Food in Paris

I loved my vacation because I do not speak French or German.
Finally I understood why Mama loved vacationing with me in English-speaking locations. For ten days, I depended on Zabeth and Aya for everything. Zabeth, in particular, planned my daily hour-to-hour step-by-step schedules, provided me with comfortable bed, introduced me with her lovely neighbor/colleague John and his GF Julia, and fed me with delicious food.

In markets, I watched Zabeth purchase yummy cheese, wine, beer, fruit, yogurt, French cider, bread, milk, and other raw ingredients for cooking. She is not an ordinary shopper. She knows what she is doing. She spends money wisely, investing only on food that guarantees at least 3 out of 4 Michelin stars.
I said nothing. She did everything. And I was well satisfied.

In restaurants, Zabeth or Aya explained the menu for me. They ordered food for me. They fetched waiters for me. They said thankyou for me. I said nothing. They did everything. And I was well satisfied.

I loved this vacation. Even my brain was so relaxed.



For the benefit of my dear friends who are going to visit Paris this summer, I am going to start my review of my first European trip with food. I apologize that I cannot lend Zabeth to you without her consent. So let's stick with restaurants.
Because I was the guest, Zabeth and Aya tried to impress me with the non-tourist places on their top lists. Therefore, I am now selecting the best of the best stores for food. Trust me. As Zabeth put it very well, I am a "natural taster" who don't even know how to cook.

First, let's begin with lunch. Don't get me wrong. I love breakfast and never skip it. However, all my breakfasts were prepared and finished in Zabeth's kitchen. You, who are going to visit Paris, may not be able to enjoy breakfast the way I did. So let's begin with lunch.
For most lunches, Aya or Zabeth (it depended on whom I was with that day) would share a sandwich with me. The sandwich was purchased on any bakery on the street. And we would take it to a park and eat under the sky.
One day (to be specific o6/21/2011, which was a Tuesday, when I found the Louvre Museum closed on Tuesdays) I had lunch under the Louvre Museum. DO NOT have food there. Trust me. DO NOT have food there. Terrible and expensive. Unless you crave for American coffee, there is a Starbucks.
An irrelevant note: there is also an Apple store in case you want to go online and brag about it.















My best lunch occurred on 06/20/2011 when Aya took me to a crepe restaurant -- Le Flibustier. You will find thousands of crepe places in Paris, just like you will find thousands of bakeries there. However, according to Aya, this place was one of the best. So we went. It was indeed my best experience having salty food wrapped with crepe.
Where is it? Please google it. I have no idea how to tell you where it is.
For directions in Paris, I had Aya, Zabeth, Zabeth's iPhone, and my iPhone. Right, I could not use my iPhone with 3G in Paris. However, obviously there is a built-in GPS in iPhone which allows an app called "City Maps 2Go" to work without 3G. I downloaded the app before going to Paris. The free version of the app allowed me to download one city map for free, and I chose Paris for the obvious reason.













Next, dinner. I am going to recommend three restaurants for dinner. One is a family-oriented cute local French-food restaurant -- Bistrot d'A Cote. Aya took me there without any planning. It happened to be good. It was on the same day as I tasted the crepe.
Again, I cannot locate it for you. Do your homework before leaving to Paris. Oh, actually using the "City Maps 2Go", you can type in the restaurant name and find its location. Pretty cool, right?

The second restaurant for dinner recommendation is a French-Cambodian fusion. It is not family-friendly, but friendly to young adults who earn enough money just to rent a studio apartment in Paris. I went there with John, Julia, and Zabeth on 06/21/2011, the day when the summer began. The point was to enjoy food there and walked along the canal where people of the entire city came out to play music, play with music, and drink and dance with music. I had great fun that night.



And the restaurant where we celebrated Zabeth's belated birthday. Les Diables au Thym is a French-food restaurant with a French menu and an English menu. I did not read the English menu. I followed my newly-established habit: listening to Zabeth's explanation item by item and telling her what I want. For recording this belated birthday celebration for the bill payer (Zabeth's dad), I took pictures of all the dishes. However, I am only showing my dishes here. I think this is a very responsible action.










By the way, my appetizer was foie gras, which was translated as "fatty duck liver" on the English menu. Well, the Chinese translation is, if I may literally translate it into English, "duck-liver butter." I think I prefer the English-translated-from-Chinese translation than the English translation.
And my main dish was duck breast. It was so juicy and full of fragrance of duck meat. To my surprise, it went very well with the sweet jam provided on the side. See how happy I looked with my desert? I loved it. It was a macaroon sandwiching fresh strawberries with a pure-fruit sorbet on the side.
I had never liked macaroons. My opinion changed on 06/17/2011 when Zabeth took me to her favorite macaroon store. She said she had never liked macaroons either until she tasted macaroons from this store Patisserie.



















Alright, lastly, I am going to tell you a good place for late-night supper. Zabeth and I went to Jours de Fete after a tango practica on 06/19/2011. John recommended this place. And now I support his recommendation. It is a tapa place, meaning that each dish is a small portion. The whole point is not to get full but to get a taste of some yummy food with wine and happy conversations. We totally got the point.


I also had great memories about food outside of Paris. Since you are not going to Strasbourg, Wissembourg, or Tubingen, I will save some space on this blog. Enjoy Paris, my dear!