A Call To Write: Golden Paris

This month’s giveaway is a bit tardy. I spent a week on Cape Cod this month and allowed myself to push back August’s giveaway until now. Hopefully you’ll think it has worked out well for both of us…

While on vacation I made sure to pack a few books for beach reading. The weather was a bit windy and I didn’t really have one good beach day of pure reading this year (I’m used to having at lease two). One day it rained. We’ve gone to Cape Cod most summers since I was very little, and whenever it rains- we shop. This year we changed it up and went shopping in Harwich and Orleans later in the day. As you may guess, I love to hit up all the bookstores I can find when on vacation. There are always fun local authors and regional cookbooks. This year I found myself picking up Paris, My Sweet at Main Street Books in Orleans. I’d had my eye on it and after flipping through it, I felt like it might be the vacation read I was meant to discover. I ended up whipping through it in just a few days. Amy Thomas is passionate about sweets, Paris, New York and thinking about her love life – I could instantly relate to her.

After being back in New York for a few days and having started seeking out some of her NYC recommendations (mainly Vosges chocolates which is right by where I work – I’m not obsessed with their Verde Caramels) I was feeling wistful for Paris. Hopped into Paper Source for my monthly stamp searching ritual and found an excellent Eiffel Tower stamp. Et, voila! This month’s giveaway was born:

The embossing powder I used on these is called "Queen's Gold" and I'm a little obsessed with it! I love the clean metallic gold it creates. As for stamps, this month's winner will get a smattering of Forever Stamps from my collection. 

Now the question. Amy loves Paris, studied there in college, dreams about visiting it, fantasizes about living there... I do the same. So I want to know:

Where is your fantasy home? 

If you could live anywhere new - even just for a year - where would you choose? 

As usual if I have more than 10 entries I will randomly choose a winner, otherwise with 10 or fewer I will choose my favorite response. After only one week (September 4th) I will choose and announce the winner on The Culinary Librarian. The winner will need to email me the address they would like me to send the stationary and stamps within 48 hours. If the winner doesn't respond I will choose a new recipient and announce the new winner on blog. If you are having trouble commenting in the comments section, email your response with the subject line “Golden Paris” to theculinarylibrarian[at]gmail.com by 11:59pm EST on September 3rd.

Four Kitchens: Traveling the World with Lauren Shockey

Over the last few months of summer Lauren Shockey's Four Kitchens kept popping up on my radar- on my favorite blogs, in tweets, as giveaways, etc. Who was this young woman, just a couple years older than me, who I kept hearing about? Turns out Four Kitchens is the first book from a great new writer in our food-loving midst. Even though I had read a few posts about the book and some excerpts I wasn't sold on the book at first. Since there was no promise it'd be a homerun, not coming from a well-known and seasoned writer, I didn't buy Shockey's book right away. 

Luckily Lauren was one of the authors at the Freerange Reads event I attended at the beginning of September, throwing out a second line for me to catch. After she read us her stomach-churning experience eating dog meat in Hanoi I was effectively hooked and knew I would enjoy her book. But she didn't fully reel me in until last month's book launch party for Kathleen Flinn. At the September event I was able to hear the quality of her reading, but at the book party she was able to speak candidly to a small audience in a discussion about home cooking. After that I knew it would be worth my time to spend 300-pages or so with Lauren. So that was the night I bought the book and jumped right into it after finishing the books I had already queued up at the beginning of the month: Flinn's The Kitchen Counter Cooking School and Ruth Reichl's Comfort Me With Apples.

The comparison to Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love and Four Kitchens has been made a few times, for valid reasons. Both are memoirs about women who travel alone to multiple countries with set goals in mind, eating along the way and ending with a final revelation. As Lauren said at the Flinn event her book is really just 'Eat, Eat, Eat, Eat- and wasn't that everyone's favorite part of the book anyway!?' Her journey to four countries and her work in four different restaurants is very interesting. As a chef-loving nation, getting into the kitchens anywhere is always a bit foreign and exciting for us. To get an insider's peek at one of the nation's most interesting kitchens, the molecularly focused wd~50, in addition to kitchens across the globe makes Shockey's story captivating to a broad audience; to lover's of Bourdain as much as those who loved reading (and watching) Gilbert's trek. 


