Pastry tasting in Paris may sound like a glamorous occupation for a week, but in reality, it’s more about eating on sidewalks than on fine linens decked out with plates of pastries. If a bakery doesn’t have seating, the search is immediately on for an even partially comfortable place to eat in public.

After making a few purchases the Boulangerie de Monge, a beautiful and casual sort of neighborhood bake shop that is supposed to make one of the best baguettes in Paris, we once again found ourselves on our on the streets, laden with baked goods. We eventually found a triangle of grass on a side street, with a two-foot high fence and a sign indicating that dogs are not allowed. We decided that it was good enough for us, and stepped over the fence.

So, that’s my explanation for this rather awkward, bucolic baguette shot…

This was the Baguette de Boulangerie de Monge, which differed from their traditional baguette because it was without additives. It was just slightly doughy enough inside to be downright creamy. Paired with the quintessential crusty crust, it was great. I like the tapered ends, too.

This Red Currant Tart had a layer of a kind of pistachio paste between the dough and the currants, which I loved. It not only added another dimension of flavor and texture to the tart, but it also helped seal the dough off from the moisture of the currants. I want to play around with this tart structure; in fact, I already have once, but I’ll post about that later.

On top of that, the red currants were so tart and juicy, and although I am eminently weary of overloading fruits with chunky gel, the glaze on this seemed to be flavored with red currant and was so smooth and soft that it only heightened the juiciness of the currants (I’m going to assume that it’s like this by design, but it’s possible that the heat melted the glaze a bit). Every bite was like a big kiss.

The Pain au Chocolat was nicely flaky, and it was so hot outside outside that the chocolate was melted inside, which was lovely; I generally dislike chomping through two brittle sticks of chocolate in pains au chocolat.

The Chouquettes were good, but I liked them smaller and a little more crisp, like at Le Bon Marche.

Here are a few more random pictures…

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 24th, 2006 at 8:19 pm and is filed under Bakeries/Pastry Shops, Highly Recommended, Paris, Sampling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.