Our quest for cheesecake and other goodies

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cheesecake, eclairs, google maps, New York City, patisserie, postaday2013, walking

After the baby girl and I left the Museum we crossed Central Park on foot which isn’t very far, it was just a matter of getting from the Westside to the Eastside. Once we were on the Eastside at 79th Street, the baby girl remarked that we were walking on easy street. The Upper Eastside of Manhattan is certainly the place where the wealthy congregate and establish their pieds a terre. We walked up and down a few avenues such as Lexington Avenue where we stopped at a French Bistro for lunch, it was called Bistro Magnifique. We had an excellent lunch, the baby girl had a croque madame, a grilled ham and Swiss cheese with a béchamel sauce served with two eggs sunny side up on top of the sandwich, it came with French fries and I had musels mariniere also served with French fries. Those French fries were out of this world, they were match stick thin, crispy and well salted with sea salt and sprinkled with fresh parsley. They were impossible to ignore and to stop eating, on top of that I made a glutton of myself with the French bread and the leftover broth that my mussels came in, it was shockingly decadent on my part but I didn’t care. It was finger licking good and it isn’t everyday that you can get excellent mussels.

Once we left the Bistro, the baby girl and I kept roaming the streets looking for the elusive French Patisserie Francois Payard. My baby girl after several blocks of going back and forth, stopped and asked Siri who directed us to the Plaza Hotel at 58th and Fifth avenue. What I wasn’t aware of is that there is a wonderful Food Court in the lower level of the Plaza Hotel and there is where we found the patisserie Payard. I picked out a lovely assortment of small cakes for my mother, my sister, my brother-in-law and myself. For the younger desert connoisseurs, my baby girl, my niece and my nephew, I picked out a mini cheesecake, a red velvet cupcake and a chocolate cupcake. I also got 5 pieces of macarons delicate cookies, each a different flavor as a small surprise for the birthday celebration. I also took my baby girl to Teuscher’s Chocolatier so that the baby girl could pick out four pieces of chocolates for herself as a special treat.

Once we were laden with all of this bounty, we returned to my mother’s house and then we piled into her car to go to my sister’s house where she ordered pizza and then we sang Happy Birthday to the baby girl and devoured all of the cakes. Today was a really nice day even if it was a long day filled with a lot of walking, we had a lot of fun.

Tarte au caramel beurre sale

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caramel, chocolate, desserts, French pastry, patisserie, postaday2012, tartes

Today before lunch, Francoise and I went to the boulangerie to get bread as Francoise does daily. While we were waiting, Francoise asked me if we should surprise the baby girl with a French patisserie, since they were right in the display case, all of them, little works of art, each one saying “pick me! pick me!” Of course I said yes, the baby girl was going to be so excited, well only if I picked the right one. I saw my favorite, the eclair au chocolate, but this one was for her. As my eyes were going down the case; all of them were small individual pieces, there were shiny strawberry tarts, religeuses in both coffee and chocolate creams, it is a creation of two cream puffs one on top of the other, dressed up in a pastry cream made to look like a personage, there were apple tarts, baba au rhum, napoleons and right there was the tarte au caramel beurre sale with a chocolate crumb pastry crust. I pointed it out to Francoise and she said, that was her favorite. That settled it then, we asked for three tartes au caramel beurre sales and a chocolate eclair, a childhood favorite of mine. Actually, a chocolate eclair is a type of litmus test for a patissier, you have to be an excellent pastry chef to be able to make an excellent eclair au chocolate. It is in the simplest pastry that we see the majesty of talent and skill.

Francoise made us the lightest and healthiest of lunches, steamed salmon, steamed rice and steamed spinach. It was delicious but my mind was on chocolate. Francoise wasn’t exaggerating when she said that the tarte was exquisite, the crunchy chocolate tart crust eaten with the silky smooth caramel lingered in your mouth right on contact with your taste buds, it was beautiful. However after the complex pairings of texture and flavors with the tarte, the chocolate eclair was a little lost in the crowd. Pas grave, I simply have to wait for another occasion to taste one, on its own, all alone so that I can focus.