Trapezista and I headed up the coast to check out Ucluelet and Tofino. On our way there, we stopped at Old Town Bakery in Ladysmith. Trapezista had heard that their cinnamon buns were a must try.
Old Town Bakery.
Trapezista got the renown cinnamon bun with sliced almonds and cream cheese icing. Idon't remember how much it was, but definitely under $3, which makes the giant bun a steal. She really enjoyed her bun. There were other flavours, such as a berry one and a peanut butter cream cheese one.
Cinnamon Bun.
I was a wimp and was overwhelmed by the ginormous cinnamon bun so I ordered the blueberry and white chocolate scone ($1.85) instead. It was quite good and still big. I did eye her bun and wondered if I should have stuck to the bakery's specialty.
Blueberry scone.
Old Town Bakery seemed to be busy on a weekday morning. Their other baked goods include large square shaped muffins, cookies and freshly baked breads. There was also a small lunch counter with salads.
***************************************************************************************** After reading that on top of having the best macarons in town, this pâtissier also made some first rate croissants, I knew I had to go. The boutique pâtisserie is tiny; while it's been around for a while its décor is uber modern, and the goods are laid out beautifully. I snapped a few shots and a curt employee informed me that pictures were NOT allowed. So we took our breakfast of champions to a bench by the Seine and I snapped pictures to my heart’s content!
Bag full of goodies!
It was still early so I went straight for the croissants, and a few macarons of course! The buttery croissant was definitely one of the best I’d ever had. Perfectly puffed and flaky so that it was just as light as it was rich. I was also easily seduced by the croissant Ispahan. One look at the description of pâte d’amande, framboises, glaçage à l’eau de rose and I was sold! It did not disappoint. I’ve read a few descriptions online but I don’t remember the description having lychee flavour nor did I imagine a solid filling inside. It was an almond croissant laced with raspberry and with the perfect flaky pastry on the outside.
Croissant Ispahan: almond paste filing, raspberry and lychee compote and rose water icing.
While I would not think I’d enjoy macaron looking at them, I had the chance to try some at a wedding and fell in love with them. Something about the lightness of the meringue cookie and the richness of the filling… I definitely had to try some Parisian ones. They are a totally different experience and are just an explosion of concentrated flavours in your mouth. And with flavours like strawberry-wasabi and vanilla-olive oil, who can resist?
Trois macarons.
For my first tasting I chose a caramel à la fleur de sel, perfect in its complexity of flavour. D chose an apricot-saffron macaron and we shared a chocolate one. They are a real treat to the senses. We brought a lovely selection back for Miss.Adventure and they are waiting for her in the freezer; news to come on how they hold up!
My sister L and her new husband went to France for their honeymoon. I asked her to share a bit of their food experiences since I knew they would be eating amazing food.
********************************************************************************************* We were advised that as newlyweds we should ask to be bumped to first class. After being refused at the Air Transat counter, we asked the flight attendant during boarding. We were still in our aisle seats when we took off before finally being switched. Yay! Honeymoon lesson: keep asking to be upgraded until someone says yes!
In first class we got free cocktails, a "snack" accompanied by wine and a hot breakfast all served on real china with real cutlery! The "snack" was composed of a slice of cold roast beef, a Caprese salad kabob and a Lindt chocolate. The hot breakfast was Eggs Benedict which was disappointingly scrambled eggs!
La Boulangerie par Véronique Mauclerc 83 rue de Crimée 75019 T 01 42 40 64 55
We were staying in Belleville in the 11th arrondissement by the Parc des Buttes Chaumont. Our first food endeavour was to seek out La Boulangerie par Véronique Mauclerc, a boulangerie recommended by David Leibovitz, which was nearby.
La Boulangerie par Véronique Mauclerc.
As an afternoon snack (after an evening of three meals), we shared a chocolate pear tart. D definitely thought that this was the epitome of chocolate tarts. I was much more charmed by the little bakery with its lovely displays and the picturesque old building and sign. Interestingly in France everyone loves fresh bread, so bread is bought by weight and you can purchase half a baguette if that’s all you need, and a few hundred grams of a loaf. I was able to enjoy half a loaf of a lovely organic whole grain bread which I had for breakfast for the next few days.
Different breads sold by weight and our chocolate pear tart.
We also passed by a few lovely fresh fruit and vegetable stands where I found these lovely green stalks laying on beautiful cherries. According to the merchant, they are young asparagus or some kind of asparagus…
Before leaving for Paris, I couldn’t wait to stuff my face with good cheeses and croissants. And boy did we get to… We did not waste any time by hitting up the local fromagerie for a little pre-dinner wine and cheese.
