Mon Dieu! 600nts for bread?! Oh, well, it’s flown in from France…
[quote]The century-old French bakery chain Paul opened its Taiwan flagship store at a spot on Renai Circle in Taipei on Saturday, despite the bad weather brought by Typhoon Sinlaku.
“Despite the typhoon last weekend, our flamand were completely sold out before 10am,” Daphne Lai (賴郁芬), chairperson of Bon Paul Co (邦保羅), who is in charge of the store’s operations, said by telephone yesterday.
One of the bakery’s exclusive items — and its most expensive at NT$600 each — are the double cheese flamand, which weigh 400g and are only made on Saturday and Sunday, six per day.
Company officials say 95 percent of their ingredients are imported directly from France.
Only fresh vegetables are provided by Taiwanese suppliers, they said.
[color=#0000FF]Paul will offer up to 104 types of bread, with prices ranging between NT$48 and NT$600. The breads are pre-baked in France and frozen immediately for shipment to Taiwan, where they are defrosted and baked at the store. [/color]
From your statement, I foresee nothing but success for these guys. You uttered the 3 magic words of Taiwanese marketing: “fad”, “queu”, and _______. (fill in the blank)
I have to admit though, that even in Paris, which isn’t lacking in very good bread, this stuff was exceptional. If they’re selling brioche here you should snap it up.
Mmm… I asked my French colleagues and they have never heard of the flamand -though they theorized it would be more like a cake.
Coincidentally, they had a few samples of the above mentioned bakery goods. And a small booklet with the history of the bakery in Chinese. Boy, the decoration looks really stylish. Nice.
One of them especially reccommended the sandwiches -and being a tough critic, I take it is really good.
And no fucking address, I note, despite the fact that they’re targeting rich folks who presumably drive and for whom therefore the precise address would be fairly important. Exactly which part of Renai traffic circle are we talking about, you Taipei Times twats? Or are we just supposed to walk around aimlessly until we find we find it, no thanks to the stalwart TT reporters? Get a grip, you morons!
Oh for Christ’s sake! OK, OK, so yes, I admit it! I ADMIT it! I’m about to put some trousers on and go up there right now. That bread looks GOOD! Wish me luck. I’m leaving my credit card at home.
You’d better get there at opening time on the weekend if you want one of those poofy, overpriced double cheese flamand things. Do let us know what they are, so we can try making them at home instead!
No, no. I’m just going to stand around and look snooty, sneering at the plebs and telling no-one in particular that they’re complete suckers. Or I might get a baguette. You can tell a lot about an oven from its baguettes.
A block to the west is Florida Bakery, which has very nice loaves of walnut bread for NT$58.
No, I wouldn’t say, “Ce pain comporte de délicieux morceaux d’emmental et de mimolette enveloppés dans une mie dense et une croûte craquante.”, but it’s NT$542 less than NT$600 per loaf, and it makes very nice peanut butter toast.
So, Sandman, how much would you be willing to pay for a GREAT loaf of bread; and how far would you be willing to walk (to pay this exhorbitant amount) after putting on your trousers?
No. 107, Sec. 4, Ren’ai Rd., Taipei[/quote]
The Web site says section 1, not section 4, which would put it by the other Ren’ai traffic circle: the one near Tai-Da Hospital and the old KMT headquarters.
