Paul: New, expensive French bakery

Cuisine Greater Taipei Restaurants
21

So, let me repeat … (I got interrupted) Bake-off … but hey it’s French … so, it’s better than Taiwanese bake-off …

Anyways, from my baked goods research in Europe I learned that more and more bakers turn to bake-off for part of their products because labour in Europe is expensive and less youngsters are willing to go into the bakers trade because it’s night work, and weekends and holidays …
So, bakers have to turn to previous less followed paths … that is, buying industrial bake-off, turning larger batches of dough and freeze part, or pre-baking larger batches and freezing part … using other proofing methods, retarding by holding the ferment and proofing, cooling down and holding it for about 8 hours or more before continuing proofing …
Although, as I found out some bakeries complain about the lower profit margin they can take on purchased bake-off and quality differs from company to company …

Most pastries like mouses are mostly made in large batches and frozen, taken out when needed and finished to be sold …
Biscuit (sponge cake), tart and pie shells … Danish, Viennese … you name it … even butter cream pastries are often frozen …

Bake-off is not bad persé, but it’s not fresh … and the product you’ll buy here in Taiwan from Paul will have been frozen about 8 weeks (2 months) before it’s re-baked and sold … in Europe it would be 2-3 weeks, and it’s expensive for what it is probably, part because import taxes on pre-baked goods are a little high …

And another point is that probably most companies add additives to the bread to stabilize the pre-baked breads.to keep volume …

I guess I’ll be one of few that will bake bread from scratch on this island, even sourdough …

I’m not against bake-off as long as it’s good quality, hell, there are hundreds of bake-off joints in Europe that have pretty good quality goods … but,the price is different … and I think it’s a shame they (Bon Paul) don’t make it in Taiwan and ship it around Asia, less time spent in frozen mode …

Just my take on it … maybe I should turn to bake-off … there are many bake-off manufacturers in Europe, not only Bon Paul …

22

[quote=“zender”]Sandman’s gonna have a long walk . . . or a long wait.

[/quote]

Well, another fad just started … getting expensive bake-off bread/baked goods/pastries … :eh:

23

Couldn’t find any mention on their french site in english of that weird flemmish cheese bread, maybe Taipei Times made it up :smiley:
paul.fr/uk/produits-pains.php#
They seem to have some nice stuff though, bake off or not.
But I’ll bet hard cash that they’ll start to “tweak” the bread to the taste of the locals soon enough, add some pork fat here, some read beans there and some dried shredded nastiness in another loaf…
I’d be happy with some of the country bread, it looks tasty enough and the polka bread doesn’t look half bad either…
Hey Belgian Pie, I bake my own bread, but as I only have a crappy little “toaster” oven I have to rely on my bread machine and it just ain’t the same. Besides, some flour is next to impossible to get here, as is a few other ingredients, but ho hum…

24

Just saw this:

There eight varieties of Benoîtons:

  • whole wheat bread with apricots, dates, figs and raisins
  • whole wheat bread with raisins,hazelnuts and cinnamon
  • six-grain bread with figs
  • pan-baked bread with raisins
  • country-style bread with apricots
  • bread with oil and with green and black olives
  • Paul-style bread with cheese
  • Paul-style bread with ham

Seems like that’s the NT$48 “bread sticks” and I’m sure the ham one will be popular with the locals…

25

By bake-off, do you just mean pre-made, frozen dough? Where I come from, a bake-off is a baking contest.

26

That’s it and that’s what it’s called, they even do it in petrol stations where I come from, but that’s hardly the good stuff :frowning:

27

I sallied forth, my loins girded abut with the requisite trousers, and drove straight there with nary a bent. Window was piled with delicious looking bread, including big salt-crusted bretzels. Yay! bretzels! Not for sale, “just for decoration.”
“No,” the bloke said when I asked if his boss was a complete and utter fuckwit (but I’m pretty sure he didn’t actually know what a fuckwit is, so the answer was moot.
For sale, at the prime shopping period of around 5:30pm, with no more baking going on that day, were a few cheesecake things, a couple of glazed pastries, a few VERY expensive and uninteresting-looking sarnies, and a half-dozen flautettes.
I bought one of the flautettes for NT$75 and its very very good, I have to say. Is it worth double the cost of the same thing at Carrefour? Absolutely not, but then, its purely designed to snare the dumbkopfs in the shopping area.
The place is a complete and utter joke. Destined for greatness!

Just kidding! It’ll be closed down in two or three months, tops.
Arsehole central. How do you say that in Froggyspeak?

