Top 10 Foods: What to Eat in Paris
Kir
Starting off our list, the number 10 spot goes to kir!
Kir is a French cocktail made from a black currant liqueur, called creme de cassis, and is topped with a dry white wine. These are the only two ingredients. The wine balances out the sugar from the liqueur, resulting in a fruity cocktail that's usually served as an aperitif before a meal. Champagne can also be used in place of the flat wine to make a drink called a "kir royale."
The drink was named after Dijon's mayor, Mayor Felix Kir. While he was active in 1945, Mayor Kir offered the cocktail to representatives from other political districts as a friendly, professional gesture. But he was smart here. He unknowingly drove popularity to the cocktail's ingredients- products that were made in his city. The drink became associated with him, thus getting his name. Since then, other flavors besides black currant have been made. Blackberry, peach, and raspberry are all other options you might find. Cheers.A
Onion Soup
The number nine spot goes to French onion soup!
Beef stock, caramelized onions, croutons, and a toasted cheese top make for one of my favorite soups ever. Flavor-wise, sweet onions and beef stock here are kings here. The crouton or bread that's put in the soup adds to its texture, and the cheese on top makes for an indulgent stringiness that you wish would keep reappearing after eating it.
Now, versions of this soup date back to Roman times and were seen as food for the less financially fortunate. The version of the soup that we know today was first made in France in the 18th century. After Polish royalty was served the soup during a visit to France's Champagne region, the soup was a hit. Check out our top ten foods to try in Poland, linked in the description below.
Macarons
Number eight goes to the macaron!
Macarons are sandwich-type cookies where meringue and almond flour should be the stars. Construction is simple; a buttercream, jam, or ganache is sandwiched between two meringue-based almond flour cookies. Flavors are endless. Some of the more popular are pistachio, vanilla, chocolate, or coffee. Texture-wise they should be pretty chewy, with a slight crunch from the cookie's exterior and some relief from their filling.
Now, macarons are believed to have been introduced to France by an Italian chef sometime between the 14th and 17th centuries. Italy was introduced to using nuts and nut flours in various deserts when Arab troops from the Tunisia area occupied Silicly in 827. The first recorded recipe for a predecessor of today's macaron dates back to 17th century France. However, the first record of the modern-day macaron dates back to France in the 1930s.
So macarons are a French creation, but they're also a little Italian and a little African.
Foie Gras
The number seven spot goes to foie gras!
This has to be one of the most controversial foods we've covered on this channel. Foie gras is the liver of a goose or duck that's been force-fattened by force-feeding. Taste-wise we're looking at a rich and buttery liver with a texture that melts in your mouth. Common eating strategies are simple. Take a thin slice with your knife and spread it on some toast.
Now, the history of force-fattening fowl is believed to date back to 2500 BC in ancient Egypt. However, no evidence confirms that the force-fed animals were used as food here, but I'm not entirely sure what else they could've been used for. The first recorded evidence that these fattened birds were used for culinary purposes was somewhere between 27 BC and 476 AD during the Roman times in fellow-Meditteranean Italy. After the fall of Rome, foie gras temporarily disappeared. This is where it gets kind of neat. The nearby Jewish communities are believed to have kept foie gras alive. As a part of the religion's dietary rules, it's unlawful to mix meat with dairy. Because of this, the Jewish community would regularly cook with olive oils or other plant-based fats instead of options like butter. But since it's not technically dairy, they would also use poultry fat, or schmaltz. The community loved the taste and realized that they could have an abundance by force-feeding geese. Now, I couldn't find a direct link with how foie gras made its way to France, but the Country currently has the fourth-largest Jewish population in the world. So I'm guessing that the practice moved into the Country along with other culinary practices of the community.
Here's the tough part to swallow, no pun intended. When we mentioned force-feeding, we were not joking. Pipes are shoved down the throats of these animals, and food is pumped into their stomachs via the said pipe. I'm sorry, PETA, but I still kind of want to try it.
Cheese
Number six goes to cheese!
Cheese is a product of milk's acidification and comes in a bunch of types and tastes. When acid is introduced to milk, it curdles. These curds are what's used to make cheese, and they can be used to make many different kinds. There are way too many to cover in this video, but three common cheese families include:
Fresh cheese: These cheeses have been aged for very short amounts of time, like a couple of days. They're usually soft with simple flavors and a creamy texture. The cheese exterior usually also looks the same as its interior. Think mozzarella, ricotta, or burrata.
Bloomy Rind Cheese: These cheeses have been aged for a few weeks. The rind formed on the outside of these comes from fungus or mold and keeps the cheese's interior from drying out. Most cheeses in this category have an earthier, mushroom-like flavor. Think brie or camembert.
