We're in Paris!

[helios7]

We're in Paris on vacation right now, and because we're staying with a friend I actually have email access! Its perfect!

Anyways, just wondering if anyone had any foodie type reccomendations to offer. We're staying in the 5th arrondisement, and my friend left us maps to the best cheese/bread/pastry shops. So yesterday we trucked around and enjoyed collecting tasty tidbits from them all. We'll be here until the 28th so in between the touristy type things I would love to visit a really great chocolate shop (for example ... especially as its before Easter) and other foodie type places.

So... any and all suggestions appreciated!

Thanks!
Au revoir!

[SusanL]

No recommmendations, just congrats on being there, I am jealous! Keep us informed on what you eat and where you eat. You know we live vicariously through each other's posts.

[Clover]

Lucky you! Check out the Paris City Guide Archive (http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/cat_paris_city_guide.php) from Clotilde's Chocolate and Zucchini blog. It has restaurants, delectable foods and where she bought them, and cooking supply stores. And there are two (http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2005/03/gouter_presque_chez_pierre_herme.php) entries (http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/cat_books_for_cooks.php#000157) on Patisserie Pierre Herme (I don't know how to put an accent over the final e,) which seems worth a visit too.

[sassysu3]

Tres magnifique!!! I love, love, love Paris! Oh boy, thinking of a restaurant right off the top of my head...hmm-m-m...I guess I would first have to say L'altitude on top of the Eiffel Tower. The food was yummy, and the view!!!!! We went at sunset - oo-la-la! There were so many good food finds, I have no doubt you will have great finds!
Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!:cool:

[Peggy]

I LOVE PARIS!!!:) We were there last October and had a fabulous time. For the absolute best ice cream got to Berthillon (31, rue Saint-Louis-en-Ille; Metro Stop: Pont-Marie). You will find their ice cream sold everywhere but do take the time to go to their actual shop. If walking, take the bridge over to the little island south of Notre Dame. Walk down the street to get to it and there are all kinds of great "foodie" shops along the way.

There's a wonderful specialty mustard shop called Maille (6, place de la Madeleine; Metro stop: Madeline). It is fairly close to the Opera House. They sell unique, flavored mustards there. We bought lots to bring home as gifts.

A good bistro: L'Ardoise (28, rue de Mont-Thabor, Metro Stop: Tuileries or Concorde). Very authentic French Bistro food.

As far as sightseeing, don't miss Sainte-Chapelle. It is truly the most magnificent stained glass I have ever seen. My favorite Museum was the Musee d'Orsay.

Have fun!!! I am envious!:)

Peggy

[gertdog]

I second the recommendation for Berthillon if they are open this time of year. The best part is that the scoops of ice cream are tiny (think walnut-sized), so you can try a few different exotic flavors. ;)

We stayed in the 5th on our visit to Paris a few years ago. If you have not already wandered through the Rue Mouffetard market, you have to do that! We went there most mornings to pick up fruit and croissants for breakfast.

A few vegetarian-friendly, cheap restaurant recommendations (if they are still in existence!):

Entre Ciel et Terre, 5 rue Harold, in the 1st. This is entirely vegetarian, in a funky setting. The food is good and the pear cake is a great dessert.

La Castafiore 51 rue St. Louis-en-I'lle (on the Ile St. Louis). Italian restaurant, British owners. Lots of vegetarian choices; we really liked the food.

L'As du Fallafel, 34 rue de Rosiers in the Jewish Quarter of the 4th. It is what it sounds like- the best falafel I have ever had. Get the "special" which includes not only falafel, but eggplant and hummus and special sauce. There is very little seating; most people ordered and then stood in the street to eat. So it's a meal-on-the-go rather than a leisurely dining experience, but worth it for the food.

La Crepe Carree, 42 rue Monge, in the 5th. Cheap, filling dinner crepes and hard cider- yum.

Cosi, 54 rue du Seine, in the 6th. Related to the plethora of coffee shops in the U.S. but they've been around far longer, only sell sandwiches, and the filling options are far more extensive and tasty than in the U.S. The bread is warm, fresh, and delicious.

For foodie fun, walk through the Grand Epicerie at the Bon Marche in the 7th.

Other food items that I brought home, or had my sister bring home from every trip: Elephant brand tea; I love the pear-vanilla flavor. Maggi vegetable bouillon cubes; so much better than anything I can find here. Both the tea and the bouillon can be found in any market. I loved the little packets of tea from Fauchon- each tea bag is made of pretty fabric- great for gifts.

