Posted by Erin Zimmer, July 17, 2008 at 9:00 AM
The Economist sent a pasty, not a pastry, to Freakonomics writer Stephen Dubner.
Freaknomics writer and blogger Stephen Dubner thought he noted a spelling slip in a recent Economist piece: "In the hills north east of Mexico City it is not uncommon to find Cornish pasties for sale."
To Dubner, pastry without an "r" meant small, strategic coverings for a female chest, not savory pockets full of meat and veggies. Turns out The Economist was referring to the edible kind of pasties, not those in the lingerie section.
Dubner's gotcha moment was in turn gotcha'd by the magazine, who FedEx'd him a pasty stuffed with peas, carrots, potatoes and mystery meat.
Though he doesn't normally gobble down food from anonymous care packages, Dubner was a fan: "I assumed that if The Economist was good-natured enough to laugh off my wayward criticism, they weren’t going to poison the pasty. So I took a bite. Yum!"
Posted by Robyn Lee, July 10, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Fanny of the beautiful French pastry-laden blog Foodbeam recently secured an internship at Pâtisserie Lac near Nice in France for next year.
Want to score your own internship? That is, do you really want to slave away for your obsessive, burning love of pastries? Then read Fanny's seven tips for getting an internship at a pâtisserie in France. Although passion is key, so is knowing a bit of French, organizing a list of the places you want to apply to, and showing those places that you mean business.
Posted by Raphael, July 5, 2008 at 1:00 PM
"What we do is the same thing like those on Broadway. Everyday you open the curtain and it's a new show." —François Payard
Learn more about renown French pastry chef François Payard of New York City's Payard Patisserie and Bistro in his interview on Nightline's "Platelist" series. If you're not craving chocolate right now, you will after watching Payard make chocolate French toast and chocolate cake. After watching the video, grab the recipes and read more of the interview at Nightline's website.
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Posted by Sarah Wolf, June 27, 2008 at 10:15 AM
Photograph courtesy of Herbivoracious
Let us all salivate over these puffy, cheesy pastries from Alice Waters's The Art of Simple Food, brought to you by Michael Natkin of Herbivoracious. Classic, simple, and chock full of butter: yum.
Posted by Erin Zimmer, April 25, 2008 at 10:00 AM
In the spirit of tight battles this week, we bring you Cakespy's showdown between macarons and madeleines. The two pastry delights may be similar-sounding, have similar fussiness factors and each draw from français roots, but only one can be our leader. The votes are in, and ahead with 169 total yays, Team Macaron wins. But not far behind, Team Madeleine got a respectable 123 votes.
Still undecided between the fairy sandwich and fan-shaped Proustian cookie? Aran of the precious site Cannelle et Vanille analyzed the polls best. "I see the madeleine as the 'stout' girl vs the 'école superior' refined macaroon. Madeleines are soft and bumpy, dipped in coffee, making a messy table from spilling milk...And the macaron with its thin crunchy exterior and refined almond crumb is like the perfect, slim daughter of a diplomat.. The macaron has traveled the world... as the madeleine is a sweet country girl." Sounds like a sweet Aesopian fable of the Town Cookie and Country Cookie.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, April 4, 2008 at 6:45 PM
If you've never had a Portuguese egg tart before, you're missing out on some sweet, custardy deliciousness. Aiyah spotted these trays of Portuguese egg tarts while in Hong Kong. She describes them as, "incredibly light, creamy, warm and sinful." Count me in for a tray...or two.
Posted by Erin Zimmer, March 27, 2008 at 11:00 AM
While in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, this weekend, whoopie pie flavor exploration became the number-one priority. The Central Market downtown was the best playground, where four flavors sat behind a glass counter: red velvet with white cream filling, chocolate with peanut butter filling, pumpkin with buttercream filling and chocolate chip cookies (harder texture, not puffy like the others) with white cream filling. After asking the aproned woman which was most "authentic," she paused.
"Well, pumpkin is probably most popular." (Sidenote: pumpkin outside of autumn is awesome). "But chocolate chip is probably most authentic."
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Posted by Ed Levine, March 21, 2008 at 1:30 PM
When you walk into Tisserie you're immediately confronted by long, shiny cases of baked goods, sandwiches, and pizzas, an array of stuff we see in many places all over New York. The two classically trained Venezuelan brothers who own Tisserie, Ronald and Morris Harrar, obviously subscribe to the "give the people what they want" school of food retailing.
But I'm going to save you the time and the money involved in trying everything in these cases. You can skip most of the fruity, creamy, or flaky things you see, and you can certainly skip the pizzas, which include one made of smoked turkey and pineapple. Smoked turkey and pineapple! What were they thinking?
So what is worth the money and the calories at Tisserie?
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Posted by Robyn Lee, February 22, 2008 at 1:45 PM
Joe DiStefano at Gothamist found liulan soo, flaky durian cream-filled pastries, at Chatham Square Restaurant in Manhattan's Chinatown. I would describe the flavor of durian as a mix of garlic and onion—not necessarily horrendous (although other people would disagree), nor something I'd dream about eating—but Joe highly recommends these pastries:
"It had a kinder, gentler flavor than fresh durian, which has a funky undertone that can linger for quite some time after one has swallowed the last creamy bit. In fact the green and yellow treats were so tasty that almost as soon as the first plate was finished another was ordered."
