Lunchtime in Paris

Modern lunch

Another gloomy gray January day in Paris,

I can't take pictures at my desk anymore because there is no natural light so I unpacked my lunch on the terrace of the Museum of Modern Art (not the Pompidou center - this museum is run by the city of Paris). It's right down the street from my office. In the background you can see the Seine, the Eifel Tower and a footbridge leading to the Musée de quai Branly.

I had a roastbeef and Roquefort sandwich. Of all the delicious French cheeses Roquefort is my favorite. Someday I will make a weekend getaway to visit the cellars where it is aged.

A close up of this delicious sandwich. I've found an excellent boulangerie and their bread is really good.

I also had a rasberry tart, which unfortunately got a little smushed while I was transporting it to the photo location.

And since the lunch cost 7.60 euros and my lunch tickets are for 8, I made up the difference with two yummy chouquettes (scroll down to the bottom of this excellent link for a recipe in English).

So that was my lunch but I also made this interesting discovery,

See that weird green mobile-home like thing on the top of the building? It's called the Hotel Everland and although it's really complicated and expensive you can make reservations to spend the night in it.

Happy lunching from Paris!

Lunch from the market - Wednesday is Market Day

On a positive note, one of the benefits of my new workplace is that I can leave for lunch early on Wednesdays and go to the outdoor market which is right across the street from the new offices.

This is our street food here in Paris. And here is a LINK in English for the addresses and days of all the markets in Paris. My market is the President Wilson one.

A nice bag full of clementines...the weather was weird today, I managed to take this picture in the sun but it just kept coming in and out so some of the market pictures are rather dark as I suppose befits Paris in January...

Here is where I buy my fruit every week, delicious mangos, papayas, and clementines.

And I can't resist another photos of the clementines, they are so good!

You can buy plants and flowers in the market.

As well as fish and seafood,

and even sanwiches, there is a little sandwich stand in our market and that is where I bought my lunch today.

Anyway, I'll try to get back to the market. It's interesting because it changes with the seasons. Today I was a little shy about taking photos. It's weird because when I'm visiting foreign countries or off into the countryside for a weekend I'm a tourist and I don't care but somehow just leaving the office to take photos of the market across the street intimidates me...I will work on this.

And,  I also want to work on getting my links up to date. Several people have linked to me and I've not linked back. Not because I don't want to it's just that I'm trying to get a useful link organization system set up and it's really difficult.

What I would like to do is set it up by country in one long list, for example:

Australia (this would be the title in bold or whatever but would not be a lien)

and here would logically follow a clickable list to the various sites I like in that country.. such a

1.  this one  (particularly nice), or

2. this one  (which I also really like)....

Hopefully, I will figure this out or you will be able to help me get this going.

Happy Lunching!

Last lunch of 2007 - Paris "Let them Eat Cake" Extravaganza part I

I'm still feeling motivated and I think it may be in part due to the very kind Wildschwein who have actually nominated me as blog of the week on their site (this is my first ever nomination for anything, wow). 

So thanks very Wildschwein and since I know you are dreaming and saving for Paris here is some more inspiration for you...I hope you like it (and please remember it's only part I ), so -

Others may prefer the jewels of Place Vendome but for a foodie there is only one place for a window shopping  pilgrimage in Paris...

Place de la Madeleine - home of Ladurée  - look at that line to buy macarons...

And here, some truffles at Maison de la Truffe  (the truffle house)

This is such an artsy photo (check out my Alfred Hitchcock like cameo appearance) of Hediard and what a nice window display that is!

Fauchon is doing some fashionable cakes this season. I particularly like this disco one covered in silver leaf - is it edible?

They've also got some lovely canapés for your next fête.

Oh, and what's this? the Holy Grail, the Hope Diamond, giant king crab's legs on ice - perhaps I will win the lottery some day.

But, until that time comes I've still got Duthil (no site) in the neighborhood and they've some lovely cakes as well.



Three chocolate cakes.



First cake...



Inside the first cake - the little orange cookie like thing is a macaron - what you wait in line for at Ladurée.



Ok, now that we've been to Fauchon we know that silver is in and gold is out but this lovely litte neighborhood cake has gold...and it was delicious;



if a little blurry.



and here is the chocolate monument, very nice as well.

Anyway, that's it for today. I wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year, lot's of good food, good friends, and good fortune!

