Food - Part I

Mmmmmm... Delicious food, crowding the sidewalks everywhere you go, how can you not think about it eating all the time?

Somehow, the food just seems to taste better here. I feel guilty writing that, but it does. Chicken is chickenyer, broccoli is broccolier & cheese is chessier (and smellier). We have trouble finding some general staples (romaine lettuce, baking powder & soda), plus we pay a premium for some N. American items. Mayo for example (French mayo is more like dijonaise) goes for about $5, for a baby food sized bottle, but the unlimited french yummies everywhere you go more than makes up for it.

We food shop everyday, with trips to: the boulangerie for sandwich bread, baguette, and sometimes a treat, the G20, our grocery store, and sometimes the green grocer. Trips to the butcher have been put off until La banque raises the limit on our credit card :).

As for how all of this delicious food impacts the body…I have been quite strict with my French diet – baguette, wine, cheese, the odd boulangerie treat and lots of walking. Yet I gain weight?

Today we visited an important part of French food culture – Picard. Picard is France’s modern version of M&M meat shops. Minimalist, cold, long, freezer lined aisles with sexy cashiers dressed in silver catsuits. Just kidding on the sexy catsuits, but it’s a bit sci-fi (maybe it’s the Jean-Luc association?). Products range from your standard frozen peas, to ten different choices of frozen foie gras & tartine au chevre avec compomtee de figue. We went the safe route and bought a frozen lasagna and slated it for a rainy day, experimentation with frozen French Cuisine will wait until we are more deeply assimilated.

Coming soon: PART II – Fauchon and other celebrated Parisian food sources, yet to be visited.