Angelina, Rue du Bac, Paris

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Just a few steps down and across the street from Les Toiles du Soleil is the venerable patisserie, Angelina, that was first established in 1903. Any commercial entity that manages to stand the test of time (112 years!) is something to be reckoned with… add to that some of the best tasting eclairs and other baked goods (we had their croissants, financiers and raisin danishes on several previous visits) and it is pretty much worth the visit if you are anywhere near Rue du Bac or any of their nearly a dozen locations throughout the city of Paris (and now some foreign locations as well). Coco Chanel was reputedly one of their regular clients in her heyday, amongst other equally famous/infamous folks.

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Beautiful individual tarts and cakes ranging from Euro5-10+ seem a bit extravagant, but when you consider it all, at say PHP250 for a a few mouthfuls of delight, an occasional indulgence doesn’t seem so unreasonable.

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I have a particular weakness for raisin danishes and have tried dozens and dozens all around the world. Angelina’s has a pretty good one, probably in my top 10 globally, but the one in the photo above is a bit old, probably made earlier in the day. They are best when fresh out of the oven.

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It was heading towards the holidays, hence the Christmas tree of madeleines in the window.

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The evening I took these photos, I couldn’t resist and bought one pistachio financier and lugged it around Paris all evening until we got back to the apartment, and enjoyed it as a midnight snack with a large mug of hot tea. It was still terrific. But terrific. :)

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9 Responses

  1. Having a an oil tanker-sized mug of coffee now, I’d give up my left kidney for a couple of those croissants!

  2. David Leibovitz has a great almond cake recipe in his blog that I pay homage to whenever I have enough almond paste in the cupboard crying out to be used. I have even tried it a few times with pistachio paste preempting the place of the marzipan and I assure you the result will transport you to pistachio financier nirvana.

  3. Footloose, I must try that recipe, I am a HUGE HUGE fan of pistachio anything and of financiers and almond cakes… hence my penchant for pili nut cakes…

  4. Angelinaaaaaaaa!!

    OMG I will never ever ever forget the hot chocolate. Rich, thick and oh my gosh – soooo good!!

  5. A grand aunt who was mother to my dad was fond of an expression promoted by the Americans to foster hopefulness during the darkest hours of WWII, “no news is good news.” I fall back on this and the links under Random Posts, specially the ones that happened when I was out and about and did not have access to the net. The danger in doing this at home now is some old flame of a recipe cry out for a revisit, Millet’s prawn in butter and salted egg sauce is the eminent example. Cooked it more than a few times for invariably amazed company but kept it at the back burner for a while for reasons of mortality. I had to run out for the requisite ingredients when encountered again just recently. Some of the internet images of this dish show a garnishing of egg floss. Savoury egg floss that is. Similar to cabellos’ de angel but fried in oil instead of drizzled in hot syrup then used as a nest for the prawns or pieces of crab. Some restaurants just use it as a topping, a timely Trump-like toupé that covers the dish and conceals it, makes it look cheap and vulgar.

    Next is Khew’s suggestion to flavour apple pie with lankà instead of the usual cinnamon. Just waiting for the earliest crop of pie apples to make its appearance.

  6. Catching up on your Paris posts, saw this in the log – Angelina has a branch in Shanghai, connected to the Portman Ritz Carlton on Nanjing West Road. I have been there a few times for hot chocolate, but the pastry selection has been limited. I hope they figure out how to get someone to complete pastry training and get the ovens right.

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