Paris and Fat

Well it's official, I just not a good blogger. I do have an excuse - last Thursday I gave a talk on fat at Type books on the Danforth in Toronto. It was co-sponsored by Cook's Place and brave fat lovers came out in the pouring rain to hear me. They also risked missing the party leaders (Canadian) or the vice-presidential (American) debate.
For once I was glad to be over 50! A young lady in the group told me that she'd grown up eating nothing but vegetable oils and fake fats - oh dear! No wonder the younger generation packs on the pounds.
The next day I left for Paris, the one in France not Texas. And yes you guessed it, the first thing I did on arriving here was eat a freshly baked baguette slathered with good French butter. Now that I have been here a few days I am beginning to settle in - getting used to croissants for breakfast, slipping into cafés and knocking back a kir in the afternoon and going for dinner at 9pm. So I promise to try and blog more frequently to keep you up to date with la vie française.

Just to whet your appetite, look at the photograph below of the wonderful fatty lunch I ate yesterday. My husband and I had been at BHV (Le Bazar de l'Hôtel de la Ville) looking for a part to repair our shower. Renting helps pay our Paris apartment bills but it also means that for the first few days we are trying to find where the last tenants have put things and doing little repairs.
The basement of BHV is my husband's favourite store in Paris, it's the hardware section and he can spend hours just looking. Every time I descend those stairs I just want to scream. Well we found the shower part without too much trouble and then as we were hungry we went for lunch.

My husband spotted Le Fer à Cheval a few blocks east of BHV and we managed to snag a table just inside the door.
















Now perhaps you can make out a salad in the background that was husband's choice. Yes it had some greenery, but when the dish arrived, that greenery was hidden under slices of cured ham, smoked duck breast and toasts topped with melted chèvre cheese! I was more upfront with a platter of charcuterie, which included cooked and cured ham, cured sausage, pâté and rillettes, served with baguette and butter, of course. I had a glass of Morgon, I have become an amateur of Beaujolais, and my husband drank a beer called Pichon but more of that later.