Today we decided to have breakfast outside because it was sunny and reasonably warm for autumn weather. Armelle wanted to sit at a sidewalk café but La Rive Gauche stopped serving breakfast at 11, so we opted for grabbing something from a local bakery and sitting on a park bench. I ordered a chocolate eclair as I wanted something special, not just another croissant.
As I sat there and stared down at my eclair, I thought about eclairs in my life. How my mom would buy packs of them at the supermarket, probably the Entemmann's brand. I then thought of how those eclairs were fabricated at a factory; thousands baked, rolled, filled, rushing down assembly lines into a neat, white package for mass consumption. How many millions are produced in a year? In a month? In a week? And here I have an imperfect, fresh eclair made at this local bakery, the taste delectable.
As I thought about eclairs my thoughts drifted to cronuts. About that American pâtissier that crossed a croissant with a donut. That small invention at that tiny bakery in SoHo became the breakfast toast of the town and as the bakery would produce a limited amount each day, something curious happened. Long lines developed outside the store before the bakery would open. High-powered execs; people with cash to burn, would pay people to stand in line, order their cronuts and have them delivered to their respective homes in TriBeCa or Chelsea or any of the other wealthy enclaves strewn about the city. All for the latest trend in pastries. All this led me to think that sometimes the market really does dictate the opportunities. In this case, a friggin' cronut caused people to stand in line in lieu of others so they could cash in on the laziness and exorbitant wages they earn in order to make a living on that. Can you imagine? Some people were paying 35 bucks a cronut (and I imagine more if they were hand-delivered to your home).
The sun, warm, bright, kissed our skin and brought me back as we finished our breakfast and made plans to go to the doctor. That eclair was really delicious... and it only cost me €1.80.
