LUCY BURDETTE: Wednesday you heard about our wonderful trip to Paris, and today I’ll wrap up with food. (Because I’m dreaming about writing a novel involving a Parisian pastry chef, I had to do my research.) There are a ton of glamorous French chefs on Instagram, looking dreamy and slightly grizzled, as they produce amazing things. Here’s one of them, Cedric Grolet. One of his shops was near our apartment—we didn’t eat there because there was usually too much of a line. That’s what 7.3 million followers on Instagram will do for you!
We set up two special events with special people who showed us food highlights that we might not ever have found on our own. The first, Frank Barron, a.k.a. cake boy Paris, I found on Instagram. He has just come out with a gorgeous cookbook called Sweet Paris. He also gives tours of chocolate or pastry shops—we chose pastry!
Our last stop--considering how I could possibly consume one more gorgeous treat.
Our second special event was a market tour and lunch with the Real Emily in Paris. She met us at the market and led us promptly to the café next door to the bakery La Maison d'Isabelle to have café creme and the best croissants any of us had ever eaten. This bake shop was the 2018 winner of best croissant in Paris. Once a bakery has won, the French government makes them wait five years to enter the competition again. I'd say watch out in 2023!
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| My pal Yvonne with Emily |
Then we strolled through the market and picked our lunch out, white asparagus (in season and very popular,) green beans, salad, a baguette, cheese, wine, and an amazing duck confit which I had never tasted. We put that all together back at her apartment, and also started the preparations for raspberry soufflé. I will share that recipe another day after I’ve made it at home.
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| Carol and Lucy |
NB. I went back to La Maison d'Isabelle later in the week to have one of their coffee flavored eclairs. So what if it will cost me a month’s worth of extra gym sessions, it was worth every bite.
What food memories have come from your trips, near or far?
Oh, goodness . . . these all look so delicious, Lucy!
ReplyDeleteFood memories? We were visiting in Colorado Springs and we went to a restaurant [sadly, no longer in business] where we sat at a table in the kitchen and watched as the various meals were prepared. The chef would come to our table with samples of different things he was preparing . . . a delicious dinner and an amazing experience.
that sounds like such fun Joan, and I immediately thought about a murder in that kitchen:)
DeleteWe have had great food on vacations so many times, it's hard to choose one. We traveled to Scotland with a company specializing in nature travel, Natural Habitat Adventures. We stayed in lovely hotels, ate great food, drank lots of Scotch and saw tons of wildlife. Puffins!
ReplyDeleteWe have cruised several times with Silver Sea, a smaller ship cruise line, which has amazing food. We went to the Galapagos with them. All the food was local and fabulous.
Back when we were still planning our own itinerary for trips, we stayed in a tiny town on the Olympic Peninsula and chose to eat dinner at a little Mexican restaurant. Best Mexican food ever!
All of those sound amazing Judy, and I hope you're planning another trip!
DeleteBTW, Lucy, I think I gained 2 pounds looking at your photos;-)
ReplyDeleteI know:(. I say I didn't gain weight, but I'm not following the scales too closely!
DeleteHow great that you arranged food tours! I've had amazing meals while traveling. I still remember in Thessaloniki, Greece, sitting with my grad school friend Marios and his friend at an open-air restaurant lingering over salads and seafood, dipping bread in the olive oil sauce, sipping wine, and talking until late. The just-caught fish I ate overlooking the ocean in southern Portugal.
ReplyDeleteBeing treated by my English conversation students (all men, all engineers) in Japan to a huge spread of sushi and tempura and of course sake. Sitting on a little stool in a circle with traditional midwives way, way out in the bush in Mali, eating with our hands from a wide communal bowl of pounded millet and a rich sauce with a small amount of meat in it.
Too many food memories to keep listing!
Wonderful Edith! Hope you're having fun at Malice...
DeleteYou bet!
DeleteGreat food memories, Edith. Sometimes a memory of food like those brings back, brings back memories of people and conversations and laughter.
DeleteLUCY: Ah, now I understand why you suggested I follow Cake Boy Paris & the Real Emily in Paris. Food tours are great. A memorable one was a walking food tour in NOLA's French Quarter.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, I ate yummy food while in Montreal last weekend. I also brought back food to enjoy at home, including duck leg confit, this week.
Grace, I also like duck confit.
DeleteDanielle
This was the first time for me with duck confit--I didn't really understand what it was. It was delicious!
DeleteSo many good food memories but I’ll mention this experience in Paris.
