itzy bitzy's December flavors

Finally, I can reveal our macaron's December flavors, here they are:
- Chestnut
- Cranberry
- Chocolate chocolate
- Rose raspberry litchi
- Gingerbread
- Peppermint



This month, we will be indoor at the Gifted Holiday Market instead of the outdoor Brooklyn Flea, please come by if you are in the neighborhood (or even if you're not in the neighborhood) :D

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Itzy Bitzy Patisserie
http://www.itzybitzypatisserie.com

Gifted Holiday Market
Brooklyn Masonic Temple
317 Clermont Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11205
http://brownstoner.com/brooklynflea/holiday/

Brooklyn Flea
Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School
357 Clermont Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11238
http://brownstoner.com/brooklynflea/

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We won't be at the Brooklyn Flea Market this Sunday (Dec. 7)

After checking the weather forecast we found out that it will snow/showers on Sunday, so we decided not to come to the Brooklyn Flea Market this Sunday. Believe me, it was a very difficult decision to make. However considering that we barely made any sales last week and macarons are perishable, I feel that this is the right decision.

We'll be back again next two Sundays (December 14 & 21) with 6 new flavors (pssst..., one of them will be rose raspberry litchi macaron), so please come to visit us :-) However, we will be at the Gifted Holiday Market, inside the Masonic Temple, across the street from the Brooklyn Flea Market. I'm so excited, I hope to see you there!

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Itzy Bitzy Patisserie
http://www.itzybitzypatisserie.com

Brooklyn Flea
Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School
357 Clermont Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11238
http://brownstoner.com/brooklynflea/

Gifted Holiday Market
Brooklyn Masonic Temple
317 Clermont Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11205
http://brownstoner.com/brooklynflea/holiday/

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My second week at Brooklyn Flea Market

Yesterday was another week at the Brooklyn Flea Market. We started the day by attending the Sunday mass at St Patrick's Cathedral before picking Kathy up. She is a fantastic friend who volunteered herself to help me even after cold weather experience last week, thanks again Kathy!

Then we went to Doughnut Plant (again) to get our breakfast. Beside our love for their doughnuts, we also want to try their newest creation: creme brulee doughnut. When we were there last Sunday, it was not available yet, I guess we came too early. As usual, it was good!

Vanilla bean doughnut and Hot chai


Creme brulee and Peanut butter glaze cranberry orange jelly doughnuts

We arrived at the Brooklyn Flea Market around 8:30 am, 1 hour later than last week. At that time, there were only couple other vendors that had set up their tent. When we left home, it was flurry then turning into ice and then it was raining. When my husband finished setting up our tent (it only took him 30 minutes this time, he's getting faster, thanks honey!), I noticed only 10 very "brave" vendors and we were one of them, yay! I think this showed how dedicated we are to our customers and products :-)

My husband setting up the tent


The booth


360 degree view of the market

Around noon time, Robyn came to visit and we planned to have lunch together. We chatted for a while and noticed there were a lot fewer people coming to the market compared to last week. Our tent also started to leak, so we decided to wrap up soon. In between, we got some hot chocolates from Nunu Chocolates, which was our "next door" neighbor for this week. It was good, hot enough to warm up our bodies.

I brought in about 450 macarons, which 150 of them I put aside for samples. When we wrapped up around 1:30 pm, we only sold about 10%, wow! Business usually has ups and downs and yesterday was not a successful day for us. Even though the temperature was a little bit warmer, the rain was pouring all day long. I guess this prevented many people from going out.

