Christmas in Paris

(December 25th, 2012)  Morning bells are ringing, the tourists are stirring, and...the city is alive and bustling, as if it's just another holiday.  Contrary to the American vision of towns on Christmas morning, where we tend to sleep in, not worry about shopping till at least noon, and enjoy a relatively quiet (at least those of us without young children) morning, Paris was overflowing with people out and about, shopping, sight seeing, eating, and just soaking up the ratatouille of Parisian culture.

We started our day as any other vacation day (once the gifts were exchanged and fawned over of course) by heading out to Rue Montorgueil, which we took down to Les Halles and stopped at the first suitable cafe, La Pointe Saint Eustache.

Following brunch, we strolled through the underground mall of Les Halles, where we learned that even McDonalds in Paris sells macaroons...

Next off, across the Seine to the Ile de la Cite

and Notre Dame

Despite it being Christmas, we got our first unpleasant taste of Parisian culture.  There's a reason why people from France kept telling me not to judge their country by the uncouth manners of the Parisians, and I understand why now.  To enter Notre Dame, you had to wait in line.  It looked like a long line, maybe a block long, but it only took about 15 minutes.  Not bad, really.  But, for some reason, Parisians felt entitled to not have to wait in line, so as you approached the front, there were countless numbers of people trying to cut in front of you.  This, as you can imagine, is the sort of thing to annoy me, even on Christmas.  So, when someone tried to cut in front of us, I politely pointed out the line to him, and told him to go wait in it.  Well, it worked, kind of.  He got in line behind us.  It's a start, I suppose...but the line cutting in Paris was prolific to put it nicely...

 

Inside Notre Dame...

I bought a candle for Dad....it's the one with the Carolina blue sheen, I'd like to think...

After Notre Dame, we started walking South towards the Latin Quarter, stopping at parks along the way...

Then up towards the Mairie

and the Pantheon

In wandering through the sculpture gardens of DC in my youth, I was always amused by the appearance of something like an angry plant monster posing as a metro entrance.  Well, twenty some years later I realize that this is actually what the entrances to the Parisian metro do look like:

As night started to descend, we headed back past Notre Dame

to one of the Michelen star restaurants that we had made reservations at, Le Reminet. Below, our first bottle of French wine in France, Chateau Mac Carthy.

What started out as a nice, quiet evening in a romantic, cellar like dining room, quickly turned into something much more memorable, but not in a good way.  The couple that sat down beside us had similar thoughts in mind regarding the romantic nature of the restaurant.  As you can see in the picture above, the tables are very close together, so there's not much privacy in this intimate dining room.  The guy decided that that would be the perfect time to propose (and she said yes).  I can't blame him for that, but it meant that the remainder of our meal was taken up by a conversation with them that started off innocently enough about him, but soon turned to her hyperboles about how surprised she was and how he must have dropped some serious cash on that ring...at which point it turned into him bragging about the finances behind it.  Yeah...so, it went from cute, to okay, that's nice, but we'd like to get back to our conversation, to seriously? 

Anyways, the food was fantastic, so it quickly distracted all four of us from this conversation...

Chestnut cream with mushrooms espuma and deep fried scallops in noodles "kadaif."  The presentation was incredible, with the bird's nest of noodles topping the delicate chestnut and mushroom soup.

 A thin tart with figs and pears, roast escalope of duck foie gras and galangal caramel.

 

Scallops a la plancha, "venere" rice risotto with emulsion and smoked bacon.

Duck "pot au feu" with poached foie gras and roast duck breast.

Following dinner, we slowly strolled back through the Latin Quarter, now mostly deserted as people had settled in for a Christmas evening,

past Notre Dame, now devoid of crowds, 

past the Hotel de Ville, mentioned more than a few times throughout the course of any of Dumas' novels,

and it's ice rink that was now empty.  It was time for us to turn in as well, we had a few big days ahead of us!

T'Was the Night Before Christmas...

(December 24th, 2012) T'was the night before Christmas, and while American houses were too quiet for even a mouse, this was not to be the case in Paris.  I was quite worried before we arrived that we wouldn't be able to find anyplace that was open for dinner.  So worried that weeks in advance I did a ton of research and made restaurant reservations at a ritzy place that claimed to be open on Christmas Eve.

Well, as it turns out, the place that we made reservations was the one place that was closed on Christmas Eve.  Murphy's Law I suppose.  From our cute apartment that we rented via AirBnB, which I highly recommend following Elizabeth's recommendation to try it, we walked down Rue Montorgueil into the heart of Les Halles

 

Past chocolate shops,

 

Euro fried chicken,

 

and then finally we came across this gnarly old soul, mongering oysters outside of a hole in a wall.  

Why not we thought?  Oysters, Salad Nicoise (how could we not order one in Paris), a Tunisian stew with Harissa paste to warm us up, whole fish, and cous cous. 

Well, one very good reason to not have stopped was Norovirus, which is often transmitted by raw oysters...but that's just an obstacle that we had to overcome while taking in the sights...

Fairwell Oxford

(December 23rd) In all too short order, it was time to leave Oxford.  For the holidays I had planned to spend a week in Paris.  But first, I had to pick up Kim from the airport.  Since she had just had a day of travel to get from Albuquerque to England, we decided to spend an evening in London.  And, I think everyone can guess where this is going...

