The chocolate-almond croissant challenge lives!

It's baaaaaack! I hadn't had a chocolate-almond croissant in forever! I got away from my rabid new Frenchie bad-pastry-a-day habit and started eating more normal things like regular croissants (which are of course not healthy, but are certainly better than what I had been getting) and only doing so relatively rarely. But on a recent Saturday, I was shopping, saw a bakery, and suddenly remembered those delightful pastries I was hunting! It was a bakery I hadn't been to before and I had to see if they had my croissants. They did! I didn't take a picture of it, since it was in the bag with something else that got all over it and made it look odd (yes, I did jump back into the super-sweet pastry world by getting two things at once, don't judge me).

This croissant was goooood. It may have the advantage of being the first in a while, but it was really excellent. It had none of the sogginess that tends to plague these croissants, but it wasn't crispy either, so it sat in just the right zone for the dough texture for me. And the chocolate-almond filing was well done--there were two stripes of chocolate near the edges with an almond stripe in the middle, so you could create differently flavored bites easily. I was sold. But, since you're going to demand it, I'll re-up my  challenge effort and find others to compare this one to, ok? Wouldn't want it having an unfair advantage!

Finally, another chocolate almond croissant challenge update!

It has been a while since I had a chocolate almond croissant. This was for two reasons:

1. Nowhere had them! I tried! I don't know if I picked places that don't have them or were just out, but man. They were scarce.

2. I decided it would be embarassing to have a heart attack at my age and that my pastry consumption should decrease.

I'll go ahead and admit that #1 was a larger factor, but #2 is how I made it ok in my head.

But finally, I found not one, but two new contenders in the past week!

The first was from Juan-les-Pins, a beach town near Cannes, where I stayed for a night with my parents when they were here last week (yup, there's a post on that coming up as well). I think the bakery was called something along the lines of "Artisan baker," so not a whole lot of information there. I could tell the instant I picked it up this croissant was too smushy for me--it felt like a wet sponge. It had a pretty good taste for the texture, and Mom, a new initiate to the chocolate-almond croissant, was quite impressed, but I really couldn't get past the texture. Good thing though, since it would be quite unfortunate if the best chocolate-almond croissant was that far from me in Montpellier!

The second recent entrant came from the bakery "up a small alley by the botanical garden, with a yellow sign." Those directions were from a classmate, who got them from someone from Montpellier she met in Sweden. That was the entire extent of the directions, yet my classmate found it, and once she gave me the directions, so did I! I guess they are good enough, despite how laughable they are at first.

The place has good chocolate chip muffins when I need a taste of American goodies (the only not good sweet things I've had here have been cookies and cheesecake, both pretty far from French pastry and I guess out of the comfort zone).  But anyway, I was in there yesterday and spied a chocolate-almond beauty. It was definitely the most covered in powdered sugar so far! It was also an interesting one. On the outside, it was too crispy, but the inside had a good texture. The taste was nothing special though, unfortunately.

As the semester draws to a close, I am beginning to conclude that there is no holy grail of chocolate-almond croissants. There are several types, and I can be in the mood for various ones, but I have not yet found The One. If I'm here next semester, I'll definitely continue the challenge, while maybe thinking of it more as a sample of the variation versus a search for the perfect specimen!

The bf's visit, Part 2: Food

Finally coming back to the promised food post related to the bf's visit!  I'd like to start this food post by stating that I realized in a very odd way that French food was really as good as they say it is. What was this weird way? I moved from the Netherlands to here by train. I had to switch trains around lunchtime, so I grabbed a sandwich at a place I've since learned is your every street corner sandwich place. I took one bite and was astonished. I wasn't thinking about it being my first try of French food and expecting anything or even paying attention--I was just hungry! But the bite of sandwich completely took my by surprise. I knew I was going to eat well this semester.

