Photo courtesy of www.frenchmarketkc.com
While many of us have heard of the illustrious, costly Café Provence, and have maybe even gone with our grandmothers on a special occasion, French Market is less well known. In the Village shopping center right around the corner from Provence, French Market is an offshoot owned by the same family as Provence. While the food in the cases by the cash register is made by the chef at Provence, the market also harbors many other French items like cookbooks and cutlery and store-bought food.
I had been to French Market a few times before, mostly with my grandma or to earn credit for French Honor Society. So I knew that they had meat entrées big enough for around two people and some pretty on-point potato gratin, all of which I could take home and heat up for dinner the next couple nights. But I had never tried any of the baked goods sitting invitingly in the case, so I decided to go for it.
Per the suggestion of the woman working, I ended up purchasing a chocolate éclair, a Nutella croissant and a blueberry macaron (blue in honor of the Royals). All three items only cost me $9, which surprised me since Café Provence is so expensive. Since I have no free time and was only able to go to French Market during open lunch, I got back to school with roughly 10 minutes left to eat my three enormous baked goods, which I dove into immediately after sitting down.
First out of the bag was the chocolate éclair. And let me tell you, when they say chocolate, they’re not lying. There was barely any actual dough; I basically bit through a crust of chocolate frosting into chocolate cream. It was heavenly creamy goodness, but I had to stop about halfway through and share it with my friends, knowing I would never make it to the next dessert if I finished the éclair.
I was skeptical about the idea of a blueberry macaron, since most of the ones I’ve had in the past are more nutty. But the second I bit into this gem, I didn’t even notice it crumbling all over my shirt because I was too caught up in the taste. To my surprise, the blueberry melded into the nutty taste of the macaron crust flawlessly, and I was most of the way done with it before I remembered to share.
Finally, I pulled out the Nutella croissant, which was basically a freshly baked croissant cut in half and sandwiched around globs of Nutella. As a Nutella lover, I had expected this to be the pinnacle of all desserts. While it wasn’t quite that, it did not disappoint. I also got this one all to myself because my friends, heathens that they are, apparently don’t like Nutella.
Unfortunately, as I stood up to brush the flakes of macaron and croissant off my shirt, I started to regret consuming three rich, gigantic desserts in the span of 10 minutes. My stomach bothered me for the rest of the day, and it hadn’t settled even by my softball game that afternoon.
My final verdict on the dessert side of French Market? Definitely worth the $9 I spent on it. You won’t be sorry to eat such delicious, quality pastries. Just remember to space out your consumption over a time period longer than 10 minutes.