I’m a hardcore fan of flan, a chilled caramel custard. My nani (my mum’s g’ma) makes some of the best flan known to mankind, but you can’t buy it in stores! However, in 2011, you can have Crème Caramel LA’s flan shipped to your front door and available for pick-up at your local farmers’ market!
I first “met” the mastermind behind Crème Caramel LA (CCLA), Kristine de la Cruz, via Twitter. We happily tweeted back and forth about our excitement to try each others’ baked goods at Eat My Blog, a biannual charity bake sale run by the donations of homemade goodies from food bloggers and local eateries. A week or so later, we were volunteering at the event and for an hour, we just knew each other as Kristine and Anisha. It later dawned on us that we were both “acquainted” — oh Twitter! By the way, the Eat My Blog-ers raised over $3,700 dollars for the LA Regional Food Bank!
Crème Caramel LA's bacon bread pudding; photo credit: Cathy Chaplin of gastronomy blog
Kristine brought bacon bread pudding for fellow bakers/volunteers to sample. The forkful of cold bacon bread pudding was phenomenal and I can’t wait for my next excuse to order a nice warm one! This bacon-in-pastry + bacon-infused-cocktail trend is here to stay, no? I happily pranced home with her original flan and a bag full of baked goods.
While I was out with friends, my family devoured most of the flan, saving me two small bites. Those two tiny dessert spoons-worth of flan were enough for me to declare that Crème Caramel knows how to flan. It was creamy, slightly buttery, and had a perfect balance of sweetness. I was impressed by the flan’s richness factor, as it wasn’t as heavy as one would expect from a custard. Yep, all that from two bites. The moral of the story is to order some flan, stat! CCLA’s back-story is that Kristine borrowed the successful recipe from her aunt and uncle San Francisco and brought it to Los Angeles — how lucky for us Angelenos! According to their website, they try to source ingredients locally whenever possible.
politely borrowed from www.cremecaramella.com
Where to get Créme Caramel LA?
In 2011, Crème Caramel LA will be at your local farmers’ market (look at their website for the latest developments). Starting January 4, they will be taking online orders (48 hours notice) for delivery to LA and the OC for a $15 flat fee. If you’re out of the SoCal area, don’t fret — you can order bread pudding (only, as of 12/29) via overnight delivery.
What to order?
When they have a stall-front, expect a rotating flavor-of-the-month. For delivery, you can order six-packs of:
- créme caramel: original, chocolate, and café
- bread pudding: original, chocolate, and caramelized bacon
Follow the sweetest developments:
On Twitter — @CremeCaramelLA
Website — www.cremecaramella.com
Tags: bread pudding, delivery, farmers' market, flan
