First, I’d like to say it’s cold in Paris right now. Very cold.

This weekend we went to have a look at the green booksellers’ stands along the Seine. “Bouquinistes” have been selling old books, magazines, posters, etc. along the riverbanks for centuries and since 1991 the “boxes” have been classed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For the last several months, the City has been repainting those in need. Now, several prototypes are on display for possible replacement of hundreds of traditional boxes currently lining the Seine. There are somewhere between 900 and 1,000 boxes and about 230 booksellers concerned. The prototypes, designed by Matériaupôle Paris Seine Amont, are exposed near the Hotel de Ville.

The idea is to “modernize” the boxes and make everyday outdoor life for the “bouquinistes” easier. In the near future, the stands may be equipped with heating systems and protection against rain. (Did I mention it’s cold in Paris right now? Very cold?). The plan is also to have them specially treated against graffiti.

So, for the past few weeks, the specialists (the booksellers themselves) have been able to test out these new boxes, and passers-by have been able to ogle them. What do you think???

(old box 54)

(new prototypes)

I did mention it was cold, so here’s how we’ve been keeping warm: buckwheat “galettes” and sweet crepes.

It all started Thursday evening. February 2 is traditionally a religious celebration, the presentation of Christ at the Temple of Jerusalem, but if you ask any French kid what “Chandeleur” is, they’ll tell you it’s the day you eat crepes. Thus, Joy made crepe batter – lots of crepe batter.

This is actually why I was glad it was so cold this weekend. I had lots of crepe batter to store, but our fridge (as I’ve probably mentioned at some point) is rather small. There was no fitting it all in (not with the half butternut squash, lettuce spinner, champagne bottle, tahini, almond butter, milk, hummus experiment…etc…etc… already in there). The magic solution was storing it in the cupboard under the windowsill – believe it or not, this sport was colder than the actual fridge!

Here are two recipes: one for savory Buckwheat “galettes” (as made in Brittany) and one for dessert crepes (this is an updated version since my last crepe post). What made the real difference in the sweet crepes was my French grandmother’s secret: crème fraîche.

To make them smell wonderful, I added some fleur d’oranger (orange blossom water found in the baking isle of French grocery stores) and some vanilla extract.

The other secret is to let the batter sit overnight (or in our case, a couple of days).

Buckwheat Galettes Ingredients

250 grams buckwheat flour

Pinch of salt

1 egg

Cold water (about ½ liter)

Buckwheat Galettes Recipe:

1. Pour flour and salt into a large mixing bowl.

2. In a small bowl, beat the egg.

3. Add the egg and a little water to the flour. Continue adding water and mixing until you have a batter. Thick ribbons should form when you lift the whisk.

4. Let sit for at least a couple hours then cook over a hot griddle.

5. Decorate with your favorite ingredients.

Some suggestions:

- Swiss cheese, mushrooms (pre-cooked with garlic and olive oil) and a fried egg

- Goat cheese, walnuts and arugula

- Parmesan, sun-dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts

- Raclette cheese and potatoes (pre-cooked)

(photo by Sébastien)

Dessert Crepes Ingredients

250 grams flour

Pinch of salt

1 teaspoon sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon butter

About ½ liter milk

2-3 soup spoons fleur d’oranger

1 soup spoon vanilla

Heaping soup spoon crème fraîche

Dessert Crepes Recipe:

1. Melt butter.

2. In a large bowl, mix flour, salt and sugar.

3. In a small bowl, beat the eggs.

4. Add the eggs, butter and some milk to the dry ingredients. Slowly add more milk and mix until you get thick ribbons of batter when you lift the whisk.

5. Add the remaining ingredients and let sit at least two hours (overnight really makes a difference!).

6. Cook on a hot skillet and decorate with your favorite ingredients.

Suggestions:

- Homemade chocolate sauce (melt dark chocolate with some milk and/or crème fraîche)

- Apricot jam

- Salted butter and sugar

- Fresh bananas, kiwi, strawberries…

Most baked goods (like cookies) taste best right out of the oven. Carrot cake, however, always seems to get better over a few days.

