Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Soup Season


Winter has come in with a slap of cold across the face.  It's been quite rainy this fall but really rather warm.  Today for the first time this year I walked out the door and regretted not having dug my gloves out of the drawer. 

We piled some paperbacks into a bag and set out for the used book store shortly before lunch.  Remembering that Gerard Mulot's wonderful pâtisserie was on the way I began to think of whether we should buy something other than just a baguette today when I realized it was Wednesday and their shades were pulled tight.  Who closes on Wednesday, for heaven's sake?  Oh well, there's no dearth of delicious options in the neighborhood.

By the time we had walked a few blocks we realized that the cold weather demanded hot soup for lunch and we headed for Bar à Soupes on rue Princesse but nothing on their menu board looked right.  We turned onto rue des Ciseaux and realized that although it's just a few blocks from home and we pass it every day we had never walked down this one block street before. 

And what we've been missing in our own backyard was quite a surprise.  A Japanese restaurant, a Thai restaurant (with a take-out shop next door), a Korean restaurant, an inexpensive and pretty French restaurant.  A big bowl of udon at the Japanese place was the perfect choice this time, but we'll definitely be back to try the others, each of which looked appealing.  Since soup season has arrived we'll need all the versions we can get.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Udon is great for cold, damp days! I used to travel to NYC for business many times a year and loved to frequent a Japanese restaurant for their Udon. I love soup....it warms the soul. My trips to France and Paris have been in warm weather. Love to hear about your experiences. You paint pictures of life in Paris with your wonderful writing.

Valerie

Shelli said...

Thanks for your comment, I'm flattered. I'm a big fan of soup, but it's not that easy to find good hearty versions in Paris; we get mostly potages or veloutés, creamy first course soups rather than chunky, filling main course ones.