La Maison & Howey Medan

For those who follow my instagram, you might have known that I checked myself in to Medan last month. The main reason is to gain weight, and yes I was so curious and wanted to authenticate how good the culinary spots are. This time, I wanna share my experience with these two popular patisserie shops in Medan, La Maison and Howey. (PS: this is my personal opinion and I don't have any intention to offend anyone).

LA MAISON

My long wait is finally over. I want to try La Maison so badly since I'm a fan of the chef. In fact, I've been a fan far before she had the idea to open La Maison hehe. So, I took a cab from hotel and visited La Maison with my best friend who's also have a sweet tooth. The store was small and well arranged. I started to stare at those yummy cakes, eclairs, and gorgeous macarons in the display. I think cakes at any restaurant in my city have nothing on their beautiful handmade desserts. All pastries seemed so delicious and I really wanted to try every single of it. However, they're expensive for their sizes so I hold my craving and tried to choose wisely. Finally, we decided to buy two cakes, croissant, one dozen of macarons, and an eclair.

 

The macarons were perfection, texture, sweetness, flavor, everything is on its place. Though all flavors were great, the salted popcorn is definitely a winner and it's highly recommended (sorry Laduree, La Maison wins my heart). Move on to cakes - both cakes were so yummyyy, I think I finished it in less than 2 minutes.  How I wish the price were cheaper so I could buy more. The eclair was average, very small, and expensive (40IDR), definitely not a favorite. The croissant (no picture) was good, it's like one of the best croissant ever! The day after, I came back and buy another croissant (along with cupcakes and macarons too). Cupcakes were awesome, texture was soft and fluffy, but very expensive for the size. All flavors were delicious, I couldn't choose one.

Selection of macaron boxes in different designs and sizes 

with the beautiful & talented chef <3

HOWEY

Howey, another great patisserie in Medan. Unlike La Maison which is located in a house, Howey has its own store. The place was cozy, chic, and modern. The display was amazing and colorful, with lovely christmas decoration. We bought macarons, flaky doughnut, quiche, then took a sit there. The macarons were bigger than La Maison's and price was slightly higher. The texture was chewy and good too, but if I have to choose, I'll choose La Maison's. Doughnut was too hard for me, while quiche was nice and definitely worth trying! Actually, we wanted to try the cheesepots but the minimum purchase was 12 and we're quite full that time, so we canceled our desire.

 

Does Money = Love in a Marriage?

I read an interesting article yesterday on the Sunday Times Lifestyle about couples planning their special wedding. I read about how one couple spent $160,000 celebrating their grand wedding at Sentosa Cove. I was also intrigued at how another couple spent only $900 on their entire wedding (it was for 30 close friends/relatives at their flat).

The interesting thing is that the couple that spent $900 on their wedding were not poor. Their household income was over $10,000 a month. They believed that spending more money was not necessary in making their wedding special. What made it the most special was the people who are invited and celebrating it in a place where they could feel comfortable and intimate (their own home).

While there is nothing wrong with spending a lot of money if you can afford it, I really admire this couple for making decisions based on what they believe will make their marriage special, and not what others may think…bowing to societal pressure of holding it in a grand hotel, where it becomes so impersonal.

I will not be surprised if the $900 couple ends up having a much happier and longer lasting marriage than the $160,000 couple. When love between a couple is truly strong, how much you spend making each other happy is really not important.

I have been married for 13+ years and every year, my wife and I give each other birthday presents costing less than $5- a hand made card written with all the words of gratitude, love and appreciation for each other. Whenever I ask my wife what she would like on her birthday (I’d buy anything for her), she always tells me that a hand-made card from the heart is all she wants.
Adam Khoo, Singaporean entrepreneur, best selling author, trainer

Wedding Day (Eddo Bebe)

One of my brothers is (finally) a married man! My big family were all gathered together to celebrate the wedding of my bro and his beautiful fiancée last October. When they first began planning the wedding, they wanted to have a casual celebration and for a location, they wanted something different from the typical ballroom, so finally we all found this place and loved the rustic natural feeling, with the beautiful outdoors and lake view, it was perfect. Everything was so magical; bright colored dresses, whimsical flowers, yummy foods, undeniably beautiful lake view, and huge smiles. The weather was absolute perfection and every detail was accounted for.  I took a ton of photos (of course) during the wedding and wanted to share a few with you. Here are a few I took with my camera.

  

Fresh fruits for everyone!  photobooth

  The cake (love the romantic details with touches of vintage and rustic) 
   

The awesomest wedding dress ever :)

The wedding would not have been as much fun if we had not worked with such amazing people, so thank you for all vendors :)