The Wandering Eater

I’m really going with the whole theme of “who’s got the best of…(some type of food)?” Can’t help it really. If I’m craving for a certain type of food heck, I’ll search the ends of New York City, to get it and possibly pay for that certain price tag. So, it’s all about scones today.

I love a good scone, especially the ones just out the oven, I would be in heaven. Unfortunately, the academic life restricts my schedule from actually bake scones and amongst a ton of other things. Seriously, I’m in dire need to bake just to take out the stress of life. Anyways, those of you who don’t really know what a scone is, it’s a Scottish quick bread is said to have taken its name from the Stone of Destiny (or Scone), the place where Scottish kings were once crowned. They come in various shapes including triangles, rounds, squares and diamonds. Scones can be savory or sweet and are usually eaten for breakfast or tea (from Foodtv.com). If you still haven’t gotten the idea of what the heck a scone is, think of American biscuits that could have different flavor variations, either sweet or savory. Got it now? Good.

Since I can’t bake, I buy and hope to search for a good or possibly great scone. I tried bakeries to the organic bakers who are part of the Union Square Greenmarket. Not suprisingly, I’ve eaten the good and the ugly.

My ideal scone would have a beautiful, golden brown exterior that is slightly crisp or crunchy and a soft, flaky slightly moist center. I don’t really care what flavor the scone is. It can be sweet or savory, as long as the flavors don’t overpower the scone or the other flavorings - I seek balance and contrast in textures and flavors. So, onto the scones!

The rating system will go from 1-4 (Same as the croissants).
1: It sucks
2: Not bad, not good either
3: Good
4: It’s divine!

I’ll begin with Financier Patisserie’s fruit & nut scone. It looks like a traditional scone, the type that one would roll out a large thick sheet of scone dough and cut it out with a cookie cutter. It’s glazed with heavy cream by the sheen and that’s the traditional way of baking a scone. It has a nice golden brown color and it looks like there’s a good bit of raisins too.

The interior is moist, good crumb composition, and a good amount of raisins and almond slivers. There’s a slight hint of almond flavor which makes this scone a bit appealing to my tastebuds also it’s not too sweet. It’s good, not spectacularly great. Rating: 3 out of 4.

Joyce’s Bakeshop’s cherry chocolate scone ($2.50) has a good amount of miniature chocolate chips dotted on the surface. The scone is a lot drier than Financier’s. It actually has the dry, crumbly texture of a shortbread than a scone. It does have chocolate flavor but it’s mediocre chocolate. There are a couple of chopped dried cherries, as seen in the photo, but I don’t really taste them. I think they should use dried tart cherries than bings so the cherry flavor could shine through instead of being virtually nonexistent in the taste, but at least it has good butter flavor and it’s not too sweet. Rating: 2.75 out of 4.

Balthazar Bakery’s pumpkin-fruit scone ($2.50); the name explains the yellow-orange hue to the scone and it’s sugar crusted. There’s dried raisins and cherries in it, the latter was kind of unexpected to me since I ususally assumed that they would just have raisins but the more (fruits), the merrier. The texture is more biscuit/scone-like: Crisp exterior, soft, somewhat moist, interior. It has a great pumpkin flavor that isn’t overpowered by the cloves or nutmeg but I can taste the presence of the spices. It’s a good balance of sweet and spice. Rating: 3.1 out of 4.

This pumpkin and raisin scone is from Our Daily Bread, one of those baked goods stands from the Union Square Greenmarket. The scone looks humble and simple with a sugar crust and lots of raisins dotted throughout the scone. The exterior crust is crisp and crunchy from the sugar crust. It has a good pumpkin flavor with a nice spicy background from the spices; not overpowering. The interior is moist but not mushy with lots of green raisins in the scone. Rating: 3 out of 4.

Another Greenmarket stand, Bread Alone’s cranberry scone ($1.75) looks visually appealing, comparing to it’s competition/peer, Our Daily Bread. It has a more desirable golden brown exterior with the bright red color from the cranberry’s juices bursting while the scone baked in the oven. The crust was not as crisp as Our Daily’s. The interior crumb was very moist - nearing mushy, and you can see the vast amount of cranberries dotted in the scone and a few walnuts. The major problem with this scone is that it is bland! No buttery flavor, no sweetness from the dough; the cranberry doesn’t contribute much to the flavor either. The only thing I tasted in this scone was a hint of nuttiness from biting on the walnut and a nearly negligible sour-tartness from the cranberry. Not a good scone at all. I actually threw it out after two small bites from this thing. Rating: 1 out of 4.

Bouchon Bakery’s plain scone ($2.50) had a nice sugary crust with a pale golden hue. It’s not greasy and it had a nice crunch from the sugary exterior. I had high expectations for this scone just because it’s from Bouchon. However, this scone is *gasp* nearly bland; it just has a weak butter flavor and somehow I tasted a faint, annoying raw flour aftertaste everytime I bite into it. Rating: 2.5 out of 4.