I wanted to try my hands at making a healthy cake (or is it more of a bread?) that I could eat either for breakfast or as a mid-day energy snack. I wanted this cake to look and taste healthy, yet still be addictive.

Usually, I grate the carrots so small you can hardly tell they’re there. This time, I was going for a hearty texture, so I used a bigger grate. This also let me see the colorful combination of veggies I put in the cake – for I didn’t just use any old carrots! No, in addition to an orange one, I also used one purple carrot (according to this site, all carrots were purple up through the Middle Ages!) and one parsnip.

I didn’t use much sugar in this recipe. For one, I was going for healthy. For two, carrots are naturally sweet. They were once used to sweeten desserts in medieval Europe (sugar wasn’t readily available). While I didn’t altogether get rid of it, there’s much less sugar in this recipe than in any others I know. Also, I used “cassonade” (raw, unprocessed) sugar.

For the salt, I used “Diamant de sel du Cachemire” or pink-colored diamond salt from Kashmir that we found at G. Detou here in Paris. This had to be crushed with a mortar and pestle.

For the frosting, I used the French cheese “St Môret” in place of cream cheese (but either would work). I whipped it with a little bit of agave syrup and fresh lemon juice to taste.

The two longest steps were opening the fresh walnuts – a slightly tedious task, but worth it – and waiting for the cake to cook – about an hour.

Did you know that February 3 is National Carrot Cake Day in the US? I hold carrot cake in pretty high esteem – glad to know I’m not the only one!

Shopping List

1 cup chopped walnuts

2 carrots and 1 parsnip (about 3 ½ cups when shredded)

2 cups whole grain spelt flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 eggs

½ cup raw sugar

¾ cup olive oil

For the frosting:

250 grams soft cheese

Agave syrup

Fresh lemon juice

Recipe:

1. Prepare nuts and carrots.

2. Mix dry and wet ingredients separately.

3. Add wet ingredients to dry.

4. Add carrots and nuts.

5. Line a cake mold with parchment paper and bake at 180C or 350F for about 1 hour (a knife should come out pretty clean).

6. Let cool and frost (see above).

Keep covered in the fridge and enjoy over several days.

Like I said in the 1^st post in this series (on Berlin), 2011 was filled with lots of foodie adventures.

I made some fun discoveries traveling, yet many of my favorite finds were right here in Paris. From restaurants and wine bars to markets and vegetables, here are my top picks for the year.

Favorite Restaurant

Le vin qui chante (“the singing wine”)

Sebastien found this one for Valentine’s Day, though we didn’t celebrate on the actual day – which I recommend! Whenever we go out in Paris on the real Valentine’s Day we’re confronted with too many people, overwhelmed waiters and set-menus – none of which lead to the ideal dining experience. Instead, we find it better to go to a nice restaurant on any other evening in February.

Our meal at Le vin qui chante was excellent and we highly recommend it for a special night out. I enjoyed the “menu gourmand”: three courses, each paired with a glass of wine.

Address: 52, rue Sainte Anne (2e)

Telephone: 01 40 20 03 70

Metro: Auber, Quatre Septembre or Pyramides

Favorite Wine Bar

La Trinquette

A hidden-away bar just north of the Marais that specializes in wines from the Languedoc region in France. Very good tapenade and cheeses to accompany your wine.

Addresse: 62, rue des Gravilliers (3e)

Telephone: 09 52 07 80 60

Metro: Arts et Métiers

Favorite Crepe Stand

La Creperie du Comptoir

This is the most “gourmet” crepe stand in Paris, and offers both savory galettes (buckwheat) and sweet crepes. You may take crepes to go or stand inside at the counter for wine and tapas.

Address: 3, carrefour de l’Odéon (6e)

Telephone: 01 44 27 07 97

Metro: Odéon

Favorite Farmers’ Market

Marché biologique des Batignolles

100% organic! Excellent quality. Low-key, down-to-earth atmosphere.

