Skip to content

Midleton Farmers Market (Cork, Ireland)

When I leave Ireland, what I’m going to miss most is people calling me dearie. Sure the Irish have a reputation as brawlers and so forth (back in San Francisco, I once hired a group of Irish contractors who would routinely show up on Monday morning with at least a couple of black eyes), but wherever I go in Ireland, like a grocery store or…

0 Shares

Continue reading...

American Chocolate Hazelnut Paste

No one was happier than I was to receive the news, directly from the chocolate-maker himself, that Askinosie was jarring up a chocolate and hazelnut spread. To make the spread, cocoa powder is made from pulverized cocoa beans sourced directly from the farmers in the Philippines, and hazelnut butter is made from nuts harvested from an orchard in the Pacific Northwest. Then they’re both ground…

1 Shares

Continue reading...

le Week-end

I always seem to have the supreme misfortune to draw the letter W when playing Scrabble in French, as there’s barely one-quarter of a page in the French dictionary devoted to words that begin with that letter. People use “Wu” for Chinese money; although I allow them, it’s not in the French dictionary so I’m not sure that’s in the official rules. In spite of…

1 Shares

Continue reading...

Rome, Again

Today, I’ve had gelato for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And as I write this, it’s only 3pm in the afternoon. It all started on this bright Sunday morning, when I made the onerous hike up to Prati, to Fatamorgana for their daring, wildly-flavored gelati. If you weren’t looking for the place, you’d probably keep going. But being the trooper that I am, in the blazing…

3 Shares

Continue reading...

Chocolate Bread

When I got the opportunity to re-release my first two books, which had gone out of print, my publisher and I decided that they should be combined into one brand-new volume, Ready for Dessert, with new photos and more than a dozen new recipes added. So I made a master list of all the recipes, then chose my absolute favorites: the ones I’d found myself…

937 Shares

Continue reading...

The Barbes Market

Every once in a while there are contests in Paris to decide who makes the best croissant, a hot new restaurant list get published somewhere, or a market way on the other side of Paris that supposedly has great onions grown in the same soil where Louis the XIV once took a squat, becomes a “must visit”. It’s pretty encouraging to see and hear about…

13 Shares

Continue reading...

Rue Montorgueil and Les Halles, Paris

You might not remember the days before the internet, but when we used to travel somewhere, we’d ask a friend to scribble down a list of suggestions. And we’d often be asked to do the same in return. Then when computers became widely used, other ‘favorites’ lists started circulating, including suggestions posted in online forums and in blogs. So think of this list as my…

199 Shares

Continue reading...

The Good News and…The Good News

I have two bits of good news that are going to make you very, very happy. Okay, they make me happy. You, on the other hand, might not give a rat’s derrière. One is that the bakery that makes the sesame baguette is going to stay open for an indeterminate amount of time. That means that I won’t be cut off from my Crack Baguette….

0 Shares

Continue reading...

My Favorite Sesame Baguette

A woman who writes highly-regarded bread books recently contacted me. She was coming to Paris, and wanted to ask me some questions about various bakeries and their baguettes, specifically, which I liked. I wrote her back and told her that when you live in Paris, you buy your bread from the local boulangerie (there are four within a block of my apartment) rather spending thirty…

2 Shares

Continue reading...

A

Get David's newsletter sent right to your Inbox!

15987

Sign up for my newsletter and get my FREE guidebook to the best bakeries and pastry shops in Paris...