Food in Paris

Our apartment in Paris has one of the largest kitchens that I've seen in this city. With this and the kitchen in Eric's apartments, the three of us have been cooking pretty frequently. One of my favorite activities is to troll the outdoor food markets that crop up on certain days in certain neighborhoods.



One of the first ones that we went to was the market near the Belleville Metro in the northeast part of the city. It's an area known for its Vietnamese restaurants and Chinese markets. The outdoor market, however, did not have much in the way of specifically Asian ingredients. What we found mostly were very fresh fruits and vegetables, artisinal cheeses, meats and breads. Jacob was also very happy to find a pair of jeans from one of the vendors just outside of the main market for 8 Euros. He now has two pairs of pants, which makes it much easier for him to wash his clothes.



With the ingredients from the market that day, we decided to make Vietnamese spring rolls. We got cucumbers, lettuce, mint, and cilantro at the outdoor market. Then we headed up rue de Belleville to hit the Asian groceries to buy hoisin sauce, rice papers, bean sprouts, rice noodles, and a green mango.



We also found some nice Moroccan olives and preserved lemons at the Belleville market. So a few days later, Eric and I made a Moroccan chicken tagine with green olives and preserved lemons and served it up with couscous. It was the first time I had cooked with a French chicken and I must say that it was delicious. Though the chicken was a little expensive, 14 Euros for a 4.4 lb chicken, it made an excellent stew.

Recently, I decided to try to recreate a dish that my French host mom made for me the last time I was in Paris. It was chicken breast with a creme fraiche sauce. However, I was craving pork - and Eric and I thought that pork would be cheaper than chicken after our Moroccan experience. I took four bone-in, 1/4 inch pork chops, salted and peppered them and cooked them in a thick-bottomed pan for about 5 minutes. After browning, I took them out of the pan. I returned pan to the heat and added 2 tbs of butter and then sauted some chopped garlic and chopped onion. Next, I added a little bit of white wine to deglaze the pan. And then I added chopped mushrooms to cook in the wine solution until they had soaked up all of the liquid. Lastly, I added the creme fraiche, which is a little like American sour cream, to make the sauce. I served the pork chops on a plate and spooned the sauce on top. Eric made pasta with tomato sauce and I sauted some zucchini for a bit of greenery.