Our Best Paris Dinner Spot: Le Verre Vole

Wow, I almost don't want to post this because its really our favorite spot. This is very Parisian of me, actually - its hard to pry "les bonnes adresses" out of the folks in this town, they're always so worried that the place will be discovered and then they'll never get in again. Which I guess is a legitimate concern, we've all had places that we loved that became so popular we could no longer love them (Momofuku Ssam Bar comes to mind here...)

Matt loves Le Verre Vole!

BUT here's what a French person will do that an American probably wouldn't do - when asked point blank "Where did you get your hair cut?" or "Where did you find that amazing scarf?", or even - and of course - "Where did you buy this amazing baguette?", Parisians will have no qualms totally evading a straight answer if they don't want to tell you "Oh, around. Just some place in my neighborhood. Over that way (waving vaguely in a direction) - But you WILL NOT pry an actual address out of them if its a favorite they want to keep as their secret.

Whereas, an American would proudly tell you just where they got their haircut, and how much it cost, sometimes even before you ask.

So I'm torn about telling you about this place, because it is really something special and its CHEAP. But will I still be able to get a reservation once I've posted this? We shall see.

Delicious Orsin, or French sea urchin

LE VERRE VOLE
62 Rue de Lancry
75010 Paris
Open for lunch and dinner every day
+33 (0)1 48 03 17 34

Le Verre Vole is a wine bar specializing in natural wines, which they serve with a variety of seasonal small plates and a couple of nightly main dishes. Its small, sometimes cramped, and still very groovy, just on the edge of the Canal Saint Martin. And, all importantly, its open on Sunday nights, one of the hardest nights to find a decent place to eat in Paris. When it opened a few years back, it was THE place to be, though now trendier bistros have eclipsed it and its easier to book a table - it still does good business, but its not the center of attention it once was, which I personally am happy about.

Beet & Goat Cheese salad and Ceviche Salad

We usually load up on the appetizers (confusingly called entrées in French), which often include much seafood and organ meats in interesting combinations. Oh, yes - this isn't a good restaurant for you if you're a vegetarian or have other dietary restrictions. One of the best things on the menu by far is the boudin noir, or blood sausage, served with mashed potatoes and salad, and somewhere between a meatloaf and a paté. We get it just about every time we go, a French heart attack on a plate. If this doesn't sound good to you, maybe this isn't the restaurant for you (see, there's a chance it won't get super crowded after all!)

But, if you're an adventurous eater and enjoy trying wines from small, interesting French vineyards, this is a great place. The staff will recommend the wines based on your preferences, and its good if you speak a little French - though the staff can get by in English, you'll get more out of it if you've got a French speaker with you. The nice part about it is that you'll usually get out for around 50 Euros a person, including wine, and feel very well cared for and well fed.

So far, we've been able to book a few days in advance and been just fine...

I believe this was homemade headcheese....delicious...

THE PARIS LETTER: What We Ate In Paris, Takeout Edition

Ah, Paris - I love you, but you have got to get a handle on your food delivery. How can a city with such amazing food be so shitty at delivering it to your apartment?

One of the great joys of the week we spent in New York this summer was ordering a different kind of takeout food every night. One night Indian, one night sushi, one night Thai food, all delicious, inexpensive, and to the door of our fourth floor walkup in less than an hour. Often also available for order online. The ability to order a variety of delicious food fast actually may be one of my favorite things about New York.

Sushi Shop Paris delivery - Lots of packaging style

Because, see, we are new parents. When we travel, we don't go out to eat anymore. We order takeout to our apartment or hotel room and scarf it down while the baby sleeps. And so a lot of times, our enjoyment of a place is linked to the quality of the food we can order to our hotel room.

Sadly, Paris ain't so great at this. The whole concept of delivery is still pretty new here. The two times we ordered in, once Indian and once Thai, both in our first year of living here, were both such disasters both in quality of food and delivery time (over an hour for unrecognizable cold food), we never did it again.

But again, we're new parents. And we are tired a lot. One night, when neither of us felt like cooking, Matt threw up his hands in frustration. You know what we never do here? he said - Just order a pizza for delivery. To which I said "But sweetie, that's because the only pizza that delivers in Paris is Dominos (True!).

The Starbucks of sushi!- though I do like the little bottles of soy sauce.

However, we decided not to give up! There must be some good takeout in this city somewhere, right?.

Here are some pics of our first attempt: delivery from SushiShop, what I like to call The Starbucks of Paris Sushi.

By which I mean, its fine. Totally acceptable. And, like Starbucks, there are many branches in Paris and they all seem to churn out the same level of quality. By which I mean, mediocre. But not BAD.

And this has become my standard for delivery sushi now: Reasonably tasty, reasonably fresh, reasonably priced. If you can pull that off here in Paris, I'm yours. And SushiShop allows ordering online as well. Like so many Paris sushi restaurants, you're really only going to get salmon and tuna, and maybe a little cooked shrimp. But seriously, after being starved for good sushi for two years, I'm cool with it.

