F Train to Paris

In which a Jewish family from Brooklyn moves to Paris, France for two years of work, school, and adventures.

Passover is  over, and we have survived. Over the course of eight days, we (with plenty of guests to help us out) consumed about 10 boxes of matzo, over 100 eggs, and not a single baguette or croissant. It's hard to celebrate Passover in Paris with the intoxicating smell of forbidden chametz everywhere, but it can be done, and with the help of our friends, we did it. You'll forgive me for a being a little obsessed with food today. After Passover, that's perfectly  normal.

Our seders were especially nice this year. E. sang  the "Mah Nishtana"  perfectly and with tremendous poise (all that practicing paid off). In fact, all the boys, and especially J., participated, sang, and made us proud. Our friends from NY, Debra and Arnie and their son Sam, spent Passover in Paris and joined us at both seders. It was wonderful to have them here.  In addition, our French friends Gilles and Anne came the first night (it was Anne's very first seder), and Lara, Bradley and Sasha, our South African friends by way of Brooklyn, came the second night. All of them made contributions that enhanced our seders and made us feel surrounded by friends. It was especially great to have Bradley sing us the tunes his family sang at their seders in Durban. Sorry we put you on the spot, Brad!

Planning vegetarian seders is a challenge, since staples such as pasta, rice, beans, and all grains are forbidden. I have a great recipe (based on one from Mollie Katzen's Still Life with Menu) for a matzo kugel that's rather like a bread pudding, which I make with mushrooms and gruyere. And I always serve lots of roasted vegetables--parsnips, fennel, onion, red peppers, asparagus, etc. One night I made a  vegetable broth with matzo balls as a starter. And Debra made a fantastic Gratin Dauphinois for the second seder.

Desserts can be the trickiest part of the meal--my mother used to say that kosher-for-Pesach desserts taste like the Sunday New York Times. Over the years I've accumulated some good recipes and ideas, and Debra brought me some more. We made chocolate-dipped strawberries and matzo-raisin-nut clusters (also from Mollie Katzen), jam bars, a flourless chocolate cake, toffee bars, and walnut cookies. I tried making meringues a couple of times, but they were not successful.

Enough about that; our normal lives have now resumed--except that E. is still on vacation, so my normal, independent life will not resume until next week. For the moment, I am experiencing Paris through the eyes of a six year old. So far this week we have seen the movie Robots (in French), had a playdate with a 7-year-old buddy, and had an especially packed day today (see the report at the end of this post).

My friend Debra arrived with a list of the best places in Paris to drink hot chocolate, so that, of course, was a great topic of debate during her visit. Carette wasn't on her list, but I insisted she had to try their chocolat chaud, especially since she was staying right nearby. To you, dear reader who perhaps also loves hot chocolate, I recommend both the aforementioned Carette (on the Place du Trocadero) and  my favorite Paris salon de the, Les Deux Abeilles in the 7th (189 rue de l'Universite, near the Eiffel Tower. Have a piece of their amazing chestnut cake or fruit crumble, too.) Anyway, one of the top spots, according to Debra's list, was completely unknown to me--a place in the Auteuil neighborhood of the 16th, not too far from here. I forgot the name, and instead of emailing her to ask about it, I wasted about an hour online trying to figure it out. Later, my friend Kate told me that in her opinion, the best hot chocolate could be had, of all places, at the cafe Le Grand Corona at the Place de l'Alma. So of course I had to head over there yesterday, especially since my children were pressuring me to go to the video store (right near Alma) to rent them some more episodes of Friends, their current obsession.

Well. Perhaps Le Grand Corona is not up to the Carette/Deux Abeilles standard, but not bad! You get a small pitcher of thick, dark melted chocolate, and a larger pitcher of hot milk to blend as you choose. For my first post-Passover hot chocolate, it was quite a treat.

This afternoon, E. and I attended a parent/enfant cooking class at the Atelier des Chefs. What fun! We made a lovely presentation of  crudites arranged decoratively in a hollowed-out tomato, strawberry sorbet, and a pear almond tart. E. had a ball. His cutting skills are quite good for one so young. Earlier in the day, E. went to a workshop at the Musee des Arts Decoratif (which has a wonderful kids' program called Artdecojeune), where he made a toy on wheels. This museum is part of a complex of small museums in a wing of the Louvre palace, along the rue de Rivoli. Afterward, we had lunch at the Louvre food court, then went to the Musee de la Publicite (advertising). I wouldn't say it is worth a detour, to use Michelin terminology, but it helped us kill some time between activities. We would have gone to the Tuilieries instead, but  it was raining. 

posted by: pariskleinmans at 21:18 | link | comments (2) |

Comments:

#1  07 May 2005 - 03:48

 

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Anonymous

#2  14 May 2005 - 12:24

 

That Atelier des Chefs sounds great. How do you hear about this stuff. Do you know the minimum age for the class? The Musee des Arts also sounds interesting. Maybe we'll go there tonight when it's free.

Anonymous

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