Two posts in one day? Huh?
Something today got me thinking about lazy parenting and / or laziness in general.
Last year we took our first family villa holiday. It was. of course, self catering. Now I don't think I was being lazy up until then for not choosing a self catering catering holiday with 5 of us to cater for - far from it. But the time had come when I had to face up to this personal nightmare in case it turned out that this type of holiday turned out to be everyone else's idea of holiday heaven - turned out it wasn't, woo hoo!!
We learned lots of things on that holiday.
One thing my kids learned after we got back is that 'Portuguese croissants are nicer than French croissants.'
I believe I do need to explain how they came to that conclusion.
The first time I went to the local supermarket I came across a very large bag of croissant shaped brioche rolls. They got chosen based purely on quantity. 5 people can get through lots of small croissant shaped rolls. They were served up warm for breakfast the next morning and adored by all. The inevitable question was asked - 'What are these Mummy?' I'm still not sure how or why the word croissant came out of my mouth. But the lazy lie had been told.
Those brioche rolls remained croissants for the rest of the holiday. For some reason I just never could be bothered to straighten everything out.
Fast forward a couple of months ....
We are in a cafe having a snack and I ordered a Croissant to go with my hot chocolate. The food arrives. By this point I had completely forgotten the brioche / croissant mash up in Portugal.
The ritual sharing of food took place, no one gets to eat their own food in our family! So the questions followed.
'What have you got Mummy?'
'It's a croissant'
'Its bigger than the croissants we had in Portugal'
'Yes, I know, but this is a proper French croissant.'
I'm thinking I've got away with it now :)
But then it all fell apart when the youngest offered the opinion that 'Portuguese croissants are much nicer than French Croissants!'
My one lazy word in Portugal so many months earlier now meant giving a long drawn out explanation in front of witnesses about the merits of French croissants and that although croissants could be made in Portugal they would be unlikely to be as good as ones made in France and anyway you ate Brioche rolls in Portugal which are in face another French pastry. Confused yet?
Hi Cathie,
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure exactly what the brioche rolls you had in Portugal were without being able to see them but...the Portuguese have their own version of croissants which are very different from the French or American versions. The French croissant is buttery, bready and delicious but very different from the widely available American version that is very oily and can be flattened to the width of a pancake with ease. The French version has quite a bit more substance and crisp crust makes for a delicious treat when it is dipped in Nutella for a filling breakfast in Paris. The Portuguese croissant is another "beast" altogether. While it shares similar shaping to French and American versions it is made of a sweeter, eggy, milky dough and brushed with a lightly sweet egg glaze. It really tastes and looks a bit like a brioche dough, croissant-shaped roll. The Portuguese croissant is available in almost all cafes and while it is absolutely delicious on its own, there is no equal to the taste of a toasted croissant with cheese (or ham and cheese) inside. It is absolutely the most delicious sandwich anyone could ever have for lunch...
I apologize a wee bit for my tirade on the differences among national croissants :) I am Portuguese myself so I may be a wee bit biased but the French and Portuguese croissants (while very different from each other)are utterly delicious in their own ways and far superior (in my person opinion) to the commonly available American croissants. They are both an experience not to be missed in life. :) Good luck with everything and don't be too hard on yourself...there really is a Portuguese croissant, its very different from the French, and it is very brioche-like. :)
No apology necessary. Live and Learn :)
ReplyDeleteI suspect after reading this we have indeed feasted on Portuguese croissants! They were very pleasant, especially warm with lashings of butter :)