Skip to content

Posts from the ‘Shopping’ Category

Nov 7

2 Comments

No. 40: Hidden Gems

I love it when agreeing to do an ordinary favor for a friend turns into a secret discovery. Secret discoveries in Paris are not all that unusual, especially when you make a conscious effort to slow down, take life as it comes, and frankly, just look around.

With 5 million things to do today before I head off for a short trip to visit Kitcat in her new home in Epsom, I agreed to head to a part of Paris I don’t usually hang out in—except when I’m craving the world’s best falafel or need some gefilte fish: le Marais. The delightful French girl Kitcat lives with in the UK was anxious to be reunited with her guitar and I promised to fetch it and carry it across the Chunnel.

And I’m really glad I did. I ended up in le Passage de l’Ancre, one of the oldest, if not the oldest passageway in Paris. There are hundreds of hidden worlds behind unassuming doors in the French capital, but this one is a real gem. Stepping through the modest blue gates, I was transported to a world that time left behind—Paris at the turn of the 19th century—the stuff of which movies are made. C’est un passage extraordinaire!

IMG_1859

Although the passage was restored 10 years ago, it hasn’t lost its original charm. Bursting with leafy trees, sidewalk planters and lovely window boxes, the brightly colored storefronts are home to a number of interesting workshops and specialty stores. Pep’s, the celebrated atelier, where sick umbrellas and parasols are healed, is the most famous of them, but I’m happy to report that the whole guitar-errand-thing landed me a front row seat to another magical shop, la Bicyclette. Owned by Kitcat’s roommate’s family, I had a guided tour through the past in the tiny, but enchanting workshop of Thierry Marscarell. Nestled among the bicycles, ancient typewriters, antique shoe inserts, sepia-toned photos, wooden oars and skis and of course, bicycles, are modern lights, tempting home decorations, and funky, minimalist adornments. If I had a home in Paris to decorate, this unique store would be my first stop.

IMG_1877

Just a few steps away from le Centre George Pompidou, you can access le Passage de l’Ancre (and la Bicyclette) by two different entrances: 223 rue Saint-Marin or 30 rue Turbigo, 75003.

Vocabulaire

atelier: workshop

C’est un passage extraordinaire! It is an extraordinary passageway.

Nov 1

6 Comments

No. 34: Salon du Chocolat

As we are running off for homemade Thai food tonight, I am leaving you with a few scrumptious pictures of how I spent the day….completely overwhelmed by chocolate! Stay tuned for the story tomorrow. Bonne dégustation!

Vocabulaire:

Bonne dégustation! Happy (good) tasting!

Oct 30

3 Comments

No. 31: Savon de Marseille

IMG_8425I love the world famous soap from Marseille. The authentic product is made from vegetable oils, mostly olive oil, and must contain 72 percent oil to be stamped as savon de Marseille.

Marseille and Provence have been associated with soap making since the 16th century. According to The Insiders Guide to the Most Beautiful Part of France, “in 1900, 60 percent of the population was involved in soap-making in some capacity and records from 1908 state that the city then had 81 factories producing 140,000 tons (308 million pounds) of soap a year.” That’s a tremendous amount of soap!

IMG_8241

Being crazy for color, I love to look at the colorful displays of soap found at every market in Marseille and Provence, but as far as washing up, I go for the natural miel et citron. With no artificial colors or dye. It smooths and nourishes and smells heavenly to boot…

IMG_8427

Vocabulaire

savon de Marseille: soap from Marseille

miel et citron: honey and lemon

 

Oct 23

No. 20-23: Less is More

I had to make an unexpected trip to the USA this week.

After trying so hard to get into my French life and gearing my family up for what is sure to be another adventure-filled year in gay Par-ee, this trip back to the land of the LARGE and PLENTY has really thrown me for a loop. I have found it difficult to concentrate and be productive. There is so much STUFF in America to get distracted by; it’s hard to focus. Is it any wonder that we hand out anti-anxiety and ADHD medication like candy on Halloween?Halloween candy

I do love the fact that in France, there still appears to be some restraint, and maybe even a sense of national pride in the idea that LESS is more. In general, in France quality surpasses quantity, and I find there are a good many Frenchies committed to this idea.

Here are a few of the larger things I have encountered in the last week in America and the smaller counterparts I enjoy in France:

No. 20: Smaller Shops & Les Petites Boutiques Familiales

For those of you who live in the USA or have visited, I have one word for you: Costco.

For those of you who have never been to America, an explanation: Costco Wholesale Corporation is a membership-only warehouse club that provides a wide selection of merchandise; it is the second largest retailer in the United States, the seventh largest retailer in the world and the largest membership warehouse club chain in the United States. (Wikipedia)

Need a couple of pounds of something? How about 10?

