Gastroanthropology

City of Lights? City of Bread.

It's not a myth - nearly every other person in Paris is carrying a baguette from their local baker. Since I've been living in Europe I've been eating a lot more bread. This for two reasons - the bread (quality + variety) tends to be better and bread isn't "bad" for you, just a part of the diet. There are a plethora of whole grain, cereal and dark rye breads.

A few delicious bread finds in Paris...

Des Gateaux et du Pain is run by Claire Damon, who trained under Pierre Herme. Her bakery is sleek and black and you feel like you are walking into a private showroom - of breads and pastries.

 

Sprinkled all over Paris is Eric Kayser. He is famous for his cereal breads and rightly so. The bread from crust to flavor to chewy-ness only reinforces the fact that Kayser has perfected the art of bread.

 

The bread can be enjoyed plain or with a little smear of proper French butter.

Most know that I am not a huge fan of olives, but who wouldn't want to eat this olive bread?

I've missed the all-American chocolate chip cookie which Europeans have not or do not care to master, but Kayser did have a tasty chocolate chip cookie with walnuts that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Des Gateaux et du Pain: 63 Blvd Pasteur - 15th.

Eric Kayser: Paris, multiple locations, click here for boutiques.

Bastille Food Market

A crisp, onion and potato pancake, hot off the griddle from the Bastille Food Market in Paris.

The Bastille Food Market is an open-air market, over-flowing with fresh produce, baked goods, fish, meat, poultry, kitchen tools and prepared foods.

Poulet + Potato. Roasting chicken with juice and fat dripping down for the most deliciously flavored potatoes.

Sauerkraut + Sausage. Tart kraut and sweet, juicy sausage.

Everything Basque.

Traditional Kouign Amann. A bit different from the Pierre Herme kind.

It's no wonder figs have such a history.

A reminder that in many places around the world citrus is coming into season. 

Bastille Food Market in Paris is on Boulevard Richard Lenoir between rue Amelot and rue Saint Sabin in the 11th. Thursdays and Sundays from 7am - midafternoon.

Pierre Herme

I've just returned from a whirlwind trip to Paris and wishing I had more willpower - I ate all my Pierre Herme macarons on the two and a half hour train ride back to London. They were so good - like close your eyes, tilt your head back, room goes quiet and all you can concentrate on is the wonderful taste in your mouth good. And Pierre Herme doesn't stop there...he has a cake called Desire. Sable cookie bottom, lemon cream and lemon cake, topped with these fragrant wild strawberries.

While Pierre Herme pastry shops are like jewel boxes overflowing with treasures from all over the world it's the regional French classics that really impressed me.

These are canneles and they are traditionally from Bordeaux. I've actually had an obession with them for years. They are quite hard to come by in the US, especially a good one, but popular in France. If your in San Francisco they sometimes come at the end of your meal at the Dining Room at the Ritz Carlton and also at Fleur de Lys, further south in Los Gatos you can occasionally find them at Fleur de Cocoa - call ahead, the chef doesn't make them everyday. The cannele exterior should be crunchy and a uniform deep brown color, while the inside is soft, chewy, and yellow.

They are a bit labor intensive to make - the batter must be made ahead and often left to rest for days - at Pierre Herme it's three. Traditionally, the cannele molds are coated with a melted beeswax mixture to help create the cruchy outside, but a few very well known pastry chefs swear by straight butter (including Pierre Herme!).

Kouign Amann is a french pastry that hails from Brittany. It's usually quite thin and cooked in one piece and cut into portions. The bakeries in Paris, however, do them like this:

 *These are upside down!

The Kouign Amann is usually served flat side up and I can't understand why. The bottom, which is shown here, is so beautiful and clearly shows the crunchy, sugary, layers. If you've never had kouign amann its a croissant dough (and Pierre Herme's croissants are already in a league of their own), where it's not just butter folded into the layers - it's sugar as well.

Pierre Herme has three locations in Paris: 4 rue Cambon - 1st, 185 rue de Vaugirard - 15th, 72 rue de Bonaparte - 6th.

