Picnicking on the Train

It’s so easy to put together a terrific picnic in Paris! Our Eurostar train back to London was at 8pm, our dinner time. We stopped at a patisserie/boulangerie close to our hotel and bought these temptations to eat on the train.

A tarte Reblochon

A tarte Provencale

A slice of quiche lorraine

Fabulous!

 

Paris Street Food

Paris street food is wonderful!

No, seriously, there are loads of terrific foods that can be eaten on the hoof. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, all can be covered by stuff you find in little takeaway stalls, stands in the street, and patisseries/boulangeries. Every morning (of which sadly, we only had two), we would head to a random patisserie near our hotel and choose 1 or 2 pastries, one of which would be a croissant au beurre (no margarine for us!). We love the French croissants with a passion! Those crisp flaky shells and tender crumb within. Oh, I’m craving one now.

We had other takeaways for lunch. After we arrived in Paris and checked into our hotel, we walked down towards the Centre Pompidou looking for a bite to eat. And then I saw it. That stand. About 4 years ago, I came to Paris for the first time and stayed in the same area (the Marais) and there was a very long queue at that stand and the bread being baked on that hot dome looked so good but we had limited time and y’know, I’ve thought about that bread ever since. And this time, I got to try it.

We ordered two sandwiches, one a zataar extra (freshly baked bread, zaatar, melted cheese, fresh mint, olives, tomatoes) as shown below, and the other was one with roasted aubergine, mint, olives, tomatoes.

They were fabulous and fresh and huge! They were worth the 4 year wait…though I hope it’s not another 4 years before I taste them again!

Of course, we couldn’t leave Paris without having a crepe.

This one’s ham and cheese - simple and so tasty.

Man’Ouche (the Lebanese place with the freshly baked flatbread)
21, rue Saint-Jacques
Paris, France

 

Two Rather Random Meals in Paris

Soon after our pre-dinner treat at Pierre Hermé, the skies opened and it began to pour. We ran back from where we had come and popped into this adorable restaurant - Le Petit Saint Benoit. We were led past the bar into another room fulling of tables and chairs. And I mean full! We were sat at a row of two-tops and our table had to be pulled out for me to get to my seat by the wall.

To start, we had poireaux vinaigrette and the housemade terrine. Both very simple but tasty nonetheless.

I chose the boeuf Bourguignon as my main, which came in a little Staub cocotte and was fork tender. It was a little burnt at the bottom due to the hot little pot but that only affected a little of the beef.

Blai chose coq au vin, one of the specials of the day - this was a total winner of a dish. The chicken (or should I say cockerel) was cooked to total tenderness and tasted fantastic in that reduced red wine sauce.

For dessert, I had the daily special of tarte Tatin, served with a good helping of creme fraiche. Pretty good, not too sweet.

Blai chose the Montblanc, a mixture of creme de marrons (sweetened chestnut puree) and whipped cream. Delicious and we’ve been recreating it at home with tins of creme de marrons we brought back from Paris.

This is such a lovely restaurant with loads of character, as one would expect from a restaurant that opened in 1901. Of course, if sitting elbow to elbow to your neighbours is your idea of hell, then perhaps this restaurant is not for you. Actually, um… most of Paris was like that and I definitely don’t have a problem with that!

The next day, a Tuesday, was our last day in Paris and we decided to have a proper lunch as we would not have time for a sitdown dinner. I kept my eyes peeled that lunchtime when we got close to the Musee d’Orsay - after passing a few extremely packed cafes and a couple overpriced posh brasseries, we came across a tiny little bar brasserie with a shabby red awning. A quick glance at the menu posted outside and the packed seats inside gave me a gut feeling that this place was going to be good.

Inside, a row of narrow banquettes lined the wall, all of them packed with locals on their lunch break. We squeezed into a tiny table for two by the door and placed orders for delicious confit de canard!

Look at that duck, with its crispy skin and tender flesh, and the best ever potatoes fried in duck fat, and that dressed green salad, so refreshing. Later that day, I actually purchased a massive tin the size of my head full of confit de canard! I’m saving it for a special occasion!

For dessert, Blai chose this terrific delice Normande of apple compote topped with a creme anglaise (I think) and sliced almonds. I only managed a tiny taste before he wolfed the whole thing down.

I chose the petit pavé de chocolat avec creme Chantilly and some kind of orange sauce. Wow, that little puck of chocolate was exceptionally rich and we both struggled to finish this tiny portion! It was heavenly though; I just wish I had had more room in my stomach to do it justice.

What a delightful little place and the proprietress was equally charming! The lesson to be taken away from all this is, of course, not to judge a restaurant by its dirty awning! These little places seem to be everywhere in Paris but I suppose the new and shiny will always seem more appealing than these older places. But do try them!

Le Petit Saint Benoit
4, rue Saint Benoit
Paris, France

Bar Brasserie Le Bellechasse
33, rue de Bellechasse
Paris, France

 

Pierre Hermé

From what I can find online, it looks like the battle of the best macarons seems to be waged between Ladurée and Pierre Hermé. Now that we have the former in London, I was on a mission to get some from the latter in Paris. After we were kicked out from the Louvre (we did not cause a ruckus; it closes at 6pm), we made our way to the branch of Pierre Hermé on rue Bonaparte, about 15 minutes walk away. As it was a weekday and not far from closing time (they close at 7pm), there was no queue. Unfortunately, they had run out of their famous croissants by then - oh well, I’ll have to go back!

