A little bit of France on Third Avenue.

 

The food blogosphere has been abuzz of late about the opening of a New York outpost of Maison Kayser on the Upper East Side. Founded by French baker and pastry chef Eric Kayser, the bakery and patisserie has shops all over the world, and is now taking the Big Apple by storm. Obviously, I had to stop by as soon as possible to see what all the fuss was about.

The goods (I sampled a few different kinds of brioche, a bit of raisin bread, and a bite of baguette) were uniformly delicious. The plié au chocolat I ended up spiriting away to Central Park was delightful - its custardy innards cut through with dark chocolate, its pastry hardy but flaky.

That said.

I tried to grab lunch in the café, and it was a nightmare. Since it was their first weekend open, and since the Upper East Side tends to descend upon any decent restaurant like a horde of hungry teenagers, I knew it would be crazy. I was ready for crazy.

But I wasn't ready to be ignored while the host chatted with the people on either side of me, or to be brushed off when I asked if I could put my name on the list to be seated. (Given the whole being ignored thing, I wasn't going to trust someone about my place in line unless it was written down.) While the storefront crew were incredibly helpful and pleasant (especially given that I saw several customers cut the line and generally act like jerks), I am still pretty peeved about my experience with the cafe staff.

I'll likely give them one more go, on a weekday this time, but that's about it. Hopefully it will be a different host, and the Real Houswives rejects around me won't be as exciting for him.

Julia at 100.

Today is Julia Child's 100th birthday. It's safe to say that if you live in the United States and eat food, you owe a debt to Ms. Child. She was one of the driving forces behind the home cooking revolution that swept through our kitchens in the 1960s (and continues to this day), and her influence is everywhere.

Tonight, as I make gougères to take with me to a friend's house on Friday, I'll think of Julia. As I eat my heirloom tomato salad (recipe here), I'll think of Julia. And as I pick up her wonderful memoir My Life in France for yet another read, I'll think of Julia. And, apparently, every time I use Google today, I'll think of Julia.

Even setting aside the mammoth accomplishment of her Mastering the Art books and her status as the biggest TV food star of all time, Julia Child was a seriously fascinating lady. She worked for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, helping build the organization that would later become the CIA. She lived all over the world, and her relationship with her husband Paul was an inspiring partnership - not to mention the inspiration for some seriously adorable Valentines.

Even if you don't have Julia's boeuf bourgignon on the menu tonight, I hope you'll take a moment to remember her in your own way. And if you don't take a few minutes to watch PBS' amazing remix of her shiniest TV moments, you're a fool. Bon appétit!

A breakfast. Or two.

My last two mornings in Austin were, as always, bittersweet. There's something about those last couple of days of vacation that shock you into doing really wonderful things (long walks along Town Lake with the dogs, grabbing breakfast tacos with your best friend, lounging by the pool with a cocktail) instead of messing about with shopping or doing anything that requires you to adhere to a schedule.

The last two days of this trip were particularly so, because Louisa introduced me to a seriously amazing thing: breakfast at the Elizabeth Street Café.

Elizabeth Street is a French Vietnamese restaurant and boulangerie, and they serve three meals a day, seven days a week - not to mention coffee and pastries to go at any hour. It's a delightfully airy space, all black and white tile on the floor, calming white on the walls, and pops of teal in the banquette and chairs. Saigon and Paris mix in the space as well as in the food: cane chairs, burnished metalwork edging the communal table and a giant fern bring Vietnam, while white-painted wrought iron and black-and-white striped Louis XVI chairs bring the France.

The coffee - I chose French press both mornings - is fantastic. I was unsurprised to discover it was Stumptown, and couldn't help but enjoy upwards of three cups per visit. So sue me.

And then, of course, there's the food. You can order a pastry (Nick loved his almond croissant) or a French crepe, but I went savory and Vietnamese both mornings, figuring it was the best way to use my limited visits. My first choice: Saigon noodles with peppers, roast pork and fried eggs. The noodles were short, skinny and full of delicious curried flavor. The roast pork was rich and tender, with a wonderful balance of sweet and savory. The eggs were just runny enough to sauce things up, especially when I added a dollop of hoisin and a squirt of fish sauce. And man alive, were they spicy.

That first morning, we gathered up a few pastries to try later, at home. I snagged a butter croissant, a Nutella éclair, and a canelé. I really enjoyed the croissant, which was flaky enough to be authentic, but not so flaky that ended up wearing it. The butter was sweet, the pastry was tender, and the whole thing was just about perfect smeared with some strawberry jam.

The éclair was good, but not great. The filling was straight-up Nutella, so it was an incredibly rich treat, and I loved the hazelnuts on top. But the pastry was a bit gummy - possibly my fault for letting it sit for a few hours before enjoying it.

The canelé, while awfully pretty, was disappointing. It was undercooked, with a not-crunchy-enough exterior and a too-gummy interior. The vanilla flavor was nice, though, and canelés are super tricky to make, so these could definitely improve with time.

All canelé-related sins were forgiven the next morning, though, when we returned for breakfast number two. I ordered the sticky rice with poached eggs and ginger pork sausage. This bowl of perfect goodness arrived, topped with a tarragon and parsley salad. The eggs were perfectly poached, and their yolks mixed with the hot sauce on top of the rice to make a rich, tangy sauce. The pork sausage patties were spicy in both senses - gingery and hot. An ideal bite included a little of everything, and was, truly, perfect.

So, you know: go to there.

Elizabeth Street Café
1501 South First Street
Austin, Texas