Bakery: Korcarz Address: 29 rue de Rosiers, Paris
Website: http://www.korcarz.com/
Style: Jewish, Eastern European
Price: $$$
I'm a little ashamed (okay, very ashamed) that I have yet to finish posting all my Parisian cake tour destinations, so I thought that before I continue with the Norway trip, I should go back and review the stuff from France first and get it out of the way. ^^
Nestled in the heart of the Jewish district of the Marais, Korcarz was a purely accidental visit. Having read great things about Sacha Finkelsztajn, a patisserie two or three doors down, I decided to make the trip on a religious holiday, thinking that some stores in the Jewish area would be open for business. It was a miserable day, with pouring rain having started at around 5am and which would continue for another 48 hours. Amidst unending rain and trying to get past the still massive line at L'as du Falafel, Finkelsztajn would turn out to be, like many patisseries on my list, closed for vacation for the month of August. Just as I had done in front of Pierre Hermé and Lenotre, I stood in shock for a few moments (maybe shed a few tears too ;D), vowed to remind everyone never to go bakery-hunting (and second-hand designer goods stores, for that matter) in Paris in August. The whole city will be shut down. Devastated (because I do love Jewish baking), I kept walking and found Korcarz open. Of course, it's usually a sign that it's not
so good, but I ran in nonetheless at the mere sight of... poppy seed buns!!! *-* ... And came back considerably poorer (and a bit angrier considering the worker was faaaaaar from polite) and having used a huge chunk of my food budget for that day. Korcarz is expensive and even more so if you decide sit down and eat your goodies there; in fact, I think there might be more affordable options available at the really high end patisseries, which sounds a little strange, considering this is more of a deli with breads, pastries, Eastern European products and, for whatever reason, sushi. O.oNonetheless, those monstrous poppy seed buns (3 euro at the time of purchase, definitely more expensive now) drew me in. I couldn't help it, they looked amazing! And they ended up being huge; you can't eat these beauties in one sitting, that's for sure. With its fairly dense dough and bursting with poppy seed mass, I really did love these things, although I found the sesame seeds baked on top detracted from the flavour, but that just might be because I don't like sesame seeds. Still, I definitely wasn't planning on eating poppy seed buns in Paris, so this was an amazing, amazing find. ;)
In addition to this, I also purchased a small piece (individual portion) of cheesecake, because this was the thing to try chez Finkelsztajn. At 25 euro/kg or something ridiculous like that, I ended up paying 8 euro for a single piece. It was crazy and I felt thoroughly ripped off, even if it was really good and perfectly cheesy. However, I can name a few places here in Toronto where I can also buy equally delicious Jewish-style cheesecake (What a Bagel Richmond Hill is my first thought ;D) at much, much cheaper and cheese in general can be bought cheaper in France, so I don't know where the price came from and personally find it too expensive, considering you can buy nearly three poppy seed buns for that and man, you won't go hungry for a whole week. LOL!!!
So, yeah, totally yummy, but I'd say stick to anything and everything not being sold by weight and you'll have a better and tastier time at it. :P
Rating: ***
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