Also, if you are a tea drinker, Mariage Freres is heaven. The Vanilla Bourbon loose tea is out of this world, and you can buy it in any amount you like.

Have fun!!!! :)

Stephanie

[lisas3575]

You all are making me want to be in Paris so bad today! :) Have a great time, Heather. I really enjoyed the tour of Versailles if you have time to go out there.

[wallycat]

Have a FABULOUS TIME....kiss paris for me :p

There is THE MOST wonderful chocolate shop near St. Germain ...but of course, I can't think of the name now.

Angelina's on Rue de Rivoli is also excellent, but a bit more $$$.

Cute shopping is in the Marais district (or was, when I lived there)..and some of the BEST chinese food ever too :)
It is the Jewish area and has lots of great ethnic food all the way around.

[helios7]

Thanks for all the recommendations. I've dutifully written them dwwn.

So far we've done Notre Dame, the crypt under Notre Dame, climbed the Eiffel Tower (and yes, we climbed. No elevators here!). We visited the Arc de Triomphe and walked past the Louvre but haven'tyet gone inside.

Foodwise - we've had lots of the bread. Our favorite bakery is Boulanger de Monge, and we have visited the market at Mouffetard often! In fact we had lunch there today. We had crepes, although at a different place than the one Stephanie mentioned. I had a feta/tomato/lettuce crepe and DH had ham/cheese and salad crepe. YUM! We've been loving how cheap wine is, and having a ton of it! Just because we can! Amazing.

Foodwise... what else? I had a fantastic pizza last night at La Comedia with artichoke hearts. It was a huge, fluffy and chewy wood stove cooked pizza with the perfect amount of charring. Yum. I've also had a very tasty pain de chocolat. And the hot chocolate ... :)

We do plan on visiting the food market at Bon Marche. My friend recommended it, and I love Maille mustard so maybe we'll stop by there. Thanks again for all the recommendations and keep them coming!

Au revoir!

[gertdog]

Bonjour!

Heather, I'm so glad you're having a nice time!

I remember the Boulanger du Monge- mmmmmm. I think I have a photo of DH chomping on a tartlet in front of that bakery.

We went to Maille when we were there- they have more flavors of mustard than you can imagine! And you can buy tiny sizes so you can try lots of different kinds. There was a honey store near Maille, too, that had dozens of different types of honey and you could sample them all. We brought back some wonderful lavender honey among other things.

I'm jealous! :)

[AndreaU]

As for chocolate, would you be up for a day trip to Belgium? The high speed train can get you to Brussels in under 2 hours- many amazing chocolate shops in the Grand Place. Just an idea since you're there for another week.

(We'll be in Brussels Friday morning- can't wait!)

[Barrie]

If you can find the April issue of Conde' Nast Traveler, there's an excellent article titled "A Nonstop, Unapologetically High-Calorie Foodie's Tour de France: 5 Regions, 15 Restaurants, the Ultimate Culinary Tour" (including Paris). If you can't find the magazine, pm me and I can scan and email it to you from work tomorrow.

[mbrogier]

Oh, I love Paris! One of my favorite places was Cafe Angelique near the Louvre and Place de la Concourde. It is an expensive tea parlor, but everyone goes for the chocolat de Afrique--the thickest, richest hot chocolate you could want. You can buy the mix there. Their lunch and teas are wonderful, as you can imagine.

We got chocolate at the Maison de Chocolat. http://www.lamaisonduchocolat.com Their chocolates were outstanding. You could request liquor free chocolates for friends that don't like those. The staff was very professional and kind.

I loved the steak frites you could get almost anywhere. I did try plenty of other things, but real steak frites was so good.

I also loved the chocolate filled croissants for breakfast, and if you get the chance, get a chocolate syrup filled crepe at a street vendor. ;)

[dearamy]

I agree with Peggy! I loved St. Chapelle. If you can, see an evening concert there. My mom & I saw a string quartet & the music & the setting were just magical!

My favorite restaurant was Bastide Odeon, near the Luxembourg Gardens.

[helios7]

Off to the Louvre today... will be on the lookout for Cafe Angelique! I've heard of this amazing hot chocolate there.....

La maison du chocolat hm? Sounds dangerous.

Thanks again for everyone's suggestions!

[skyllo]

Insanely jealous!! I was reading 'food and wine' magazine the other day and they have an article on affordable Paris, here's the article, maybe you can check some of them out. Maybe I'll get to Paris someday soon-- eat a croissant for me.

