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Thursday, October 7, 2010

Part I: What Does One Eat in Paris? Les Entrees...

Mussels with a white wine sauce...


What Does One Eat in Paris?
Part I:  Les Entrees
by Victoria Challancin

I returned from Paris only a little over a week ago and I am still drooling over the food.  Even my memories are drooling.  Do you want to see why?  Scroll down.

Whenever I return to Paris, where I lived in the late 70s, I return to my favorite city, a place of mysteries, a place of comfort, a place of heavenly food.  As I traipse through favorite neighborhoods, a flâneuse on the loose, strolling along, absorbing through the senses, through the mind, I go back over and over to the places I love.  And if I revisit locales, I revisit food as well.  Let's begin with Les Entrees, the Starters.

An appetizer of Burgundy-style escargots, or snails, with a parsley-garlic butter sauce, complete with handy tongs and a special fork

A salad with smoked duck gizzards, les gésiers de carnard fumé?   Bien sûr!

A pork terrine served with cornichons and mustard...and bread, of course, of course

A terrine again, this time with vegetables...

Frog Legs:  My Southern Mom fried them, and the were WONDERFUL, but there is nothing wrong with with a touch of white wine, parsley, and lemon.  Definitely nothing wrong with this.

Gratinéed French Onion Soup?  Oh my, yes.  Over and over.  Sometimes with beef broth, sometimes with chicken, sometimes with both...French Comfort Food

A salad of über-fresh vegetables, a sublime French cheese, and a simple mustard vinaigrette.  And bread...yes, yes, yes


With fresh fennel this time...


Mussels again?   You don't even want to KNOW how many times I ordered these...

Escargots again as well?  You can never eat enough escargots!  Just ask my son, Zachary Popovsky, who names it as one of his top three favorite foods, along with Shepherd's Pie and  Head Tacos from Mexico.

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