Need a couple of pounds of something? How about 10?

…and, you can buy everything and anything there…in very LARGE quantities.

I know the megastores are convenient and cheap, but it is such a pleasure (albeit sometimes a pain) to live somewhere where the mom and pop and artisan stores are still thriving right around the corner. Yes, sometimes you have to go to six or seven shops in one day just to get everything you need for a dinner party, but for me it is much more satisfying to frequent these small shops than to shop in a warehouse or strip mall.

No. 21: Product Packaging

Jumbo tunaI haven’t quite figured out what I would do with 4lbs 2 ½ oz (2 kg) of tuna, although I if I had the space in my tiny Parisian freezer I could finish 6.75 lbs  (3.1 kg) of edamame ( j’adore edamame).IMG_1574

With Thanksgiving and Christmas just around the corner, I suppose I could finish a 3 lbs (1.4 kg) bag of fresh cranberries, if I had the time (and American oven) to make cranberry bread for my whole apartment building.Cranberries

And, look at this, Costco has even taken on the French Macaron, and prepackaged an entire pound of these artisanal French cookies…imagine the money I could save as macarons are 2 euros ($3) a pop in Paris.  What would Ladurée say?Macarons

No 22: Fewer Choices

As my trip was last-minute and I needed to quickly pack a small carry-on, I forgot to bring some of my toiletries. So, my first stop was the “small” local grocery store. All I needed was shampoo. Once I finally tracked down the shampoo aisle, I froze.  I stared. I panicked. My breath sped up. There was so much frickin’ shampoo! I almost lost my nerve.product

It only took me 30 minutes to decide, and I’m happy to report, I do have clean hair now, but choosing wasn’t easy.

No 23: Fewer Sales

After staying in the USA for more than a week, I realized how much sales drive our consumer culture and influence my personal shopping habits. Returning to this always-a-sale craze, I now understand how much this phenomenon contributes to our country’s economy (and debt).ann-taylor-loft-sale1

In France les soldes (the sales) are few and far between. In fact they are state-regulated and are held only twice a year, mid-June and early January. They last for around six weeks and prices are continually slashed over the weeks, ending with the dregs being sold for as low as 90 percent off regular prices. I usually go shopping once or twice during these 6-week periods, and come away with one or two precious finds.

In contrast, in America something is always on sale, and often at a pretty steeply discounted rate. I am not sure if it was my anxious state of mind due to the unexpected nature of my visit back, but my sales-shock, drove me to purchase (and then return) things I really had no room or need for back in Paris. (Thank goodness for carry-on luggage restrictions!) Still, it did get me thinking about how sales contribute to America’s insatiable desire to own and consume.

All in all, I find that the less-is-more mentality in France makes me very happy. I’m glad to be constantly reminded that quality is so much more important than quantity.

Vocabulaire

j’adore edamame: I love edamame (soybeans)

les petites boutiques familiales: mom and pop stores

les soldes: the sales

Oct 8

5 Comments

No. 15: Salade de chèvre chaud

salade de chèvre chaud croustillant

salade de chèvre chaud croustillant

Before I moved to Paris, my only experience with goat cheese was those small white logs of pasteurized cream cheese-like stuff, hermetically sealed in a thick, clear plastic casing, with annoying plastic green leaves pressed along the sides.

Thankfully in France there are somewhere around 400 different types of cheese, so one can only assume a large number of those are chèvre. The Frenchies seem to be crazy for chèvre, and so am I.

Nearly every time I go out to lunch with a Parisienne (female), one of us orders a salade de chèvre. As everyone in Paris (male or female) is concerned about their weight, somehow the goat cheese salad has become a mythical weight loss entrée for at least the women. (Calorie-wise, I’m not so sure.) Calorie count or not, all those French goats and their delicious cheese, make it very easy to add salade de chèvre to my list of 365-things-I-love-about-France.

There are two main goat cheese salads in France: salade de chèvre chaud and salade de chèvre chaud croustillant. My favorite is croustillant, but the main thing is to make sure it is chaud (warm). There is something about the contrast of the warm cheese with the cold salad greens that knocks the socks right off my tastebuds.

On a simple salade de chèvre chaud the cheese is usually served crouton-style on thin, toasted slices of baguette. On the more decadent salade de chèvre chaud croustillant, the goat cheese comes wrapped in phyllo dough with a slight hint of honey and rosemary. Heavenly!

Here’s an anglicized recipe from Mademoiselle Slimalicious (one of my new favorite blogs, written by a French expatriate in Australia). Bon appétit!