Book a Table at a Grocer's

I made one of my biggest discoveries in what seems like an unlikely location: an épicerie, or grocery store. At the year-old Les Papilles, one of Paris's newest food-shop-cum-restaurants, you get a four-course, $39 prix-fixe meal good enough to be served on fine linen, instead of on a small wooden table squeezed against shelves, with shoppers reaching over your head. Chef and owner Bertrand Bluy's portions, served on tables crowded with orchids in vases and sea salt in shot glasses, are very generous, so sharing is not only sensible but perfectly acceptable. And you can buy one of the store's reasonably priced wines—like the $32 Bourgueil from artisanal Loire producers Catherine and Pierre Breton—to drink with your meal.

It probably would have been cheaper to make dinner at home with ingredients bought at Les Papilles (the name means "taste buds"). But Bluy, who used to be the pastry chef at the Michelin three-star restaurant Taillevent, is a better cook than I am.

As part of his four-course menu, Bluy set out a white porcelain tureen of velvety artichoke soup; the foie gras mousse, shaped into two little eggs and placed at the bottom of the empty bowl, melted creamily when I ladled the steaming soup over it. Bluy uses the same supplier Taillevent does for his incredibly tender and flavorful hanger steak, which he featured in his petite marmite du jour (a kind of blue-plate special in a covered copper casserole). The pan-seared meat with carrots and spring onions, all seasoned with cumin seeds in a thyme-infused veal broth, was wonderful. After the steak came a cheese course—a soft, runny slice of Sainte-Maure chèvre with greens and a tapenade tartine—and, for dessert, the same silky crème brûlée Bluy used to make at Taillevent for customers, who paid much more.

Follow the Young Protégés

Another clever way to eat cheaply and well in Paris is to track down the young, up-and-coming chefs who, like Bluy, trained at Michelin-starred restaurants. Over the past ten years, these cooks, starting out on their own or working with first-time restaurateurs, have created an entirely new genre, the gastro-bistro, devoted to spins on the classics at modest prices. The original gastro-bistro, La Régalade, inspired dozens of others—most recently L'Ami Jean, L'Ourcine and La Famille, to name just a few.

The 18-month-old Café Moderne is one of the youngest of the bunch, with 29-year-old chef Sébastien Altazian—who trained with Michelin-starred chefs Michel Rostang and Guy Savoy—in the kitchen. I had doubts about getting to Café Moderne in time to try the three-course, $39 prix-fixe menu I'd heard so much about. I was delayed and didn't arrive for lunch until almost two in the afternoon, near the time French restaurateurs typically close the kitchen. But when I got there, the plush red banquette was still packed with media people and bankers. (There are five banks within a short stroll of the restaurant, which is across the street from the Bourse, Paris's old stock market.) Fréderic Hubig, a co-owner, caught me eyeing a dish of fresh-caught langoustines. "I'm delighted to have you here for a late lunch," he said. "But, unfortunately, at this hour the kitchen has run out of the daily special." That wasn't entirely a disaster, because I was already having trouble choosing from among Altazian's offerings.

Café Moderne isn't really a café, and Altazian does more than cook the hard-boiled eggs you see on every café counter. As a starter on the fixed menu, for instance, he lightly breaded soft-boiled eggs then fried them so the yolk flowed onto a silken spinach puree and mixed with strips of crispy, salty bacon. His lamb shoulder entrée was cooked until it was falling off the bone, then shredded and packed into a ramekin lined with dried, plumped apricot halves. What a great idea. Dessert, a molten chocolate cake, was more predictable, but absolutely perfect.

The restaurant's affordability extends to the wine. "I get lost looking at a regular wine list," Hubig told me. So at Café Moderne he arranged the choices by price. And he loves sharing co-owner David Lanher's discoveries. He directed me to a $35 bottle of 2003 La Vieille Ferme Perrin, from Provence's vanguard Côtes du Ventoux wine region. This easy-drinking, fruity red just kept getting better as I sipped it with lunch. Serious wine drinkers will want reservations at Café Moderne's Monday-night Grand Cru dinners, when the restaurant pours wines like Château Guiraud Sauternes 1er Cru classé and Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste Pauillac Cru classé—at cost!

Eat at a Cooking School

Having a student cook for you is guaranteed not to cost much, but you never know just how well the pupil has learned the lessons. Two cooking schools in Paris, however, offer an amazing (if charmingly imperfect) culinary experience. The four-course meal at the fourth-floor restaurant of the École Supérieure de Cuisine Française Ferrandi, for instance, includes a vast selection of cheese and costs only $23, $28 or $45, depending on the day of the week and who's cooking (second- or third-year students).

