Paris Eats - Oh Mon Cake!

In an effort to avoid the millions and millions of people taking advantage of les soldes on the rue de Rivoli, Copain and I took the rue Saint Honoré on our way to la Madeleine on Saturday (he got to pick up his new watch, a gift from his maman and papa for his 30th birthday). 

I'd heard of the rue Saint Honoré, but never really paid attention to whether I was taking that particular street or not (sometimes I wander without paying much attention).  Saturday, however, I was VERY aware that I was on the rue Saint Honoré - fur coats, designer It-bags, fancy cars - it was like the back street version of La Croisette - great for people watching even if you can't afford anything!

Just as I was starting to get a bit hungry, and just as I began planning my request to stop for a crêpe somewhere, I looked to my right and saw Oh Mon Cake! Did you just say cake? Um, yes, don't mind if I do! Thankfully, Copain was on board for a cake adventure, so we stopped in to try it out.

How cute is this place?

The minute I saw carrot cake in the window, I knew it had to be mine. Behold my (okay, our) carrot cake and latte:

The Best Invention EVER: Le Café Gourmand

I feel like I've probably talked about the splendor of le café gourmand in the past, but I'm compelled to write about it again. For the café gourmand truly provides the best of both worlds...

Normally, when you go to a restaurant, you are either disappointed because you didn't get the amazing-smelling coffee or you are disappointed because you didn't get the amazing-looking dessert (or you ordered the moelleux au chocolat and wished you had ordered the clafoutis de cerises). No matter which way you go, you're bummed out.

Enter le café gourmand - it never disappoints because you always get some of everything! An espresso and a miniature version of each dessert...perfection.

My Anglo peeps and I decided to take a stroll in the 18th last week. We got off at metro Abesses and made our way to a funky café - we only had one criteria: the café HAD to serve café gourmand. Thankfully, we had no trouble finding one and promptly ordered 4! (We had a fun Frenchie along for the ride).

When our order arrived, we were surprised to find that our mini crème brulées were literally en train de bruler - on fire!  When we asked the waiter if it was normal, he took the opportunity to make fun of us...mais oui! c'est une crème...brulée!  He then went on to say that a crème brulée on fire is truly "la classe américaine", which took some explaining for us Anglos to get.  American class? ummm, ok...but isn't a crème brulée French? Thankfully, he went on to explain that la class américaine meant that something was  super cool, but in an ironic way.  I'll have to try using it in a sentence...

I tried to get a photo of our crème brulée en train de bruler but alas, the Iphone 3 wasn't up for the challenge:

Our café gourmand came with an espresso (but we requested a "noisette" - they add a little bit of milk!), a mini crème brulée and a mini panacotta with berries on top. Usually they come with a biscuit of some sort too, but we were happy with this. The crème brulée was ah-mazing. génial. fabuleuse.  la class américaine, quoi.

Next time you are out for dinner or need a snack, just remember: Go café gourmand, or Go home!