Flashback: Oysters in Paris

oysters
Originally uploaded by Kit Pollard.

Cooper and I are going to Paris for a few days next month - it'll be his first visit to the city. I can't wait, of course. I've been thinking a lot lately about the last time I went to Paris, which was almost nine years ago and right around the same time I started this blog. I was with Cooper's sister, Missy, and his cousins Sarah (aka Sarah G.) and Gilly.

It was hilarious and ridiculous and so fun. Our last night there, we had a totally gluttonous meal that started with a ginormous seafood tower.

I'd eaten a lot of oysters before that night and I've eaten a lot since. But that's still one of my most memorable seafood experiences. This is what I wrote about it at the time:

Our last meal in Paris was a big one - we wanted to eat absolutely everything we hadn't yet had, and we almost did. Unfortunately, none of us ate any onion soup while there, but that was just about the only thing we missed.

Our meal started with some of the more exciting food we ate: fines de claires (oysters) with crevettes roses (shrimp) and bulots (what we think are periwinkles). The oysters were served with a delicious vinegar and shallot sauce that perfectly balances the salt and sweetness of the oysters. And the bulots, tiny snail-like creatures in little shells, were served with a homemade mayonnaise (that I tried and liked - convincing me that I do like mayonnaise, just not the store-bought type).

When the seafood was brought to our table, we were all more than a little overwhelmed - it came on large platters that made it look like a meal for forty. Somehow, though, our American appetites got us through it. After the first course, we had escargots, steak au poivre with potatoes dauphinoise, and a firm white fish. And dessert, too.

And ate nearly every bite of it.

So the next morning, as we ate our final croissants at the airport (fresh and delicious, despite the fact that we were at the airport) we all felt as though we'd done our stomachs justice in Paris. And though I did crave American food on the flight home...four days later I'm now ready to go back.