My meal was, for the most part, surprisingly good. The menu is not a rehash of Escoffier's 20th-century classics but composed of completely contemporary recipes, such as roasted sea bass in a red wine sauce and thyme-scented rabbit with a potato gratin and caramelized onions. The service is chancier than the food, because the waitstaff includes many first-year students; my server had to hide the chocolate tart because half of it skidded across the floor when he tried to slice it in front of me. Though mortified, he persevered with grace.

For the best possible deal, take a lunchtime cooking class at the eight-month-old Atelier des Chefs—then eat what you make. For $20, you spend 30 minutes in a modern, glass-enclosed kitchen with up to 21 other students, making a one-dish meal under the direction of an instructor. The day I was there, the teacher was Jean-Sébastien Bompoil, a young, English-speaking chef from the Ritz. There are no recipes and practically no lecturing; you get to work as soon as you've washed your hands and donned a plastic apron. There was at least as much chattering as cooking going on as my fellow students and I companionably shared the tasks of peeling potatoes to make mashed potatoes with olive oil and scallions, and paring off the thin, viscous membrane that surrounds a monkfish fillet. We pushed chunks of fish flavored with salt, pepper, lemongrass and olive oil onto lemongrass skewers and took turns pan-frying them before it was time—too soon—to move into the adjoining room for lunch. The two brothers who created the Atelier, François and Nicolas Bergerault, have taken pains to make the lunch more than an afterthought. You can buy a glass of wine to have with your meal, as well as cheese, coffee and dessert, which you can linger over at the small bar.

Go to the Grand Restaurants at Lunch

While top-drawer restaurants aren't giving the food away, many of them do offer the deal of the century at lunch—often a complete prix-fixe meal for the cost of a single entrée on the à la carte menu. Le Grand Véfour, Le Cinq and Le Bristol, among others, all have fabulous prix-fixe menus for under $105.

One of the least expensive with the most choices is the set lunch menu at the Hôtel Meurice's Le Meurice, on the Rue de Rivoli across from the Tuileries Gardens. Chef Yannick Alléno has garnered two Michelin stars and a great deal of buzz since he took over a year ago, and he has lots of impressive customers; I sat near the daughter of the President of Gabon, who was celebrating her marriage at the Meurice that afternoon. Yet Alléno is ferocious about giving good value. For $87, I was served a meal that included the same amuse bouche as the new bride, but I forgot to write down exactly what it was because I was too distracted by the Meurice's gilded, Corinthian-columned, laurel-wreath-motif opulence. The baby-lamb chops in the fricassée des Pyrénées might have been too fearsomely tiny for some people—they were the size of a man's thumb—but I loved the way the roasted pink meat contrasted with the dark, deeply flavored pieces of braised lamb shoulder. There were truffles, along with apples, celery and chestnuts, in the broth surrounding my beautifully roasted scallops. And the menu even included foie gras, which came in a terrine layered with quince, a notoriously hard fruit that Alléno managed to make as tender as the duck liver. The sommelier steered me to the wine list's most interesting and affordable handcrafted wines, including a spectacular $49 bottle of 2003 Domaine St. Nicolas Fiefs Vendéens.

Trust in Serendipity

I don't know exactly why Angl'Opéra, Gilles Choukroun's year-old restaurant, is so inexpensive. The $49 I spent for an à la carte meal was stunningly modest, given the quality of the food, which is some of the most wonderful and inventive in Paris.

The restaurant is on the ground floor of the Hôtel Edouard VII on a corner of the Avenue de l'Opéra. I didn't love the awkward room, which is shaped like a pie wedge, or the clichéd Christian Liaigre style: dark wood and striped velvet banquettes with red and green throw pillows. But I've hardly ever tasted anything as good as Choukroun's $14 fried langoustines, coated with bread crumbs and ground pistachios and served with a salad of cilantro and sliced, blanched almonds dressed with olive oil and chile pepper. You want to scrape and suck the langoustine shells to get every bit of the crust. Some of his ideas are just so smart: I adored his roasted duck magret served with a reduced beet juice sauce, because the richness and sweetness were balanced by earthy green lentils and a shot glass of the lentil cooking liquid. It was as memorable a dish as any I've had in the past few years—and at $25, I left with enough money to start planning a return trip to Paris.

[HejazSunKat]

La Rotisserie D'en Face

2, rue Christine - Paris 75006
Tel : 01 43 26 40 98 - Fax : 01 43 54 54 48
Subway : Odéon
Seats : 80
Closing days :
Lunch : Saturday, Sunday
Dinner : Sunday

I could have eaten the roast chicken here every night...

[granolagirl]

Boulanger de Monge
I was just going to recommend it. :)