Let me tell you about the last pastry shop I visited. On my first day back to work, I promised myself that I would wake up an hour earlier and walk to the pastry shop to try almost everything they have, then walk back to the office.
It’s a tiny bakery/pastry shop located in a quiet neighborhood in Beirut. The pastry shop is called NEO Gourmet, attributing it to “Nelson, Edward, and Oliver,” Nada’s (the owner) sons. On the day of the explosion, Nada was in the shop with Freddie, her husband, when everything fell on their heads. She thought that Freddie was dead as the blood on the floor was enough for her to think the worst.
Five months later, NEO Gourmet reopened with the same warmth but less enthusiasm as the destruction and trauma remain, even if not visible. Nonetheless, the aroma of the fresh bread and choco-flakes are stronger than the smell of pain. Actually, it’s more of ‘pain’ au lait. (this is the worst pun ever, I’m so sorry)
Can you imagine more pastry shops like this in Lebanon? It’s not your normal cute coffee shops, because believe me, I know. It’s similar to the ones you see in Christmas movies and movies shot in small and unrealistic towns.
I feel intrigued about making this my new scavenger hunt for 2021, hunting down small and unknown pastry shops, to my thighs’ despair. I’m still thinking, still contemplating what’s more important to me, insanely lukewarm pastry shops or a nice light number on the scale.
I love these little pastries so much, and I plan on visiting one coffee shop and one pastry shop in every country I travel to in the future, especially the European ones. There is a certain culture in these brown little shops with their bitter coffee and cheap croissants; there is certain heaven in foreign creme patisserie and glorious frames decorating the walls.
For today, I will settle for having NEO Gourmet as my new to-go spot, the one I seek for safety. For tomorrow, let it be a little coffee shop in Europe, Eastern Europe, where time stopped a few decades ago in the poverty of communism and little match girls.
I’m feeling quite warm, do you?
If you know any pastry shop similar to the one I described (and is in the cover photo), do tell me about it, maybe we can go together? I’m not sure I have a comment section here, but you can always reach out to me anywhere; I’m easy to reach and 65% responsive.