Comments on: Big bad bread

By: Jason Truesdell

Jason Truesdell — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 08:00:29 +0000

Finally tried Bagel Oasis today. I never gave them much thought since I thought they were the same folks that run the deli in Fremont (Roxy’s, I think), and I wasn’t all that excited by their bagels.

Bagel Oasis is clearly a step above Noah’s and the like, although they do voluntarily offer cruelty to bagels… They asked if I want the bagel (with cream cheese) toasted.

For a real, fresh bagel, that’s just wrong. I hope people don’t do that on a regular basis… it was never requested in the late 70s/early 80s. I only do that with day-old bagels to get a little more life out of them.

I’d also be perfectly happy with a bagel about 20% smaller, but they weren’t the same kind of monstrosities I’ve seen elsewhere in town.

By: h-Moose

h-Moose — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 06:08:09 +0000

I used to like getting the mini croissants at the a la francais bakery in U-Village. Too bad they closed….what ever you do Mamster, do not buy the Pillsbury Dough Boy crescent rolls. Sickness. -Moose

By: Christos Dimitrakakis

Christos Dimitrakakis — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:14:08 +0000

At some point I was in the habit of eating triple-sized croissants overflowing with chocolate and topped with whipped cream! It seems unthinkable now.

By: mamster

mamster — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 15:04:22 +0000

Jason, do you like Bagel Oasis? I do.

By: Jason Truesdell

Jason Truesdell — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 03:10:28 +0000

I remember Boulangerie in Wallingford sometimes offers mini-croissants, which are actually pretty much the normal size of croissant in Europe.

Even though I absolutely love the croissants at Besalu, I feel that even theirs are a little large.

Most croissants at coffee shops taste more like dinner rolls than croissant anyway, but yeah, I find myself ordering them even when I know better. It's kind of like the toasted frozen bagels I ate in college in the Midwest; they were only a reminder of a bagel, not actual bagels.

(As a complete non-sequitur, Seattle is much worse for bagels since the late-80s acquisition of New York Bagel Boys by Gai's... they used to make real bagels in real bagel shops, and they were sanely sized, and not fruity.)

By: Wendy

Wendy — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 16:42:26 +0000

I had the saddest, saddest croissant the other day. I walked down to a local bakery that looks to have been in business since the 1960s; it’s very cute, the kind of place that still makes the neighborhood wedding cake. I asked the saleswoman what was good. She looked at me like I was an idiot and said “All of it, I guess.” I saw a split croissant filled with sliced strawberries and whipped cream. “Is that real whipped cream?” I asked. “We make it every morning,” she said. So I bought the thing and took it home.

My, what a disappointment. The croissant was tough and the opposite of delicious. It was hard enough to break your teeth in some spots. And whatever the topping was, it WASN’T whipped cream. Maybe she meant that they take a Sysco container of whipped topping mix and beat it up every morning.

My point is this: the Pastry Police needs to storm this place and shut it down.

On the other hand, this place has its grand opening today, two blocks from the apartment, and I’m so excited that I keep wriggling whenever I think about it. http://www.realpiecompany.com

By: mamster

mamster — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 14:59:48 +0000

I remember this great Denis Leary bit about how America is the country that turned the croissant into the Croissanwich.

By: Susan

Susan — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 09:01:19 +0000

First against the wall: cafes that serve supersized croissants warmed in a convection microwave. No wonder the French hate us.

By: Laurel Fan

Laurel Fan — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 07:30:24 +0000

Avoid the “pastry” section at Costco then, unless you want to totally flip out about 2 dozen bloated croissants…