Le Salon Saveurs

The first Sunday of each month is free museum day in Paris. We've been meaning to take advantage of this opportunity since we arrived and our plan was to go to the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris's museum of modern art.

However, on our way home from running errands on Saturday night, I spotted a billboard in the metro station for a salon taking place over the weekend. Impulsively, we decided to postpone our trip to the Pompidou and go to the salon instead.

One of our favorite things about living in Paris is the myriad of salons that take place seemingly every weekend. A salon can best be described as an indoor exposition or show, and they're usually held at a convention center or exhibition hall. We've only attended two salons, the Salon du Chocolat and the one I'm about to describe below, but we've seen billboards in the metro stations and around the city advertising others that usually take place over a weekend. These include salons devoted to tea; cheese; weddings; certified organic products (known here as Agriculture Biologique or AB); farmers' and artisanal products; swimming and aquasports; women's health; sports and fitness; and a salon devoted entirely to celebrating Christmas!

On Sunday, we attended the Salon Saveurs des Plaisirs Gourmands, a food show focusing on (mostly) French artisanal products. Here, purveyors and producers set up elaborate tables and displays and come to talk about and sell their products, most of them offering samples.

This twice-yearly food show held at the Espace Champerret in the 17th arrondissement was a food lover's fantasy come true! Over the course of a little over 3 hours, the three of us tasted our way through stalls upon stalls of delicious products, met friendly food artisans from all over France, and filled up on some tasty goodies to bring home. The December edition apparently has a special focus on Christmas delicacies in France -- foie gras, oysters, truffles, glazed chesnuts, chocolate, champagne -- and there was a section this year with specialties from Italy.

We made an effort to arrive on the early side, and it's a good thing we did because by the time we left, the exhibition hall was rather crowded, being a Sunday and all. The show was set up in two huge halls, with a myriad of small stands at which you could taste and buy a great variety of products. The moment we walked in, we were immediately offered samples of cheese, charcuterie, fresh and canned seafood, condiments, foie gras, olive oil, cookies, fresh fruit juices, honey, jam, chocolate, dried fruit, bread, cakes, pastries, candy, cooking equipment, wine, beer... and a host of other foods too many to remember. The food producers were very friendly and helpful, not to mention generous with their samples.

All that sampling tired us out after a bit, so we decided to sit down and relax with a cleverly designed plate of a dozen raw oysters, complete with a lemon wedge and a built-in cup holder for a bit of white wine! We were also given some butter for the slices of wheat toast that were neatly placed in baskets on all of the tables.

David noticed a cluster of people gathered around eating something creamy, gooey, thick out of bowls. We watched the servers stirring a vat of what looked like mashed potatoes with an oar and decided we had to have some. Indeed we found that it is the best thing to have happened to mashed potatoes.

Aligot (pronounced "ah-lee-go") is a specialty from the Auvergne region of France and is a mixture of mashed potatoes, tomme cheese, cream, butter, and garlic. The result? An elastic-y, out-of-this-world version of mashed potatoes that's warm, filling, fun to eat, and soooo delicious!

Emmett enjoyed a few bites, too. Not only have we found a restaurant that serves it in Paris, but we found a recipe, too, so we'll definitely make it for you once we perfect this elastic-y version of mashed potatoes. We've been dreaming about aligot ever since we got home (and kicking ourselves for not ordering another bowl...).

After sampling more tasty treats, we shared a bowl of the most delicious little raviolis ever, simply bathed in just a few swirls of olive oil. The little pillows were warm and tender and filled with the perfect ratio of cheese to pasta. Naturally, we had to sample the ice cream so we backtracked through the hall until we located the one vendor selling ice cream, Monsieur Fabien Foenix, a.k.a. Mister Ice. I had a scoop each of the chocolat mendiant (chocolate with bits of almonds and dried fruit) and the caramel au beurre salé (caramel of salted butter) while David had a scoop each of the cassis (red currant) and pomme verte (green apple) sorbets. He also sampled some wines and a delicious cognac he's still talking about today.

Best of all, because the subject matter was delicious food, everyone was in a festive mood! A woman accidentally brushed against me and apologized profusely; another woman picked up Emmett's little container of food that rolled away from me; a man backed into me and said "pardonnez-moi" twice; lots of people "tres mignon"-ed Emmett; and a woman tasting wine next to us struck up a friendly conversation. Artisans and purveyors were welcoming and took their time answering our questions. It almost felt like one big cocktail party with everyone standing aroung munching, drinking, and chatting happiy about the food. We saw many people pulling caddies and small dollies, filled to the brim with their favorite treats, perhaps to give away as gifts.

The three of us all went home exhausted but happy, with Emmett's backpack full of goodies (move over, diapers!). Here's what we brought home:

• A jar of marron glace confiture (candied chestnut jam) that I was told would be good on my morning baguette with butter, on a crepe, or with yogurt or fromage blanc.
  
• A little sack of chocolate-covered Sauternes grapes. David took one sample and had to buy some to take home.
  
• A bag of pruneaux d'agen, the best prunes we've ever tasted. They are moist, tender, and sweet with a hint of chocolate. I made a lamb tagine last week that called for prunes and David loved it, wondering why we've never cooked with prunes before. This trip has opened my eyes to the possibilities of prunes!
  
• Two kinds of dry-cured pork sausages (the green one is covered in herbs). This was our first purchase because it was one of the first things we sampled.
  
• A little jar of pavés de raisin (pâte de fruits). Little cubes of fruit jellies that taste just like eating Muscat grapes.
  
• A pot of creme de marron or chestnut creme. I've been eating and buying all the chestnut products I can while I'm here because it's such a French food and much more expensive in the U.S.
  
• A small bag of a dried herb mix for rubbing on lamb. Our friend Jim loves lamb, so we picked this up for him.
  
• A block of demi-sel beurre or slightly salted butter from Monsieur Jean-Yves Bordier. His butter -- le Beurre Bordier -- is a beurre de baratte which is butter that's taken at a certain temperature/texture, then beaten/worked/relaxed with two small wooden paddles. It was fun to watch the gentleman shave a hunk off of a huge block of butter and pat it into a perfect rectangle with his paddles. We came home and immediately spread this on some fresh campagne bread...so simple and so decadent. David keeps asking, "How does pure butter get so yellow?"
  
• A bottle of muscat wine from the Alsace region that David sampled and loved.
  

Here's a picture of our loot!


I hope we can come back for another show in the near future. This was definitely not to be missed....