2008 January | Vegetarian Experiences in Paris

Paris has amazing restaurants. That’s a given. But there’s much more for the foodie tourist. You can learn how to cook, spend hours in farmer’s markets, shop for equipment with professional chefs, and buy tons of books for your kitchen back home. Librarie Gourmande is a bookstore for you to visit.

Librarie Gourmande sits in the foodie triangle, near Chatalet Les-Halles. The owner of the shop also has a popular blog: Les Agapes de Débo. It’s filled with recipes, product tests, musings on Paris food and much more. She has compiled a list of unique vegetarian recipes with easy to follow photographs. The recipes are in French and have metric measurements, but you should be able to reproduce them easily.

Confit

You will find various gelatins, jellies, pates, and other gelatinous delicacies in Paris. There are two terms that you need to keep separate: confit and confiture.

Confit typically refers to a fat based method of preserving meats. The most famous is duck confit and in particular a duck leg in confit. The Duck leg is preserved in duck fat and then seared for a crispy skin before serving.

Confiture

Confiture, on the other hand, is what we’d call preserves, jams, and jellies in english. There is a wonderful world of confiture in France. Look for home made bottles of confiture at farmers markets and patissiers. Favorite flavors include cerise and framboise.

A bottle of seasonal, artisinal confiture makes a great gift for friends in the states. I usually bring home several bottles to enjoy a croissant and coffee and think of times in Paris.