Just in case you were wondering what French Onion Soup is supposed to look like, here ya go! The famous Au Pied du Cochon ("At the Foot of the Pig") restaurant, established in 1946, serves the absolutely quintessential bowl of it. The recipe is pretty simple – just roast a ton of thinly sliced onions very slowly for a few hours to caramelize them, add water (or maybe chicken or veal or beef stock, but preferably just use the juice exuded by roasting the onions and some water), season with salt and pepper, pour it over some toasted baguette slices in a bowl, toss a large heap of Gruyère cheese on top, and pop it under the broiler. It’s tempting to take shortcuts or to use something other than the best Gruyère, but I implore you to resist those temptations!
Or take a trip to Paris and eat the real thing at Au Pied du Cochon. It’s located next to the spectacular church of Saint Eustache in central Paris’ Les Halles district, the area that for centuries (I’m not exaggerating – from 1183 to 1971) served as the wholesale and retail food market of the city (you can read a vivid depiction of it in Émile Zola’s novel "The Fat and the Thin"). The restaurant is open 24x7, and it’s a lively place, even at 11 p.m. (when I was there)!
Its fanciful fruit-basked chandeliers are a sight to behold – here is a snapshot of the one over my table and another shot of the restaurant. They also are very famous for their pigsfeet (hence the name), fresh oysters, fish, shellfish, etc., but a slightly chilly November evening is the time for French Onion Soup (in my humble, but outspoken, opinion!)! And I'm so lucky - it's just a couple blocks as the pigeon flies (or five blocks as the streets twist) from the apartment I'm renting.http://www.pieddecochon.com/en/
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