Since arriving, I had eaten a few amazing meals in various restaurants around town and had realized  that wherever you go, pretty much everything is going to be amazing. French places frequently have a menu of the day, which is a choice of a plat-du-jour (usually several options), and you can  often add an entree (yeah English speakers, we got that one wrong: It's the appetizer, not the main plate) and/or a dessert for not much at all. It's a great way to try several things. I love the menus! Unfortunately, being a busy student and with a few weeks of having no money after the pickpocketing, I had really not eaten out nearly enough. I had eaten at the dining hall entirely too much (really the only lunch option with class timing). And while French dining halls serve things like duck, mussels, snails, and other things you would never see in American dining halls, they still cook them like a dining hall (read: they're gross). So by the time classes ended, I'd had enough. In the month and a half since I've eaten at a dining hall once, which reminded my why I was done with them. So long story short, I'm cooking again.

BUT, when the bf came, we went all out. He was in France and he was going to eat French food! We're not big planners, so our restaurant selection process usually involved deciding we were hungry, heading into town, and wandering and reading menus until something struck us both. It was fun! We went to all different parts of town and ended up at all kinds of places depending on their menu, atmosphere, whatever we were looking for that particular meal.

Well, I guess we did that except for the first dinner. I had told the bf about mussels and fries (moules- frites) places, and he had to eat at one of those, no question, his first night here. I told him it was a Belgian thing, but he was insistent (hehe I didn't actually fight it--it's an awesome meal). You get a kilogram of mussels (yeah that's 2.2 lbs) steamed in whatever sauce/broth you want.  I tend to do moules marinieres, which is your classic white wine garlic sauce, just because it's so amazing! We went to a great little place built into the side of a building and were one of the few tables in there. The proprietor was a fun Belgian guy who gave an enormous spiel and fun recommendations from his Belgian beer list, all while I was translating as fast as I could both his suggestions and the bf's questions. We split an order of the mussels and an order of some scallop dish with a beer-based sauce. I was not a huge fan of the scallop dish, but bf was in love.

But other than that we just wandered around town. I won't bother with place names, but if you're ever going to Montpellier and are scared to just wander freely, let me know and I'll get you names!  The first thing we had was a menu midi (lunch menu) in a square I like. Bf's first meal was a fish tarte (sorta like a fish and cheese pie) and steak-frites. So French!

I think we would probably agree that our best meal came from a place in this beautiful courtyard. The picture isn't great, but it was a cute square with a fountain in the middle and a restaurant on either side.

Bf got an utterly amazing plate of scallops. They were big, beautiful, and cooked perfectly. I had magret de canard (duck breast) with the most amazing sweet apple sauce. Drool, seriously.

We also went to once place where the appetizers were good, the meal was not, and the desserts were amazing.

 To the left is my appetizer--shrimp beignets (doughnuts). Kinda like extra-breaded fried shrimp. Very good. Below is bf's--terrine de something. Don't remember the details. Terrine looks a bit scary, and is some kind of fatty meat loafy thing (not like our meat loaf). It's really rich and delicious though.

I won't bother with pictures of the main dishes. The side vegetables were good, but that was about it. The desserts though. Mmm. First is a picture of my cafe gourmand. A cafe gourmand is a plate with a French coffee (they have tiny coffee) and several small desserts. This one was actual several reasonably normal-sized desserts, but less than the size was the utter amazingness of nearly everything. Top right was the worst thing on there, and was a not bad red fruit compote on some kind of cake. Bottom right was a dark chocolate mousse, bottom center was the coffee, bottom left was an apple tarte with some kind of flan-like base and caramel sauce, top left was a little meringue, and center was a creme brulee. The chocolate mousse and creme brulee were spectacular in true French fashion. The apple tarte really got me though. I am not a big cooked-apple person, so I didn't expect to like the thing. Bf is not a big dessert person at all though, and when I saw his face after he tried it, I knew I had to as well. And...uh...I still can't even describe it other than to tell you that after either of us took a bite, we would not be able to respond to any conversation while we were savoring it. It was amazing. I highly recommend cafe gourmands just because they're very French and fun, but that was my most amazing dessert ever. His dessert, a frozen lemon sorbet, was also great.

