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A Crepe, An Eclair, Ice Cream, and LeChartier: More Food From My Adventures In Paris

11 Jul

Home-cooked meals and macaron tastings aside, I spent most of my days in Paris out and about meandering through the city streets, seeing the sights and eating many a delight! Below are just some of my many memorable food finds…

1. A damn good crepe. Square shaped (actually, it looks very much like a sting ray). Stuffed with champignons (mushrooms), tomatoes, and cheese. The actual crepe dough was bubbling deliciousness, so savory so perfect.


I ate my crepe at a restaurant called “Le Menhir,” a little fondu place in Paris’s Latin Quarter, a district known as the student area where young people flock to the many bistros, cafes, and funky shops.


2. An eclair. A coffee eclair. An eclair filled with coffee pastry cream and smeared on top with a coffee glaze. Uh, so good. Eclairs can be found at pretty much any patisserie or boulangerie anywhere in France, and let me tell you, I walked into every patisserie and boulangerie that I saw. Chocolate or coffee eclairs are the standard, but vanilla and pistachio can be found in some places as well.


3. Ice cream. Oh, ice cream. Glaces as they say in French. Ok, the best ice cream I have ever tasted, and I have tasted a LOT of ice cream in my life, was from Berthillon, a famous shop in Pont Marie area of Paris. The flavor: Caramel-Buerre-Sale. A tiny scoop on a cone. That was all I needed (and usually I don’t say that, I usually want more and more and more until I burst). That one little scoop was pure bliss; I savored every lick. The ice cream really tastes like what it says. Its really is the perfect scoop, even David Lebovitz agrees. Unfortunately I was too busy enjoying my tasty treat to snap a photo. I just could not break away from that wonderful moment.

BUT…I did have more ice cream outside the Luxembourg Gardens. The Luxembourg Gardens are also in the Latin Quarter of Paris and on a nice sunny day, everyone basks in the sunshine with a book or a picnic blanket in these darling gardens.

I absolutely adore this little girl’s hat!

This reminded me of San Francisco’s Dolores Park on a sunny day!

So back to ice cream. A friend of mine recommended this little stand outside the entrance to the gardens on Rue Saint Michel. She specifically told me to go to the stand with the yellow awning (there are 2 stands right next to each other…competition!). She also told me that I should try the lavender flavor.


Yes, it was purple, well…lavender purple. And yes, it tasted like I was eating a lavender plant. Very good, something different. But man oh man there were so many other flavors to choose from. Oh the choices!

4. LeChartier. A famous restaurant in the Montmarte area that is now a historic monument. Opened in 1896, this place is well known and thus extremely crowded. My friend Margot (she lives in Paris now but is originally from Nancy, France) took me there. It was so crowded, the two of us shared a table with another couple and were squashed and surrounded on all sides by more tables. The food is simple and cheap. The menu follows brasserie-style traditions– boiled veal’s head, tripe, tongue, sweetbreads, lamb’s brains, chitterling sausages — as well as some old-time tempters like boeuf bourguignon (braised beef in red-wine sauce). Let’s just say it was definitely an experience to eat at LeChartier.
Bonjour Margot!
This was our dessert from LeChartier. Profiteroles drowning in chocolate sauce. Intense.
And here is just a lovely little painting to send you off…
Le Petit Pâtissier by Chaïm Soutine (from Paris’s l’Orangerie museum)

 

>The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

10 Aug

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The Good:
Frolicking in the rose gardens of Berkeley and smelling pretty flowers like Fragrant Rhododendrons. They smell like fresh melon! Mmm.



The Bad:
My camera broke. I have been borrowing cameras from friends. This stinks.

The Ugly:
My car got broken into. Parked in the EMPLOYEE parking lot of a successful Berkeley restaurant. Radio stolen. Air conditioning control system stolen. At least they had the decency to leave my bright pink sunglasses. Hmph!


The Good:
This cornbread. Yes, this is really the best ever cornbread! The secret? Browned butter—my new favorite ingredient in baked goods! I will post the recipe shortly.


The Bad:
Overeating- you know that feeling when you eat and then you just keep eating and then 30 minutes later you are so full that your stomach wants so badly to expand but is stuffed to the brim? Yah. Awful feeling. This is happening a lot lately. Come on, stomach. Toughen up, will ya?

The Ugly:
I have to move tomorrow. Just the thought of carrying heavy bags and living out of a suitcase makes me cringe.

The Good:
Fourth of July barbecues and special dinners with friends. There’s nothing like a good, hearty meal and some cheap alcohol!


More Good:
Weekend trips #1—SF mission district. Bi-rite ice creamery. Delfina pizzeria. Tartine bakery. Dolores park. Noe valley homes. Hipster shops. Dog-eared books.

Bite-Rite. Go there. Go there and wait in line. Do it. Drool over the menu. Sample the flavors—coffee toffee (really strong coffee flavor!), brown sugar with ginger caramel swirl, strawberry balsamic, burnt caramel, crème fraiche…It really is good to the last lick.


The cones are not as good as the ‘homemade with chocolate on the bottom’ cones from Ici ice cream in Berkeley. But hey, its summer and summer means ice cream shall be eaten. Go to Bi-rite. Eat your ice cream in Dolores Park. Read a story out load to friends. Flare your nostrils and smell the fresh “herb.” Lay on the grass and bask in the glory of San Francisco!


Tartine Bakery. Go for breakfast and order a cappuccino and a pastry–I recommend the morning bun or the famous bread pudding. Go for lunch and order the Croque Monsieur, an open faced sandwich consisting of thick country bread, layers of cheeses and herbs, topped off with seasonal veggies!

Weekend trips #2—Kayaking along the Russian river. Sunshine. Trees. River. Calm waters. Jumping off of large rocks into the water! Road tripping! Good friends. Right in the heart of Sonoma county…the Russian River is nestled in a quaint little town, surrounded by green trees, vineyards, and cute “mom and pop” shops! Rent a kayak and take the day to drift along the 5 mile river path.

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