Paris (2022) - Raviolis Chinois Nord-Est, Motors Coffee (again), and Chez Taeko

We arrived in Paris from Edinburgh just before 8pm. We had some decent food in the Air France Lounge in Edinburgh and also on the flight.

We arrived at CDG close to 8pm, then caught the RER to Les Halles. We made good time and since we'd be staying for five nights, I managed to get us a VRBO I'd been wanting to stay at that had a 5 night minimum. Granted, Les Halles may not be the most glamorous of areas, but our flat was on the 6th floor (since this is Europe, it's the 7th floor by US standards), but it had a lift. And while you may not think this view of Les Halles is anything to write home about.

Just raise your eyes a bit.

Yep, that's the Eiffel Tower to the left and Saint Eustache to the right. We would never tire of this view.

The Missus and I weren't quite ready to call it a night, so we headed over to our favorite street in Paris, Rue Montorgueil. Man, it was super busy, even on a Monday night.

Like I mentioned in one of my posts on the first leg of this trip, it was super busy, like Covid never happened. Well, at least this was outdoors.

We made our "rounds" then headed back down St Denis when we decided to grab a "small bite" to eat. The place we chose? Ravioli Chinois Nord-Est. To translate, "ravioli Chinois" = Jiaozi! We had enjoyed out time in Scotland, don't get me wrong, but the Missus was missing Asian food and some late evening Jiaozi sounded like fun.

The place was fairly busy, though there were a couple of empty tables. The customers were mostly Parisians with a few Chinese sprinkled in. I started to appreciate the varied tastes of Parisians on this trip as it seems they were quite open to trying and enjoying various cuisines. The Missus got to use Her Mandarin and we got the house beer....the namesake of Her hometown. Having come from Scotland where the weather was fairly cool, it just seemed so hot in Paris. So this helped pave the way to getting us adjusted.

We started with some Liang Cai - cold dishes, the stir fried potato strings and five spiced beef.

The beef had a nice five spice flavor, but was really dry and tough. The potato strings were fine, nothing special, but the vinegar helped cool us off.

As for the Jiaozi.....

We got the Pork and Cabbage dumplings....they used napa cabbage in this (whew). The wrapper was too brittle and lacked a decent "pull", the fillings though were quite tasty, well seasoned and moist and tender. This is pretty much on scale with the higher level jiaozi in San Diego.

While the food didn't blow us away, this was a fun stop, and the Missus and I had a nice time reminiscing about a trip that seems oh so long ago now. And man, the place seemed to be a popular late evening stop.

Raviolis Chinois Nord Est
115 Rue Saint-Denis
75001 Paris, France

We headed back to the apartment and enjoyed our view for a few minutes before heading off into dreamland.

The next morning we woke and just lounged around for a while. I had a baguette making class scheduled in the afternoon so we decided to do some shopping. 

But first we headed over to Motors Coffee and this time we had a seat outside on the sidewalk.

The Missus thought Her Geisha "drip", what they call a pour over here was decent. I had an Americano which was quite good. We'd end up visiting one more time during our stay.

Motors Coffee
7 Rue des Halles
75001 Paris, France

From here we headed over to the Marais and just did our lèche-vitrine (window shopping) thing. We stopped into a location of Signorini Tartufi, we had first come across this shop in Avignon....yes, never got those posts done because Covid just kinda waylaid my travel posts. Perhaps I'll do a summary one day because we had a fabulous time. Anyway Signorini Tartufi is a favorite for gifts and stuff for ourselves as well.

Signorini Tartufi Paris Bretagne (Locations all over France)
3 Rue de Bretagne
75003 Paris, France

We also "finally" (we'd walked past this shop several times in the past) took some time to check out Comptoirs Richard, a tea & coffee shop on Rue Bretagne.

The Missus spent a good amount of time here and even sampled some of the teas available. She ended up buying several bags as gifts and for Herself.

Comptoirs Richard
45 Rue de Bretagne
75003 Paris, France

She also bought some treats from La Maison du Chocolate as well.

La Maison du Chocolat Bretagne
14 Rue de Bretagne
75003 Paris, France

By now it was time for lunch. There was a place in Marché des Enfants-Rouges that I wanted to check out. Marché des Enfants-Rouges is the oldest food market in Paris, established in 1615! These days, as much as folks are shopping for groceries, the market is known for their food stalls. There was one in particular I was interested in.

This food stall is called Chez Taeko and serves up bentos, combinations, donburi, and the like. If you're eating at one of the counters or tables, you have a seat and they'll take your order. I got the Chicken Karaage and the Missus a Chirashi.  Even though there's some hustle and bustle, this is Paris, so folks aren't talking loudly, so we enjoyed the vibe.

We ate at the counter.

I enjoyed my chicken karaage, the batter was more on the crunchy side, but it was good. The sauce had a nice sweet-soy flavor and the chicken was moist. The tempura broccoli was nice, light and crisp as were the tsukemono. The rice however was terrible, hard and chewy.

That rice situation made the Missus's Chirashi not as enjoyable as my bento.

The salmon was quite good, nice and fresh, the maguro was just passable, not the highest quality; the ebi was fine as well. That rice however....man, a whole bowl of it!

We did enjoy the service, which in spite of all the customers was really efficient and the staff, all Japanese were so pleasant. So, when I walked up to pay our bill, the woman spoke to me in Japanese, I understood some of it. But when I submitted my credit card she switched to English. This was when it hit me....they knew I was American as soon as the chip on my card didn't work by tapping it on the device! I started noticing this at other businesses as well. Interesting, huh?

Chez Taeko
Marché des Enfants-Rouges
37 Rue Charlot
75003 Paris, France

We headed back to the apartment to drop off our packages.

Before we headed back out.

I would be taking a baguette class for the rest of the afternoon and the Missus would be exploring Paris solo. This was going to be interesting.

Comments

[kat]

sounds like the beginnings of fun adventures:)

[Kirk]

We had a great time Kat!

[Edward]

Rue Montorgueil is one of our favorite streets as well and we spend the holidays in a VRBO above Pasage du Grand Cerf nearby. Also check our Rue Daguerre, perhaps even a better market street than Montogueil.

[Kirk]

I recall you mentioning that apartment in previous comments Edward, it's a fun and convenient area! I do have Rue Daguerre on my "list", though we really aren't in the Montparnasse area too often! Thanks for the recommendation!

[Som Tommy]

Funny that you go to Paris and get a bento

[Kirk]

Well, if it's good it's good ST!