When you enter the shop, you’re presented with many jewel coloured confections in the display cases on the left. Cakes to feed 10, individual pastries, boxes of bite-sized macarons, rows of larger ones…and then the cash till. On the right hand side, there’s a row of shelves with chocolates and candies and baskets of Viennoiserie in the back (well, empty baskets by then) and rows of Christine Ferber jams in the front. Her jams are quite legendary from what I’ve read online and these jars on offer are made using the flavour combinations that Pierre Hermé himself uses in his patisserie. Of course, I had to take home one of those jars! After much deliberation, we chose the gorgeous confiture montebello, with its two layers of pistachio cream and strawberry jam.

After further perusal, I wanted one of the Ispahans, his creation involving rose, raspberry and lychee. It’s the beautiful ruby coloured delight you see below - a large rose macaron sandwiching rose flavoured buttercream with bits of lychee and whole raspberries.

And then of course, the main reason why I had dragged poor Blai all the way there…the macarons! As there were ten flavours, I figured one of each wouldn’t be too unreasonable! Seven were placed in a box and the three extra were placed in a bag. Here’s a tip - if you’re going to be doing any kind of travelling with macarons, just get boxes - the three in the bag got a bit too squished. Of course, this doesn’t affect the flavour at all!

After paying for our goodies, we walked up and across the road to a bench in front of a church (which was totally under scaffolding last weekend). There, we annihilated the gorgeous Ispahan. The scent of rose wafts up your nostrils as you take a bite and then the sweet and tart raspberries squish under your tongue and then within the cream, little bits of juicy and fragrant lychee surprise you. Oh, I want another. The smaller macarons we took back to London where day by day a few would disappear (but not without recording every little detail of each, almost to a scientific level) - wow. I’m still a fan of Ladurée’s macarons but those from Pierre Hermé beat theirs in terms of originality!

Pierre Hermé
72, rue Bonaparte
Paris, France

There’s another branch at 183, rue de Vaugirard.

 

Mon Vieil Ami, Paris

Months ago, we struggled to remember the last time we’d been on holiday together, not including visits to parents. It was a sufficiently long enough time ago to mortify us and cause us to hastily go onto the Eurostar website and finally book that long weekend to Paris that we’d wanted to do for a while. Last weekend was that date and we had such a lovely time away together. Never underestimate the restorative properties of a proper holiday!

For our first night, I wanted to find a lovely restaurant for us to see what Paris could offer. I’d seen many good reviews for Mon Vieil Ami, a modern little restaurant on the Ile St-Louis, and its central location made it convenient to get to from wherever we would be that day (it turned out that we would be at the Centre Pompidou, only about 12 minutes walk away). On their website, they say that they focus on vegetables. Do not be alarmed; there’s meat on the menu too!

When we got there, we were seated very promptly at one of the individual round tables (quite a choice spot as the rows of tables along the walls were quite crowded) and then offered an aperitif - juice or white wine. I chose the juice which was a mixture of watermelon and grapefruit. It was red and tart and sweet and quite refreshing.

For my first course, I chose the pâté en croûte de Mon Vieil Ami, céleri façon rémoulade et compote de d’oignons rouges (pâté en croûte with celery remoulade and red onion compote). The remoulade tasted more like celeriac than celery (am I translating incorrectly?) however but both it and the compote went very well with the pâté en croûte. I thought the pastry was a bit soggy though and the meat a little bland. The foie in the middle was a nice touch - I saved that for last!

Blai chose the mijotée tiêde de légumes de saison, aux raisins et aux amandes, tartine de poivrons confits (mixed seasonal vegetables with raisins and almonds and a tartine with pepper confit). The vegetables were all very well cooked, as one would expect from a restaurant whose main focus is on légumes. However, Blai thought it was all a little blah, a bit dull.

For our main course, we decided to order the dish for two - blettes et pommes de terre Grenaille en fricasée, côte de cochon rôtie et jambon de Bayonne (chard and bite-sized potato fricassee with roasted pork and Bayonne ham). I think we quite like ordering these dishes as if we’d been eating alone, we never would be able to try them! What arrived were two empty plates for us and a large casserole filled with the chard and potatoes topped with the pork and ham. The sauce was good but we got a little tired of it by the end - it was so red that I thought it looked like barbeque sauce at first. I liked the tenderness of the young chard and the potatoes were very tasty though some were veering on the side of rawness. But the roasted pork was dry and sometimes hard. I know this restaurant puts its focus on vegetables but if you’re going to serve meat, serve it well cooked!

Luckily, things picked up during dessert. I chose the rhubarbe en clafoutis, sorbet rhubarbe-basilic (rhubarb clafoutis with rhubarb-basil sorbet) while Blai chose the poires au caramel, crême de pralin et sorbet poire William (pears with caramel, praline cream and pear liquor sorbet). The tartness of the rhubarb went well with the sweet eggy batter and the basil sorbet kind of worked with the whole thing though I preferred to eat the two parts separately. Blai enjoyed his and I recall that the creme de pralin was quite unique, that familiar caramel and nut mixture but in a different texture.

Would I recommend the restaurant? Well, it’s hard to say as I wonder if we just ordered poorly. The desserts were innovative and if I was able to just order those, I would, but the execution of the main dish was not as I would expect for a restaurant with such a good reputation and with such a price tag (41€ for three course). Service was very professional and nothing of that could be faulted. The restaurant was absolutely packed that Sunday night and it looked like half were locals and half were tourists. I’d say that if I lived in Paris, I would give the place another chance but as my visits to Paris aren’t often, I’ll probably eat elsewhere the next time I visit.

Mon Vieil Ami
69 rue Saint Louis en l’Île
Paris, France

Reservations required. I booked about one week in advance for a Sunday night table. Many people tried to drop in on the day itself and all were turned away.