Big Mac Breakfast

Breakfast macaron with Yellow bird

Breakfast in Paris... Here's the full view inside my "Frigo" -what most refrigerators are called in France.
My daily breakfast consists of:
a hard boiled egg
pomegranate seeds
a chunk of dark chocolate bar
plain yogurt
and Hot chocolate.
#114 - Macaron boxes
When I was posting early mornings in Paris there really was nothing to snack on. Except macarons - life can be tough.From Bon Marche L'Epicerie's colorful collection. And the almost too-pretty-to-open box from Gerard Mulot. Pierre Herme's box opens on it's own, making difficult decisions easy - Do I open or save? One thing I forgot was to bring any of these back to New York. What was I thinking?

#115 - Pierre Herme Breakfast macarons

I've got plenty of pictures of them anyway.Let me know if you'd like some macarons..

More Croissants

#111 - Croissant from my boulangerie in the Marais

Last trip I made deep investigations into the Parisian croissant.

Previously I would take a bite and leave the rest...
I was not truly committed to crossanterie investigations sad to say.#110 - croissant and confiture

But closer study endeared the croissant to me.

The creme de la creme of croissants resides at patisserie PIERRE HERME. This croissant MUST NOT BE MISSED under any conditions!   

 Look at the multitude of fine layers here - dense yet so light and crunchy.."The noise of the croissant is also very important," said Pierre Herme. "I can almost hear them shout when people tear them apart."

 FAB CROISSANT

Truly an elevated tasting experience and often overlooked by the madness of the macaron obsessed.

Here is Stohrer's croissant...And Stohrer's innards - nice, but not in the realm of Le Roi de croissants. I was inspired by astute Parisian food critic Francois Simon (and possibly the model for critic Anton Ego in RATATOUILLE) by the Figaro team in their blind tasting investigations of Paris' BEST CROISSANT!.I tried to do my OWN tasting, but frankly I didn't do so hot.*Notice how they just taste BITES of croissant. THEY ARE NOT EATING THE WHOLE DAMN THING! I messed up and forgot this was a test, and not a feast. I will undoubtedly have to do this test over - not so bad as redoing one's SAT's.I reccommend you do your own croissant test next time in Paris.
Be guided by the Le Figaro's research.
You can't go wrong

Pain de Sucre

Just desserts today.

And what incredible desserts they are!
PAIN DE SUCRE in the Marais only creates the unexpected.

Add caption

They have a strong sense of pastry geometry too - one of my passions.
And they LOVE the SQUARE! Of course marshmallows/guimauve are square, but in flavors of green Matcha tea or Orange flower or saffron..? This is unexpected.
Pastry chefs, Didier Mathray and Nathalie Robert take the everyday Provencal almond-paste delicacy called a "calisson" and make it square with added candied oranges. Look at this absolutely perfect raspberry squared tarte! Their fruits are the best quality too.
More perfect squares of deliciousness...
AH HA! Now these squares begin to look a bit like Sicilian pizza non?Like tomato with Rosemary popping out of it!

And here sliced figs with more Rosemary!

Extraordinary don't you agree?
Recently a reader wrote that she'd hung around Paris Breakfasts for a month and thought there must be more to Paris than "LOLLIES IN SHOPS".

She was moving on.

But she promised to come back in a month to see if I had moved on from "LOLLIES IN SHOP".

I looked it up - a mostly New Zealand expression for lollie pops in candy shops.

Some of the most creative artists on the planet are creating exceptional lollies in shops. And PAIN DE SUCRE is one of them along with Pierre Herme and Gerard Mulot and...and...and...
 

PAIN DE SUCRE can also do beautiful, surprising round pastries too.

Bears

You knocked my socks off with your response to

The HOLIDAY SALE!!!

LORDIE!

Big Merci

And you asked for MORE BEARS!!! so..more bears

I was inspired to paint more bears because recently my cousin-in-law, Bill mentioned in passing that he thought I WAS A GRIZZLY BEAR! Hmmm

I quickly contacted noted Danish Bear expert, Jette on this matter. She only had good things to say about BEARS!
Bears are much more than grumpy, exclusive bundles of power and hibernation.
They have a deep knowledge about food. They are into sweet stuff too.
They can walk for hours and cover great areas of many different landscapes in their walkabouts. If someone sees you as a bear - you've made an impression for sure.
When I was taking the macaron cooking class at Lenotre...
I couldn't help notice their mascot...
Lenotre bears turned up at the Salon du Chocolat with a bottle of Champagne, macarons and the best dark chocolate no less! Pretty classy no?

THE RITZ Hotel's L'Ecole de Escofier bears were at the Salon.
So I feel I'm in good company :) Bears belong in kitchens. I've read of New Jersey bears invading home kitchens and ripping off the doors of refrigerators. I felt like doing that yesterday..

I was smitten by this life-size bear at ABC Carpet & Home, a wonderful New York store. A kindred spirit perhaps...

This book just came out on bears and their complex relationships with humans... I'd definitely like to read it.

Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass opens this Friday - it takes place in a parallel world where every person is connected to an animal spirit, called a daemon.

What animal are you?!

PB Holiday Party

OK! The fun begins.

I'm having a HOLIDAY Party at PB...Well a HOLIDAY SALE really. Do you feel you're stopping by a surprise party whenever you visit PB?

I hope so! I want Paris Breakfasts to be as full of fun and surprises as possible. It's more fun for me that way too...Everyone likes to take home a souvenir from a party...

What better way to remember your visit than to buy yourself a Paris breakfasts watercolor or for a friend. The sale will be over December 11th. Free shipping with UPS Ground is included just like on "Cyber Monday"

These are NOT prints by the way!

You can find all the available

original watercolors for sale at my FLICKR collection

This sale is ONLY for stateside PB readers in the US and Canada. Sorry, but shipping to Australia or Timbucktu is prohibitive... All you have to do is send me an email...
PLEASE write the number# + title in the "subject" line of your emailof the watercolor you'd like to buy

*Payment is with PAYPAL only - easy and safe.*

All the watercolors in The PB Collection are the same size- 9" x 11". They all fit perfectly into a standard 11" x 14" matt and frame and you can DYI
Ask Lori of taste with the eyes - here's her PB collection :)  More info about the artist here.

The PB Collection

This weekend I was painting up a storm for

TOMORROW'S HOLIDAY WATERCOLOR SALE...
By the way we did have a Winter storm in New York, but not because my flying paint...
And it came to me in a flash of inspiration plus help from some Gummie Bears, that I am creating "THE PARIS BREAKFAST COLLECTION" here! YAY
Pierre Herme creates his Autumn/Winter Collection... Well, this is my HOLIDAY COLLECTION!
OK
STOP falling off your chairs laughing outloud!
LOL :)
All the original watercolors (not prints) are the same size - 9" x 11"

And they're all painted on the very best archival watercolor paper. And it's French, Sweetie Darling!

So doesn't that kind of make it a collection?
The Louis Vuitton Collection belongs to Paris-based LVMH - an international group with over 50 luxury brands like Moet-Hennessy. I would like to belong too...

Ah Monsieur Arnault...Ahem..

What about adding a macaron artiste?
Certainly an essential and prestigious addition if ever there was one, non?

Well I did say I painted Paris dreams didn't I? :)