Get Your Kringler On at Leske's for St. Patty's Day

As a "man" who's "roughly approximately 50% Irish" (COUNTY LOUTH RULES!), I LOVE St. Patty's Day. Come March 17th, there's nothing more appealing than annually celebrating the TOTALLY SUCCESSFUL arrival of Christianity in Ireland by downing a corned beef & cabbage sammy, washing it down with seventeen pints of Guinness and urinating all over Hoboken. That's just the Irish way, people.

With St. Patty's mere days away, I've already started getting in the mood. No, I haven't guzzled a bunch of Jameson & sucker punched a cop. No, I haven't gone all ironic & embraced the potato diet. I haven't even managed to find the time to go "full shamrock." Instead, yesterday I picked up a St. Patty's-inspired treat from a Scandanavian bakery that found its roots in an Italian neighborhood & recently expanded to an area littered with breeders.

Said treat: The St. Patty's Day "Wales Kringler" from Leske's Bakery. Or, as we commoners call it, a cream puff. When I first read about it on Gothamist, my mind was already made up. If I wanted to impress my deceased Irish ancestry, I needed to get my hands on one of these St. Patty's Day Cream Puff STAT. With its nuclear green frosting & its promise of enough fat calories to bring down even the heartiest Irish Elephant, I'd be stupid NOT to try one.

Unfortunately, the nuclear green portion was not to be. At some point after Gothamist first reported on the pastry in all off its glowing glory, Leske's made the decision to top their Kringlers with white frosting instead. BOO. We Irish insist on our foods being as green as possible. Luckily they stabbed the cream puff with a tiny Irish flag. As it is, I'm an American, so I automatically love tiny flags.

As for the cream puff, it’s f'n huge, about the size of a slightly-flattened preemie baby head. Get thee a fork...possibly a knife.

The pastry itself is pretzel-shaped & light & flaky, with a non-greasy white glaze on top and a layer of whipped cream and a layer of Bailey's custard sandwiched between. It's a clean, indulgent treat with a mouthmix of dough & sweet that's ultimately satisfying but still probably not good for me (or you) at all. Side note: I ate half of one whilst standing over the sink.

At $9, it's more of a treat for two people. If you devour a single one by yourself, you're just being a fat-ass. I'm not judging you, but shouldn't you save room for another corned beef platter? Eh? Can I interest you in some cabbage? Mmm...cabbage.

So yeah...if you want to get an early jump on St. Patty's Day, you should probably grab your favorite person who cares about lame holidays & grab a Kringler to split. Either that or you can get some green beads & a stupid hat and impress that special single guy/gal you just met around 11am by puking green beer on them. HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!

Read way more from Shawn at eatdrinksnack.com and eatdrinktaco.com.