When: Saturdays 9am-3pm

Where: 34, boulevard des Batignolles (17e)

Metro: Place de Clichy

Favorite Vegetable Discovery

Chou-rave

Kohlrabi, also known as German turnip or turnip cabbage, is easy to find at Parisian farmers’ markets. It’s a member of the cabbage family and great eaten raw. I like to grate it into lentil salads for example.

Favorite Vegetable Re-discovered

Choux de Bruxelles

Brussel sprouts are especially abundant in the winter months. I eat them like popcorn! Cut them in half, sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper, and bake until they are brown and crispy. This is my version of crispy kale.

Favorite Bread

Quinoa and chestnut bread from Naturalia health food store. I like it toasted and smeared with salted butter.

Favorite Biscottes

Le Moulin du Pivert’s Spelt biscottes (without palm oil)

“Biscottes” are little crunchy toasts often eaten for breakfast in France. Finding anything without palm oil is difficult these days (yes, including something as simple as breakfast toasts!), thus I was happy to find these. They’re sold in health food stores.

Favorite Cheese

Fourme d’ambert

This is a creamy blue cheese from the Auvergne region. It is amazing in an endive and walnut salad.

Favorite “I can’t believe I ate that!”

Escargots with butter and garlic at Chez Chartier

I know, I really did eat snails!

]]> http://thetomatoknife.com/2012/01/best-of-2011-my-favorite-foodie-finds-paris/feed/ 0 http://thetomatoknife.com/2010/09/berry-delight-recipe/ http://thetomatoknife.com/2010/09/berry-delight-recipe/#comments Wed, 15 Sep 2010 11:41:45 +0000 Joy Anna Becvarik http://thetomatoknife.com/?p=1477 It took me quite some time to find where to buy frozen berries in France. When I first arrived as a junior in college, I was an avid smoothie drinker – concocting one pretty much every day or so. Since I had other priorities that first year, I kind of let smoothie-drinking go by the wayside. When I moved back though (six years ago), finding appropriate ingredients, including frozen berries, became a major priority. I spent way too much time scanning the frozen food sections at an entire slew of grocery stores. I found all sorts of typical vegetables, like peas, spinach and potatoes (in an amazing amount of different types, shapes and sizes). I also found some more unusual items, such as leek patties and not-so-bad quiches. I, however, never came across frozen fruit. No strawberries, no blueberries, no mangoes, no cherries – nada.

During berry season, I would stock up on my favorites (Mara des bois strawberries, for example) and freeze what would fit in our tiny freezer (I do mean tiny – it’s just as high as a pint of ice cream). The rest of the year, I was at a loss – and not getting my customary dose (or overdose) of phytochemicals.

If I wasn’t so stubborn, I would have found the frozen berries sooner. But, I said “No, I’m not going to Picard.” This is a French chain-store that is wholly dedicated to frozen foods. I’d walk past it every day on my way home from the metro, and I’d imagine (in one of those scouring, devilish ways) what was inside: rows of ice-cold pre-packaged meals, just waiting to be taken home, thrown in the microwave and devoured in front of the television. That’s not why I came to France. This place was for those who didn’t cook – and that’s where I was a little wrong. While I still don’t like the idea of going into a huge white room that reminds me of the guts of a giant meat freezer, Picard has proved to be my organic frozen berry oasis. In addition to the ready-made meals, they have a large variety of pure and simple frozen fruits and vegetables – including organic ones.

Now, because I’m like that, once I actually found my berries, I started wondering if frozen food is actually a good thing. Here’s my dilemma:

Environmental Disadvantages of Frozen Foods:

1. Freezers consume electricity and create CO2.

2. There’s a lot of plastic packaging.

Environmental Advantages of Frozen Foods:

1. A full freezer uses less energy than an empty one.

2. Freezing helps reduce food waste. You only take eat what you need and keep the rest frozen until you need it again. Also, frozen produce tends to use more of a harvested crop.

I guess it’s kind of a toss-up. If we could use low-energy consumption freezers and biodegradable storage containers, we might be okay.

