16th
Some things I ate in a week in Europe
BERLIN:
*Rhubarb juice with sparkling mineral water. Tangy but a little sweet. Refreshing and summery. Where can I find this in NYC?
*A cappuccino with foam so perfect I ordered another immediately after finishing it. I think there’s just something in the air in Europe that makes the consistency so good.
*A giant glass bowl of muesli with the best yogurt I’ve ever tasted. Creamy and rich but with light texture, almost whipped.
*Chinese food
NICE:
*Many mini bottles of wine (rosé). When at happy hour, they are served with plates of tiny Niçoise olives.
*Transcendent eggplant. Seriously. It was not at all spongy but meaty, almost the consistency of a portabella mushroom, with a deep purple skin. (This was in the form of eggplant parmigiana at an Italian restaurant…an easy option for this shellfish-allergic vegetarian in a town full of seafood.)
*Chocolate mousse and a really good apple. I love visiting grocery stores when I go abroad. In Europe they have all sorts of tasty desserts in the yogurt section, so it feels like you’re eating something healthy (kind of).
*Cornichon, for breakfast, and slow scrambled eggs with so. much. cream.
PARIS:
*Delicious couscous at Chez Omar with really good hot sauce (apparently Sofia Coppola’s favorite restaurant. She wasn’t there. I looked.), where I had a nice chat with the maitre d’ (owner?) who has a daughter who lives on Bedford Avenue 8 blocks from me. He has visited Williamsburg five times and loves it.
*Several to many glasses of a nice red wine from Bergerac at an after-hours bar/music club/restaurant in a 3-story building built in 1611.
*The “best baguette” in Paris per Laura Holder at La Fougasse. It was v. v. good, and, coincidentally, I bought croissants to take home when I had a stopover there last summer.
*THE BEST CROISSANT OF MY LIFE (two mornings in a row).
*Half a bar of dark chocolate with crystallized violet flowers, from a shop right near the Luxembourg gardens.
*Lots of Perrier and probably 9 espressos/cafe au laits
*A massive plate of haricot vert and salad
*Other assorted glasses/bottles of wine.
BERLIN:
*Pizza (I don’t usually eat this in NYC so it seems notable).
*Fresh-squeezed juice