 

Oh French food. It's amazing. We also just had a couple meals with sandwiches or pizza bread and a bottle of wine or something like that, and it was still good.

Then Spanish food! We hit Barcelona right during Easter, which was awesome in that there were not many people anywhere, but not great in that a lot of places weren't open. We did manage to get paella though! Yum.

The Chocolate-Almond Croissant Challenge update

First, an update. The place right beside me, Fournil St. Nicolas, where the first one was burned. It unfortunately still gets an "eh." Nothing special, and really not that much flavor. I tried another almond pastry from there and I think the issue is just that however they do their almond paste leaves it really bland. The chocolate-almond croissant will be worth it occasionally simply because it's right beside me, but the place also has amazing chocolate muffins, so I've got better options. 

And our new contender--Le vieux four de St. Anne (The old oven of St. Anne). It is in a cute, old, and nice part of town, so hopes were high. As you can see, so was appetite, hence only most of it being present in the picture (these things tend to look alike though, so I'm not really worried about the pictures).

This croissant was awesome in a really subtle way. It was less sweet than the others, and all the flavors were mellow but really nice. The almond came across first and the chocolate came right at the end, and tasted more like dark than milk chocolate.  I also really liked the pastry (the dough part? I need better culinary words). It was not as heavy and buttery as some of the other ones I've had.  This one is definitely the current leader for the "best" croissant if you really want to sit down and pay attention to what you're eating. It's also right by a park I like, so I see future Saturdays (Sundays? Must check days it is open) well spent with a book, a chocolate-almond croissant, and me sitting in the grass. Ahhhhhhhh......

A real update

I realized that the only things I've been posting about lately are food items. I'm in France, of course, so that's probably what most of you want to hear about, but hey, I'm also living in a beautiful city (with, you know, a few interesting things other than restaurants and bakeries) and going to school, so I should chronicle the rest of it too.

School first. I'm still unimpressed by the program. (That's the short version. Feel free to skip the long version in the rest of this paragraph.) The courses we have been taking here have just not been good. Granted, for some profs it is their first time teaching, and for others the first time in English. But when you repeatedly call the whole class stupid and marvel at how we can be having trouble with something so easy, there may in fact be something wrong with what/the way you are teaching. It's also a bad idea to take a group of students with hugely varied backgrounds, split them up for the first semester (during which they take completely different classes), and then force them to take classes together during the second semester. Many of us are also upset that in the program guide, which convinced us to apply, there were long lists of courses we could take at each university. It wasn't until we were in the program that we found out that that had changed and those lists didn't apply to us--we would instead all be taking certain predefined courses the whole time. There goes the ability to tailor your Master's to your interests. I have spent this whole program taking courses in areas I have no intention of ever using in my own work. And, particularly in France, the material has been pretty basic, but presented in an unnecessarily complex way. Le sigh. One course I have really enjoyed though, is Hot Topics in Ecology and Evolution. It is a discussion class, and each time there are a few leaders who have read a bunch of papers on a topic (the rest of the class has read a few).  The topics have been a lot of fun, ranging from Life on other Planets to Why all the Mammoths died (I did that one and loved it) to much more hard core boring sciencey things. It has been fun to read about these crazy and different topics. And classes are almost over. In April, I get to start my research project, which I am really excited about. I'll be looking at global human disease epidemics and any potentially correlated social and climatic variables.

Alright! No more school. On to the good stuff. Oh wait, one more thing. We took a French placement test so that we could join language classes with other study abroad students. I aced the freaking thing and am now in way over my head in a class with a bunch of people who are completely fluent. D'oh :)

But ah, the city. It was cold, windy, and POURING for a week (I clearly did not fully comprehend what she meant when someone who had spent some time here said that when it rains, it really rains) and then suddenly the clouds cleared, the temperature soared, and it's spring! Blooms everywhere. It is gorgeous. This city was made for warm, sunny days with wispy clouds. It still gets pretty cool as soon as the sun goes down, so I'll be curious to see whether that's a spring thing or whether evenings will always be cool. I'm totally new to the Mediterranean climate.

