Paris is a Foodie Paradise

Rick & I both love to eat, and we are in heaven when we’re in Paris!  Good food is everywhere and we try to take advantage of it all…

We signed on to two different food tours, each of which took us into a neighborhood with which we were not familiar.  In the 9th arrondissement, north of the Opera and south of Montmartre, our guide was a food journalist.  The tour was concentrated along rue des Martyrs and included the chocolatier (Henri Le Roux) whho, we were told, invented salted caramel, a pastry shop, Sebastien Gaudard, that had Rick’s mouth watering,

a wonderful cheese shop run by a couple in their 80s,

and a fish market (Au Bon Port) to which I’ve returned several times, most notably for the blue lobster that comes from Brittany.

Our group included a couple from South America on their honeymoon, and a young woman who was being married that Saturday (in Paris, to a Frenchman) and her parents from China.

Our second food tour took us to Belleville, a neighborhood that includes parts of the 10th, 11th, 19th and 20th arrondissements. Historically, a working class town that was annexed by Paris in 1860, it is now home to many artists and musicians, and lots of good food. A highlight of this tour was an opportunity to go into a boulangerie kitchen and see how the baguettes are made.

I learned about the different types of flour that are used to make different types of bread. For example, type 45 is the finer flour used for brioche or croissants, while type 65 is ideal for baguettes because it makes a bread that has lots of holes and is chewier since it has more of the wheat grain in it. Types 80, 110 & 150 are stronger flours of increasing darkness.

We eat at home often because the ingredients we can get at the markets are so fresh and wonderful, and I DO like to cook. When we arrived in Paris, the wild asparagus (asperges sauvage) was plentiful.  Of course, I bought some and made a wonderful pasta meal for us.  And, isn’t it pretty??

Restaurant meals are a treat, too, and something we try to do a few nights a week.  Our meal with friends from Baltimore at Les Papilles featured a fixed menu (you get what the chef is cooking that night…) served family style.  The pork belly was lovely and delicious.

Dinner in a private home is a special treat when we are visitors in a city.  Through Airbnb, we had dinner in a loft that was once occupied by Modigliani.  The chef for the evening was Nicola

who prepared a lovely meal that, we were told, will be featured on page 57 on his upcoming cookbook.  The meal was delicious but the dessert, oeuf a la neige (floating island) topped with lavender and pomegranate, was divine and beautiful.

Our dinner companions included a charming young woman from Mumbai who lives and works in Vienna.

The French regulation of wine is familiar to most of us – the AOC (appellation d’origine controlée) on the foil cap guarantees that it comes from a particular region. This designation is also applied to cheeses

like this Camembert de Normandie, and other agricultural products. France is justifiably proud of what it produces and many vendors (green grocers, butchers) disclose the origin of the things they are selling.

I have to talk about the butter in France, particularly in Paris.  First of all, it is made from raw milk, which gives it real flavor. Salted butter is available in several varieties. My favorite is called ‘demi-sel’ and it has crystals of salt in it.  See them?!  You buy it at the cheese shop rather than the grocery.

I will really miss this!  When we are back in the US, I plan to be a much more deliberate food shopper and consumer.  Maybe, if I look more closely, I’ll be able to find some of these pleasures on our side of the pond.