I decided to talk a walk around my neighborhood today to enjoy the snow. On the way back to my apartment, I decided to stop by at a place called Café Bonjour (hence the title of today's post) which I had seen before in previous explorations of Hyde Park but had never tried. Although it was closed for indoor dining, I found the inside to be quite charming and reminiscent of the patisseries in Paris. There was a modest selection of pastries, including the classic croissants and éclairs, though what caught my eye was the "morning bun." It appeeared rather like a kouign-amann (pronounced kween-amahn) with its sugar-coated crust. The article I linked discusses at length how the Dominique Ansel bakery in New York (famous primarily for their Cronut™) popularized this rather unknown pastry early in the 2010s (as a sidetnote, it's crazy to think that we are already a decade removed!). Rather fascinatingly, the word kouign-amann comes from the Breton language which is part of the Celtic rather than the Romance family (hence the unexpected pronunciation). Getting back to the original point, I actually first tasted a kouign-amann at Dominique Ansel's bakery in SoHo. I was distinctly impressed by the juxtaposition between the buttery lamination (similar to that of a croissant) and the crisp exterior of caramelized sugar. The outside reminds me of the toasty sugar in a toffee or a hard caramel. If you get the opportunity, I highly recommend trying one for the unique experience.
After paying for the morning bun, I went outside to enjoy it. Despite the sub-optimal pastry-eating conditions, I was rather impressed. It had the same crunchy crust of sugar as I remember vividly from my previous experience, accompanied by a relatively dense, moist interior scented with cinnamon sugar and butter. To be fair, I have to note several confounding factors in my assessment--first, the fact that I hadn't had a pastry of this kind in a long time, so my judgment might be skewed; and, second, I was sitting outside in the January weather, which in addition to affecting my physical senses also caused the bun to cool very quickly (it was still vaguely warm when I bought it). Although today's pastry wasn't explicitly labeled as a kouign-amann, it distinctly resembled it both in appearance and taste. From the Eater article, I guess strictly speaking a true kouign-amann is notably made with salted butter (a specialty of Brittany, from where it originates), whereas the morning bun I had was certainly not. Overall, I was quite satisfied with my discovery today, and I'm looking forward to visiting the café again to try more of their pastries. Thanks again for reading!