Van Bol & Feste - Milan

Full Stomach Revenge, Cont'd
I don't eat a lot.  Matter of fact, for a food blogger I'm a disgrace.  In Milan, however, I flipped it.  Maximum jealousy potential, remember?  Van Bol e Feste fit the bill - just the kind of schwank-a-billy place the fancy-Dodo likes.  Counting Sugar, I was two-fer-two.

Sugar - Milan

Pasticceria as Revenge
"If you go to Hong Kong without me, I'll go somewhere too" I threatened.  I was due in Paris the next day and she was hinting about going to a meeting in one of my favorite places.  By the time I boarded the plane in Singapore, she was booking her flight.  A few days later, she was gloating about dim sum.  I immediately plotted my response: Milan.  Yes, I'm vengeful.  At Sugar, I ordered based on maximum jealousy potential.

Passion 5 Patisserie (패션5) - Seoul

I Won't Be Controlled
My parents passed me their stubbornness genetically and nurtured it through upbringing.  So, when one of the chef's at Passion 5 formed an X with his forearms to warn me off taking photos, I smiled and complied.  Or so he thought.  I was angry and intent on taking even more photos than I normally do.  I hate places which have an anti-photo rule - it's so stupid in this day and age.  I hoped to despise their goods and slam them but guess what?  Anti-photo rule or not, they craft some scrumptious goodies, both savory and sweet.

Pain de Sucre - Paris

the Spaceship has Landed
Pain de Sucre is an old favorite - half of my "winter mashup" experiment.  Two store fronts away from their original, they've opened a shiny, sleek new shop.  They're selling the usual excellent pastries and marshmallows, but unlike the old shop you can sit outside and eat your treat immediately.

Bakeshop - Jiyugaoka, Tokyo

Iced Coffee Relief
I imagined it was pool-sized.  I dived in, did a doggy-paddle past a stray ice cube and then back-stroked to the straw.  Back in the real world, a few sips of the Bakeshop iced latte were like slipping on a frozen raincoat.  My temples stopped pulsing and the moving lips of my girlfriend started to make words I recognized.  Be warned if you come to Tokyo in August, it's hot.  Stroke-inducing, lung-collapsing hot.

Dominique Saibron - Paris

The Drive By Methodology
My girlfriend amazes me.  On a recent taxi ride from Orly airport, as we sped down the street,she tapped me excitedly and said "remember Alesia."  Yep, got it, Alesia, I said, barely looking up.  This, folks, is the "drive by methodology" whereby Dodo sees something as we drive past and makes a mental note.  It's a proven methodology, yielding such gems as Les Pates Vivantes and Jean Millet.  So, this morning when she said "remember that place we saw last week near the Alesia Metro?" I didn't even hesitate.  I jumped up, got on the net and found the name: Dominique Saibron.  Within an hour we were there and folks, it's a keeper.

Baked and Mile End - Brooklyn

Revisiting Some Old Favorites
It's a struggle when I come back to NYC - do I hit all the new spots or mix in some old favorites?  In the end I do a bit of both.  I've already gone to Iris just about every morning - Tyra Banks keeps sitting next to me but I don't read anything into it (no, I didn't take a photo of her, this in NY not LA.)  Another of my favorites is Baked in Red Hook.  I measure all cupcakes against theirs and none has taken their crown and probably never will.  Some of you will mock me: "the cupcake craze is over!"  I know what you mean, but really, some things never completely go out of style.  It would be like saying "geez, I sure am tired of pussy."

Francois Payard Bakery ("FPB") - Manhattan

Missing Paris?  Nah, Couldn't Be....
I got the drop on this place from Dessertbuzz.  It's officially called FPB but that P stands for Payard, a big name in French pastry.  It made no sense - I'll be back in Paris in a week, but somehow there I was, ordering French pastries from his new shop on Houston.  Dodo's gonna mock and tease me for sure.  I can't explain it - I guess I was just curious to see how it stacks up against the Paris shops I frequent.  The apricot danish was bursting with flavor but could have been a bit lighter and flakier.  To be fair, I was there at 5pm, they're probably different in the morning, fresh from the oven.

Flor Patisserie - Singapore

It's a Matter of Taste
Imagine yourself in a dream, floating high above the earth. You're not scared, you feel safe and happy. The sun is warm and bright, causing you to squint. It's beauty like you've never seen, all the colors are glowing. Sugary white clouds billow around you, beckoning you, and in your dream state you know they're edible. You close your eyes, open your mouth and gently bite. How does it taste?

