October 4, 2011
Custom Labels for Homemade Goodies
Chef's medallions
I've always had a major thing for stationery. When I was a child, I would spend a large portion of my allowance at the neighborhood stationery shop, which my family refered to as ta papeterie chérie, and to this day I go weak in the knee for smooth-paged notebooks and well-designed greeting cards. And stickers. Oh, stickers.
So when the good people at Felix Doolittle got in touch and offered to send me samples of their person...
"Custom Labels for Homemade Goodies" continues »
May 5, 2005
Retour de marché
[Back from the market]
Saturday mornings are always something of a dilemma for me, or actually a trilemma, which I thought wasn't an actual word until I looked it up. I can either sleep in, go to the pool for a swim, or go to the Batignolles market -- each of the three activities fulfilling an equally important need. It is the third option that won the competition last Saturday morning, and I set out in the glorious morning sun, with my faithf...
"Retour de marché" continues »
September 9, 2004
Pick-Your-Own Happiness
One of the things I love about driving around the countryside with Maxence is that we share the same enthusiasm for anything that's hand-painted on a wooden sign and planted onto the side of the road. Admittedly, it is the signs advertising edibles and drinkables that receive the most attention, but we also like to think that we could very well stop and visit that tree-root museum or drop by that special mattress sale.
Following such roadside ...
"Pick-Your-Own Happiness" continues »
September 6, 2004
Le Quartier Chinois
Saturday was the first day of my vacation, and Maxence and I decided to take a little trip to Asia : all it took was a twenty-minute motorcycle ride to the Parisian Chinatown where I had, for reasons I cannot fathom, never been before.
We sat down at a Vietnamese restaurant for a bo-bun (a delicious salads of noodles and beef with lemongrass, soy sprouts, mint and ground peanuts), then did a little shopping at Tang Frères, a gigantic Asian gro...
"Le Quartier Chinois" continues »
July 20, 2004
Le Marché de Gérardmer
The house my parents own in the Vosges (a mountain range in the East of France, if you haven't been following this blog as closely as you should) is located outside a small town called La Bresse. When we're there on vacation, part of the food shopping is conducted in La Bresse itself -- at the grocery store for basics, and at a charcuterie and two different bakeries (one makes really excellent bread, the other has delicious cakes and brioches) ...
"Le Marché de Gérardmer" continues »
July 7, 2004
Les Abeilles
Les Abeilles is a tiny little store perched at the top of the Butte-aux-Cailles, in the 13th arrondissement, and incidently just a skip and a hop from my office (which has, in passing, been trying quite hard to keep me away from my regular blogging schedule, sending me this way and that, thus tragically depriving me of a decent Internet connection in the evening).
As the name implies to the French-friendly ear, Les Abeilles is a beekeeping sto...
March 14, 2004
Look What I Got!
Sometimes it's the nicest and most heart-warming thing to see how well your own personal Maxence knows you. He went on a business trip to Helsinki (in Finland, for the geographically challenged among us, I certainly am one of them) for a couple of days last week. When we got home on the night of his return - after we went to see Air brilliantly playing live at the Zenith -, I was greeted by a small mountain of Finnish goods, neatly arranged on ...
"Look What I Got!" continues »
March 4, 2004
Notes from the Salon du Fromage (continued)
And here is the second batch of notable tidbits from the Salon du Fromage! (Read the first part here.)
- Mont d'Or is a cow cheese, soft inside a thicker rind, wrapped in pine bark and sold in a round wooden box. A popular and wonderful way to eat it is the "Boîte Chaude" (Hot Box), where the Mont d'Or is oven-baked in its box, with a little white wine. Les Monts de Joux, a cheese producer from the Jura, sells their delicious Mont d'Or in a fu...
"Notes from the Salon du Fromage (continued)" continues »
March 3, 2004
Notes from the Salon du Fromage
Is there such a thing as eating too much cheese? I think not, although I did try my best at the 8th edition of the Salon du Fromage, last Sunday.
The Salon du Fromage is held every other year during the Salon de l'Agriculture, at the huge Porte de Versailles exhibition center. While the Salon de l'Agriculture is open to the general public - hordes of families can be seen going there, and my metro was full of those kids, shiny-eyed with expecta...
"Notes from the Salon du Fromage" continues »
February 26, 2004
L'Etoile d'Or
L'Etoile d'Or is a little candy store in the rue Fontaine, sprung right out of a fairy tale.
It is but a ten-minute walk from where I live, so I find it charmingly ironic that I owe its discovery to my Bay Area blog-friend, Derrick, who mentioned it to me in a recent email : he and his wife Melissa have taken several trips to Paris, and food lovers that they are, they have excellent finds to share.
And so it is that just a few days ago, foll...
February 8, 2004
Le Campanier, a Lucky Bag of Produce
Campanier is a porte-manteau pun on "campagne" (countryside), and "panier" (basket). It is also the name of a cool service in which you get a weekly basket of seasonal organic produce. The little Pousse-Pousse boutique at which I recently bought my sprouting gear happens to be a pickup point, and we decided to go for the four-week test subscription.
I went to pick up the first assortment this past Tuesday, and the vegetable basket contained : ...
"Le Campanier, a Lucky Bag of Produce" continues »
November 25, 2003
The Victoria Food Market
On the last Saturday of our Seychelles vacation, we were on the island of Mahé, the largest and most populated of the archipelago (ooh, a good 150 km2 and 70,000 inhabitants!), which holds the small capital city, Victoria. Only a handful of streets, but still, it’s the biggest in the country. It has a daily food market, and Saturday mornings are the busiest, so that’s the moment we chose to visit.
This is a covered market mostly, h...
"The Victoria Food Market" continues »
November 1, 2003
Le Salon Du Chocolat
A Chocolate Trade Show - has anybody ever heard of a better concept? The Paris one takes place every year in late October, when the weather gets a little chilly and Christmas is getting near and people need to warm their hearts and stock up on chocolate goodness. Passionate as we are about our chocolate, Marie-Laure and I just had to attend, and we decided to go to the late opening on Friday....
"Le Salon Du Chocolat" continues »
October 1, 2003
The Magic Baker's Store
Last weekend, while I was in the 1st arrondissement to buy kitchenware, I suddenly remembered my grandmother telling me about a professional baking supplies store she used to go to when she was still baking for four sons.
The store is called "G. Detou", which happens to be a pun, and I can't decide whether it is completely lame, deliciously old-fashioned, or just cute: "G. Detou" sounds like "J'ai de tout", meaning "I have everything". So you ...
"The Magic Baker's Store" continues »
September 30, 2003
E. Dehillerin
E. Dehillerin is an excellent cooking utensils outlet located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. It's a totally no-frills store, that has stayed pretty much the same since it was first opened in 1820 (something tells me they didn't sell silicon baking mats back then, though). It's open to individuals, but is mainly targeted at professionals. One of the consequences is that all prices are listed before tax (H.T. meaning "Hors taxes"), contrary ...