Like Buttah: A Visit to Pain Perdu

Pain Perdu
736 St. Clair Ave W, Toronto
http://www.painperdu.com/

Last summer a friend of mine revealed to a few of us the wonder that is the pain perdu at (where else?) Pain Perdu. Ever since, my pal Robyn and I have been off-and-on talking about making the trek up to St. Clair W. to taste this ooey-gooey french toast-astrophe.

Recently we finally committed, and met at Christie Station to take the (pretty infrequent) Christie bus northward. A short block west of Christie & St. Clair, on the north side of the street, we found the restaurant-bakery. The cheerful blue and cream exterior was nearly as inviting as the delicious buttery aroma that hit us the minute we opened the door. It was so amazing, my already grumbling stomach could hardly take it!

Pain Perdu is NOT a French bakery, and this is clearly demarcated by a big Basque flag hanging near the cash register. I do believe I would be safe in assuming, however, that the origins of the bakery are in Northern Basque Country, which occupies three French provinces. French is clearly the first language of this bakery, with employees conversing with local francophones who stop in for baguettes and croissants, and most of the signage written en français.

I immediately order a café au lait ($3.50), as I'm jonseing for my daily caffeine fix and must get that off my brain while I decide on what other delectables to consume.

Robyn goes straight for the pain perdu ($7.95), as she has been dreaming about it for months. I ponder awhile more, and decide I'm looking for something a bit more savoury. The selection of yummy looking quiches seems appealing, and the duck confit plate also has its allure. But I decide to go with their made-to-order casse-croûtes (i.e. snacks). I choose the brie ($8.95) - because I'm a sucker for all things creamy - with a salad ($3.50).

The café au lait arrives and it is truly french in style, with the smokiness of the roast predominant even through the frothy milk. I tend to enjoy bitter coffees, but I'm not sure I could handle this one without the di-lait-tion (ha ha ha, I am so funny!).

Next to arrive is the pain perdu. It is better than we imagined and it is beautiful! Look:

It is a custardy slab of french toast, covered in crème anglaise, fresh fruit (at this point in time it is pineapple -- but rumour has it they serve whatever is seasonally appropriate) and a berry (raspberry, we think) coulis. Clearly I can't let Robyn suffer through this alone, so I help her out a bit. This is definitely the star of the restaurant, and I ended up being incredibly jealous...so I will obviously have to return for my own at some point in time.

My brie casse-croûte and salad arrive and it looks fresh and appealing. The salad is a bright green bib covered with house-made vinaigrette and the plate comes with petits cornichons and cherry tomatoes. Voilà!

The baguette is buttered and delicious and the brie is tasty, but doesn't stand out as much as I was hoping. Still it is creamy and satisfy, and the veg is a good contrast. I feel satisfied and smugly healthy.

As health was not my goal, I decided to spoil the feeling by purchasing some take-home treats. I was interested to find an assortment of prepared-in-store vinaigrette and jellies available to purchase, as well as a sign revealing $42 orders of foie gras were being taken.

As Pain Perdu has been 3-times voted Best Croissant by the Toronto Star, I decided that I NEEDED one (as did Robyn, who needed more than one! yum!). I also picked up another of their specialities, a gateau Basque (available in single to 8 person serving sizes). I also got to sample a pretty blue meringue at the counter, which reminded me of cotton candy at summer fairs.

I waited approximately 1 hour before I ate the croissant ($1.90 ea) - it was calling my name. And after doing so I can understand why its a city-wide champ. It was ridiculously buttery without being greasy, with a toasty, caramelized crust, and a flaky yet chewy interior. When I return for my own serving of pain perdu I will definitely be taking more than one of these home with me!

The single-serving gateau Basque ($4.10 ea) I took to class with me and split with a friend. It was tasty (also deliciously buttery) with a nicely balanced cream filling. It didn't send me to the moon (perhaps I'd just had too many carbs at that point), but it would be a good item to serve with a strong cup of black tea.

So if this review has convinced you that you too need some Pain Perdu in your life (and I hope it has) let me know and we can go!