Once Upon A Tart’s apricot walnut scone ($2.50) does not look like a traditional scone at all. I didn’t pay attention to how it looked since I just looked at the list of offerings available that day and I was surprised that it looks like a jumbo thumbprint cookie. After that intial shock of sorts, I started analyzing this scone. It was barely warm when I touched and ate this scone; about 8 AM. It has a nutty aroma due to the fact this scone was made of walnut flour and the apricot was the jam in the center. Not what I particularly had in mind either. I was actually thinking of a scone mixed with walnuts and chopped dried apricots. It had a slightly crisp exterior and a moist interior. The scone’s nutty earthiness contrasted with the apricot’s bright, sweet-tart flavor. It was unexpectedly good.
Rating: 3.2 out of 4.

Amy’s Bread blueberry scone ($2.25) it’s covered with lots of tiny blueberries, a golden brown hue with a sugar crust on top. It tastes as good as it looks. The scone was crunchy on the edges, sweet but not overly sweet, some buttery flavor, and a good amount of berries throughout the scone. To get a sense of what the texture of the scone looks like, take a look at its closeup. I like this scone a lot. Rating: 3.5 out of 4.

Whole Foods’s blueberry scone ($1.69). Yes, I tried their stuff, too. I did it out of impulse and my craving for scones. I didn’t expect much from their scones just because it’s a supermarket, not a bakery. It looked like it had a lot of blueberries from all of the blue-gray spotts throughout the surface of the scone and it had a golden brown exterior. Looks decent. But does it taste good? Well, not really. It’s pretty much bland. I only could taste the tartness of the blueberries but there’s no real oomph of blueberry flavor; just a hint of butter and a faint sweet cream flavor. Rating: 2.2 out of 4.

Zabar’s apricot scone ($1.60) looks a bit pallid for a scone. It looks disappointing. The scone is soft but only crisp on the edges. There’s a good bit of apricots and a little bit of scattered in the scone. It has a slight nutty, almondy taste, no real apricot flavor found in this scone. It’s not a good scone but at least their coffee’s decent. Rating: 1.5 out of 4.

Eli Zabar, not to get confused with Zabar, this is an expensive, upscale food store in the Upper East Side, not the Upper West.

Eli Zabar’s blueberry scone ($2.50) looked appetizing and it smelled like butter. Positive signs after eating so many mediocre scones. It had a sugar crust and just a vein of blueberry juice on the surface. I hoped that this blueberry scone had more than just a few blueberries. However, my hopes were dashed once I broke it apart. It just have those few veins and everything else was plain. At least it was slightly crisp on the outside and a soft, moist crumb. It tasted like a sweet, plain scone with a good butter flavor with a very etheral hint of vanilla. Not much of blueberry flavor to speak of, obviously after seeing that photo you can tell. Rating: 2.8 out of 4. It tastes good but it lacked the blueberries I paid for!

So, the overall best list will be:
1. Amy’s Bread
672 9th Ave. (in Chelsea Market; it’s where I bought it but available in other Amy’s Bread locations)
New York, NY

2. Once Upon A Tart
135 Sullivan Street (between Houston & Prince St)
New York, NY

3. Balthazar Bakery
80 Spring Street (near Crosby St)
New York, NY

4 (tied). Finacier Patisserie
62 Stone Street
New York, NY

Our Daily Bread
in the Union Square Greenmarkets on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays.

5. Eli’s Manhattan
1411 3rd Avenue (between 81 & 82 St)
New York, NY

6. Joyce’s Bakeshop
646 Vanderbilt Avenue (between Park Pl & Prospect Pl)
Brooklyn, NY

7. Bouchon Bakery
10 Columbus Circle, 3rd Floor
New York, NY

8. Whole Foods (bought it in the Columbus Circle location, but it’s available in all WF stores)

9. Zabar’s Cafe
2245 Broadway (80 St)
New York, NY

10. Bread Alone
Union Square Greenmarket on Mon, Wed., & Fri.

Yup, that’s the name of the bakery/cafe that is located in 135 Sullivan Street (near Houston St) in SoHo. I’ve been to this adorable bakery a few times for the past couple of years. Mostly pastries, they did have good madelines and biscottis. Well, after sifting through their own cookbook again in Strands Books, made me want to come back to this place. (I know the photo isn’t balanced and all, but I was in a hurry. Sorry.).

The foods I’ve tried were their walnut apricot scone ($2.25), pumpkin cranberry biscotti ($1), a spinach mushroom tart ($5.50) and an iced tea ($2.25).
In case you’re wondering, no I did not eat all of this in one sitting. This is my breakfast (I ate in there: scone, biscotti and iced tea were my breakfast) and lunch (in Queens, with a friend: the tart).

