Ah Paris, the city of fine food and drink!  The last time I was here in 2003 I was unemployed and between jobs on extended travel. I was counting my pennies, and only once in a while splurging on a good restaurant meal. Now I can eat a little better rather than mostly buying takeout food or stuff from grocery stores for most meals.

On my way to my hostel on my arrival in Paris I noticed a restaurant named Daddy Bear about two blocks up the street. That sounds like a good name for a gay bar, but this place was just an American style steak and burger restaurant. I’m at an age now where some younger friends call me daddy bear, so I just had to have lunch there for my first meal in Paris.

I coincided my visit to Paris with my brother and sister-in-law’s trip here. Otherwise I might have gone directly to Chamonix and stopped in Paris for a few days at the end of my trip. Doug and Aviva went to Berlin for about 5 days and then to Paris for four for a long week including the Labor Day holiday. If you’ve followed my blog posts, you will know that I’m quite into food and then to eat out more than I used to years ago when finances felt a little tighter but that I also seek out very traditional foods in the places I go. Doug and Aviva, though, are quite partial to fine dining and often seek out places where the chef is known is renowned for his artistry with food. So our first dinner together on their arrival in Paris was at a place Aviva chose named Restaurant David Toutain. I knew I was going to be in for something fancy, but it turned out to be one of those multi-course tasting menus, sort of like eight or ten courses but I lost track.  I’ve never done anything like that before – such a splurge.  Since we didn’t order the courses, we didn’t know exactly what we were getting and the contents of each course were explained to us. Several contained foams and essences, cream and mushrooms, and a great variety of ingredients, all presented elegantly but served in very small portions. I won’t get fat here!  One of the courses consisted of reddish balls served on green things I first thought were edible pea pods but turned out to be spoons. Underneath these the bowl was filled with cherry tomatoes, which I started to eat too. “You’re not supposed to eat those. They’re part of the garnish,” Aviva informed me. Hmmm, I feel so uncultured here, and probably a very underdressed too. After that with each course Aviva helped me out by telling me what I wasn’t supposed to eat – like the course served on top of a basket of grass. The grass was just for show. I wasn’t supposed to eat it.

At one point the waiter brought out a beautiful cooked duck in a basket. I got excited. I thought it was ours and that they’d carve it and serve it to us at the table.  But no, when the duck course came it was just a few small but tasty morsels of the duck breast in some sauce with tiny mushrooms.  I’ve probably never eaten so little in a multi-course meal but have also probably never had a meal that included so many different ingredients. It was truly a new experience.

For lunch on Friday Aviva didn’t have reservations but had oysters on her mind. We went to Atlas in the St-Germain-de-Pres area. Oysters aren’t my thing, so I only tried a few of theirs but had something traditionally French – Bavette de Beouf with Fried Foie Gras. Bavette is flank steak, so I was expecting a grilled steak. It was actually more like a small pot roast or big piece of stew meat, slightly stringy but extremely tender after having been cooking for a long time. This and its sauce were absolutely delicious, as were the creamy mashed potatoes that accompanied it. Then Doug gave me some of his mussels, and we naturally had a couple bottles of wine with lunch, and then dessert, coffee, and a digestif of prune-flavored liquor that was suggested by the waiter.  We’re not hard to upsell to!

By dinner time I determined I was still full from lunch so decided to let Aviva and Doug have their romantic night for two on Friday. Although the place they picked sounded really good and traditional, it was also quite a long way necessitating Metro for me, and I was feeling pretty tired.

On our walk through the city Friday, I spied a Basque restaurant on the Left Bank with a quite varied and traditional looking menu. Since it was in walking distance of where we ended up by lunchtime Saturday, I suggested we try it out. With good memories of food in the Basque country from our trip 10 years ago, Doug was eager to try it out too. With our Ardoises (samplers of Basque tidbits served on a slate) we had some Cidra (cider) and Txokoli (effervescent white wine) for old time sake.

Saturday’s dinner was at a tiny place Aviva found on line named C’est la Vielle, which we think means “At the Old”. The food was good and prices not too bad, although you can make every meal expensive by ordering bottles of wine. I had a typical Parisian appetizer of potato salad with herring and the fish of the day, which was pollack fillet with mussels, cherry tomatoes, and herbs, good but similar to some of the things I make for myself at home. Doug’s Blanquette de Veau (Veal stew with vegetables and cream) was fantastic, though. The place seemed popular with tourists, somewhat to Aviva’s disappointment. What we want is a true Parisian brasserie full of French people!

Doug and I inadvertently found what we were searching for while out the next afternoon after Aviva had gone back to her hotel to take a nap. We were walking down the Champs Elysees, tourist hell like Fifth Avenue in New York where you’d least expect to find authentically good food. After a couple beers, though, Doug needed to use the can, so I suggested we stop at the Alsatian brasserie for another beer. That led to trying out an appetizer size of the Alsatian specialty Flammekuche, kind of like French pizza on a cracker but with onions, bacon, cheese, and crème fraiche. It was fantastic as looked all the other food that kept passing us by that other people had ordered. And most of the people in the restaurant were French even though it was right on the Champs Elysees! Aviva came over to Brasserie L’Alsace for dinner in what turned out to be what we were looking for as a Parisian dining experience – oysters on the half shell, Sole Meuniere.

It is said in France that the food in France is good but the portions are often small; the portions in Germany are big but the food is often not very good; but in Alsace the food is always good and the portions are large. Maybe that’s true of Alsatian restaurants in Paris too. Alsace is famous for its Choucroute, essentially Sauerkraut. Usually three of four different pieces of pork, such as ham, belly, and hock, along with several sausages and a potato or two come on top of a big mound of sauerkraut. It’s one of my favorites but very hard to find even in French restaurants in America. It was so good I had to go back the following night, my last one in Paris, for a pared down version of it as part of a three-course menu for 29.50 Euros which included the best French Onion Soup I’ve ever had. When you find something good, stick with it!