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