28

By bake-off, do you just mean pre-made, frozen dough? Where I come from, a bake-off is a baking contest.[/quote]

Bake-off is what they use to name the pre-baked, frozen dough industry … and the store, a bake-off bakery, there is also the ‘warm bakery’ and a ‘cold bakery’ … and many restaurants, hotels use bake-off products … most bakeries in Taiwan do bake-off I think … but bad quality …

29

They have “bake-offs” so they can . . .

a) control quality?
b) keep the recipe secret?
c) make it so that ANYONE can “run” a bakery?
d) all of the above

30

[quote=“zender”]They have “bake-offs” so they can . . .

a) control quality?
b) keep the recipe secret?
c) make it so that ANYONE can “run” a bakery?
d) all of the above[/quote]

a) no, you can only control quality as long as it’s within your reach, there are some variables that you can’t control
b) yes, but if you’re a baker you can make a similar good bread …
c) no … not every moron can do this … but close

31

No. It’s crap. A few sweet cakes, a few baguettes. Vastly overpriced. That’s it. Absolutely not worth going out of your way for, unless you’re a totally gullible Taiwanese know-nothing. The place was packed.

32

After finishing the flautette last night and really tasting it properly, I must say its really very good bread indeed. Expensive (a flautette is like a shorter, thinner baguette) at NT$75, but I think its still worth the money, believe it or not.
I will go back for more if I have good cheese or something, but I won’t make a habit of it.

By the way, the (English-speaking) server seemed genuinely surprised at my response when she said to my complaint at the lack of stock and the very poor choice available: “Maybe you’ll be lucky next time!”

“Er, no, dear. Your shop has screwed up totally. You’re unable to provide more than one kind of loaf. That simply means I WON’T be back, so you’ve just lost a customer – one who eats a LOT of bread, too.”

She seemed unable to grasp that someone would not be prepared to queue on the off-chance that they MIGHT get something to eat. Taiwanese business is weird. :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

33

The opening was splashed all over the Apple Daily and other Chinese-language media. It’s not too surprising they would be sold out although one would think they would risk being overstocked for the first few days just in case. They supposedly spent NT$30 million on the shop decor. Enjoy your bread!

34

They’ve got like 10 thousand of these in Shanghai. Coffee is shite but just try the crustade

35

I just came back from there. It is, as Sandman suggests, a complete waste of time. They didn’t sell any bread. Of course, that doesn’t translate into Chinese, as the young girl behind the counter beamed, "These are all “bread!” (referring to the sandwiches, tartes, and other finger foods they have on the counter) When I asked about the dozens of loaves of bread in the window, she laughed at me. “Oh no, that’s just for display. You moron.” Well she didn’t say that last part, but her tone imparted the same. I’m angry now.

36

There is obviously no market for good bread in Taiwan … just for crap, fatty, sweet strange combined ‘pastries’ and baked goods … investing 30 million NT$ in a business selling bread is a great risk …

37

At that much, they’re not selling bread, they’re selling image. Some will go just to be seen there, some will buy it just for the paper bag with the store name on it. Could be selling anything, really.

38

Same story at the new bakery in 101, Lalos, I think it’s called. Lovely shaped and slashed loaves, epi etc., all on the top shelf to attract you, but no, they don’t sell them. I can make them so it bothers me not, but I think they would sell well, if reasonably priced.

[quote]Just kidding! It’ll be closed down in two or three months, tops.
Arsehole central. How do you say that in Froggyspeak?[/quote]

Well, they’ve not only survived, but have opened another branch, at the Mitsukoshi near the former Warner’s Village Cinema. Taking the sky bridge from 101, walk past Warner to Mitsukoshi, and it’s by the entrance from the sky bridge (2F), acc. to Dragonbabe. She called me to share a laugh at their prices, $230 for a little 6" multi-grain mini-baguette (SERIOUSLY? $230 for a $40NT product?), $260 for a BITE-SIZED mini quiche (10 cm, salmon and spinach), and $1500 for an apple pie (only 8").

I think I’ll go home and make some myself, no thanks.

39

I always wonder how the small Paul bakery on Renai Circle survives with only about 40 seats in an expensive high-rent district. And there’s no toilet inside the store. You have to go out the front door and go inside the office building to the shared toilets on the first floor.

It’s noisy as hell with so many people in the small space especially when every single Taiwanese person talks like every single other person in the place needs to hear them. I put my headphones on it’s still noisy as hell over the music in my ears.

Good coffee. The omelets are smallish but I was happy when the bacon came out crispy like I requested. Food is okay but can find equal or better at better prices. Not cheap.

40

They seem to like small, they have a small setup in the Takashimaya as well.