Chestnut with green tea & Pumpkin and Chocolate caramel pecan & Coffee macarons


Pistachio & Passion fruit macarons and The samples

Then the four of us headed for late lunch/early dinner at Famous Sichuan in Chinatown. Robyn and Kathy just had dinner there the night before, however they liked the food a lot and wanted to go back for more :-) Of course my husband and I agreed to go there, one should never doubt these two knowledgeable ladies about what good food is! They were absolutely right, everything there was delicious. Surprisingly, my favorite was the sauteed string beans and I'm not a veggie eater! Wow, my mom would be so proud of me :D

Sichuan wonton with red oil and Dan dan noodle with minced pork chili sauce


Steamed vegetable dumpling and Sauteed string beans


Braised beef filets & napa cabbage with roasted chili and Fried whole fish with sweet & sour sauce

From here we drove to K-town to drop Robyn off since she had to meet her friends for dinner. Then after dropping Kathy off at her place (she had to meet up with her friends too for dinner in 1 hour), we stopped by at Momofuku Bakery and Milk Bar (again) to get some desserts. It's all Kathy's fault for introducing me to this place, thanks :P I finally got to try the pistachio cake, yay! It was good, but my favorite was still the banana cake. BTW, I went to this place too the day before to get some take-out brunch, can you believe it? Everything was excellent, especially the English muffin.

Candy bar pie and Pistachio cake


Cereal milk for dessert and Tristar strawberry milk for brunch


Pork & egg bun and Pork buns for brunch


English muffin and Banana cake for brunch


Corn and Cornflake-marshmallow-chocolate chip cookies for brunch

I'm very thankful to everyone who has supported me and to those who came just to buy the macarons, how nice of you! I hope that next week will be a much better time for us.

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Itzy Bitzy Patisserie
http://www.itzybitzypatisserie.com

Brooklyn Flea
Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School
357 Clermont Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11238
http://brownstoner.com/brooklynflea/

Doughnut Plant
379 Grand St
New York, NY 10002
(212) 505-3700
http://www.doughnutplant.com/

Famous Sichuan
10 Pell St
New York, NY 10013
(212) 233-3888
http://www.famoussichuan.com

Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar
207 2nd Avenue, 13th Street entrance
New York, NY 10003
(212) 228-0031
http://www.momofuku.com/bakery/default.asp

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Behind the scene of my macaron's debut at Brooklyn Flea Market

First of all, thank you to all who came to the Brooklyn Flea Market yesterday to support us. I also want to say thank you so much to Robyn, Tina and Serious Eats for the shout-outs and supports. For Kathy, I don't even know what to say to her. Words cannot express our gratitute to her! She mentioned us on her blog and willingly came to the market with us, since the set up began at 7:30 am until the end of the day at 5 pm. She is really Godsend :D I'm very lucky to meet a lot of wonderful people!

Anyway, here is the story. My husband and I woke up at 4:45 am, after only sleeping for less than 2 hours. We started to pack everything that we needed to bring to the market. Even though we tried to do it quickly, we didn't leave home until 5:45 am. So, I called Kathy at 6 am to let her know that we were running late, since I told her the day before that we would pick her up at 6:15 am. Sorry again Kathy!

On the way to Manhattan, we heard the news that Holland Tunnel was closed due to maintenance work. So, we had to take Lincoln Tunnel to get to Manhattan, which meant a little detour. Finally we arrived at Kathy's place and went to Doughnut Plant to get breakfast. From there, we went straight to the market.

Hot chai and Vanilla bean doughnut


Chestnut cake doughnut and Roasted chestnut doughnut

When we arrived there, my husband went to check in while Kathy and I waited in the car. At that time (around 7:30 am) only a few vendors were there. He came back to the car and said that we needed to get some weights to hold the tent since it would be windy. So, we went to Walgreens to get some gallon-sized bottles of water and then went back to the market. My husband went inside the market to set up the tent while we waited in the car with the heater's on :-) BTW, the temperature outside was about 30F at that time.

