Tomato Soup

Vaudeville

It's true that while in Paris, I ate many a non-traditional meal. Pizza and falafel aren't exactly culinary tributes to France. But after eating the feast at my sister's wedding I was craving even more traditional French fare, so on Sunday night (my last night in Paris) we went to Vaudeville. And sat outside on a warm night on a quiet side street not far from our hotel near the Tuileries and Le Louvre. Vaudeville, according to my sister, is part of a large restaurant management group called Brasseries Flo (which caused a mini-revolt when they started to buy out many historic brasseries around the city).

We started with oysters:

These were amazing. Briny and quite large and served with the French mignonette I always crave with my oysters in the States.

We also had foie gras:

Served with a pear compote and toast points, this foie gras was sweet and creamy (not peppery like the one at my sister's wedding) and I could have eaten just this and been happy.

We enjoyed our meals with one of my dad's favorite wines from Bourgogne:

My sister's husband and I both had the white fish in a beurre blanc:

Beurre blanc is quite possibly the richest, but most indulgent sauce. It compliments a soft white dish very well, and the addition of tomatoes and simple boiled tomatoes help cut the creaminess of the sauce.

My dad had the duck:

The duck was cut into medallions and served with a mushroom marsala sauce and potatoes. I only tried the mushrooms and potatoes but the sauce was lighter than I expected, which I liked, because mushrooms  definitely have a richness and a thickness that is complimented by a lighter sauce, and duck is also very fatty and rich, and doesn't benefit from a creamy, overpowering sauce.

My mom had the sea bass:

The fish came bone-in and my sister used her newly acquired fish-skinning skills (taught to her by her husband) to help my mom tackle the sea bass. She delicately lifted the skin off and dissected the meat from the bone and my mom ate happily- this was probably the first time her own daughter had to cut up her meal for her. What role reversal! My mom was the child for an evening!

This meal was a great end to my trip.  It was a perfectly Parisian day and the food was simple, traditional, and delicious and the service truly charming. I made sure to bring back a bunch of goodies so I could cook some French dishes at home and enjoy my favorite tastes from the country, a detail about those to come!

 

The Wedding

My sister got married in a small town, an hour North of Paris, called L'Isle Adam. A friend of ours (who is the Mayor of the town) officiated the ceremony, and then held a beautiful reception at her amazingly charming house.

There were about 20 of us at the reception and we started with appetizers outside in the garden.

There were spicy radishes:

There was brioche layered with crab dip, and petit fours:

There were spinach and salmon, spinach and cheese, and crab petit fours (to name the few I remembered!) and they were perfect one-bite appetizers that complimented the champagne:

There were many rounds of toasts to the happy couple, and the champagne corks just kept popping! The weather was perfect and it was hard to bring everyone inside for dinner- until the food started being served. It was quite a traditional French feast and I made sure to document each of the beautiful courses. First, foie gras:

Served with an array of fresh, warm bread:

Baguette and cranberry nut bread

The foie gras was very creamy and peppery and worked perfectly with the sweetness of the cranberry bread. This was definitely my favorite part of the meal, and the dish I always look forward to eating whenever I'm in France.

The next course was steak with les haricots verts (green beans!):

The green beans were dressed simply with flavorful olive oil, salt, and pepper and the steak was cooked to a rare and tender perfection.

But the course that had the most "wow" factor was most certainly the cheese plate:

There were so many types of cheese that it was hard to choose (and, as a nod to the Americans, they put a small container of Philadelphia cream cheese on the platter!). I believe my choices were a chevre, a hard cheese that was tangy like swiss, and brie with some fig jam. Of course this was all served with even more bread. The presentation of this plate was incredible. It was as pretty as the flower arrangements and my sister's bouquet- in fact, this plate looks like it required even more attention to detail!

After a little bit of dancing to abate some of the fullness, the dessert was brought out- a cake made of colorful macaroons in all different flavors:

The cream colored ones  are vanilla, the light brown are cafe flavored, the dark brown are chocolate, and the green (my favorite) are pistachio. The macaroons are stuck to the cardboard cone with chocolate and to eat them you just pop them off with a knife! The macaroons were served with fig, chocolate, and vanilla ice cream:

The fig ice cream (the light brown) was so unique and addicting. It had a lot of cinnamon and nutmeg and big chunks of fresh figs. It was heavenly. I didn't have a chance to try any of the others because I was too focused on my pistachio macaroons and fig ice cream- but I noticed that the chocolate was the biggest hit. Apparently, the fig ice cream is an acquired taste- because most people didn't like it!

