First Bites

Greetings on this warm and wet Paris morning.  Looks like we’ll have a lot of rain on this visit but today, at least, it is light and drizzly, the temperature is heading to 50, and the daft birds outside our window have a lot to sing about.

So do I, though my brain still has that peculiar cloudiness that comes from wrenching yourself awake when the bedside clock says 7:00 a.m. but your internal timekeeper says it’s the middle of the freaking night.

We are about to take a damp stroll down to the Saturday morning market at the Place Maubert where, with any luck, my favorite vendors from the south will be there with their picholine olives and freshly baked fougasses.

Our first 24 hours in my favorite city have been very tasty though they did not include, as they usually do, any sweet treat from Gerard Mulot, since the lines were too long when we went past.  The macaroons will have to wait. Still, we lingered at the side door where the sugary air is vented onto the street wrapping us in the smell of cotton candy.

We did, however, hit our beloved pizza place for dinner, Pizzaria Da Pietro on rue Mabillon. We got there too early – our jet lagged tummies confused about dinner time -- but the glimpse through the window of flames leaping in the oven lured us back an hour later. We had a gorgeous assiette des legumes to start – grilled eggplant and zucchini, artichoke heart, mushrooms, haricot verts, broccoli, cauliflower, and broad beans, all dressed in olive oil on a bed of lovely, bitter arugula. Great baguette to soak up every pungent drop of oil. Then J had tagliatelle Bolognese and I had a pizza, avec aubergine et champignons. It was perfect – crust blistered, burned and chewy like I remember pizzas from my NY childhood. Not your Indiana pizza.  Profriteroles, fat with ice cream and drenched with chocolate sauce, to finish. We needed to walk up all four flights to our room after that.

Other delicious mouthfuls.

• Chips Saveur Moutarde! Do we have mustard flavored potato chips at home, and if not, why not? These are really great, with little flecks of mustard grains.
• Café au lait. I don’t drink coffee as a rule because caffeine makes me crazy, but I make an exception here, where being crazy is part of the fun.
• Hotel breakfast. Overpriced, to be sure, but I had a chewy grainy roll with some Normandy  butter  and abricots confiture, an oozy goat cheese, and a pain au chocolat.  As the commercial says, priceless.
• Badoit. This is my favorite mineral water – not too salty and just the right amount of fizz so I can drink it with meals. I have never seen it in the  US.  Again,  why not?

Well, on with the raincoat and off to the market. À bientôt!

st

Comments

[scott]

Sounds like you are having a delicious time. BTW, I ran across mustard-flavored chips in a workplace vending machine once. They were great!

[Lydia]

My mouth is watering!

[Patrick]

Boy that pizza looks good. There are ways of getting Badoit in the US but it is expensive. See http://dat.erobertparker.com/bboard/showthread.php?t=5729&highlight=badoit

[Jared]

I'm not sure if I'm more impressed that you two are in Paris for Valentine's Day, or that you're actually blogging while traveling in France. I'd be too busy attempting to eat my weight in various cheeses. Thanks for sharing.

[christine (myplateoryours)]

Hi Scott -- you don't remember what the brand was, do you?

Lydia, mine too, mine too!

Hi Pat, thanks for that link. I read the whole exchange. Very expensive. But if owned by Danone, why, I wonder.

I don't know, Jared, at least blogging gives me a brief respite from eating. But you are right -- there are so many cheeses and I have not made a dent.