When I ordered the scone, I just read the sign that had all the available offerings of scone, so when I read “Walnut apricot scone,” I didn’t expect to see that. I thought it was a huge cookie when they had it on display. I had a different image in mind. Oh well. The scone really looks like a huge thumbprint cookie. What I had in mind was a scone with chunks of walnuts and dried apricots. This scone is actually made of walnut flour and apricot jam. That’s a mild surprise to me. Well, the good part was that the scone was still warm when I tried to break the scone in half to get a photo of the interior. It tasted pretty good. The walnut flour gave it a earthy, nutty, and a slight bitter flavor, since it is a walnut. The apricot jam gives it a nice, sweet and tart contrast to the nutty flavor of the scone itself. It very good but it’s not traditional.

The pumpkin cranberry biscotti was a flavor I had in mind since the coming of fall. Usually, I like to eat to seasonal or at least seasonal flavors. So, this particular flavor was calling me. Anyways, this biscotti is really chunky, as you can see, filled with lots of dried cranberries, walnuts, and pumpkin seeds. The biscotti had a rich pumpkin flavor from the spices of clove and nutmeg. The sharp tartness of the cranberries heightens the flavor of the pumpkin and the walnut and pumpkin seeds gives the cookie an earthy, crunchy flavor and texture. The biscotti was really crunchy, a good thing since biscotti means twice baked in Italian. I was really inspired to bake my cherry, white chocolate biscotti after eating this! Eh, unfortunately school doesn’t really let me schedule that in. Probably, when I start going on my baking craze during the holidays, I’ll bake again.

The iced tea was decent. I kind of regret getting it since I really wanted to dunk my biscotti in coffee or espresso. The tea was fine though, it had a nuance of lemon zest flavor, as if it had lemon slices soaked in a few hours and strained off, so it had that bitterness of the lemon pith (the white stuff under the yellow skin of a lemon).

The spinach mushroom tart. First of all when I met up with my friend, Seungmi, for lunch she asked me, “What is it?”
I replied to her, “It’s a spinach mushroom tart.”
She said, “Spinach?!”
I said, “Yeah, what about it?”
Then it hit me (and she also told me), the spinach E.coli problem. But I remembered, after reading and taking so many years of biology, E.coli wouldn’t be a problem if you washed and cooked your food properly. So, with this fact, it allieviated her issue with eating a piece of this tart.

Oh, I should mention that this tart was actually refrigerated. So, that a huge drawback about this tart. I refused to microwave this tart, too because it would make this tart even softer than what it is. So, when I ate this tart it was thawed out a few hours from the morning. Probably the flavors of the tart that would be there when it’s warm wouldn’t shine through since I chose not to microwave it.

The tart looked very green and I didn’t see much of mushrooms when I cut it in there until it into a tiny bite. It was soft, obviously since I’ve explained earlier. The crust tasted bland; texturally, it’s a little flaky. The spinach filling had a touch of eggy-creaminess, barely any mushrooms and it was still bland. It didn’t taste so great, which is a bad thing for their namesake. It was decent at most.

I would try their sweet dessert tarts, I just don’t know about their savory, if it’s still stored in the fridge. Well, at least I know I’ll have a dependent bakery for homestyle desserts…

Macarons…I’m talking about the French style macarons, not those coconut mounds that it’s spelled macaroons. Macarons are simple cookies, made from almond powder, sugar and egg whites, then sandwiched with a layer of flavored cream or jam.
To my surprise (well, not really) that there aren’t that many bakeries and shops that sell these yummy pastry delights in Manhattan or Brooklyn. Obviously, in Paris it’s ubiquitous (after drooling after reading Robyn’s multiple blogs about them on her stay in Paris; that’s my original inspiration to this blog. Thank you, Robyn!). I guess the American palate doesn’t like the delicate cookie and tend to like the simple in-your-face flavor and texture of a coconut macaroon that is very common here.

My goal (one of my many food goals actually) for the past two weeks to find the most shops or bakeries that sells French style macarons. Unfortunately, one of the bakeries that did sell macarons during it’s opening months (about half a year ago) no longer sells them. I will talk more about it later on. In conjunction with that, I want to know who’s worth buying them. These little, or big if you prefer, pastries are not cheap. Usually they run on average $2 a pop (for the little guys) in Manhattan. Also, at a certain bakery/shop, one of the macaron flavors stand out as the best ones out of the group. Odd isn’t it?

My criteria of a good macaron should have a light, thin crust that gives way to a soft, chewy cookie that is also light and airy. The filling should have the same flavor as the cookie, should be thick but not pasty, and should offer an obvious contrast to the texture of the cookie.

The rating system will be the same as my croissant rating: 1 (It sucks) to 4 (Divine).

Ok, I’m starting with my small astonishment. Those of you who went to Bouley Bakery & Market in TriBeca a few months ago, knew that they sell macarons. Well, now they don’t! I went there on Tuesday, 10/17 around 1 PM, hoping to get some of their macarons. I’ve tried it once during their opening months and if my memory serves me well, I remembered it was quite good and that they have more exotic flavors like passionfruit. When I asked one of the employees, “Do you still sell macarons?” The employee gave me that expression on his face saying “What the hell is that girl talking about?” He actually replied to me saying, “No, we don’t. Sorry.” Needless to say, that ruined my trip down there. I don’t usually trek down to TriBeca unless I have a craving for some of their other baked goods and pastries, which is quite rare.

