The Great Croissant Showdown

Is it wrong to be missing, actually PINING for a croissant? I mean, it can't be normal. But it is wrong?

Aside from bonding with Mr. Max, I am on VACATION! Which means I can stay up until 3 am writing about whatever I darn well want.

Bear with me here. One of my friends has, periodically, described fond, fond, fond memories of a croissant he used to get in Oregon. I mean Fond. Listening to him describe the delicate balance of butter, the layers of pastry flaking into light layers, the almost sublime melding of melt in your mouth lightness with a "slightly chewy center," and pristine visual patterns of layers on top was very, very similar to hearing someone reflecting sadly on a lost love. Not quite the last scene from Titanic, but I'm not sure that if he were clinging to a piece of destroyed ship and the last croissant this Oregon bakery ever made were to lose it's buttery, flaky grip and slip into the freezing waters - I'm pretty sure that he would give up and allow the ocean to overtake him as well.

Anyway. Back to the story. It was obviously a little distressing for him - if not downright traumatic - to have never found a sufficient replacement in Seattle. I mean to have carried the memory of that Oregon croissant place all these years, and to remember it in such visceral detail... I thought, if there's any way, any way at all to help ease his suffering, we had to do it.

So, we decided to have a "croissant tasting" to see if any of the croissants we could find in Seattle could come close. We did some independent web searching, asked around, and finally decided on a short list. I'd already brought him a croissant from the Admiral Metropolitan Market - he said it was good, but not Oregon good. So we moved on. It was a Sunday. Mid morning. We split up and all croissants were obtained at the same time, in generally the same temperature and humidity. At the last minute I had to make a split second decision. After driving around 30 minutes trying to find a place to park near Pike's Place Market (to get one from Le Panier), with no options in sight due to the sheer volume of tourists that morning, I decided to give up and head home. As I drove over the bridge I thought, hmm, I saw that there was a new bakery up at the Junction (Bakery Nouveau). So I thought, what the heck, I'll see if they make croissants. And they did.

We convened in my condo. We decided on a clear rating system. Then we tasted. First we tested each bakery's plain croissant, with and without butter, and with and without plum jam, and then each bakery's almond croissant, and ended with a tasting of the chocolate croissants. After the first two rounds, we were able to narrow the finalists to Cafe Besalu and Bakery Nouveau. After another round of discussions and tastings, and about 6,000 calories, we declared a winner. The last minute replacement, Bakery Nouveau.

My friend said it was better... BETTER... than the croissants he had in Oregon. Let the healing begin.