Food Stuff

The delights of Paris are invoked as a marketing ploy all over the place—perhaps nowhere less aptly than at the newish, rather bleak-looking Paris Bakery in Oak Park. Despite what you might expect from the name, it is low on baguettes and patisserie, instead featuring a wide range of offerings with a mainly Filipino flair. There are hot foods, such as two-for-a-dollar lumpia (greasy) and all-American donuts (untested). The standouts are the sweet breads: big oval rounds of puffy, fluffy yeastiness, filled with various things. I got one with a sugary, faintly crunchy vein of coconut running through the center; I would bet money there was sweetened condensed milk involved in the making of the filling. At just $2.50, it’s more than big enough for two and excellent toasted for breakfast, perhaps with a café au lait—even if you’d be hard-pressed to find anything remotely like it in Paris. 3621 Broadway, (916) 454-1048.