Recovering slowly from my disappointing shock, I proceeded on to Financier Patisserie Wall Street, the original branch in 62 Stone Street. I bought a pack of 8 mini-macaron ins for $7. It’s one of the cheapest out the bunch I’ve tried, about 88 cents a piece. Anyways, each macaron actually stood up to my criteria, aforementioned in the beginning. Overall, they’re good. All of the macarons have the crisp, thin outer shell and the moist interior. But each flavor did have it’s own little nuance that I’d took note.

Starting with the chocolate, it has a good dark chocolate ganache, about 60-70% cocoa and it’s not very sweet. It’s very good. Rating: 3 out of 4.

I find the raspberry macaron too sweet, actually it’s sweeter than the chocolate macaron. Probably the raspberry jam filling has too much sugar in the recipe. Rating: 2.5 out of 4.

The lemon was very good; it had a good balance of the sweet-sour flavor of the lemon with a nice tang effervescence that lingers on your tongue after eating it. It’s quite memorable. Rating: 3.2 out of 4.

The lemon-coconut was my favorite out of the bunch. It had a nice, nutty flavor and the texture of the coconut flakes made it really interesting. The same lemon filling or curd from the lemon macaron was used here and it worked wonderfully together. The contrast of the earth, nutty flavor of the coconut cookie to the bright, sweet-tart lemon filling. This little macaron spoke volumes to my tongue… Rating: 3.75 out of 4.The pistachio was good, it had a nice pistachio flavor and the cream’s texture was spot on but nothing great about it. Rating: 2.75 out of 4.
Overall rating for the macarons (not averaging the individual scores): 3 out of 4.

Bouchon Bakery, I know those of you who read my blogs, I praise most of their stuff and had my issues with them too. When it comes to the macarons, it’s not bad at all.

The pumpkin macaron. Yes, I have published a blog about this earlier but it’s part of my purpose here. It’s different than most of the macarons I’ve ever encountered since pumpkin, I usually think, is American than a French flavor, so I tip my hat off to Chef Keller for creating this flavor. If you can recall what I’ve said in the earlier posting, I’ve said this macaron is freaking good! A thin, crisp shell with a moist interior; a great pumpkim flavor that is not overwhelmed by cloves and nutmeg. Just a perfect zen of a macaron, nothing overpowers the other. Rating: 3.5 out of 4.

When I tried their other flavors: coffee, and green apple (they did have chocolate, vanilla, and caramel as the other options but I didn’t have a hankering for them), it’s not as great as the pumpkin. I think it’s just because they’re just regular flavors and the pumpkin epiphany was still fresh on my mind. But they’re all good.

• The coffee had a dark, bold, coffee flavor. As I kept eating it, reminds me of coffee ice cream but a lot less sweeter and a lot more concentrated coffee flavor. Rating: 3 out of 4.
  
• The green apple smells like apple sauce. I don’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing but I was skeptical about it. When I took a bite of it, the flavor reminds me of a green apple Jolly Rancher but in a more sophisticated way and it’s not too sweet. I can’t really describe the flavor in detail but it’s the closest I can explain it. Not really my favorite. Rating: 2.7 out of 4.

Joyce Bakeshop at 646 Vanderbilt Ave Park (between Park Pl and Prospect Pl) Slope, Brooklyn. It’s a new bakery that had opened for two, nearly three months. It’s charming, the people there are nice especially the fact that it was 8:30 in the morning when I visited there. They have great coffee from Gorilla, which is a local coffee purveyor on 5th Ave. in Brooklyn. Anyways, amongst the many things I’ve bought that day, I had their hazenut and chocolate macarons for 50 cents each. Yes, it’s pretty darn cheap and they’re dainty.

Their hazelut macaron, pictured above and on the right, is quite soft. There’s no thin, crisp shell; it’s just all soft, chewiness throughout the cookie. It tasted a little too sweet for me but it had a nice hazelnut flavor. Rating: 2.5 out of 4.

The chocolate macaron had the same texture for as the hazelnut; soft and chewy throughout. It’s still a little too sweet but it has a nice semi-sweet chocolate filling (50-60% cocoa).

La Maison du Chocolat, I visited the Rockefeller Center location for these macarons. It’s the same macarons in the beginning of this post but arranged differently. These are the small macarons for $2 each. The only available flavors (and what I bought) are vanilla (the foreground), chocolate, caramel, and lemon (the one in the back).

The vanilla macaron is sweet (a little too sweet), chewy, and light. I’m not detecting the crispness of the exterior shell but it has lots of vanilla bean flecks throughout the macaron. Rating: 2.8 out of 4.