Or at least pick me up a croissant! :)

Lunch for one with fancy coffee and a take-home goody(tax included): aprx. $17.00 (tip extra)

Rating: 3.5 dishes out of 5

Springtime Day-cation

The past few weeks in Toronto have been a lovely sigh of relief for me, as I shed my winter coat and boots and enjoy the extra sunlight hours later into the day. SPRINGTIME is here! And I LOVE IT!

So to celebrate this awesomeness, my friend Courtney and I decided to explore a part of the city that neither of us were previously very familiar with. As we're both studying pastry arts, lots of sugar was consumed as we walked down Queen Street East, through Leslieville and Riverside. I took a few pictures to photojournal-ize our day. ENJOY!

We started at Coxwell Avenue and walked west along Queen. Very close to the beginning of our walk we saw this:

I first heard about Kakayo Chocolate Company when I met the owner -- and chocolatier -- at a trade show I worked. She seemed really nice, and I later read (multiple times) that her product was amazing, but since I hardly ever go to the east side of the city I'd never made it here until now.

AMAZING chocolates! I got the Salted Caramel, the Chai Masala (which, incidentally, is vegan) and the Pumpkin Pie. The Chai Masala was interesting and tasty, but the Pumpkin Pie truffle blew me away! It had such a wonderful custardy texture, surrounded by beautiful, snappy chocolate and with the perfect intensity of pie spice. Guh...I want another right now!

We sauntered past Red Rocket Coffee, as neither of us needed more caffeine at that point, but we did catch a glimpse of this awesome old-timey streetcar in the TTC yards across the street:

Next stop on our sugar high was:

Here we see Courtney examining the wares of Altitude Baking's homey bake shop. I really enjoyed the atmosphere, and the Neiman Marcus cookie that I purchased has put me on an oatmeal and chocolate chip rampage since then.

Plus they gave us these adorable, springtime appropriate, mini-tulip sugar cookies:

We also wanted to try Sweet Bliss Baking Company, but it was not open on weekdays for the month of March. I found this strange, but as I longingly peered through the windows I vowed I'd be back to try it on a day it would be open.

We did, however, come across this lovely vintage shop instead.

I could have spent hours poking around, but more sugar was calling! And we found it at It's the Icing on the Cake, an incredibly friendly and cheerful shop. Our stomachs were getting the better of us at this point, so we decided to split a vanilla cupcake instead of cramming a full one into each of our mouths. As demonstrated below, we destroyed it in the process:

The cake was nice, with good, not-too-sweet flavour and a fluffy texture. The icing on the cupcake (ha... get it?) was fine, but it still hasn't swayed my best cupcake in Toronto vote from The Cupcakery in Corso Italia.

But, while enjoying our cupcake we did get to meet a new friend!

This is Sam. We took care of Sam for a bit while his friend went in to buy some cake. He was lovely and shook hands very politely. He also kept us very aware of all people and canines approaching with friendly shout outs. What a nice guy!

I have to say that Leslieville is definitely one of the friendliest areas of Toronto that I have ever been. Everyone in the shops and on the street were so happy to exchange a few words and a smile. It was a very cozy feeling neighbourhood, whose inhabitants clearly support the local businesses, and the businesses support the community and each other.

For instance, while browsing the beautiful clothing and accessories at Nathalie-Roze & Co. the cheery and casually chummy shopkeeper pointed us toward two more foodie must-sees in the neighbourhood: Brick Street Bread (where Courtney was ecstatic to find Hot Cross Buns) and Leslieville Cheese Market (where we gawked at all the delicious cheeses and sandwich options, and I left with some chevre and a bag of cheese curds).

Continuing west we emerged from beneath a train overpass and arrived in Riverside. When you enter Riverside from this direction the first street that you hit is this one:

Unfortunately The Zits weren't hanging around, but we did find the following sweet little birdie prints just below our feet:
Riverside was really pretty and had some great architecture. I thought that this old bank building was particularly interesting:


Riverside brought us to the two last edible stops on our adventure. Ambiance Chocolat, where Courtney indulged in a few more chocolates (which she said were very tasty), and LPK's Culinary Groove, where I sampled the spicy chevre shortbread that I can't get off my mind. I've been scouring the Internet for a similar recipe, so if anyone can point me in the right direction please do!

All in all, it was a fantastic day and I look forward to exploring even more neighbourhoods through the upcoming warmer months! Bring on the sun!