ReplyDeleteToo expensive for my budget but I was invited at Le Jules Verne of Eiffel Tower for lunch where I ate for the first time a crayfish soup: soooo good ! And for dessert, a Baba au Rhum: to die for…
Danielle
Sounds like it was worth every penny!
DeleteAll those lovely Parisian food memories are sure to feed, to wildly paraphrase Stephen King, the "Girls in Your Subconscious Mind Storytelling Atelier." Much more chic than his "Boys in the Basement." ;)
ReplyDeleteI bet you walked a lot in Paris and burned a lot of those calories through mileage and giddy excitement alone.
We did walk a lot--the first day 23,000 steps. So we didn't feel badly about splurging!
DeleteIn 1972, I was travelling from university in Saskatchewan back home to Nova Scotia through the US, and was on Miami Beach I think. It was midafternoon in a semi greasy spoon, and I was so hungry I could not think. The waiter/cook asked me what I wanted and I didn’t know. He said ‘Steak and Eggs’. I had never had it before, and there is no ambrosia that could be better than that meal was! The steak was tender and the egg drooled all over everything. Unfortunately, I have never been able to recreate it, but I will also never forget it.
ReplyDeleteThat's the perfect meal--cannot be recreated, but lives on in memory!
DeleteAfter seeing your pictures and reading about all you saw and ate, who can think of anything else? Certainly not me! You have certainly made me hungry for a sweet or two and I have nothing in the house!
ReplyDeleteProbably just as well Judi:)
DeleteOh my goodness, yum yum yum! Everything looks so delicious!
ReplyDeleteMemorable eating while traveling: trifle at Henderson's vegetarian restaurant in Edinburgh, best hot fudge sundae in the world at a restaurant at the top of the gondola in Grindelwald, creme brulêé which included brandy and fruit in Sestri Levante, Italy, and an incredible meal in Menton on the French Riviera featuring fish en papillote
those foodie treats sound amazing!
DeleteFrom Celia: Oh Lucy - delicious food memories so early in the morning. I remember being in Italy with my family, I was 15 or 16, and eating the most delicious cold white fish with a delicate mayo type sauce in Naples. The kicker being that I’m not a real fish enthusiast. Then on the same trip going to a monastery in Amalfi for the best cannoli I I have ever eaten. It was stuffed with a minced chicken and I still dream of it. I can get duck confited locally. It’s a bit expensive but for a treat? Why not.
ReplyDeleteCannoli stuffed with minced chicken? that is really unusual! I love your memories...
DeleteCelia, I just bought a confit duck leg this morning from the Asian vendor at the farmer's market. It seems sort of an odd thing to be on offer with along with the dumplings and scallion pancakes, etc., but I'm not complaining. They are delicious and I try to keep one in the freezer for a special treat. I love them with French lentils, especially.
DeleteWow what a trip! And what delightful pastries. I hope your protagonist will eat and describe some of them in the new book. :-) As for eating experiences: I'd have to say on our first trip to Spain, we discovered Manchego cheese and that's been our favorite cheese ever since. Then, in Galicia, there is this wonderful almond cake that is so delicious: it's really like a cross between a giant cookie with an almost pudding texture, made with a lot of almond paste and dusted with powdered sugar. Here in Portugal, in a trip to Faro, we discovered Cataplana, a seafood stew similar to but different from boulabaise. Just delicious!
ReplyDeleteI love manchego! I discovered it in France.
DeleteElizabeth, would you email me when you get a chance? raisleib at gmail dot com. I have an off-list question!
DeleteHello again, I just sent it.
DeleteAnd Edith, it was surprising we were so late to discover Manchego. When we got back to Sacramento, it seemed like everyone we knew liked it. Somehow we had just never heard of it.
DeleteWe've traveled throughout Europe over the years and have eaten at some of the best restaurants. But the one that stands out strangely enough is this little cafe in Venice at St. Mark's square. It was called the American Cafe.
ReplyDeleteThey had something we'd never heard of ... mushroom sandwiches. They were button style mushroom on white (like Wonder) bread with mayo. Sounds terrible, but it was beyond delicious and we went back for seconds. I tried to recreate it at home but it tasted awful.
So interesting! Do you think it was the setting that made the dish, or you were missing a secret ingredient?
DeleteThe best overall dining experience was in St. Emillion in SW France and stayed in a former chateau converted to a hotel/restaurant. It was exquisite. We (myself and my two daughters) had driven all day and arrive around 4 pm and we were starving! We asked if we could get a diner reservation for 5 pm and the hostess was utterly SHOCKED. It was of course, "l'Impossible!" ... dinner started at 7. It was worth the wait and was the best experience. We sat drinking, dining overlooking miles of vineyards until well after midnight.
