Paris 2014, Day4 (Market Day)

http://pratergroup.co.uk/?wordfence_lh=1 Saturday morning, so it’s market day along Avenue President Wilson, the most upscale and well attended street market in Paris (Wednesday & Saturday) and the one highly recommended by Patricia Wells at the panel discussion earlier in the week. It is interesting to note that we have never made it over to this particular market in all the years we have visited Paris. The plan was to meet Martin and Paula at the market; but we think there may have been too much good time last night and they had to travel 30 minutes, so we should have planned on meeting later than 0930.  We’ll see them tomorrow for dinner at Cafe du Centre along the rue Montorgueil closest to an apartment we stayed in a couple of years ago.  This is a great place for burgers and, by now, since M&P been here since early December, they are missing burgers. So because we did not have to meet M&P we linger over coffee, and today was our day to have cereal for breakfast, we committed to every third day.  Croissants are just too damaging to the waistline.

The market begins with a flower vendor!

The market begins with a flower vendor!

We left the apartment about 0930 and grabbed the metro for two stops to ÃŽena, the market begins adjacent to the metro exit and extends down the median of President Wilson Boulevard to Alma Marceau. We used our stand strategy to walk the entire market before returning to individual stalls to make our purchase for the day.  Clearly everyone has their favorite vendor(s), some lines were longer than others.  We have yet to make a clear determination as to if it is price or quality – so more research and observation is necessary in the future at this market in the ensuing weeks, we may or may not emerge with an answer but it will be fun to try and figure it out. We opted for the following today, Sea Scallops for dinner tonight, are our largest investment at 8.80€ per 100g, a Coeur de Bouef tomato, a head of cauliflower,

Beautiful heads of Cauilflower

Beautiful heads of Cauliflower

4 lamb chops for Monday’s dinner, a baguette to make a sandwich for lunch with left over chicken from Friday nights dinner, and a slice of tarte tropézienne for the French explanation visit here. The story of

tarte tropézienne

La tarte tropézienne est un gâteau composé d’une brioche au sucre garnie d’un mélange de trois crèmes

Tarte Tropézienne started on a trip back in 2010, we were in a small town some where in the south of France with two other couples headed back to our rental house and we need to stop for a nature break, well at least 4 of 6 did.  So Pat and I when looking for bread, knowing that we would not get back to our small village while the bakery was still open.  We wander in to the bakery in this little town and decided to get dessert as well and saw this interesting Tarte Tropézienne, we purchased two slices and some other pastries.  Well when we cut the two in to six parts everyone got a piece but everyone wanted MORE!  The following year we were in Paris staying on rue St Dominique and we ran across a Patisserie named Tropézienne, and on Tuesdays they made Tarte Tropézienne.  So we indulged our self for that week in Paris which was our last of three weeks and of course made a note of there it was and returned the following year only to find it out of business.  Our guess is the Parisians did not like the Provincial tarte as much

Other tart choice where we purchased the tarte tropezeinne

Other tart choice where we purchased the tarte tropezeinne

as we did, of course they were around the corner from a world famous boulangerie. So after lunch we decided not to go out in the rain and do some laundry, so on sunny days we will have more flexibility.  M&P may come over this afternoon for some wine, cheese and fruit – It what we do here in Paris on the weekends; Entertain!

Cheese – I know that I promised that we would be reviewing cheese on this trip and I am sorry for the delay.  Mona the person who maintains the apartment bought us 5 cheeses so we have been slowly working our way through the selection both in identification and taste so here is the first:

http://marionjensen.com/2009/05 Tommes

Tomme, occasionally spelled Tome, is a type of cheese, and is a generic name given to a class of cheese produced mainly in the French Alps and in Switzerland.

Tomme, occasionally spelled Tome, is a type of cheese, and is a generic name given to a class of cheese produced mainly in the French Alps and in Switzerland.

Tomme is a generic term for a group of cheeses produced mainly in the French Alps and in Switzerland. Usually, Tommes are cheeses produced from skimmed milk after the cream has been removed to make butter and full cream cheeses. Consequently, they are low in fat.

Cheeses belonging to this class adopt the name of their place of origin, the most famous being Tomme de Savoie from Savoie in the French Alps. Other Tomme cheeses include, Tomme du Revard, Tomme Boudane, Tomme au Fenouil, Tomme de Grandmère, Tomme d’Aydius, Tomme Affinée and Tomme de Crayeuse.

Tomme are complex and unpredictable class of cheeses with a delicate milk and buttery aroma. It tastes of fresh butter and cream yet can be complex when compared to some other cheeses. The texture is semi-soft or soft and pliable. Its pate, which is often white to light yellow in color, comes covered with an ivory to yellow rind.

The cheese tastes delicious with fresh or dried fruit and a glass of good red wine.

Martin and Paula arrived about 1430 and we had some wine and cheese and played a game called Heads Up with an iPhone of course and the it was getting late so we offered to chafe our dine with them and after a bit of arm twisting they agrees Scallops, cauliflower with curry and a salad, bread, dessert of Tarte Tropézienne (Cut into 4 pieces) and more wine.

We finished up around 2200 and pat offered to walk them to the metro and of course I went along, except M&P decided to

Eiffel tower

The Eiffel tier from Tracodero

walk back to there to their apartment, about 3 miles.  Pat and I walked with them down to the River at Pont Alma, about a mile and a half, we snapped a photo of the Eiffel Tower at Tracadero which is the best location in Paris to get a photo. We then hopped the metro back to our apartment and finished cleaning up, watched a Vampire movie on the SyFy channel and then to bed, our plan to sleep late Sunday morning.

 

Oysters a great value at 12-15€ a dozen.

Oysters a great value at 12-15€ a dozen.

 

Flowers for the table

Flowers for the table

 

Fresh scallops in the shell

Fresh scallops in the shell

 

Octopus, I need to do a bit of research on cooking large octopus.

Octopus, I need to do a bit of research on cooking large octopus.

Lobster anyone? Should have taken a movie, they were moving

Lobster anyone? Should have taken a movie, they were moving

This entry was posted in Cheese, Paris 16th., Tommes and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.