Paris - Supersized Croissants

Care for a super-sized croissant with your cafe au lait?

Before going to Paris I had seen videos of influencers going to a French cafe and ordering a massive croissant with their (relatively tiny) cup of cafe au lait.

They gingerly held the super-sized pastry so that one of the horns could be dunked into the milky coffee. 

These XXL-sized croissants are 35 euros each

Was this for real?

It was, because we stepped into Galeries Lafayette Gourmet (a whole building just dedicated to food), and one of the stalls for pastry chef Philippe Conticni had these giant croissants priced at 35 euros. A regular sized one is 3 euros.

The XXL-sized croissant was sitting nonchalantly on the counter, though there were signs telling people not to touch it. And yes it was massive.

Behind the glass showcase were regular-sized pastries next to "big pain au chocolat" which was almost 15 euros, while the "big croissant" was almost 13 euros. They both said "big" in English so there was no mistake.

These weren't as large as the super-sized ones, but still three times the size of a regular pastry.

"Big" croissants and pain au chocolat for sale too

During our short visit to this stall there were more curious onlookers than buyers...

Influencers Abound in Vancouver

What are your eyeballs looking at?

After three years of moving back to Vancouver, I'm finally getting more invitations to food tastings at restaurants. 

While it's a good exercise to get to know the chef, the restaurant and the dishes, eating with influencers is quite the experience.

Some lean into their physical assets

In Hong Kong this was already a trend that was happening before I left, but it seems to have gotten worse? Or crass across the Pacific.

The KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) here dress up in slinky dresses, the lower-cut the neckline the better. In some cases viewers can't help but look at the women's chests than the dishes...

Others don't have tiny figures but have big chests to compensate.

And then their knowledge of food in general is... poor.

This evening I sat with one influencer who couldn't discern flavours very well. She tried a creme brulee and thought it had a ginger taste. I confirmed the initial flavour was lime. 

She also had no idea what a pavlova was, but maybe I should cut her some slack since she has a degree in political science that she doesn't use in everyday life.

In general influencers post videos that make the dishes look good without any critical commentary because well, they think the food tastes great or don't want to jeopardise their opportunity for more invites.

Taking pics of a (good) tiramisu

And then when regular people dine in these restaurants, they may not get the same quality of food... 

Perhaps what's worse is that the entry bar to becoming an influencer is extremely low. And who doesn't want free food and treated like a VIP?