Food notes from the 5th

Saturday morning in Paris and a beautiful morning it is, crisp and clear. The moon is full (or nearly so) and still high in the sky at 7am!

Friday (yesterday) was also absolutely gorgeous. Cool temps, just right for sleeping, with brisk breezes to keep the bright sun from being overbearing and plenty of action in the city. Places that have been closed during the August holidays are now open, and the city seems more alive than ever. (photo: a fromagerie on Rue Mouffetard in the 5th.)


This past Wednesday I browsed through one of our nearby open markets (Place Monge: Weds, Fri and Sun) and vowed to return. The bad news is that food prices are pretty high everywhere in the city – much higher than say even in Florence -- but they seem higher in our neighborhood than others. For example, the “boucherie” (butcher) right across the street from our apartment charges €13 ($17) for a roasted chicken fresh off their outdoor rotisserie (these things are everywhere, usually parked on the sidewalk just outside the shop door), while a similar one just a few blocks over at the lower end of Rue Mouffetard sells the same thing for €10! And of course the open-air markets tend to be a bit less expensive which is why I was scouting out the nearest one, which is in Place Monge. But there’s no guarantee here either. (photo: above, in front of Notre Dame.)

But there’s another place to find great value for food: Chinatown, Little Saigon, Small Bangkok, Diminutive Laos, whatever you want to call it. Just south of us, in the 13th arr. generally in the area between Rue de Tolbiac and rue de Choisy is a vast array of supermarkets and numerous other shops selling all sorts of items catering to the large Asian communities in Paris, sort of their answer to Fauchon and Hediard’s I suppose. Anyway, we hopped on the metro (line 7 and get off at Porte d-Ivry) and 10 minutes later we found ourselves in the Disneyland of Asian condiments. For Asian food aficionados you could spend hours wandering around here – and there are at least half dozen large markets to explore, such as the “Big Store”, which is, well, big. One store in particular had caught our eye in the Rough Guide to Paris, “Tang Freres” (Tang Brothers?), at 48 avenue d’Ivry (open Tues-Sun, 9am-7:30pm). After a half hour wandering the aisles taking in this place we loaded up on rice, half a dozen sauces, black vinegar, sesame oil and a couple of other items, all of which set us back only €20 ($26)! We’re going back to check their meat and fresh vegetable prices – and their Asian produce! Whoa!

We schlepped our bags of goodies home on the metro and jumped on the no. 7 metro, switched to the no. 10 at Jussieu and then got off at Maubert so we could check out the cookbook store, the “Librairie Gourmande”, at 4 on Rue Dante, just off the Blvd St. Germain. If you are looking for cookbooks in Paris this is the place to come. Small and intimate, with very helpful staff this is: “a great little shop/and worth a stop.” (photo: below, in front of Notre Dame.)


From there we walked to the Isle de Cite and Notre Dame where we hoped to meet up with an acquaintance from Siena, Lorenzo. He was visiting Paris and had called us the day before to set up a time and place to meet: 4pm in front of the Big Cathedral. We waited for an hour but Lorenzo never showed up. We just hope he’s OK. It was a beautiful afternoon and it was fun just watching the people – tourists of course. It was interesting to note though that even the locals seemed to use the front of Notre Dame as a convenient meeting spot as well. (photo: below, looking for Lorenzo.)


Anyway we strolled back to the metro and got off the no. 10 at Cardinal Lemoine so we could walk down Rue Mouffetard, one of the funkiest streets we have found in the city so far – and definitely one of our favorites (it helps that our apartment is on one side and the Sorbonne is on the other I suppose). We stopped to have an aperitif at a cool little café on the Place Contrescarpe, just around the corner from where Hemingway and his first wife Hadley lived in the early 1920s, at 74 rue Cardinal Lemoine (although he actually did his writing in a nearby hotel room at 36 Rue Descartes).


We sat and talked and watched this corner of the world go about its business of life. Although it seemed quiet here there was a buzz of activity. It wasn’t nearly as distracting or imposing as we had just witnessed minutes before near Notre Dame where human herds grazed back and forth in front of the cathedral; all eyes tilted upward at a 45 degree angle, hands clasping tiny digital cameras furiously snapping photos of the stone bulk – while at their very feet were the original medieval streets laid out in neat stone patterns, their names carved into the pavement.(photo: bar on Place Contrescarpe.)


After leaving the cafe we strolled down Rue Mouffetard. Along the way we both commented on how many more shops we open now than when we were here some weeks ago. In the space of a just a few short blocks, we counted 4 fromageries (cheese shops), several open-air markets, especially toward the end of the “Mouffe” as we approached Rue Censier. Along here are also some of the coolest women’s clothing shops. Susan is very picky about her clothes and there are two or three that always draw her like a magnet, with their bold colors, funky styles without being gauche (“left”) and great prices. Anyway we’re lucky that this area is so close to our apartment. (photo: a street rotisserie, beef on top, chicken in the middle and potatoes on the very bottom roasting in the juices of the meats!)

Later in the evening Susan made pizza -- our first in Paris actually – topped with “mergez” sausage, roasted chicken, cherry tomatoes and mozzarella (“bocconcini”) from the Italian cheese shop, which is of course across the street, like everything else!

Wish you were here,

Steve