November 2022 Newsletter

Lost

Well, it happened again. When I was writing The Sweet Life in Paris, my manuscript in progress vanished from the desktop of my computer, along with everything else on it. I’d been diligently writing the book for a few weeks when I ran a program on my computer called Disk Doctor, whose name, hippocratically, implied that it would Do No Harm, and would fix any issues bugging your computer.

Contrary to its promise, it deleted everything on my hard drive, including my book. It’s one of the worst things that can happen to a writer, and it also happened to me a few times when I wrote my blog and used a different platform for my newsletter—I’d spend days writing something only to have it wiped out by a bug or frozen screen. It’s tough to lose your writing, but even tougher hearing people say to you, “Didn’t you back up?!”

Since I was toggling between Paris and San Francisco back then, I did what any Bay Area resident would do: I called Industrial Light and Magic to see what to do. They were riding high, best known for their work on the wildly popular Star Wars films. (Nowadays, it would be the equivalent of calling Apple headquarters and asking them about a glitch on your iPhone.) But back then, things were more entre nous in the Bay Area, and they directed me to a data recovery service. Their cost was in the thousands of dollars, and I decided to cut my losses and start all over again.

A photographer friend once told me, “At some point, everyone is going to experience data loss,” which is true, although I’ve had it happen at several points in my online writing career, including on my two previous newsletter platforms, and on my two previous blogging platforms. It is wrong to feel like I’m being singled out?

Thanks to better technology than the aforementioned Disk Doctor (whose license to practice should be revoked…), I now have everything backed up as I go, and my newsletter platform auto-saves text as I write. But this time the browser (Google!) froze and nothing would move. After several tries over the course of two days, seeing if the screen with a frozen newsletter would thaw out so I could scroll and write again, I didn’t have a choice but to close the window, refresh the browser, and start again. The good news is that since I’d been there before, I knew that it was possible to start over again, which is what I did with my lost book, and what I’m doing here.

Since we moved a few months ago, I’ve had to start all over again from scratch (like I did with this newsletter) at a new market, the Marché d’Aligre. It’s one of the liveliest markets in the city, but I was sad to live farther away from my old market. I knew all the vendors, and they knew me. France is a little different from other places, and people aren’t automatically your friends, and are generally more reserved, right off the bat*. It takes time for people to get to know you, but once you do, you have a special bond, and you feel like you’re part of the inner circle. I was on a first-name basis with many of the vendors, and all let me pick out my own produce rather than have them do it for me. And I wasn’t keen to start all over again.

[*It’s why I tell visitors to Paris that rather than going to all the different cheese shops in town, go to the same one every day. The first time, they’ll sell you cheese. The second time, they’ll welcome you back. The third time, they’ll treat you like a regular, and valued, customer. It’s one of the reasons people avoid moving in Paris.]

The Marché d’Aligre in Paris

When I moved to Paris, I lived in the Bastille, and for the first few weeks, I took the #86 bus to the market…until I realized it was a 10-minute walk from my apartment. Obviously, I had a lot to figure out in Paris!

The Marché d’Aligre is the only outdoor market in Paris that’s open every day, but Monday, which is great because you don’t have to work around your schedule to make sure you get to the market when it’s open. In the center is an interesting flea market as well, where I’ve scored a few treasures, even though after our move, I’m dialing down how much stuff I collect.

The first time I went to the market, many of the sellers were calling out to me to come over and buy things, which I hate because I don’t like being yelled at. I’m also smart enough to figure out that if I want something, I’ll go over and look at it. After my first few visits, the guys at the fruit and vegetable stands calmed down and realized that I didn’t need someone to point out things to me, that I could do just fine on my own.