Plus, of course because it's Parisian, the packaging was all sleek, chic and sexy. Personally, I'd go for more options and less sexy packaging - but that must be the New Yorker in me talking. She's still in there somewhere.

THE PARIS LETTER: New York's Best Werewolf-Themed Organic Wraps

I tried to incorporate WolfNights into another post about all the awesome takeout that we ordered in New York, but I realized that it really needs its own post. Its not every day you find a werewolf-themed organic wrap shop, especially one whose wraps are so tasty.

So here's the deal. If you're on the Lower East Side and in need of lunch, I recommend these guys. I was walking by on my way back from Soho, looking for a place to pick up some food for Matt and I, when I saw this place and knew I had to go in. Here, check out the website, I'll wait:

So beyond the fact that all the sandwiches have names like "The Howling", and beyond the fact that you can add a "Wolf Attack" to your sandwich for an extra charge, this place actually has good ideas. They make all the dough for the wraps and then cook your wrap tortilla thing to order on one of those domed cast-iron griddles -- Ahah! I've just looked it up and it's called a "saj" and is used for making Middle Eastern flat breads:

Or, also Werewolf Themed Sandwich Wraps. If you're on the Lower East Side, you know. Center of global fusion sandwich cuisine!

So here's what's in The Howling sandwich:

Chicken wrapped in date and pumpkin seed dough, with fried pickle, feta, melon, mint, and yogurt sauce.

Dude, that shit was GOOD. An initially strange combo but the mix of pickle/feta/chicken/melon was amazing. In general, everything at this place is incredibly creative and - at least in our admittedly small taste test of two sandwiches - delicious. And pretty cheap.

Oh, and a Wolf Attack is tater tots with melted cheese, jalepeno, grilled onions and Wolf meat sauce, whatever that is. Look, its the Lower East Side. There's a lotta drunk people around.

Wolfnights, 99 Rivington Street, New York, NY 10002 917-261-5266

UNDERWORLD: Meatballs with cashews and goat cheese. And tater tots, of course

THE PARIS LETTER: Where is my mind?

Oh god, you guys. How is it October already - and mid October at that?

Being a parent sucks sometimes. Time just slips away from you. I feel like I lost the entire month of September to a whirlwind of daycare/nanny share/illness/general administrative tasks and all those lovely plans I had for a productive fall got lost in a black hole. Or maybe I moved to a parallel universe where time is speeded up.

But I've decided not to wallow in this and just try to get on with things. Which may involve curbing my natural long-windedness in these posts in favor of actually getting them up. We'll see how that one goes.

Stay tuned! More European tips coming up -

So what's happening right now? Sophia is 11 months old, which boggles my mind. She's standing up on her own and trying to walk. Its been raining for the last two weeks and I've discovered Paris's fabulous public indoor play spaces, which I'll describe in an upcoming post. Also coming up - we try to replicate the fabulous takeout food experience we had in New York this summer here in Paris - with decidedly mixed results. I explain my new dinner-in-under-an-hour menu planning. Its like Rachel Ray but by way of France - and just way better. Oh, and we spent a lovely and relaxing weekend in Brussels with Sophia, a great city because you feel no pressure to see any famous sights. I've got a new piece coming up in Slate on childcare in France, packed with as many stats as I could fit into 1500 words and still be somewhat amusing. And we've got lots of news from the summer travels all over the USA, including my reviews of yoga studios in 6 different cities and tips on how to fly both internationally and domestically with a baby strapped to you. Stay tuned...

Guest Post: Are you ready for some football? English football, that is.

Massive Wembley Stadium

Hello, this is Matt - I've taken over this blog from Claire so that I can recount my trip to Wembley Stadium to see a real live Premier League football game. 

In April, Claire and I traveled to London where she attended the London Book Fair, while Sophia and I explored the city, its monuments, and its pubs.  April is also the month when English Football really gets hot. Top-tier european football clubs - with their international players, global television revenue, and foreign billionaire owners - compete in many different tournaments, often simultaneously.  Though the World Cup and the Euro Cup only occur every four years, as a British football fan, you've still got three mega-tournaments to look forward to every spring: the Premier League championship (the new, glossy and empty tournament invented in the 1990’s), the F.A. cup (the oldest but less rich English championship, most similar to the NCAA bracket where underdog small-market teams can eliminate the big ones), and if the team is good enough, the Champions League (cue triumphant Wagnerian brass filigree), the most important annual tournament for any European football club.

My friend Mark James, a lifelong Chelsea fan, had secured two tickets for us to see Chelsea play in the F.A. cup semifinals at Wembley Stadium.  As someone who loves soccer but had never observed English football in detail, this match was very educational. 

We had 8th row seats!

The Best Cheap Lunch in Paris

Yep that's me on the left there.

