Le Rouleau de Printemps
Sunday in Paris is a consumer's nightmare. No stores are open. This fact makes it also a nightmare for those of us who buy food when hunger strikes and the question 'What am I having for dinner?' surfaces. So Sunday usually finds me walking to L'As du Falafel in the Marais or taking the metro to Chinatown/s. This past Sunday I decided to go buy frozen vegetable dumplings in one of the smaller Chinatowns in Paris, the one in Belleville. I went to about five different grocery stories, small little storefronts that open out into gigantic underground or upper-level emporiums with side rooms for the raw fish and meat. No vegetarian dumplings to be found after an hour of fighting to get through narrow aisles.
I called up my friend C in a panic. 'I'm hungry! Where can I find vegetarian dumplings in Belleville?!' Apparently, I should have gone to the other Chinatown, as even C who lives around Belleville goes to the other one for shopping.
I started to panic and wonder what I was going to eat that night, since it was around 6:30pm and the stores would close at 7pm. C, ever-so-helpful, decided to come find me with his friend G to have dinner in Belleville. They took me to this amazing hole-in-the-wall Chinese-Vietnamese-Thai restaurant off of the main street, with an entire vegetarian section on the menu! Most restaurants, even Asian, in Paris have barely one vegetarian option, so I was about to die of choice overload.
Eventually I decided on a summer roll that came with a sesame paste, an unusual touch. For my main dish, I ordered vegetable noodle soup, expecting a pho. But no, it was just noodle soup--a little bland. Next time I'm going to order C's dish, which was vermicelli with tofu that was like Taiwanese stinky tofu or what our neighbor had, which was vermicelli with curry samosas. YUM...YUM.
The only mishap was that they had forgotten about C, and only when G was done with his noodles did C ask about his dish which they must have left in a lonely corner somewhere.
5,50 euros for my sit-down meal! This is the cheapest and most satisfying meal I have ever had in Paris. I'm getting hungry again thinking about it...
It's easy to know where the expensive good food is. But when you know where the cheap good food in a city is, that is when you have arrived.
Sunday in Paris is a consumer's nightmare. No stores are open. This fact makes it also a nightmare for those of us who buy food when hunger strikes and the question 'What am I having for dinner?' surfaces. So Sunday usually finds me walking to L'As du Falafel in the Marais or taking the metro to Chinatown/s. This past Sunday I decided to go buy frozen vegetable dumplings in one of the smaller Chinatowns in Paris, the one in Belleville. I went to about five different grocery stories, small little storefronts that open out into gigantic underground or upper-level emporiums with side rooms for the raw fish and meat. No vegetarian dumplings to be found after an hour of fighting to get through narrow aisles.
I called up my friend C in a panic. 'I'm hungry! Where can I find vegetarian dumplings in Belleville?!' Apparently, I should have gone to the other Chinatown, as even C who lives around Belleville goes to the other one for shopping.
I started to panic and wonder what I was going to eat that night, since it was around 6:30pm and the stores would close at 7pm. C, ever-so-helpful, decided to come find me with his friend G to have dinner in Belleville. They took me to this amazing hole-in-the-wall Chinese-Vietnamese-Thai restaurant off of the main street, with an entire vegetarian section on the menu! Most restaurants, even Asian, in Paris have barely one vegetarian option, so I was about to die of choice overload.
Eventually I decided on a summer roll that came with a sesame paste, an unusual touch. For my main dish, I ordered vegetable noodle soup, expecting a pho. But no, it was just noodle soup--a little bland. Next time I'm going to order C's dish, which was vermicelli with tofu that was like Taiwanese stinky tofu or what our neighbor had, which was vermicelli with curry samosas. YUM...YUM.
The only mishap was that they had forgotten about C, and only when G was done with his noodles did C ask about his dish which they must have left in a lonely corner somewhere.
5,50 euros for my sit-down meal! This is the cheapest and most satisfying meal I have ever had in Paris. I'm getting hungry again thinking about it...
It's easy to know where the expensive good food is. But when you know where the cheap good food in a city is, that is when you have arrived.
posted by Open Mouth at 6:53 AM
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