Haute cuisine

We may not have jobs yet but we haven't been idly wiling our time away here. Instead, we've been making the most of our free time by using it to cook. As you probably know, we plan to open a French-style deli in the future, so we figure that this time in France is great experience for that. So we've been regularly visiting the markets, cheese shops, butcheries, delis and even the supermarket for inspiration. We've also found a wonderful cookbook store, and have bought a few little cookbooks to get us in the French frame of mind (it's also a great way to learn cooking vocabulary). In addition, we've discovered E. Dehillerin, kitchenware store par excellence. This shop has been around since 19th century and has apparently changed very little in that time. It's filled to the brim with interesting kitchen equipment (no measuring spoons, though!). Their best-selling items are well-priced copper pots, which look great but are still out of our price range. However, they also sell proper professional carbon steel pans for much (much!) less money, so we've invested in a couple of these, including a crepe pan. They're the best pans ever! They're non-stick but also sear food beautifully. If nothing else, we'll come back from this trip with great cookware!
The most exciting thing, though, is what we've been cooking in our new pans. Here's a selection of interesting things we've cooked or eaten since we've been here:

1. Magret de canard
A magret is the breast off a duck that has been fattened to make foie gras. The breast itself is remarkably lean but has a thick layer of fatty skin (the fat drains off when you cook the breast). You eat them rare like a good steak. This was amazing! Tender and delicious, a cross between beef and duck. The best thing is that they're cheaper (and nicer) than the beef here. May even be a regular thing on the menu.

2. Quail
Quails are much cheaper here than in NZ, and more popular, so we thought we'd try some. We bought some free range ones from the supermarket of all places, and when we opened the packet found that they still had their little heads attached. Kind of gruesome but the French are much less squeamish when it comes to food and seem to appreciate where the food comes from more. The quails (minus their heads) were very tasty, washed down with some cheap French chardonnay.

3. Fresh sardines
Fish is incredibly expensive here, with some types being sold for $120/kg, but fresh sardines are quite reasonable. We bought some fillets from the market and cooked them simply with some oil and lemon juice. Very different from tinned sardines and definitely something to try again.

Fish stall at local market

4. Breton crepes
Crepes are very popular here, both sweet and savoury, and make a tasty dinner. You can buy ready made buckwheat crepes from the supermarket and fill them yourself (with ham, gruyere, mushrooms, goat's cheese etc) but last night we made our own for the first time using our new crepe pan. They were a resounding success, just as tasty as any we've bought before.

5. Mushrooms
I (Emma) have never been a big fan of mushrooms, and have only recently started to eat them after trying the wild mushrooms sold in NZ. I've never liked button mushrooms. However, Paris is known for it's button mushrooms and they are absolutely delicious! I'm a complete convert. They look exactly the same as NZ button mushrooms but have much more flavour. We bought quite a lot from the market last week and had a mushroom meal every day for 3 days. You can also buy a good selection of wild mushrooms here, including the very pricey morel ($120/kg). Autumn is mushroom season, so it can only get better as well.

6. Cheese
French cheese is a given, of course. There is apparently a variety for every day of the year. We're working on it! The best thing here is being able to buy unpasteurised cheeses. They really do have more flavour. If only you could buy Roquefort (an unpasturised blue cheese make from sheep's milk) in NZ. There is also a much better range of goat and sheep's milk cheeses here. The supermarkets in Paris are small but there is usually one whole aisle devoted to cheese.


Fromagerie at local market

Just so you don't think we've given up on NZ altogether, there are a few things we've found that NZ does much better. The steak we've tried has been expensive and tough. High quality minced beef seems to be a more popular choice here, to make the beef tender enough! Milk is also expensive and not that great. Most French people drink UHT milk, which tastes even worse. At least we're getting our calcium from the cheese! We have been unable to find liquid chicken stock here. The only stock you can buy here comes in powder or cubes, of varying quality. Maybe most people make their own here or something. Coffee here is average to bad. Wellington coffee really is amongst the best in the world. We've stopped drinking coffee at home and only occasionally buy it in cafes. The worst experience with coffee was Starbucks. We went there to check our email but it turned out we still had to pay for the internet and the coffee was the worst I've ever tasted. I don't think the French have been exposed to good coffee to appreciate it. Maybe we could convince Supreme to open a café here!
Apart from these few things, the food situation here is amazing, and I think we're going to have a hard time giving it up to come back to NZ.