Food is a great place to start

When describing our experiences in Paris, 'food' is a great place to start.

Despite Paris's reputation for wonderful food, Teresa and I spent the first few days of our visit eating some pretty ordinary meals, and we were beginning to wonder what all the hype was about. Even worse, we were beginning to think we might have left our best food back in Brooklyn.

It wasn't until we did some introspective analysis that we discovered that our 'food-radar' seem to be malfunctioning (in the French context). We were doing everything we usually did... when we were hungry we looked for restaurants with lots of people, we looked for a place with at least one thing we like on the menu at a reasonable price (not too high, not too low), and outdoor seating was always considered a bonus.

Well... we were wrong on all accounts.

The first thing we found out is that, 'good' restaurants in Paris are typically only open for lunch from noon until 2pm, and for dinner from 7pm until mid-night. So lesson number one was, if a restaurant is serving food outside those times you're probably going to get pretty ordinary food. Of course our relaxed vacation schedule meant we were looking for a relaxing lunch at 3pm, so that was the first thing we needed to change.

The second thing we discovered is that, 'good' food in Paris is not cheap, but having said that it doesn't need to be crazy expensive either. The key to what we found is that the better restaurants tend to offer 'prix fixe' menus (for both lunch and dinner, usually at the same price), not individually priced items. While prefix menus are not very common in America, they are very common in most of Europe. So the key was not to look for individual items on a menu, but to think about the entire meal and price it that way. You also typically need to consider whether you'd prefer a ‘starter and main’ or a ‘main and dessert’.

Finally we learned that all those wonderful little bistros (they're on almost every corner over here) with the picturesque seats filled with relaxed people enjoying an espresso, are best for just that... an espresso or other coffee variations. Once again, because the bistros are open nearly all day they don't tend to serve the best food, they are more like an American diner with a 24x7 menu. The key lesson here was the best restaurants tend to be little owner operated places with 15-20 tables, in a little place with perhaps just a couple of outside tables.

So... with all our new found knowledge under our belts Teresa and I did a little more research and found some great little places (see a future blog on restaurants recommendations) and really began enjoying some wonderful Parisian meals.

PS. One last little note... because we had the use of big kitchen where we were staying (thanks again to Shaila) we also tried to take advantage of the little farmers markets that seem to popup everywhere every Saturday and Wednesday morning... they are a great resource for good quality fresh food, at reasonable prices. The occasional home cooked meal also helped keep our budget under control.

Bon Appetite!