Bonne gastronomique: The highlights of the Paris trip, foodwise

Strangely enough, I didn’t eat as much cheese as I thought I would when I was at Paris. What I did eat a lot of though was this…

Bread, and butter! The one in the photo above is the saltiest butter I’ve ever had in my life. Though the demi-sel, slightly salted, butter is a nicer compliment with bread. But strangely enough, the locals don’t seem to have their bread rolls with butter at the restaurants, though to be fair with bread that nice you don’t really need butter. Yes, we had a lot of bread in the short time that we were at Paris alright.

This was the most impressive bread selection among all the meals we had at Paris. Sesame breadsticks, some dense (rye?) bread, and a weird bread that was kinda crispy and biscotti-hardness that I’ve never had before. I don’t know what it was, not very well versed with breads, but it was some kind of wonderful. And the service at this place where we ate, Mini Palais, was really efficient, the bread “bowl” was whisked away to be refilled when it was nearly empty.

Ok this was the dessert that I had at Mini Palais. I have a soft spot for lemon meringue pie, it brings to mind one of the not very many memories I have of my childhood, of my mum’s one and only attempt at making the dessert. The combination of meringue with that right amount of runniness and the eggy lemony bit that has the right amount of tartness is something that I’ve sadly not been able to find in England thus far. The French do know their meringues, I don’t know how they do it, but they do it well. And meringues are one of the most temperamental things, dessert wise. This version that I had was pretty close to perfection. And the zesty lemon sorbet that accompanied it, oh my.

I think this was about as strange a thing that I saw on our dining table, not ordered by me. Steak tartare, essentially seasoned raw minced beef with a raw egg on top. But all I could taste in this was just horseradish, mustardy. And no, still do not really see the fascination with working your way through a pile of mince, I like a bit of variety texture and flavour wise on my plate.

And of course, how could I go to France and not have a creme brulee? But this version was a surprise, a flaming creme brulee! I’d order it again just for the entertainment factor, but it was a good creme brulee too.

Oh and this, this you’ve got to see. We had this at Cafe Angelina which is near the Louvre. I don’t know if you can truly appreciate how thick this hot chocolate is from the photo, but it is thick! And luxuriously rich and with depth, and you stir in some cream and oh my… The only fault that I could find was the portion size was rather large and by the time I got to the end of it, it was cold and not entirely appealing. That odd looking dessert beside it, it’s a Mont Blanc, the topping is made from chestnut paste and the core is soft meringue, very delicate and subtle for a dessert. I did not try the croissant here, but I think the best croissant we had during the trip was from Eric Kayser bakery which was bought on a last minute shopping dash at Galarie Lafayette’s foodhall. Seriously, just go there and you’d pretty much find every quintessentially French delicacy, confectionery or whatever there.

Which is where we got this dessert. Oh I love how when you go to the dairy section in the French supermarkets, it’s such a delight. They have these glass jars and clay jars of wonderful dairy delights: yogurt, pots de creme… This one is a chocolate flavoured cream with a caramel layer underneath. Oh and in the background are sugar cookies from the famous Poilane bakery sold in the foodhall, perfection in a cookie. With just the right amount of sugar and bite, and real butter (not that nasty margarine stuff)!

Aren’t these baby blue clay jars of vanilla yogurt a darling? They seem to like their yogurt as a set yogurt texture there, and this was just mmm, dreamily creamy. I love how they just don’t bother putting nutritional information on the desserts there, why do I want to know how many calories of every mouthful I have, pfft.

Unfortunately, the macarons weren’t photographed in their box. There are random photos of us savouring macarons, some with expressions that I think should not be placed here for public viewing, heh. But the box for the macarons from Laduree were just so pretty. The place itself where its sold is also another level of awesomeness, almost museum like in the deco, with the dim lighting, marble flooring and gilded walls. Unfortunately they had a strict no photos allowed policy.

This post doesn’t even do justice to what Paris has to offer foodwise, just a very brief guide to some of the wonderful things we had during our trip. Next Europe destination probably will be Italy. Can’t wait to have real gianduja, the hazelnut chocolate combo that inspired Nutella, which was created in Italy. No, not Switzerland or Belgium, Italy. Oh and gelato, definitely. Oh and the architecture… Okay, enough fantasising, time to get some sleep as more work awaits…

 

 

Bonsoir!

I’ve just cleared my desk, sorted out my closet and I do feel a lot better now. I think in the future, I’d either have to have a super organised system of keeping things away, or a small place to stay. It wasn’t not too long ago that I stayed in the smallest room in the house when I first came to UK and all my things fit nicely in the room and I knew where every single thing was. Now, after moving out to a bigger room, and with time, I’ve amassed more things (and my memory is possibly deteriorating), and it is getting admittedly harder to keep track of where everything is. Which is fine at home, where mom seems to mysteriously know where everything is, (or if she doesn’t, she’ll manage to find it somehow) but now… sigh.

Anyway, after the exams ended last week I had a short holiday at Paris with friends. It was good travelling off peak season to a place such as Paris, we managed to get relatively cheap Eurostar tickets which meant yay no strict luggage allowances and having to keep all your toiletries to below 100ml-sized containers. It is the strangest feeling dozing off on the Eurostar and the last thing you remember seeing is a highway, and when you wake you see a highway except the cars are going in a different direction.

This was taken on the first night we were there, the moon was so bright it was unreal. One thing I do regret is that admist all the exam preparation and my camera only arriving late December, I did not have the time to properly get acquainted with my camera before this holiday, which is a shame.

This photo was taken on a bridge where there was this statue off the side of the bridge’s halfway point. I think you would have noticed the famous landmark in the background of the photo, which was nicely lit up at that time.

You know for all they say about French people being infamously rude, I was surprised by how not rude they are. I can’t remember how many times a day we were greeted bonjour/bonsoir and even more times we heard or said merci. Why in fact there was this occasion when we were just standing at the corner of a road looking for a metro station when an old woman who could barely speak any English asked us if we needed help. Well there were other examples of the courteosness of the people there, but yea it wasn’t that bad after all.

Oh and the food, oh my. And the buildings and the art, oh my. Well I think that will deserve a post of its own another time…