tag: dining out

On Sunday mornings, I tend to wake up with a dim sum craving. It’s… inconvenient.

While there is good dim sum in Paris, it turns out it’s way out in the 13th, in the southeast corner of the city. Well one morning I convinced some expat friends to make the trek (in the snow! Uphill both ways!) in search of dumplings and cha siu bao.

Blurry friends are blurry!

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Posted in: dining out, paris | Tags: chine massena, chinese, chinese restaurant, dim sum, dining out, la chine massena, paris, paris dim sum, restaurant | 2 COMMENTS

So! I took an unintentional blog break last week. Birthday shenanigans plus a sudden influx of work meant lots of late nights and subsequent late mornings. You know how it is. Wine, and beer, and food, and friends, possibly some dancing, and suddenly it feels like the internet can do without you for one more night.

I couldn’t think of a better place to celebrate my birthday than at Verjus. So we went twice… once for drinks with friends in the bar, and once for the tasting menu in the restaurant.

I treated myself to some Grüner Veltliner for my birthday. Grüner is one of my favorite wine varietals, and it’s so hard to find in France! I’ve been asking Laura about this one for ages and finally bought the bottle.

Thanks to Edna, Jackie, Tríona, Oisin, Andy, and the gentleman for the excellent company!

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Posted in: dining out, paris | Tags: bar à vin, birthday, dining out, drinks, food, friends, paris, paris restaurant, restaurant, restaurants, rue de richelieu, travel, verjus, verjus bar a vins, verjus paris, wine | 3 COMMENTS

It’s been a weird week. On top of hightailing it back to Paris after the break-in, I came home to a very sick dude who required lots of love and tea and homemade chicken noodle soup (coming eventually). My comfort comes from elsewhere.

I have a love affair with diners. On early afternoons on Saturdays or Sundays back in LA, after rolling out of bed, I would take a thick book to Rae’s or Bobby’s or whatever other first-name-apostrophe-s greasy spoon was closest and served never-ending coffee. I would order bacon soft, eggs over easy, hash well-done, and wheat toast with butter and jam. I would sit there at the counter and eat and read and drink coffee until I was gently vibrating in my seat. After a while, the waitresses stopped asking me if I wanted more coffee and just poured more whenever they happened by. Then they stopped asking me what I wanted to order and just brought me the usual. Once, I leant a copy of Infinite Jest to a Bobby’s waitress. Another time, a server at Rae’s let me borrow her copy of Maus. I liked being alone around people. This is how I would reset before the onrushing work week, and now I guess this is how I reset when life gets fuzzy around the edges.

Breakfast in America is as close to those diners as I’m going to find in this city. Heinz ketchup and French’s yellow on the table, bacon and eggs and pancakes and burgers on the menu (though with the shocking omission of biscuits and gravy). Purportedly bottomless cafe americain.

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Posted in: dining out, paris | Tags: bacon, breakfast, breakfast in america, coffee, diner, dining out, eggs, expat life, expatriate, marais, paris, restaurants, toast, travel | 4 COMMENTS