Too much butter
March 19, 2008 by nicoeats
My boss called me a few days ago while I was on my way to work to let me know that his father had fallen sick and that no one would be in the office. All of a sudden I found myself in trendy omotesando with a few unexpected hours to kill. Omotesando is one of Tokyo’s answers to 5th avenue in New York. Every brand that is worth anything has a store there, together with swanky cafes, bars and restaurants. Pierre Herme has his flagship store there, and so does Jean Paul Hevin (among a few more).
After wondering around for a while, I ended up inside the Bulgari building looking at the MOMA design shop on the third floor. As I was riding the escalators down, I saw the signs for the basement shops that included an organic grocery store and a bakery. My stomach got the best of me and I headed down to peak a look.
Those who’ve known me for a while know that I used to eat an unusually large amount of mayonnaise; I could easily go through a one liter jar in a month. I’d slather it on anything…bread, rice, salad, chicken, etc, etc. Few things were off-limit to my craving. Until, one day, I started making my own mayonnaise and realized that I better stop indulging before I kill myself and clog every artery in my body. I realized that mayonnaise is not an egg-based sauce; it is almost pure oil with a few seasonings that make it look different and give it an edgier taste…no wonder it tastes so good.
Long story short, I stopped buying mayonnaise. I sometimes make it at home or indulge at restaurants, but on the whole it has become an occasional treat. But, I still eat unusually large amounts of butter. I am a bread eater, and it is a sin in my books to eat bread without slathering a healthy dose of butter on it. I have no plans on stopping this addiction anytime soon, but I’m trying to eat less of it.
Big was my surprise as I perused the offerings of the bakery.
“120% butter,” said the sign featuring their signature cream puff.
“How can that be possible?”
“Of course it’s not 120% butter,” said the store attendant clearly irritated. “But I can tell you that this will be the richest piece of pastry you’ll ever have.”
Curiosity got the best of me and I found myself indulging on the puff a few minutes later. Having made croissants and puff pastry before, I know the large amounts of butter that go into them, but this was just over the top. It was so much butter that I immediately ended up with a layer of fat coating the insides of my mouth. I was desperate for water, tea, or anything that would help cleanse the fat away.
I guess there is such a thing as too much butter. I better start cutting down.
I’ve never thought that butter croissant will be the one to stop you…….. Hale to the almighty croissant! And now i am going to devour the 8 sticks of butter in my fridge… ^_^
oh my, that croissant looks hevenly… I sell this kind of pastries at the coffee shop that I work for. We get frozen pastreis from Thomas Hoss in North Vancouver and bake them every morning… smells just sooooooo goooooood. You don’t belive how tempting they are, everytime I open the shelve to get a croissant, I’m done. At the end of the day, I find myself taking a previledge of stuff discount, pouring my tips of the day into buying them. But hey, an occasional butter indulgement is not tooo bad!
Mimu — Amazing that a croissant could (almost) stop me…i just ate more butter…maybe i should buy a whole bag and see if that does the trick!
Yukie — Baking on premises? If that had been the case at Blenz, I’d have so eaten everything at the store!
butter and bread….aahhh….i could spend entire sundays eating bread with butter (actually avocado would do the trick too), drinking coffee or wine and reading the newspaper…aahh..