Hajj

Why am I calling this message 'Hajj'? Well, today I went to la Place Madeleine, home of all the greatest gourmet establishments in Paris. It was indeed a pilgrimage. But first, I visited the museum of erotic arts in Place Pigalle. I will leave this to your imagination... some things have to be seen, and not described. Place Pigalle is a veritable hive of carnal sin. It is interesting to know that a sex shop in Paris is often called a 'gadgeterie'.... ha! But now, back to the real subject of today's blog: I visited Fauchon, which has pride of place among foodie shops. Fauchon has those men in capes outside the door who hail cabs (what are they called again?) I went for High Tea. Yup... there are times to pinch pennies, and this wasn't one of them. The first thing one notices upon sitting down, is that they give you 4 kinds of sugar with which to sweeten your beverage of choice . White, light brown, dark brown, and a crystalized one that looks like frankincense, and is probably as dear (Oh, I chose the assam royale tea....while we're being pretentious, we might as well go whole hog)... Of course the tea arrives in a lovely limoges pot... but how long should it be steeped? The people of fauchon have thought of this, and provide you with a sterling silver hourglass so you know when the tealeaves are spent. You can then remove them to a bone china recieving dish. How convenient. As I was stirring my tea, gingerly, I might add, I noticed a man walk in wearing the most opulent fur coat I have seen. It was cut like a Sherlock Holmes Doublet. He was wearing wraparound shades and only stopped briefly for an espresso. I swear it was Yves St Laurent. Anyway, back to the food. You should know that the smoked salmon at Fauchon is organic, comes from Scotland, and is sliced to order with a silver knife by a man in a lab jacket. It also costs 160 Euros a kilo. But, dear reader, this is nothing. A poached langoustine at Fauchon will set you back easily 150 dollars. And then there are things like vintage champagne, and truffles.... easily the most costly foodstuff ever. Price listed for fresh truffles: 3800 euros a kilo. Well, I was not in the market for fresh truffles, but I was lucky enough to have a miniscule amount of this smoked salmon in a lovely sandwich. Real smoked salmon is not red, or orange, it is almost pale beige. And it is quite mild in flavour, and has a texture that is soft and unctuous. Heaven. Then come the desserts, pride of place of which are given to les macarrons de Paris. Definitely not Manaschewitz. These macaroons are delicately coloured, and flavoured in all sorts of ways... raspberry, chocolate, coffee, etc. Biting into one is like biting into a veritable pillow of flavour. You bite, and then there is air, and then there is the most intense taste....Cecile de Rothschild (member of the esteemed banking family and lover of Greta Garbo,also gastronomic goddess who never put salt and pepper on her table, as she employed the best chef in France) said that you can always judge a chef by his Macarons. Well, these were delicious. With this came the famous Madeleines which inspired Proust to such heights of literary glory. I viewed the ones I tasted as rather a sign of things to come, as I plan to eat them again often. They are buttery and rich, but light, as not to overwhelm the palette. They are tiny cakes baked in special shell shaped molds, and these were flavoured slightly with lemon. There were other desserts, too numerous to mention... but the most memorable was a chocolate anise mousse that tasted very naughty. Perhaps the best thing about this charming and infinitely enjoyable repast was that it came with a sprig of red currants on the branch. Red currants are very very rare in Canada. I have only tasted them once.. My grandmother grew them, and my brother and I ate our fill of them under a tree which my dad had planted. We all laughed a lot. Well, my grandmother is gone now, and these were a poignant reminder of the time I had spent with her. I removed the fruit with the tines of my silver fork as I had learned to do in the Larousse Gastronomique, and watched the women in sable coats saunter past... buying Beluga caviar as though they were merely purhasing a baguette.

After this, I attended Mass at Notre Dame, and then sat at a jazz bar overlooking the seine, drinking Chardonnay and planning for tomorrow. Until then!