The chocolate macaron…I had high expectations for this macaron in particular because this is a high-end chocolate place and I love their chocolate. Unfortunately, I set my self to a little bit of disappointment. The macaron is still soft, not much of a crisp exterior but it’s still delicate, light and moist in the center. The good thing is that their chocolate ganache is excellent; great dark, bittersweet chocolate (about 72-78%). Rating 3.1 out of 4.

Caramel is a sweet macaron, obviously from the name, but it’s not too sweet. I detected a hint of the burnt, somewhat bitter, sugar flavor as I let the macaron filling linger on my tongue for a few seconds. It gives the macaron an interesting, complex element to the flavor of the macaron. It’s still the same texture as the other macarons: light, soft, no real crisp shell. Rating: 3 out of 4.

The lemon has the most crisp exterior (finally!) out of the group. It had a nice, sweet tartness from the lemon filling and a moist interior. It’s my favorite from La Maison…a shocker! Rating: 3.5 out of 4.
Overall rating for macarons: 3.2 out of 4.

The last place I went to was Fauchon, a Parisian company that sells high end chocolate, pastries, tea, pate de fruit, marzipans that looks like the actual fruit, and lots of other stuff. Anyways, the macarons were limited in flavor options when I visited there yesterday around 9:30 AM. All they had were the chocolate, pistachio, lemon, and raspberry; for both the small and large sizes. I bought the small ones for $2.25 each.

The first one I ate was the chocolate. It had a nice thin, crisp outer shell, moist interior and the chocolate ganache is dark chocolate, about 72% cocoa. Yummy… Rating: 3.2 out of 4.

The raspberry had the same textures as the chocolate, the rasberry jam/filling had a good balance of sweet and tart. Rating: 3 out of 4.

The pistachio has the same texture characteristics: thin crisp outer shell, moist interior. The pistachio cream is pretty tasty with good pistachio flavor. Rating: 3 out of 4.

The lemon macaron has the same great characteristics of a good macaron as the others from Fauchon. It has a nice, bright tartness from the lemon filling/curd but nothing extraordinary out of this particular macaron. Rating: 3 out of 4.
Overall rating: 3.2 out of 4.

I know there’s Payard macarons that I should’ve tried and I’m kicking myself for not going there but I didn’t have the time. To tell you honestly, I don’t have a favorite macaron place. None of these places are not mind-blowingly great. I yearn to go to Paris and pig out eating their macarons. But if I have to choose one, it would be a coin toss between Fauchon and La Maison du Chocolat for consistently good macarons. I can’t say much for Payard but I know it should be decent or good from what I’ve read.

Today, I have no classes (obviously because it’s Columbus Day), stayed home and studying for upcoming midterms. Anyways, over the weekend my parents decided to buy a frozen turkey and roast that darn thing on Sunday. It’s not hard at all; just defrost the turkey the day before, marinate the bird overnight with a spice rub (did it the Chinese way by using Five Spice Powder, etc.). Roast it in 350 degree oven for 1 hr. 45 mins. and you got a great turkey. Since this is like a prelude to Thanksgiving for my family, as in the leftovers I have to be creative on the sandwich department.

If you know me long enough, my entire family is pretty much foodies of sorts; make our own pasta/noodles, make our own stews and soups (my mom’s specialty), baked goods/desserts (that’s my forte), and roasted meats or meat cooked in any way (my dad’s thing besides computers & techie stuff), my brother’s specialty is eating them. lol. I know that’s harsh to say about my brother, but he doesn’t cook or bake, he’s just the mathematician. But I still love him anyway.

Since my parents gone out of the house to work, I was thinking of what to eat for lunch: something with turkey. So, I decided on a turkey sandwich with sautéed white button mushrooms and slice bell peppers with yesterday’s turkey gravy; for my beverage: flowering tea that I’ve dug out of my kitchen cupboards. I can’t believe I still have them! Those of you who are wondering what the tea looks like:

The tea “unbloomed”

Tea” bloomed”; isn’t it pretty?

Possibly, you’re thinking, “You’re drinking tea out of a (Chardonnay) wine glass?!” Yes, I do. For this particular tea, besides the asthetics, it also captures the floral fragrance of the tea; as you drink the tea, you inhale its scent. The way you drink wine.

Since I’m at home, I’ve borrowed my dad’s Canon EOS Rebel XT Camera to take pics of my food for today. I must say, I love this camera but kind of wish he had macro lens for the close up shots.

As an appetizer, I had pan fried dumplings. It’s homemade and from scratch, from skin to meat. My dad made these yesterday and had them frozen, so it can be cooked when you want them. It’s filled with ground chicken, chives, napa cabbage, scallion and ginger. Pan fried ’til golden brown. It’s pretty darn good, I’m still saying that almost 15 years of my life, ever since I’m able to know how food tastes like. The only drawback was that the filling was too moist due to the cabbage’s water content. But it’s still good.

