I know there are savory foods that work well with coffee. Yet in my mind and tastebuds, coffee is forever associated with sweet pastries.
There’s a high I get from the smells of caramelization, butter and coffee when I walk into a bakery café. I may not have the subtlest sense of taste, but smell fills in the gaps. And of course it is a vital part of taste. Smell, as Proust knew, also has immediate effects on emotions, cognition and memory. I may not think of my grandmother when I eat a madeleine (that would have to be a piece of apple strudel) but Proust and I are otherwise in sync. I’m also keenly nosed about coffee, so when pastry and coffee are good and conjoin their aromas, I have a peak experience.
Humor was another sense tapped this week. There’s something in the air besides those baking pheromones when puns and verbal disjunctions that lead to smiles and occasionally belly laughs accompany a menu reading. You’ll see.
Michette
When I saw a câlin on the menu board under coffee drinks, I had to ask Thomas Ferté, the owner of Michette, what it meant; my years of French didn’t give me the answer, nor did my look-up in the Larousse, which simply said “hug.” The answer? It is a hug, and Ferté said it’s a little joke among the staff. Maybe in winter they will come up with a drink that has the effect of a warm câlin.
Ferté is from Meaux, the part of France where brie originated. He was a lawyer involved in banking in New York, but lost interest and got more involved with baking. He acquired the technical skills for bread making at school in Aurillac, “a beautiful town at the foot of the Cantal mountains in south-central France.” There he learned that breadmaking is a science, and that one needs schooling rather than a traditional apprenticeship. Work of the bakery kind, he says, is underestimated. It’s very hard, and Ferté’s small crew works in a small space that is in constant production.
Michette is known for its high-quality croissants and long lines in the morning. We visited in the afternoon and had a leisurely chat and tasty coffee and treats. (For the record, we gratefully accepted some free end-of-the-day pastries to take away.) The breads are the goal for many, and “michette” means a small miche or round crusty boule.
There are some unusual menu items. One, a guava roll, seems to nod to the neighborhood, full of Brazilian and Hispanic food shops. A sweet corn madeleine also bends tradition: Proust’s grandmother would not approve, but warmed and buttered lightly the next day, it was delicious. The black sesame and orange cookie has a satisfying crunch, and the pain au chocolat is made with high-quality chocolate. An orange brioche roll sprinkled with pearl sugar had an eggy-buttery consistency and was small enough to finish in three bites. Canelé and Basque cheesecake were excellent too, hewing to the classic models of each: The canelé, a cork-shaped rum-vanilla cylinder, darkly caramelized on the outside and custardy within; the cheesecake with a similarly caramelized top and creamy smooth interior. Focaccia “pizza” was loaded; roasted tomatoes, onions and herbs on one were delicious but not quite a coffee companion for me.
Along with T-shirts and socks embroidered with croissants, bags of housemade granola and, interestingly, bottles of maple syrup from New Hampshire are for sale. A loyal customer makes the syrup, leading Ferté to gain respect for the difficulties of production.
Ferté uses flour from Canada, butter from France and other dairy from Highland Farms in Cornish, Maine. Coffee? Here it deserves more than a mention: The drip coffee, from Broadsheet, was balanced and perfect with my brioche. But what about one of the specials of the day – a peanut-butter-sea-salt latte? Is this another petite blague?
Michette will soon have another location in Cambridge. If you come to eat in, try for a day when you can use one of the two outdoor benches or the “stand bar” counters inside. I always prefer staying; you get the ambience of production, including those wonderful aromas.
Hearth & Hug
This week’s visits were to bakery-cafés, but the coffee must be good – and it is at Hearth and Hug. It’s from Tiny Arms, a roastery in Shirley. The drip coffee was fine, tasted before pastry because a great pastry can elevate a mediocre coffee and I didn’t want to impair my judgment.
I came thinking that if câlin means hug as it does at Michette, perhaps there’s an “embrace” joke here too, but “Hug” is simply the surname of baker-owner Natalie Hug, who from childhood knew that what she wanted to do was chocolate. Unlike many who have that dream and don’t achieve it, Hug did so with hard work and a fine talent.
Hug’s is a community-oriented bakery, with locals who tell me they come regularly to see what new items appear. More than in pastry itself, community consciousness is in the box of free whistles welcomed on the counter and instructions for their use in alerting neighbors to the presence of ICE operatives on an immigrant sweep.
But back to the food. I’d heard that the early morning queues for pastries were prodigious. Waiting for a quieter time, as I did for Michette, I was rewarded with a chat with a staff member and plenty of available seating. And more than sufficient supplies of baked goods.
There are some wonderful-sounding breakfasts, including a Santa Fe huevos rancheros with New Mexican Hatch chilis, for which I will return. What really intrigues me is the somewhat deconstructed deviled egg dish, in which the filling is offered on toast with crisp shallots and greens. There’s deconstructive wit also in a pastry called a Danish elote where the savory Mexican street corn ingredients are strewn on a “danish.” I’m a sucker for a pun or a clever substitution, and this includes the “Haldi Doodh” snickerdoodle cookie. Doodh haldi is turmeric-cinnamon milk. (Haldi is also a turmeric paste used in Hindu weddings to decorate bride and groom, but that is another story.) Young people might need an explanation of the inverted “Haldi Doodh.” Offer your grandparents this cookie and ask them what time it is.
I’ll also go back for the pomegranate molasses cookie, loving as I do the old-fashioned ginger molasses version. The Golfeado, a cinnamon-bun-shaped confection, indeed had cinnamon but also cheese. This Venezuelan pastry mixed dulce y salado (sweet and salty) with a hint of anise. I looked for the joke, but in this case, the treat is perhaps an homage to a Venezuelan grandmother.
By coincidence, this week’s visits were delicious and cheerful. Coffee with a side of humor, buns frosted with puns and jokes. Everyone needs a good laugh these days.
Michette, 164 Broadway, East Somerville (7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday to Friday; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday)
Hearth & Hug, 349 Highland Ave., Spring Hill, Somerville (7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday to Friday; 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday; 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday)
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