~maybe I need to drink tea with it? LOL

And last but not least, the macaron. I have heard of them before but had never tried one. I was surprised that they have soo many different flavors! There was even candy cane and eggnog flavoured!. wooooww. but omg the strawberry macaron tasted soooooooooooo good. It even has strawberry jam inside it! But after eating so many at the same time, it got a little too sweet for me. hahaha but it was definitely DELICIOUS!

We bought the original macaron set. Flavor and color as indicated:

• Green - pistacchio
• Yellow - lemon
• White with dark filling - salted caramel (smells like caramel but sweetness is balanced out with the salt)
• White with light filling - coconut
• Pink - strawwberry!
• White dotted - dark chocolate

Of course, delicious baked goods must be accompanied with a drink. We went to Credo Coffee because of its popular coffee art! I was actually so excited to see a picture inside my cup! hahahaha so lame but I really enjoyed it! I drank London Fog, which was basically tea latte. It tasted good! (kekeke I really can't stand drinking coffee). Duchess and Credo was basically our lunch. haha so unhealthy.

In hope to get rid of all the crazy calories gained in one day, we walked about Jasper and City Center and shopped! There were a lot of interesting boutiques on Jasper, but everything was expensive @__@ and there were a lot of bakeries and coffee shops. I found the Beauty Lounge (this uber expensive beauty salon that I got coupons for). It was much smaller (narrower) than I expected but it looked really elegant...and expensive. haha. I also found Audrey's Book! And I was able to finally use my gift card I had gotten from EPL! yay finally! Apparently, it was Edmonton's oldest bookstore...but it really didn't have a lot of the books I wanted. I hoped to buy the "Outlier" but it was sold out. Then I wanted to see Agatha Christie's books and there was only one! So I ended up buying the "Adventures of Sherlocke Holmes!" haha now I can be like Conan. LOL

So I concluded my crazy day with a sweet deal. Shiny pair of blue heel sandals for only $18!!!! yea yea yea!~ It has a high heel but I'm sure I can deal with it. haha but it looks very shinyyy!~ At first I was just going to try it on for fun and then I looked at the price: originally $70 --> reduced to $18! *scream with excitement* I can't possibly skip on this deal so I bought it. hahaha

As of now, I had basically explored Whyte Ave and Jasper Ave/Downtown. I guess my next area to focus on would be in the northside? I dunno. I found this article about Westmount that Duchess is located at. It was said to be re-developed to become the next Whyte Ave. But seriously, by the looks of the shops right now, it's not that appealing.

But here are some local shops as mentioned by Light Photography in the 30 Days of Edmonton project that I thought would be interesting to visit:

• The Beauty Lounge: I'm actually hesitant because people say it's not worth your money...but it seems so nice...but expensive. @____@ urg what to do...
• Notables Stationers: seems like a pretty stationary shop! it'll be cool to just browse through there
• Duchess Bake Shop: I would definitely go back and try more of the goodies ^__^
• Thread Hill: seems like a pretty trendy shop
• Credo Coffee: coffee art!
• Happy Harbour Comics: I never visited a comic shop before! never knew such existed in Edmonton! haha would love to go and see what it's like
• Flirt Cupcakes: it's flirt. 'nugh said ;) 
• Stylus: a store of pens! wonder if they'll have asian stuff. hehehehe
• Coney Island Candy: I love the atmosphere of this shop! It gives off this old circus show vibe