Vocabulaire:

chaud: hot, warm

chèvre: goat

croustillant: crispy, crusty 

Sep 29

No. 6: Crème fraîche

www.vermontcreamery.com

photo: vermont creamery

Excuse me while I take a moment to pop the top button on my skinning jeans and ask, “What is not to love about crème fraîche?” Bien sûr, it holds a place on the 365-things-I-love-about-France list. And who’d of thunk that before I landed in Paris, I’d never even heard of it.

According to people in the know, all you need is one willing dairy cow, a set of nimble milking hands, a simple means to separate the milk from the cream, and a little time to let the natural lactic bacteria take over, et voilà, before you know it: crème fraîche; the most delicious and divine “sour cream” you can imagine, albeit with a MUCH higher fat content. I shudder to associate American sour cream with French crème fraîche, there really is no comparison, especially when you buy it from the lively M. Laitier at le Marché Saxe in the seventh arrondissement in Paris.

In regards to French cooking, Julia Childs certainly had it right when she said, “If you’re afraid of butter, use cream.” And boy do the Frenchies know how to use cream. Each time I take a French cooking class, at least one, if not all five recipes call for a minimum of one generous tablespoon. Crème fraîche is used in sauces, dressing, pastry, custards, and soups; with, poultry, beef, pork, fish, chocolate, tartes and crêpes. Of course it is exquisite with fresh fruit; or if you are like me, you could always eat it straight from the pot. Its unique sweet and slightly tangy flavor and creamy texture is, as Button would say, “Like heaven popped on a plate!”

Blanquette de Veau

Blanquette de Veau

Velouté d’Oseille

Velouté d’Oseille

Poule-au-Pot Sauce Suprême

Poule-au-Pot Sauce Suprême

Can’t find it in your favorite grocery store back home, try this do-it-yourself recipe from Emeril Lagasse.

Vocabulaire:

bien sûr – of course

crème fraîche –  fresh cream

le laitier – milkman, dairy farmer

Sep 25

2 Comments

No. 3: Picard

Picard Sign

The farmers’ markets may be where the purist buys their ingredients, but the rest of us (Frenchies and expats alike) know the true secret of French cuisine, Picard.

When I first arrived in France with not a lick of French, I used to hesitate when I passed these ultra-white, antiseptic stores, glancing furtively, I’d wonder, “What the heck is going on in there? And who are those workers in the crisp white lab coats?” Hmmm…Picard Surgelés?

With my brilliant grasp on the French language, I decided that “surgelés” obviously had to have something to do with surgery; therefore, these must be stores exclusively for pharmaceutical and surgical supply reps. I imagined, freezer after freezer filled with lifesaving vaccinations and disease curing antibodies, but why were all the women filling huge shopping carts with medicine?

Medical Supplies or TV dinners?

Medical Supplies or TV dinners?

It turns out that Picard Surgelés is the French retailer specializing in frozen food started by M. Picard, a purveyor of ice blocks in the early 1900s in Fontainebleau. Now with over 800 stores in France (100 in Paris alone), and more than 1,000 rotating products, Picard is the sneaky solution to every French woman’s dinner party. While it may feel like cheating sometimes, I’m all for cutting out a few hours of slicing, dicing and sautéing, in exchange for some face time with my family and friends. Not only is Picard a huge time saver, it is also the surest way to assuage a maman’s guilt when she dares to leave the family for her annual girls’ weekend: “They have Picard,” she thinks, “Cassolettes aux noix de Saint-Jacques on Friday night.” (A slight step up from the Totino Pizzas, my folks would offer us on their date-night.)

Saint-Jacques

Saint-Jacques

So heartily have the French embraced Picard, I have yet to attend a dinner party where something from Picard is NOT being served. When pressed even the most traditional French hostess will admit to using les ingrédients congelésis in their delicate creations. Heck, I’ve even been to French cooking lessons, where the chef has clandestinely thrown in a handful of something popped fresh from Picard’s freezer. These sterile stores are a sight to behold, row after row of neatly arranged freezers, humming and glowing, what they lack in market romance and charm, they more than makes up for in convenience. When you spot that shining snowflake in the distance, you know dinner is saved.

Les mamans saving grace

Les mamans saving grace

Zut alors! So much grub to try: Australian wild boar, New Zealand doe, flash frozen ostrich, Burgundy snails, frog legs in creamy walnut pesto, lobster tails from Maine, and scallops floating in a Sancerre wine sauce. Need to spice up your spiceless French fare? Pick up some ethnic vittles: Thai, Japanese, Indian, Mexican, Lebanese, Mediterranean, Latin America and Caribbean, to name a few. By God, François Théron even has his own designer-line of gourmand ice creams and sorbets.

Donc, bravo surgelés. When the French do it, they do it right!

Vocabulaire:

surgelés: frozen food

Newer Entries »