Patisseries and churros

As we stepped onto Wagram the street was full of stalls selling antiques. There were a number of things that we both liked, but some were way too pricey or way to big to transport back home, so we just looked. At one point I had spotted an old fashioned mushroom money box, the vendor told us it was made in the 1920s and he would sell it to us for 20 Euros. I decided to think about it, this could be my souvenir from Paris.

These multicultural representations of some of the communities living in Paris were quite interesting at Le parc de percy

Le Jardin des plantes

Pretty iris.

Purple is my colour at the moment, I seem to be wearing it a lot recently. Hence the photo of the building, the shimmering of the purple clashing with my cardigan. Mmm wish I had a dress that colour...

I love how the french pattisieries wrap the pastries, meringues, cakes and tarts, when you go to open them up, they feel like a special present - just for you.

Citrus tart and strawberries on an almond tart. A nice present.

Now that's something you dont see in the UK, an Afghanistan Restaurant.

Mosque in Paris, also serves as a tourist attraction. There was a quaint Turkish style tea room at the back at the mosque, where D and me decided to rest awhile.

Mint tea anyone?

Institution du Monde Arabe where we got a good and free view of the city.

D decided it was time for us to sit down and take shelter from the rain, I was more than happy to do this as my feet were beginning to get sore. As I was feeling a little nippy I wanted to sit inside, but Ds attitude was we are in Paris and should do as Parisians do, so we did we sat on a corner café on the Left Bank in Montparnasse and paid 11 euros for two café noirs – extortionate or what!?

We decided to get the underground to Barbes Rouchechouart to head to a Vegetarian restaurant. As we got out of the metro onto the streets, the first thought to run through my head was 'Oh my god where am I? The tourist book described this place as little North Africa . The hustle and bustle. I have never seen anything like it and it is an experience I will not forget in a hurry. Although we had a list of vegetarian establishments we seemed to mess up with our timings. By the time we were hungry many of these places had closed down for the day. One of these was Le Vegeterien closed for the rest of the day.

. We were in St Denis and I was starting to get a bit hungry and was willing to settle for legumes potage and au pain (soup and bread) how wrong can you go with a vegetable soup. Very wrong! This place which had the word ‘turtle’ in its name was appalling. It was one of the worst soups I have ever had, the other was in North Berwick in the East of Scotland, sadly I remember these things. With the soup barely touched, I made a visual point to door man encouraging passers to come in by spooning the sloppy watery soup in and out of the bowl, plus it was the second time we decided not to leave a tip.

Still hungry, I spotted a churros stall, having never had a churros (Spanish pastry usually eaten at breakfast) I got myself some. It was a tasty bargain 3 euros for 12 pieces.

Battered by the rain and sugared out from the various sweets we decided to head back to hotel via the Arc de Triumphe. This was probably the most unproductive day in relation to sight seeing. The weather certainly brought me down and the eating outlets continued to disappoint this vegetarian in Paris.

Friday Parisien sights

Last Friday in Paris, we started at Place de la concorde. When we got to Jardin des Tuileries it was closed and we had to walk around it. We also wandered around the Louvre and the River Seine.

Notre Dame was mobbed by people like us – tourists!

Blvd St Michel - Jardin du luxembourg

He looks so real!

Talking head

Rue St-Germain (Latin quarter) to Port Marie where there were a number of eating outlets that caught my beady eyes!

Some that looked rather good

Look closely is it really vegetarian food? I think not.

Les Halles had a number of cookery shops selling good stuff for established and aspiring patisserie and chef.

A pick me up before going to Georg Pompetdou centre

Big red hot lips

A mermaid I think....

Then off to Rue Rambuteau our next destination for our evening meal in a vegetarian restaurant where we decided to have the three course set menu.

I had Pate of champ ignons and caviar d’aubergines, the pate shaped like a quenelle was a bit sloppy, but the salad was good.

D had mushroom pate which as actually not too bad

For second course I had cassoulet de lentilles corail aux algues fraiches (pink lentils cooked with fresh seaweed, fennel and tofu). It was a thick lentil sauce, with threads of salty seaweed and this flavour overpowered my enjoyment of the dish wish also included cubes of smoked tofu. The salad on the side was rather disappointing, as it resembled what I had had on my starter plate but the portion was bigger. Not much effort there.

D had a Croustillant de quinoa au tofu sauce pate of champ ou provencale (crusty quinoa burger with goats cheese).

For sweets, I ordered compote de fruit ou vert (green tea) which turned out to be baby food. It was not a compote, but a puree. And D had a crème au chocolate, which he really enjoyed.D was pleased with his options, I was disappointed I felt like my meal had consisted of too much slush and gloop. Maybe I am a hard person to please. I don't mean to be - honest.

We went to a place that can only be described as avante garde - Belleville. The people were extremely friendly, I don’t know if it was the ambience of the place, the alcohol in their veins celebrating an occasion, or something else. But it was the most memorable of evenings we had, and it didn’t rain on us.

We checked out some of the artist shops and stumbled upon some images which we really liked. Of course it had to be the man of the moment: Barack Obama, a true icon of our times. D politely asked the artist if he could take a photo of two, we had expected a firm ‘non’ but were pleasantly given a ‘yes man, do whatever you want, feel free, enjoy yourself!’

We also took a picture of a bin on the outside, now I wouldn’t mind if that wheelie bin was at my allotment plot.

After playing tourist for 30 minutes, we finally sat down to enjoy some music from some unknown (probably up and coming young singers), watched the multicultural diversity of the people as they walked on by. It was all good. As I sipped on my glass of red wine, the young lad placed a complimentary plate of chips in front of me. They were one of the best plates of chips I had ever eaten. I would like to have stayed longer, but the one glass was going to my head, so back to Wagram it was.

Zesty Asparagus with pine nuts

We are about three weeks into the asparagus season and I have yet not indulged in our seasonal and British grown asparagus until today. Today I bought 1kg of asparagus, enough to last us the next few days. That is of course if D doesn’t eat them as soldier dips with boiled eggs for his breakfast tomorrow.

This is a simple light dish. It is adapted from Catherine Masons book Vegetable Heaven. It is one of my favourite and most used cook books, simple food bursting with flavour. I have changed the quantities of some of the ingredients; otherwise it is pretty close to the original recipe.
On serving it looks like it would be a dry dish needing a splash of olive oil, but upon tasting you are hit by the lemon flavours absorbed by the asparagus upon slow cooking in the oven.
Asparagus with pine nuts
Serves 2
Ingredients
400g asparagus, tips removed and the ends peeled with a potato peeler. This is to remove any stalkiness.
25g butter
Zest and juice from 1 unwaxed lemon
A pinch of Maldon salt or sea salt
25g pine nuts

Preheat oven to gas mark 6

In a large tray, add butter along with lemon zest and juice, put in oven for a few minutes until the butter has melted.

Remove from oven and add asparagus, roll asparagus in lemony butter. Then cover with foil and cook, after 25 minutes remove from oven and add the pine nuts and bake without foil for a further 5 minutes.