Brooklyn Flea Market at 7:30 and 8:30 am

After reading the instructions step-by-step and struggling for more than 1 hour, my husband finally finished setting up the tent. This was his first time ever doing this, so I was very proud of him, thanks honey! By this time (around 8:30 am) more vendors had come. After the tent was ready, we uploaded everything from the car and started to set up the booth. It looked very nice! The tables were covered with red tablecloths and on the front table we put the menu (that has our logo made by Jessie, a very talented and nice person), a display tray, boxes of macaron set and a box filled with some samples. On the back table, we put the remainder of the samples and the packaging. We kept the rest of the macarons in the cooler, even though I didn't think we needed to do that considering the temperature that day was only between 30-40F. I was bundle up and put warmers on my body, hands and toes. These really helped me to stay warm. Thanks R for recommending that warmers.

My husband setting up the tent


The booth and The table set up


Me and Kathy

Then the market officially opened at 10 am. I was super excited, the day was finally here! The first customer came and we started giving away sample. She loved the macaron and decided to buy 1 box of the assorted macarons. She said that she was one of Robyn's blog reader. Then the second customer came and said that her friend could come and sent her to get the macarons, wow! She said that her friend found out about us from a food blog, but she was not sure what. She said it was "passion something", wait a minute, it must be Kathy's blog -- A Passion for Food. Then more and more customer came, some were the market visitors and some were bloggers who are Kathy's, Robyn's and Serious Eats reader. So, thanks again guys!

When lunch time came, we decided to support other vendors and bought pizza from Pizza Moto and huarache from Fernando Martinez (one of the Red Hook vendors). The pizza was delicious, especially since it came straight from the oven and was still piping hot. The huarache was great, however it got cold fast, since the weather was just like inside the refrigerator.

Pizza with tomato & mozzarella and Huarache

The day went by so quickly, by 3:30 pm only 7 macarons left (6 chestnut with green tea and 1 passion fruit). I brought in about 350 macarons, sold 50% and gave away 50%. I was very happy, considering the weather was cold and this was the first time ever, yay! :D I was afraid that people would be disappointed with the texture of the macarons since they were not at the "room temperature". Fortunately everybody said that they liked the macarons (wait until they got home, it'd be even better!). This was definitely the challenge of selling macarons outdoor when it was cold.

The macarons at the beginning and at the end of the day

At 4 pm we decided to wrap up and went home. We stopped by at Kampuchea to have dinner and Momofuku Bakery and Milk Bar for dessert. The hot noodle soup was perfect to warm us up, the cake was perfect to put a smile on my face. We finally said goodbye to Kathy, she declined our offer to drive her back to her place since it was only 1 block away from Momofuku Bakery and Milk Bar.

Watermelon juice, Lychee fizz and Pineapple coconut juice


Seared sweetbread and Seared monkfish liver


Bwah moun and Duroc pork katiev


Chicken katiev and Tristar strawberry milk, Cereal milk & Salty pistachio caramel soft serve - sample


Chocolate chip and Dulce de leche cakes

I wouldn't lie, I was very tired, especially after only sleeping for 4-5 hours everyday this past 2 months and only 2 hours this last 2 days. However, it was all worth it when I saw how happy people were when they ate the macarons. The most memorable moment for me was when a little girl came and I offered her a sample of the macaron. She chose the chestnut with green tea, which happened to be mine & Kathy's personal favorite. I could see from a far that she loved it. A few minutes later she and her parents came back and bought 2 boxes of the assorted macarons!

I will leave you by saying THANK YOU again to everyone who has helped making my macaron's first debut a very successful one. We will be back again next Sunday, I hope that the weather will be nice. BTW, Kathy has offered to help me again, isn't she an angel? :-)

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Itzy Bitzy Patisserie
http://www.itzybitzypatisserie.com

Brooklyn Flea
Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School
357 Clermont Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11238
http://brownstoner.com/brooklynflea/

Doughnut Plant
379 Grand St
New York, NY 10002
(212) 505-3700
http://www.doughnutplant.com/

Kampuchea
78 Rivington St
New York, NY 10002
(212) 529-3901
http://kampucheanyc.com/

Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar
207 2nd Avenue, 13th Street entrance
New York, NY 10003
(212) 228-0031
http://www.momofuku.com/bakery/default.asp

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