To help us contemplate, here’s one of my favorite recipes, using frozen (or fresh) berries.

You can replace the fromage blanc with yogurt (yaourt brassé is a nice alternative in France). Fromage blanc is a fresh cheese the consistency of thick, creamy yogurt or sour cream. I love the wholesome taste of plain yogurt, but sometimes I want a dessert that makes me feel like I’m being naughty – yogurt is for good-girl days. The pure smoothness and lack of bitterness of fromage blanc is what makes it feel like dessert. Kind of like the way mascarpone works in tiramisu.

The speculoos sprinkled on top add a sort of pre-holiday cheer to this simple dessert. Speculoos are Belgian spice cookies made with cassonade (dark brown sugar) and spices (i.e. cinnamon and cloves). They kind of remind me of ginger snaps.

Shopping List

A mix of berries

Liquid sweetener (mayple or agave syrup)

Fromage blanc

Speculoos cookies

Recipe:

1. If using frozen berries, cook them over medium heat and add a small amount of sweetener if desired.

2. In a small bowl, mix the fromage blanc with small amount of sweetener to taste.

3. In a glass jar or other suitable container, layer the berries, the fromage blanc and broken pieces of speculoos.

Serve immediately.

It’s the Quatorze Juillet back in France. A good day to write about cheese, no?

I haven’t been in Oxford very long, but I’ve already noticed quite an admiration for France – in culinary terms at any rate. Walk down the streets in the city center and you’ll come across many French-style bakeries selling croissants, crepes, baguettes…. Since I’m only in England for two weeks, I’m trying to avoid anything that I can find back home (except Dijon mustard – just couldn’t convince myself otherwise when it came to making salad dressing). This friendly “boycott” goes for cheese, too.

Thus, I headed to the Oxford Cheese Company (located in the Covered Market) to pick up some local cheeses. They have a wonderful selection and the young woman behind the counter was more than happy to point out her favorites. I ended up with five different types, and these two stood out as being especially worth trying:

Oxford Blue

This is an award winning blue cheese made from cow’s milk – and not nearly as strong as French Roquefort. It’s soft, creamy and has a salty tang. This is a fairly new cheese, created in 1993 as an alternative to stilton – and still made in a Stilton dairy.

Marksbury Cheddar

The first cheddar originated in Cheddar Village in the county of Somerset, England. There is record that it was being made (and purchased by the King) back in the 12^th century. Check out the British Cheese website for some interesting history – including the fact that Henry II once purchased 10,240 lbs. of it!

Marksbury Cheddar (from Somerset) is among the best cheddars I’ve ever tasted. It’s fairly strong and sharp. Although it’s a hard cheese, it seems to melt in your mouth. It really tastes like it came directly off a farm in England!

The cheddar was especially nice with the malt bread I picked up (a common find here in England).

Address:

Oxford Cheese Company

17 The Market
Oxford OX1 3DU
Tel: 01865 721 420

Today’s my blog’s first birthday! In honor, I made a cake.

This was an adventure, considering I had never made a savory cake before. On my way home last Friday I was imagining exactly how I wanted it to turn out- and trying to figure out which ingredients (and in which proportions) would make it work best.

I didn’t want a dry cake- that was sure. I wanted it to be light, smooth and moist (while being cooked all the way through). I knew what I was up against and all the pitfalls I was likely to fall into. Moist. How can I make it moist? I wanted it to be like a yogurt cake- et voilà- there, in the late afternoon sunlight, I decided what I’d make- more or less a yogurt cake without the sugar.

I also knew I wanted it to be light- well, as light at a cake packed with creamy Roquefort cheese can be. So, I decided (for, I think, the first time ever) not to use butter because, with the cheese, it would just be too much. Instead, I opted for canola oil, which doesn’t have an overpowering flavor.

In the end, I was very satisfied with my blog’s birthday cake!

