Category: Events

I was fortunate enough to visit the glorious city of Paris for a week recently with pal, J.Low. I fell in love with the city, it’s people, the culture, the landscape, all its character, and of course, the food and shopping.

For this post, we’ll talk about the food. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the cuisine at the fancy joints or the brasseries that impressed us most (though they were definitely charming and the food wasn’t anything to complain about). It was the street food that made us swoon!

LADUREE – Various locations

Macaroons to absolutely DIE FOR! These aren’t the coconut butter shortbread numbers we have here in America. These are like a soft yet crisp, light wafer cake with flavored cream, jam, caramel, or fudgy chocolate filling (depending on the flavor). They have a crazy array of flavors and colors like chocolate, rose, vanilla, coffee, raspberry, cherry, strawberry, and on and on… But my faves were the caramel w/fleur de sel (wonderfully chewy caramel filling!), cassis & violette (it totally captures the flavor and essence of Paris), and the fragrant and delicate orange blossom flower.

They have various locations throughout Paris, but the one on the Champs Elysees can’t be missed. The restaurant’s decor, boxes, and details bring every tea party fantasy you’ve ever had, to life. Both beautiful and magical.

L’ENTRECOTE – Champs Elysees

The hype with this restaurant is in its “green sauce” that goes over their steak frites (and that’s pretty much all they serve, by the way). But tasting is believing because the hype is worth it! I’m still trying to recreate the sauce at home. We were trying to figure out what was in it and we’re pretty sure it’s a dijon base, along with porchini mushrooms and a little melted butter. Add that sauce to their perfectly cooked steak and crisp fries and we were in heaven.

CHEZ HANNA – Marais District

This kosher middle eastern restaurant was actually our second choice when we arrived in the delightful Marais district. We were looking for the world famous L’As du Fallafel, but they were closed since it was Saturday. But J. and I didn’t care because the falafel sandwich we had at Chez Hanna was simply the best we’d ever had!!! It was a warm soft pita, hummus and a tomato chutney, lightly vinegary shredded red and green cabbage and diced cucumbers, perfectly crisp falafel balls made fresh that didn’t taste full of additives, and some delectable roasted eggplant slices with olive oil. It was fantastic!

STREET CREPES – All over Paris

This, of course, isn’t a restaurant but what is arguably Paris’ most popular street food. J. and I were so addicted to these puppies we had six of them in six days! And trust me, I would’ve had more if I could :). I’m personally a fan of the savory crepes stuffed with shredded white cheese, ham, and sometimes egg or mushrooms, fresh and warm from the griddle. Mmmmm….

For a sweet crepe, I enjoyed the Nutella but actually prefered the ones filled with apricot or strawberry jam.

LA BALZAR BRASSERIE – Latin Quarter

It’s this place’s atmosphere and charming waitstaff that are worth the visit. Our waiter, Jean, was the most darling older gentleman and he was making jokes all night in his heavily accented English. I’d recommend this place simply based on the experience and less for the food. Definitely order the French Onion Soup with its wonderfully thick layer of melted cheese, but skip the tough and overcooked escargots.

AMORINO ITALIAN GELATO – Various locations

I have to trust J’s word on this one because…I’m not a huge fan of ice cream. (I KNOW I’m gonna get tons of grief for that statement.) But she didn’t say a word while she was eating it and that pretty much says it all. She loved it and thought the flavors and texture were out of this world. They let you choose as many flavors as you want for one price and then even shape the ice cream into a lovely rose. Leave it to the French to make something as simple as gelato/ice cream so beautiful.

By the way, if you want reservations to a Paris restaurant before you leave the States, check out www.bestrestaurantsparis.com to make them online!  Piece of cake.

Next week, I’ll talk all about some of the lovely districts we visited and the great shopping we found…

I haven’t been a regular Simpsons watcher for years, but when I realized the 7-Eleven in my area was one of the 11 chosen in the nation to be turned into a Kwik-E-Mart, I just had to go.

The Simpsons Movie is coming out in late July, and the folks at 7-Eleven decided to turn 11 of their stores in the US into “Kwik-E-Marts,” the fictional convenience store on The Simpsons.  Brilliant marketing for both the movie and 7-Eleven.

The Mountain View store is the only one in Northern California that’s been turned into the infamous Kwik-E-Mart, and that novelty hasn’t been lost on Bay Area fans.

They did a number on the exterior by turning it bright yellow and pasted over any 7-Eleven signs with “Kwik-E-Mart.”  And on the inside, large scale Simpson characters could be found everywhere, including Homer himself chomping on a hotdog.  And of course, there was no shortage of products including Squishees (the cartoon’s version of a Slurpee), Krusty O’s (just Fruit Loops in a Krusty The Clown decorated cereal box), and Buzz cola (unfortunately they were out of that).

      

The store was packed with people both inside and out, taking pictures and buying up all the Krusty O’s, Squishees, and other available Simpsons items they could carry.  There were way more people there than on a regular weekday at three in the afternoon.

So I got my pictures, as you can see, and picked up a few Squishees and Krusty O’s for myself.  I know it’s kitchy, but it was fun.  I figured it was a once in a lifetime chance for me to live The Simpsons, even if it was only in the form of a gussied up 7-Eleven.