the great croissant taste-off

Team Croissant Portland geared up today for the Great Croissant Taste-Off, Portland edition. The team consisted of Dr. Croissant, aka Lillie, her mom Wendy, baby Paulina (who slept through the entire proceedings), and me. Here is Dr. Croissant in front of one of our contenders. Don’t you love her uniform? In case you can’t tell, she has a paper croissant taped to her hat. Also, I gave her a button that says, “I heart Warm Buns.”
croissant lillie.jpg
We decided to sample croissants from five Portland bakeries: the Pearl Bakery, Grand Central Bakery, Ken’s Artisan Bakery, Saint Honore Bakery, and Florio Bakery. Dr. Croissant made us charts for evaluation. We rated the croissants on the following criteria: appearance, cost, butteriness, flakiness, and taste.
croissant croissants.jpg
From left to right, we have Florio, Ken’s, Saint Honore, Pearl, and Grand Central (the one that is as big as Lillie’s head). After all the tasting was complete, Dr. Croissant declared Grand Central to be the best, while Wendy and I, the assistants to the doctor, felt Ken’s croissants were superior. They were not the most beautiful, but they had the best flavor. My motto is now “don’t judge a croissant by its appearance.”
We had to cut the session off after all the butter went to Dr. Croissant’s head and made her croissant crazy:
croissant crazy.jpg

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13 Responses to the great croissant taste-off

  1. megan says:

    Yummy!!! I had the best ham and cheese croissant the other day from Tartine.It was so good!! Flaky, buttery goodness. Your candy sweater is damn cute there little pajanese one!!

  2. alison says:

    Thanks, Mariko. I’m not feeling very well today, but this post and the one before totally crack me up. The picture of your dad, Dr. Croissant’s hat, and of course your fresh ‘n’ minty ribbie. So xie xie & arigato to you.

  3. carolyn says:

    i’m not sure it is healthy to be laughing this hard this early in the morning. i wonder what would happen if you took Dr. Croissant on a krispy kreme adventure!

  4. Em says:

    You make me want to fly right out so I can be a part of the next Great Pastry Taste-Off.

  5. Becky says:

    Hehe…this is the best entry ever. Grand Central’s croissant, on looks alone, got my approval. That’s how I get my croissants over here. Sometimes, chocolate-filled. Preferably warm so the chocolate is slightly melted. And if they’re plain croissants, I like to warm them in the toaster oven with a pat of butter on top for one or two minutes.
    YUM!!!!

  6. michelle says:

    Great. Now all I can think about are croissants–warm, buttery croissants. Argh!
    What did the bakery employees think of Dr. Croissant?

  7. funoozer says:

    Dear Ms. Eggplant:
    You are an inspiration to so many. In a world where girls are expected to feel guilty about longing for candy, sweaters, sweaters-made-like-candy, and most other brightshiny objects, you make it all okay. You renew my commitment to enjoying an occasional biscuit! Thank you.

  8. Melissa says:

    What a cutie. It’s almost as scientific as one of those Cook’s Illustrated articles.

  9. sharlyn says:

    Dare I run off and get myself some Grand Central croissants? Maybe. You can be sure I’ll be haunting the bread section of my nearest market in search of their croissants.

  10. Shetha says:

    Ack! Evil! Evil, I say! Grand central has a location an entire 3 blocks away. I can walk there in three minutes. I had never bought a croissant there because I’m trying to lose the baby weight!! Evil, I tell ya….

  11. Amy says:

    Looks like good, flaky fun was had by all! I like your application of the Scientific Method to the problem 🙂

  12. claudia says:

    I should never visit this damn blog when I’m hungry and there is no food in the house.
    Minty sweater…adorable. And who is gonna inspect your armpit seams??
    Oh. And Dad? Adorable too. I’ll bet you had to bribe him to pose like that.

  13. olivia says:

    lillie sure looks hot as a chef

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