Kopapa.  One of Peter Gordon's restaurants.

I've come to the conclusion that cookbooks are quickly becoming outdated.  Now days, it seems that whenever one wants to look up a new recipe, the first thing that they turn to is the internet.  Since I had long held delusions of putting together my own cookbook, this was a hard conclusion to reach.  The only exception that I can readily think of to this are the cookbooks written by celebrity chefs.  After dining at Kopapa, we were so pleased with our meal that we went and got a signed copy of Peter Gordon's Every Day cookbook.

 

Background: Hansen & Lydersen smoked salmon tartare with crème fraîche, Foreground: Burrata mozzarella with black-vinegar Medjool dates, roast butternut squash, mint & preserved lemon.

 

Background: Tempura spicy dhal inari pocket, caramelised coconut & pickled green papaya, Foreground: Spring rolls of slow roasted tom yum pork, coriander & wombok with tamarind aioli.

 

Left: potatoes with rosemary & garlic salt, Right: Pan-fried king scallops, sweet chilli sauce & crème fraîche.

 

We can't seem to remember what the last dish is...but, most likely roasted duck breast over sauteed greens, fava beans, lentils, and a green chutney.

All of the flavors were very well done.  It was a type of fusion cuisine that wasn't trying too hard to be fusion.  For instance, the dhal inari pockets, or the paring of tamarind with the duck egg rolls.  And the creativity behind the dishes was fantastic.  A close up of the first dish:

The salmon is actually the thing that looks like an ice cream cone.  Fantastic!

The next morning, Christmas Eve, we headed off to Paris...

The Pubs of Oxford

(Fall, 2012)  Really, now, what visit to Oxford would be complete without a trip to as many pubs as possible?  Having spent three months there, there was quite a bit of time to visit a good number of them.  Though, as I'm sure is no surprise to you, my focus on my research often got in the way of going to the pubs.  As a result, my trips tended to be either for lunch every few weeks, or a massive weekend pub crawl to commemorate some special occasion (a friend in town, end of term for my colleagues, someone going/coming, etc.).

 

We'll start with one of the best, the Eagle and Child.  Or, as Dad used to call it, the Bird and the Babe.  This was one of his favorite places in Oxford to grab a pint, which is completely understandable once you walk through the doors and see the history - Tolkien, Lewis, and many others used to do their creative ponderings here.

 

Right across the street, another classic pub: the Lamb and Flag.  Work was only a stone throw away at this point, so I rarely stopped in though I passed it by every day.

 Also right along my daily walking route was the Bear Inn, a pub that had been in continuous operation since 1242!.  And we think of our colonial houses as being old here in the states...

 As you can imagine, inside the Bear was slightly cramped.  Here is my flatmate Fred arched over as he tries to stand inside.

 

Inside the Turf Tavern with my second flatmate, Alex. Rumor has it, this is where Hugh Grant used to enjoy coming in order to pick up undergrads...yeah...

 

Another pub that we made it to a few times (since they had Young's Double Chocolate Stout on draft) was the King's Arms. Sadly, many of these pubs are now corporately owned, so the variety of beers isn't like it is in the states with our trend towards microbreweries.  Instead, it seems that there're a handful of beers at each pub (think like Coors, Miller, Corona, but the English equivalent and slightly better) that you see over and over again.

 

Now, in case you're wondering, not every pub was dark, crowded, and with low ceilings.  Here's a picture from Brown's Bar, across the street from the Lamb and Flag.

 

But, places like Brown were the exception, not the rule.  Dark, crowded, and cacophonous are the words I'd used to describe most pubs. This is the other side of the Turf.

 

Most pubs usually had a sampling of food.  Some better than others, but the primary business during the days seemed to be a place to eat lunch.  Above is Fred at All Bar One, one of the few chains that I came across in England.

 

And some were even surprisingly modern, such as the previously mentioned Freud's, located in Jericho (the cool place for students to live on the west side of the main road in Oxford).

 

Or Raoul's, across the street.  Both of these were some of Elizabeth's haunts when she was a student at Oxford.

 

But, by and large, most pubs were old, repurposed buildings that had character, such as St. Aldates Tavern.

 

Or the White Horse Brewery (aka, the Royal Blenheim, not to be confused with the Black Horse Inn or the White Horse Pub...)

 

And a few were farther afield, such as the Trout

 

and the Perch.

So, now that I've finished uploading photos of about half of the pubs that I've made it to, some useful information: recommendations!

Best food/experience (though a bit of a hike): The Trout.

Best place to get a pint and a bite in historical confines: The Eagle and Child (though I'm a bit biased).  The Bear Inn is another historical place, but usually it's very crowded.

Typical atmosphere, though slightly touristy: The King's Arms and The Turf.

Best food that's not a bit of a hike: I suggest looking in a category other than pubs...

Not in this list is that each college has their own set of bars.  Tremendous fun if you're a student during term time with colleagues.

In summary, if you want a typical pub experience, you really can't go wrong.  Just pick someplace that looks crowded, wade in to the bar, and get whatever is on tap.  You don't need me to help you figure the rest out.