Maman at Sadaharu Aoki Tea Salon

 

Most of the Mom stories have already been told. I’m late to the soirée.

I remember My mom, who liked the high life, once took me for tea at The Palm Court in the Plaza hotel, NYC. 

I was her foil when she wanted to browse the inside seams of haut-couture outfits she could not afford but wanted to copy. Browsing is evidently a genetic trait I got from my mom.

This past weekend I was looking at old Parisbreakfast posts (there are 2,802 to browse through). 

In May, 2006 I visited the tea salon of top pâtissier, Sadaharu Aoki. 

His exquisite, green matcha desserts (his specialty), elegant Bernadeau cups and

The  classic tetsuba teapots looked fun to paint.  

I ordered the matcha mille-feuille with wild strawberry tea. Mom, you taught me well ☺️ But how the H to eat this extravaganza of green tea creme and brittle multi leaves of pastry? Merci deux for syncronisity🙏  

Just at that moment as I was about to plunge in my fork and have it go flying, darling renown pastry author Jill Colonna of Mad About Macaron fame, did a demo on her instagram stories—how to eat a mille-feuille!🙏🤸‍♂️

Ta da! The day was saved. One must cut one’s mille-feuille ‘side-saddle’ Thank you 👏 dearest Jill💋 

Ah the nuances of French daily life. Things your mom may not have taught you (who knew it would be needed? One prefers not to recall what one did à table pre-Jill😳 

By the way I told the 2 kind vendeuses I wanted to set up a still life and paint it later. 

They were helpful finding the correct-sized tea spoon from 3 different sizes. I made a few pencil ✏️  sketches on site as warmups. 

They did giggle a bit☺️ It would have been loverly if my mom could have joined me for tea at Sadaharu Aoki’s tea salon. I know she would have adored it as much as I did. Do give it a try. There are 4 shops in Paris and quite a few in Japan. That’s my late ‘Mom’ story PBers. I hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day Sunday. Thanks for stopping by. My watercolors and Paris letters are waiting for you on Etsy 😊 🐻❤️💋