Paris (seafood) Market to Table

The French like to hit the market on a daily basis, unlike us Americans who make that one painful trip to Costco every other week to stock up on massive amounts of frozen meats and canned goods. In Paris, they'll also bring their *green* recyclable bags with them (if not, the stores will charge you a couple cents for a plastic bag) and buy just enough goods for a day or two. As such, they always seem to have the freshest groceries on hand.

We went walking on Rue Montorgueil over the weekend to check out the market lined with meat and produce vendors. The seafood at the fish market was fresh and reasonably priced. After purchasing some items, we went home to prepare a seafood feast.

Fresh Escargot/Snails a là bourguignon
Euros 10 for a dozen at the market. I loved how it was already filled with parsley and butter which made the whole food preparation much more convenient. Just pop it in the oven and you're ready to go.

It tasted just as good as at a restaurant. Nice sized, soaked in butter, parsely and garlic. Of course you have to sop the sauce up with some fresh baguette.

We got another batch of bulot, which was boiled and seasoned with pepper.

This time, I got a closeup. Chewy taste of the sea.

Uni/Sea urchin in its natural form; you can't get any fresher than this.

Even in the same batch, the uni differed. There were bright orange and lighter yellow ones in the batch. I liked the lighter ones better which had that distinct fishy flavor but not too pungent.
The uni differed within the batch, there were one or two brighter ones that I thought gave off a very soapy aftertaste.

Three kilos of fresh mussels for six of us. Ample.

Moules a là creme
Cooked with thyme, onions and butter then topped with wine and cream.

The sauce was so flavorful that I could drink it all day, or soak bread in it.

We opened by a couple bottles of Sancerre while my brother in law and his mom gave us some lessons on wine tasting. Specifically, they explained to us that one of the bottles from the same case tasted corkier.

Excellent seafood and you really can't get fresher than from the market a couple hours earlier. Californian chefs like to peg their menu as farm to table or market to table. In Paris, it really is the case even when you are just cooking at home.

What do you do with leftover mussels? You make seafood pasta!

This was even better the second day. Al dente spaghetti mixed with creamy sauce was rich and satisfying.

Served with Vintage champagne.

We also picked up some dessert pastries from Stohrer Pastry Shop while we were on Rue Montorgueil.

A nice selection of fruit tarts to cap off the meal.