The main course, if you will, is my turkey sandwich I described earlier. On the side is my roasted potatoes with rosemary and garlic. The toasted Italian bread absorbs the gravy, making it moist and flavorful. The turkey, mushroom, gravy combo is traditional and the bell pepper gave the sandwich a tangy highlight to the earthy flavors of the mushroom and turkey. The potatoes compliment the the sandwich, as a healthier alternative to fries, plus it’s more flavorful with the rosemary-garlic aroma that filled the house.
It’s a gratifying, hearty lunch even though the portions are on the small side.

I’m full and now, I have to get back studying. It’s a beautiful day, I’ll walk outside later on, since the rest of the week is going to get cooler.

For the past two weeks, I’ve been searching for the best croissant. To tell you the truth, it’s been a hardship for my arteries and my wallet. I practically ate 5 pounds of butter from all of those croissants! I could imagine that my cardiologist in the future, would love me. At least I’m young that I can lower my cholesterol and triglycerides. Also, I’m thinking of abstaining from croissants for a week. I should mention before we go into the critiques, what I consider a good or possibly a great croissant.

A good croissant should be fresh (obviously), a nice golden brown color on the exterior, flaky, light, buttery but not greasy, it should have a good shatter effect (meaning, when you break apart or bite off the croissant, one can hear the crisp, brittle shattering noise from the flaky pastry), a moist, soft and chewy interior but it should not be weighed down from moisture content of butter or grease. On that note, to the list and critiques of croissants! (Of 7 establishments).

The rating system will go from 1-4.
1: It sucks
2: Not bad, not good either
3: Good
4: It’s divine!

Bouley Bakery at 130 W Broadway (Duane St.) in TriBeca. I have tried three different croissants from this place: A banana chocolate, plain, and chocolate croissants.

The banana chocolate croissant cost $3.50, I bought this the morning of 9/26 around 8 AM and by the time I’ve ingested this thing, it’s around 12:30 PM. So, time was probably a problem of sorts when I actually analyzed the texture of this croissant. It looks good from this photo; the multiple strata promises for good shattering effect for a croissant and a nice golden exterior When I actually cut into the croissant it was actually a little soft, there was some flakiness but no shatter effect. That’s why I’m thinking it was the time and humidity factor. The taste was good: it was banana-y and it had good dark chocolate. Just a bit disappointed in the texture.
Rating of croissant: 2.5.

The following croissants, plain and chocolate (total cost $5.65, I should’ve asked for an itemized receipt), are the ones I purchased yesterday, 10/5 around 9 AM. I was hoping that these croissants didn’t share a similar fate to the banana chocolate. I took the photos, split them, took pics again then I shared it amongst my friends of NeVAS (St. John’s art club, holla! lol.). The chocolate croissant croissant looks appetizing. A shiny, glazed, golden brown hue on the exterior. The side view show s the multiple strata of the pastry. I’m liking it so far from the looks of this. When you look at the interior shot it has the layers with great dark chocolate.

It’s flaky when I split it apart with my hands however, when a friend, Kim has tasted it, she has indicated that it is too greasy, which I have overlooked myself because I was so busy trying to take pics of other foods that I had with me. When I actually tried it myself, it is greasy - on the fingers, it’s not greasy like a mushy, grease bomb of a croissant texturally on the pallate. So, it’s not bad but Bouley had to use less of their Plugra butter. It has a great dark, bittersweet chocolate I’m tasting 72-75% Schokinag chocolate (a German chocolate company that Bouley does sell in their establishment). It’s good, not what I would call great but it’s certainly not bad at all. Rating of croissant: 3.

The plain croissant looks good; shiny golden exterior. When I broke it apart, it was crisp, it flaked like crazy, and I heard a little bit of the shatter effect! The I was absolutely happy to see and here that for a croissant, so it brought great expectations to eating this pastry. The cavernous flaky interior, moist, but a little greasy. It had good butter flavor. Not great by my standards but it’s good. Rating of croissant: 3.
Overall, I would rate this place a 3. Cost/value-wise: 2.

The next bakery would be City Bakery located near Union Square at 3 W 18th St. off of 5th Ave. I know I’ve promised Kim that I would go there with her but I’ve been here years before I’ve done this food blogging business and I will still glady go with her in the future. Anyways, I’ve went here twice, on 9/27 and on 10/2. The first visit I’ve ordered their pretzel croissant ($3.50). This croissant has its own cult of followers, if you ask anyone who’s been a patron to this place they’ll rave about the pretzel croissant. It has a great dark golden brown exterior and it looks somewhat of a pretzel because of the sesame seeds. When I pulled it apart, it was flaky, a bit crisp, a touch of grease on the fingers…not bad so a far. The interior is very soft, moist and buttery. It’s salty like a pretzel but obviously it has the characteristics of a croissant. It’s best when it’s warm, unfortunately, I came in a bit late from the time it came out of their ovens around 11 AM. This is my favorite croissant from City Bakery. Croissant rating: 3.5.