Normandy, Part 2

The most delightful surprise from last week's trip to Normandy was the Sunday Cambremer Market. It was a rainy day and everything was a bit wet. There was a little crowd of children surrounding a covered trailer whispering , "Oh, Mignon!", so I took a peek. Oh my goodness! Piglets!

The mother was so obviously sleepy and all the little ones were clamoring for milk. One had his fill and was a little less camera shy then his siblings.

I didn't want to leave the piglets but was lured away by teurgoule. Teurgoule is a type of rice pudding that comes from the Normandy region. In French, Teurgoule means twisted mouth. Today's teurgoule is made with rice, cinnamon, sugar, and raw full-cream Normandy milk. Originally, the pudding did not have sugar as it was difficult to come by and the unsweetened cinnamon spice would "twist" the mouths of the Normans who ate it. Cinnamon was procured by Norman pirates who would steal it from Spanish ships.  

We ate 750 grams of this award winning rice pudding! It is cooked for hours and creates a thick, brown crust. The pudding inside is so creamy and the rice melts in your mouth.

The farmers market also had these beautifully colored pumpkins and squash. 

 

Cambremer and its surrounding areas are home to apple orchard after apple orchard. It reminded me of the short time I lived in upstate New York, where every fall everyone went apple picking.

I suspect at some point I'll leave my life and do something where I can live and work the land. Who wouldn't want to live here amongst the apple trees and press some of them into cider?

Normandy, Part 1

On Friday, Nate and I jumped on the Eurostar from central London and in one hour we were in Calais, France. We rented a car that would probably be considered a toy car by American standards and raced to Honfleur for a late dinner. There was just a sliver of moonlight while we were walking around the cobblestoned streets and it started to get cold and windy so we tucked into a cozy little restaurant right on the water. We enjoyed the most delicious warmed goat cheese salad and what Nate called the best fish dish he's ever had. It had a little bit of everything the ocean has to offer + Normandy cream sauce. Everything was perfectly cooked and seasoned. The mouthfeel of the cream sauce was heavenly and paired perfectly with all the different types of seafood.

 

We initially planned the weekend trip to Normandy to visit D-day sites. We spent the most time at the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. It is kept in perfect condition and is the site of a wonderful museum explaining all that went into and all that was lost on D-day. It's an event that I never put the thought it deserves but will do so now. The lives lost and what they gave this world is beautifully remembered there.

The American Flag was flying high all over Normandy and it was the first time I really felt welcome in Europe. The people in Normandy were so absolutely kind, helpful, and friendly. By Saturday evening we had stumbled upon all the seaside villages along the coast of Normandy and called it a night in Cherbourg.

If fall knocked on Britain's door last week, winter blew down Normandy's door Saturday night. Umbrellas were useless as wind gusts threw rain at us in every direction imaginable. Sunday we woke up to a cold, rainy day so we decided to take the inland route back to Calais, armed with caffeine and chocolate croissants, of course.

It was now time to sample Normandy's culinary traditions: apples, calvados, and dairy. First stop - The Cider Route.

The Route du Cidre stars in Cambremer and weaves in and out of apple farms, forest, dairy farms and little hamlets. The first stop on the route was the Sunday farmer's market in Cambremer. Life hasn't changed much here over the years and you could tell because the market doesn't sell the trendy, "organic" foods but locally reared piglets, dairy cows, chickens, ducks, and local, homegrown squashes and freshly made sausages and puddings. More on this in a few days with Normandy, Part 2. Continuing on with the route we found that the apples we found were just starting to ripen...

Since it wasn't quite time to eat the apples we had to enjoy the next best thing...calvados. We stopped at an apple farm that presses its own cider and got a few bottles to take home. We got the aperitif de Normandie - the before dinner type as it is a bit sweeter and not as high in alcohol content which makes it more enjoyable and able to consume in greater amounts. We had little time to really enjoy the entire route for fear of missing our train back to London so we had to cut the trip a bit short which now warrants a return visit.

Our drive back took us through Isigny-sur-Mer where we wolfed down an entire wedge of brie cheese from the local dairy producer, Isigny Ste Mere, with baguette. I was quite possibly the most delicious brie I have ever had. No, it was. And its thanks to these gals...