OPERATION BAKED GOODS : SAINT PATRICK'S DAY SPECIAL EDITION

I may have mentioned previously that I was slated to bring pastries to class this morning, in celebration of Saint Patrick's Day. I know some of you will be waiting with bated breath for an update, so here is a partial pictorial record. Clicking on the images and following them to Flickr should lead to some further comments and notes.

The first picture was taken before the marauding hordes of students attacked:



This assortment represented a half kilogram (so about 18 ounces) of the finest from the Horno San Onofrio, about a block and a half from my house. The total of 30 "units" cost 14.50€, or about 50 centimos apiece (roughly 65 cents U.S.) As noted in the comment on the photo, as a general rule, palatability was inversely proportional to the vividness of the colour. The brown ones were by far the best; this definitely had something to do with the fact that most of them were either truffles or profiterole-like. The less said about the green ones the better.

Our second photo was taken after the hordes had been grazing for a while:



For a version of this photo with notes, see this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaelstat/3363960520/in/set-72157615421912417

Or, for more extensive photographic documentation, see the entire set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaelstat/sets/72157615421912417/

A note of apology. It will be obvious to anyone browsing the set that this blog is in serious need of a professional food wrangler. It might, to give just one example, have helped avoid the unflattering - and unwarranted - resemblance of one of the more delicious pastries to a malignant tumour. (Lighting is everything)

The fact is that we had a professional food wrangler on staff, but had to let him go last week when he was caught repeatedly nibbling on the scenery. (See last week's post regarding el Ratoncito Pérez).

All in all, OBG St Patrick's Day 2009 was a hugely popular success. It seems almost churlish to point out that a major contributing factor to its popularity was the relative paucity of actual baked goods in the sample. Thus the desiccant potential of the delicacies was kept within acceptable limits.

Even the German students were happy during today's testing.