What Does One Order in Parisian Restaurant/Cafe?
 

I know little to nothing about French Cuisine.

I am not too adventurous in regards to meat or seafood. i will eat pork, chicken breast and shrimp.
No innards please :)

i love cheese and veggies.

when i was in Paris in 2001 we only ate out two times (other than snacks) and i got omelettes both times. i would like to try something else this fall.

i am picturing some kind of comforting soup/stew/casserole

thanks

Maybe you could find a place which serves "Cassoulet" (sp). This is a bean casserole and it's usually with some duck, sausage, and other various meat. This is very tasty and you don't have to eat the duck. The sausages are normlly pork.

This is found a lot around the Toulouse or Carcassonne but certainly it's served in Paris.

This will stick to your ribs.

Blackduff

I like cassoulet (hot casserole for cool weather).. it's a baked dish of beans, sausage, pork, chicken, maybe rabbit (you'll be fine, probably won't recognize it as such), very delicious.

Also you would like a 'poulet roti' (roast chicken) maybe with frites or haricots verts (fries or skinny green beans). Maybe a porc medallion with mushroom sauce?

Try some of the Asian 'deli' places, where you can point at colorful ready-made dishes that they will heat and weigh, charge you by the weight/serving. Very yummy.

There is a French dish called 'pot-au-feu' that might be what you'd like, haven't had that one yet. I think it's kind of a pot roast type dish.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsanjose/940505604/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jendoolee/436722496/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/typefiend/105489460/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shok/2236404837/

All guidebooks (or most) have menu translations in the back. There are now several dedicated electronic translators. I do not like organ meats and early on memorized those so I would know not to order them.

You will encounter so many variations that no menu translator will have everything.

In the center of Paris, most waiters are helpful with translations. Restaurants in tourist areas often have English menus. Most bistros have simple food such as poulet roti = roast chicken and frites (french fries).

DON'T hesitate to ask for help--they want you to order something so will, if they can, be helpful. If not, walk out, there's another reastaurant a few feet away.

Most common soups are soupe au pistou (white bean soup with pesto), soupe a l'oignon (usually lots of cheese).

And, in Paris are a host of Chinese, Vietnamese, Italian, French regional, etc. restaurants so you're spoilt for choice.

If you're not going until autumn, read up, do online research, practice reading menus of restaurants which post them online, etc.

Patrica Wells has a good menu glossary on her website.

http://www.patriciawells.com/glossary/atoz/atoz.htm

There's always steak frites, steak and french fries , and it is listed as such. Boeuf Bourguignonne!..beef stew.

Pork is cochon , you probably wouldn't like the pied!

Hi d,

>i will eat pork, chicken breast and shrimp.<

Then spend your time at Chinese restaurants and get the mixed chop suey platter. :)

Is there a problem with steak, veal, duck, fish of various sorts, scallops, lobster, crab other shellfish?

The French have over 450 kinds of cheese, none of which is at all like Velveeta.

Do you mind aromatic cheeses?

You can always get veggies.

You can always get pizza, pasta and other Italian foods.

You can always go to McDs.

You won't starve, and you needn't restrict yourself to omelettes.

Stretch your palate a little. If you eat your duck leg you can have an almond croissant with ice cream and chocolate sauce. :)

((I))

thanks for the replies.
quite an array.


white bean soup with pesto !!
my oh my. that sounds great

i do not want any chinese or italian food in Paris.

i hate Mc D.

Dont like any sausage or beef.

i like crab, lobster. no clams or oysters

i like most cheese.

i have never tried duck.

i love an almond croissant with ice cream and chocolate sauce.

reading menus online will give me an idea what to expect.

any urls?

Hi d,

>i do not want any chinese or italian food in Paris.
.......chocolate sauce.<

Your taste has improved. :

Paris has very good Chinese and Italian, along with Moroccan, Thai, Vietnamese, and a few others.

>reading menus online will give me an idea what to expect.

any urls?<

Under 40E
Léon de Bruxelles - mussels and frites
Pizza Vesuvio, 1, Rue Gozlin - More than just pizza
http://www.vagenende.fr/us/p1.html -
Brasserie Lipp - excellent choucroute

Under 70E
http://www.petitzinc.com/
http://www.le-train-bleu.com/
Any of the Flo Brasseries included along with http://www.bofingerparis.com/

Enjoy.