Lunch in Roscoff

Hi, and it's been a long time, and I've missed you, this site is like good therapy for me,

I come back frequently to check on the number of visits, people from all over the world, checking out food photos from France,

And then, just last week I noticed that a whole day had gone by with no visitors, and I thought to myself, well, this just will not do. So, here is my report on Roscoff, a fabulous French port city in the wonderful region of Bretagne, (from my window at the Hotel Talabardon)

And yes, I had some sun in June (Brittany,  Bretagne has a well deserved reputation for being rainy and grey...), but even better than the sun, I saw this...

A real live artichoke field, it was the first time in my life that I'd ever seen them growing. I don't know what I'd imagined but artichokes in a field are just so cute, and they are even better on a plate...

Here is another pic, from one of the better Roscoff establishments

I recommend Chez Janie, they speak English, they serve some excellent stuffed artichokes, and the view of the port is just so pleasant, not to mention the view from the port on to the terrasse:

Of course, I also ate some oysters

There is no "r" in June and yet these oysters were just exquisite, perhaps because Roscoff is a real port city.

Fresh from the port, the fishermen sell their daily catch and it gets even better,

I  was lucky enough to be there when the "tourteau" fishing boats came back to port after ten days at sea, so, my advice to you is to take a break in Roscoff,

Buy your lobsters fresh off the boat, right on the port, and then for desert...

Some delicious Far Breton aux Pruneaux from kouign amann, that totally fabulous place where they sell the most delicious Brittany pastries (and yet they have no website), but do not despair, it's easy to find, they are located right on the "Place de l'Eglise", near the only news-stand, across the street from the Hotel Talabardon.

And in closing, a photo of my last foggy night at the hotel Talabardon, I will miss Bretagne, perhaps some day I will get back.

Quiche and cake for lunch today

After all the horrible salad misadentures let's all breath a collective sigh of relief...ouuuui, no more bizarre Parisian salads (ever again).

Anyway, today's lunch was such a pleasure... and therefore it is a pleasure for me to share it with you. Enjoy!



Two quiches and a lovely cake.



First up is the quiche Lorraine...



and next up is the quiche poireaux...these are traditional favorites.



Here we have a close up on the quiche poireaux...the crust is delightful and the filling is just heavenly.



And here is the quiche Lorraine...



The two delicious quiches were followed by this very interesting cake. At the boulangerie they call it "Caraibes" which means Caribbean..obviously, I was expecting some Caribbean fruits...and so, do grapes and strawberries come from the Caribbean? Perhaps I will do some research.



In any case, this was a very nice cake and since the whole lunch cost less than what I had paid for my various salad fiascos, I'm happy. It's also so much more fun to take photos of food that is good.

This weekend I am going to make a chicken machbous which require lots of spices, oh happy me! Please pray that I get out of bed early enough tomorrow morning to start the whole delightfully complicated process...I'll try to get the results in on Monday but since I also have plans to go and check out "Le Diable s'habille en Prada" Sunday afternoon...who knows? anyway, Tuesday at the latest and big biz de Paris!

Happy lunching toujours!

Lunches with dessert

I was really tired last night and so I didn't post. I had my Arabic class and then it is the "Semaine Culturelle " (culture week) here in Paris so at the Syrian Cultural Center where I'm taking my classes they showed a marvelous film by Mustapha Al-Akkad  called Lion of the Desert. This is a sad and tragic story which lasts for three hours so I got home really late (but still an excellent film and I'm glad to finally learn the story of Omar Al-Mokhtar).

So today you get two lunches for the price of one.

The first lunch is chicken and crudité (raw veg) on baguette with a delicious chocolate macaroon cake and a diet coke.

The second lunch is feuillité jambon champignons (feuillité is a kind of pastry dough, feuille is leaf and so since it has so many layers it's like saying "leafy"), an extra special chocolate mousse cake, and a diet coke.

A delicious chicken sandwich French style.

And the feuillité...this is typical of boulangerie food and only cost 2,20 EUR. Flaky pastry dough filled with succulent mushrooms and ham.

I'm experimenting with taking pictures in the sun...anyway, here is the first delicious cake called a craquant (meaning crispy or crunchy or crackling...). It is composed of two macaroons, some rasberries, and some creme patissiere (I really don't like this...it's like butter cream frosting).

And here is the most extraordinary and exquisite "trois mousses" (three chocolate mousse) cake, wow, what can I say, it glows and you should try and get your hands on one of these.

Inside the chocolate rasberry macaroons.

Inside the three chocolate mousse thing, oh please hit me again...

Just another lovely look for my chocolate loving friends out there.

And so, tomorrow's Friday and TGIF. I had originally planned to do something Mexican this weekend but my research has shown that there is a really complicated pepper situation there and so I'm going to need more time to sort that out from Paris.

