Paris -- Lebanese Extravaganza -- Innovative Dessert

The meals described in the last post would not have been complete without a wonderful dessert, and my friend Tania invented one: the Chocobüchelava, or Chocobaklabûche, which consists of logs of baklava made into a bûche de Noël.

Here's the wonderful baklava that Tania found, which is not sweet and has just a hint of cashew flavor:

Baklava logs

And here's the bûche that Tania made in honor of her new grandson Raphael.

Tania's chocbûchelava

And here's the büche that I made, served on a plate by the wonderful Kanazawa artist, Nakamura Takuo.

My chocobûchelava

One of the nicest aspects of our two-day extravaganza was seeing how well the same food can work with different plates and aesthetic sensibilities.

Bobby Jay