Et pourquoi pas une petite millefeuille....
Showing posts with label millefeuille. Show all posts
Showing posts with label millefeuille. Show all posts
2.01.2013
7.31.2011
Paris DO NOT Eats - Ban Banette!
Yesterday I found myself with a free hour in my work schedule and decided to treat myself to a gouter - that's French for "snack". Bien sur my gouter of choice is generally my favorite patisserie of all time, the stupendous millefeuille. If you are unfamiliar with my love for the millefeuille, you can check it out here and here.
Basically, they rock my world.
So, milling around the 13th arrondissement on avenue des Gobelins, I found Banette, a bakery on the corner that happened to have a millefeulle. There was a bee flying around in the meringue jar and the frosting on the millefeuille did look a bit too...set, however, I decided to go with it anyways, and for 2 Euros and 30 centimes, it was mine.
I sat on a stool and people watched as I began what I thought would be an experience equal to that of heaven or at least a hot shower after a day in the snow. Instead, this is what I got:
Soggy crust, close to curdled, lumpy, tasteless cream and stale frosting. Quelle catastrophe. Out of principle I finished the frosting, but I left the rest and went back to work thoroughly disappointed.
Fast forward to approximately 10pm - Copain and I had just finished a lovely dinner at Les Caves Saint Gilles in the Marais (more on that great resto coming soon!), when BAM!! FOOOOOD POISONING!!!!!!!!!!!
Let's just say, it wasn't pretty.
Banette - you are banned from my food repertoire! Never shall I cross your threshold again! The millefeuille is a sacred piece of craftsmanship - its crispy crust, vanilla-infused cream and rich rum icing are to be savored! You are an embarrassment to the French boulangerie tradition.
When I posted my ill-condition following the ingestion of the millefeuille on Facebook, my fellow-expat friend L commented the following: Steer clear of Banette I say. Last time I had one of their croissants I was convinced that it had been imported from Costco.
When Copain learned that I had gone to Banette he said something along the lines of - mais pourquoi Banette - tout le monde sait que ce n'est pas bon! (Why Banette? Everyone knows it's bad!)
Did everyone know this? Am I just out of the boulangerie loop? From now on, I'm sticking with Huré.
Basically, they rock my world.
So, milling around the 13th arrondissement on avenue des Gobelins, I found Banette, a bakery on the corner that happened to have a millefeulle. There was a bee flying around in the meringue jar and the frosting on the millefeuille did look a bit too...set, however, I decided to go with it anyways, and for 2 Euros and 30 centimes, it was mine.
I sat on a stool and people watched as I began what I thought would be an experience equal to that of heaven or at least a hot shower after a day in the snow. Instead, this is what I got:
Soggy crust, close to curdled, lumpy, tasteless cream and stale frosting. Quelle catastrophe. Out of principle I finished the frosting, but I left the rest and went back to work thoroughly disappointed.
Fast forward to approximately 10pm - Copain and I had just finished a lovely dinner at Les Caves Saint Gilles in the Marais (more on that great resto coming soon!), when BAM!! FOOOOOD POISONING!!!!!!!!!!!
Let's just say, it wasn't pretty.
Banette - you are banned from my food repertoire! Never shall I cross your threshold again! The millefeuille is a sacred piece of craftsmanship - its crispy crust, vanilla-infused cream and rich rum icing are to be savored! You are an embarrassment to the French boulangerie tradition.
When I posted my ill-condition following the ingestion of the millefeuille on Facebook, my fellow-expat friend L commented the following: Steer clear of Banette I say. Last time I had one of their croissants I was convinced that it had been imported from Costco.
When Copain learned that I had gone to Banette he said something along the lines of - mais pourquoi Banette - tout le monde sait que ce n'est pas bon! (Why Banette? Everyone knows it's bad!)
Did everyone know this? Am I just out of the boulangerie loop? From now on, I'm sticking with Huré.
7.05.2011
Parisian Living - the Art of Making it Work in 0 Meters Squared
It is only by renting your own apartment in Paris (or perhaps New York) that you actually realize how valuable space can be. Just to give you an example, Copain and I live in a one-bedroom apartment that measures 29 meters squared - teeeeny. And it's not cheap either - sigh.
In Parisian apartment buildings, we live right on top of our neighbors and are often (malheureusement) privy to what happens chez eux. As a result, space is not the only big commodity - so is privacy. Parisians have had to get creative to make it work!
On my way back from a millefeuille break this afternoon, I caught some great Parisian creativity in action...
