i love spontaneity. what with my schedule being so jammed, i love when fun things just drop into my lap! case in point: ima (pronounced ee-ma) goodness.
in the midst of my ho-hum afternoon, i got a voicemail from fellow blogger, miss t (we shall allow her to remain nameless in case i make reference to any of her comments) about a pre-opening party at fulfilled pastries, a new pastry shop opening up in the heart of beverly hills.
not only is this location amazing for its proximity to pinkberry (which is RIGHT next door), but also for its ginormous chandelier hanging in a room covered in mirrors. it's as if you walked into the foyer of the von trapp family! it was quite lovely w/the light bouncing all over the place. there was also a tall shelf, lined w/mirrors and filled w/japanese toys -- an interesting contrast to the generally western feel of the place.
upon entry, we were directed towards the owner, susumu tsuchihashi, a personal friend of miss t. he was friendly, jovial, and seemed as excited to see us as we were to partake in all of the ima goodness.
before i go on, i'd like to define ima (or imagawa-yaki, which is the pastry's full name) as a pancake-like pastry which is filled with sweet or savory fillings.
miss t mentioned that it was a bit of a highbrow thing in japan, which may quite possibly be true, considering that eri had no idea what it was when i showed her the flyer. however, susumu mentioned that ima shops were all over tokyo. and another random guest commented on how the imas here were better than the ones in j-town (which must mean they're not a new concept, right?).
at any rate, imas are fairly dense pastries, so having just 1 or 2 is plenty. but of course, seeing as how we were at the pre-opening, we had to try as many as we could get into our tummies. this effort was bolstered by the fact that fulfilled has a dynamic array of sweet and savory options, of which i tried all but a few.
the first one that caught my eye was the nutty buddha. what could be better than chocolate, toffee, and crunchy peanut butter? i swear i don't know how i could ever have grown up on smooth peanut butter. *sigh* but this combo was quite decadent and i loved tasting all the crunchy pieces inside my warm ima.
the next one that got my attention was the honey yakuza. the combo of goat cheese, mission fig, honey, walnut, and cracked black pepper sounded fascinating, especially the black pepper. i love almost anything w/fig, so this was quite the experience. miss t thought we could've gotten more goat cheese, which i had to agree with. and i daresay that the black pepper better was a bit of a throwaway. but overall, i was quite pleased.
i didn't get a chance to try the sweet geisha (w/the azuki bean), but i wasn't too excited about the harajuku monkey (probably b/c i'm not a big fan of banana), and i thought the karaoke kitty (w/the strawberries and cream cheese) was a bit of a mess. perhaps a bit of cooling time would've made it easier to eat, but the filling was actually denser than the pastry, which made it a bit problematic to hold up. (it was like a jelly donut w/too much jelly.)
on the savory side, i'm bummed that i didn't get to try the spicy samurai (w/the chicken apple sausage) b/c i swear i'd spied it first. i thought the sumo italiano was pretty good w/the prosciutto, but i was too stuffed from NVG happy hour to try the green ninja (that and i don't like sundried tomatoes). all in all, savory pastries aren't my favorite, so i think i'll have to stick w/the sweet ones.
last but not least, we also got to sample lil misa's tea, a specialty drink w/a thin layer of azuki beans on the bottom, green tea, and a little bit of white cream/foam/something on top. susumu advised us to mix up the layers before drinking so that we could get the full flavor effect. it was quite refreshing, though i think the green tea taste could've come through a bit more.
all in all, this is definitely a place to look out for. i'm still not sure i'd take imas over cupcakes, but they're certainly novelties worthy of any LA tourist.
fulfilled pastries
http://www.fulfilledpastries.com/home.htm
p.s. "ima hottie" was on a t-shirt that one of the staff was wearing. now tell me this, who wouldn't want a t-shirt that says IMA HOTTIE?!
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