After completing her degree at the French Culinary Institute and while working on a Masters in Food Studies at NYU Lauren comes up with her plan to be a stage (aka unpaid kitchen worker) in kitchens in New York (because that's where she's from), Hanoi (because Vietnamese cuisine fascinates her), Tel Aviv (because she is Jewish) and Paris (because of its gastronomic importance). 

PARIS Part III: Les Déjeuners et Les Dîners

As a student in Paris I only ate in restaurants when my parents came to visit. My breakfast and dinner during the week were included in my foyer (dormitory) stay and on the weekends I mostly got by eating baguettes with cheese for breakfast and lunch and crepes for dinner down along the Seine (you'll remember my foyer was located on Île Saint-Louis). So upon return, I was most excited to be able to eat at sit-down restaurants and finally order proper French fare (not the suspicious French cafeteria food I was served for dinner Monday through Friday). In the good company of Jocelin, Eddie, and my Scottish friends Chris and Paul all the meals I enjoyed in Paris were memorable and delectable. 

It all began my first day when I enjoyed a memory-jogging Nutella crêpe from the crêperie window on Île Saint-Louis. A hot custardy batter cooked to perfection and filled with melting globs of chocolate-hazelnut spread was a welcome first meal, admittedly too many hours after my arrival. The first bite immediately transported me to all the nights I meandered along the south bank of 'my island' nibbling a crêpe for dessert or as a weekend dinner. It was just like I remembered.

My late afternoon snack was followed by a classic bistro dinner at Chartier. A few guidebooks and David Lebovitz had recommended Chartier as an affordable place to enjoy traditional fare in a typical French brasserie setting. We began with a smooth meaty terrine:

PARIS Part II: Les Macarons

The fact that I am writing an entire post devoted to the macarons I had in Paris needs no introduction if you've been following The Culinary Librarian blog, Facebook page or Twitter for the past year. I did my best to try the top-rated macs in Paris during my trip this spring. I did pretty well and tried a variety of flavors- even a very surprising savory macaron. 

I have listed each macaron shop with the address in Paris. The city is divided into 20 neighborhoods, called arrondissements. Each zip code will tell you what neighborhood the address is located in based on the last two numbers. For example, the first boulangerie ends in "05" telling you it is located in the 5th arrondissement. Enjoy! I certainly did. . .  

Le Premier

Daniel Pouphary (La Parisienne)

28 Rue Monge, 75005

Jocelin and I enjoyed pistachio and raspberry flavors for our first macarons. La Parisienne is the boulangerie I mentioned in my first Paris post. I always stopped by this place on early Monday mornings when I had my French literature course. Those little pain au chooclat helped keep me awake through the two hour long lecture. 

It is very common to see macarons in the neighborhood boulangerie. Typical flavors include raspberry, pistachio, vanilla and coffee, a limited selection compared to shops that specialize in the beloved treat. Macarons are all over the city and are rarely poorly made. Next time you're in Paris don't hesitate to pick up a mac with your daily baguette! These two below were some of the best I tried my whole trip. 

Le Deuxième

Pierre Hermé

PARIS Part I: A Parisian Homecoming

More than two years after returning to the US from my semester in Paris, the opportunity to go back came in the form of a week-long vacation with great friends. I had a mix of excitement and anxiety leading up to my trip, concerned my French would be too rusty and that I might not remember how to get around. Once I took out my suitcase and started packing, all that apprehension melted away. . .

I arrived at CDG in Terminal 2 which I know very well after bringing my father to the airport after a visit and leaving from Terminal 2 at the end of the semester. After getting my bag I knew just where to go to get on the RER B into Paris. Once settled on the train I was on my way with an indelible smile across my face; ready for vacation, ready to start a sort-of homecoming.