Shopping List

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup canola oil

1 cup yogurt

1/2 cup grated gruyère cheese

3/4 cup Roquefort

2/3 cup walnuts

1 pear (cut into small pieces)

Recipe:

1. Mixed dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar).

2. Beat eggs and mix in wet ingredients (oil, yogurt), in a separate bowl.

3. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Mix as little as possible so the cake will be light and airy!

4. Add the remaining ingredients. Still mixing as little as possible.

5. Bake in the oven at 350° F for about 35 minutes. The top should be slightly browned and the cake fully cooked (difficult to tell since the cheese will be melted).

Happy Birthday!

Amboise, a small town in the Loire Valley, is known primarily for its overbearing medieval castle- once home to some of France’s most famous rulers, as well as to Catherine of Medici’s ten children!

Amboise is also renowned for Clos-Lucé, the stately home where Leonardo da Vinci (invited by the French King Francois I) spent the last years of his life.  We recently discovered that Amboise is also noted for it’s Sunday morning open-air market- for us, this meant the discovery of some new cheeses and cheese desserts.

At first I thought it was a mistake- that the unidentified food item sitting on the vendor’s booth was burnt, really burnt. Turns out, that’s the way a tourteau au fromage is supposed to be. Made from thick, creamy fromage blanc this cake is originally from the Poitou-Charentes region of France. Outside, it’s round and looks like a turtle shell, or rather a crab shell (in French, a tourteau is a large crab). Did I mention it looks like a burnt crab shell? Inside, it’s light, airy and slightly sweet. We were told we could eat this delight either with an aperitif or for breakfast- it didn’t actually make it that far.

The next foodie adventure was camembert au Calvados- basically soft cheese soaked in alcohol and then covered in bread crumbs. Calvados is a brandy made of distilled apple or pear from Normandy. I had trouble deciding if I actually liked this cheese or not- it was smooth and creamy like ordinary camembert, yet had a very strong kick, thanks to the Calvados. We ended up saying, “It’s different.” Definitely worth trying, but might not make regular appearances on the cheese platter.

Next post: Still in the Loire, but this time…chocolate in Bracieux.

In this post, I’ll be talking about Greens, an upscale vegetarian restaurant, Pauline’s Pizza and Dragon Well, a hip Chinese spot.

Greens

My new favorite restaurant (in the world, I think) is Greens at Fort Mason. It’s located in an old warehouse overlooking San Francisco Bay. According to their website, they were one of the pioneers in establishing vegetarian gastronomy in the United States. Today, this is a fine-dining restaurant that serves only the highest quality vegetarian cuisine.

On Saturday nights Greens proposes a four-course set menu ($49, not including drinks). It may be a splurge, but is well worth it. Vegetarian or not, I’m convinced the pickiest of diners will leave feeling quite satisfied. You may choose from a variety of appealing (and wholesome) appetizers, main courses and desserts. You may also opt for a selection of wines, most of which are organic and are paired with your meal choice ($28 for 2 glasses of wine, plus an aperitif).

I was at Greens celebrating a group birthday party (that’s how you do it when you, your family, and friends are scattered all over the world). Our toast to turning 30 (we were 3 college friends in the lot) started off with Alsatian crément rosé (Lucien Albrecht)- essentially rose-colored champagne. We enjoyed this with goat cheese, olives and a fennel-Satsuma salad.

Next on the list was the appetizer (and the beginning of my new-found love for Italian butter beans). I chose: grilled asparagus, artichokes and radicchio, over the aforementioned beans and topped with shavings of Andante Dairy’s Etude goat cheese. (Andante, by the way, is a California-based, single-woman-run dairy farm, that produces numerous specialty cheeses. You can find them, for example, at the Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market that I mentioned in my last post).

My main dish: wild mushroom ravioli- so decadent it made me wish I was actually one of the mushrooms I was eating. Really. The homemade ravioli and mushrooms melted in my mouth just as much as the herbed butter that accompanied them.

And for dessert: a cheerful almond, honey tart.

No matter how much I rave about the quality of Greens’ cuisine, it won’t do it justice.

