Paradise of Pastries

When you go to get your pastry in the morning, there are so many choices to make.  First, you can decide DocRunning, Rock Monkey, and I all prefer flaky pastries.  You have to search to find the right shop.  The second consideration is to choose the right pastry.  There are so many kinds of pastries, and they sometimes are different at each pastry.  I like a plain croissant.  DocRunning prefers a Pain au Chocolat.  Rock Monkey likes a variety of pastries. 

We've moved around a lot, so we had to find the right place.  Here's a list of some of our favorite places (by city):

Paris - Eric Kayser
Chartres - La Fournee
Brussels - Charli

We've shown some of our favorite places, tell us your favorite places for pastries in the comments.  

The Quest for the Perfect Croissant

Photo Courtesy of SharedAppetite.com

Perfection is of course subjective. We all have our own idea about what makes the perfect croissant. For us it's light, flaky and not overcooked. Paris croissants tend towards the slightly burnt, or so we were told before arriving. In this way, they are completely cooked but to our tastes seem a little burnt.

We stayed in apartments (definitely the way to go for families) while in Paris, and usually started with recommendations from our host. In the 8th arondissemnt, our host recommended Les Caprice des Charlottes, which was just around the corner. Location- ideal. We were encouraged by the number of locals that frequented this patisserie. The croissants were solid and consistent. The pain au chocolat tended to be a bit overdone but the plié was tasty, very sweet though. I liked the espresso here more than other places we visited.

In the 6th arrondissement, we had lots of choice. Our host recommended Boulangerie Guérineau.   The staff were very friendly, and the aroma of bread baking was overwhelming upon entering. The croissants were very doughy, not crisp and flaky. After one visit we were done.

Hands down the best croissants, as well as other tasty treats were at the many Eric Kaysers that dot the streets of Paris. The croissants and pain au chocolat were light and flaky. Too tempting for two. Limber gitliked the plié au chocolat, which is like folded croissant dough around chocolat and pastry cream. We tried the Viennoise chocolat, a bread filled with chocolat chips. Also quite good. Eric kayser quickly became our place for the perfect croissant in Paris. And certainly it was fun searching...

Foodie Fun

So, even in France, it doesn't take long to get tired of going out to eat.  The brassieries all have essentially the same food.  You can find paninis everywhere.  And of course, there are the morning pastries, which we aren't giving up yet.  But we are ready to cook, again.  Fortunately, we found this amazing organic gourmet super market called La Grande Epicerie. This supermarket, WAY better than a MonoPrix, has it all - gourmet pastas and olive oils, wines, cheese, meat, breads, etc.  They even have an "American" aisle and a tex-mex shelf, both of which we avoided.  When in Rome and all that...

Food shopping is an experience in itself.  There is of course the constant converting of Euros into dollars in your head to figure out about how much something costs, and then the challenge of communicating the number of kilos of cheese and meat to the staff.  Even with my French skills, it is an adventure.  On our first go, we ended up with a block of salami (not sure why I couldn't get him to slice it) and WAY more cheddar than we can possibly eat.  Still, we didn't do too badly.  I love the produce system where you put your produce in these paper bags and take them directly to the counter where one person weighs everything and puts a sticker with a bar code on it.  At check out, the cashier just beep beeps it through and doesn't need to know any of the produce codes.  Plus, the staff was really helpful.

The highlight of this grocery visit quite possibly was the giant side of beef hanging in the refrigerator.  We wondered if you could buy the whole thing.  As vegetarians, we were pretty fascinated by the prevalence of meat everywhere.  I think if you do eat meat, you would be in heaven.  I have never seen such variety.  WOW! 

We also noticed that some products were particularly difficult to find, such as milk.  The milk section was very small.  The choice was between organic milk and not organic milk.  We went organic, but for all we know it is whole milk!  We did discover fromage blanc, which is similar to yogurt but a little less sour.  Climber girl likes it quite a bit with cherry tomatoes or blackberries mixed in.  All in all a fantastic experience.  We are stocked up for the moment, but am sure we will be heading back soon.


Blog post by DocRunning