[Breakfast: Granola from Rustic Canyon. Green Tea.]

Now this is serious food porn. How did I resist the pâtisseries in France? I didn't. I always resign myself to the fact that I'll gain a few pounds when I go to France—the food is that good. If I didn't walk miles ever day and skip a meal here and there, I would have gained 6 pounds or so. This time I was more interested in calories from pastries than from cheese and bread. You’ve got to prioritize.

I came to Angelina’s to try their famous hot chocolate. I’ve never been too interested in ordering hot chocolate because it’s never that good, though I do like the hot chocolate at The Little Next Door in LA. Also, I went though a period where I got ill whenever I ordered it because it was too rich for my system. Someone had told me that when they had spent a summer in Paris years ago that all they did was get hot chocolate everywhere. Now I understand why. The first night in Paris I had hot chocolate at Café Flore and really liked it. The hot chocolate at Angelina’s was even richer and came with a side of whipped cream—yes, it was decadent and it meant that I was too full to try any pastries. This is the most annoying thing to balance. I’m not sure if my four zits on my chin—yes, I really need a facial-- were from ODing on sugar or drinking coffee, which I’m sure is way more acidic than any American coffee.

The second time I went to Angelina’s was with DK on our last day. I had to have a last millefeuille (meel foy) and wanted to try their famous Mont Blanc pastry. I decided that we should share a ham and cheese omelet so we wouldn’t get too sick from all the sugar. DK usually hates omelets, but loved this one because it was perfectly cooked and the ingredients were mixed into the omelet instead of slopped in the middle like you often get here. The coolest thing was that when we ordered the millefeuille, we got to be the first customers to try their apricot one that debuted that day. I’m so glad they hadn’t put the vanilla ones in the display case yet. That orange thing on top I assumed was apricot, but was actually marzipan. The pastry crust of this millefeuille was perfectly baked and buttery, I was in bliss. The apricot nicely balanced the almond cream. OK, this is hard to write about knowing I can’t have another one until I go back to Paris. The Mont Blanc I was less enthralled with. It was a nice balance of textures: chestnut cream on top, cream in the middle and a meringue base, but was a bit too sickly sweet. I could not have eaten one on my own without getting ill.

I would highly recommend this tea room to any tourist. They treated everyone very nicely when I was there, even if people didn’t speak any French. I do recommend that if you’re going to France to learn some basic French. You will generally get treated much better if you don’t automatically start speaking to people in English. At least ask in French if the person speaks English to be polite. I did this in clothing stores since the little French I knew was more grocery store and restaurant oriented. Most people in clothing stores did speak pretty good English, but not all waiters do contrary to popular belief.

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