Washed Rind Cheese: These cheeses are aged for a few months or longer. The rind here is treated with salty water, different alcohols, or spices to promote the growth of different types of bacteria. These can be soft but are generally harder with a wide array of flavors. Think muenster, limburger, and taleggio.
Now, the average Frenchman consumes 55 pounds of cheese a year. So you better keep up. Ask around and talk to the cheesemongers in all of Paris's fromageries to see what they'd recommend. I'm so sorry if you're lactose intolerant, but maybe talk to your doctor here and take one for the team.
Wine
The number five spot goes to wine!
Wine is an alcoholic beverage and the product of fermenting grapes.
Like most agricultural products, wine differs from region to region, grape to grape, and year to year.
In France, there are 17 wine-making regions, some better known than others. Cognac, Beaujolais, Bordeaux, Burgandy, Champagne are examples of regions that might sound familiar. These names might stand out, as wine in France is named after the region they're from, as opposed to the varietal of grape used.
In the States, we label wine based on grape varietal- chardonnay, cabernet, merlot, and sauvignon blanc. White grapes make white wine, and red grapes make red wine. Now, when I was a hospitality and tourism student at Stockton University, I had the privilege of taking Dr. Donna Albano's class that dove deep into the world of wine. When she asked the class about rose, I proudly assumed that its pink color came from mixing red and white wines together. I was wrong. Rose is technically red wine, but the grape's skin is removed early on in the fermentation process. The tannins from the skin give red wine its rich color, so the less time incorporated in the production process, the less color is given. All grape varietals taste different, and that is a topic for another video.
When in Paris, drink all of the wine you can. Appreciate all of the complex flavors that the viticulturists, mother nature, and regional terroirs provided.
A fun game to play when trying new wine is to think of three things that it smells like before sipping, then pick up three flavor notes after indulging.
Wine in Paris could be a video on its own. There's no way I can justify its importance in this one video. Let me know if you have any specific questions or would like a video just on the wines of France.
Crepes
Baguettes
The number three spot goes to the baguette!
This french bread is characterized by its long and thin shape. It's made from a dough that's both low in fat and sugar. It also has a crust that's crispier than its soft chewy interior.
Baguettes are a regular part of Parisian life; they're eaten with most meals. They can be served with dinner to accompany the main course and sop up sauces, with lunch as the bookends of a sandwich, or for breakfast, with cheese, marmalade, or jam.
The history of the baguette's creation is a little blurry. One theory suggests that when Napolean Boneparte was making the rules, he said that bread should be long and thin to fit in his soldiers' pockets. Another theory suggests that the shape eliminated the need for slicing so that sharers could easily break pieces off with their hands, hopefully decreasing the number of knife fights amongst railroad laborers.
We do know that long bread like this became popular in France in the 18th century and that local bakers started using highly refined flour in the 19th century. Whatever the case was, the modern-day baguette is here to stay, and its predecessors left a legacy.
Escargot
Number two goes to escargot. Yum.
The burgundy snail is the popular choice amongst eaters. The process starts when heliciculturalists, or snail farmers, grow the snails and clean out their digestive tracts. This is when they trade hands to the chef, who typically cooks them with butter, garlic, parsley, and wine. Texture-wise, they're most comparable to clams. However, they have an earthier mushroom-like taste. They're delicious and were one of my favorite foods growing up.
Now, snails aren't exactly new to France. Archeological evidence has proven their residency of over 6,000 years here. However, they've really only become popular after the Tsar of Russia visited France in 1814 and loved them. Before this, most thought snails were a strange thing to eat. The power of influence.
If you're on the fence about eating these, you definitely should.
Croissants
The number one spot goes to the croissant!
Croissants are known for their iconic crescent moon shape, rich buttery flavor, and flaky, soft texture. Although ingredients are essential in making any food taste good, here, construction is responsible for all that the pastry is known for. The croissant gets its pillow-like flakiness from strategically assembled alternating layers of yeast dough and butter—theoretically, the more layers, the flakier the croissant. The dough gets cut into triangular-shaped strips that are rolled up like tubes and then shaped into the crescent moon that we all associate with "croissant."
Croissants come in many flavor variations. Some of the more popular include almond croissants, chocolate croissants, or different kinds of fruit croissants. However, purists stick to the plain butter-rich flavor of the OG.
The history here is pretty straightforward. Croissants did originate in Paris, but only after an Austrian baker opened up shop in the late 1830s. Naturally, this Austrian bakery made Viennese-styled pastries; Kipferl was one of the most popular. Looks familiar, right? Parisians enjoyed this denser, less flaky descendant of the croissant. Creative culinary curiosity took the city by storm, and eventually, the croissant was born out of cultural adaptation.
So croissants are 100% Parisian, but they're a little bit Austrian too.