When I come to the states, with apologies to all whoโve urged me to check out a croissant, Kouign amann, or macaron shop, since I can get all those things pretty easily in France, I tend to stick with local favorites. I donโt think anyone from San Francisco is coming to Paris for a burrito, nor in anyone flying over from Brooklyn in search ofโฆ
Itโs a great day when a new bakery opens up in your neighborhood. I donโt mean to brag, but there are six bakeries in my neighborhood. One of those โgreat daysโ was when a particularly lame bakery closed, and a really good one opened up in its place. And although I donโt like seeing people go out of business, another bakery that was, for lackโฆ
From the outside, Compagnie Gรฉnรฉrale de Biscuiterie is a low-slung place, resembling a workshop of some sort, rather than a pรขtisserie, located on the way up to Sacrรฉ Cลur, in Montmartre. I made the trek up there to check it out because I was interested in the one thing the low-key place makes: cookies. The French use the word โcookiesโ primarily to refer to chocolateโฆ
UPDATE: Panifica has closed and a new bakery (thatโs good!) has opened in its place. I used to cross Paris to buy a loaf of bread. That was when I was more of a dรฉbutant and kept a list of bakeries that I wanted to visit, and Iโd make it a point to check off as many as I could, to try their bread. Butโฆ
[UPDATE: Gus retired from the bakery in 2025 and passed along the bakery to other owners.) Iโm often dismayedย when I take a trip back to the U.S. and people tell me theyย wonder why they canโt get good food where they live, like they have in France. While itโs certainly true there arenโt bakeries on every street corner in America (I think people would miss allโฆ
Iโve been thinking about manโoushe for years, ever since I went to Lebanon and someone handed me aย warm flatbread right out of the wood-fired oven. Itย was the perfect snack: A warm, slightly supple dough slathered with zaโatar, an herbaceous seasoning blend punctuated with sumac and sesame seeds. It has a slightly astringent flavor, due to the tang of sumac and the sharpness of the wildโฆ
Iโd been anxious to eat at Honey & Co. in London, which was at the top of my list of places to try there, but never made it. One of the underrepresented foods in Paris is Middle Eastern food. With a large population from that part of the world, most of the restaurants are snack bar-like stands. And even at the standard Middle Eastern restaurants,โฆ
When people ask me โWhy did you move to Paris?โ Iโll usually stop, point to the nearest cheese shop or bakery, and let them figure it out for themselves. There are a lot of pastry shops in Paris, over a thousand of them. But the first was Stohrer, which opened in 1730 by pastry chef Nicolas Stohrer, the pastry chef forย Louis XVย of France and hisโฆ
[As of September 2020, Butter & Scotch has closed its doors. Fortunately, they are still in the baking business and their treats are available at their online shop.] With over 1200 pastry shops, Paris has no shortage of places to satisfy oneโs sweet cravings. That is, unless itโs after 8pm, when all the bakery shelves are wiped clean and they close up for the nightโฆ.
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