Raclette at the apartment of Robert (French, a retired dentist) & Sandy (American) who divide their time between Paris & Scottsdale. Raclette is a cheese that's heated in small containers below, then eaten with potatoes kept warm above. Along with cornichons (pickles) mushrooms & other goodies. The wine, Fendant (a Swiss white) is on a table out of the photo.
One of the great French words to learn & practice is the noun "partager" (pronounced pahr-tuh-zhay') meaning "to share". Here, on the run we bought a tuna & veggie sandwich & a Fanta citron. Cost: 5 euros, about $6.50
Then a couple of blocks away we bought another pavot, the poppy-seed filled pastry, for dessert. 3 euros, about $3.80. Not bad for a light lunch for two.
One of our must-eat meals in Paris is moules et frites, mussels & fries at Leon des Bruxelles just down the block from our apt. Add some beer & that's livin', man.About halfway thru the moules, the broth becomes accessible. Garlic, tomatoes, black olives, cream & white wine. A made-for-dunking combination if there ever was one.
All vegetables & fruits sold in France must be labelled with country of origin. One of the pluses of coming late in the summer is that the harvest is in, so everything is locally France
Another must-do meal is lunch at our favorite lunch-place on the Left Bank at Le Petit St. Benoit, one of the older restaurants in Paris, opened in 1901. The weather was lovely, so we ate outside for the first time. That's Susanne behind the woman in the sun.
We started by partager-ing a slice of pate along with a half liter of a sauvignon blanc. A half liter is 2/3 of a standard bottle of wine, just right for us.
Susanne had beef bourguignon, I had a fish casolette. Both very good & quite rich.
If you recall from last year, this is the restaurant where your order is written on the paper table cloth. At the end of the meal, the server tallies it up.
We had pate (4 euros), my cassolette, Susanne's beef bourg., & a half liter of white wine. Came to 40.50 euros all inclusive. A heavy lunch, so we had a light dinner.
One evening we strolled up to Place de la Republic for some steak tartare.
We dug into the meal before I remembered to take a photo.
We had tartare, frites, & a larger than expected salade nicoise.
The salad had darn near everything...tomatoes, haricot verts (green beans), carrots, hearts of palm, artichokes & corn.
Topped of with a half liter of a red.
We had a wonderful waiter. He asked if we wanted to mix the tartare ourselves or have him do it. We chose him. When he served it, he said he put his heart into it. When we finished we told him it tasted as if he put his heart into it. Because of the kindness of the waiter, this was one of our more joyful meals.
One of our must-do activities is having a pizza dinner at Tony's with Salomon. He's the night desk clerk at our former hotel, have known him 13 years. He's Ethiopian & has wonderful stories to tell. A bit of an amateur philosopher.
Salomon had a three-meat pizza, Susanne, three-cheese with garlic & I had capers, anchovies & garlic with an egg in the middle (one of the pluses of a Paris pizza)
Egg on a pizza is very, very good.
Remember in an earlier post, Susanne & I had dinner at Tony's & reunited with Jimmy. Well, last week Wednesday, disaster struck Tony's. They had a major kitchen fire that closed the place until extensive repairs are done. So this dinner is at another place, not as good as Tony's, of course.
Salomon now has a girlfriend also Ethiopian, so next year we'll invite both for dinner.
Blog fatigue is setting in and we're nearing the end of our trip. It's processing the photos that take much of the time. So there will be fewer blogs with fewer pics.
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