Other places that I like at the market are the Graineterie du Marché. The owner, Jose, and I almost started crying when we saw each other, happy to be reunited after nearly a decade. Just down the street from his is now a branch of Aux Merveilleux de Fred, which makes Merveilleux, the fabulous, cloud-like pastries from Lille. I’m also a regular again at Sabah, which is my go-to store for Middle Eastern and North African foods. They’ve really expanded their offerings, and upped the quality, and have everything from Iranian dates and Italian pine nuts to whole wheat flatbread, fresh sheep’s milk cheeses, an olive bar, and lots of spices. I especially like the generous selection of nuts, seeds, and dried fruits, which are sold in large packages, unlike the nuts sold at the supermarchés in France that are sold in dinky 50-gram (2 ounces) packets, which don’t seem enough to make anything with.

[Don’t tell, but my secret pleasure is diving into La Petite Affaire, a déstockeur with two addresses, 7 and 23 rue d’Aligre, the former (#7) being a lot bigger — and a lot more crowded. They sell things that are close to their expiration date, and while a lot of the stuff isn’t that interesting to me, I’ve picked up items like Labeyrie smoked duck breasts, Label Rouge free-range chickens, organic fromage blanc, and wild mushroom ravioli.]

I’ve also started getting wine at Le Baron Rouge, a génial wine bar that sells red and white wine en vrac, in bulk. You leave a €1 deposit, and the bottle is yours on consignment. When you bring it back, you can get your euro back (well, it might be someone else’s…), and they’ll exchange it for a new bottle. So yes, it’s not only ecological but encourages you to come back for refills.

In nice weather, you can sit outside. Starting in the fall and until early summer, fresh oysters opened outside the wine bar are available to snack on.

The bottles are 1 liter (100cl) rather than the usual 70cl, so for the “What’s leftover wine?!” crowd, there’s a lot more to get through in one sitting. Most people in France drink wine to go with food, as an apéritif, or to enjoy while pondering the merit of a particular bottle or glass, not to get hammered. So when a writer, including one who occasionally loses his work, talks about using leftover wine, since it’s common to drink a glass of wine with dinner, there’s generally leftover wine. Ditto with cheese.

So we can now dispense with “What’s leftover cheese?!?” as well. I love cheese, but if I ate all the cheese I brought home, in one sitting, I’d have to switch to pants with elastic waistbands.

A few cheeses I brought home from the Aligre market when I made lunch for a visiting friend last weekend. And yes, there was leftover cheese! 😉

The good thing about the unlabeled bottles is that they sort of egalisés the wine and takes away some of the hoopla. (I recently caused a stir, stating that wine was at its core, simply juice from grapes.) But let’s bookmark that subject for another time.

I was the apple of someone’s eye at the market when a vendor handed me this little beauty to give it a try.

In other news, my kitchen is (almost) done!

Our kitchen, before we bought the place.

Fortunately, it was done with less drama than my previous renovation, and I recounted all the steps in detail, with lots of pictures, in my Paris Apartment Stories (for paid subscribers), with more fun—and construction progress—to come.

The most recent installment was them almost finishing the kitchen — yay!

Even though I can now get back to cooking, I revisited an old standby, Le Severo, with a friend who loves beef, on his birthday. Back in the day, Le Severo was on everyone’s list of places to eat in Paris. With only a dozen-ish tables (and just one seating per evening), it was a coveted place to eat—and still is. There are no tricks or turns here; the beef is matured (aged) so it’s far more tender than other beef served around town (if you’ve ever tried to hack through a steak at a café, you know what I’m talking about) and more flavorful.

We absolutely loved the boudin noir that was an appetizer, fried crisp and served with a negligible few leaves of greens (this is not a place for vegetables), and we split a Côte de bœuf (shown above) with outstanding frites. I managed to pick an affordable winner off their heady wine list with the 2019 Jean Foillard Morgan Cote de Py. If you like cheese, the St. Nectaire is outstanding. Desserts are homespun and fine, but they’re not the point of eating here.

Lastly, I spent a few days at the end of October in Seville, a city and region (Andalusia) that I adore. In France, people stick to eating at prescribed mealtimes (if you’re out in the countryside, if you don’t get to a lunch place before 2pm, you’ll have a hard time finding somewhere that’ll feed you…except for McDo), and on my day of arrival, around 2pm, I took a walk to find something to eat. With dinner scheduled for 9pm (which is early for Spain), I was a little worried that lunchtime was over.

Interestingly enough, as I sat at a café in a square eating croquetas, Iberian ham, and toasted bread with anchovies dripping with olive oil, by the time I left around 3:30pm, people were just arriving for lunch.

Iberian ham is certainly on the short list of my top ten favorite things to eat, maybe in the top five. I love the nutty, rich flavor of the ham, and there’s nothing like it anywhere else in the world. (Although, folks are working on it in California.)

I visited Cinco Jotas, where they spend three years salting and aging the ham in their cellars before the ham is ready to eat. In just one bite, you’ll realize it’s worth the wait. I’m going to write more on that in a future newsletter as well as share more before-and-after pictures from our kitchen remodel (for paid subscribers), and I also have some great fall and winter recipes coming up here. Stay tuned!

- David

PS: I’m going to do an online French Apéro Hour Live with Context Travel on December 3rd. I’ll be making some of my favorite appetizers for the holidays as well as a drink to sparkle up your holiday festivities. You can get more info or sign up here.

Links I’m Liking…

Do “Best Before” labels cause food waste? (AP News)

After 120 years, Paris says au revoir to paper métro tickets. (France24)

British Baking Show gets heat for their portrayal of Mexicans and Mexican food. (CNN)

With acrobatic skill, parkour athletes scale façades in Paris to dim store lights to fight pollution lumineuse (light pollution) and to save energy. (NYT/unlocked)

Some folks are now giving up their Instant Pots… (Eater)

Why compostable Ziploc bags never took off. (Fast Company)

Want to move to Europe? Portugal makes things easier, and more accessible, with new visas. (Washington Post/unlocked)

France’s undisputed queens of French cheese. (BBC)

Say what?! Are pastry chefs becoming extinct? (Bon Appétit)

Favorite Recipes and Links

People don’t quite know what to do with persimmons. But if you find yourself with some (or are ready to move on from banana bread…), this Persimmon Bread is truly amazing. A reader recently made it and said they doubted the ingredients would work, but it came out perfectly. Give it a go yourself and see why it’s one of the most popular recipes in my repertoire!

’Tis the season for pumpkins, and while pumpkin desserts aren’t as popular in France as they are elsewhere, the French do le cheesecake, as it’s called. I combine the two in a silky-smooth Pumpkin Cheesecake, with an optional (but really, it is obligatoire…) pecan praline sauce.

Did someone say Thanksgiving? I’ve got a lot of Thanksgiving recipes online, including cranberry sauces and chutneys that take the tangy berries in delicious directions. (We can get cranberries in Paris around Thanksgiving, often for a price…but they’re more reasonably priced in grocery stores in the less-chic neighborhoods.) You can try my Pumpkin Marshmallow Pie, a do-ahead Pumpkin-Maple Flan, Cranberry Upside Down Cake (shown above), Maple Sticky Buns (to power you through a day of cooking), Pumpkin Ice Cream (which goes with everything), Cranberry Shrub (for those who don’t drink, and those who do), Cinnamon Ice Cream, as well as a few pecan pies, a Chocolate Pecan Pie (a fan favorite, and mine too) and another with a triple dose of ginger.

For more recipes, check out my round-up of Thanksgiving Recipes.

Looking for a fast and easy appetizer? One that can be made days in advance? My Green Olive and Almond Tapenade is just the ticket. It’s made in a snap and is a great addition to any holiday table. And not to brag, but my Spicy Pretzel and Nut Mix is also popular with friends and family. And me, too.

Who else remembers Figurines, from 1976, when cookies figured into a weight-loss plan?

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