Pain et Beurre Chaque Jour

Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010

Instead of regaling you with more of the wonderful things we have been seeing and doing, I thought I’d write a bit about the REAL reason I have come to Paris… food!

Now, if you know me, you know that I would not really be classified as a “foodie” because I am pretty much willing to eat anything – high brow, low brow, peanut butter or filet mignon – and can enjoy them all equally well. You may also know that I do not especially like to cook. I do cook for my family and try to provide a balanced diet and lovingly cooked meals, but that is because I love my family and not because I like to cook. Well, here in Paris there is always someone, somewhere cooking something lovely and delicious if you are willing to pay the money for it. We have found lots of lovely things and have some pictures to prove it. We have also done cooking on our own because we are not always willing to pay for someone else to do the work. In fact, we even brought a suitcase full of cereal, some tuna (Morgan sacrificed for the greater good here because one of the cans of tuna leaked a bit of tuna juice in her suitcase - interesting perfume!) and even (quelle horreure!) ramen noodles. We have not eaten the ramen but do eat our cereal with lait en boite for breakfast. Here is some info about our food adventures…

Grocery shopping – there are lots of little grocery stores sprinkled through every neighborhood. They are usually a Monop’, G20, Carrefour (big sponsor of the Tour de France) or a larger Monoprix. We do a lot of our basic shopping there – like nutella (yes, that is a staple for us!), milk (the milk comes in boxes and is not refrigerated until you open it because it has gone through an ultra-high temperature pasteurization process). I really like the taste of the milk but not everyone does. The fruit and vegetables at the small stores are more expensive than you can find in a street market. There is a street market just around the corner from us on Tuesdays and Fridays. We bought fresh lettuce, tomatoes, apples, bananas, melons and peppers at a much lower price than in the little stores. There is also cheese, fish, some cooked foods (Arabic food at our market), specialty sauces and olives, flowers, clothes and jewelry. It was so much fun to buy our produce there. When it comes to cooking, the difficulty for me has been finding and buying meat. It is difficult to buy at the market because it is all packaged and cut differently than I am used to seeing, and there was no beef – only chicken and fish. I have not found a local boucherie yet and would be a bit intimidated to ask for something. The meat in the small stores is very expensive and comes in small packages. We have purchased some hamburger and some chicken breasts, but we’ll have to see what else we can find. The oven in the apartment is also a microwave/conventional oven unit so I am not sure I could even cook a roast in it if I found one and was willing to pay for it. When we got out to eat, we usually try to find something with a larger serving of protein because that is a bit lacking in our diet (don’t worry – certainly NO danger of starving to death!) We found out last night however that it is truly true that the French like their meat much more rare than we do! Even Heather’s hamburger steak was red in the middle after asking for it to be medium.

Meat may be a bit tougher for me to come by, but the bread, oh the bread, AND the butter. I told many of you that we were going to eat baguettes and butter everyday while here and so far so good! We have found several different boulangeries (bread stores) to buy baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat, etc., etc. The best baguette so far was one I bought at the market. The butter is wonderful – such a fresh, sweet and light taste. Yummmm. When we are out seeing museums, etc. we also have the chance to buy things for a picnic lunch or find a crepe, sandwich or gyro to eat (lots of Greek places here). We are still on the hunt for a good place to eat boeuf bourgyogne (sp?) for Morgan – that is one of her goals while here because she spent a whole Saturday making that dish once. It’s good to have a goal isn’t it? We also carry a lot of water with us because a can of pop is usually 1.50 euros (about 2 dollars) and when you times that by five people, water tastes very good.

I am sure there will be more info on food throughout the blogs, but just know that I am being good to my word and eating some “baguette et beurre chaque jour.”

Au revoir,

Terri