Our friend Juliette and Sean, my husband and I had a perfect, end of summer meal at a gem of a find, Restaurant l’Agrume. The menu degustation, at 37 Euros is a bargain, considering that it is like two full meals. The sweet host warned us that the menu consisted of small portions. Perhaps it is managing expectations but we were so full, by the time the plat arrived, half of us could only finish half. Even with my husband’s seafood allergies, the chef accommodated so that we can all enjoy the menu. Five lovely courses, with a memorable risotto with truffles, and a white fish with anchovy oil… delicious. A definite gem.

15, rue des Fossés Saint-Marcel, Paris 75005 01 43 31 86 48

Maybe I can live here, now.  Perhaps after almost two decades of coming here and traveling elsewhere, I’ve become, as John Berger once said, ‘a patriot of elsewhere.’  I don’t need to live in San Francisco anymore, though I want to have a home there.  I can now have a home here, rather than just a piéd-a-terre.  Or perhaps, I’m finding that Asian culture has completely infiltrated Paris.  There is now K mart, the new go to Asian supermarket in Paris for Korean food as well as Japanese products.  Our friend Laila introduced us to a great ramen place and took us around this gentrifying quartier.  I said ‘K Mart in Paris?”  She said, ‘Non, a Korean Mart in Paris!’

KMart is the only place I know of where one can purchase kimchi and soft tofu in Paris. Alongside the sushi grade fish and the fresh meat counters is the produce shelves with shitake, enoki and shimeji brown mushrooms, daikon radishes, shiso leaves, fresh ginger, red and green chillis… Also, don’t miss the supermarket cafeteria for a quick lunch or food to go.

K mart
6-8 Rue Sainte Anne
75001 Paris
tel: 01.58.62.49.09
Metro: Pyramides, Palais-Royal – Musée du Louvre

Great. Just when I had stopped worrying about being fed horse meat.

PARIS: The traders sell an array of bush meat: monkey carcasses, smoked anteater, even preserved porcupine.

But it isn’t a jungle market in Africa – it’s the heart of Paris, where a new study has found more than five tonnes of bush meat slips through the city’s main airport each week.

Researchers suspect similar amounts are arriving in other European cities in an illegal trade raising concerns about diseases ranging from monkeypox to Ebola, and is another twist in the struggle to integrate a growing African immigrant population.

[From Monkey on menus in France]

I don’t think this is happening anywhere in the 6th though.

From the New York Times…

Newly launched, The Paris Supper Club promises to replace both outdated guidebooks and raves from nostalgic friends when it comes to searching out some of the best and truest places to eat in the French capital.

The club is a project of former Gourmet European correspondent Alexander Lobrano, author of a book and blog called “Hungry for Paris” (hungryforparis.com), and Wendy Lyn, a “culinary concierge” whose blog, “The Paris Kitchen” (thepariskitchen.com), vows to have you eating and drinking like a local, not a tourist.

These all-inclusive, prix-fixe dinners are limited to eight guests, with Lyn and Lobrano acting as hosts. As Lyn puts it on her Web site, it’s about “sharing a meal and a conversation — where guests can ask us everything from the best restaurants, cafes, shops, markets, bakeries to living in Paris.”

Average cost is 100 euros (about $135) per person and includes a starter, main course, dessert and wine. Guests also will be sent a list of the duo’s six favorite bistros and restaurants before their visit. theparissupperclub@gmail.com

I remember a Sunday afternoon meal at this wonderful bistro with my darling husband and my kids a year ago. Most incredible vegetables and wonderful service. No wonder Michael R. Bloomberg, the thrice re-elected mayor of NY also prefers it….

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/nyregion/19paris.html

Oh, c’mon.

Tokyo is the gourmet capital of the world. So say the revered gastronomes at the Michelin Guide, who have awarded three stars to 11 restaurants in the Japanese capital, one more than in Paris.

Yesterday’s announcement, made days before the launch of the Michelin Guide Tokyo 2010, cements the city’s deserved reputation as a spectacular place to dine.

“Tokyo has become the world culinary capital, ahead of Paris,” gushed Jean-Luc Naret, the guide’s director general.

[From Tokyo is the new Paris, say Michelin | Life and style | guardian.co.uk]

But, I guess if they are giving the title of Paris to the city with the most 3-star restaurants, it might as well be Tokyo. For many years, people would always tease me that “actually, London now has better food than Paris.”

“Yeah, I said, and you can keep it.” I still would rather live, eat, and breathe in Paris for everyday eating than anywhere else in the world, even Northern California, where we live.

I love the title of this blog entry!

Once upon a time, a macaron was a novelty and you had to get your fill while in Paris. Now, what appears to be an impossible to make confection is found all over. They are still impossibly expensive so perhaps still special, like a bottle of Veuve Cliquot Grande Dame, but still easily accessible.

Again the Patisserie AOKI below our apartment gets the highest marks:

Patisserie Sadaharu AOKI
35 rue de Vaugirard
75006 PARIS.
€16 for 12 macarons
approx AUD$2.60 each.

By far the prettiest and best packaged macarons. All were a standard shape and size (small) with beautiful strong packaging designed to product the little darlings. The flavours were very restrained and subtle, with the wasabi and the licorice being favourites. They were a bit too crispy on the day we bought them, but by the time they travelled home to Australia – they were pretty perfect texture-wise. Second Favourite. I tried 3 times to buy from Aoki’s shop. It’s around the corner from Pierre Hermé so we went there at about 10:30, but all I got was a photo of the outside of the shop. We went and had a coffee down the street, and went back, still not open! Oh well, off we went to Le Grand Epicerie, giving up on the Japanese wunderkid! Luckily, we ended up back in the 6th later on in the day and I was able to pop in for my fix. I was told off for trying to take photographs in the shop though so you’ll have to trust me when I say that it was full of beautiful chocolates and dainties.

[From essjayeats » Blog Archive » Travel: The macarons of Europe]

There are two amazing facts in this story reported all over the blogosphere, and also in the New York Post.

The first is that the Louvre, in a situation they can’t control, will have to co-exist with the odeurs of a MacDo in its midst. Seems the Louvre can’t control the actual tenants in the big mall under the Carrousel, which is managed by a private company. I guess that’s why there is already a Starbucks there.

Second, though, is the fact that never ceases to amaze: France is the second most important market in the world for McDonald’s after the United States. A spokesman for McDonald’s says it’s because McDonald’s is perceived as a French company. I find that very hard to believe, but it sure is a great trick if have pulled it off.

PARIS — French culture and American convenience will come together in December — thanks to plans by the McDonald’s restaurant chain to hang its shingle in the shadow of the Louvre.

McDonald’s is delighted at the prospect of feeding hungry culture vultures. But not everyone is happy about mixing high art and fast food.

The McDonald’s will be installed in the food court of the underground mall adjoining the museum, known as the Carrousel du Louvre, as the fast food chain fetes its 30th anniversary in France, McDonald’s France said.

The pairing could serve the interests of both. The Louvre is the world’s most visited museum; France is McDonald’s top market outside the United States.

[From McDonald's restaurant to be placed inside food court at Carrousel du Louvre]

The food is already about as bad as it can be in the Louvre food court. Visitors are strongly advised to eat after or before they enter the Louvre maze.

I just took another look at this article we referenced a few weeks back. We are just back after 14 days in France, and after having read this article in the Seattle Times, I quizzed everyone I know about the supposed “decline” in French food. Everyone thought the idea was hogwash. All the Americans and all the French. We too found good and bad food. Certainly, Paris, like any large city, does not have a uniformly cheap and mind-blowing culinary experience on every street corner. In general, it’s expensive and in the restaurants right across from major monuments, expect to get fleeced with high prices and low quality. Elsewhere, it’s caveat emptor though the odds are still higher in Paris than in San Francisco for good that tastes like the primary ingredients, rather than slop reconstituted from a can off the Sysco Food Services truck.

I think some of this is chauvinism. It’s nice to kick the French off their high horse, and real data trends seem to indicate that the French are eating more fast food including McDonald’s. For some reason, everyone likes to christen London as the greatest food capitol. It does have it’s restaurant finds, though frequent visitors tend to go to the same ones over and over again. I’d take a French neighborhood brasserie though over a pub meal in a heartbeat though.

Controversy also sells papers!

The decline of French cuisine | Seattle Times Newspaper