he first time I had pearl sugar, it was love at first bite. The city of Paris, France, was cold and gray in the bleak winter light, but there was an incandescent beacon in the form of a window display as I passed Les Choupettes de ChouChou in the 18th arrondissement in Montmartre. The dazzling array of golden chouquettes caught my eye—pearl sugar perfectly suspended on the burnished bronze and light-as-air pastry. My mouth salivated at a mere glimpse of these beauties. Moments later, I was strolling down the Rue Lepic in high
