Ce n'est pas Paris

Gentle Friends... last Friday I headed over to the head office in Berkeley for my annual flu shot......  after the shot I was a bit peckish.  The office is located on Shattuck Avenue, the main street for downtown Berkeley,  I thought a quick roll and coffee would hit the spot.  Looking around at all the choices up and down the street I saw the sign for "Paris Baguette."  ... with the sign reading.... Mon Amie - Mon Amour - Mon Paris Baguette........My Friend, my love my Paris Baguette....... reading this blog you know how much I do love a good pain au chocolate and a nice cafe mocha.... I headed toward the door........

.... when you walk in PB is set up so that you pick up a tray and walk around the "pastry table" and make your choices....... and there was quite a selection.... on closer inspection I was seeing things that I have never seen in a Paris bakery or any bakery in France........ and I've been in quite a few bakeries in Paris and on my travels in France...... including Normandy, the Loire, the Dordogne, Nice, Lourdes, Burgundy and other places.......thinking about it now I've been in many bakeries all over France and never even heard of some of the things I was seeing......

......don't get me wrong, there were some things I have seen and eaten....  but lots of things I had never seen nor heard of and the pastries had an obvious heavy Asian ingredient influence.... and NO pain au chocolate, a staple in any French bakery I've been in (so long as you get there early).....  I was perplexed, and asked the gal behind the counter....her answer.. "No, we don't make those."  So I kept looking and finally found something french...  pain aux raisins.....  or as I call them and they are know here... Raisin Snails.....

.....then I went to the counter and placed my coffee order, cafe mocha..... after repeating myself twice I thought she had the correct order, I paid, found a table, then waited for them to make the drink......  what came was a cafe latte.....  It took so long I wasn't going to complain, so I drank it.....  the pastry was alright, nothing special, the coffee was fine, again nothing special.............

When I got home I did some research and found out that Paris Baguette, is not French, but French "inspired" and originally from Korea, hence the heavy Asian influence in the food.  They are also franchised cafe's so they are independantly run.    So, armed with this information, and with so many other options of wonderful places here in the Bay area, I'll skip Paris Baguette next time. 

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That's about it for tonight, sorry it's so late.  Thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar