Preservation – Usually a Good Thing, but…. – Tuesday, 6 October

 As you may have heard me say, I’m a huge fan of confit de canard – the preserved leg and thigh of duck.  The meat is cured with sugar and salt and sometimes herbs, then gently roasted in a large quantity of duck fat, then packed in crocks or jars, covered with more duck fat, and left to age there (or canned). When you want to serve it, you scrape off any excess fat (reserving it for another use, of course, like frying potatoes!) and stick it under a broiler to warm it and crisp the skin.  Hoooo boy…succulent, flavorful, moist, tender, rich, with a shatteringly crisp skin. It’s often served on top of sautéed potatoes with a nice green salad. It’s French country/comfort food. And sorry, but what purports to be duck confit in at least the Twin Cities doesn’t even come close.

So imagine my excitement when I read an article saying that one of the best spots for the dish was just a block away, a little historic bistro called Pierrot (the place is also in the Michelin guide: http://restaurant.michelin.fr/restaurant/france/75002-paris-02/pierrot/2a87yz3 ). My hopes were high when I went there for lunch today, so when they were dashed, it was quite a fall. I almost thought I was eating the Minnesota variety (sorry, but true). The menu said that it was “la Maison,” implying that it was confit’d there (rather than obtained commercially and just heated/crisped there). Either they started with substandard raw duck legs/thighs or their technique was lacking or they over-heated it in the broiler, which dried it out, It wasn’t bad enough to ask for a do-over, but dang it, what a disappointment. I do recommend searching out confit de canard when you’re in France, though, and hopefully you’ll get one of the usually-succulent versions.

After lunch I had a few minutes to explore a different type of preservation in the form of a curated (if that would be an appropriate term for it) second-hand clothing store, called Episode, just around the corner. Theirs is not a consignment model, but rather this is an international firm based in Holland that combs through clothing and accessories that people have donated to various charities, pays those charities for what it takes, has the things cleaned, and puts them up for sale in their stores in Paris and six other European cities.. And what a range of stuff, from real fur coats to silk scarves to bluejeans to shoes to vintage dresses to felt hats to purses to everything in between. I grabbed a leather purse and a silk scarf (it’s not Hermés, but hey!) for 24 euro, giving these items another “Episode” in their life's story.  I didn’t have time to do some serious shopping, but I plan to go back! Check it out.  https://www.google.com/contacts/u/0/?cplus=1#contacts