Puff Love


1198785339This time of year, it’s not unusual for certain foods to keep cropping up on the Chowder radar: Champagne. Cookies. Chocolate. But lately we’re starting to feel like we’re being followed, and not by any humanoid, ginger-flavored pastries. (Are we the only ones who find that story creepy?)

Our stalker? Gougeres.

The saga started with a dinner party in November, where Chowder nibbled on homemade, mini versions of the savory French cheese-and-pastry puffs. Our hostess had even spiked them with bits of leek and bacon. In a word, heaven.

At home the next day, we flipped through the new Williams-Sonoma catalog—the issue filled with “giftable” foods like fruit cakes and peppermint bark—and learned that apparently, we’d been missing out on a trend. While we were busy chomping away on cheese puffs of the bagged, fluorescent orange variety, suburban homes across America had been receiving shipments of frozen gougeres from New York’s Artisanal Fromagerie & Bistro.

The following Sunday, we watched aghast as new Food Network host Amy Finley (a.k.a. The Gourmet Next Door) whipped up batches of gougeres as part of her “Nod to the Bistro” menu, proclaiming said cheese puffs a typical start to the typical bistro meal.

Innnnnteresting.

As we recently noted, Boston’s up to its eyeballs in bistro fare. So where the hell are our gougeres? Rumor has it Aujourd’hui whips them up from time to time, but we haven’t seen them on any regular menus about town.

And then came the final straw: Gougeres’ Globe cameo, replete with a recipe.

Still, everything tastes better when served up by someone else. So Boston, consider yourself tasked. Point us in the direction of the nearest gougeres. Chefs, put them on your menus. Better yet, drop them off at Chowder HQ. Because while we’re being chased, we’re also getting pretty hungry.