Thursday, October 20, 2011

Market Saturday


It's been a while since I posted photos from a market and last Saturday we took a bus over to the big and upscale market on Avenue President Wilson, just outside the Palais de Tokyo and the Musée d'Art Moderne.

In contrast to our favorite market on Boulevard Richard Lenoir, near Bastille, the President Wilson market has fewer stalls and fewer of the stallholders and shoppers are of North African origin.
Some of the products are rather more expensive as well, but maybe the locals don't mind.


I was sorely tempted by these ready-to-cook escargots; can we all admit that the rubbery little bodies are only a vehicle for the delicious garlic butter?


I've recently been told that scallops, coquilles Saint-Jacques, have a season, and this is it.  They're found on restaurant menus at the moment, and piles of them were available at the market, sold with their coral roe, which is valued here.  In the States I think they throw it away before sale; I never see the scallops sold with the roe attached.


It's mushroom season too, and piles of girolles are available for the buying.  I bought 250 grams (I'm getting used to European measurements at last), sautéd them with some chervil and scrambled some eggs into the pan for lunch the next day.  Yum!


I wish I knew more about fish; I'm always reluctant to try a species I don't know, but there are so many and they look so interesting!  Maybe if I cooked at home more, but there are so many restaurants and so little time, as they say about other pursuits.


There were dessert choices to make before we went home and that little pear tarte...see the one just on the far side of the strawberry one?...came home with us.


All that shopping tired us out and we spent a pleasant hour sitting in the sun on a café terrace at Place d'Alma, sipping coffee and enjoying what was probably gong to be the last of the good weather before getting back on the bus to go home.

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