Archive for October, 2008


Pizza bianca

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

Finally another update in our review of Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian! Today’s recipe is “white pizza,” or pizza without tomato sauce, which Mark B. describes as “the mother of all pizzas.” As it makes an appearance on the list of “20 essential vegetarian dishes,” we tried it a few nights ago.
Regular readers […]

Enfin, Pierre Hermé

Monday, October 27th, 2008

After 2+ months of living in Paris, last week I finally visited the famed pâtisserie, Pierre Hermé. So much has been written about this Star of Sweets, this Prince of Pastry, that I don’t think I can contribute much to the Everest-size mountain of adulation that already exists. (Just in case you’ve been living in a […]

Wednesdays are for food

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

Wednesdays are my favorite day to read the newspaper because, as American food/media-lovers know, it’s when the dining sections appear. Imagine my happiness, mes amis, when I discovered that the food sections also appear on Wednesdays in Paris!
So, what can food freaks discover at the kiosque this week? (Side note: I love the newsstand pictured […]

Scenes from the Aveyron Fair

Friday, October 17th, 2008

Last weekend CK and I went to la Foire Aveyronaise, held here in Paris in the 12th on rue d’Auvergne. As you may remember from my post on Le Mistral, most Parisian café-owners hail from Aveyron, a region of south-central France. Last weekend was a chance to gather in a celebration of the region, to taste […]

Adventures in cheese-making

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

Finally, the labors of my cheesecloth excursion have borne fruit — I made cheese! (Pictured above on a tray of cocktail snacks alongside tapenade, olives and saucisson sec.) 
I realize that it is madness to make cheese in the country that (practically) invented cheese, but such is my dedication to you, mes amis, and this blog’s […]

A Tale of three cookware shops

Friday, October 10th, 2008

I’d heard so many raves about E. Dehillerin, the celebrated Parisian cookware shop, that I couldn’t wait to go there for a good nose-round. First of all, I needed cheesecloth (étamine, étamine, étamine!). I also wanted to investigate steamer baskets, and, well, who knows what other treasures I might discover? And so, armed with my very best […]

Gourmet addresses

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

Here’s an interesting article from today’s Le Figaroscope (which, admittedly, is the only French journalism I read). It’s called Notre sélection d’adresses gourmandes and it lists the top five boulangeries, poissonneries, boucheries, fromagers and charcuteries in the city. 

Not too many surprises here (Barthelemy and Quatrehomme for cheese, Pierre Hermé, Dalloyau, and Ladurée for pastries, Poissonnerie du Dôme […]

Biryani love

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

These troubling times call for comfort food, plain and simple. As the world financial markets crash, I wouldn’t be surprised if mac-and-cheese and mashed potato purveyors experienced a sudden spike in business. And so, seeking shelter in a soothing dish of steamy, starchy saltiness, I prepared Mark Bittman’s “biryani” from his book How to Cook […]

French food vocab

Monday, October 6th, 2008

I am no French language expert, and so I offer up this post very humbly. For a better site on French vocabulary, I suggest you check out French-word-a-day. But after spending an entire afternoon looking for cheesecloth (and generally making an ass out of myself), I thought these few words might be helpful to food lovers.
étamine […]

Dining Out and About (Paris): Le Mistral

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

If you live in Paris, chances are you frequent a café, a convivial spot around the corner from your home where you can stop in to have a coffee and a good gossip. This is the story of one such Parisian café, Le Mistral, which is tucked into a humble corner of the 20th arrondissement.
Once […]