There’s a new bakery in town and you know I had to check
it out. Or maybe I should call it a patisserie as it’s meant to be more high
end. Not quite as high end as Alexander’s but definitely more fancy than Icing on the Cake. It’s called la Panotiq and appears to be part of a small chain. It’s
definitely a welcome addition to the culinary lineup on Castro St in Mountain
View. While Castro is known for its abundance of various cuisines, it’s been
sadly lacking in the desserts arena. Two bakeries is still a bit lopsided
compared to the number of restaurants but two is better than one is better than
none.
I went to la Panotiq when I was killing time before
meeting with my monthly dinner club for our second foray at Doppio Zero. When I
walked in, I was greeted with a full display case of various dessert offerings.
That already put them a cut above my first visit to Alexander’s Patisserie with
its empty shelves.
There was a wide variety of desserts. I mean wide. From
fruit tarts and caneles to macarons, cakes and cookies to tiramisu to cream
puffs, cobblers, tarts and pies. So of course I had to take pictures of it all.
Prices were slightly less than Alexander’s, not quite as homey as Icing on the
Cake but somewhere in the middle.
The counter folks were very friendly and helpful, I must
say. When I asked one person for a recommendation, she suggested the tiramisu.
I’m not fond of creamy desserts so I filed that away for later and kept on
perusing. She went to help someone else and another counter person later asked
if I needed help. By that time I had narrowed my selections a bit and asked him
for his recommendations. He also went with the tiramisu. Huh. That must be some
good tiramisu, right? Especially considering the second person hadn’t heard
what the first person had said. Either that or they’d been instructed to push
the tiramisu. But I’m more trusting and think better of people than that so I
let myself be persuaded to try the tiramisu. My friend Sun also recommended
what looked like a chocolate covered hazelnut pastry ball called a chocolate
tresor so that went into my box as well.
Since we were going to dinner and I would likely end up
full from that, I restricted myself to just those 2 choices in the interests of
being a grown up instead of a kid with a sweet tooth and no impulse control. It
turned out to be a good decision as I didn’t have room after dinner to try
dessert so I waited until the next day to sample my purchases.
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| My takeout box |
The chocolate tresor turned out to be like a little cream
puff filled with mousse and dipped in chocolate. Kind of like a Beard Papa
cream puff but Beard Papa’s is a bit better. It could be because I ate it the
following day but the pastry had become soggy due to the mousse filling. It
wasn’t bad but mousse/custard desserts aren’t my favorite. I think I was
expecting a filling more like fudge or a truffle than a mousse. My bad for not
reading the description more closely.
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| Tiramisu |
The tiramisu was a better choice. I’d made tiramisu from
scratch once when I was in culinary school. And by scratch, I mean we even made
the ladyfingers from scratch as I still remember piping out the soft batter for
the ladyfingers. I don’t eat tiramisu very often because of my preference for
non-custard desserts. I can’t say this was so amazing that I’ve developed a
love for custard-creamy desserts but it was pretty good. If you like tiramisu
at all, the one from la Panotiq is a good choice. The espresso and mascarpone combination
was just right, not too heavy handed with the espresso soaking the ladyfingers
but still enough to moisten the layer and have the espresso flavor shine
through. It was complemented perfectly by the mascarpone layers as well. The
counter people didn’t steer me wrong.
Given the wide array of desserts on offer at la Panotiq,
this won’t be my last visit. Clearly, I have many more things to try and
evaluate.
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