Lake Oswego, OR
Another year, another trip to Portland! It seems that my family has created a tradition to visit this Oregon city every spring! After visiting St. Honore Boulangerie last year, we were all longing for their delicious viennoiserie, so we planned a visit to the Lake Oswego location this time.
Situated in the city of Lake Oswego, Oregon, this bakery faces the Millennium Park and has nice views of Lakewood Bay. On the morning that we were there, the local farmers market had its opening day in the park. It really has a quaint small town charm here.
Croque Madame - brioche sliced with Emmental cheese bechamel sauce, Dijon mustard, Black Forest ham, topped with a soft poached egg
Yum yum yum! I love me some croquet madame! This time they were a bit heavy on the Dijon mustard though.
Brioche Cocotte - brioche with a poached egg inside, chive crème fraiche and two bacon strips
The Brioche Cocotte was just as good as last time! OMG the buttery brioche, the soft poached egg and the chive crème fraiche makes a wonderful trio!
Hazelnut Caramel Dacquoise - layers of caramel ganache, chocolate praline and hazelnut buttercream between crunchy hazelnut dacquoise cake
Sorry, I didn't take a picture of this dessert but let me tell you, this one tasted like a Ferrero Rocher chocolate in cake form. SO GOOD!
Quiche Jardiniere - savoury egg custard baked in a pastry shell with roasted leeks and mushrooms
On our second visit the next day, W and I shared one of their quiche offerings in order to save room for some sweets.
Chocolate Brioche -
brioche dough combined with bittersweet chocolate chips and topped with a chocolate streusel
brioche dough combined with bittersweet chocolate chips and topped with a chocolate streusel
Chocolate and brioche together? Yes please!! This wasn't as yummy as I expected though. The streusel was crumbly, crunchy and dry so if there was some gooey melted chocolate laced inside the bread, it would have provided some moisture to the otherwise dry loaf.
Strawberry Millefeuille - caramelized puff pastry filled with mousseline cream and fresh strawberries
Yes, we tried the millefeuille last year but the prettiness captured my attention once again! The strawberries were still a little tart so the sweet custard-like mousseline cream paired well with them.
Saint Honore - puff pastry with a ring of pâte á choux, vanilla custard topped with whipped cream, caramel and cream filled choux
What should you eat at St. Honore? Why, the Saint Honore of course! It's like a cream puff that had an extreme make-over haha...
Tarte Citron - a smooth and rich lemon custard on a bed of almond cream in a sable shell
As expected, the lemon custard was quite mouth-puckering tart but once eaten with the sweet cookie shell, it helped balance out the flavours.
Chausson aux Pommes - flaky dough filled with applesauce
To our Asian eyes, this pastry resembled the curry puff pastries of HK style bakeries LOL...
Croissant aux Amandes - twice baked croissant with an almond cream filling
And my mom's favourite, the almond croissant. Crispy, flakey layers of buttery richness wrapped around a sweet almond paste.
This was our spread on the second morning at St. Honore! I just love these relaxing vacation mornings filled with delicious food :)
