Good eats

Food has always been a big part of my travel experience even before coming to Europe and Paris, as expected, is the world headquarters of good eats. Yesterday I got a pain au chocolat, a croissant with chocolate filling, at this bakery that advertised as using pure butter. An unofficial rule I have is to always support places that use pure butter in their baking, like Umplebee's in Hanover, so even though I wasn't really hungry I was able to enjoy and delicious, golden, flaky, soft, buttery treat. Before I got hit with tear gas, I stopped by the mosque near the Jardin des Plantes for a pastry, as suggested by Andrew Lebovich. I'd never really had arab pastries before, although they did seem to have baklava, but everbody in the mediterranean seems to have that. I got a pistachio and honey pastry, which was really dense and sweet. So good.

Lunch today kind of took me by surprise. I wasn't planning on eating in Montmartre, but I walked into a charcuterie (kind of a delicatessen) and got jumped by a visual and olfactory display that only Hellen Keller with a head cold could walk away from. I got their 5€ special, which included a giant slice of chevre (goat cheese) et legumes (vegetables) quiche, a drink, and two cookies. Quiche is not something I usually eat back home, I think the last one I had was from Homeplate brunch my freshman year, when I didn't know any better than to try Dartmouth Dining services attempts and specialties from around the world. This quiche was so good that now I'm not sure any quiche I try back home can do anything but disappoint. We'll have to see, I guess.

For a snack I got some Tunisian pastry as I explored the area inbetween my hostel and the Pere Lachaise cemetary, where famous people are buried if they're not good enough to get into the Pantheon. It was a fried pastry dough shell filled with a mix of honey, almonds, and sesame seeds. Very different even from the pistachio thing I'd had the night before, but very tasty. I'm really glad I got to try these here because I have no idea where to even find Tunisian people in the United States.

My plan for tonight is to get some North African food in the Belleville neighborhood near where my hostel is. The suggestion came from one Robert Joynt, who studied an entire semster in Paris. There is an Algerian restuarant that the hostel clerk suggested, it appears to serve grilled meats and couscous, which sounds good to me.

So I only have a handful of Euros left and I won't take out anymore because I'm headed to London tomorrow, so whatever I don't spend on dinner will go towards wine to bring to Prue. Word of the Day: Plonk, british slang for cheap wine.
so prue, get ready for some sufficiently plonkish times ahead.