A few things Copain and I have had to do since our move from 56 to 29 meters?
In Parisian apartment buildings, we live right on top of our neighbors and are often (malheureusement) privy to what happens chez eux. As a result, space is not the only big commodity - so is privacy. Parisians have had to get creative to make it work!
On my way back from a millefeuille break this afternoon, I caught some great Parisian creativity in action...
When you don't have a balcony AND you live in a shoebox...why not lock your bike to your window ledge?
A tree may grow in Brooklyn, but a forest grows in Paris...
- Install hooks in our shower to hang our mop, broom etc
- Install a shelf in the toilet for cleaning supplies
- Stack our suitcases on top of our closets - feng shui? what's that?
- Prop up our bed on risers for prime "under the bed" storage space
- Cram our hollow storage couch with extra blankets and pillows and whatever else will fit
- Purchase a vertical silverware holder - the horizontal one took up the entire bottom kitchen shelf
- Become experts at eating on the couch (no room for a dining room table!)
- Restrict ourselves from purchasing any additional housing supplies - otherwise we might have to start locking things to our window ledge.
The upside -
- We can clean our house top to bottom in under 1 hour.
- We are rarely there - we enjoy Paris instead :-) - check out my millefeuille, enjoyed on Boulevard Voltaire, for proof!
Bam! Délicieuse!
8.18.2010
Oh My Millefeuille
I just realized it - just this very moment - that today is my 6 year France-iversary. I've been living in France for SIX years now - ooooh la. C'est crazy non??!
Don't ask me why it took me six years to appreciate French pastries, but it did, and tonight I have officially GONE TOO FAR.
It all started so reasonably...a millefeuille here, a fraisier there, a chocolate raspberry amazingness for the road....until one day it became my quest to find the best millefeuile in Paris. I would scour the quartiers on Saturday afternoons searching for a millefeuille in one of the million boulangeries - purchasing the first one I saw and forcing myself to wait until dessert time to eat it.
Now I don't even wait for the weekend. I see one, I buy it, I eat it. For lunch, dinner, dessert - whatever.
Last night on my way home I saw one peeking out of the bakery window. Not one to leave a millefeuille sad and alone for the night, I popped in to buy it and ate it after my healthy high protein dinner negating any and all effort towards a well-balanced meal.
Tonight though - wow. Tonight took the cake - literally. I was doing my grocery shopping around the corner in order to pick up a few things before Sunny Life comes for the weekend. All of a sudden I saw it -no, them! Not one but TWO millefeuille in a nice little box sitting in the bakery section of the supermarket. They taunted me and with no willpower left in me at 8.30 pm I snatched them up! I thought I would wait until Sunny Life came to enjoy them for dessert one night- but I had no strength - I failed, my friends.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, FrenchCannesCannes has eaten the millefeuilles - all two of them - in ONE sitting.
My only excuse is that it is my 6 year France-iversary....it just would have been a more plausible excuse had I realized that fact before the pig out.
Merde.
Don't ask me why it took me six years to appreciate French pastries, but it did, and tonight I have officially GONE TOO FAR.
It all started so reasonably...a millefeuille here, a fraisier there, a chocolate raspberry amazingness for the road....until one day it became my quest to find the best millefeuile in Paris. I would scour the quartiers on Saturday afternoons searching for a millefeuille in one of the million boulangeries - purchasing the first one I saw and forcing myself to wait until dessert time to eat it.
Now I don't even wait for the weekend. I see one, I buy it, I eat it. For lunch, dinner, dessert - whatever.
Last night on my way home I saw one peeking out of the bakery window. Not one to leave a millefeuille sad and alone for the night, I popped in to buy it and ate it after my healthy high protein dinner negating any and all effort towards a well-balanced meal.
Tonight though - wow. Tonight took the cake - literally. I was doing my grocery shopping around the corner in order to pick up a few things before Sunny Life comes for the weekend. All of a sudden I saw it -no, them! Not one but TWO millefeuille in a nice little box sitting in the bakery section of the supermarket. They taunted me and with no willpower left in me at 8.30 pm I snatched them up! I thought I would wait until Sunny Life came to enjoy them for dessert one night- but I had no strength - I failed, my friends.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, FrenchCannesCannes has eaten the millefeuilles - all two of them - in ONE sitting.
My only excuse is that it is my 6 year France-iversary....it just would have been a more plausible excuse had I realized that fact before the pig out.
Merde.
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