I think it was the aroma of fresh churros that inspired the conversation.

Don Day was walking through the Tuesday Market with his friends Wendy and Philippe when Wendy said, “Have you tried the pain au chocolat at Mega? It’s as good as anything you’ll find in Montreal.”

Don Day begged Wendy’s pardon.

“At Mega, the supermarket here in San Miguel, those wonderful chocolate croissants,” Wendy repeated.

painauchocolatwendyphilippe

“Not just Montreal”, Philippe added. “They’re as good as anything we’ve ever had in Paris.”

painauchocolatmegaovens

Pain au chocolat. Chocolatines. Chocolate croissants. And not from one of San Miguel de Allende’s charming little European style bakeries but from a cold, grey block of cement in the middle of a parking lot. With gargantuan ovens that look like they should be in a NASA lab. Now Don Day is very sure that Mega sells more sandwich rolls than every single San Miguel bakery combined. But pain au chocolat?

“Perhaps Wendy and Philippe had discovered the availability of absinthe in San Miguel de Allende”, contemplated Don Day.

Now, unless I wanted directions home from Neverland, I might never put all my trust in someone named Wendy. But Philippe. A name like that could guide Don Day anywhere where pastry is known to puff.

painauchocolatinmega

So today Don Day went to Mega. And found two sizes of pain au chocolat, normal and miniscule. The normal are obviously for normal people. The miniscule are obviously for people called Barbie (or Ken). And so Don Day bought some normal pain au chocolat. And had it with his morning coffee. And Mon Dieu!

painauchocolatewithcoffee

The pastry was fresh, flaky and buttery. The filling was rich, creamy and not too sweet and, though Don Day would have liked a little more filling, Don Day has probably never had a pain au chocolat where he wouldn’t have liked a little more filling.

This was pain au chocolat as good as you’ll find in Montreal. As good as you’ll have in Paris. As good as Wendy and Philippe said it was. C’est incroyable!

The official address of Mega is Vicente Araiza 12. It’s probably more helpful to know it’s at the southeast corner of Carretera a Celaya and Libramiento Manual Zavala.