We woke up last Sunday morning and decided we wanted to walk to our neighborhood’s little downtown.  Technically speaking, our town has no downtown. The residents from way back when prefer it this way.

La Boulange

And so, our town only has a town hall with the police and fire department offices all in one pretty place.  We “share” the downtown with our neighbor city, Burlingame.  Enough of that.  Let’s go to the walk and the Sunday brunch.

We walked past the farmer’s market and promised to drop by after.  The weather was sunny but there was a rather nippy breeze.  I guess one can’t expect more, considering it was pouring (even had a brief episode of hail in the morning!) the day before. After looking around, we zeroed in on La Boulange, which is situated almost at the mouth of Burlingame Avenue as it approaches the Caltrain station.  

Baked Goodies at La Boulange

 As we entered, we noticed they were full on busy.  We fell in line. It moved efficiently.  As we approached the counter, I saw the breads and the pastries.  I wanted to try all of them!  I could not help but smile. My eyes are now hungrier than my stomach!  Stop it, it told myself.

We decided on the canele and an almond croissant (croissant aux amandes).  We toyed around with the Quiche or the lamb or one of the open-faced sandwiches but we both ended up ordering an Omelette de Paris.  They really do a nice job of it here.  

And so we found an empty table and waited for our order.  I surveyed the place. with a center table for cutlery, napkins and drinks accessories. There were the row of environmentally responsible garbage cans and a shelf of post cards.  The place buzzed pleasantly and smelled of coffee, savory and sweet things.  There was a laugh here and there.  We nibbled on our pastries and sipped our coffees.  The canele was classic.  Crisp to chewy on the outside, soft and creamy on the inside.  The almond croissant was flaky enough but it had way too much marzipan inside. In fact, I scraped the middle and saved it for later.  I have always used the standard for good almond croissant either the ones made at Bouchon Bakery in Yountville or the ones served with Sunday Brunch at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco.  They always had the marzipan just so, with the layers and flavors perfect.

At last, our food arrived, hot and smelling of cheese and bacon and greens.  Ahh!  So good!  Just as I had imagined it to be.  The flavors of strong cheese, crisp bacon, and greens with the eggs providing a backdrop for their drama!  Nothing like comfort food on a cold Sunday morning.

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