Pino explained that most cheese shops are arranged methodically. In this shop, stinky cheeses are by the door, allowing the smell to dissipate, while more porous cheeses were in the back, in order to prevent the cheese from absorbing the stronger smells. The section shown in this picture are goat cheeses. They are either covered in ashes or penicillin molds. yum!
Next stop was the butcher shop. Here we saw chickens, ducks, quails, rabbits, and many more animals - most fully intact with organs, eyeballs, and some feathers.
Here we decided to make duck and foie gras (duck liver). Definitely exotic food for me, but a treat for a French family - similar to Americans having filet mignon for dinner. Then for the fish and seafood..
All of the fish, shrimp, snails and squid are very fresh here. They have whole fish, which they will filet and descale for you as you would like. The group decided to have fish and shrimp for an appetizer and a few escargot for the experience they would allow. To the vegetable stand!
The selection of fresh herbs here was amazing. For our appetizer, fennels with an orange vinaigrette to complement the shrimp, varying herbs to cook with the fish, and shallots to cook with shrimp hulls for a sauce over the fish. Main entree, onions with a caramel sauce to serve over salad with duck and foie gras. Last stop, bread!!! My favorite!
This small shop in Montmarte was built on the site of an old communal oven. In olden days, households could not afford ovens, so they would prepare their bread or pies at home and bring them to the local oven to be baked. The block behind this building was destroyed, but someone had the great idea to save the ovens and sell the property to a bakery. This bakery still uses those ovens even though they maintain specific temperatures: one is hot, the other is hotter. Result: amazing, wonderful, delicious bread. Oh, my. So good. We bought raisin bread, a normal baguette, and walnut bread to accompany our cheese plate.
And then the cooking began.
putting oil on the fish before baking.
a layer of oil is on the foil, then the varying herbs, then the fish, scored skin side up.
after baking.
appetizer. fish with herbs at 12:00; fennels with orange, shrimp, and chives at 7:00;
homemade aioli mayonnaise at 10:00
enjoying our first plate.
hah.
at this point the duck had been seared. basting it with olive oil before baking.
he scored the fat side before searing - isn't it beautiful?
serving second course.
we used a cookie cutter to mold the onions on top of the lettuce.
onions were cooked down, then caramelized sugar sauce mixed in.
second course without the duck.
foie gras at 9:00 on gingerbread; onions at 12:00, lettuce at 2:00.
escargot stuffed with spinach and butter.
why wouldn't ya eat two?
cheese plate. wow.
goat cheese at 2:00 and 3:00. cylindrical at 2:00 was rolled in ashes to protect.
salty cheeses at 12:00, 6:00 and center. center cheese is two years old.
bleu cheese at 8:00 and 9:00.
stronger cheeses at 11:00 and 4:30.
We ate the first cheeses with raisin bread, baguettes with the salty cheeses, and walnut bread with the stronger cheeses. Started out with white wine, and changed to red some where in the middle.
chocolate lava cake to finish!
This was a super easy recipe. Per person: one ounce of each butter, chocolate, and sugar; half an ounce of flour; one egg. Mix egg and dry ingredients, and melted butter and chocolate slowly, carefully emulsifying. Grease ramekin with melted butter, coat with cocoa powder, and add mixture. Chill for about an hour. Bake at 350F for ten minutes. Serve with fruit. Again, wow.
With an almost-too-full tummy, I headed back to the apartment for a quick nap with plans to meet up with my friend Thibaut at six. Thibaut lives in Grenoble; I met him when he completed the MBA program at Mississippi State.
Upon meeting up, Thibaut and I walked and walked with no real plan. We saw many things:
St-Eustache.
a beautiful building across the Seine from the Louvre.
the arc at the end of the Jardin des Tuileries.
view of the obelisk and Arc de Triomphe down the Champs Elysée from Jardin des Tuileries.
the Eiffel Tower and Pont Alexandre III bridge..
obelisk at Place de la Concorde.
the Opéra de Paris Garnier.
At some point within this walking, we had a salad for dinner - mine had ham, eggs, potatoes, corn, tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese - and a glass of wine for a night cap. After all of this walking (and a long train ride for Thibaut), we are exhausted. He retired to his hotel to sleep as long as possible, and here I am, typing away!
Tomorrow we hope to site-see in Montmarte, including Sacré-Cœur, and enjoy the once-monthly free museum night. It will probably be madness, so we will devise a plan of attack before wandering blindly into museums. It's nice to have a French friend!!
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