tag: fall

I’ve been thinking about how small the world is this week. I went out to meals with two lovely girls who reminded me that, no matter how far from home I feel sometimes, it’s often miraculously easy to find people with whom you have a connection, even on the other side of the world.

Julia and I first got acquainted in college. We lived on the same floor in the dorms during our first year at UCLA, but we didn’t really travel in the same circles so didn’t hang out much. Years later, we both found ourselves in Paris, connected through our respective significant others who work together. Bizarre coincidence, that. Julia is great fun to hang out with and has progressed much farther in her French studies than I have. Hearing her chatting away with the people we encounter when we go out inspires me to get a better grip on my motivation.

This week, we met up at NoGlu, a new gluten-free restaurant in the 2nd. As far as I’m aware, I believe it’s the only entirely gluten-free restaurant in Paris. It’s only been open two months or so, but there are so many people who are intolerant of gluten that it’s a miracle it’s taken this long to catch on. The food was hearty and comforting and the service warm. Without the hint of the traditional baguette slices on the table being supplanted by a warm, dense bread that might have been oatmeal-based, I would never have known the kitchen was working with such a limitation.

NoGlu
16 passage des Panoramas, 75002 (Richelieu – Drouot)
01 40 26 41 24

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Posted in: dining out, paris | Tags: autumn, fall, food, french food, friendsgiving, friendship, gluten free, gluten-free paris restaurant, gluten-free restaurant, gratitute, les mauvais garcons, marais, noglu, paris, paris restaurant, party, passage des panoramas, restaurants, thanksgiving, travel | 4 COMMENTS

This week, we visited the Salon du Chocolat, a huge chocolate expo at the Porte de Versailles. It was a chocolate, and people, overload — perhaps we should have expected it, since there are very few foods that people are more passionate about than chocolate.

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Posted in: dining out, life, paris | Tags: apartment, autumn, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, chocolate fountain, cuisine, fall, food, friendship, fromage, nougat, paris, paris restaurant, party, salon du chocolat, salon du chocolat paris, sherry, spices, tasting menu, tea, travel, verjus, vin, wine | 16 COMMENTS

Chestnuts are making their way back to the street vendors. Sometimes, stepping out of a metro stop, I smell the familiar smoky charcoal smell of the roasters and almost stop to buy a handful.

But invariably, whenever I do buy some, they’re nearly impossible to peel. That’s why I’ve taken to roasting them at home — I can cut huge slits in the peels before roasting them, and they nearly fall off after being roasted.

I’ve also found what seems to be the perfect dipping sauce for chestnuts: chestnut honey, or miel de châtaignier, mixed with a good amount of coarse-ground pepper. The tongue-coating quality of the honey helps to mitigate the tendency of fresh-roasted chestnuts of being a little dry, and the pepper cuts through their creaminess with some spice. And I must admit, pairing honey made from chestnut flowers with the nuts that those trees eventually produced is pleasingly recursive.

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Posted in: party food, snacks | Tags: appetizer, autumn, black pepper, black pepper honey, chestnut honey, chestnuts, dipping sauce, fall, food, fresh chestnuts, holidays, honey, miel de chataignier, roasted chestnuts, vegetarian, winter | 6 COMMENTS

First time I had beet salad: at Fraîche in Santa Monica during Restaurant Week.

Second time I had beet salad: last week, at my place.

Third time I had beet salad: the next morning, for breakfast.

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Posted in: cooking, salads, Uncategorized | Tags: autumn, beet salad, beets, carrot, dinner, fall, lunch, red beet, salad, turnip, vegetarian | 7 COMMENTS