A visit to Gosselin in Paris
This is one of my first posts, though I've been a long-time and avid viewer.
Last month I was in Paris and had a chance to visit a few bakeries. So I thought I'd share some pics here with everyone.
This post is about Gosselin's bakery. I went to the one on St Honore St (the original?) but these photos are from his other bakery on St Germain St.
The shop looks rather posh and wasnt very busy at around 930am. The service was ok, nothing to write home about, but not unfriendly. Just business-like (I speak fluent French, so it wasn't due to a language issue). Here, the baguettes are called "baguette tradition" versus "a l'ancienne" at the other shop, even though I asked if they had any a l'ancienne.
Here are shots of the baguette that I took at the park across the street. Sorry, the first one is a bit dark because of the flash... looks like night but it's actually 930am.
I cracked it open and it broke apart relatively easily. The inside was really fluffy and chewy at the same time!
As you can see, the crumb is nice and airy.
About 2 inches or so in height, with a nice crunchy (not crispy.. crunchy!) crust.
It tasted just as it was described in BBA. Slightly sweet with a nuttiness to it. The crumb was indeed cool to the touch and on the tongue. The crumb had a very clean taste when you eat it alone. When you eat it with the crust, you get a nice balance of sweet crust and clean, cool and very slightly creamy crumb. It was definitely one of the best baguettes I've ever had, and I've had qute a few decent ones in my life (in France, UK, Canada, other parts of Europe and even in Hong Kong where I'm currently living).
Was it the best ever? Hard to say, as this would be a huge claim. But definitely memorable.
Wish I could bake one half as good one day.
Anyway, just thought I'd share my experiences and hope others have a chance to try this much talked about baguette. :-)
I'll share my trip to Poilane's in my next post. Enjoy!