There’s no shortage of chocolate shops in Paris. Many of them are concentrated in areas like the Marais or Left Bank, which are swankier places set up shop, but offer easy access. So in what are called the “double-digit” arrondissements, you’ll find more quirky places, and you’ll never know what you might come across if you wander around them. Having dinner one night at Churrasqueira…
Paris is known for its classical ice cream shops, as well as a few Italian-style gelaterias, but until a few years ago, there weren’t any young people forging out on their own, churning up more contemporary flavors of ice cream and sorbet for modern palates. Don’t get me wrong, I love glace au chocolat and glace au caramel beurre salé, but I’m no fuddy-duddy, and…
Update: La Newyorkina closed in January, 2021. You can still get La Newyorkina products online and at selected outlets. More on their website. Before my first trip to Mexico a number of years ago, I didn’t know Mexico was a country known for its ice cream (helado), let alone an array of other delicious sweets. I wandered through panaderias (bakeries) with the metal tray and tongs they gave…
A French friend recently said to me “On ne peut pas tout avoir” – “You can’t have it all.” But with mangoes, I feel like I can. Soft, sweet flesh, sometimes with a hint of spice, and easy to peel, mangoes just may be the perfect fruit. When I lived in California, they were blissfully in season during the spring, bridging the gap between when last of the winter fruits…
Not long after I’d arrived in Paris, I met Jacques Genin. At the time, he was working out of a small workshop deep in the 15th arrondissement. Inside, he and his team of five or so worked in a very tight space: A large table where they worked sat in the center of the room, taking up probably 90% of the space, enrobing machines…
I first met Jacques Genin a number of years ago when he was (somewhat famously) working out of a battered storefront, on an uninteresting street deep in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. I say “famously” because as he became quite a bit better known, many folks learning about him through Mort Rosenblum’s book, Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Light and Dark. And subsequently, people started…
The French have their paradoxes and so do Americans. Which was something I discovered over and over again while I was exploring New York with an especially inquisitive Frenchman in tow. There were lots of questions, like when watching television, it’s tricky to explain why there’s a commercial for people stuffing their faces from all-you-can-eat buffet for $6.99 suddenly followed by an ad pushing low-calorie…
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