But do not despair because there is an Eastern European shop in my neighbourhood and I can buy some real true Hungarian Paprika and that means that this weekend I'm going to do my utmost to make a very authentic Chicken Paprikash...

Stay tuned and happy lunching!

A sandwich and two cakes for lunch

Well no, I didn't actually have two cakes for lunch today. What has happened is that I've fallen in love with the wonderful Bayonne/Reblochon sandwich from the boulangerie and so I had it two days in a row...FYI Bayonne is a kind of ham and Reblochon is a wonderful French cheese.

The first lunch started like this: a bayonne and reblochon sandwich with a chocolate religieuse (a sort of cake, keep reading...)

Melty cheese and salty ham on fresh bread...great sandwich

Actually, a really great sandwich so it gets another photo

This is the religieuse (religieuse means "nun" in French and it is also the name of  a very typical cake that you can find in all the boulangeries), very delicious too. And this whole lunch cost 8 EUR.

The bottom layer of the religieuse

And the top

So, the next day I went back to the very same boulangerie and got the very same sandwich because it is so extra delicious but, I got a different kind of cake. This one is a millefeullle (thousand leaves...because of the flaky crust).

A fabulous millfeuille for 2.20 EUR, the religieuse is about the same price.

Once again, I do suggest that you look into the boulangeries in Paris for your lunching needs.

Quiche for lunch

So, les vacances sont terminées (vacation is over) and its back to the office and whatever I can find within walking distance. Today it was quiche.

These are the little individual quiches from the nearby boulangerie. One is a quiche lorraine (on the left) and the other is a quiche provencal (on the right).

Close up on the quiche lorraine. A classic.

And even closer up. The crust was particularly nice on this one.

This is the quiche provencal with red peppers and zucchini (courgette).

And here is a close up. To my taste it was not quite so good as the quiche lorraine, the provencal has veg in so the crust on top just wasn't the same, too watery for me.

Anyway, you can find these little quiches in lots of boulangeries in Paris and they are inexpensive (relatively speaking). These two quiches with a diet coke cost 6.90 EUR (each quiche was under 3 EUR). My advice is to find a boulangerie near a park where you can sit on the grass,  the parc Monceau  is just lovely in this respect. Also, quiche is filling and in this way you can perhaps save your money for that fabulous dinner splurge you're going to do at Plaza Athenée...

Anyway, back from vacation and searching for ideas I've got two projects for this weekend. One is the traditional Tunisian brik à l'oeuf and the other is Wenzhou in Belleville....my new favorite Chinese place with the extra cool, friendly waiter.

No lunch today - just memories

I'm just home from the dentist and so no lunch for me just a walk down memory lane to a lunch I had last October at L'Estaminet, rue Oberkampf, 11th Paris

It's a cute little neighborhood restaraurant with really small tables. I went with a friend, she had the special of the day, shrimp and lotte and I had the steak tartare with fries.

This is the steak tartare. It was already prepared, which is not my preference. I like it better when the meat and the fixings are seperate and I can mix myself. A steak tartare is very fresh raw ground beef with shallots, parsley, capers, worcestershire, tobasco, and an egg yolk all mixed together. Of course there are variations, the weirdest I ever had involved diced peanuts and wasabi...

This was the daily special, shrimps and lotte in a delicious sauce. Kind of messy with the shells still on.

This picture is not from the same meal. It is from one of my trips to Etretat. I just thought the pink religiouse looked so delicious that I'm adding it as desert.

And in an effort to improve my photos I found picasa2 from google  (check it out if you can't afford photoshop). It does some nice things for free!

happy lunching!

Back to lunch

Hello fellow lunchers,

I have the flu. I'm off work and haven't eaten anything interesting for the past two days. But even though I didn't have much of a lunch today (some tea and bread) I found some photos of lunches from last year and they look pretty good.

These are also typically French things so without further ado:

A delicious "croque madame" that I had for lunch in January of this year by the sea in Granville (Normandy). Croque madame is a a sort of grilled cheese, except the cheese is on the outside as well, with a fried egg on top. Even though it's technically a sandwich it must be eaten with a knife and fork. A "croque monsieur" is the same but without the egg.

The traditional "steak frites" (a steak with fries) and yes that is butter on the steak. I like my steak very rare as you can see in the photo. This steak frites was from Etretat in November of last year and I also had:

Some traditional fish soup served with fromage rapée (grated cheese) toasts and rouille (an orange sauce).

One more photo of some delicious scallops

This was right at the beginning of scallop season last year in November served with carrot purée potatos, a tomato and a very lovely sauce.

That's if for today and hopefully I will be feeling better tomorrow and we will be able to get back to the serious business of lunching.