Salon du Chocolat #2

 

On Monday Bear 🐻 went to the Salon du Chocolat.

He was bear 🐻 hunting

Vanilla Diorama, Paris Vanille map

 

This past week has been a daily contest of immersion in news of Ukraine vs. the world of French vanille (pronounce that Van-knee). 

Vanilla is queen in Paris. It’s available in teas, marshmallows, ice cream, pastries, creamy desserts, cosmetics and perfumes. There’s a wonderful back story to the new 2021 Dior perfume, Vanilla Diorama. 

Evidently designer Christian Dior had a secret favorite dessert created for him by the chef at Maxim’s. But no one knows what it looked like or it’s ingredients. 

Long-time Dior perfumer François Demachy, chose top Michelin pastry chef Julian Dugourd to imagine and create this sublime, velvety dessert using Vanilla from Norohy, white Valrhona chocolate, and orange marmelade. Et voila. 

I found this top grade vanilla bean on BHV’s 4th gourmet floor today. (€18 for 3 beans) Their site will tell you A to Z about vanilla in English and more. 

Along with vanilla orchids lasting just one morning per season, the process of picking the green beans, sun-drying, sweating (at night) can take 6 to 8 months. Very labor intensive. 

My ‘lunch’ after a dip in the pool 🏊 

Aux Deux Caneles sells only Canelés. 

Vanilla is the top note in these crunchy little bronzed pastries. 

Such a cute little shop in the Marais with a mini cafe.

Saturday I paid a visit to Paris’ secret shop for rare blends of spices and condiments. 

Have you been to Épices Roellinger on rue Sainte-Anne? Their collection of vanilla beans on offer covers every source possible. 

They have a treasure chest full of spices and a model pirate 🏴‍☠️ ship. 

I don’t think I ever ate or even liked flan until I moved to Paris.

Or other rich, creamy foods for that matter. Boy did that change living surrounded by la créme de la créme all the time. I was excited to find last year’s best flan in Ile de France was close to my house. 

Boulangerie Paris & Co is very proud of their winning 🏆 flan. But the individual portion was too big for one person and too pricey(5.90€). Prices rise when you win🏅 top prizes. Their eclair vanille was very nice. 

So many adventures when chasing after vanille in Paris.

The choices for vanilla yogurt are endless. This is a much loved product by the French. The best yogurt for me was La Fermiere They infuse their milk with whole vanilla beans. La Fermiere doesn’t mess around. No vanillin for them/‘arôme natural de vanille’. *Look for tiny black dots of vanilla bean. It pays to read the label.

The Paris vanilla map 🗺 will go to la poste 📮 on Monday. It is waiting for you in my Etsy shop. 

 ❤️ I saw today Hotel de Ville has Ukraine’s flags flying ❤️

                      🇺🇦🌻❤️🇺🇦🌻❤️🌻🇺🇦❤️🌻🇺🇦❤️

Marches des Producteurs

Back to French farmers marches in the streets. This time Marches des Producteurs on Bd de Reuilly12th arron.

 

Saucisse sautéed on the spot - the aromas put you in the right frame of mind.

Crowds form when there's cooking going on.
 

Onion beignets frying up.

But I saved my euros...

For this gorgeous bottle of vinagre a la framboise from la Comtesse de Chateau Merle. The look was so enticing, jam-packed with berries.

I bought a bunch of Laurel/Bay leaves too. I better get a French cookbook soon.

I did make apple compote and tossed in a vanilla pod today. Perfection.

Vin chaud. Tis is the season. It will be everywhere but I'll end up on the floor out cold if I down half a cup.

The Raspberry lady from Pari Fermier was here too. These farmers make the rounds on the weekends and produce like crazy during the week on their farms.They come up with endless variations on a theme whether the product is honey, walnuts or raspberries.

Sheep yogurt in a wide variety of flavors including chestnut. I meant to go back...

A sheep from the Alps-Pyrenees at Salon Saveurs, another food fair.

Salon Saveurs was at Porte de Versailles this weekend.  There are farmers but more distributers, so more polished and less hay. Still very fun.

I almost got vanilla pods from Tahiti (2 gousses for 10 euros). They were so much more delicate and fragrant than the Bourbon beans. regret not diving in.

Duck/canard at both food fairs in every form under the sun including almost life size chocolate.

At both marches the tastes are endless. The French are discerning from an early age.

Shopping is much more fun than the high-end department stores at the marches too. And the interchange is informing and friendly.

You won't find these big home-made nut tartes at l'Epicerie or at these prices.

I got my snails last night.
 

They were delicious. A PBer from Australia said, there's an awful lot of food at Parisbreakfast these days. Heading into the holidays, which begin much earlier in France, it will be difficult to avoid. I'll try for balance but preparation for holidays/fetes commences here with passion.

The next Marches des Producteurs will be on Square des Batignolles in the 17th arrondissement December 7 - 8. Don't miss it if you want to sample fresh foods straight from the farm in the city.

The Christmas windows on PB tomorrow.
 

La Vanille

Choux a la crème vanille - but It's a choux a la the vert, framboise by Laurent Duchene.

Where ever did the expression 'plain vanilla' come from?

There is absolutely nothing 'plain' about vanilla. I was given two pods to paint at Frederic Cassels. That's PODS not beans please.

I didn't know vanilla pods come from orchids. How plain is that?

Europeans first discovered vanilla in Mexico when Cortez offered them unsweetened cocoa with added the black pod or tlilxot chitl.to temper the bitterness. Mexico held the monopoly on vanilla cultivation until the 19th century because of the local Melipona bees used for pollination. Vanilla didn't arrive in France until 1812 and then was used only for decorative purposes. Not till 1836, a Belgian botanist, Charles Morren discovered by chance the process of artificial pollination. A t the same time a slave on Reunion Island crushed a vanilla flower in his hand and a few days later it turned into a pod. This simple manual method is still used today. Each orchid flower is pollinated by hand one by one. Who knew vanilla required as complex a process as wine or chocolate to grow and develop. More information here. 

There were quite a few vanilla suppliers at the Salon du Chocolat.

As usual I got sucked in and bought a glass tube of 10 Bourbon Madagascar pods(10 euros) though I don't bake at all, from Tahitian Vanille du Tahiti.

And I bought a Balsamic-vanilla spray vinaigre which I can actually use, though not this intriguing jar of dehydrated seeds. Must remember to take up baking soon with all these gorgeous ingredients offered.

The absolute Mecca for Vanilla is Epices Roellinger at 51 bis, rue Sainte-Anne 75002. There are two other shops in Brittany.

A whole floor is devoted to a treasure trove of rare vanilla pods.

I must go back and find out more.

The newest issue #10 of Relais Desserts is devoted to La Vanille to pique my curiosity even further. Many of the recipes are and the cover are by MOF pastry chef Laurent Duchene. Late yesterday I went out on a mission to the 13th arr. 2, rue Wurtz.

Searching for vanilla infused desserts though everything looked supremely tempting.

Safe and sound at home after surviving rush hour chrush. I must try to set out earlier on these missions.

I did forget to notice Duchene's baba au rhum graced the new issue's cover...hmmm.

Inside Relais Desserts this smashing photo by photographer Laurent Fau of a mille feuille sitting on a bed of vanilla pods.

If you have the free Relais Desserts app you can see if your local patissiere is a member and run pick up a copy of the latest (free)fabulous issue. And if you bake you're set up for the holidays: glace vanilla et soupe de fruits exotiques, Riz a l'imperatrice, cake vanille, choux a la crème, and crème brulee.  

Meanwhile I'll head back to Laurent Duchene for the baba and to Epices Roellinger for further vanille investigations.