J'adore Pâtisseries Françaises

St. Honoré Bakery is a French bakery with 3 locations here in the Portland area. I have been there a handful of times with friends for delightful treats like Chouquettes or Pain au Chocolat as well as for lunch where I've had a variety of panini and salads. 

I was delighted to learn that they are beginning to offer some baking courses starting with a class on tarte aux pommes. When I was in France over 10 years ago, one of my favorite things (beyond the bread) to eat was apple tarts. Every morning I would go to the bakery around the corner and get an apple tart. So I was excited at the opportunity to learn their secrets. Also, I thought we'd be learning to make the puff pastry, which I've made before but was hoping to learn an easier way to make it (it's a pain in the ass, but oh sooooo delicious). 

To my chagrin, we used frozen puff pastry (though I'm kind of glad to know that I can actually buy it), and then we just assembled the tarts. I would say that the class was less of a baking class and more of a tasting class..

We tasted...

Jardinière - a  tart with smoked yukon potatoes, caramelized onions, and crème fraîche. This was by far my favorite thing. 

Lardon et Oignon - a tart with bacon lardon, onions, emmental cheese, and crème fraîche.

Spaetzle - tiny dumplings in a cream sauce with emmental cheese, onions, bacon, and mushrooms

Grille aux pommes - puff pastry with a non-sugar applesauce

I left with a tart aux pommes of my own and a full belly.

But most of all, I left with the desire and motivation to learn more about French baking.

We also did an apple tasting which was very enlightening. Apples often taste VERY different raw vs. cooked. 

That red on on the left is called the Pink Pearl and it is divine! 

So anyways,

The owner of the bakery is Dominique Geulin who was born and raised right above a bakery in Normandy, France. He was awarded the prestigious Meilleur Ouvrier de France, which is a craftsman competition held every 4 years in France. All of this aside, he was very friendly and extremely nice! I told him that I'm considering a baking tour to Normandy and he gave me his contact information so we could chat about it before hand. 

So now I'm even more motivated to take this baking tour in France!  

And to finish...my tarte aux pommes...

Considering Options

Lest you think I'm only considering traveling to SE Turkey, here are some of the other places/activities I'm considering:

Places I would go alone:

• Prague, Vienna, Budapest - This would likely be a late November/early December trip so I can be there during the Christmas bazaars and festivals. 
• Croatia - Spoken extremely highly of by some friends who have been. I'm particularly interested in the beautiful scenery and water activities.
• Jordan - Petra!  Though I might look into a tour for this location, not sure yet...
• Armenia - Another set of friends went to Armenia and absolutely loved it. I haven't done too much research yet, but seems like another great place for ancient history.

Places I would go only on group tours

• Morocco - Camping in the Sahara!
• SE Turkey - Ancient history!

Group tour activities I am considering:

• My Aunt Carol lovingly suggested a Cooking trip to Italy...which got me thinking about baking...which brought me to these options.
• Taste of Normandy cooking tour
• Paris Delights pastry tour
• French Pastries in Provence pastry tour
• Baking Bread in Italy

Forget Myer's Briggs

One of the most common personality assessments is the  Myers Brigg's Type Indicator, though many of you may also be familiar with others such as the Enneagram. Forget personality types, what about travel types?  

"The Best Trip Choices" website has a very short quiz to help you determine your travel type. It wasn't very thorough, but probably better than any buzzfeed quiz out there. 

My type is the "Venturer," and honestly I think it's quite accurate for me. Here's a small portion of the type description::

Leisure travel occupies a central place in your life. If you are a typical Venturer, you go to more places, more often and participate in more unique experiences than anyone else. That’s why I call you a Venturer — someone who ventures forth very eagerly and excitedly. You fit in a small group. Only about 4% of all travelers share your extreme love of going to out of the way places and constantly seeking out of the ordinary adventures.

