I recently received this from a reader, but it’s typical of questions I and others are asked frequently.
“Hi John,….I'm ….in search of some typical authentic, but most of all delicious Paris food. Any recommendations?
This is the first of two attempts to answer the question; I’ll start with the food and next week move on to restaurants where one can get it.
When I was 18 and first came to France, I thought anything I ate here was exotically French, from pureed soups my “French mother” made from last night’s leftovers, a sliced tomato fresh from the field, baguettes, cheese (even La Vache Qui Rit), tinned foie gras and pate and desserts I’d never seen before. Even steak/frites were outasight (frites in those days were never frozen, classically fried in goose fat and the steak tasted nothing like the MidWest feedlot stuff I was used to).
On going back to the States though, it was not these items that I dreamed about and considered “typical French food” but snails, frogs’ legs, cornichons, petits pois, haricots verts and choucroute as well as the pastis, wine and Armagnac my “French father” served.
Once married and dragging along children of all ages, the sliced tomato fresh from the field, baguettes, cheese (especially La Vache Qui Rit), tinned foie gras and pate and desserts were relegated to picnic lunches and I began to think of “typical French food” not as the fish or meat on the plate but the butter, cream and stock sauces that covered them (remember this was on the cusp of the Gault/Millau, nouvelle cuisine/minceur, revolution.)
Now fully mature – ha – and cognizant of the harm animal fat does to one’s body’s vessels I think of typical French food as abats; foie gras, tripes, sweetbreads, thymus and brains and refuse to have any of them at more than one meal a day.
Just yesterday I ate with the biggest trencher-person I know in France and predictably he took me to a place I’d passed time out of mind but never entered, thinking (terribly wrongly) that it was “just one more fungible local Parisian joint.” The carte was classic and had all the major food groups: museau, rillette, rosette, foie gras, escargots, andouillettes and beef 9 ways not to mention veal.
All kidding aside, they also had eggs mayo, radishes with butter, celery remoulade, leeks vinaigrette, head cheese, lentils, mackerel & herring, sole & trout meuniere, crème caramel, chocolate mousse, Baba and nougat glace. Talk about “typical French food.”
So, if you want some "typical French food in Paris" and don't want to wait until next week's Part II, hie thee to:
Les Gourmets de Ternes
87 bvd de Courcelles in the 8th, (Metro: Ternes)
T: 01.42.27.43.04
Closed Weekends
A la carte 60-70 E
“Hi John,….I'm ….in search of some typical authentic, but most of all delicious Paris food. Any recommendations?
This is the first of two attempts to answer the question; I’ll start with the food and next week move on to restaurants where one can get it.
When I was 18 and first came to France, I thought anything I ate here was exotically French, from pureed soups my “French mother” made from last night’s leftovers, a sliced tomato fresh from the field, baguettes, cheese (even La Vache Qui Rit), tinned foie gras and pate and desserts I’d never seen before. Even steak/frites were outasight (frites in those days were never frozen, classically fried in goose fat and the steak tasted nothing like the MidWest feedlot stuff I was used to).
On going back to the States though, it was not these items that I dreamed about and considered “typical French food” but snails, frogs’ legs, cornichons, petits pois, haricots verts and choucroute as well as the pastis, wine and Armagnac my “French father” served.
Once married and dragging along children of all ages, the sliced tomato fresh from the field, baguettes, cheese (especially La Vache Qui Rit), tinned foie gras and pate and desserts were relegated to picnic lunches and I began to think of “typical French food” not as the fish or meat on the plate but the butter, cream and stock sauces that covered them (remember this was on the cusp of the Gault/Millau, nouvelle cuisine/minceur, revolution.)
Now fully mature – ha – and cognizant of the harm animal fat does to one’s body’s vessels I think of typical French food as abats; foie gras, tripes, sweetbreads, thymus and brains and refuse to have any of them at more than one meal a day.
Just yesterday I ate with the biggest trencher-person I know in France and predictably he took me to a place I’d passed time out of mind but never entered, thinking (terribly wrongly) that it was “just one more fungible local Parisian joint.” The carte was classic and had all the major food groups: museau, rillette, rosette, foie gras, escargots, andouillettes and beef 9 ways not to mention veal.
All kidding aside, they also had eggs mayo, radishes with butter, celery remoulade, leeks vinaigrette, head cheese, lentils, mackerel & herring, sole & trout meuniere, crème caramel, chocolate mousse, Baba and nougat glace. Talk about “typical French food.”
So, if you want some "typical French food in Paris" and don't want to wait until next week's Part II, hie thee to:
Les Gourmets de Ternes
87 bvd de Courcelles in the 8th, (Metro: Ternes)
T: 01.42.27.43.04
Closed Weekends
A la carte 60-70 E
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