Any place I visit or live, I just love to try the local food and drinks. Being a non-vegetarian really helps in this case, especially when one is travelling outside India and Paris was no way different.
Day 1 lunch was a quick bite at Mcdonalds as I was more keen on reaching the Eiffel tower than food. The dinner was a real feast. With the influx of many migrants from the Middle East and North Africa, there is a sizeable muslim and arab population in Paris. It is a universal rule that when migrants move to place, they take their food with them. Thats the reason behind the chundo, dhokla and rotla in London. Similar was the case with Paris. There are many Lebanese places in Paris. The one I tried was a quiet one, just next to the hotel we stayed in. Did not bother too much on what the name of the place was, considering the level of hunger pangs at that time. When I glanced through the menu, the first item that struck my eye was shawarma chicken. That was it. There was no need to look further. My limited experience of eating shawarma chicken in Bangalore and London was in the form of a roll. But when the food came to the table, it was a complete contrast. There were tender, juicy pieces of chicken, which were decently spiced and well done. Along with it was some herbed rice which was awesome, some spinach and tomato curry and a sea food paste made of prawns, fish and cheese. As I was about put the first piece of the juicy, yummy chicken into my mouth, the guy who served food came over and gave me something he called bread... but it was roomali roti. The sight of roomali rotis reminded me of the Thunder Fried Chicken (TFC) in Bangalore. Now all this put together, along with some wine and beer which I had, made it an ultimate combination. The juicy chicken combined very well with the sea food paste (chutney), which had very small pieces of prawns, which were amazingly awesome. All the food tasted very very nice, with the spices and the quantity was pretty decent. The icing on the cake was the price. All the food cost only 10 Euros and was well worth it. I have become a big fan of Lebanese food now.
Day 2 food was even better. Outside the Louvre museum, in the gardens, was a restaurant. Some of the food was not appealing at all on the menu. The one that struck me was pepper roasted duck with cheese. So my mind and heart together, forced me to order it. The accompaniements were fries and salad, which were nice, but not nice enough to take my focus off the duck. There were 4 succulent pieces of the BBQ duck with roasted peppers and cheese. This was purely an experiment and I was not sure what I was getting into. But the moment I put the first piece into my mouth, I had this brainwave "quack ! quack !.. this was yum". Within no time ducks swam their way into my belly, along with the fries, salad and again my best friend, Mr. Carlsberg. The damages were around 20 euros, which was worth every quack of the food on my plate.
I strongly beleive that in terms of food, once an Indian, always an Indian. After almost 2 days of non-Indian food, at dinner time, my taste buds took over my mind and heart, forcing me to look for an Indian restaurant. But my better half wanting to eat some veggie, Indian food was an excuse. Luckily there was a placed PUNJAB near the hotel. We entered the place and were greeted with "namaste and aai ye" instead of Bonjour or hiya. The whole place literally smelt punjabi and instantly I had a feeling that I was in Delhi and I was hoping the food also turns out to be as tasty as in Delhi. I ordered the desi chai and onion pakodas. It was raining outside and the door was kept open. As our table was near the door, a cool breeze was blowing and the chai and onion pakodas made it a super, duper evening. We wanted to keep the food simple and for once, I was focussing on food, instead of drinks. We ordered palak paneer, channe ke dal and naan/kulchas. As I dwelled into the naan, palak paneer and channe ke dal, I thought chak de phatte !! nothing can beat Indian food. We finished the food in no time. At that moment, the feeling inside my heart (and stomache) was something which I cannot put into words. It was like a sense of belonging, a sense of achievement at having Indian food.
Now another culinary delight of day 3 was the BBQ chicken on the banks of river sienne. The sausages were also very appealing, but the chicken looked spicy. Me being me, I went for the chicken. It was small chunks of chicken with corn, cooked in a very latino style, with spices and chillies. This was stuffed into a baugette which already had some melted cheese in it. May be the latin americans got inspired by our pav bhaji. Our pav bhaji has pav (bread) and vegetables with butter. The latino style was Chicken and corn curry, with baugette and cheese. It cost only 7 euros, which made me even happier.
I thought Paris was a fashion capital, but for me, it is more of a culinary delight. Infact, I am still looking for an answer as to why it is called a fashion capital. Is it because of the presence of all brands on Champ Elysses? Is this one reason enough for it to be given this tag? Personally, I beleive that the fashion of a city is represented by how the women in that city dress and present themselves. With all due respects and no offense meant, I did not find anything so appealing in Paris, for it be to called a fashion capital. There was nothing unusual or different or appealing about the way women dressed or carried themselves. On the contrary, I strongly feel that London should be the fashion capital. The women dress smartly, with vibrant colors, following the season. The accessories are well thought out and combine very well with the apparel and overall and most important, they carry themselves with an aura that makes you look back and take a second glance.
No comments:
Post a Comment