Part of the fun in coming to Paris each year is not only the street markets, but also some of the most wonderful specialty stores that carry the foods we've come to enjoy and sometimes can't find in the same abundance at home. In New York we have places like Zabar's and Citarella that have beautiful selections of food, but here food is a living thing. Everything has a story, where it was made (or grown) and by who, how it was made. Our local cheese store has a dozen types of Tomme cheese - Cow, goat and sheep; mountain or valley, raw or pasteurized; and the producer. Every one of these decisions is passionately debated by the customers. I didn't know I could feel so inadequate. Last year we "discovered" a new store near the Madelaine called Hediards (it's a little bit like "discovering" the Bergdorf's of food unknown only to us). Paul is poised in the section devoted to 'drink' and from the smile on his face you'd think that he'd sampled extensively--NOT! This, like the food halls at Galleries Lafayette and Bon Marche that are chock full of top quality products both from France and afar. In the area where thay sell prepared foods there are series of vendors that also serve every imaginable food to be eaten there - for example, Petrossian serves caviar and salmon to be eaten right at the counter. We've also noticed more and more imports, probably to satisfy the palates of the many travellers from Europe, Asia and the US.Each department here has products so tempting and beautifully displayed that it's pretty difficult to leave without something. We left with the cutest little dried sausages in a jar, incredible strawberries (here bigger is NOT better) and reasonably priced bottles of Cote du Rhone. We managed to march right past the pastry counter!
Hediards 2007
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