Bosie Tea Parlor

Where are we..? What's your first guess?
Me too. Just like Paris no?

But no, it's New York City!

We're at Bosie...

Bosie Tea Parlor on 10 Morton Street in the Village.

 Kathy YL Chan of A Passion for Food told me about it.

 I doubted real French pastry could be found in NYC but I have been proved wrong again. Voila! L'eclair de creme with Chamomile tea filling.

Kathy brought along these exquisite Japanese sugars, Chambre de Sucre fit for a king. They have been supplying the Emperor for centuries and perfect for my mint tea and Kathy's Matcha Latte...

Et oui, Bosie has a full array of fresh macarons...

A darling shop just the right size for a friendly cuppa - very French in size and ambience - New York needs more tea salons like this.

At least 80 kinds of tea brewed to order...

How does one attack such a pretty eclair?

En garde! Touche!

Bonjour Bosie Tea Parlor!

Nestlé Special at Salon de Chocolat

It seems that Nestlé has decided to let 'Alice' launch their new Special T rather than dear George Clooney of Nespresso. Nestlé Special T was launched at the Salon du Chocolat with these quite dreamy, surreal posters... A flowery fantasia of tea... A Panda offers flowery tea to all... BEAR is fascinated and wants to take Panda home. He likes the tea as well. The new gizmo takes pods of tea in 25 parfums/flavors. Selection rouges - oui absolutement!

Very clever indeed - the berries and cherries are inside the birdcage, whilst hummingbirds flutter and hum around dreaming of getting inside...

These birds prefer their cherries un-caged thank you very much...

But frogs don't mind a bit serving up cups of tea.

Move over cat servers!

Giraffes wearing teacup hats made of tea leaves?

Pourquoi pas! Too perfect for Easter.

I know I have a hedge skirt in the closet somewhere - must look again.

M. gave her seal of approval on the Rooibus Orange.

I am no tea expert but it tasted fine to moi...

Japanese green tea is of course included in the collection...

A cupcake made of tea leaves?

Non! Pas possible!!!

This is taking things too, too far, surreal or not!

One does have limits you know...

BONJOUR SPECIAL T!

Le Festival De The

French Rose Bud tea, original watercolor, 9" x 11"

I bought this glass teapot and the rose bud tea in the Lafayette Gourmet tea department.

While the 5-day Paris Salon du Chocolat was taking place, you could also visit the 3-day Le Festival de The and satiate both your obsessions.

Kusmi Tea was founded in 1867 in St-Petersburg, by P.M Kousmichoff, supplier to the tsars. In 1917, at the time of the Revolution, they moved to London and Paris. They're boutique at 56, rue de Seine will soon have a tea room serving Anastasia, Troika, Prince Vladimir, Petrushka, Samovar, Zoubrovka, and Russian morning tea...

All kinds of tasting and sniffing was going on - a green tea tasting...

Endless samples to sniff...the in vrac - lose tea leaves sold by the gramme. And tea sold in boite en metal from Les Contes de The. They also have a salon de the at 60, rue de Cherche-Midi ("tea Street") 75006, offering not less than 200 tea varieties. Sachets mousseline de thés are how the French do up tea bags in silk fabric..

China pots on a charcole brazier from Hindu Emami, brewing up Ayurvedtic herbal teas.

And finally a Japanese tea ceremony demonstration was ongoing...

You can visit Le Festival de The end of next October 2007

Green Boxes...

A Stack of Boxes, 9" x 11 1/2"

Why are we so in love with those green boxes..? I have yet to figure it out...
What does it remind you of?

So many sizes and shapes.

Pink Macaron, 9" x 11 1/2"

The memory of what's inside those lovely boxes lingers on too. The memory of sitting in that beautiful salon, forgetting all the cares of the outside world for just a half hour... Priceless!

Wayne Thiebaud, Glacée

This ink drawing came from the out-of-print Wayne Thiebaud sketchbook. If you want to paint desserts you better look at Thiebaud. He's master of dessert still lifes - his images of ice cream, cakes, pies, candy are the best.Thiebaud paints with thick brilliant oil color and strong shadow shapes against a white ground. Geometry plays a big part in his paintings: spheres, cubes, triangles (as it does in most of the top Paris pastry chefs creations, but more about that later)Cezanne said, if you can draw a cube, a sphere, a pyramid...you can draw anything. Desserts tend to take the form of geometric shapes more than steaks, chops or mashed potatoes or broccoli.

Matcha Trio, watercolor, 10 1/2 x 7 1/2"

Since I love painting round things anyway, cups, saucers etc., I picked ice cream "dixie" cups this time. Not really a big hardship.

Dixie Couple, watercolor, 10 1/2 x 7 1/2"

I thought I'd stick with green tea flavor, since there's a nice Japanese store in the neighborhood, Family Market on 29-15 Broadway.

Melting Matcha, watercolor, 12 x 10"

They melted really fast in this heat, so I had to eat them quickly. Spoiled food and all that..Course in my rush, I forgot to mix up that special yellowy-greyish green tea color first.
After a day of painting I ran to MOMA to catch the DADA show. In the steamy garden they sell dixie cups of il laboratorio del gelato. There was no Matcha flavor so I had to settle for Dark Chocolate. This has to be the BEST STUFF ON THE PLANET! You can also get it on 95 Orchard st.