My last week in France was very nearly perfect. If it wasn't for the finals and papers, it would have been the best vacation. I still managed to fit in a pastry or two a day. Plus, Nice has an inordinate amount of gelatorias. So in addition to the pastries I tried as many gelato flavors as possible. 20 different flavors in fact:
Cassis- black current. Most fruity flavored thing I have ever eaten
Chocolate cubain- chocolately chocolate with chocolate
Crème brulee
Toblerone
Chocolate Piment- spicy chocolate. Loved it
Ferrero rocher
Pear and chocolate- excellent combination
Profiterole- pastry plus ice cream baby. Can't go wrong with that one
While chocolate rocher
Kinder- if you don't know Kinder, you are living a half life
Chewing gum- not good at all
Citron vert- hate this flavor
Chocolate orange
Rose- kind of like eating perfume, but in the best possible way
Pim- chocolate and orange cookies
Cactus- it was like being at home
Mango
Rum raisin- it was very alcoholic tasting, but also really really good. Is that a sin?
Strawberry Tagada
Ginger chocolate- surprisingly really good, but very interesting
Vanilla pepper rose- I actually really like this one. It was a very special. The only improvement I would made is leave out the whole pepper corn in the gelato
I didn't actually catch the names of any of the pastries I tried this week. So I will just graphically describe them to you.
This little gem jumped out to me. It is flaky pastry wrapped in a spiral and then covered in caramelized sugar. It was chewing crunchy from the sugar and then flaky crisp from the pastry. This one is up there with Saint-Honore in my book.
This one is basically the French equivalent of a snickerdoodle. It was very crumbly, but had a really interesting chewing texture. I love anything that has cinnamon, so this one was a total winner.
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Mmm, eating pastries on the beach |
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Beach glamor shot of this little delight |
I feel like I didn't eat enough cake in France. But this one made up for that. It was soft spongy vanilla cake with a light and highly flavored vanilla creme filling. Not to mention streussel on top.
That's a three for one if I counted right.
Chocolate chip meringue. You see these things everywhere. I figured it was about time I tried one. I am a sugar junky, so I loved this. Also, the night I sampled this fair, I was desperately trying to finish my political philosophy final and needed to stay up. It was the perfect sugar delivery system I needed to make it through discussing Marx, Locke and Hobbes.
Not everything I tried was great. These things were the most dissapointing pastries I tried. One was a nutella filled canolli. Should have been great right? Wrong. It was pretty much flavorless. And the other guy was filled with a pistachio, we'll call it, gunk that was very reminiscent of playdough in texture and taste. They looked cute though.
Nice was just a great place to get straight up good food. Just down the road from the hotel I stayed at was Pizza Sun. I got the vegetarian pizza and was not disappointed for a second. Sometimes I just want a pizza that is covered in toppings and that is what I got. Egg plant, artichoke, olives, peppers, onion, basil, good cheese, tasty sauce all over a chewy crust. Amen!
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Sexy lady and a pizza |
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Sorry it's so blurry, but you get the idea |
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Marseille is famous for soap. I just got a big kick out of the fact that poppy in French is opium |
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Marzipan fruit. Very tempting, but not worth the price tag |
Lasagna Bolonaise. Best lasagna I have ever had in my entire life. This was like going back to my childhood, except my mother was Italian and I made my own pasta. It was a revelation. It was soupy, meaty, cheesey. The pasta was al dente. Which is hard to do in a lasagna. It came out bubbly hot it its own little casserole dish. It looked like so much food that I would not be able to finishe the whole thing, but when something is this good, you make room. Every bite, even at the end when I was totally stuffed was delicious. I will chase this lasagna for the rest of my life
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Jamie and I conquered the lasagna! |
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Every bite delicious. Not sure if this photo is a happy or sad one. Happy because I ate the whole thing, sad because it's all gone |
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Nice is gorgeous. This picture proves how perfect this place is. |