Good Tuesday morning.
I do not recall the first time I ate a croissant – the iconic buttery, crescent-shaped pastry most closely associated with France.
I DO, however, remember quite clearly the first time I ate an honest-to-goodness, authentic FRENCH croissant – in France, of course. It was a revelation, and it pretty much ruined me for anything other than the real thing for the rest of my natural born life.
To be fair, I have had French-level croissants here in the U.S. But sadly, too often when one orders a croissant on this side of the Atlantic, one ends up with a woeful excuse for a croissant.
Something that is more akin to a roll than a croissant. Something that is not at all flaky or buttery with discernible layers that you can pull apart and slather with jam (preferably Bonne Maman apricot or strawberry with the chunks of real fruit in it) and dip in your coffee (preferably a cafe creme).
A bite into a well-made, still warm croissant can transport me instantly back to Montpellier, France, where I spent my junior year of college abroad. I admittedly was not in the classroom all that terribly much, but did a lot of cafe hopping. That turned out to be a very effective way of learning the language – once I made friends with the wait staff and my fellow cafe denizens.
This is turning out to be more of a Proustian post than I originally intended…Let’s get back to the hows and whys and wherefores of the croissant itself, shall we?
Even though the croissant has become more or less synonymous with the best of all things French, the pastry actually originated elsewhere – Austria, to be exact, where it is known as a “kipferl”.
There’s a legend that the kipferl was invented celebrate the Ottoman Empire’s defeat in the Battle of Vienna, with its crescent shape intended to represent the moon on the Ottoman flag. (Experts say this isn’t true). There’s another legend involving Marie Antoinette, which has also been debunked.
We do know, however, that this tasty little morsel of carbohydrate goodness migrated to France sometime in the mid-1800s, compliments of an Austrian artillery officer who founded a Viennese bakery in Paris. At the time, the croissant was a yeasted bread roll – still made with butter, but without the flakiness that is its modern-day calling card.
The French are to thank for the puff pastry version of the croissant, which is less like a cookie or sweet roll (you’ll probably still get that version, dusted with almonds and/or powdered sugar, if you enter into an Austrian or German bakery and order a kipferl, also sometimes called a “kipfel” or a “kifli”).
There are many versions of the croissant – including the incredibly delicious, but not crescent shaped, pain au chocolat, which is exactly what it sounds like, a croissant stuffed with pieces of chocolate. (For the record, they might even be good for your health???)
There are also almond croissants, ham and cheese croissants, pistachio croissants, the croissant cousin (of which I’m particularly fond), the pain aux raisins, and, of course, the infamous cronut, which is a sort of doughnut-croissant hybrid invented by baker Dominque Ansel that took the world by storm a few years back.
Croissant consumption in the U.S. is creeping steadily upward, with an estimated 145 million Americans projected to consume them in 2024 alone (up from 142 million in 2020). But we’ve got nothing on the French, who reportedly consume 50 million croissants every week.
Today is National Croissant Day, and there are a few chain restaurants that are getting in on the action. But I cannot, in good conscience, recommend that you take advantage of anything other than the real thing – If you are lucky enough to find it.
It will be mostly cloudy today with temperatures in the low-to-mid 30s. Nothing out of the ordinary to report on the weather front (for a change).
In the headlines…
Air defenses failed to stop a deadly attack on a U.S. military outpost in Jordan on Sunday because the hostile drone homed in on its target at the same time an American drone was returning to the base, two U.S. officials said.
The Pentagon identified the three American soldiers killed in the attack as Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46; Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24; and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23.
Officials said the dead were three Army Reserve soldiers from Georgia, part of an engineering company trained for deployment at short notice.
As he orders airstrikes in a growing Middle East conflict, President Joe Biden faces fresh demands that he ask Congress to vote on a new authorization for military action before he proceeds further.
GOP 2024 frontrunner Donald Trump, challenger Nikki Haley and several prominent GOP lawmakers blamed Biden’s policy for the attack, and some GOP leaders demanded he retaliate against Iran, the suspected sponsor of the attack on a U.S. base in Jordan.
