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)