We danced the rest of the night to an amusing mix of both French and American "celebration songs" and drank more champagne. It really was a great celebration and I am so, so happy for my sister and my wonderful brother-in-law (mon beau frere)!!!

The Other Falafel

The best falafel in Paris can be found in the Marais, the Jewish Quarter, at L'As du Falafel. But I only know this because of the opinions and reviews of others (including my mom and my sister), because I didn't get to eat there.

The day after my sister's wedding (I am blogging this trip a little out of order) was a Sunday, and the only place in Paris with shops open is the Marais. After being lazy and waking up in the early afternoon, we wandered down to this Jewish Quarter of Paris and by the time we arrived I was starved. I wanted falafel. But there was a problem. First, my mom and sister had already been to the famed L'As du Falafel earlier in the week. Second, it was late, we were all hungry and still tired from the wedding festivities the night before, and L'As du Falafel had a very long line at the window, and a 25 minute wait for seating inside.

In retrospect, we probably could have waited. But then I wouldn't be able to tell you about King Falafel Palace, a much less blogged about falafel haven in the Marais, just a couple storefronts down from L'As.

You can't get a falafel pocket on Sunday's at King Falafel, or any other type of pocket/sandwich. They only serve the more expensive platters:

This is a huge falafel platter (whoever said Paris is skimpy on the food did not dine at any of the places I tried during this trip) with cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, pepper relish, tahini, eggplant, and about 15 falafel balls, served with two warm pitas.

I thought this was good. I was starving and dying for falafel, and this beautiful platter was presented to me so I wasn't sharp enough to be super critical. Both my mom and sister agreed it wasn't nearly as good as L'As du Falafel, but it also wasn't bad. The service was horrendous, but I really liked the tahini and the eggplant. I did feel like I was missing out on a lot, though, by bypassing the L'As du Falafel line and settling for its less welcoming neighbor. Next time, I'll wait, and enjoy my falafel pocket wandering the streets of the Marais.

France, June 1st

I had a brief absence from Tomato Soup June 1st-June 4th because I was in Paris, France for my sister's wedding. It was a whirlwind trip but I accomplished much: I was a maid of honor, gained a brother, ate a bunch of food, went running in the Tuileries, and drank many a bottle of wine. All of this fun started on Friday, June 1st after traveling for 16 hours (curse you Newark Airport!!!).

My sister lives in Paris, in the 10th arrondissement, and is lucky to have some really fantastic restaurants around the corner from her. On Friday, we went to one that I hadn't tried before, Maria et Luisa on the rue Marie et Louise in Canal St. Martin. It is an adorable pizza place that was blasting Elvis and had little tin containers of olive oil on the table.

My dad had this monstrous calzone:

I think this is the prettiest calzone i have ever seen. The shape is so unique! And the little smattering of warm sauce on top with the perfectly shaped basil leaf resting on top was so charming. It was a ham and cheese calzone, but apparently, at many places in Paris, they also put egg in your calzone. My dad found this a strange surprise when he cut it open but he ate almost the whole thing, so I imagine he thought the egg was a tasty addition.

The rest of us at the table had various types of pizza. This is a personal sized ricotta pizza:

When my sister informed me that the pizza was "personal sized" I imagined it would be smaller than, say, a Pizza Hut personal pan pizza because France does things smaller (rightfully so). But, Maria et Luisa surprised me. This was a HUGE pizza topped with amazingly creamy ricotta, warm cherry tomatoes, fresh torn basil, light and tangy sauce, doughy and crispy crust and...ohmigosh I loved this pizza. This is one of the best pizza's I have ever had and I will admit, I ate almost the entire thing and washed it down with some delightful red wine which helped to cure my jet-lag.

After eating so much pizza, we walked a nice 30 minute walk back to our hotel. About 20 minutes into the walk, I started to feel a little less full and decided that I had room for some gelato. Luckily, we were standing right in front of a famous gelateria just as I had this revelation. It is called Amorino's:

And this was a small cup (again, such a huge portion!) of straciatella gelato. Straciatella is milk (not vanilla) flavored ice cream with chocolate flakes and it is my favorite gelato flavor. It tasted even better as I strolled around Paris in the warm weather with my family!

Many more France food highlights to come!