pithiviers

 Joe & I had a pretty strong list of goals when we arrived here. We've been slowly ticking away at them. For Joe, one of these goals was to become a regular at our neighborhood's boulangerie/patisserie where we buy our baguettes everyday (except Mondays, when their closed and we are very sad).

We were expecting this to take much longer than it did. Joe has a very set routine. Each afternoon, he walks in, waits in line, asks for une baguette and checks out the pithiviers, a traditionally round puff-pastry filled with savory (think tarragon-type flavors, meats or goat cheese) or sweet–this is definitely sweet! If they're fresh–one day he was lucky enough to walk in as they were bringing out a tray from the oven–he buys one. Later, we share it and guess the ingredients.

If he doesn't have to wait in line, if he is the lone customer in the store, he takes a stab at French small talk. One woman, an older, kinder woman than the other employees we've met, had a brief conversation with him. He explained that he's an American, new to town, and that in the States, pithiviers n'existe pas. And what a sad story that is!

We were first attracted to the pastry for the glossy, sugary top and, we admit it, the bright green sprinkles. With the first pithiviers, we fell in love. The traditional pastry exterior holds an indescribably delicious, crumbling interior. It's why we keep going back to the pastry. We couldn't quite put our finger on it–of course lots of butter and sugar to give it the texture, but what? Almond? Alcohol? 

One of our friends who hopes to sign up for some baking classes with me gave us the missing piece, rum. The buttery, warm flavor is characteristic of frangipane, a crumbly-type filling with an almond flavor. Lots of times in frangipane, they use fruit liquors to give that flavor. So we were both right: almond and alcohol.

Now, I just need to find the perfect recipe and get out of this two-hotplate apartment so we can really start figuring them out. The States needs pithiviers!

Our love for the pastry was increased ten-fold when Joe went into to buy one pithiviers and came out with two. The second was a bit sad, a bit slight on the sprinkles and crumbling at the edges. He was being rejected, and the woman Joe has spoken with knew he would appreciate the gift. She slipped the second pithiviers into his sack with a slight "our secret" smile.

I could barely wait to get home to devour them. Joe couldn't get over his success: after only three weeks of regular visits, he had achieved his Regular status! We were trying not to get too excited. Maybe it was a fluke. Maybe we just got lucky... and then it happened again!

After spending the day at activities dedicated to new Nanciennes, which apparently is a bit of a French tradition, we were finally heading home. We popped in to buy bread for dinner, and the woman asked, "Oh, no pithiviers?" We laughed together, and then she pulled out one of the little sacks they drop their pastries into when you buy them.

"It broke," she said with the same shared-secret smile. So it's true: Joe's a regular, and he's scoring free pastries like what. If this were NBA Jam, he would be in fire! This can't be good for my waistline. Good thing I brought lots of stretchy leggings.

While we've fallen into a rut with our pastry selection, we've been trying a lot of other new, fun foods. Here are two from the weekend, quail eggs (popular here) and strong ginger beer (ginger ale). The difference between ginger beer and previous ginger ales is the ingredient list. Old Jamaica ginger beer with fiery Jamaican ginger root (made in the Netherlands to defy all logic) contains carbonated water, sugar (real sugar), ginger root and aromatics. It packs a bit of a punch, too. Joe & I split one because we knew we wouldn't make it all the way through a ginger beer.

We've also found some new, local beers. La Stan is named for Stanislas, the Polish guy who ruled here for a bit (we'll get to Nancy history in another post). They make a pretty decent abbaye and blonde, but more importantly they have lovely labels.