La Patisserie des Rêves - Paris

I Want to Hate It
This isn't the NY Times - I don't have to be "fair or balanced" - I have a bias. I dislike overly-fancy, affected, froofy places. So, when I walked into the "dream" patisserie and saw what appeared to be a jewelry display I knew this was more likely a nightmare. Each treat was guarded like a crown jewel beneath domed glass and there was an employee trailing me with a pda, waiting to tap out my order electronically. "All show and no go" I thought to myself.

Kki - Singapore

A Sweet Slice of Japan
This freshly opened Japanese-style cafe, pronounced "cakey", impresses. It's not just the clean, bright, modern interior and the friendly service. It's not only the delicious franco-japanese pastries like my domed choco-coffee cake shown below. What is most amazing.....

Blé Sucré - Paris

Pssssssssst, I Got That Sweet Wheat
Google translate - you fail me, I'm sure there's a more streetwise translation for Blé Sucré. Not to worry fiends, the photo of their coffee eclair translates primally. My cavities hurt when I gazed at it but I didn't care, I had to have it. You know what I'm talking bout. I'm addicted!

Le Moulin de la Vierge - Paris

Sucker for the Old School
I love classic, ornate Parisian patisseries. They transport you back a hundred years with their dark wood, low lighting and painted tile ceilings. Le Moulin de la Vierge is a particularly good example - if you catch just an eye-sliver of it from the street you're bound to come in for a peek. I noticed it while walking down rue St-Dominique on my way to Jean Millet.

Sweet Melissa - Brooklyn

An Old Sweet-Tooth Favorite
I'm headed back to Paris today and saved Sweet Melissa for last. This is one of the four places in NY I would confidently take a Parisian for baked goods (the others are Baked, Trois Pommes and Amy's). It's a patisserie/cremerie/sit-down brunch/lunch spot. It's one of those rare places where I like everything they make and is named after a real person, Melissa, who can often be seen hunched over a bowl of dough, covered in flour, a big smile on her face. She loves baking and you can taste it, especially in the almond brioche bread pudding. Unlike other versions, hers is light, moist and brimming with flavor.

Dalloyau - Paris

On the Twelth Night of Christmas...
There's a special cake to celebrate the end of Christmas here in France. Today, Jan 6th, is the festival of epiphany, where you eat the Galette des Rois - the "cake of kings", to celebrate the three kings. The cake, a puff pastry filled with frangipane (almond paste), is only sold during this time of year - you can find them everywhere, not just in Dalloyau.

Carl Marletti - Paris

Top Notch Treats, White Glove Service
There are a lot of good things about Paris, but service isn't at the top of the list. So it was really amazing to experience the attentiveness at Carl Marletti. I felt like I'd walked into Louis Vuitton, not a patisserie. I was dealing with those drilled in the art of the customer experience - like I'd stepped out of Paris and into Tokyo.

Jean-Paul Hevin - Paris

Heaven's Got a Steep Cover Charge...
If you're ever shopping on rue St. Honore, make this your final visit. It ain't cheap by any means, so consider it a splurge. Jean-Paul Hevin is a master chocolate-maker who slings his creations in Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong. I'd been a few times to buy chocolate and macarons but this time I took the old lady upstairs for "tea." I mean, ok, they serve tea - but who cares about that, as I climbed the stairs to the tearoom I was humming the song "me and my sweet tooth."

Jean Millet - Paris

Firing on All Cylinders
We rarely cross from the right to left bank for eats. Not because we don't think there isn't good stuff over there, we're just kinda lazy. We made an exception to go check out Jean Millet, a patisserie in the 7th. Puffin saw it once while riding a Velib and made a mental note. We jumped the 69 bus for the short ride over. As soon as I walked in I had good vibes. Everything looked good. I ordered a Mont Blanc (chestnut cream cake) which was sweetly smooth and came with a section of chocolate picket fence stuck in its cranium.

La Bague de Kenza - Paris

Tea and Cookies, Anyone?
Not just regular old tea and cookies but the North African sort for a change of pace. One foot inside La Bague de Kenza this is what you see - a tidal wave of unfamiliar sweets and cookies (unfamiliar to me at least.)

Huré - Paris

The Rich Get Richer...
Some blocks in Paris barely have anywhere to eat, others have a place sprinkled here and there. Then there is rue Rambuteau - specifically, the two blocks between rue Beaubourg and rue des Archives. It's ridiculous: 3 green grocers, 3-4 brasseries, two Chinese restaurants, a Greek traiteur, two butchers, a creperie, an Italian restaurant, a fish monger, and the patisseries Pain de Sucre, Pralus, Berko Bakery as well as an outlet of LeGay Choc and probably 3-4 more things I'm forgetting. Now, out of nowhere, a brand new patisserie called Huré.