HALLIE EPHRON: I’m just back from Paris where I spent a wondrous week teaching a class on writing mystery and suspense for WICE Paris (Where Internationals Connect in English.) My daughters came along and we filled our free time with (pause… suspense… what would we have spent our free time doing?) EATING.
I had forgotten what a croissant is supposed to taste like. The aroma. The tissue-thin layers of yummy. And available freshly baked every morning at any of the half-dozen cafes and bakeries within walking distance of our AIRBNB.
What’s your favorite (and at its best only truly available in one place) goody, what makes it so special, and where’s the one place you’re guaranteed to get it perfectly prepared?
RHYS BOWEN: The one thing you should add about croissants in France is that they only cost a Euro, not five as they do here.
In September I’ll be going to John’s sister in Cornwall, something we have done every year. It’s a different world, slower pace, lovely people.
Oh, and I stay in a manor house! And eat.., cream teas with the best clotted cream ever, fish and chips and Cornish Pasties.
The first thing we do when we arrive is to eat a pastie.
We have our favorite bakeries in several villages. And for those who don’t know pasties are pie crust around meat and vegetables. They were made originally for the miners to take their lunch down the mine. Thus they have a rim of pastry around one side so the miners could hold them with dirty hands and not spoil their meal.
Simple but delicious served hot!
LUCY BURDETTE: I know I can be a food snob, but I won’t eat a croissant unless it’s in France. I went to La Maison d’Isabelle a couple of years ago in Paris–they won best croissant in France in 2018–and I still dream about those flaky, buttery layers.
But if I have to move on from pastry, I would say Key West pink shrimp. They are caught near the islands so are perfectly fresh and gorgeous. They are heads and tails more delicious than frozen or imported. Yes, more expensive too, but a good treat once in a while!
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I think part of the answer has to do with pizza.
I can’t really quite articulate it, but there’s a certain kind of pizza that tastes like real pizza, and then there are a whole raft of different categories that are not necessarily terrible, but not real pizza.
There’s like, yuppie pizza, with things like prosciutto and balsamic vinegar, which is delicious! But it’s not really pizza. Real pizza has thin crust, and tangy tomato sauce, and chewy cheese that strings out when you try to cut pizza and oregano.
And oil on the top? Somehow? It just tastes like good old street pizza. It probably has pepperoni. I also think it has to do with the brick ovens.
I don’t really connect with New York, although I bet that’s what it is. Anyone have any ideas?
JENN McKINLAY: Hallie, I love the scene in Hacks when Deborah tells Ava that you haven’t eaten bread until you’ve visited a boulangerie in France. So true.
I ate my body weight in bread while I was there!
And, Rhys, I love pasties. Of course, I haven’t been to Cornwall (yet) and have only the local Cornish Pasty Co in Old Town Scottsdale to judge by – although, I did have a pasty in Victoria Station once that was very tasty.
Anyway, all that to say, there is no pizza like New Haven, CT pizza – which I’ve mentioned before and Roberta will back me up. I’ll be there this weekend and am already anticipating a white clam pie!
As for home, in AZ there is nothing like a Sonoran hot dog (it beats the Chicago dog, sorry not sorry). It’s wrapped in bacon, served on a bolillo roll and loaded with pinto beans, jalapenos, tomatoes, onions, and mayo. Best dog ever!
DEBORAH CROMBIE: You are all killing me! Jenn, I want that hot dog! And so many other things!
I do love pasties. I remember the revelation of first eating one in Cornwall on my first solo trip to England years ago.
Hallie, you've reminded me that our bakery just down the street makes fabulous croissants, but I don't usually buy them. (Probably a good thing, especially as I like to slather them with butter and orange marmalade…)
But what I would really love is a PROPER scone, loaded with strawberry jam and then clotted cream. (Yes, jam first, so that you can get on more cream.) What are usually called scones in the US are sometimes good (see local bakery, above) but they bear no relation to a real English scone. Even in places–sometimes even chef-y places) that claim to offer a real afternoon tea, the scones are not the same. Maybe Rhys can tell us why.
HALLIE: So, if we were coming to YOUR neighborhood, what would be the A-1 MOST FABULOUS LOCAL AND FOUND NOWHERE ELSE THIS GOOD thing the rest of us should seek out to savor?? Fried chicken?? Cherry pie?? Barbecued ribs??? I'm getting very hungry...
