Picnic

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 Day 56
We were going to try to leave at 10:30 this morning for a picnic, but we had issues with our phone and spent more than half an hour struggling with it before we finally got everything straightened out. We needed it taken care of because we installed our picnic-buying itinerary on the phone and had to ensure that we could access it. We finally set out for the subway about 11:15. Fortunately, the first stop on the spending spree entailed buying a baguette, and we managed to score one hot out of the oven. Delicious! The second stop involved ice cream cones which, of course, had to be eaten immediately, so our stomachs were good to go for another hour of shopping before finally settling down to eat. Next we located a very special chocolate shop called Patrick Roger Chocolates. Of course we had to go there and buy some chocolates. We bought mostly caramels, but some other chocolates as well. From there we went to a Tunisian pastry shop, which, when we first entered it, looked more like a fancy jeweler in an intensely blue room with wares under glass globes, but instead the shop sold gemlike Middle Eastern sweets. We bough some meticulous quarter-size pistachio and pine nut confections, made with phyllo dough, rich nut bases, fragrant floral essences and beautifully arranged as if they were flower buds. Our purchase of five tiny sweets were packaged in a beautiful blue box. Next we dropped in on Pierre Hermé for some more wonderful sweets. We bought a pink hamburger-shaped pastry called an Ispahan, which is his signature pastry, made up of fresh raspberries, macarons and litchi cream. We also picked up a croissant and a couple of canneles, which are small caramel-coated bread and which, if warm, would taste divine, but we had to settle for outstanding. We dropped into yet another patisserie for some macarons, then moved on to a boulangerie, or bread bakery, for some miche bread, which is made in loaves the size of a football helmet, but which they are happy to sell in quarters or halves as well as the whole enchilada. The gentleman who established this particular boulangerie had a reputation as the most famous bread baker in the world, and he lived the celebrity lifestyle to prove it. He had a private island, his own helicopter, mailed Robert De Niro daily loaves and made art with Salvador Dalí, including a famous bread birdcage from which the bird ate its way to freedom.
Since we had dessert upon dessert, and some bread, we needed a little more substance, so we went to Le Grande Epicerie de Paris. I thought I was dreaming. Whatever upscale grocery stores you have ever shopped in, this one puts all the rest to shame. It was fantastic, and I could have spent the afternoon there. But we were getting hungry by this time, so we settled on some Italian ham because they were out of the recommended Spanish ham. We were supposed to buy our cheese at the next stop, then go to a park for our picnic, but the phone, where we put the buying itinerary, ran out of battery power about the time we entered the Grand Epicerie, so we picked up some cheese there, just taking a stab at something because the cheese counters are so overwhelming. We settled on some flaked parmesan cheese, which turned out to be a good choice. We bought some juice drinks to go with our meal and walked to a nearby park to eat, as it was pushing 2:00 by this time and the baguette and ice cream had pretty much worn off. The bread, cheese and ham were quite delicious. We had no knife, so we just pulled the bread off and ate it along with fingerfulls of cheese and the ultra-thin slices of ham. Most of the desserts we brought back to the apartment to eat as we were too full and too tired to eat them on our picnic. Very enjoyable day. I owe thanks to Francis Lam at Salon for the recommendations, and to Ariela (I think) who posted the link on Facebook. Oops! Sorry - I mis-attributed this. Cindy is the one who posted it on Facebook. Thanks, Cindy. It was superb!