Croissant à la Vanille, Pouchkine

jessica's dinner party, croissant a la vanille, paris, pouchkine

I’ve been doing a little reminiscing about my time in Europe these last couple of days; going over places I visited and things I ate.  I don’t really miss being there, but sometimes I do get fleeting thoughts that maybe I didn’t take full advantage of all my surroundings. However, I don’t have big regrets and I know I’ll go back again…just maybe not soon.  In the meantime, here’s one of my favorites from Paris: Pouchkine‘s Croissant à la Vanille. My friend who interned there introduced me to it and it’s absolutely amazing. There are tons of different croissants in Paris, but this one stands out as most memorable for me. It has the perfect ruffle and crisp of a croissant with a defining presence of vanilla in the middle. It’s quite large for one person so I always split it with a friend, but I’m beginning to feel like maybe I shouldn’t have!

My friend didn’t quite find out the secret to that filling (which is more of a buttery addition than a filling filling), but maybe one day she’ll whip up something similar at her newly opened patisserie in Quebec! I’m dying to go, and one day I will, but if any Quebecer readers are out there, check it out!
Continue reading

Tarte Tatin and a New Year

jessica's dinner party, tarte tatin, pastry, seoul, korea, eats

The start of a new year always feels like a pause between everything that happened in the past to all that lays ahead in the future.  There are regrets in what could have been but also hope for what can and will be. Usually I spend a lot of time suspended in this moment trying to neatly timeline my life in chronological order, but life is anything but neat and (chrono)logical.  Everything is intertwined, looping together from ahead, below, up, and behind. So instead of trying to unravel what will forever be tangled, I am deciding to focus on today, whatever knots it may hold from the past, present, or future.
Continue reading

Troppo Gelato in Italia

italy, firenze, florence, bologna, gelato, reviews, travel, europe, eats, jessica's dinner party

It’s hard to choose favorites when it comes to all the different trips I’ve taken, but my trip to Bologna and Florence stands as one of the most memorable.  The sites were just as beautiful as I imagined them to be and the weather was even hotter than what my dad claimed Italian summers to be. But aside from all that, Italy was the most memorable because of all the gelato tasting we did!  32 flavors in three days between two girls (plus the daily three meals plus snacks and nibbles)…need I even state the obvious: we are gluttons!
Continue reading

Moroccan in Paris

au p'tit cahoua, moroccan, restaurant, review, paris

Before my mind completely moves away from Europe, I thought I’d do some catch up posts on place I never got to write about.  I have tons of forgotten trips, restaurants, and patisseries that are just itching to be posted.  I probably won’t get around to all of them this summer (seriously, there are so many!), but maybe some of those are supposed to be saved for nostalgic days.
Continue reading

Petits Voyages: Lille

lille, jessica's dinner party, travel, europe, restaurant, eats, day trip, review, france, la bottega, pizza

Out of the three mini trips I did during the past few weeks, I was probably most enamored by Lille.  The Flemish brick lined architecture and cute narrow streets made me feel like I was truly transported into my imagination of what small European towns are supposed to look like. Quant and so adorable, half the time I felt like I was walking on a prop set.
Continue reading