You’d rather fly than drive on your vacations because driving takes too much of the time you could spend at the destination pursuing the things you like to do. And you typically want to explore areas almost without a plan — and without a tour guide to discover the unexpected sights, sounds and culinary delights that every new travel experience can bring. You definitely do not like to travel with a group or follow a rigid, pre-determined itinerary. If you ever joined an escorted tour, it probably was by accident. You will not willingly make that choice again. You want freedom, glorious freedom, to follow your interests of the moment. You are happiest when you feel unfettered and unrestricted by the dictates and commands of others.

Typically, you like to visit relatively unknown and uncommon destinations long before travel writers have discovered them and encouraged hordes of people to come. You will even put up with inadequate hotels and food if you can be there before commercial development — and the crowds of tourists — consume the place. You might have to bed down in a sleeping bag if an inn can’t be found. Above all, you want a sense of spontaneity in your trips, a feeling that something new and fresh will happen every day, and perhaps several times a day. That adds a sense of joie d’ vivre and a hearty carefree feeling of enjoying life at its fullest to your travel experiences.

Unique cultures especially attract you. The opportunity to meet people of different backgrounds, languages, and social standards holds a special allure. Even when you don’t speak the language, a frequent occurrence for someone with your venturesome spirit, you’ll get around just fine. Sign language, a handful of words you’ve picked up, a lot of pointing (to pictures of where you want to go or of food you want to order), and even some laughing moments will help you get comfortably through just about every situation you encounter.

Here are the top International Destinations for my type, according to the website:

Something to think about. Croatia has been on my list for a while now...

The Newest Conundrum

Much to the chagrin of some of my closest family and friends, I have never been one to do anything simple. For college, I flew across the country to attend a school that I'd never even visited. I studied in Northern Ireland for a year, leaving a week after the 9/11 attacks. 

I also enjoy doing things that aren't the common activities. Yes, Israel is interesting, but Morocco is interesting AND exotic. Who wants to go hiking in the Grand Canyon when you can go hiking in Cappadocia, Turkey?  (Ok, some people would rather do those things, and that's wonderful. But I'm not normal...)

Add to all of this my personal fascination with ancient religion and traditions, and well, there are limited places that I have interest in. 

After my previous trip to Western Turkey, including just Istanbul and Cappadocia, I've felt myself wondering what's next for me. Morocco is on the top of my list, but I was extremely tired of the harassment I received from the men in Istanbul, and I've heard it's much worse in Morocco. I've also been considering Budapest, Vienna, and Prague, but I feel like there's plenty of time left in my life to go there.

The Middle East is a mess. I know it is. And people keep telling me to wait until it settles down. But here's what I think. It's not going to settle down. Not in my life time while I have the money and freedom to go (aka no family, kids, etc). And also there's the high probability that a lot of the sites I want to visit won't even exist in a few years. Militants and wars have destroyed Millennial-old archaeological sites in Iraq. 

I'd been considering Iran for a while. I know that more and more people are going from the West, especially from Great Britain. I've been particularly interested in Persia since College, and to actually go there would be a dream. However, I've recently come to learn about something even older than anything found anywhere else in the World. The site is called Gobekli Tepe and it is in Eastern Turkey. I'll talk more about the site in later posts, but add it to all of the Hittite sites and other historical sites, my stomach is all a-flutter about it. AND, there are a couple of tour companies that do trips specifically for people like me.

Obviously there is much research to do, but I'm afraid my family and friends may just have to have some patience with me. I'm fully aware of what's happening with ISIL in Syria and I am watching carefully and talking to friends and others in Turkey about the situation. I'm not buying a ticket yet, but I am looking into it.  

However, I'm also still eyeing Budapest/Vienna/Prague as a very excellent backup visit.  Or maybe I'll just save my money and time off and wait another year.  Maybe you can help me figure it out? But please don't assume I'm just going to go deposit myself in the center of a dangerous situation. Ok? Ok.