6 eme PASTRY notes

My neighborhood finds so far:

Poilane, rue du Cherche-Midi - Everyone already knows about Poilane and their standard sourdough brown bread.  In the window quietly sit tarte aux pommes that embody everything a pastry should be.  They also make nice loaves of a "miel" bread that is a little sweet and very good with milk.  The consistency is a little more crumby, like a cake, but still dense and tender like a bread.  It tastes best when just baked and still too warm to slice, so that the Poilane lady gives you half a loaf and a clear plastic bag to keep the bread in once it has cooled.

Bread and Roses, rue Fleurus - I prefer the viennoiserrie (a word that Thomas taught me which refers to croissants, pan chocolat, and pain aux raisins) in the back to the "pastries" displayed in the front.  The words for foods are very specific here.  Pastry refers to fancy, constructed miniature works of baked art.  Breads are Poilane country loaves and baguettes.

La Grand Epicicerie, rue du Bac - Pistache, cassis, caramel au beurre sale macarons.  Incredible.  Perfect.  Le gateau, the cake that apparently won the best chocolate cake in the world award.  It is a perfect cube made of an uncountable number of layers - praline, strawberry balsamic vinegar gelee, pistachio cake, chocolate mousse, chocolate ganache. 

Le petit Lux, rue Vaugirard - The peche tarte is the most beautiful I have seen in Paris.  The crust is a long pastry of deep golden flakey layers all floating on top of each other.  The fruit is shiny with an apricot glaze and dark from the juices that have caramelized.  It tasted so good that Alex and I immediately next ordered a framboise crumble tart.