Sugar porn (SFW)
April 26, 2012 8:18 AM   Subscribe

Paris Patisseries is a luscious blog which chronicles Parisian pastry and the great chefs behind it. It is written by Adam Wayda, an American gourmand who spends half of each year in Paris & indulges his time there enjoying pastries. Some mouth-watering posts: Top 17 Best Pastries posted by growabrain (32 comments total) 53 users marked this as a favorite
 
*drools*
posted by eviemath at 8:25 AM on April 26, 2012


I love this so much.

I also love the way all the pastries are slightly snooty - just like Parisians:)
posted by Jody Tresidder at 8:26 AM on April 26, 2012


That best pastries link is missing one.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:26 AM on April 26, 2012


For anyone getting off on the Aoki French-Japanese fusion pastries in the top pastry link, but finding it a bit out of your budget in an already over-priced city, check out Aki pan-ya near metro Pyramides. Aki has other eclairs (yuzu and green tea) as well as Japan-flavored macarons (yuzu, adzuki, black sesame, green tea, and ume), along with very pan-ya type products like katsu-sando and melon bread (no actual melons involved).

The Aki restaurant across the street is nice, with one of the few okonomiyaki you can buy in Paris. On the other side of the corner is Kadoya ramen, with one of the few tantanmen ramens I have found in Paris (though the rest of the menu is also pleasant).
posted by whatzit at 8:34 AM on April 26, 2012 [1 favorite]


Those look incroyable! After just seeing the pictures I think I will never be able to eat a Twinkie again (not that that is a bad thing).
posted by TedW at 8:35 AM on April 26, 2012


The 17 best Blog post was just cruel. (wipes drool from chin)
posted by PorcineWithMe at 8:48 AM on April 26, 2012 [1 favorite]


Dear tax return, you were supposed to go into my grown-up adult 403(b), but oh my god let's go to Paris and die happy and replete with cream and butter everywhere.
posted by jetlagaddict at 8:48 AM on April 26, 2012 [6 favorites]


I'm going to Paris next week.

Thank you so much.
posted by Vhanudux at 9:08 AM on April 26, 2012


I just got back from Paris and I still don't understand why Macarons are so expensive.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:14 AM on April 26, 2012


I am afraid to look at these. I think they will make me sad, since my weekend will not be filled with wonderful pastries, but grading. Oh! Woe!
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:16 AM on April 26, 2012


...an American gourmand who spends half of each year in Paris & indulges his time there enjoying pastries.

I can finally say I know what jealousy feels like.
posted by ADent at 9:32 AM on April 26, 2012 [1 favorite]


blue_beetle, there are a few reasons, which I've puzzled out while making them (thankfully, not for long) in a commercial setting.

1) Ingredient cost. The "cookies" in a macaron are made from almond flour, which is expensive. If you use the amount of food coloring that, say, Laduree uses, that's expensive too. Some flavors are expensive, and if you're developing your own or changing them seasonally, that costs too.

2) Double the "cookies." So if you make a batch of the wafers that equals 72, you've still got only 36 macarons.

3) ...and that's on a perfect day. Macarons are finicky and don't like humidity and sometimes, you do everything right and they still don't come out or aren't perfect enough. You're going to throw away (into your mouth!) some rejects.

4) Labor. Making different-colored wafers for each variety; making a variety of different fillings; piping in the fillings; putting the macarons together. These things are labor-intensive.

5) Fancypants. You charge more not only to reflect your labor and ingredient cost, but because they are beautiful, fancy, and a treat. Charging less would devalue them. Macarons are special.

I think that about covers it. They're expensive, sure, but they're a pain to make and the profit margin is still pretty thin.
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:37 AM on April 26, 2012 [2 favorites]


American pastries never reach the level of French pastries. A lot of the pastries are so complicated to make utilizing so much technique. Unfortunately Americans really shy away from this types of pastries because there are so many french-style pastries here that are done so bad. It's weirdly gotten a bad reputation. A napolean is a simple thing of beauty. I don't know why american bakeries have a way of screwing it up.
posted by savvysearch at 9:38 AM on April 26, 2012 [1 favorite]


OH DEAR GOD WHY DO YOU MOCK ME SO?
posted by Soliloquy at 9:40 AM on April 26, 2012


I've only spent two weeks in France, but I made sure I got my fill of pastries (2/day minimum). The lovely thing is you can't go more than a few blocks in most neighborhoods without finding a pastry shop, a cheese shop, a charcuterie. In Paris, a glass of wine is cheaper than a Coke. It's wonderful. The worst problem was being in a small town in Normandy where the local baker was closed on Mondays. We had to buy extra and eat day old. :-)

I recall taking a cooking class from a French woman once who told me that French kids didn't eat candy bars like American kids. No wonder, they can eat pain au chocolat!
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 9:41 AM on April 26, 2012 [1 favorite]


Nom de Dieu! I miss those little fruit Patisserie thingies! Framboise, Fraise, Cassis . . .

Sweet little round slices of heaven. Qu'ils me manquent!!!!
posted by WestChester22 at 9:45 AM on April 26, 2012


MeFi web-experts: how do they make the pictures of the top 17 pastries appear to come out of the screen, expand to take in your full field of vision and then look into your soul?
posted by biffa at 9:46 AM on April 26, 2012 [3 favorites]


They're expensive, sure, but they're a pain to make -- of course, a "fiercecupcake" would insult the saintly macarons!