The other croissant I had was their chocolate croissant ($2.50) for breakfast on 10/2 around 9:30 AM. It’s flaky, great color but lacking the shatter effect I’m looking for. It tasted good: the dark chocolate is on the 62% range, under 70% for sure; it buttery (not particularly greasy) and not very sweet. It’s good, but I had better. Croissant rating: 2.8.

The same day I had City Bakery’s chocolate croissant, I went to Marquet Patisserie in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn; located at 221 Court St. (Warren St). I’ve asked in my favorite food forum, Chowhound.com want to sit at their tables at the time, wandered around Brooklyn and just walked back to the subway station. I ate this croissant in City , for their recommendations for a good croissant in Brooklyn, since I want to expand my horizons of food in New York City. One of them replied and suggested this place. So in hopes for a good croissant, I arrived there around 8 AM. Their baked products looked good and I ordered their plain croissant which cost $1.50. I really didn’tBakery so you can arguably say the CB’s chocolate croissant is my control of this experiment. However, I don’t know if I should’ve done that since it’s been about 1 1/2 hours since I’ve bought this croissant and it might have suffered the same fate as the banana croissant from Bouley. From the exterior, it looks fine, a golden brown hue and it looks flaky. When I pulled it apart, it was soft not crisp but it flaked a little. When I tasted it, a little bit of crunch on the teeth, the overall texture was soft a very slight crunch to the tooth. Come to think about it, the butter tasted off. I don’t like this croissant that I can’t finish it off after the second bite. Croissant rating: 1.5.

Overall: 1.5. I know it’s harsh, it can be my fault for waiting that long to eat it but I know the staleness should not be there in a croissant. I’m planning to give this place a second chance in the future and give it another whirl.

Bouchon Bakery in 10 Columbus Circle (60th St.), on the 3rd floor of this behemoth of a high end mall. Those of you who have read my blogs, know that I’ve raved this place for their baked goods but I can’t help it. Their stuff is just so good but I can’t say much for their savory products yet. I’ll save up money for it. Anyways, I’ve had their chocolate croissant and the plain on separate occasions.
The chocolate croissant ($3) I’ve tried on 10/2/06, as an afternoon snack. I know I’ve ingested 2 1/2 croissants total, for that day; it scares me too. The chocolate croissant looks beautiful. The perfect golden brown hue throughout the the exterior of the croissant, the many distinctive layers that one can see from this photo…looks very encouraging. When I cut this in half, it flaked and it had a slight shatter effect. So, that’s fine. (I would post up a pic, but it didn’t go too well.) It has many soft layers in the interior, excellent butter flavor and great Valhrona dark chocolate, about 65-72% cocoa. I like it but if you’re wondering, “Is it my favorite?” I’m saying, not really but it’s among my top choices. Croissant rating: 3.5.

Their plain croissant ($2.75) was eaten as my lunch on 10/4/06 with a small coffee, as you might have read from my previous blog. Anyways, the plain croissant is good, but it felt chilled for some reason. It still retained some crispness and flakiness. It tasted fine: good butter flavor, it’s light in texture. But it befuddles my mind, why the heck is it chilled? Now, I’m inquiring is their quality is taking a downfall. I hope not or this will take a beating in Thomas Keller’s reputation. Croissant rating: 2.5.

Overall rating for Bouchon Bakery’s croissants: 3. They have great service but lately I’m questioning their quality for the money you pay for.

Le Pain Quotidien, a Belgian mini-chain and cafe. The branch I went to was on 922 7th Ave (W 58th St). I went there on 10/3/06 by opening time at 7:30 AM, technically they opened about 7:40, but that’s another issue. Anyways, I ordered their plain croissant for $1.95 and a small coffee (which was pretty weak). The croissant has a good color, it’s a little more of a homemade look because of the lack of sheen in comparison that Bouley or Bouchon has. When I took it apart, it was very flaky and crisp, not much of a shatter effect, also not too greasy. The taste was very good, nice buttery flavor, soft, chewy texture. It’s nice.
Croissant rating: 2.75.
Overall Rating: 2.75. Service kind of bad, especially on the opening time.

Financier Patisserie in 62 Stone St. (Mill Ln) in Wall Street District. It was some trek to find this place since Downtown is not exactly easy to navigate if you look at the street map of that area. I went there yesterday morning (10/5/06) at 8:30 AM. I’ve ordered a chocolate croissant, plain croissant, and other pastries that I’ll write about in the future.
The chocolate croissant ($2.10) looks great: the slight mahagony brown color, a shiny, varnish-like glaze and the visible layers of pastry. When I tore it apart, it flakes, and the interior felt soft. The problem is that I bite into it, there’s no shatter effect or crunch to the teeth and it felt cold, as in refrigerated or chilled cold. The chocolate’s good though but I would be really be happier if it was at least room temperature. What really puzzles me is that the croissant is cold and I’m eating it at 8:35 in the morning! Why? – Probably I should write scathing letters to every bakery with this problem if I’m continually facing this dilemma. Seriously, I will. Croissant rating: 2.5.

