Paris, Lyon, Strasbourg Foodprints

November 6, 2023

Paris

Patisserie

Fou de Pâtisserie – near the famous croissant bakery Stohrer, we got baba au rum here, very soft and super boozy!
Mori Yoshida – famous Japanese bakery for their strawberry cake; no dine in and take out only. Closed Monday and Tuesday
Mariage Frères Étoile – famous for a variety of tea, we tried their afternoon tea, they are all very exquisite. Each patisserie has one type of tea in it, but it’s not very strong / overpowering

Croissants

I had one croissant every day in Paris, but honestly I think the best croissant in the States is definitely as good as good croissants in Paris, there is not that much of a difference

Le Moulin de la Croix Nivert – near the Eiffel Tower, but feels more like local spot; long lines around 9am already on a weekday; most staffs do not speak English; a variety of pastries all look delicious and appetizing
Maison Othon – near Rue Cler, felt more like a local spot than tourist spot. Very crispy layers and fragrant butter
Ritz Paris Le Comptoir – WEIRDLY shaped croissant with a bay area croissant price tag. But I like the texture a lot, they may use salted butter? Also like the saltiness and butter fragrance of this croissant. BUTTTTT, the 16 euro lemon tart is NOT worth it….
THE famous Stohrer – good, but nothing super special about it. Croissants may be sold out by mid-day

Traditional French food

La Jacobine – famous for traditional French food but we did not get to try; need to go in person to line up
La Petit Cler – also famous (??), but the French dishes we ordered may be too heavy to have together all at once. Good choice if walking down the market street Rue Cler
- onion soup – does it always have so much cheese? need more salt
- croquet Monsieur – slightly overpriced, also heavy with layered cheese
- escargot – good
- devil’s egg – overpriced, too heavy
La Véraison – good value, slightly modernized French food, fun vibe!

Others

Restaurant Alan Geaam – review in another post about Michelin restaurants. Overall, my favorite Michelin restaurant so fast, creative, fun, interactive experience with delicious, exquisite foods and desserts

Drinks

Little Red Door
Golden Promise (bar) / La Maison du Whisky (shop) / La Maison du Sake (shop) – has a wall of whisky and a wall of sake
- We did not go to this bar, but as I write this food map and research, I find out that a Japanese/French Michelin one star Restaurant ERH shared the same premise with La Maison du Whisky! Wow have to try it next time in Paris!

Strasbourg

Il Felice – surprisingly AMAZING pasta and pizza, especially the truffle pasta! (Even better than the 12k reviewed, 4.8 star, Carmelo, which belongs to the Big Mamma group. Il Felice used Rigatoni, which I usually do not like. But they cook it so soft and holds onto the sauce so well…! Honestly the best truffle pasta I have ever had so far..

Lyon

Lyon is the gastronomical capital of France, with the Rhône joined by the Saône flowing through the city, fresh goods (e.g., wines, dairy products and meat) from nearby cities and countries all transport to Lyon with ease.

Bouchons

“Bouchon” could be translated as “cork” or “straw”, the restaurants/inns’ owners put them out the door to attract silk workers back in 16th, 17th century. Bouchon’s eaters usually sit together on a communal table covered in white/red checked table cloth, which some bouchon continues the communal table dining tradition till now, such as Bouchon Les Lyonnais. Bouchon’s menu usually consists of appetizer, 1st and 2nd main course, dessert, 15-20 euro in total. As more tourists are attracted to bouchons, their course’s price also increased to 30-40 euro. Currently there are 21 certified bouchon, most have similar Lyon’s specialty foods and a few innovate.

Classic appetizers:
- “Le Caviar des Soyeux” – the caviar of silk worker, which is actually a green lentil salad with cervelas. Silk workers named this dish with “caviar” to show that they could also enjoy upscale food
- Saucisson brioche – sausage wrapped in brioche. The one I had was mediocre
Classic main course:
- Andouillette – small intestines wrapped in large intestines! If you like intestines and do not mind its pungent taste, you will like this dish. But I also thought the mustard in this dish is a bit too overpowering, even it’s to balance/cover the pungent intestines. I like Andouillette with lobster bisque of Quenelle more haha!
- Quenelle – creamed pike fish covered in crawfish/lobster bisque, another super representative lyonnaise dish. I don’t eat (river) fish because they are fishy, but Quenelle tastes like fish cake and is not fishy at all, and it’s so soft and tender, not to mention the creamy yet not greasy sauce to go with it…
- Tablier de sapeur – fried tripe

A few other informative links:

A Survival Guide for Lyon’s Bouchon Menus (took so long to dig this back out!!)

Specialities of Lyonnais Cuisine

Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse

Lyon’s only indoor market located elsewhere before, but vendors complained it was too cold, so Lyon moved the indoor market to the Part Dieu district, the former military base, far from touristy new and old town, close to the train station. Lyon renovated the current indoor market with more modern design and infrastructure, and named it after the 55-year Michelin 3 star chef Paul Bocuse. Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse is not a tourist spot yet, a lot of restaurants’ chef still come here to select ingredients of the day. It not only offers a wide variety of ingredient selection, it also has some restaurants (e.g., seafood, truffle, frog leg specialty) if you would like to sit down and have a drink.

Seafood: Chez Léon and CHEZ ANTONIN, higher review than the popular Maison Cellerier, which has more types of foods than seafood, like sausages and cheese
- We have 1 dozen, 4 types of oysters (in order of preference: Mormande Isigny Gefosse, Fines de Claires Marennes d’Oléron, Ancelin, David Hervé) and the most pricy Gillardeau oyster, but I still like Mormande Isigny Gefosse the best
- their seafood platter with oysters shellfishes (shrimp, clam, oyster) and crab is also famous
Foie gras: Maison Rolle. OH…MY…GOD… (in Friends’ Janice voice). I didn’t like foie gras before coming to France, but I have all sorts of foie gras this trip! Rolle has a wide variety of foie gras products, their fig foie gras is my favorite. I also tried Crème brûlée foie gras. The sweetness balances the foie gras’ savory very well!
Grenouille (frog leg): Baba La Grenouille – basically fried frog leg marinated with salt and pepper, coated in flour. Good to try it out, but there’s definitely better ways to cook frog legs haha!
Desserts: Chocolatier Sève – tried their foie gras macaron! Another weirdly delicious macaron! The sweet macarons are usually a bit too sweet…
Cheese: we didn’t get anything as we cannot travel with them, but FROMAGERIE LA MERE RICHARD has the highest review in Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse I believe.