Kitchen Culinaire

Here is a bit of a visual “greatest hits” from the last two days.

Cherries at the market today

We just arrived home from dinner and now, instead of the two of us, there are three. My husband arrived today and I am so happy to be able to spend the next two weeks exploring Paris and beyond with my love. Tomorrow my son Max arrives with my Dad along with my sister Lisa and her partner Paolo. It is going to be one full house!

As I am expecting things to get pretty busy around here I won’t be doing a daily blog post but I am hoping to be able to stop in with a photo of the day. Stay tuned…

Butter selection at Le Grande Epicerie

I’m sitting here, drinking my coffee and thinking about how today marks the halfway point in our trip to France.

In a way it marks the end of part one of the trip as family starts arriving today and on Saturday and we will go from a quiet household of two to a bursting at the seams party of seven. In reality we won’t all be here at the same time for more than a couple of days. My parents are leaving on Tuesday for a five day trip by car up to Normandy and Strasbourg and Glen and I are taking the train to Avignon next Friday where we will head off on a five day cycling trip through the South of France.

Max will be spending time with my sister Lisa and her partner Paolo doing every cool, kid-friendly thing there is to do in Paris while we are gone. Then we will all be reunited on the 12th of June and are planning on going out for dinner at one of our favourite small bistros to celebrate my parents 50th wedding anniversary. Then it will be home sweet home on the 15th.

While both my Mom and I are excited to see the rest of the family we will miss the easy routine that we have fallen into. Our quiet, mellow mornings, talking over coffee. The afternoon walks, exploring the neighbourhood and every bakery, chocolate shop and specialty food store we can find. We have made many discoveries together on this trip. That some of the best chocolate in the city can be be found at a tiny shop run by a woman in pigtails. That we both might be over the whole macaron thing. That while we both love French cheese we love French demi-sel butter more. In fact, we have both become somewhat obsessed about this exquisite butter that is so different from anything we can find at home.

At home all the butter tastes pretty much the same. Avalon butter is my go to brand at home as it is locally made and has a decent, if neutral, taste. I also have access to a locally produced raw butter and have on occasion even made my own. All good but all pretty much the same…

In Paris we have discoverd that while we are both partial to French butter we each favour a different brand.

For my Mom:

Mom's favourite butter

For me, I prefer:

My favourite butter

There was also this butter from Normandy, sold from une motte ( a mound) that was also a top contender:

Normandy butter from the local cremerie

I was going to try to explain the difference between these butters and how and why they taste so very different from the butter at home but instead I am going to send you to a New York Times article that explains it far better than I ever could. That link is here.

What I will say is that my love for French butter is not only a flavour thing but a texture thing too. The butter tastes tangy and rich and crunchy from the salt that is added. Some that we tried are quite a bit more salty than others. I preferred the Echire as it is not super salty and has very good flavour but is still somewhat nuanced. It would be great for cooking as well as slathering on a baguette. My Mom preferred the Bordier which has a slightly more pronounced tangy flavour and a slightly bigger hit of salt. With the many, many choices available at the market we are going to have to keep trying and see if there is another brand out there that might just come out on top!

A thousand layers...

Whenever I tell someone that I’m going to be spending some time in Paris they always ask, “Where are you going to eat?” I suspect they are hoping to hear that I have a long list of “serious” restaurants, perhaps even a two or three star hot spot with a fancy chef at the helm.

Truth is, that is just not part of our Paris itinerary.

I am here with my Mom who certainly loves good food but would far rather spend her euros on an expensive chocolate bar (don’t even ask what the Bernachon bars cost!) or a bag of fancy salted caramels than some multi-course menu that is going to take her three hours to eat.

My Mother also prefers to eat her main meal at lunch which, it turns out, is very French. She is not a huge fan of overly formal service or line-ups or spending 18 euros on a hamburger. My Mom loves good, honest bistro food that is cooked with love, served with care and fairly priced.  She also loves to get on her iPad to research where little gems that meet her criteria may be hiding in Paris and I must admit that her due diligence has never let us down.

Some of our very favourite finds have been relatively small, out of the way places that have just a few tables and offer a lunch menu for less that 20 euros. The cook may also be the owner with his/her brother or wife/husband or mother working the front of house. In this scenario you are pretty much guaranteed good food and service which is nothing to sneeze at in a city like Paris.

When we aren’t seeking out great little lunch bistros we are always on the hunt for the best places for sweets or spices or bread or croissants.

