A Benoit Thanksgiving

Thank you Benoit for thinking of hungry Americains👍🏻 

And for thinking you are serving a Very American traditional dinner. 

And thank you PBers Bonnie and Rob for taking me to divine Benoit at 20, rue St. Martin. 

BENOIT  opened in 1912 by the Petit family. 

Alain Ducasse took it over in 2005 but has maintained all their classic French bistro traditions. 

The special menu says 'Dinde fermier (free-range)something something aux champignons airelles (wild mushrooms) something something' with cranberry sauce and gravy (46€).

Reading it on the menu it didn't sound like that much, so I ordered my fav starter, snails. Big mistake. I am still repenting. Splish splash in the pool 🏊‍♀️

They didn't mention we would get an 'amuse bouche' - a tiny cup of velouté(creamy soup) de panin(a kind of white turnip) with crunchy bits of chestnut in the bottom for contrast.

Why did I eat every snail🐌? If anyone had said to me you will someday move to Paris & eat snails 🐌 2 days in a row I would have socked them silly.

The main course. The stuffing is the squarish block of wild mushrooms 🍄 , plus mystery bits. We got both dark & white turkey 🦃 meat. Très riche. FYI I read somewhere turkey breast/dinde is the most frequently eaten meat in France. The little pan on the left contains an individual escallop of potate douce (sweet potato to you) with plenty of maple syrup (something else the French are mad for - usually Canadian). Just above - a big slab of butter 🧈 from their own fermier. We were told this after the dinner. I wanted to ask for the butter back but was restrained by my companions. On the left a small bowl of cranberry sauce. Fortunately my dear friends from Vermont wanted none, so I ate all of the lingonberry sauce myself. Bear helped out. I passed on the gravy so it balanced out. The 2 whitish strips are turnip again.

The waiter assured us they do not normally serve ‘American-style’ food like this. Does this look American 🇺🇸 to you aside from the gravy boat. Not that I'm complaining, just stating a fact. FYI it was all extremely delish with great service. Benoit gets E for effort. We were hesitant whether to get a dessert.

Their baba au rhum is famous. We settled on 1 order of 3 flavors of home-made ice cream (from their own farmer)as sort of a digestive. They kept bringing us freshly baked madeleines. A little plate of marshmallows, more madeleines and little ganache chocolates. I imagined we would be skipping the usual I-ate-too-much feeling. No way. We needed cranes 🏗️ to get out of there. 

             Oh la la la la la.

Outside a Christmas marché by Tour St. Jacques. 

Crossing my bridge a lovely light show as always. I hope you very much enjoyed your turkey too🎉. 

Please Keep Bear 🐻 in Paris with letters from my Paris Etsy shop. FYI 🐻 is 🏊‍♀️like crazy to work it off today and the rest of the week.