Ahhh, Paris - the city of a thousand cliches. The home of towers and temples, bistros and bars, food and fashion, bakers and brandy, merchant and markets....I could alliterate all day.
French cuisine has long been held in high regard by cooks the world over and is home to many classical cooking techniques and dishes. The list is long and I certainly don't have time to experience them all in the few days I am spending here, but I do intend to try as many as I can. Let's start with a bistro classic and one of my personal favourite dishes of all time. Confit de Canard (Duck Confit) is a preparation of duck (usually the leg and thigh) where the meat is basically cooked in its own fat. The usual result is meat that is rich and strong in flavour and usually falling of the bone tender and delicious.
In this version, the duck was not as tender as I have had it previously and not as strongly flavoured, but still delicious. However, the highlight of the dish is the potatoes. I could smell them coming from a mile away they had so much garlic on them and I suspect they were also cooked in duck fat because the taste was amazing and they didn't skimp on quatity either as you can see.
This next classic of French cuisine often has people covering their eyes or avoiding it all together. Steak Tartare (raw steak) has always been one of those challenging dishes for some people, although many who try it actually enjoy it, some people just can't get past the fact that they are eating raw meat.
The meat in this case is Limousin Beef, one of the highest grades of beef available in France and is minced moments before coming to the table and is normally served with condiments and additions like onions or capers and sometimes raw egg. This was a very large serve and after about three quarters of the way through I gave up because I couldn't even taste it anymore. I'm a big fan of steak tartare, but in smaller quantities.
For dessert that night I didn't go for a classic, but I was very interested in the Peach Soup.
Served cold and with icecream this was delicatly sweet in flavour with a strong peachy aroma and taste. A very nice way to end a meal.
Another food commonly associated with the French is Foie Gras. There is much ethical discussion about the process surrounding Foie Gras and I'm not going to get into it here, but if you would like to discuss it, there is a comment section below and I'm happy to put forward their feelings about it or start a discussion. In many bistros around Paris you will see Pate de Fois Gras and that was the way I tried it first.
This was rich, smooth and delicious. Much nicer than many of the liver pates commonly available in Australia.
To follow this, my eye was caught by a sausage listed on the menu as Andouillette AAAAA. Now I have heard of Andouille sausage which is a spicy cajun pork sausage and thought this would be similar, and with all those A's after it it had to be something special right? Well when it came out I was a little taken aback.
Not the prettiest looking sausage in the world is it. That was the first surprise. The second came when I cut into the sausage and discovered not mince or ground meat, but chunky roughly cut substantial pieces of meat. This had a very strong porky flavour and the texture was not like any cut of pork I had had before.
I figured that mystery meat is what most sausages are made of anyway and this is no exception, so I got over my initial trepidation and got stuck into it. This was not the most delicious sausage I had ever had and it had a very powerful, not altogether pleasant flavour. The texture was quite gelatinous and took some getting used to. Now that I have done some research on this sausage I have discovered the reason for the unusual texture and flavour.
Andouillette is a very traditional French tripe sausage. Made from the stomach and intestines or the pig and wrapped in bowel. This sausage has a large following in France and even has an association devoted to it, that is what the AAAAA stands for, The Association Amicale des Amateurs d'
Andouillette Authentic (the Friendly Association of Authentic
Andouillette Lovers). Anyone who is not adventurous in their tastes may want to consider avoiding this one...:)
Ok, to get your minds off that one for a bit, here´s something pretty.
People in Paris love their Macaroons. These are a delicate baked good, almost like a meringue, crisp on the ouside, soft and delicate in the middle. These are usually served with two of them sandwiching a creamy filling. The flavour combinations are almost endless and the most famous name in macaroons is
Pierre Herme, who has been known to make many weird and wonderful flavour combinations, including Ketchup flavour.
Walking down the street where he has his store, it's impossible to miss it as the line of customers goes out the door. I had to wait at least 10 minutes just to get in, but once I was in, it was worth it.
I could sit here all day just taking photos, but people were pushing me to get moving, so I ordered a few (they are not cheap by the way), including the Olive Oil and Vanilla one and moved on. Now I would love to describe how all the different flavours tasted and how amazing they were, but unfortunately, by the time I got back to my hotel room they had started to break down due to the humidity. I scoffed a few....I wasn't going to throw them out after all that, but the flavours had all started to run together and it was hard to distinguish anything in particular.
That was my quick Paris wrap up, there is one more dinner which I will talk about next post because it deserves its own. I loved this city and all the bizarre and delicious food that is available, if you're ever here get out and try something new. You may not like it, but maybe, just maybe you'll find something amazing.
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