A United Nations team has arrived in Israel to examine reports of sexual violence during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7 even as Hamas and some critics of Israel continue to reject evidence that such assaults occurred.
Officials from Egypt and Qatar were set to present Hamas with a new Israeli truce proposal after high-level talks in Paris focused on negotiating a deal to suspend the fighting in Gaza and release hostages held by Hamas and other armed groups.
Leaders of the largest United Nations agency in Gaza, UNRWA, warned that it may soon run out of money as new allegations emerged about Hamas’s influence on the organization.
The Biden administration marked yesterday’s 15th anniversary of a landmark federal pay equity law with new action to help close gaps in pay for federal employees and employees of federal contractors.
Watching Trump ascend, the newly energized Biden campaign is aiming to make the general election all about him. It’s also hoping for some big endorsements – including from Taylor Swift.
The pop megastar and recently minted NFL fan famously endorsed Biden in 2020, saying at the time she would “proudly vote” for him. This time, Biden campaign staffers are hoping to leverage Swift’s star power in an even bigger way.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre shook off a question about a potential Biden-Swift duet to boost the Democrat’s 2024 campaign — citing federal law to do so.
A bipartisan quartet of senators, led by two Democrats from the critical swing state of Georgia, are asking Biden to toughen up tariffs on Chinese solar panels or face a glutted market just as the president’s clean-energy tax credits hit the market.
Biden and Senate Democrats have fallen behind the rapid pace set by Republicans in shaping the federal courts during the Trump era, but they have made fresh headway in advancing judicial nominees in states represented by Republicans.
Haley vowed to stay in the Republican presidential primary race at least through Super Tuesday while chiding a tabled plan by the Republican National Committee that called for the party to coalesce around Trump.
Nikki Haley was hit with a wave of MAGA attacks after she backed the jury in the E. Jean Carroll sex assault and defamation case against Trump.
Three days after a jury awarded her over $83 million for Trump’s repeated defamatory statements, Carroll vowed to use the money on “something Donald Trump hates.”
Trump lashed out at the financial monitor overseeing the Trump Organization and urged a judge to fire her days after she reported a range of issues — and flagged a questionable $48 million loan — in the former president’s New York civil business fraud case.
A former Internal Revenue Service contractor accused of leaking the tax documents Trump and other wealthy Americans was sentenced to five years in prison.
National issues have dominated a special House election to replace George Santos in New York, as Republicans and Democrats take voters’ temperatures on issues that could tip November’s general election.
The DCCC has released its first “Red to Blue” list of the 2024 cycle. Three New York candidates have earned a slot, an indicator that national Democrats are invested in these specific candidates and sees the districts as flippable in the upcoming election.
Former Rep. Mondaire Jones may not have been the pick of the DCCC in the past, but this year, he’s in the group’s first round of candidates in the program – a sign that the party views him as a top-tier candidate capable of flipping a Republican seat blue.
George Latimer, the popular Westchester County executive now challenging Bowman, announced that his campaign had pulled in nearly $1.4 million last month, a major fundraising haul.
Democrats want to talk tough on crime in an election year. Their target — shoplifting. Successfully pursuing retail theft could rob the GOP of a winning message on criminal justice and give Democrats a national roadmap for addressing the issue.
New York lawmakers are raising concerns about Gov. Kathy Hochul’s bid to allocate $250 million in the state budget to create a hub for artificial intelligence research despite the lack of an official plan.
Hochul is proposing in her state budget to increase the temporary disability leave benefit for injured workers for the first time in 35 years, and to give it parity with the state’s paid family leave program.
New York’s tuition-free college scholarship application deadline is fast approaching, and Hochul is urging students to act quickly to take advantage of the opportunity for the Spring 2024 semester.
Republican state senators joined the chorus of teachers and their Democratic colleagues to condemn the governor’s education funding proposal that ends the so-called “hold harmless” practice.
