frog legs

the last place we ate in paris was a tiny rustic looking bistro hidden on a dark alley complete with pictures of old french butchers and pots hanging from the ceiling. they specialize in frog legs.. which I know apparently the french don't really eat but whatever they were delicious, like french chicken wings.







actually everything here was delicious especially the pumpkin soup with foie gras, mixed green salad with goat cheese brik, scallops with truffled potatoes, braised pork. nothing insane just simple and delicious and well made if not a little touristy with the toulouse letrec poster reprints everywhere.

walking around the latin quarter area at night half drunk is pretty incredible, the streets are lined with dudes making crepes and cases full of sandwiches and bars with secret underground caves where beer is 2 euros but coca cola is 6.

roger la grenouille
26-28 rue des grands augustines
left bank/latin quarter, paris

french street food

Being in paris I felt obligated to go into restaurants, but honestly I could have been happy eating nothing but street food the whole time I was there. the streets and alleys are lined with gleaming cases of sandwiches, spinning greek gryo meat, pastries, seafood, crepes, rotisserie chickens, even hot dog and cheesesteak baguettes. I seriously don't know who the hell eats all of this food.

One place even had a huge cornocopia of shellfish just sitting in front of the restaurant. Lobsters, open oysters, shrimp, etc... I thought it was fake but they were real, just sitting out in the street. Here they would either get eaten by bums or shut down by the health department.

breakfast in paris

Breakfast in france usually means a croissant and some coffee. which is great but if you're a filthy american like me you want a giant plate with eggs and a few varieties of meat all cooked in fat along with your bread. So I was happy to find a little tobacco/lottery stand a few blocks from our hotel proudly advertising "petit dejeuner" including "fried ham and eggs".

Past the old french guys smoking and drinking beer at 10 oclock in the morning were a few tables. We sat down and ordered some coffee and croque madam sandwiches which if you dont know is a grilled/toasted/warm ham and cheese sandwich with an egg on top and sometimes bechamel sauce.

The guy at the counter took a big swig of wine and walked into the back to cook up our sandwiches, which were damn good. nothing fancy just good french ham slathered with cheese & topped with fried eggs. and even a little side salad.. pretty awesome for a newsstand full of smoking drunks. Oh and the coffee in france is better than anything else, I dont know why, maybe it's in the water or something, even the stuff that comes out of vending machines tastes like magic.

boudin noir

My friend tim just got back from France, and brought me back some great pictures of pastries and boudin noir (blood sausages) that he ate.

Believe or not this guy was a vegetarian 4 months ago.

choucroute

sauerkraut braised in wine or beer and sometimes bacon. piled high with sausages, slabs of bacon, giant hunks of pork leg and sometimes duck and a pot of mustard. choucroute originated in the alsace region of france, right on the german border - hence the frankfurters and german flag sticking out of the sausage. best damn hot dogs you'll ever have.

la meuniere

Earlier this spring I was in france for the first time and had some of the best meals of my life.

Walking into La Meuniere (lyon, france) and seeing a 5 foot tall little old frenchman with a bushy moustache slicing saucisson (who turned out to be the chef) I knew I was in the right place. We tried everything from cold lentil salad and salad lyonnaise to lamb's brains, skate wing with capers, steak frites. All while slugging down bottles of cote d' rhone in an incredibly unpretentious setting more like a corner dive bar than a french restaurant in America.

Even more mind blowing was Lyon's outdoor market, everything from truffles to mountains of fresh produce and sausage, wheels of goat cheese sold by the actual goat farmers that made them, and everything was cheap.

See more photos on my flickr page