The adventure that took place in the past couple of weeks that I have yet to mention is the hunt for the french bakery. Since we have our GPS "Maude" we have been feeling rather brave at exploring orange county. We did not start out with her help for this particular adventure though.
We looked up french bakeries online to see if there were any close by. After going to Las Vegas and having some really good chocolate croissants at the Jean-Philippe boulangerie in Bellagio I was definitely jonesing for a Pain au Chocolat. We read this wonderful blog on-line about this French bakery in Garden Grove. We printed out the instructions on how to get there and we were off.
http://wanderingchopsticks.blogspot.com/2007/02/boulangerie-pierre-patisserie-garden.html
On the way, we realized we had not taken the directions but it is on Brookhurst Ave in Garden groove how hard is it to find? Well, we leisurely drove past Little Saigon and arab area of Garden Grove and were nearly in Anaheim before we gave up and decided to find it in a more concentrate fashion. It was not so easy after all. After some frustrated fiddling with the web on my cell phone and yelling at Maude for not having more up to date information (Yes, Maude said Boulangerie Pierre did not exist even though the blog was posted on 2/23) we got boulangerie Pierre.
It is quite understandable why we missed it. It is an understated store in a two level strip mall in Little Saigon. It was well worth the wait. As you can see from the pictures from the other blog the selection is to die for. We had chocolate croissants, beignets, sticky bun and Vietnamese coffee. Oh yeah, we had some strange looks because we were definitely not the norm. Back to the Vietnamese coffee -- it was terribly sweet. It took us 3 more visits (together -- John went there daily the week I was not at home) to figure out that when we asked for coffee with milk they were using condensed milk. Should have asked for a latte!
We looked up french bakeries online to see if there were any close by. After going to Las Vegas and having some really good chocolate croissants at the Jean-Philippe boulangerie in Bellagio I was definitely jonesing for a Pain au Chocolat. We read this wonderful blog on-line about this French bakery in Garden Grove. We printed out the instructions on how to get there and we were off.
http://wanderingchopsticks.blogspot.com/2007/02/boulangerie-pierre-patisserie-garden.html
On the way, we realized we had not taken the directions but it is on Brookhurst Ave in Garden groove how hard is it to find? Well, we leisurely drove past Little Saigon and arab area of Garden Grove and were nearly in Anaheim before we gave up and decided to find it in a more concentrate fashion. It was not so easy after all. After some frustrated fiddling with the web on my cell phone and yelling at Maude for not having more up to date information (Yes, Maude said Boulangerie Pierre did not exist even though the blog was posted on 2/23) we got boulangerie Pierre.
It is quite understandable why we missed it. It is an understated store in a two level strip mall in Little Saigon. It was well worth the wait. As you can see from the pictures from the other blog the selection is to die for. We had chocolate croissants, beignets, sticky bun and Vietnamese coffee. Oh yeah, we had some strange looks because we were definitely not the norm. Back to the Vietnamese coffee -- it was terribly sweet. It took us 3 more visits (together -- John went there daily the week I was not at home) to figure out that when we asked for coffee with milk they were using condensed milk. Should have asked for a latte!
Finally got a picture of it (May 6th)
The second best part of the whole trip is we discovered Little Saigon. It is one of the largest Vietnamese communities in the United States and it is a very contained community. The buildings have the red roofs like you would see in Vietnam and some distinctly Vietnamese influences. It felt like we were in another country sometimes. I did not take any pictures myself but there are some on the following blog:
http://wanderingchopsticks.blogspot.com/2007/02/little-saigon.html
We went back last Friday for dinner. We were hunting again for a French restaurant and wound up in Little Saigon -- that alone should tell you something. We could not find the place we were looking for -- we really need to do something about updating Maude -- but we did end up at Da Lat Bistro. Yum yum. John had the 7-course Beef and I had the 7-course fish (5 of those courses were on one plate so we were not quite as glutinous as you might think). The other 2 courses were a tarot soup and a beef/fish salad and the supplementals were a basket of lettuce, julienned cucumbers and carrots and a plate of rice paper sheets to wrap stuff up in.
I don't think we talked to each other during the first half of the meal -- too busy chewing and savoring. Once we took a break we got reacquainted.
We will definitely be making it back to Little Saigon to eat. There is so much to choose from and if you like Vietnamese it is eatery heaven!! Till the next adventure -- this time I'll take my camera!
http://wanderingchopsticks.blogspot.com/2007/02/little-saigon.html
We went back last Friday for dinner. We were hunting again for a French restaurant and wound up in Little Saigon -- that alone should tell you something. We could not find the place we were looking for -- we really need to do something about updating Maude -- but we did end up at Da Lat Bistro. Yum yum. John had the 7-course Beef and I had the 7-course fish (5 of those courses were on one plate so we were not quite as glutinous as you might think). The other 2 courses were a tarot soup and a beef/fish salad and the supplementals were a basket of lettuce, julienned cucumbers and carrots and a plate of rice paper sheets to wrap stuff up in.
I don't think we talked to each other during the first half of the meal -- too busy chewing and savoring. Once we took a break we got reacquainted.
We will definitely be making it back to Little Saigon to eat. There is so much to choose from and if you like Vietnamese it is eatery heaven!! Till the next adventure -- this time I'll take my camera!
May 6th
Noticed on the way out there was another bakery nearby that deals with all types must try it soon!
3 comments:
I hope you were not two glutinous or was it gluttonous?? It is good that you are BACK with a vengeance! O Queen of Blog! You write, we read and comment - we are the underbloggers.
Love
John
Ah! The food sounds divine! You must take me out there to the bistro and the (sometimes French only!) pastry shop if I ever make it down South-South.
Hi Janet,
I'm glad my blog inspired you to go out and explore Little Saigon! :)
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