Some of what we ate - Paris

OK, this is a full on food-blog entry here, so if you're not into food porn, feel free to skip this entry.

Our first night in Paris, we stroll the streets, filled with restaurant after restaurant with menu boards outside listing delicious sounding offerings - but sometimes you need a visual - even McDonald's can sound fabulous....until you see it.

So we spied a charcuterie sharing platter at a restaurant called La Bombe. A small restaurant, with the obligatory sidewalk seating. We didn't see any camera-toting tourists in the crwod, so we plunked ourselves down on some outdoor seats and ordered the platter - which, upon closer inspection, we should have been sharing with two more people. We made our best effort at eating four or five different chunks of fragrent cheese, piles of prosciutto, ham, salami, salad and foie gras (some of which is obscured by the giant pieces of crustini (and a basket of bread, not in the picture).

There was so much food....we left cheese on the plate. Yes, that big.

One of our snacks was found on a walk through Paris (ok, not a walk, an actual trek to find this one patisserie - as patisseries in Paris look like the jewelry stores in Canada - including their offerings). If you've been to Thomas Haas in Vancouver, you know what I mean; now muliple the number of pastry chefs by 100, with each store having a unique look and selection of treats. This chocolate nougat, praline and candied hazelnut cream puff from Carl Marlotti was absolutely incredible - called the Paris-Brest. It was so amazing, we dove in immediately and ate the top from it, before dragging out the camera (we did attempt to take the shot so you couldn't tell, but we must be honest - those of you who forget to snap and dive right in can understand ;-)

Dinner one night was at a galette/crepe restaurant based on the cuisine of northern France (Brittany to be exact, where the galette is the savoury form of the crepe, usually done with buckwheat flour).
We didn't have a reservation, but the very nice and helpful (and perfectly bilingual) frontman squeezed us in with only a few minutes wait. Cassie had an asparagus, egg and prosciitto galette, while Brad opted for a fish one, topped with rocket and sausage slices. Both were washed down quite nicely with a bottle of cider (also a staple of Brittany and Normandy). We felt like locals eating there.

And even the grocery stores have fabulous food. OK, so maybe this was the food hall of Galerie Lafayette, so a few steps up from the Safeway bakery counter. We had the 'meal-deal' there of a baguette sandwich, drink and our choice of dessert - individually boxed, in a bag for take out. From the Eric Kayser counter within the food hall. Fabulous lemon flavour and beautiful crust.

Just down from the Sacre Coeur we found this little restaurant famous for its salads. And these aren't the 'hey, I'm being healthy' type salads, these are French salads. Every one is topped with a pile of thinly sliced potatoes, fried in garlic and oil. Brad is having the chicken salad (although the chicken is completely obscured by the potatoes, this shot was more for scale of the bowl size....).

This is Cassie's - a lardons (giant bacon bits), proscitto and egg...which actually turned out to be eggs! And a great deal too, most salads were priced around €12 - and they keep you full way into dinner.

Mmmmmm.