New York is weighing a plan to hire thousands of migrants and asylum-seekers who have legal work status in the US, but may face barriers to finding jobs such as language skills or prior experience.
The head of the State Police investigators association says Bureau of Criminal Investigation staffing and experience are dwindling and task forces to investigate hate and computer crimes, and organized retail theft are not equipped to handle the work.
Mayor Eric Adams yesterday defended his veto of the “How Many Stops Act” as City Council leaders mounted a final internal lobbying push to line up the necessary support to override him.
Council President Adrienne Adams said members plan to override the mayor’s veto today, saying the panel has “no interest in prolonging a conversation that has been made unnecessarily toxic by the spreading of fear and misinformation.”
Mayor Adams has warned that the bills would make the city and its jails more dangerous. He vowed to fight the override until the last moment and encouraged moderate council members to support him.
A former high-ranking NYPD official is publicly backing a police reporting bill at the center of a fierce battle between Mayor Adams and the City Council, according to a letter and statement shared with Gothamist.
Analysts said that they do not expect Mayor Adams to quit the fight, and said he would likely continue to harp on the topic at times.
A bipartisan group of City Council members wants a federal judge reject a settlement agreement requiring the NYPD to scale back enforcement during street protests, warning it will handcuff cops from preventing riots and make the city more “dangerous.”
The city’s police union had its day in court yesterday to argue against a settlement that would require the NYPD to overhaul how it responds to protests.
Councilman Yusef Salaam is facing calls to step down as head of the council’s influential public safety committee after a controversial traffic stop revealed he was driving in the city with out-of-state license plates and allegedly illegal tinted windows.
City Comptroller Brad Lander, who championed a law to crack down on reckless driving and once admitted “I should slow down,” was caught speeding in a school zone again.
Some New Yorkers in need of housing aid could catch a break later this year under Adams’ plan to issue thousands of federal rental assistance vouchers and accept new applications for the first time in almost 15 years.
A misaligned train track combined with missing bolts caused the derailment of an F train in Coney Island earlier this month, MTA officials said.
More than 130,000 New York City public school parents are leaving free money on the table for a college fund – and critics say a cumbersome enrollment process could be the cause.
The MTA’s subway and bus chief vowed to crack down on transit workers who park illegally in the bus lanes outside the agency’s Downtown Brooklyn offices when asked about the persistent problem on the new Livingston Street busway.
The NYPD reported more people were assaulted in the city’s subways in 2023 than any other calendar year since at least 1996, according to data released by the department over the weekend.
Emergency exit gates at three subway stations will soon take 15 seconds to open, MTA officials announced, as part of an effort to crack down on the “super highway of fare evasion.”
In a head-spinning day of court action yesterday, a lawyer for the National Rifle Association grilled its longtime chief, Wayne LaPierre, about his lavish spending.
More than 20 years after the hip-hop D.J. Jam Master Jay was gunned down in his Queens recording studio, two men charged in the killing faced a federal jury in Brooklyn yesterday.
Developers Boston Properties and Rudin snared Pratt Institute as a new tenant. The 62,570 square-foot lease will bring to the Brooklyn Navy Yard cutting-edge waterfront office building Pratt’s new MFA studios, which will have the entire third floor.
The University at Albany has received state Education Department approval to offer three degrees in education and has a teach-out agreement with The College of Saint Rose.
Dan Cerutti admits he has no history in public service. He grew up in Albany’s Pine Hills as one of six children. His father was a bricklayer, and his mother worked nights at the Gateway Diner. He left the city long ago. Now he wants to be its mayor.
Bethlehem Supervisor David VanLuven has delivered his seventh State of the Town address – a message of unity, encouraging townsfolk to “get out and interact with the community,” dismissing social media content as “online road rage.”
Swifties and Kansas City Chiefs fans alike can score a flight from Kansas City to Las Vegas and the Super Bowl on Feb. 11, with flight numbers close to the couple’s hearts.
RIP Kevin Quinn, one of the nicest political flacks I ever met, and an all-around decent human.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