Breakfast in France consisted of toasted baguette with butter and jam (tartine) sometimes served with a croissant or other viennoiserie (chocolatine, etc.). Our favourite breakfast by far was from Le Pain Quotidien, recommended by my Paris food guru David Leibovitz. At Le Pain Quotidien, actually a Belgian chain, they took breakfast a step further by serving different sliced breads from their organic breads selection, half a baguette, a flaky croissant with fresh pressed orange juice, a bowl of café au lait and unlimited spreads from all kinds of jams (including sugar free jams) to hazelnut butter, chocolate hazelnut and white chocolate spreads. All this for 9€. This was actually plenty to share between two people, but the first time we ordered an extra croissant and café.
Lunch was often a sandwich and our first lunch was from one of my favourite chains in Paris Paul. We hit up the Louvre outlet of this large chain for a Parisien (ham and butter on baguette) with an Orangina and an apricot tart. The sandwich, ridiculously simple was just delicious, the tart was flaky with a thin custard filling and apricots, yum! If I could eat at Chez Paul every day I would. Well, every other day at least.
Lunch at Chez Paul.
Le Bistrot des Peintres 116 Avenue Ledru-Rollin 75011 Paris, France 01 47 00 34 39
Bistro eating is very good in Paris and after a fruitless search for Le Bistro Paul Bert for steak frites we ended up at Le Bistrot des Peintres for a very eclectic supper. I ordered a Salade de ravioles farcies au basilic, Saint Jacques poêlées, haricots verts, tomates confites (12.90 €).Saint Jacques, which is the term used for scallops instead of the word pétoncle used in Québec. The scallops were served raw in a pesto like dressing with an assortment of sides, eggplant tortellini, a green salad topped with cooked string beans (overcooked à la française), a salmon salad and bread sticks. It was oddly satisfying. D ordered Poulet de la ferme d'Alice (10.90 €), the more traditional roast chicken and frites. The dessert on the menu that caught our eye was profitérole géantes (6.90 €), and they did not disappoint; the cream puffs were filled with ice cream and topped with a chocolate sauce, a perfect ending to our casual meal!
Salade Saint-Jacques at Le Bistrot des Peintres.
Hope you enjoyed reading about some of our meals in Paris!
5002 Chemin de la Côte des Neiges Montréal, Québec 514.731.4128 website
After a night of débaucheries (not really, rather a night of aching feet because of high heels!), my sister and I went to grab breakfast at Duc de Lorraine near her condo. If you've lived in Montréal, you probably know Duc de Lorraine for its croissants. It's been around on Côte des Neiges for over 50 years!
In the picture below, it seems we shared a croissant, a chocolate croissant and an abricotine (apricot with custard pastry). The croissants are hot and buttery but I really enjoyed the apricot and custard combination. While I tried to savour the pastries as best I could, my sister was going to have much better in the near future; she went to Paris for her honeymoon!
Plate of pastries!
There are many French pastries around Montréal but this is definitely one of the best around!
One of the things I miss about living in Montréal is benefiting from all of the French influences, like having boulangeries (bakeries) offering beautiful baguettes and viennoiseries (pastries). Anyone from Québec who sees this post on Première Moisson will think it's lame to write about it. Première Moisson is a chain of bakeries that you can easily find throughout the city, along with many other similar chains. However, there is nothing similar where I live now in Hamilton, so I felt I had to share this.
So on a cold, rainy morning, I woke up at my sister's condo and we decided to go have breakfast close by. Coming in to the bakery, you are faced with different breads and pastries. I'm not a sweets person per se, but I do like French type pastries. Call me a snob if you want. I feel no guilt. In the back, fresh baguettes were being baked.
There was a little area to sit after you ordered your pastry and coffee. There are also sandwiches for lunch that they will reheat. My sister L went for a plain croissant. Her boyfriend went for a amandine, a croissant stuffed with almond paste. I, being the glutton, ordered the amandine-chocolate; that's right, it was loaded with both almond paste AND chococate! Supposedly, L ate many amandines when she was in France. I don't remember eating any and stuck to croissant and espressos.
L's buttery croissant.
My amandine-chocolat.
As we were leaving, we took a look at their other offerings. Not only do they have breads and pastries, they also had a slew of chocolates for Easter: bunnies, hippo's, whatever you could think of. I also took a look at their charcuterie which offered different pâté's, terrines and even rillettes.