Now, when I was studying abroad I was in Paris for four months I used a NaviGo (a month-long unlimited metro card) for getting around the city. Unlike Metrocards in NYC if you have a NaviGo you have to put your picture and name on it. Metro riders can be fined if they don't have a picture on their NaviGo or if they don't have a cancelled one-way ticket from entering the subway. In four months time I never had a ticket or my NaviGo checked for validity.

Back in Manhattan!

Yes, I am back from vacation and will be blogging soon about the many treasures I found in Paris! 


For now, let me direct you to my Facebook Page and Twitter for a few "tastes" I've provided over the last week. Also you will notice I am sporting a new Facebook profile picture.... me at Julia Child's apartment building in Paris! (81 Rue de l'Université)

81 Roo de Loo in Paris

My trip was fabulous and I have much to share and look forward to writing about it! Watch for posts through the rest of the month! 

Je retourne à Paris....

For any of you who follow my Facebook page or my Twitter feed you may have heard that I will be going to Paris, France this week. This is more than a vacation for me, it is a return to a place I once lived for a time. During the fall of my senior year of college I studied in Paris for the semester. While in Paris I experienced every emotion in the book. My start was rocky, vexed by fatigue, loneliness, foreignness, and a lack of modern comforts (ie internet in my room). My transition was difficult but eventually I got a handle on Paris and my concerns about returning to the USA disenchanted by Pairs and completely over my 2 decades of francophilia faded completely. I love Paris and La France more than ever. 

See the Stars on the Eiffel Tower?
France was "president" of the European Union while I was there.

This is my chance to see my Paris with my friends, without loneliness, without being so foreign... So I am packed up, have my list of the best macaron places from Girls Guide to Paris printed out, my Paris Moleskine I had when I first went to Paris, I've been looking up restaurant suggestions from David Lebovitz, finished reading Paris Was Ours last month, and have been testing my rusty French on my friends. I am ready. The anxiety I had been feeling about my trip since I bought my plane ticket has mostly subsided and I feel fully prepared to return to the City of Light. 

Eating lunch along the Seine
(that's probably some baguette filling my cheeks)

Fortunately this is all working out thanks to one of my very best friends who needed to be in Paris for her masters and offered for me to come along and play tour guide to fellow visitors. I'm very grateful to her and lucky to be going back with such wonderful company. 

I will probably not be updating The Culinary Librarian Facebook or Twitter pages much this week, but periodically I will try to post a picture or an update, so keep an eye on them. As of yet I'll keep what I am thinking about for Paris blog posts until I return... I can never be sure what I will find there, anyway. Here's to wishing you all a wonderful week while I am away, a favorable exchange rate for our mighty dollar, and beautiful weather. À bientôt mes chers! 

My profile picture was taken when I was in Paris at Les Fous en L'Ile restaurant on Ile St-Louis, where I lived.
The restaurant was decorated with tons of chickens and coqs. Chef Ludo would love it!

Culinary Destination: Portland, Maine

During my vacation in Albany I was fortunate enough to be able to accompany my dad on an overnight business trip to Portland, ME. I went to Maine as a child with my parents but they are not times I really remember. Recently my friend The Creative Culinarian moved from NYC to Portland so I also was able to see her briefly which was a real treat. 

                                           
 My day in downtown started at the Standard Baking Company, 75 Commercial Street. As per recommendation from Tiffany I enjoyed a ham & cheese croissant. Here they top these delightful French treats with sesame seeds adding a level of crunchy texture that pairs nicely with the pillowy texture of the croissant. The ham inside is meaty and hardly fatty as some sliced ham can be; the cheese is melted down to a sauce-like nature-- not hardened as some cheese croissants can get after sitting. All of this made for a warm delicious breakfast I paired with a fresh iced tea sweetened                                                                              with simple syrup.