Here are just a few of our favorite tastes of Paris -- oh, how we will miss the wonderful foods!
Yop, drinkable yogurt from Yoplait. It comes in tons of flavors, like mango, coconut, strawberry, vanilla, peach/nectarine, lemon, even chocolate! Not to mention Orangina, or Schweppes Agrumes (or lemon or coconut). And our lemon-flavored water! I forgot to take a photo of that...
wonderfully fresh produce
Baguettes, I never tire of them. The good ones are the pinnacle of what the French call crousti-moelleux: crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside.
ah, the pastries...
the macarons -- these ones are from Pierre Hermé. (Marc bought two cookbooks about making macarons, so maybe we won't be deprived of these after all!)
the staggering variety of wonderful cheeses!
the yogurt -- I just will never understand why French yogurt is infinitely superior to American yogurt (well, all dairy, really). Even though we have Dannon and Yoplait, the products they have in France are so different from ours that they're not even the same thing at all.
even the butter is better! (and check out the selection)
I didn't have a wide enough angle lens to capture all of the chocolate aisle!
Grec sandwiches. Available anytime of day or night, even when all the other stores are closed, this is a little bit of greasy heaven: great bread stuffed with spit-roasted pork or merguez sausage, onions, spicy sauce, and french fries. Oh yeah.
One of my favorite chocolate bars. The milk chocolate melts in your mouth and the pecans are ever so slightly caramelized and crunchy. There's nothing else like it!
A favorite treat of the kids. A chocolate egg that contains a plastic egg with a toy inside, often one that you have to assemble. They can't get enough of them.
I don't know why but French lentils are completely different and oh so delicious.
How sad is it that these cookies that cost under $1.00 are way better than expensive cookies here? (although nothing can take my heart away from homemade chocolate chip...)
Special K Red Berries has strawberries, cherries, and raspberries! Yum. They also have a variety with blueberries, blackberries, and black currants. That's what I'm talking about.
The eggs are individually stamped, not only with a "best by" date, but also with the date on which they were laid!!
the grape juice is entirely different from ours and truly delectable -- they know grapes
our favorite sparkling water -- it's a great "digestif"
creme fraîche -- ah, how do I describe my love for you? It's thick like sour cream, but it's not sour. It's delightfully creamy and doesn't curdle when you stir it into hot sauces or soups. It is a necessary ingredient in many French recipes, and very difficult to find in America. (I've seen recipes to make your own, but it just is not the same.)
My favorite breakfast: baguette with butter (and sometimes jam) and the most delicious hot chocolate.
Gaufres liegeoises (waffles from Liege, or Belgian waffles). You buy these ready-made and eat them right out of the package. They are very dense and filled with little balls of pearl sugar. After our last stay in France, I brought home the pearl sugar, found a recipe, and tried to reproduce them. It was a complete failure, the sugar melted and burned all over the waffle-maker. Oh well, we will just have to look forward to returning to Paris!
the grape juice is entirely different from ours and truly delectable -- they know grapes
8 comments:
I am so glad you did a post all about the food- I have been wondering if something like this was coming! I never would have thought the yogurt would be different. The butter selection is awesome, and the cheese...ah the cheese.
I wonder if you weren't such a gourmet if you would have thought to do this recap. So glad you are!
It's fun to see all these glorious products, but it makes me wonder why oh why are they all so superior when we're an evolved nation with so many choices?
glorious just like jill said...i am dying here...i love love love love to shop in europe they have such variety that you only find in specialty stores here...if and a triple its cost...i feel happy when i go to tijuana once in a while they have good selections too...and get a lot of stuff from over there...i must say the belgium waffle just about did me...my brother was bringing me some he often has meetings in brussels and it was right at the time with the london crisis that they took them ALL AWAY how sad is that.....wait wait wait patiently
This is really interesting reading, Michelle, because it's quite familiar with me even though I'm in Britain.
We had a lady visit our office (when I worked for a US company) from San Diego and she kept marvelling at the choice of cheeses we had in our supermarkets. I thought she was a bit mad, but you're making me think you really are bereft of choice in the cheese dept :-/
Have you really not got creme fraiche over there? That's outrageous!
i am so hungry now!
lovely pics. the butter pic? wow! i would be in heaven. not to mention the chocolate and produce.
We just found a store that carries Orangina. Fir six dollars a bottle but we splurge sometimes.:)
You have the gift when it comes to photo composition. After attending the photo shoots at Freed's for Phila Mag. I decided that would be the job for you! Both in the photography layout and the writing!! We need to talk! This world of Paris seems like another life.....great shots.
The food looks absolutely divine. I was mouth watering my way through this post. I sure wish we could take a clue from the French! We are seriously deprived. Love love love the food post. :-)
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