((I))

Please do try the grilled duck breast. Very good.

I also recommend the Moules frites.

Live on the edge and try some new food.

There are probably 10,000 French dishes that would fit even within your fairly narrow criteria. I'd spend a few hours googling French food and line up some things that would please you. Then you'll be familiar with some of the terminology, too.

my sister says i should try duck breast too.

i will save all your suggestions and cant wait to try something new.

thanks for the encouragement to leave my comfort zone.

One thing about roast duck--it is usually served very rare (sanglant). Just a caution, don't want to turn you off it. You can ask for it "medium"--waiters use that word themselves or bien cuit, but you don't want it dried out.

And, all the meat on duck is dark, so it's not going to look like a chicken breast. Tastes great, though.

grilled duck breast..you may have me

rare duck(raw poultry). you lost me.

It's not raw, it's rare. And if you order it bien cuit waiters will almost certainly raise an eyebrow or try to dissuade you. It tastes terrible overcooked - it's supposed to be rare. It's not the same as undercooked chicken, which they would never serve you.

Hi dand,

Duck breast will usually be listed a "magret".

>rare duck(raw poultry). you lost me<

It is not raw. It isn't really "rare" - more like medium rare to medium. Since it starts off reddish, it looks pink, even though it isn't.

((I))

Thank you, ira, for a current endorsement of Le Train Bleu.

When did you eat there last?

As you have recently read, I am in the early stages of planning our 2009 with my first-time ever brother and his wife.

It remains highly likely (I think) that Paris will be part of the plan, almost certainly at the end of the trip.

My wife and I have already talked about what highlight(s) to include in a 48-60 hrs "taste" of Paris. We both generally agree that "the most memorable dinner" of the trip (to the extent that you can forecast that) should be in Paris.

She argues that is very hard to beat Altitude 95 - - pointing out that you know they will want to go TO the Eiffel Tower, and it's hard to beat Altitude 95 for "memory making". We went there with wife's brother and SIL (2007) - - and indeed, it was nice, and competently sound... a solid "B", in my opinion. (I am so jaded... I can hardly remember any "A" restaurants since I don't know when).

I argue in favor of Le Train Bleu instead (I guess we could still go to Altitude 95 for a lunch on the other day). I have never been there, and it's hard not to worry about ANY restaurant resting on its laurels.

Does it actually live up to the "fantasie" it looks to have from its pictures and its online prose?

By the way, I'm curious if you would personally make satisfying choices that stay "under 70 euro". True, it has one 49 e menu (with a little water or wone) and the TGV menu for 52 (no beverage included). But the tasting menu is 96 (half bottle of champagne included); ordering a la carte is certainly do-able... there are 4 starters under 20 euro, and 4 mains under 30, with dessert at 14. But why does it say "exclusive of tax"? What tax?

I wonder how many patrons keep it under 100, with wine?

Best wishes,

Rex

i would be interested in hearing more about tasting menus.

A tasting menu will give you small portions of dishes that the chef wants to showcase. You can often specify which foods you absolutely do not want to sample, but in a case like yours, where you want to avoid so many foods, a tasting menu would be a bad idea. Also, tasting menus often bear high price tags.

As an example, here are two tasting menus from one of the best French restaurants in New York; the last two menus are the "tasting menus;"

http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant...us/dinner.html

By the way,I am not saying that the dishes on the menus I posted are in anyway typical of the menus you will find in Paris.

Frankly, I think you are worrying too much. You can always find a roast chicken or an omelette. Pork belly is pretty popular these days, too. I do not much like magret of duck; I would recommend duck confit, which is usually the leg that has been preserved in fat and then sauteed to crispness. Of course, this is dark meat..

I would forget lobster in Paris. And you are not likely to see all that much crab. What about scallops--can you eat those?

Do you mind my asking where you live in the US and what you find to eat on menus at home? Is there a religious reason for your prescribed/proscribed diet?

thanks again all.

even though i do eat a little bit of meat, i wish most meat didnt gag me like it does.

i guess i love animals too much.

my dad teases me, when i slice up a carrot for example,he will say "oh the poor thing, you are chopping its head off!!"

growing up, you dont know how many evening i was the last one at the table trying to be made to eat what was on my plate (usually meat).
my mom finely gave up.

any vegetarians out there? :)