I love the Saturday morning market at Arceaux (it's under the aqueduct, which has many arceaux (arches)). It is a great one. Lots of fruits, vegetables, bread, cheese, meat, flowers, and other reasonably standard market stuff. It's the stands with 15 different kinds of honey, the vineyard tables, and the local olive oils and soaps that are really fun to check out. I got a strawberry-peach jam a few weeks ago that I am completely in love with.

I am also making a serious effort to learn my favorite types of cheese and wine. I am not usually a wine drinker, but while I'm in France I have to take advantage and learn! No real progress made on finding wine favorites yet. I tend to like reds and so am focusing on those for now. Suggestions welcome! As for cheese, I'm progressing slowly there too.  I usually like chevre (goat cheese), but I've gotten several I haven't liked and don't know what the differences are in terms of the names or how they're made! I have also tried a Camembert and just don't think the taste is worth the smell. I've never been a blue cheese fan, and the one I got here was no different. I'll give Roquefort (one that looks like blue but isn't for some reason) a go soon. I did, however, break down and go for Brie, an old favorite, when I saw it in the grocery store a few days ago.

How did I get back to food? Seriously. I was trying to talk about other things! Ok. Really, food is important here.

I took a walking tour of the historic city center this weekend. It was interesting to hear the stories of a bunch of cool buildings I had never paid much attention to, but the best part was definitely that we got to go to the top of the Arc du Peyrou (which is called L'arc du Triomphe pretty regularly, even though it has nothing to do with Triumphe. Paris just does that). Haha traffic goes under this Arc and so to get in we had to stand in traffic and go through this crazy door in the wall. But the view was great!

 Alright. I realize this post was completely all over the place. I thought I should give you a bigger update than I had been and this is what happened! I will strive for more balance in future posts.

Look at that S Car Go!

Alright, I did it. I tried escargot. I am not sure what convinced people to eat snails in the first place, and I can't say that I understand why they continue to do so. The texture is a weird squishy/chewy that almost felt like a dense mushroom to me, and the flavor was odd--not strong, but not really good either. I would think snails would have to taste really good to be worth eating. I will probably give them a second chance just to be sure I'm not missing something wonderful, but I don't foresee them becoming a major part of my diet. Back to pastries for me!

The Chocolate-Almond Croissant Challenge!

My post "Oh Sweet Bakery" gave me an idea. I think that I will make it a personal challenge to find the best chocolate-almond croissant in Montpellier (and surrounding areas, although I hope the winner is here so I can have it more often)!

The first entry is the one from that post. It is from a chain bakery called Paul. It was amazing!  A good chunky almond filling and a nice amount of chocolate. It was a bit too greasy though--the bottom of the croissant was really soggy by the time I ate it.

The second entry is from a place I like quite a lot located two tram stops away (read:  a nice sunny afternoon walk away). It is called Maison des Pains, and has both nice indoor and outdoor seating, as well as great sandwich and pastry combos. Perfect for an afternoon of reading/studying/soaking up sun. Sadly though, the chocolate-almond croissant got a decided "Eh." The contribution of the almond flavor was almost totally limited to the almonds on top (sorry, no picture-it didn't make it through the walk home...). The inside contained a very vaguely almond flavored custard and not enough chocolate.

The third entry: Fournil St. Nicolas, another chain. I am withholding judgment on this one as my first chocolate-almond croissant from here was also my first burned pastry in France. FAIL. I will, however, give the place another chance as it is the one nearest my dorm and I am hoping that it is good :) I liked the not-burned parts! Here they also called the chocolate-almond croissant an Amandine, but that doesn't seem to be a standard name, so this will not become the Amandine challenge.

Those are the only three I have been able to try so far.  Don't worry though--I'm not limiting my pastry intake to occasions when I can find a chocolate-almond croissant. I am sampling a broad range :) I just hope I don't become a broad range myself...

Oh Sweet Bakery!

Oh delicious decadence. This is a chocolate almond croissant. It is amazing. Hello new go-to bad day/sweet tooth/other issue fixer!