Kat's 9 Lives

I am finally posting about the Saturday where Ms. Lin, Ms. Bumblebee, and I went out. To start the day off we went to La Farine in Oakland. We crossed the Bay Bridge and headed over to East Bay for a full day of adventure. As things turned out, we ended up leaving a little bit later than planned. We arrived at La Farine fairly quickly from the city and found parking immediately. Be sure to pay at the station and put the tickets in your car because they took out all the meters, don't want any of my readers to get a ticket. ^_~ It was a very beautiful day out that Saturday. We strolled into the bakery around 1:30PM and the scones that we really wanted to try were completely out. In fact, almost everything was out! =*( *sob sob sob*
We stood in line and took a quick glance of what few remaining baked goods they had. Their decor was typical of a bakery with a wooden furnish with cute baskets holding the baked goods. There were more cakes and desserts left on the other side. We all got Chocolatine, which was your typical Pain au Chocolat. It was Croissant dough with baton boulanger (bakers chocolate batons) in the middle. The croissant was very flaky and the dark chocolate inside was very tasty. As a whole it was tasty because the dark chocolate was the dominate taste with the buttery croissant only adding to the flavor. I actually think Tartine's Pain au Chocolat was better though. **I have the pics all ready & I promise to post about that place soon**
Since there was limited choices, I decided to try one of their sandwiches. They had very few of them left, so I took a gamble that they might be tasty. I chose the Ham, Swiss, Dijon, and Pears. Ms. Lin and I are not big fans of mustard, but I still chose to get this sandwich over the other one. The addition of pears was surprisingly delectable. It really added a sweetness that brought out the other flavors of the sandwich. Ms. Lin also picked up a Dark Double Chocolate Espresso Cookie. It had a strong Espresso flavor that made it even more bitter, but still very flavorful. The cookie was hard on the outside and soft on the inside.
All in all everything was good, but not anything to die for. I guess I would still go again to try and get the scones...if that's even possible. Trying all these different French Bakeries has made me even more nostalgic for Paris! I want to go back so bad! Taking the subway to Angelina's, or walking down to Pierre Hermé, or even heading down to the farmer's market for fresh pain au chocolat sounds so heavenly! Brings back so many memories and I must say NONE of these bakeries can hold a candle to those in Paris. Yes, I know the places that I named are super famous places in Paris. Even the smaller bakeries in Paris have more flavor and texture than the ones here. I guess they are good replacements for now, but I have to say I'd rather go to Cream Pan than any of these places. Of course this takes into account flavor AND pricing. I can't wait until May 23rd when Tofu and I head on over to Cream Pan! YAY!