Chocolates in hand, it was time for lunch, just down the street at the restaurant the chocolatier owner recommended.
Tourn’bride was empty when we got there – although I imagine that’s to be expected at 3:30 in the afternoon.
We started with the rilette de saumon, which was quite tasty.
I can’t ever say no to escargot!
And ooohhhhhh my goodness the duck confit. With those crispy potatoes! To die for.
We tried their French onion soup, which was also excellent.
(Did I mention the escargot?
Yum.
Overall, while the service may have been a bit brusque (although, what do you expect – we were probably interrupting their afternoon break!), the food was excellent.
And then we were off, to our next Paris adventures!
My wanderings around my world this week started with…
Lots of cooking.
Lots of recipes that will be coming to Fridgg soon(ish)!
New Year’s flowers. Late afternoon light.
Butterrrrr chicken.
Pretty hand pies. Guess which holiday they’re for? 😉
Made an extra hand pie with the pie crust scraps. Ugly as heck, but still tasted great!
One of the walls in our house is pink. Drives me nuts, but it makes for a good photo background every now and then.
Nom.
The best part of making all those recipes for Fridgg… is getting to eat all the leftovers. ðŸ˜
Roasting. My house smells yummy.
Work in progress. I may or may not have licked the bowl clean after making the mousse.
Messy kitchen.
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Where are you wandering this week?
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After nibbling on macarons, we set off in search of a street that Son had heard had a lot of good food shops.
I loved this wall, beautifully covered in a poem. If we’d had more time (and were my French better), I’d have easily spent an hour there, leisurely reading the whole thing.
We passed by the Musee du Luxembourg and the Palais du Luxembourg, as we made our way around the edge of the Luxembourg gardens.
From there, we meandered past the Pantheon, which sadly was under construction at the time.
A few blocks later, we found Rue Mouffetard, the street we were searching for.
There were all manner of interesting food shops we would have loved to have browsed through. Sadly, it being a Sunday when we were there, most of them turned out to be closed.
Luckily for us, we happened upon a chocolatier that was open – Chocolats Mococha.
Anyone who knows my mom knows that she loves chocolate, so this was a lucky find, especially since macarons would have never lasted the week (and multiple flights) until we’d be back at home.
Chocolats Mococha is a shop that features the chocolates of several artisans, each who has their own display of chocolates around the shop.
From exotic flavors like passionfruit, wasabi, or basil, to more everyday caramel and milk chocolates, there were dozens of flavors available for our choosing.
The woman working there was an absolutely sweetheart, and a huge help. Her English was about as good as my French, which meant communication was a struggle at times, but she apologetically powered through and helped us pick out all sorts of interesting chocolates to try, and to bring home.
We would have loved to try one of everything, but decided to be somewhat reasonable – after all, there were still all sorts of other goodies in Europe to eat!
But yes, obviously we got a wasabi chocolate to try.
Chocolates in hand, we were ready to be off – but first, we asked her for a recommendation for somewhere to eat nearby. She suggested a restaurant just down the street – she said she goes there for lunch, often.
So off we went to find lunch… which I’ll tell you all about, next week!
It’s less than a week until the Super Bowl – what are you making this year?
Whether you’re watching for the football, the commercials, the half-time show, or the cute animals (puppy bowl, anyone?)… if you’re reading this, you probably agree that what you’re eating is equally as important (if not more so) as what you’re watching.
If you’re still looking for some menu inspiration, don’t despair! I’ve rounded up the top ten most popular Super Bowl recipes that our users have shared on Fridgg, and you’re sure to come away with some tasty ideas!
For example, who wouldn’t love one (or ten) of these amazing bacon cheese puffs from Eva in the Kitchen?
Chili is a game day classic, and this five-bean turkey chili that Justine from Cooking and Beer shared on Fridgg sounds like a perfect version!
I’m all about finger food for the Super Bowl, which makes these taco bites a great game day appetizer.
Also, pizza bites from The Life Jolie! Pizza + no-mess finger food = an excellent choice for parties.
I’ve always got to have some sort of dip at our Super Bowl party, and I know our party-goers would go crazy over Justine’s spicy chipotle fry sauce!
Another game day classic from Justine (with a blog named “Cooking and Beer”, you know she’s got tons of great game-day eats!) are these Italian-style slow cooker meatballs – easy and delicious!
Didn’t think we’d forgotten about the wings, did you? Justine’s chipotle ranch chicken wings are a finger lickin’ good game day option!
Not to mention, these baked roast beef sliders, also from Justine, look oh so satisfying.
Our second most popular Super Bowl recipe on Fridgg is this amazing reuben dip – so packed with deliciousness, it could pass for a meal!
And our Super Bowl winner, the top most popular Super Bowl recipe on Fridgg are these insanely easy sweet chili wingettes, from Christina of A Soulful Twist!
Four ingredients. Easy directions. Obviously I had to try the wings out… you know, for quality purposes.
You know it’s a good recipe when we end up standing over the baking sheet, licking our fingers, and Son asks if I can please make these again for our Super Bowl party this year.
And it’s such a crazy easy recipe… how could I say no?
Sweet Chili Wingettes
Recipe from A Soulful Twist.
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken wings
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
Cooking Directions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Pat the wings dry.
- Mix the seasonings together, then rub evenly all over the wings. Place wings in a single layer on a baking sheet.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes.
- Serve alongside a stack of napkins, and enjoy!
Blackout curtains. They’re amazing things. I don’t think we’ve ever slept so soundly as that first night in Paris.
We got a late start that morning (thanks to sleeping way in), but we stepped out to a lovely day.
After a stop at the bakery right next to our hotel to pick up breakfast, we made our way directly to the Seine.
I would not complain if every day in my life started with a tasty pain au chocolat.
Sitting and eating with a view of the river… definitely not a bad way to start your day.
As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, we’re wanderers. When we travel, it’s not about visiting museums or seeing all the must-see sights. We prefer to explore, wandering through the streets and neighborhoods with only general goals in mind.
Usually those goals involve food.
On this day, we made our way down the left bank of the Seine, towards the Notre Dame.
It was fascinating, how many things there were to do along the river.
We considered visiting the Musee d’Orsay, but quickly decided we were not going to waste our limited time in Paris standing in lines.
Instead, we bought tickets to the Batobus!
Since we were only in Paris for two days, this became our transportation of choice. We each bought a two-day pass, and then would hop on and off the boat anytime we wanted to go up or down the river.
(We were later told that the Paris metro is very nice and easy to deal with, but honestly my least favorite thing to do while traveling is to try to figure out a busy, hectic public transportation system when we don’t know what is going on and hardly speak the language. Plus, the Batobus was a fun way to see Paris.)
From the Musee d’Orsay stop, we took the Batobus to the Louvre exit, then headed over a bridge towards the Luxembourg Gardens.
But to be honest, our intended destination wasn’t the gardens. Nope – as usual, we were headed in search of food.
Specifically, we were here to find the famous Pierre Hermé, and their macarons!
After perusing their offerings, we bought a bunch of macarons (obviously we had to try every flavor), plus some other types of sweets that would last long enough to take home for our families.
You know us – we couldn’t wait to try them!
So we walked across the street to the little park around Fontaine Saint-Sulpice, found a bench, and got into the macarons.
Salted caramel is always an excellent option.
And to sample something a little more exotic, we tried the pistachio and raspberry compote macaron. Both were amazing, of course.
Some people check off tourist attractions on their travel bucket lists. We check off food goals. One down, plenty to go!
