Six months after my trip to Paris, there are a few things that really stand out amongst all the hundreds of memories I’ve made (including the free Paris Metro story that I told in the previous post), one of them is the French pastry. As a huge fan of eating everything pastry, coming to Paris was such an exhilarating experience. Even the most-likely-made-from-frozen-dough croissants sold at Carrefour Paris tastes très bien.

French pastry, je t’aime.

Before this trip, I honestly never knew that a simple croissant could, well, change your life. Perfectly crispy on the outside, the croissant had buttery, airy, intricate layers on the inside. I could feel the butter slowly encompasses my whole mouth, and it didn’t leave any weird sticky residual feeling on my palate. It was a truly OMG, roll-your-eyes, oh-so-good kind of moment. This croissant was bought at a bakery around Montmartre area, which I found when I was getting lost trying to find the Sacré-Cœur. Best breakfast ever!

Ladurée

Are macarons overrated? Too sweet? Too expensive for something so small? I thought so too, until I had some at Ladurée Paris. The green-coloured outlet at Champs-Élysées is unmistakable among the rows of expensive boutique along the street. Prepare to wait a bit—most likely among fellow tourists—to get your hands on these little pastry wonders. One bite, and I knew, this is how macarons are supposed to be: flawlessly round, colourful little “sandwiches” with carefully piped delectable filings—not too sweet. My favourites: raspberry, salted caramel, and chocolate and coconut.

Ladurée also offers yummy, pretty-as-a-picture cakes, tarts, and pies. Some of you might have known from previous posts that I have a penchant for everything-lemon, and Ladurées Cake Citroen has now taken a permanent resident in my heart together with my other favourite lemony goodness. The Cake Citroen has golden-brown crust and generous lemon curd, topped with a candied lemon gel? Jelly? Skin? I don’t know. Whatever it was, it was good. What I wouldn’t do to put a little cream on top of that, to make it all the more perfect…

PAUL

PAUL is slowly taking over the world. Not in a literal sense, of course.

I don’t know how to best illustrate this, but in Paris, PAUL is everywhere: Champs-Élysées, metro stations, gardens, and so on. It also has spread its wings all over the world, including in Japan, UK, USA, and Indonesia; it certainly has become a household name in the patisserie industry. While in Paris, I purchased croissants and other stuffs from a couple of different outlets—just because it’s everywhere—and I was happy to find that everything was consistent in taste and size.

My favourite pastry at PAUL would be its Tarte Abricots, or Apricot Tart, that I ate almost everyday. Those acidic juicy apricots combined with cream and crispy tart? Deadly combination.

Or simply order a cup of hot chocolate to accompany your walk through the Tuileries Garden. 

Maison Stohrer

I don’t know about you, but I like my éclair to have a nice skin to filling ratio. I like my éclair sleek, clean, and sexy. I like classic chocolate éclair, which won’t have fillings bursting out everywhere after each bite. Maison Stohrer’s éclair was exactly that, and so much more. The crispy, firm skin gives way to the finger-licking-good chocolate filling: not overly sweet with a touch of bitterness. Pure éclair heaven!

Maison Stohrer is the oldest patisserie in Paris, created by Nicolas Storer in 1730. This flagship outlet at rue Montorgueil is also its only outlet. How does one patisserie survive for more than 250 years with only one outlet? Quality, quality, quality. I first found out about Maison Stohrer from a TV series called Street Food Around The World, hosted by the wonderful Ishai Golan. Since then, I had been wanting to set foot at this patisserie, and when it happened, I was very satisfied.

Besides the éclair, Maison Stohrer also baked my personal favourite croissant in the whole Paris! It was even better than the first croissant mentioned in this post. I seriously run out of adjectives to describe this croissant; no words can explain how wonderful it was! Pure perfection.

Because it was my last morning in Paris, I went a little bit overboard and tried a bunch of different things at Maison Stohrer. The Quail and Foie Gras was something I’ve neither seen nor imagined before. It was a cold dish: a quail stuffed with foie gras, served with berries (cranberries and grapes, yes?). The lean quail meat tasted beautifully when eaten with the creamy, buttery foie gras. I’ve only got love for it!

And don’t get me started on the Raspberry Tart and Millefeuille. The custard-thingy on the raspberry tart tasted really great, but my favourite part was the generous portion of raspberries: each bite gave me exactly one fresh, sour raspberry. God… I died and went to raspberry heaven! Meanwhile, the millefeuille took me to pastry heaven and beyond. Each and every layer were perfect! (I think I need to count how many times I’ve used the word perfect and heaven in this article…)

If I could turn back time, I would definitely pay a visit to Maison Stohrer every single day; buy a croissant and a bunch of cakes and an éclair; and went home fatter than I did. It’s amazing to think how a little patisserie (it is seriously small in size) could produce such wonderful food. I will be back if I ever go to Paris again!