Last weekend was spent in Paris. I did not go for the Eiffel Tower or for the Louvre, in fact, though I saw both, I chose to skip those oh so typical attractions in favor of eating. Yes, I spent my weekend in Paris eating. Eating, and then walking up and down the Seine trying to burn off all that I ate so that I could eat again. Ok, so it wasn’t quite that food oriented but I must say that upon returning to Bordeaux I had a couple days where I generally lacked an appetite.
So what did I consume? Not all good food, unfortunately. I hit up a sandwicherie upon arrival since I felt like I could not go one more step without eating and so I settled for what I could find. But after spending much more time than any normal person would in the Opera Garnier then wandering over to the Église de la Madeleine and running into a crazy melee of people at the Tuileries anxious to catch a glimpse of their favorite designers and models exiting a fashion show, I felt that I needed to inaugurate my stay in Paris with a visit to one of the most famous salons de thé in Paris, Angelina. Angelina’s is always busy, always busting and always filled to the brim with both tourists and hard-core Parisians alike. Located on the Rue de Rivoli, across from the Tuileries it is bright and inviting with a constant background of teacups and chatting giving atmosphere to this Paris institution. Though I’m sure that their teas are of the highest quality and they surely serve a wonderful café I have tasted only one item, their Chocolat à l’Ancienne dit “L’Africain.” This glorious concoction has put them on the map. It has also nearly put me into a coma on nearly every visit to Paris.
This hot chocolate is not your Swiss Miss with the mini marshmallows or even Garadelli hot chocolate mix; this is hot chocolate in the pure sense of the term, “hot” and “chocolate.” I’m pretty sure they simply melt down some chocolate, maybe add a bit of milk, and then pour the thick, creamy substance into a small, pretty pitcher and deliver it to the unsuspecting and/or anxiously waiting client. They serve it with a little cup filled with unsweetened whipped cream and a demi-pichet of water which is absolutely necessary. I made the mistake of decided to start things off with a bang and decided to order one of their gorgeous pastries along with the chocolat chaud, I chose the Paris-New York at the suggestion of my waitress. Next time I go to Paris, please, please, please, someone slap me upside the head if I try to order a pastry along with the intoxicatingly rich chocolat afriain, I nearly ended up in diabetic shock trying to make my way through them both. Eventually I abandoned the pastry, took a long break to make my way through three quarters of my pitcher of water, clearing my head before I felt that it might be possible to slowly finish the second half of my chocolat. That had to be accomplished in between sips of water and long pauses for people watching as best as I could from the back room that they placed me (perhaps they thought it looked unseemly for a girl to be there alone and thus had to keep me away from the sight of the other chocolate craving diners). But there was no way that I was going to abandon my glorious chocolate before it was finished, and finish it I did.
There was one thing that I learned on this weekend in Paris; it is that I should trust my instincts. I knew that I should go to Angelina’s, it was the proper start to my stay and made me incredibly happy, if slightly delirious. But, if a place looks too overcrowded with foreigners, has little flags and English translations on the menu, or makes you feel like you are settling, you should trust your gut and move on. What you get will probably be edible, but it probably won’t be a culinary epiphany either.
(my kind of tourist attraction)But one evening I found a glorious little restaurant, or rather chose randomly from the many restaurants that Clotilde lists on her site Chocolate and Zucchini, and had what was by far the best fish I’ve ever eaten in my life. Unfortunately I don’t know what kind of fish it was, but it was a white fish made with a pesto sauce and served with perfectly cooked haricots verts and petits pois (green beans and peas). I was incredibly happy, and there wasn’t any chocolate involved!
But the event that caused me to even visit Paris in the first place was the chance to take a cooking course. After much internet searching, ie going through the list of cooking courses in Paris on David Lebowitz’ delicious blog, I found something that fit me perfectly. “La Cucina di Terresa” is a cooking course, plus market visit, plus lovely conversation. Terresa, an American living in Paris for quite some time, met me at the Raspail organic open-air market where we went over the menu before making a beeline for the cheese stand. If anyone needs to be reminded that the French are not mean, rude or American-hating, all they need to do is visit this market. Everyone was incredibly nice, the produce looked absolutely glorious and the smells were delicious, to say the least. We were spoiled by the cheese maker who had us try many of his creations, each as delicious as the last. It is a good thing I don’t live in Paris since otherwise I would have bought out the market. We sorted through the produce, taking note of what was still in season, what is coming into season, who sells the best honey (I bought some miel de foret, the only thing I bought in Paris that could be taken home with me) and collected all the ingredients for our dejeuner. Then we took the Velib (the city bikes) back to Terresa’s apartment, which was glorious since I got to see Paris from a whole new perspective and also got to work up an appetite for cooking and eating.
At Terresa’s apartment we donned aprons, washed up and worked on my knife skills (Mom, I’ll be sharpening all the knives once I get home). As nibbles to keep us going while we cooked, we made oven-warmed and crisped radishes, and rice-flour crackers with goat cheese and jam. I learned to make dough for a tarte tatin de pommes, make homemade vegetable stock and the proper way to make risotto. We had a glorious salad with warm olives, greens, tomatoes, lemon zest, mint-infused olive oil, nuts and goat cheese. The wine complimenting the meal, a natural wine from the Domaine de Rancy, vin du pays 100% Carignan 2006, was perfect and was a unique twist to the risotto, since there are only about two vegetables with which you can make a red-wine risotto. Only the radicchio that we used and perhaps the haricots (the beans) that look splatter painted with bits of pink can be used in a risotto made with red wine since very few things can stand up to the intensity of the wine. I think that many people might find the radicchio to be a challenging vegetable to eat, its bitterness perhaps a deterrent but it was nicely complimented by the wine and the glorious creaminess of the risotto cooked “all’onda” which is a more liquidly form of risotto than the drier way of making risotto that I was familiar with. As we chatted through the repas, the risotto even improved, the flavors melding beautifully together. We finished our meal with and apple tarte tatin infused with the flavor of bay leaves and dolloped with crème fraîche. I apologize that I’m not giving away the recipes, but I think that if you want them, you should take Terresa’s course, though she will probably have you cook something else depending on the seasonality of vegetables, but if you ask nicely she might pass along the recipes of my meal, too. Not only is this course instructive (and vegetarian!), but Terresa is great conversation (in both French and English, so don’t worry I practiced my French too!), a warm and inviting host and has a cute, functional and very French kitchen, which means it is tiny, so do not be surprised. We passed far more than my allotted time chatting about the wine, about the food, possible variations, French culture, and many other subjects making the time fly by and I felt completely at ease and satisfied both intellectually and gastronomically.
Fortified by Terresa and my joint efforts in the kitchen I felt ready to take the final tourist plunge: les bateaux-mouches. I checked my pride at the dock and finally, after many years, saw Paris from the water. It was chilly and my camera battery died on me, but I was still glad that I had decided to do something different. I left Paris the next day, the rain that had been threatening all weekend finally coming down and telling me it was time to go back to the still-sunny Bordeaux and perhaps more sensible eating habits.
For those who are curious:
Le vin de repas: http://www.domaine-rancy.com/ vin du pays 100% carignan 2006
Terresa’s website : http://www.lacucinaditerresa.com/index.html
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