Most restaurants are closed on Sunday evenings, and after a long day of travel and a short afternoon of strolling, I wasn't in the mood to venture very far for dinner. So I just grabbed a sidewalk table under an awning and a heater at "Bianco," a pizza-pasta place on rue Montorgueil, just a couple blocks from the apartment. I decided to try their Tagliatelle aux deux saumons - tagliatelle pasta with poached and smoked salmon and crème fraîche for a sauce. It's a great idea - chunks of poached salmon tossed in with the pasta and a couple thin slices of smoked salmon placed on top just before serving - and it was pretty good - but with a few small adjustments, it could be fabulous. A squeeze of fresh lemon juice in the crème fraîche wouldn't go amiss, and some chervil or "fines herbes" (Italian parsley, tarragon and chives chopped together) would bring it to a whole different level without much effort at all. Give it a try, kids!
One of my stops this afternoon was the great Stohrer patisserie, the oldest bakery in Paris (established in 1730 in its current location on rue Montorgueil). I picked up a slice of pâté en croûte aux morilles (pork country pâté with morels in a pastry casing) - I'll write about it after I have it for breakfast tomorrow! But I also grabbed a vanilla Éclair for dessert back in the apartment tonight. WOW! A very thin casing of choux pastry enveloping intensely vanilla crème pâtissière, topped with vanilla frosting and a couple little flecks of gold leaf for good measure. Life is sweet!
1 comment:
Please eat every flavor of eclair that you encounter. Also try the various sizes...petit to grande!
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