The plain croissant looks promisisng. It’s room temperature so no issues about that here. It’s flaky and crisp when I tore it apart to see the interior. During the actual tasting, it has a slight shatter effect and tastes fine. Between the two, the plain croissant prevails. Croissant rating: 3.
Overall rating: 2.8 out of 4.

Patisserie Claude located on 187 W 4th St. (near 7th Ave. South) in West Village (one of my fave nabes to eat). I went there yesterday, 10/5/06 around 9 AM. It’s a nondescript bakery where it is the runned by the fabled Croissant Nazi, owned by Claude who bakes and owns this establishment. Many patrons call him a nazi just because of his brusque, to-the-point manner but I have total respect for this old Frenchman. He’s a god of croissants; I worship him now after eating this blessed croissant.
I’ve only ordered a plain croissant ($1.50) since I’m digesting my Financier croissants and bought the Bouley croissants earlier. The plan was to eat this croissant at that moment, since many people have told me that it’s best to eat his croissants on the spot since his stuff is made fresh and also I wanted to try his croissant before publishing this blog, to know if it’s true or it’s just hype.

So, I’ve ordered the croissant, Claude was working in his kitchen, so a short Hispanic woman took my order. I kinda felt dissapointed not speaking to the man. But anyways, I took one of the very few tables in this place and begin to analyze this croissant. First of all, this croissant was still slightly warm! This is a first out of all the croissants I’ve eaten. It looks very simple and homemade for a croissant; no glaze, but great color. When I broke the croissant in two, it had was supremely flaky and the shatter effect was definetly there (it’s so loud that you think a microphone was amplifying the sound). The interior was very moist due to the butter content and it was not greasy. The taste was excellent: the butter flavor was there and I detected a hint of salt in this pastry. It was unexpected but it was a welcoming flavor; it kind of counteracts the sweetness of the butter. I’m in heaven. I would’ve bought more of Claude’s pastries like the quiche, and I saw a pastry that had a caramel top just came out of the oven, but I had to hold off because of everything else I ate and will eat around noon. So, I’ll be seeing more of Claude in the future.

Croissant rating: a very solid 4.
Overall: 4; even though it’s one croissant I’m grading this on, but if you know how to make your croissant, everything else is just butta. Croissants are difficult to make and master and I’ll tell you, this man could make one mean croissant.

To sum it up, the best croissants, in order (best to worst):
1. Patisserie Claude
2. Bouchon Bakery
3 & 4 (tied). City Bakery & Bouley Bakery
5. Financier Patisserie
6. Le Pain de Quotidien
7. Marquet Patisserie

So, hopefully I didn’t kill you with words, but I just had to let it out. I would’ve tried more places for croissants like Balthazar Bakery in SoHo, Panya Bakery (a Japanese bakery) in East Village but I don’t have time. I will go there in the future and try them but not now. I don’t think my body could take it anymore.

There’s a second part to my insane search for the best croissants. If you want to read it, click here.

Today I went to Bouchon Bakery for lunch. Yeah, I know I have an addiction of sorts to Bouchon Bakery. It’s the only place that I could mostly confide in that has really good food but at least I don’t go there everyday…yet. hehehe… I would’ve gone downtown to Union Square if I knew my history professor would be out again. Grrr… *sighs* I guess everything happens for a reason.

Anyways, the food…the food of choice for today is a small coffee ($1.85), plain croissant ($2.75) and a pumpkin macaroon ($2.75), with tax it’s $7.97. I know it’s not real food per se, but I’m not willing to part $9-$11 for a tuna nicoise or pork sandwich. I’m not that hungry, I’m in a snacking mood now.
I’ve chatted a little with two employees about their macaroons because I just had a sudden craving for one. So, the one who took my order I asked what flavors they have today. She replied that they have the vanilla, chocolate, caramel, and the seasonal flavors; one of which she mentioned was pumpkin. I said to her,”Pumpkin seems interesting.” and she said, “Today’s the debut of this flavor.” so, I ordered one. Then the guy who rung up the order who saw my pumpkin macaroon commented that it’s “so good.” They’re buttering me up for this, man. I’m thinking they better be right or hell would break loose.

So, I managed to get a table with a good view outside of the building, very close to the gargantuan Samsung sign but not under it. Start unwrapping my goodies and took snapshots as you can see.

The interior view of the pastries…

Everything looks delectable. The croissant is flaky, crisp and buttery. Not greasy but somehow, I feel that it’s not fresh enough in comparison to City Bakery. (More on croissants once I visit a few more places). The pumpkin macaroon is divine! Crisp, light outer shell. Moist, soft, and chewy interior…most of the desirable characteristics of a very good French macaroon. The pumpkin flavor is spot on. It has a good pumpkin-y flavor that is not overbearing with the spice, which most pastries like muffins, etc. have a downfall on, in which the pastry would have too much cloves or allspice. This is near perfection; certainly one of the best macaroons I’ve had in a long time.