(I am kidding because I tried considering making macarons once but it was summer in DC and the humidity level was 100%, and so I had a Popsicle instead. I just like the image of a cupcake and French pastry rumble in the streets.)
posted by jetlagaddict at 9:47 AM on April 26, 2012


I will stay on my low-carb diet.
I will stay on my low-carb diet.
I will stay on my low-carb diet.

::cries::
posted by Kitty Stardust at 10:08 AM on April 26, 2012 [2 favorites]


I'M JUST SO HUNGRY :(
posted by d1rge at 10:11 AM on April 26, 2012


Well, hello, Pan de Sucre with a pipette of rum! You're, like, my three favorite things come together (Carbs, alcohol, SCIENCE).
posted by spitefullerene at 10:13 AM on April 26, 2012 [1 favorite]


Suck it, paleo-diet fans... There's a reason we developed civilization. French pastries.
posted by twsf at 10:20 AM on April 26, 2012 [2 favorites]


These look delicious! But seriously, why is the lavender one made of 4 boobs?

Macarons are finicky and don't like humidity and sometimes, you do everything right and they still don't come out or aren't perfect enough. You're going to throw away (into your mouth!) some rejects.

I recently read that one of the French pastry shops in my neck of the woods sells the macaron failures for extra cheap, they get lumped on a plate and, one would assume, served with a fork or spoon. I love how francy French pastry meets down-to-earth Midwesternism here in Minneapolis. It makes a customer feel like part of the family, seeing all these perfect little tarts and pastries, but also having access to the imperfect ones.
posted by vytae at 10:21 AM on April 26, 2012


I used to say that when the Devil came to bargain for my soul, he would offer me pastry. Not for my whole soul, just as an opening move, to soften me up.

"Care for a pastry?", he would say, uncovering a plate with chocolate-dipped florentines, crucanti, pains au chocolat, adzuki-bean cream puffs, and almond croissants; and then negotiations would start. I would forget about wielding unlimited power, the ability to contemplate the vast dimensions of galaxies with my mere human mind, or finding a true soul-mate, diverted by choosing which pastry to sample next. (The Devil lets you take all you want, but doesn't care that you finish all you take.) With my concentration broken, I'd probably end up selling my eternal soul for a late model car and and a week at an all-inclusive resort during the off-season.

Now I realize it's worse that I had thought. Turns out I would sell my entire soul for a small selection of pastries from that "17 Best" page.
posted by benito.strauss at 10:43 AM on April 26, 2012 [1 favorite]


I am reading this thread while eating a salad. There appears to be something wrong somewhere, but I can't put my finger on it.

*sighs for #7*
posted by thomas j wise at 12:02 PM on April 26, 2012


I believe the most impressive aspect of French pastries is their ability to no over do it :  tarte au rhubarb, clafoutis aux cerises, tuile aux pralines, etc.  Restraint only make em' more tasty.
posted by jeffburdges at 12:04 PM on April 26, 2012


I clicked on these links expecting the kind of superficial, easily-impressed, "everything is delicious!" kind of food-critic writing that has been unfortunately common in food-blog writing. I'm actually pleased to see that he pays very close attention to each piece of pastry, writes about them critically and in detail, and seems to have a good view of the entire pastry "scene" in Paris. I still find his writing voice far too pun-intensive and giggly, but I'm willing to overlook it in order to read work by someone who seems to have developed some true expertise. I would come back to this just before heading to Paris (if only I had found this before I went last week!).

Also: PIERRE HERME MACARONS FUCK YEAH.
posted by LMGM at 2:14 PM on April 26, 2012


dear god

thank you for making me lactose intolerant so that i will never have to have my thousand-pound corpse winched out of a foot-high pile of french pastry crumbs

liz
posted by elizardbits at 2:14 PM on April 26, 2012 [2 favorites]


who am i even kidding it will be taco crumbs
posted by elizardbits at 2:20 PM on April 26, 2012 [2 favorites]


So it turns out I do have some kind of aspiration to be rich, just so I could say things like, "Oh, we grabbed the Concorde to Paris and snacked on some fabulous mille-feuille..."

So I guess it's a good thing the Concorde doesn't exist anymore.
posted by sarahnade at 8:56 PM on April 26, 2012


I revisited this page to have a "Cheesecake Factory dinner" with another MeFite here in Paris. That is, you skip dinner and eat only dessert because that is the best part. Anyway, we went to Pain de Sucre where sadly they were out of mille feuille already (reviewed on the page here) but the best thing I had of our 4 pastries and 1 macaron was the tarte au citron. How pedestrian, amirite? But it is a standard by which you can judge how good the rest of the products are. This one was light yet creamy, and obviously had some real zest in it. Neither too sweet nor too tart, it was absolutely perfect.

The other three entries were also good, but that was the best one. As for the macaron, I tried it because it is The Flavor I Never Find In France: mint with chocolate! It was green and not pistachio! Huzzah! It was very minty and very very obviously made with French mint. Yow, strong!

Anyway, what I really wanted to say about Pain de Sucre is that
1) from previous experience, I can tell you that their fresh marshmallows are fantastic and come in a variety of fun flavors from vanilla to black chocolate with coconut to orange blossom and
2) you can get equally good savory things from them just a few doors to the left of the dessert window. May this comment serve some Paris visitor in the future.
posted by whatzit at 10:01 AM on May 12, 2012 [1 favorite]


My mouth must have been typing and not my hands. I mean that the macaron was made with fresh mint, though it very well could have been grown in France as well. Also dark chocolate.
posted by whatzit at 10:03 AM on May 12, 2012


« Older Care and Feeding of Yer Books   |   Why And How To Strike On May Day Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments