So, I got some requests to describe what we ate in Paris in more (excruciating) detail.We were there four nights. We arrived latish on Thursday, so we didn’t meet up with Terran’s friend that night. But we did go out and split a pasta salad with smoked salmon and a chocolat chaud (hot chocolate) at a local bar restuarant. The chocolat chaud was pretty kickass because it was served in two parts — dense, semi-liquid chocolate ganache and steamed milk. I had to mix it up to my liking. I’ve never seen it served that way.

Breakfast (supposedly) came with the room. It was a nice combined continental and American buffet with yogurt, cereals, sliced meats, cheeses, rolls, scrambled eggs, potatoes, and bacon/sausage. When we checked out, we were told that the breakfast was NOT included because we’d booked on a central Internet site, despite the fact that the website had said it was AND the concierge had said it was when we checked in. (I.e. the central booking site had said in generic terms that it wasn’t booking food, but both the specific hotel website and the concierge said it was included without caveats. We were fine either way, but we wouldn’t have eaten there if it wasn’t included.) Apparently, it cost €15 per person, per day. That’s more than we paid for friggin’ lunches in cafes. OUCH. However, apparently they’d kept lousy records, because they only thought we had eaten there one morning rather than four. So we gave up on making a nasty scene, paid an extra €30, and skeddadled.

There was an open-air market by our hotel, so we had gourmet picnic lunches for two days — baguette, cheese, pate/terrine, and pastries. The prepared meats and pate store had some absolutely terrifying prices: €28 for a jar and up. We tried not to look too poor as we roamed around to find something that looked fun that we could justify paying for. I found some duck pate with dates for €7. I’ve never tried a sweet savory pate before, and it was amazingly good — just enough date to hint at sweet. I got another jar to bring home, which was accidentally opened, so I should eat it before it goes bad :-p. Terran found a jar of pork and truffle terrine. That was also good and had no sweet in it (I dig sweet savory a lot more than he does), though we wished the truffle flavor was a little stronger. We also got a stinky triple-cream cheese (brie-like but much stronger flavor) and a small round of a bleu for a total of about €7. That turned out to be so much cheese that we used it for both picnics and a snack on the return train, and there was still a couple of bites left, which we brought home and stank up our fridge with. Whoops. I had forgotten the perils of stinky cheese.

For the remaining lunches, we had cafe fare. One time, I ordered quiche lorraine and Terran ordered hab omelet. (The quiche was actually served with salad, for the veggie-trackers.) At the other, Terran ordered the best beef burgundy either of us had ever tasted. We now want to dig up a really authentic recipe rather than the ones I have periodically pulled off epicurious for red wine I don’t like the taste of. It’s possible that you can get something to taste that good just by picking the right wine, but it seems like it was thickened and seasoned differently too. I had blanquette de veau (veal in white sauce), which I recall having learned about in French class but never tried. Also very good. In fact, for that meal, we both thought the other one had the better dish :).

We had three dinners at Terran’s friend’s recommended restaurants. In all cases, the standard menu was three-course, fixed-price, with the ability to swap out the standard options for fancier options at additional cost. Wine was additional (we always ordered a bottle, which Terran skipped). Aperitifs were offered, which was largely the option to drink more alcohol before the first course — we skipped that. The first course was essentially an appetizer (though it’s called an entree for those who plan to visit France and read French menus), though it’s scaled to one person. One time I had langustine bisque; another time I leaped at a veggie opportunity and had white asparagus.

Main courses were things like lamb, duck, fish, etc. in sauce. Most often, JUST that with a side bowl of some sort of potato brought separately. In that sense, most of the main courses we ate were a lot simpler than I’m used to in a higher-end restaurant. In some sense, you were getting the main course variety I usually expect by combining both the entree and the main. Though, for the record, the mashed potatoes that came with one dish were probably 50% cream and the best I’d ever tasted — I’m not a mashed potato fan, so that’s high praise.

Dessert was, well, dessert. I had mascarpone and orange one night (more bitter than I expect, but good), a sort of polenta creme brulee another, and we skipped out on dessert to go to the creperie across the street for the last, where I ordered a franginpani (sweet paste made with crushed almonds), pear, and chocolate crepe.

So if you were curious, that was our dining in Paris experience.  When we got home, we ate veggies almost exclusively for a week.