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   Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 18-Apr-2026 19:01:35 JST Adrianna Tan

   There are only 2 croissant / pain au chocolat places in San Francisco that my French wife doesn’t hate (Arsicault and the French Spot.. she finds the rest too ‘Americanized) but she’s also always fascinated by how large they are in the U.S.

   (Pâtisserie Rotha in Albany is also excellent but we don’t often get to the east bay before 9am)

   Here’s a normal sized pain au chocolat (I’ve already had a savory breakfast so now I can eat chocolate / sweets!)

   Not kidding when I say they’re at least 3x larger in San Francisco. When we’ve spoken to the French bakers / owners they’re just like yea that’s what Americans expect and if we make it normal sized people will complain :)

   #Food #PainAuChocolat #Baking #France

   • Embed this notice
     Megan Lynch (she/her) (meganl@mas.to)'s status on Saturday, 18-Apr-2026 19:08:46 JST Megan Lynch (she/her)

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte I find that odd. I remember very well the first time I had a croissant (pain au chocolat came later). It was in the US and the bakery was owned and run by Vietnamese folks. This was around 1981, where you would have been hard pressed to find croissants or pain au chocolat in most US bakeries or cafés at all.

     The expectations of what they looked and felt and tasted like would have been set by folks trained in French baking. I assumed whatever they served me was the size.

   • Embed this notice
     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 18-Apr-2026 19:08:46 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     • Megan Lynch (she/her)

     @meganL i think when you sell food you have to adapt to local expectations. When we were making Malaysian rice, people also complained about the portions often, expecting Chinese takeout volumes of food plus also they were offended by natural chicken sizes (that was more expensive..), often saying they want the giant chickens

   • Embed this notice
     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 19-Apr-2026 06:02:08 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     • Bill Woodcock

     @woody I did see a U.S. sized one at Panade. I guess the more you charge the larger it should be.

   • Embed this notice
     Bill Woodcock (woody@pleroma.pch.net)'s status on Sunday, 19-Apr-2026 06:02:15 JST Bill Woodcock

     in reply to
     @skinnylatte
     
     Uh, no. Occasionally Parisian bakeries pull out the stops and make these. That's from Vincent Salur, in the 15th, but I've seen the same thing at a lot of Parisian bakeries. They're a novelty item, showing off that they can do it at any scale.