On The Town: Paris (Feb. 2012)

 

If you’ve been reading my blog over the past few years you know that I probably love traveling as much as I love food. When I can combine my gastronomic pursuits with traveling (which I always find a way to do) then the trip will likely be amazing.

I recently took a jaunt “across the pond” to visit two of my favourite cities, Paris and London. Now you may be thinking, “wasn’t she just in London this summer?”, the answer would be yes. This unplanned jaunt started because one of my good friends, Robin, who lives in London, is getting married and decided to do a bachelorette weekend in Paris. Now even I can admit that I weekend in Paris is a bit extravagant for me so I turned the weekend into 5 days and added a 4 day stay in London as well. Not extravagant in the least!

The great thing about this trip is that since I’ve been to both cities more than once (I lived in Paris for nearly 6 months and vacationed there 2 years ago) I could just use the time to chill in the city and eat some good food. I’ll do a series of blogs to cover off some of the awesomeness of my trip including my croissant-making class in Paris and my Parisian grocery finds as well as what I ate in London. This entry is all about where I ate in Paris.

Since I was part of a small-ish (5-person) group, I was totally content to just hang with the ladies and not be obsessed with hitting up all of my food conquests. Also, since a lot of my picks require reservations and we didn’t have any, we ate a few random places. Because I decided to stay in Paris for an extra few days by myself I was able to hit up a few of the spots on my “must eat” list.

(Oh, photos are from iPhone 4S and often through some Instagram filter.  Sue me.)

Mama Shelter

109 Rue de Bagnolet
75020 Paris, France

One place that came highly recommended by a few people including my girl over at Coco & Cowe was Mama Shelter. Now most people spoke of it in terms of a nightspot but they also serve food so we decided to make our Saturday night a one-stop shop. Situated in the 20th arrondisement, Mama Shelter was a bit of a trek from our Marais apartment on Rue des Archives on a rainy Saturday night with no reservations. Luckily the table gods smiled down on us and with my rough French I was able to secure a prime table for 5.

The menu is definitely heavy on the French influence but also incorporates an international flare here and there. To start we had some deliciously creamy burrata and warm leeks. A great start to the meal. I also should add that I ordered the most delicious cocktail. Their entire cocktail list (and it was extensive) and it was totally hard to choose. I settled on the “On the Road” that featured one of my signature flavours, ginger (for the record, my other signature flavour is coconut). For my main I had my third steak in two days and it was by far the best of the bunch. Perfectly cooked and served with fabulous frites and a bit of spicy “devil’s” sauce this made me beyond happy.

The service was also great. Everyone that worked there was super nice to our primarily English-speaking group and was surprisingly accommodating when we rolled up on Saturday at about 9PM looking for a table for 5. I also have to note that the DJs were GREAT. They played a mix of hip hop and R&B as the night wore on and played a lot of older songs (think TLC circa “No Scrubs”). We were a happy group.

Breizh Café
109 Rue Vieille du Temple
75003 Paris, France

I stumbled upon Breizh through David Leibovitz’s blog (a source for a lot of my great Parisian finds). They specialize in buckwheat crepes with an assortment of fillings with everything from smoked herring, to ham and egg as well as vegetarian options. I opted for the Bretonne which includes Gruyere, scrambled eggs, bacon, sautéed mushrooms and crème fraiche.

I’ve had buckwheat crepes once before at a rando place near Versailles. This crepe was infinitely better. The buckwheat added a hearty nuttiness to the crepe but wasn’t too heavy. You could also tell that the filling ingredients were great quality. I could easily see myself eating this every day. For my cocktail I chose something I had never seen before that was a mixture of cider and a ginger liqueur. It was interesting to say the least. I’m not 100% sold on the cider/ginger combination but kind of enjoyed it.

I went to this restaurant on a Sunday night at about 8PM and it was packed with no tables opening up for another 2 hours… definitely make reservations. I think I looked desperate enough and in need of a crepe that the host gave me a bit of a makeshift position at the bar.

Frenchie Bar au Vin
5-5 rue du Nil
75002 Paris
Tél:

This one is another David Lebovitz pick. Since I was on a roll with showing up to popular restaurants without a reservation and getting seated right away I decided to roll up to for dinner on a Monday night to try my luck. My back up plan was that if Frenchie didn’t work out I could hit up their Bar au Vin which doesn’t take reservations. When I got to Frenchie I quickly learned that there was not a chance in hell that I was getting a spot to eat so I headed across the street to the Bar au Vin as it was opening in 5 minutes.

The Bar au Vin is tiny with maybe 4 or 5 tables and a bar that can seat about 6. It filled up within about 30 minutes of opening… on a Monday night! The wine list as you can imagine is extensive and the food is prepared in a tiny cubby… I can’t even call it a kitchen, and churns out small plates of goodness.

 

 

I started off with a fabulous (and beautifully presented) Terrine de Campagne studded with pistachios and wrapped in bacon. It was super rich and a great way to start the meal. I then segued into Burrata dish that also featured boudin noir and stewed apple chunks. This burrata was super creamy and pretty perfect. My only beef is that a plateful of burrata is totally obscene for one person. I finished off my meal (because hunks of terrine and burrata weren’t nearly enough) with an order of coquilles st. Jacques with Topinambour (NO CLUE) and something called main de boudha. This was a great way to finish off the meal as it was so much lighter (although not light) than everything else.

Frenchie Bar au Vin was a definite highlight of my dining this trip. Next time I would go with a few people and eat the entire menu as pretty much everything sounded like a winner to me.

Les Papilles
30 Rue Gay-Lussac
75005 Paris, France

Les Papilles was on my list for my last Paris trip but because I was traveling with somewhat picky eaters the no-choice, set menu style would not be conducive to everyone enjoying their meals. So I decided to pay a visit during the lunch hours for my last meal in Paris.

And what a great choice! I decided to go with their market menu which basically means that the chef picks whatever is looking good at the market and goes to town. Also being very ambitious, I signed up for the 4 course menu. FOR LUNCH. When on vacation…

The first course was pumpkin soup. But this was no ordinary pumpkin soup… it was two-parter. First the server presented me with a shallow bowl with finely diced pumpkin/squash (raw), bacon, croutons, chestnuts and chives. Then she brought out this huge bowl of pumpkin soup that I was supposed to ladle into the shallow bowl. BRILLIANT. The flavours were so perfectly balanced and there was a great contrast in textures. I loved the idea of ladling the soup over the fixins because the fixins weren’t over cooked and retained their texture.

 

One of my fave things about eating in Paris is that while I do speak/read French some things get lost in menu translation. The market menu that day featured “poitrine de porc”. This translates literally to pork chest. Now I wasn’t sure what pork chest would be like but kind of assumed it would be kind of like the shoulder or something. Imagine my joy when they brought out the dish and it was pork belly! The pork belly was slow-cooked for hours in a tomato sauce and served with beans, lardoons of bacon and carrots. There was also a pesto to accompany the dish which worked brilliantly to add a bit of brightness toe the flavours and cut down on a bit of the richness. When I saw the giant portion of pork belly I had to back out of the 4-course lunch and stop at 2 courses. While cheese and a pineapple upside down cake both sounded great my poor stomach would not be able to hold it.  I’d add this to your “must visit” list for Paris.