Paul Patisserie Part Deux

I just can't seem to get away from Paul Patisserie for too long. I am in Florida visiting my Grandmother for the long weekend and was not sure if I would have time to visit Paul Patisserie at the Sawgrass Mills outlet mall. This is the place where I fell in love with Paul and his pastries for the first time a few years back. Of course those of you who have been following me know that I had a brief affair with Paul Patisserie while in London. The vanilla macaroon was one of the first things I put in my mouth when I got to London and was waiting for my friend Sonya to sort out getting money from the bank.

My Grandmother and I decided to go to the Sawgrass Mills outlet mall at the last minute today. Coincidently, my friend Sonya asked me earlier today if I was going to pay Paul a visit while I was in Florida but this was before we decided to go. When we got to the mall, it was 6 pm and we went straight to the customer service kiosk to get a wheelchair for my Grandmother because she is not up for walking that enormous mall. If anyone out there has been to this mall then you know what I mean. Of course my number one order of business after asking for the wheelchair was asking if Paul Patisserie was still there. They told me that we had to bring the wheelchair back at 7:15 pm so we went to my Grandmothers priority store which was Banana Republic. She does not buy clothes there but she is literally obsessed with their perfume for women called W. She has at least 10 bottles of the perfume and 7 or 8 bottles of the body lotion in her closet at all times. When we got to the store today she asked for 6 bottles of perfume and 4 bottles of the lotion. My Grandmother scoffed at the price because they went up about $2 or $3 per bottle so I told her why don't you just get 4 bottles of the perfume. My suggestion had nothing to do with the price but had everything to do with the fact that she has this strange hoarding problem when it comes to Banana Republic scents. Of course I had to put them away when we got back to her house so I took the opportunity to count them. There are now 19 3.4 oz bottles of perfume and 11 15oz bottles of lotion in her closet. Somehow I got off the topic of Paul Patisserie.

When I returned the wheelchair at 7:30 pm I asked the customer service person if they could call Paul Patisserie to see what time they closed which they did. I had exactly 1/2 hour to drive over to the cafe and purchase my favorite obsession which is the vanilla macaroons. By the time I got over there I could not find parking so my Grandmother agreed to stay in the car and wait for me while I ran over to Paul Patisserie. I was so excited that I had to call Sonya and ask her if she wanted me to pick her up some macaroons. Sonya was not available so I decided to wait until I got to the cafe to even see what they had left. Luckily for me, they had 3 large vanilla macaroons left and a box of their assorted mini macaroons. Of course I was compelled to tell the sales person how much I loved the macaroons and how I ate them all the time when I was in London. I told her that I wished they were in NYC and she replied that they were planning to open a Paul Patisserie in Washington DC. This would work for me since my boyfriend George has family in Bethesda MD and I could justify visiting Paul Patisserie when we were nearby. I just looked at their website and the only Paul Patisserie locations in the US are in Florida. Of course I did not take this to mean anything since I was determined to get as close to Paul as possible so I sent them an e-mail praising the macaroons and begging for them to come to NYC. I am now so curious to know what the person who reads my e-mail will think.

I bought 2 large vanilla macaroons and a box of minis which they said I could put in the freezer. My Grandmother and I ate the large ones when we got home and she is now in love with Paul. The box of minis I promised my friend Sonya that I will share them with her. Who knew that I could be so in love with a confection.

Paul Patisserie will you be mine?

London Market Food

My friends Nancy & Tony who were in my apartment in NYC while I was in Nancy's place in London kept telling me to go to Borough market that it was a foodies paradise. Naturally, I said that we (my friend Sonya & I) had to go. Before we set out to go there I had the grand plan of looking up the best places to eat brunch in London. I chose to go to a place called Roast that happened to be in the Borough market. When we arrived at Borough market, it was a madhouse and we were both starving so we made a beeline for the restaurant Roast. I was most disappointed because we got to Roast after the brunch hour had passed so I was forced to eat lunch food as my first food of the day. Again if you have ever shared enough meals with me or just spent enough time with me, you would know that brunch is one of my favorite meals because you can get a little savory and a little sweet and then throw in a spot of alcohol. The other thing about me is that no matter what time of day it is when I eat my first food of the day, it has to be something breakfast like.

The menu at roast was heavy on the pork and many of the entrees seemed large so I thought I would be a smarty pants and get a few side dishes. My memory tells me I had some kind of squash soup that was nice and some roasted brussels sprouts which were also nice but again it was not hitting the spot for me. This could actually throw off my entire eating day and send me in to a quest to find something satisfying but never really get there. Sonya had a pork dish which was alright but then again I took one small bite. After we left roast and we had a minute to look at the dizzying array of food in the market, we were too full to try anything. To me this was a tragedy because there were so many great choices that we could have nibbled on but we were not too excited about once we were stuffed.

After borough market we decided to go to the famous Portobello market which was made famous in the movie Notting Hill. This market was great fun but the beginning and middle was mostly walking with stores thrown in. The very tail end of the market had more food vendors. We saw the giant paella pans as well as many baked goods and fruit. Sonya and I shared some item of food at this point but it was not memorable.

My advice to anyone going to London who loves to go to crowded markets is try not to go on the weekend and go very hungry.







The interior of Roast restaurant in the heart of Borough market










Giant paella pan at Borough market

Giant paella pan at the bottom of Portobella market

Borough market