What I remember most: every single bite, the wine pairings and the view overlooking the bay.

Pauline’s Pizza

Pauline’s isn’t just any pizza restaurant: partly because they have their own organic vegetable gardens- which provide for many of the toppings on their pizzas. They also have their own vineyards. The house red, a 2006 Mourvedre, (an earthy, kind of leathery wine), accompanied the special house pizza (pesto) and the special house salad (a flirtatious combination of organic produce), quite well.

What I remember most: the noisy bustle, the crayon jar on the table, and the friendly wait staff.

Dragon Well

You can never forget a restaurant that introduces you to something new. At Dragon Well, a rather refined Chinese restaurant on Chestnut Street, it was stir-fried peas shoots. I had eyed them earlier in the week at the farmer’s market, but had never actually eaten them. I let the fact that I’m actually writing about them speak for itself. In addition to the pea shoots (a side dish), I’d recommend the Steamed Black Bean Salmon (cooked in rice wine and garnished with spinach) and the Stir-fried Curry Mi Fun (with five-spiced tofu and vermicelli noodles). At the end of your meal, you get to choose from either a traditional, or chocolate, fortune cookie.

What I remember most: the inviting smell of spices coming from the kitchen.

Addresses (all in San Francisco):

Greens

Fort Mason, Building A / Tel: (415) 771-6222 (Accept online reservations.)

Pauline’s Pizza

260 Valencia / Tel: (415) 552-2050

Dragon Well

2142 Chestnut Street / Tel: (415) 474-6888

Back from San Francisco- with lots of foodie stories to share!

When I travel, it’s all about food- well, at least 85%. It’s about trying new fare and seeing what’s in, what’s local. It’s about color and spice and just plain satisfying the palate.

Food-wise, San Francisco is a beautiful fusion of culture. I felt like I traveled the world in only a couple weeks. Sometimes I almost felt like I was back in France (French-inspired cafés and bakeries run rampant, as do fine red wines and decadent cheeses). Other times I was transported to far-off places like China, Italy, and Thailand. San Francisco is definitely the place if you like variety- high quality, healthy variety that is. What struck me most about the city is its abundance of fresh, organic produce and gourmet-style vegetarian cuisine.

You can’t write just one post on an entire trip, so I’ll be spreading my San Francisco food adventures over several days. I’ll talk about a few excellent restaurants, including my new all-time favorite, Green’s. I’ll also fill you in on tea, coffee, fortune cookies and cupcakes. Let’s start with farmers’ markets, though- essential when visiting this vibrant , farmer-friendly city.

I made it to two a couple open-air markets, but the Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market was my favorite: a definite must if you’re in San Francisco on a Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday. Overtaking the Ferry Building Market Place in the Embarcadero neighborhood, this market has a great community vibe. It’s happy. It’s bustling. It’s full of mouth-watering samples.

My mom and I started our morning out at Frog Hollow Farm’s café just inside the Ferry Building back doors. Actually, we ended up spending more than just one morning here- thanks to the cherry almond scones and well-made coffee drinks.

Revved up and ready to go, we headed to the clock tower to meet up with a good college friend of mine and take in the humming sights, sounds and tastes of the market.

Meyer lemons were everywhere, from Frog Hollow Farm’s zest-filled lemon marmalade to lemon-flavored quark cheese. These sweet, fragrant lemons are originally from China, but are the craze in California today.

Quark cheese, originally made in Eastern Europe, proved to be a special, and addictive, find. It’s a soft cheese, kind of a cross between ricotta and cream cheese. While the garlic, lemon and vanilla flavors were all fun, we all ended up favoring the latter. The cheese naturally has a slight tang which gives a subtle kick to the vanilla. Such quark is great at breakfast, spread over warm toast or homemade scones.

We eagerly wandered from stand to stand in awe at all the edible originality for sale. Tangled kiwi vines- well, those aren’t actually edible, just a sight for the eyes. Stinging nettles- yes, those are edible, when cooked. Cap’n Mike’s Indian Smoked Salmon, (basted in honey). Herbal sugars- such as lemon (there it is again!) verbena and rose petal- and dried Thai basil at the Allstar Organics booth. Crispy, juicy Asian pears (which had a slight lemon flavor by the way).

