Sunday Gravy with yeah right: Boots on the Ground. The Food of Paris, Part Deaux.

Welcome back everyone and Happy Sunday.

Right in the middle of a three day holiday weekend AND I don’t have to work tomorrow? Need more of this shit in my life.

The whole idea behind my travels has been because I live the same life, do the same job, the same exercises and cooking my own foods every day, every week. 

Can’t I do that anywhere?

And at the same time explore the world and different cultures and meet new people and taste new things. 

So I figured once every six months or so I just pick a new city in a new country and for a week or so do exactly what I do here but in a completely different place.

Minus the working thing and maybe let someone else cook for a change.

Makes sense, right?

We will once again interrupt your standard recipe-centric Sunday Gravy to bring you Part 2 of the Paris Food Travelogue.

Hope you enjoyed Part One.

These are always fun for me to do because just sorting through the photos brings the trip back to the forefront of the mind and it makes me realize just how spectacular the trip really was.

When you’re traveling you’re too “In the moment” and overwhelmed by the overall newness of everything to fully appreciate it at the time. That’s what these reflections are all about.

Fuck, Paris is an incredibly cool city. Maybe the very coolest city. 

When we last left our intrepid food travelers in Paris, we were still in the midst of our “Devour Paris” food/walking tour of the Les Marais neighborhood of Paris.

There was one last main stop on the tour. It involved a wine and cheese pairing for the entire group.

First? We needed to acquire some cheese. Holy shit are we in the right city for THAT!

Exhibit One!

A Parisian fromagerie. This is what the entire vacation looked like in my mind as I booked it months and months prior.

Giddy as a schoolgirl I looked inside.

There really is a Heaven. My God.

Just look!

It’s like my entire existence led me directly here. Cheese Valhalla!

They sold French butter too! I saw the butter but our tour guide didn’t purchase any. Dammit!

After selecting 6 or so types of cheeses we ventured to the final stop on the food tour.

La Chablisienne Cave Saint-Paul!

A wine store with a very impressive selection of French wines. They also had this incredibly cool “Cave” or cellar that was easily 25-30 feet underground. Not to mention being a good 15 degrees cooler than the outside weather.

Wine was selected.

Cheese and bread were sliced and set out with the wine.

Every person must experience this in their life in order to call it a full and complete existence. I did something right if it led to this moment actually happening.

This was the final stop of the food tour.

For the most part every day of this trip started with a breakfast of French yogurt, a banana and a granola bar.

We got to sample 3 or 4 different types of yogurt and I can safely say that French yogurt is some of the best on the planet. Every brand and flavor was flawless.

After a full day at the Louvre the following day we retreated to our neighborhood. Doing some quick research I came across this for a dinner idea.

Some of these photos made it into the comments section recently but they still complete the story.

Yep a Kiwi-Irish bar in Paris.

Of course the first thing I had to do was “Split the G.”

They really did pour a lovely fucking pint.

Best Guinness I’ve sampled outside of Ireland.

Let’s see what they had for charcuterie.

Not too bad. I loved that they had “Tayto” crisps. That’s just fucking attention to detail.

For dinner they had New Zealand meat pies. I went for the “Mince and cheese.”

I’m going to totally steal this for a Sunday Gravy episode. 

Oh hell yes. 

For the record their salad was exceptional. I will sometimes treat a salad as an afterthought but maybe it was all of the French foods, cheeses etc. that salad was exactly what I needed.

Well, that and 4 pints of Guinness.

Next day, Day 3 with no structured plans, we decided to go to the Picasso Museum. It was very close to where we stayed.

Photos to come.

After an incredible visit to the museum we had the full afternoon open to whatever the fuck.

Deciding to grab a beer and a burger we came across this establishment.

Banger Burger!

This place? Oh shit yes. Fantastic people watching location too.

Want to hear something amazing?

This was the best burger I’ve had since?

Barcelona.

No lie. Look at this thing.

Perfection. The beer was at the exact precise temperature, the frites were nice, hot and crispy. The cheese was sharp and local, the bun was freshly cooked.

Excellent.

It was a family run place with the daughters working the front of the house and Dad working in the kitchen. We watched as dad took these big chunks of cow and hand chopped them up to grind fresh.

This fucking country man.

In the US they managed to fuck up so bad they can’t even compare to Europe on something the US supposedly perfected.

Why the hell did I fly back home again? I could have just stayed.

Next day we decided to actually knock out a few of the more famous Parisian landmarks, again with photos to come later.

After a full day of “All the hits” it was time to get back to real French cuisine.

I researched ahead of time and we came to this place.

Cafe Melia! 

A highly rated and reviewed Brasserie not too far from our neighborhood.

Let’s get a full sampling of the menu du jour.

How about even more cheese?

Don’t expect this to change if you ever join me on one of these trips.

Most of these were excellent but the cheeses on the left and right of that photo tasted like Kraft Swiss singles. I’m guessing they heard our American accents and erred on the side of caution.

Don’t lighten up on my part, Frenchie! I can handle my goddamn cheese!

Of course fresh bread was served with everything..

Oh Jesus! The butter!

Glancing through the menu, I saw exactly what I needed to order.

Croque Madame anyone?

Let’s go ahead and attack this fucker.

And for dessert?

Of course.

Caramel crepes!

Jesus God were these things sweet.

Got to cut that serving of sugar with something.

Espresso. Much better now.

Last full day in Paris and we did what any normal human would do.

Pizza!

The place was called Pizza Piano. Alas no website.

This would be a ham, mushroom and rocket topped pizza. It was crisp, the toppings were light and paired well and it was just delicious.

They also had some great signage.

And icy cold beers. Plus another great people watching location. Something I’ve noticed with the Europeans and their pizza, ham (usually jamon Iberico or prosciutto) is featured prominently as a pizza topping. Here in the US ham is mostly just paired with pineapple.

When staying a week or longer I’ve discovered that on each trip I’ll hit up a burger place and a pizza place. Not sure why this became tradition but it has. I can say without a single doubt the three best burgers I’ve tried anywhere over the last several years came from Dublin, Barcelona and now Paris, in no particular order.

That’s the U.S. fucking up again.

Next day was a travel day and it was time we headed home.

After an 11 hour flight followed by unpacking and finally sleeping in my own bed, I woke up back at home and wondered, was that all a dream?

On the dining room table there was a box. A clue perhaps?

We have proof!

That shit was REAL!

I bought these macarons at Charles de Gaulle airport from a working patiserie and they were exceptional.

And there’s your food of Paris as experienced by us.

Have some interest in some landmarks and art and shit?

How about we share some of that next week, right here?

Cool!

Until then.