Oh dear lord, I am behind again. I have an enormous list (for some reason I really want to use an SAT word there: a bevy ? a plethora ?) of posts to write. The past weeks have been busy, but also ridiculous, and pretty great. But first things first ! I ate an amazing pastry last week ! On Monday, to be specific–a full 9 days after my previous pastry of the week. I don’t recommend this. Then again, not that many of my favorite bakeries are even open on Monday, so I did pretty well– all things considering.
Can I just say, first of all, that I LOVE Café Pouchkine. I don’t care that the atmosphere (in the corner of the Printemps store by Opera) is a chier (I get a emporter anyway), that there are thousands of japanese tourists, or that it is, let’s be honest, pretty expensive. They actually make my favorite macarons (thus far) in Paris–the wintertime lemon-gingerbread flavor was particularly awesome. I also enjoy the blend of Russian flavors with French technique… blending foreign flavors into French pastry seems to be done more and more often these days–with places like Aki & Sadahuru Aoki. Even Pierre Hermé (who I’m not a particularly enthusiastic fan of for the moment) takes a stab at it, which mostly results in macarons that taste like soap… I digress. But the Russian milk jam flavored macaron, or the black currant-poppy seed escargot are particular examples of why making Russian flavored pastries is a terrific idea.
So anyway, I walked into Café Pouchkine with 10 euros and departed with a chausson aux pommes the size of my face for André, and a roulée pistache-griotte for myself. I basically picked the fluffiest, most colorful thing in front of me. Though the sinful-looking orb of chocolate & gorgeous millefeuille were tempting. As with most pastry adventures, it was a tough choice. I somehow managed to neglect the fact that there was a big, fat piece of star anise on top–something I absolutely loathe. But I was lucky, and there was no actual star anise used in the making of this pastry. The pistachio mousse was light and fluffy, the griotte part closer to a pâte de fruits than a jam. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to start the week. That, and running a 5k, which I’m thinking negated the eating of the pastry. This is what I tell myself, at least.
Le Café Pouchkine
64 Boulevard Haussmann
75008 Paris
01 42 82 43 31