As Chinese cuisine isn't known for excelling in the "desserts" department, I think I have to try these for myself.
Chatham Square Restaurant
Address: 6 Chatham Square, New York NY 10038 (map)
Phone: 212-587-8811
Posted by Michael Nagrant, January 16, 2008 at 9:30 AM
Technically, the empanadas at Lincoln Park’s Lito’s Empanadas are not balls, rather more like half moons. But they’re definitely deep fried and good. Colombian-born Carlos Escalante and his wife, Eve, used to make the deep fried stuffed dough packets for raving friends, earning so much cred that they finally opened a legit business. Based on some early buzz and the allure of a shoe box sized storefront selling nothing but empanadas I stopped by to sample the wares on Friday.
Rolled, stuffed, and deep fried fresh daily, the crust, which has a crispy and dimpled exterior like a McDonald’s apple pie wrapper and a melty, moist, and pliant interior reminiscent of the inside of a fresh custard donut, is probably the best of its kind in Chicago.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, August 21, 2007 at 6:00 PM
Photograph from Robyn Lee on Flickr
Robyn Lee, who usually posts Serious Eats's Photo of the Day, is once again on vacation in an undisclosed location. And since she would never highlight one of her own amazing photos in this space, I'm going to hijack this feature today and do it for her. Above is a pain au chocolat from Bouley Market. And, in keeping with Robyn's penchant for anthropomorphizing food, I would go so far as to say this lil' guy almost has a face. See it?
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Posted by Lia Bulaong, April 20, 2007 at 1:00 PM
The Philadelphia City Paper's Margaret Battistelli lists five delicious Amish treats and where best to get them in the area. My tastebuds are all a-flutter at her description of the Stoltzfus Bakery's wet-bottom shoofly pie, "like two desserts in one — a buttery coffee cake laid over a thick, sweet sludge made of brown sugar, butter and molasses. It's better than the cakier dry-bottom version, and sweet enough to make your teeth ache on contact."
Posted by Lia Bulaong, April 16, 2007 at 10:45 AM
Sheryl Cababa of Crispy Waffle has been making a lot of quiches lately as presents for all her friends who've just had babies and don't have time to cook. She says, "I don't know anyone who doesn't like quiche, and honestly, who doesn't like an all-butter pastry crust? I have two options here: one with bacon, and one with spinach and mushrooms for those that don't dig meat. But, you can basically use any savory ingredients that you would use in an omelet-- it'll all taste good."
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 22, 2007 at 3:51 PM
You may think you love cookies, but chances are Anna Ginsberg's passion for them far outstrips yours. I mean, her blog is called Cookie Madness. She bakes something every day and her combination of talent and persistence have paid off, big time: she won last year's Pillsbury Bake-Off!
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 14, 2007 at 6:55 PM
Kelly DiNardo in the Washington Post today, on the troubles of selling cupcakes online: "There are challenges besides shipping logistics and growing a business too quickly. Getting customers to make the leap of faith about buying an item they haven't seen or smelled might be the biggest hurdle for an online bakery. In fact, Forrester Research found that the main reason people don't like to shop for food online is that they like to see or touch food items before they buy them (the report didn't mention taste)."
Except for having groceries delivered by FreshDirect, which delivers my purchases to my front door in their own truck instead of through the mail, I don't really buy food online without personal recommendations because I like to know what I'll be getting—I have Photoshop so I know photos can lie, and I've read enough press releases and website testimonials to not trust they won't be hyperbole. The only pastry I can imagine ordering online without having tried it first is a King Cake, since they're specific to both New Orleans and the Mardi Gras season, but good cupcakes, cookies and cakes seem easy enough to find in person. Have you ever bought baked goods online? Would you ever?
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 2, 2007 at 5:31 PM
"chinese BBQ roast pork is one of my favorite foods because it’s delicious and so easily accessible in chinatown, as nearly every block will have a shop that has fresh roast meats in the window. i love anything made with it : roast pork buns, roast pork flaky pastry called “char siu so”, roast pork rice crepe, and scrumptous barbeque roast pork on its own, but i have never seen a flat roast pork cookie before." Jo Jo of Eat 2 Love discovered what sounds like may potentially be my new favorite savoury pastry treat.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 12, 2007 at 8:56 AM
I haven't made George Hart's Trilobite Cookies yet so I don't know what they taste like, but his write-up is hilarious: "Trilobites are extinct marine animals which lived gazillions of years ago. Real trilobites may or may not have tasted like chicken. (who knows?) These cookies are the result of my most recent research into what ancient trilobites would have tasted like if primitive biochemical processes were based on jam/chocolate/cookie molecules. Independent paleoconfectionary laboratories often ask for my formula, so I have placed it here for the world to enjoy."
