Food Diary: What’s Our Food in Paris?

“What’s your favourite food in Paris?” I asked the family.

My husband and I unanimously voted for the Falafel at L’As du Fallafel. The runner-up for me is the burger we had at Alfred (Chessy Val D’Europe), it’s good but we can find such quality in Singapore too.

While Jubilee might have mentioned croissants as a favourite, Grace answered with “The long bread with cheese.”. Which one? I went through my mental files. It must be the cold long bread she had at Disneyland Paris. Wait, or was it one of those bread we had to go on our train rides or “backup” dinners?

Bakeries

Food in France was a bit of a struggle for us. Thus, bakeries become our backup plan if there are no nearby food places to settle our meals. In some areas, we could find bakeries more easily than food places. Once, we couldn’t find any eating places around, and the only one around looked expensive and unappetising. After a long fruitless walk down the street, we decided to head by to our Airbnb neighbourhood to grab food for our tired and hungry selves.

From the bakery, we tried croissants, sandwiches, cheese on bread, and others. Yet, we didn’t buy baguettes! *Gasp* I know I know, but they looked unappealing to hubby – the baguettes were mostly tucked in a “hidden” corner of the bakeries and seemingly left forgotten. Eh wait, we did try it once at Disneyland! The long cheese bread Grace liked.

I learned from lacuisineparis.com that to find good loaves of bread, look for the word Boulangerie. French law dictates that to use this word the bread must be made completely onsite, not even from pre-prepared ingredients. That said, no matter how good the bread is, I felt it’s more of breakfast food. Bread occasionally for lunch and dinner is fine, but too many times and I felt like we were not having proper meals.

Cold vs Hot (Asian) Food

Also, why is cold food still served in winter? Food was generally not heated up to serve warm, like sandwiches or that memorable chilling time in Strasbourg. My fingers were turning into ice and I was looking forward to hot food to warm my body – you know like how a hotpot would in winter? My Asian mind assumed the food would be served hot and so didn’t ask about the menu before ordering. Mistake, we got cold chicken sandwiches. Warm apple juice was the saving grace. Good thing, hubby had his warm red wine in the Christmas market before that and left this cup for us to share.

Back in Paris, we turned to trusty hot Asian food, an expensive bowl of Vietnamese Pho at Dat Viet to warm me up. Their chicken rice and crispy spring rolls were good too. We also missed Chinese food and even went to a high-priced caifan eatery which is literally called “Asian Food“. The food was surprisingly good and it cured our homesick tastebuds.

Middle Eastern Cuisine

We enjoyed delicious Middle Eastern cuisine in Paris too. Berliner Das Original served delicious kebabs despite it being a chain. We went to the branch near our Airbnb. We also went to this recommended eatery/tourist spot, L’As du Fallafel, and ordered their signature Falafel (deep-fried ball or patty-shaped fritter). I am not adventurous with food and was not sure if I would eat them, but boy, they were so good that I wanted to return for it. Joy (less than 2-year-old then) devoured them too.

Fancy Restaurants

The food prices in Paris were surprisingly comparable to those in Singapore if we consider a 1-1 dollar exchange. Of course, prices in Michelin restaurants are high, as they would in Singapore. We didn’t try any Michelin restaurant because we were not confident to bring along our two boisterous girls.

We did however try out the nice restaurants here and there, such as Léon de Bruxelles in Champs-Élysées. It’s a franchise apparently set up by a Belgian restaurateur family who has run an over-100-year-old Brussels restaurant in Chez Léon. It is known for moules-frites, a main dish comprising of mussels and French fries. We got that and mussels with spaghetti, and it’s worth a visit! See how Grace slurped the mussels in the photo above.

Another nice sit-down was at La Creme De Paris (Notre-dame) – skip the savoury but try out the sweet crepe if you are around the area. We had initially wanted to lunch at Shiso burger which was nearby. But the queue at Shiso was insanely long and we were hungry, and the narrow pathway and stairs are definitely not stroller friendly.

Speaking of sweets, how could I not mention the desserts of Paris? I usually stay away from macaroons because they are too sweet for me. The ones in Paris changed my mind, particularly those from Pierre Hermé. Try their cakes too!

Have you tried those mentioned? Or are there other food in Paris to recommend? Leave your reviews and suggestions in the comments box below. Love to hear from you. :)

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