ReplyDeletesounds divine and worth the wait! No French people would eat at 5, for sure! Even 7 is scandalously early in Paris.
DeleteTiramisu every night in Italy (our family hotel proprietress made it for breakfast on our last day), creme brulee every night in France. I discovered the wonder of canard confit in Dordogne.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of tiramisu but maybe I haven't had the good stuff?
DeleteWhat a DELICIOUS post today, Lucy. Yum! My food memory is on the 'interesting' end of the scale -- the "cervelle" appetizer at dinner in Grenoble, France, turned out to be calves brain: tasted good to me until I was told what it was, then I couldn't eat any more of it. Funny how the mind works when it comes to food...
ReplyDeleteIn Florence one of my dining companions had lamb's brain. Another had tripe. Both new to me, but I only tried the tripe. I can totally see why it would put you off, Amanda!
DeleteOMG, tripe! Karen! That's too much for me!!
DeleteI was surprised, actually. It's very bland, and doesn't have any taste except whatever it's cooked with. My roommate on the trip was from Northern England, and she said they gave tripe to babies and small children because it was easy to digest.
DeleteThe texture, though.
I'm squeamish for all entrails:)
DeleteCall me weird but I love sweetbreads. Sauteed sweetbreads were one of my mom's special dishes.
DeleteDrooling all over my keyboard, Roberta/Lucy! Looks and sounds wonderful.
ReplyDeleteOn my first trip to Florence we eight women took a food tour in Tuscany, which included a visit to the shop of Dario the Butcher in Panzano. We had "beef sushi"--raw bistecca covered in fennel pollen (which is an antiseptic, and delicious), a ragu-sauced pasta, and excellent Tuscan wine. But the best part of the experience was appearing on Italian TV. The day we were there was the eve of Dario Cecchini's "funeral for the bistecca", a protest in response to the national mandate that all the livestock was to be destroyed because of the then-rampant mad cow disease, It wasn't really in Tuscany at the time, but the government was reacting to world panic. One of our fellow travelers was interviewed, and I was standing right beside her, and we got to see it on TV that evening at the hotel.
that's such a great memory Karen! I would have been nervous about eating the beef sushi if I'd known!
DeleteThere is no cooking process that disables the contamination of mad cow disease. It works differently than food poisoning. Kurt Vonegurt write about a discovery called (I think) Ice 9 that turned all water solid and spread through touch. That is what mad cow reminds me of. Unstoppable if your cow had it.
DeleteOh, Lucy, you have a hard, hard life as an author. :-D
ReplyDeleteWhat I really want to know is how the French stay so slim when surrounded by some of the best food in the world?
I do Julia, thanks for recognizing that:). The only thing I can think about slimness is that French people don't snack. But really, do we eat that many snacks?? Also, as mentioned above, they eat late. Which any nutritionist will tell you is not good for maintaining good weight. Shrugs...
DeleteI think at least part of it is that the French don't eat fast food (are the fast food outlets making inroads in Paris, Lucy?). They walk everywhere and they don't eat big portions.
DeleteI just savored everyone's food memories.. Now will take a filing nap. thank you all
ReplyDeleteGorgeous photos! Thanks for a virtual visit . . . now craving pastry and looking forward to the book. Oh, the sacrifices you make for research. <3
ReplyDeleteAdored the virtual visit, Lucy, and the chef with his tres trendy man-bun!
ReplyDeleteSo many wonderful food memories. Fish and chips in London. Tandoori in Edinburgh. Tea and scones in Oxford. Kir Royale drink, goat cheese salad, French Onion soup and salmon in Paris. Pastries and tea in Copenhagen. Flatbread pizza in Rome. Gelato in Florence. Italian coffee in Venice. Rosti in Switzerland. Potato Leek soup in Reutte, Austria (farmhouse)
ReplyDeleteDiana
I lived in Paris on study abroad and the pâtisseries are SPECTACULAR! This was great to read and see (and nearly taste!). Outside of Paris, London is my spot to travel. Harrod’s has the most incredible pastry shop, but I’ve gotten equally great treats from the farmers’ markets. Grab a some little cakes, takeaway dinner, and a bottle of bubbly, and head outdoors to watch the sun set over the city. Bliss.
ReplyDeleteWhat a delicious blog! I’m going to Paris in June and can’t wait to indulge in their delights 👏🏻🥐🧀🥖🥮🍮☕️
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