My Mom and I had read about the bakery Du Pain et Des Idées and had even managed to find the tiny store in the 10th Arrondissment after we had enjoyed a lunch at Chez Prune close by. I knew that the baker, Christophe Vasseur was self taught and has so much passion for baking that he has managed to catapult himself to the top of Parisian bakeries for his thoughtful selection of outstanding pastries and bread. You need to click on the link above and listen to the bakery soundtrack that accompanies the beautiful visuals of Du Pain’s website. The sounds will transport you to this special jewel box of a bakery where you won’t find a massive selection of cakes and pies and breads but a selected few that are done so well, made with such care that you won’t think twice about getting up early to schlep all the way across the city to pick up a bag of the very best croissants you have ever had. You might even want to share them with the people you love and happen to be travelling with…

From what I have read, baker Christophe chooses his ingredients so very thoughtfully and then mixes them with great care. He allows his croissant dough to rest and develop over 34 hours. When you buy one of these extraordinary croissants (for a mere 1.30 euro) you are duly rewarded. The long rest period yields a croissant with a deep, rich flavour that I have never experienced before. You can see the many golden, thin, buttery layers. More fine, buttery layers than I have ever seen in a croissant.

I tend to be a bit of a purist when it comes to croissants but then, just today, I tried one of Chef Christophe’s other puff pastry creations.

The l’escargot chocolat pistachio is a snail shaped puff pastry round that has pistachio pastry cream and small chunks of chocolate baked into the swirls of buttery pastry.

I happen to have a bit of a thing for pistachios and a growing chocolate obsession so, for me, this pastry is pretty much the perfect way to start the day. It looks like this…

L'escargot chocolat pistachio from Du Pain et Des Idées

I will be back tomorrow to talk about French demi-sel butter. Another growing obsession… xo J

A view of the Seine on my evening walk home

I know that I owe you guys a decent post tonight. And I know that since this is supposed to be a food blog that it really should be about food.

For the last few days I have been talking about books and the flea market and the botanical gardens. I’ve been posting photos of the French countryside or Paris city views or flowers. Where is the damn food? We came all the way to Paris and I’m not even talking about the food!

Okay, I got a bit sidetracked and so tomorrow I promise to tell you about some of the lovely gastronomic finds during this trip. I’m going to talk about my thoughts on “fine dining” in Paris. I’m also going to tell you about the croissant I had today and about how the dough was allowed to rest and ferment for 34 hours, how it had a thousand golden, buttery, paper thin layers and was by far, the best croissant that I have ever, EVER had.

But tonight I’m a bit tired from all of the walking and the sun and I’m dying to get tucked into bed and read the book that I picked up at last night’s reading at Shakespeare and Company. My Mom is heckling me from the other room as I write, she really wants to see a proper post tonight.

Instead, I will just have to leave you (and my Mom) with a photo that I took on my walk home tonight. It might not be a photo of a chocolate bon bon or a croissant or some other gastronomic pleasure but still it shows what a beautiful, magical day it was in Paris today. See that light, those clouds, that bridge?!

Tomorrow there will be buttery croissants, and plenty of them…

A reading tonight by Francisco Goldman at Shakespeare and Company

I have just arrived home from a most inspiring evening.

When I put out the call for recommendations for things to do in Paris it was Denise who wrote that one of her favourite memories was taking in a reading at the very tiny, well stocked and rather famous English language bookstore Shakespeare and Company on rue Bûcherie right across from Notre Dame.

As my Mom was putting her feet up today I had all afternoon to wander around the city and so after I made my way through the Marais I found myself right outside the bookstore in perfect time to find out what time tonight’s reading would start. I knew that the writer was Francisco Goldman and that he would be reading from his book “Say Her Name” but I wasn’t overly familiar with this author or his work.

What a stroke of luck to be able to attend tonight’s event. This book just won Le Prix Fémina here in France and after hearing Mr. Goldman give such an intimate and moving reading from his book I can’t wait to delve into the copy that I picked up tonight. I don’t want to give anything away but Annie Proulx calls Say Her Name, “Wrenching, funny, powerful, and beautiful.” Good enough for me…

After the reading there were some really thoughtful and intelligent questions from the crowd and then we were all invited to have a glass of wine, get our books signed and spend some time chatting with the Mr. Goldman. I sat on a bench to the side watching people line up, waiting for their turn to talk with Mr. Goldman, telling him about their aspirations to be a writer, or their connection to a place or person mentioned during the reading from his book. They asked him to sign copies of his book for their sister or mother, husband or cousin and told him how much they loved the reading. In turn, Francisco Goldman couldn’t have been more kind to these adoring fans, asking them where they were from, what had brought them to Paris, what they were reading or writing, about their own families.

It was something that I never would have thought of to do while in Paris, and I enjoyed it so, so much. A highlight of my trip so far.

Thanks Denise!