{"id":23009,"date":"2011-07-23T10:00:11","date_gmt":"2011-07-23T08:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=23009"},"modified":"2011-07-23T10:02:22","modified_gmt":"2011-07-23T08:02:22","slug":"crunch-the-pastry-shop-an-excellent-antidote-to-credit-crunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/restaurant-news\/crunch-the-pastry-shop-an-excellent-antidote-to-credit-crunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Crunch:The Pastry Shop an excellent antidote to credit crunch!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I popped in at Crunch:The Pastry Shop in Paarl yesterday, which opened in April.\u00a0Crunch is a small bakery, shop and restaurant offering excellent\u00a0low-cost breads, pastries, cakes, muffins, cupcakes, and light meals.<\/p>\n

Crunch belongs to Gerard van Staden, previously Chef at the Beverly Hills and\u00a0Le Franschhoek Hotels, and was the right hand of Mr Maingard in overseeing his restaurant interests in Franschhoek.\u00a0 Half the space is the bakery, not much of it visible to customers.\u00a0\u00a0 The front end has a display cabinet for cupcakes and some cakes, while a shelving unit displays biscuits, and has baskets of attractive and more unusual muffins, including raisins, chocolate chip, and\u00a0poppyseed, at R5 each.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0At the entrance are bread baskets with 20 % rye Baguettes, Chiapatta, and 50 % rye breads.\u00a0\u00a0Potato bread, Olive Chiapatta, Sour dough, and Seed loaf can also be ordered. \u00a0There are only three sit-down wooden tables and red chairs inside the small space, with a counter and bar chairs outside.<\/p>\n

Gerard told me that while he is a trained chef, he learnt to bake breads on the Radisson Seven Seas Voyager cruise ship from a fellow Austrian pastry chef.\u00a0 He is assisted by Jason, previously at Huguenot Fine Chocolates in Franschhoek, and Ernestine.\u00a0 I was impressed to see how much time Gerard spent on neatly placing newly baked cupcakes in the display cabinet, to make them look perfect.\u00a0 He says that he learnt this whilst training in France.\u00a0 The Crunch price lists says: “Good food is lots of little things done well”, and I could see Gerard practicing this while I was there.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The menu is printed on recycled paper, and offers a variety of Breakfast options, including English breakfast (R35), Croissant (R22), Baker’s Basket of scone and croissant (R25), Health Breakfast with muesli and fruit (R25), and a Get up and Go breakfast with a single egg and bacon at a mere R18.\u00a0 With excellent LavAzza coffee one can enjoy a slice of cake (chocolate fudge, carrot, berry marshmallow, pecan nut, chocolate truffle) and cupcakes, all costing R15.\u00a0 Soup choices are Chicken and mushroom (R15,) and Leek and potato (R12).\u00a0\u00a0 Pancakes can be ordered in sweet or savory style, and the offering reminded me of that at Crepe et Cidre in Franschhoek, which Gerard had set up for Mr Maingard.\u00a0 Savory pancakes cost R35 for Chicken and mushroom, and Lamb curry, as well as R65 for Smoked salmon. A Breakfast pancake with fried egg and bacon can\u00a0also be ordered, at R18!\u00a0 Sweet pancake options cost R10 – R20, ranging from cinnamon and lemon, to strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, apple cinnamon, and banana and caramel.\u00a0 Cappuccino costs R15, and smoothies R25.<\/p>\n

One can also buy biscuits (e.g. Speculaas, macaroon, meringues), fudge, shortbread, Pavlova\u00a0and Vol au Vent bases, pies (steak and kidney, tomato bredie, cornish pasty, chicken and mushroom, lamb curry, and steak), hand-made chocolate, and cakes (including Chocolate bubble, cherry streussel, apple streussel, carrot cake, pecan pie, wildberry mousse,\u00a0baked cheese cake, and wild chocolate cake with lemon and orange curd), at R15 – R26\u00a0a slice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Crunch:The Pastry Shop\u00a0offers excellent value for money, and with Chef Gerard at the helm, one can be assured of excellent quality too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Disclosure: Gerard gave me a loaf of 50 % rye bread to take home.<\/p>\n

Crunch: The Pastry Shop<\/strong>,\u00a07 Jan Phillips Square, Paarl.\u00a0 Tel (021) 871-1335.\u00a0 No website.\u00a0 Monday – Saturday, 7h00 – 17h00.<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/a>\u00a0 Twitter:@WhaleCottage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I popped in at Crunch:The Pastry Shop in Paarl yesterday, which opened in April.\u00a0Crunch is a small bakery, shop and restaurant offering excellent\u00a0low-cost breads, pastries, cakes, muffins, cupcakes, and light meals. Crunch belongs to Gerard van Staden, previously Chef at the Beverly Hills and\u00a0Le Franschhoek Hotels, and was the right hand of Mr Maingard in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[124,362,20,21],"tags":[2187,12459,4492,3768,12461,32378,2543,12456,12457,6034,10645,1825,6749,385,11463,4555,32384,12458,12464,252,12463,12462,32373],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t