Paris aficionados will already know that the best way to eat for cheap in this city is to do it at lunch - lunch is still the main meal of the day for many French people, and cafes in this city specialize in lunch formules, or set menus, usually for under 15 euros. For this you'll usually get several courses - an appetizer, main dish, and often a choice of dessert or a glass of wine. I've actually been taking myself out to lunch lately on Wednesdays, when Sophia has a babysitter, and plan  to do some good lunchtime food reporting in future posts.

But, when I first came to Paris in college, I was stunned by how expensive the food was here, and just had no idea how I would make it on a student budget. Then I discovered L'As du Fallafel on Rue des Rosiers in the Marais, and my life was forever changed. It still wins my best cheap lunch in Paris award, and its one of my favorite things to recommend to visitors.

L'As du Fallafel means "The Ace of Falafel", and its on a street where its got a lot of competition - in fact, its sort of the street of falafel stands - but I've never gone anywhere else. Rue des Rosiers is also the food center of the Marais's Jewish roots - just down the road is Sacha Finkelstejn, an honest to god Jewish deli where you can get a pastrami sandwich, as well as several Kosher butchers. You won't be able to miss the place because of the long ling outside, which usually moves fast. Ask the order guy for a fallafel with everything, including sauce piquante, and you'll get a pita stuffed with falafel, tahini, about five kinds of vegetables, including roasted eggplant and lightly pickled cabbage and celery root, and topped off with harissa, all for 5 euros. It'll come at you like this:

Though it looks like this guy skipped the harissa -mistake!

Don't worry, they give you a fork and napkins. BUT this is a mobile eating experience - you can sit down indoors at L'As du Fallafel, but its much better - and cheaper - as a takeaway. The only trick is to find a place to sit and eat it.

It requires a little patience, but there are two pretty little parks about a five minute walk away. Continue down Rue des Rosiers away from the Centre Pompidou until you get to Rue Pavee, your next possible left. Take Rue Pavee to the Rue des Francs Bourgeois; here, you can either make a right and there will be a little garden on your right about halfway down the block, or you can contine on Rue Pavee another block, as it become Rue Payenne, and eat in the Square Cain behind the Musee de Carnavalet.

Happy eating - one fallafel should set you up for a good day of sightseeing. Don't forget  to buy yourself something to drink, that sauce is piquante!

And, if you want to see what better food writers than I have to say about the place, check out Mark Bittman's review in the New York Times.

L'As du Fallafel
32, rue des Rosiers
75004 Paris
Metro: Saint-Paul
Closed Saturdays (its the Sabbath, yo!)

The Kings of Pastry: "Be a Man, this is the MOF!"

Recently Matt and I watched the documentary KINGS OF PASTRY, where we learned all about what it means to be a Meilleur Ouvrier de France. Sometimes I'll walk by a cheese shop or a patisserie, and outside it will proclaim "Meilleur Ouvrier de France" outside, which mean "Best Craftsman in France", but I figured this was just a marketing ploy, kind of like every pizza shop on 6th Avenue proclaiming itself Best Pizza in New York.

But no! Meilleur Ouvrier de France is a real thing, a real serious thing they give out to craftsmen in everything from pastry to hairstyling to wickerwork to - yes - taxidermy. The medal ceremony takes place at the Sorbonne in the presence of the President of France. And, at least as a Meilleur Ouvrier in pastry, you get to wear three stripes in the color of the French flag on your chef's jacket, and if you're caught doing this and you haven't won the competition, you can be jailed for fraud.

So it is serious business. And, like everything in France, serious business means serious acronyms, so it's not Meilleur Ouvrier de France, its MOF (pronouced to rhyme with "cough").  KINGS OF PASTRY follows three different pastry chefs, all of whom are vying for the title, and must go through a grueling three day competition where they have to make everything from candy to wedding cakes to sugar sculpture. Here's a pic of what I mean:

Yes, that is all made of sugar!

 Let me just say, I never thought a movie about pastry could be so dramatic. There's rage, tears, and macho attitude:  "Be a man, this is the MOF!" says one judge to a competitor who is about to cry over his broken sugar sculpture. And after seeing what these guys go through to make the sculptures, I was about to cry as well.

There's also a lot of structural engineering involved in pastry design. One of  the chefs explains how he makes his domed, multilayer wedding cake by drawing a cross-section and filling in the layers for us  "...Praline, then mousse, now raspberry, more mousse and then here at the end ... the crunchy". They have to put the outer layer in a blast freezer for the cake to hold its shape. Once I saw all the engineering involved, I understood the machismo a little better ... What guy doesn't want a blast freezer, really?

After watching the film, we realized that we had a MOF right in our neighborhood, Arnaud Larher - he's actually one of the winners in this film, though not one of the chefs  they followed. So of course, we had to try out his pastry. And they were delicious -really, MOF pastry is a cut above.

This is a Mosaique cake with basil and lime.

Arnaud Larher
53, rue Caulaincourt, 75018 Paris
Tel. +33 (0)1 42 57 68 08
Fax +33 (0)1 42 57 68 22
Métro: Lamarck-Caulaincourt
Hours: Mon. to Sat. 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.to 7:30 p.m.; Sun. 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.