I could go on and on, but I’ll just mention a few more finds…

On more of a French note, we encountered huge bundles of fragrant, organic lavender; some not-so-ordinary mushrooms; rich, creamy cheeses; fine red wines; and excellent renditions of real French bread. Just inside the Ferry Building doors, for example, lies Far West Fungi, a small shop that offers all sorts of intriguing mushrooms I’d never heard of before (like Nameko and Pioppini). Also inside the building is the Cowgirl Creamery, the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant and the Acme Bread Company. The best way to combine it all (and feel a little French) is to sit down for wine, cheese, marinated mushrooms and baguette at the wine bar.

We ended up going back to the Ferry Building several times. On one such occasion, we enjoyed two 2007 Californian reds: a Scribe Pinot Noir, Carnezos-Sonoma and a Nalle Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley. The cheese: a ½ round of Mt. Tam. The bread: an entire, fresh épi baguette.

Whether you start the day or finish it at the Ferry Plaza Market and Ferry Building merchants, you can’t go wrong. The market itself gets my “kudos for sustainability” for it’s support of local farmers and various other environmentally-friendly initiatives. The vendors, for example, only dispense bags that are compostable or recyclable- important since, as I learned, the City program doesn’t recycle just any old plastic bag!

All the market excitement almost made me wish we didn’t have dinner reservations that evening. I wanted to shop and cook, shop and cook- especially some of the stranger looking mushrooms. Fortunately, Green’s restaurant, and their mushrooms, was well worth the sacrifice.

Next post: favorite San Francisco restaurants…

Though I was hopeful for spring with my last post, this week’s on-and-off flurries of snow have officially confirmed that winter is not yet over.

In fact, this has been the strangest, coldest winter I’ve experienced in Paris so far.  Today, alone, has been proof of divine indecision: one minute, unbelievably large snowflakes are floating in the air; the next, the sky is clear and blue; and, then, it’s masked in grey, bone-chilling cold.

Whether you’re just visiting or actually living in Paris, one of the coziest escapes from the weather is shelter in one of the capital’s endless array of wine bars. Just recently, we discovered one that was especially inviting- and hidden away from any tourist crowd.

Le Rouge et le Verre is located in Paris’ 9^th arrondissement, not too far north of the Palais Garnier opera house and right near the church Notre Dame de Lorette.  This area may not get the same attention as the neighboring 1^st and 2^nd arrondissements (home, for example, to the Bibliothèque Nationale, Place Vendôme and the Louvre), but I enjoy walking around its somber streets and stepping into its cafés/bars for the unexplored, authentic atmosphere I always feel.

Soon as you walk in this cave à vin, your eyes roam the rows of wine bottles lining the walls (arranged by region and identified with rustic wooden signs, of course).  The atmosphere is relaxed and friendly- with most customers coming in to ask for pairing advice and purchase a few bottles.  In the evenings between 5pm and 8pm, however, you may enjoy a glass of wine and a plate of cheeses or charcuteries.  This is where I was introduced to a monastic cheese from Brittany called “Timanoix.”  A semi-hard cow’s milk cheese, it’s made with nut liqueur which gives it a pleasant, almost smoked and nutty flavor.        

As for the wine, Sébastien and I each ended up with a glass we’d now recommend.  With my cheese, I took a 2005 Margaux, Les Gondats de Marquis de Terme (the young man helping us said this hearty red wine would go well with the meat plate as well).  Sébastien opted for a 2007 Irancy, Domaine Heimbourger, a light and refreshing white wine.

For anyone who likes oysters, it’s the season to enjoy these, too.  You can either take them to go (sold out front) or sit and eat them with a glass of wine.

Address: 8, rue Maubeuge (9^th)

Telephone: 01 48 78 68 43

Metro: Notre Dame de Lorette

It’s snowing again, by the way…