Europe Trip: Paris, France part 3

Read Paris, France part 1, part 2

Going local -- all our other meals were made in our kitchen. Taking advantage of the local produce shipped in daily and fresh bread, we made lots of sandwiches, salads, and soups! Usually we'd spent 8-10 eur a day on ingredients.

Your friendly neighborhood shops
120 eur
For breakfast, I'd run downstairs to the boulangerie next door to grab a croissant or a pain au chocolat (or both!) and a baguette (1 eur) to make lunch sandwiches. Croissants are so tasty here being crispy on the outside while maintaining its soft and sweet, buttery layers inside. We'd make cafe au lait and enjoy our morning goodies.

Each time we walk to/from the metro station, we'd pass by an Asian market, Weng Sung, filled with fruits, veggies, and familiar Asian flavors. We can get 6 eggs or an avocado for 1 eur. There's always local customers, too - a good sign! Across the street, Chen Market boasted more selection and an in-house boucherie where my mom digged their gizzards, smoked whole chicken, and boiled peanuts.

Rue Mouffetard
15 eur + 7 eur lunch
We visited this Parisian street filled with small cafes, boulangeries, boucheries, and fromageries! I read that food here is organic and locally sourced. I had a lot of fun filling our shopping bag with a freshly roasted chicken (8 eur), more baguettes, vegetables, and clementines. Most of the items bought lasted through 3-4 meals.

  

We bought a roast beef sandwich (4,5 eur)  to share for lunch. It was packed with lettuce, roasted tomatoes, shaved parmesan cheese, and a balsamic vinaigrette.

I also had tried a crepe au chocolat (2,5 eur) which was soo delicious! The texture of the crepe is a lot more bouncy and chewy than ones I had in the U.S., and the maker slathered dark chocolate sauce to my pleasure.

Place Mongue
7,5 eur + 5 eur lunch
Not far from Rue Mouffetard is Place Monge, another open air market that opens 3 times a week. On another recommendation, I went on a Sunday, and it was incredible. Stalls of fresh produce, meats, fromage, and seafood. Lines were constant. The most popular vendor spoke Cantonese, too, lucky for us. I wanted to try everything! Prices were cheaper than Rue Mouffetard.

We split a large Mediterranean galette viande (5 eur) filled with beef, tabouli, and some tahini. They toasted it for us so we could enjoy this savory treat on a cold morning.

Rue Cler
10 eur
Another street filled with eats and sweets. This place was more expensive than Rue Mouffetard, and I suspect it is because of the touristy area (5 min east of Eiffel Tower).

Other local eats
3 eur
What I love about this city is how you can never go hungry! While walking through the Latin Quarter, we stopped by another boulangerie that also offered take-away coffee. We ordered a croissant and eclair au cafe along with two espressos. My mom thought it was still too cold outside to enjoy a 2nd breakfast on-the-go, so we retreated back to the cafe.

Grand grocery bill: 160 eur ($170)

Europe Trip: Paris, France part 2

Read Paris, France part 1

The second post of this mini travel series is to focus on food, which can become an expensive part of any trip. I've read that some meals, especially in touristy areas, could be 40-50 eur! Our plan was to eat out at a sit-down restaurant once a day and cook for the rest of our meals. I made reservations at 3 restaurants recommended by friends and TripAdvisor.

Because the bills here include gratuity and tax, I love the absence of number-crunching deliberation that would follow U.S. restaurants.

Le Cafe de Mars
50 eur for 2 people
English-friendly with great service, this little restaurant was only 5 minutes from the Eiffel Tower (we were in the area). You can either order a la carte or go with a set menu. The prices were reasonable for such a popular district: an appetizer + entree or an entree + dessert was 21 eur while all three was 25 eur.

Jet-lagged and tired from our flight, we opted with just an appetizer + entree but was surprised with such large portion sizes. The heartiest slab of foie gras I have seen greeted us with toasted bread and onion jam on the side. We also had a salad with pomegranate seeds and baked cheese.

For entrees, we ordered a steak with garlic mash potatoes and roasted tomato as well as fried chicken with Asian cabbage and almonds.With the exception of the mash potatoes, which were a bit too salty, everything was flavorful and fresh. My mom loved the cabbage side that went with the chicken. We couldn't finish everything, and the waiters were kind enough to package the chicken for us to take home.

L'Affine Affineur
47,50 eur
Recommended by a dear friend, this place is a gem! Everything they serve is homemade with local ingredients. On top of that, the waiters also spoke English, responsive via email, and were super kind in the service. I overheard one of them telling a customer on the phone they were completely booked for the night. We arrived at 5:45 pm, which is much earlier than regular dinner service in Paris, so the place was empty when we came in.

 

 We ordered a 10 cheese plate (28 eur) and a warm bruschetta (10 eur) to share. They asked all customers if there were any cheeses we didn't like before they started serving. The cheese plate had so much cheese! We were instructed to start with a light brie and make our way around to heavier, pungent cheeses. There were two goat cheeses, a sheep milk cheese, one made with lots of alcohol, two types of brie, blue cheese, and others I couldn't quite remember.

The bruschetta was sooo good. It had both tomatoes on top of a tomato paste topped with goat cheese. We hadn't eaten since 11 am so it was the perfect bite to stop our hunger pains immediately. We also had a glass of Cabernet wine to go with the meal.

(Focus fail!)

FANFAN by La Tulipe
35 eur
For our last night in Paris, we hit a restaurant-bar in the south side of the city at 6 PM. Immediately upon entering, we were greeted warmly by the waiter who made us feel comfortable and at home. Happy hour runs from 5-7PM with the special of any cocktail + 1 tapas for 9 eur. Dinner services starts closer to 7 PM. One spiced mojito, chicken wings, and steak + potatoes later, we were thoroughly satisfied. The place was hip and vibrant with an upbeat French and American playlist. I think it was my favorite of the 3 restaurants. Of note, 1 liter of water was 6 eur (we were mighty thirsty!).

Laduree
18,10 eur
I obliged the numerous recommendations to this patisserie and ordered a small tube of 6 macarons with yuzu ginger, salted caramel, rose, pistachio, raspberry, and coffee. While the salted caramel was very good, I was underwhelmed by the rest. I will seek future purchases from Trader Joe's ($5 for a dozen).

Grand restaurant bill: 150,60 eur  ($160)