Flashback Friday: LES DELICES

Can it already be August?  Here's a flashback Friday post from our Christmas holiday in Punta del Este.

Breakfasts usually involve coffee and the medialunas con dulce de leche (the local version of croissants, slightly sweet and served with a caramel spread) and Les Delices in the town center of Punta del Este (or Punta, as everyone calls it), has been the go to spot for years especially for Argentines on holiday looking for their medialuna fix.

We did the same and had breakfast there bright and early before heading to the beach.  We did the works - fresh orange juice, coffee, toast, scrambled eggs and a bunch of medialunas.  While we ever there, there was a steady stream of patrons buying their breakfast pastries and a few locals quietly enjoying their coffee.

Aside from their large selection of pastries and cakes, they also serve a full lunch and dinner menu and do a good business in takeaway boxes of assorted mini pastries and cookies for afternoon tea.

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Les Delices

29 Las Gaviotas, 20100 Punta del Este, Uruguay
Phone: +598 4244 3640

LADUREE

First spring morning in Paris and we were jet lagged and up at 6:30 a.m. so after walking around the quartier, we managed to find a neighborhood boulangerie on the rue de cherche-midi and grabbed a buttery croissant in a paper bag and ate that on the street while we waited for the nearby café to set up their table and chairs and open for the day. At 7:30, the bar was open for coffees so we found a spot on the ancient zinc-topped bar and had our first, much-needed café crème. After that, we walked up the road towards Saint-Germain-des-Pres so we could work up an appetite and have our second breakfast (when in Paris, two breakfasts on the first day are in order) at our favorite spot on the tiny rue Jacob - Ladurée.

No trip to Paris would be complete without stopping by Ladurée for some sinful patisserie and a coffee or tea or having a light lunch in the very elegant back room. We settled into a corner and ordered another petit dejeuner. This time served on pastel-edged china with silver cutlery and thick linen napkins. I had the basket of breakfast breads which came with croissant, pain au chocolat and country bread rolls with tubes of very cold unsalted butter and a selection of jams and preserves. My mom had scrambled eggs which were soft and fluffy and were served with back bacon and country bread rolls. I skipped the coffee and had a hot chocolate instead which came in a silver jug filled to the brim with hot dark chocolate enough for two servings.  After that lovely morning spent lingering over breakfast, we set off on a long walk in the lively sixth arrondissement for some window-shopping.  A perfect start to our Paris week.

ERAWAN TEA ROOM

A  hidden-away tea room in the small Erawan shopping mall, the Erawan Tea Room is an oasis of calm with its' colonial-style interiors and shelves filled with a display of ceramics, teas and other goodies for sale.   Dark tables are set with green plates shaped like lily pad leaves similar to the traditional Portuguese Faience lettuce plates.  Music, oddly is sixties pop which might have been intentional in keeping with the "old-style" theme but was a bit strange considering the chic surroundings.

The menu is exclusively Thai with several specials (seafood was highlighted that month) and has several pages of traditional Thai dishes offered in both small and large portions.  On my first meal there, M and I had dinner -  yellow chicken curry for her and the stir-fried greens with crispy pork for me.   A few days later, A and I stopped by for a late lunch and tried some new dishes and drinks.  Fresh pink lemonade for A and the Pandan-flavored iced tea for me followed by several dishes to share: laarb (chopped pork sauteed in basil, chili and lime), stir-fried greens, Pad Thai prawn noodles which came wrapped in an omelet and steamed rice.  The Erawan Tea Room is a perfect lunch or afternoon tea stop after a day of shopping and an ideal place for either a girl's lunch or even a solo meal.  

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Erawan Tea Room

(managed by the Grand Hyatt)

2nd floor, Erawan Mall

494 Ploenchit Road

Bangkok

Telephone: +662 250 7777

Open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. straight for morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner.