What I ate, did during the Holiday, January Bear Paris Letter

Adventures at Picard produced little lobsters from Canada (7,95)! Nice try Picard. Give me a Maine lobster onsite anyday.

Picard's escargot (2,95€) on the other hand are excellent. Nice butter sauce with plenty of garlic. I can highly  recommend if you're a 🐌 fan.

The French Love exotic fruits for the holidays. Every year I attack the litchis. They are 4€ a kilo bought off the branch.

Foie gras tastings even at Monoprix and darn good.

Why ever did I buy just this tiny jar of abricot/pain d'epice chutney (2,95) to go on top the foie gras? Gone in an instant.

A terrific, easy recipe for duck breast (magret de canard)..the perfect Christmas dinner in my opinion if you're in France where magret is abundant.

Fancy grey shallots from the Coqs d'or salon were on hand. But balsamic vinegar was not, so I used vinaigrette packets saved from salads in the fridge. I also blotted off some of the excess duck fat.

Otherwise I followed the recipe to the letter. The minced shallots came out perfectly caramelized and crunchy. Tout va bien.

I've been dying to try La Grande Epicerie's gateaux de Noel of passion fruit and caramel (7€). The caramel was too sweet and overpowered the passion fruit. Verdict: save your € and get 3 Pierre Herme Mogador passion fruit macarons instead.

Christmas eve anyone could walk into the new Star Wars movie and not wait in line. So much waving around of that light saber I thought I was back in front of Notre Dame. I didn't make it to the end...ahem

Bears of Paris and Strasbourg have taken over Parisbreakfast HQ.

My print shop announced they were closing for the holidays until January 4th. I had to work like this wind-up painting monkey from the Tomi Ungerer museum through Christmas with breaks for luxury food. See above. Pas mal.

Did you see this viral drawing by Dudolf?
'Find the Panda'.
Bears are everywhere.

Bears stepping out in Paris.

I found a postcard in August and decided it would be perfect for the January Sketch letter. Just turn the cupids into snowmen.

But bears won the day. Especially when a ladder-climbing bear showed up on Google.

Doodle-di-do = celebrating bears.

No attack bears from The Revenant were invited to my New Years bear party.

Party hats? Yes for girl bears. Thank you Elle Magazine.

More bear doodles

And plenty of bonus bear watercolors for any new subscribers and those owed their renewal watercolor.
You can see the full Sketch Letter on Etsy.
January Sketch letters are all mailed out.

And yes I found gingersnaps in Paris at Marks and Spencer's.
Eureka all around.

Mogador macarons

M comme Mogador, watercolor, 8" x 11"

 Pastry has a geometry all it's own like Cezanne’s cubes, cones, spheres.

 Architectural wall details at patisserie Pierre Hermé.

 And not just in the window. Even the labels/etiquettes are geometric.

 Rectangles & circles of his signature Fetish flavor, Mogador - a combination of milk chocolate + passion fruit + roasted pineapple.

 Piles of pineapple surrounded by a wall of macarons. Attack time!

 But I chose the excellent Mogador gateau.

 A thin leaf of milk chocolate rests on ganache flavored with passion fuit divided by another milk chocolate leaf sitting atop roasted pinapple on chocolate cake.

 A good cut-away look inside was required to understand the 'floor plan' of this complex dessert. Luckily there's a wall of fine knives where I'm staying in Paris.

 Handy for cutting cleanly through macaron et gateau. Voila! It would behove you to have someone to share these treasures with.

 Best of Herme gives you step-by-step visual lessons on making Mogador macarons.

 I never gave passion fruit the time of day before tasting this macaron. Now it's an obsession. It never disappoints.

Take your Mogador desserts to Metro Fulguiere on the #6 line. 

And sit in a pineapple seat for a heightened experience.