Holiday on Hvar

We hit the Homeaway jackpot! The beautiful house that we rented on the island of Hvar, outside the town of Stari Grad, in the tiny village of Rudina, was exactly what we were looking for: relaxing, close to the water and ruggedly beautiful. The wonderful couple, Mare and Ankica, who's family has owned the land for more than 500 years, stayed in the home next door and provided helpful recommendations about what to do each day and told colorful stories about what life was like in the former Yugoslavia.

Mare and Ankica with Heffe

We spent our days exploring the island, hiking on the rocks around the Bay, preparing meals with fresh food from the garden, dining out at delicious restaurants and drinking local wine and brandy.

The structure of the house is more than 500 years old

The Kabal peninsula is a 10 min. walk from the house.

The highlight of our stay was the incredible meal Ankica prepared for us. It consisted of bruschetta with anchovies, sheep cheese and olives, squid ink risotto, Octopus peka, fresh salad and tomatoes, flan, plums and local white wine. All of the ingredients were fresh and came directly from the island. Mare and Ankica were so nice, they let us keep the leftovers!

Ankica preparing the peka

The finished product: Octopus peka, a Croatian specialty

Le Marais by Mouth

In the course of researching restaurants in Paris, I found the blog Paris By Mouth that seemed to have good recommendations on the best places to eat in the city. I noticed that they also offered food walking tours of different areas of the city. I decided to splurge a bit and signed us up!

We were given instructions to come to a little bakery/cafe in the Marais at 10:00 am sharp. We decided to walk there from our hotel so it took about 30 minutes and it was lovely to see the city waking up on a Saturday morning. Once we arrived at the cafe, we met the other people in our group of 8. Surprisingly or unsurprisingly, most of them were young couples like ourselves and all of the girls were celebrating their birthdays.

Our guide was an adorable American woman who moved to Paris about 10 years ago after a life long love affair with French food and wine. She took us to a variety of shops and eateries and explained in detail about the different foods and drinks that we were sampling. It was a delightful way to spend an afternoon getting to know the Marais and swapping tips with other food-obsessed travelers.

Below is an overview of the places we went, all of which are worth a visit:

Poilâne bakery at 38 rue Debelleyme, 75003
This bakery served delicious pan au chocolate and is world renown for their true-to-tradition way of preparing the bread. Be sure to order a cafe creme, because if you don't already know, cappuccinos don't exist in Paris! Well, actually...they might at Starbucks.

Jouannault cheese shop at 39 rue de Bretagne, 75003
This place was off the chain on a Saturday morning. We sampled various types of cheese, including a Roquefort, Brie with truffles and Comte. Our guide explained that Roquefort is literally aged in rocks and thats where it gets its name.

Caractère de Cochon at 42 rue Charlot 75003
A wonderful couple runs this shop and they had a great time telling us (in English) about where the different charcuterie comes from and why some countries have hard meats (Germany) and why others have lighter ones (Spain). It all has to do with the wind patterns and the way the meats are aged. Pretty interesting stuff.

Marché des Enfants Rouge
About half of the places we went to were located around this adorable market that I am sure I would shop at every weekend, if I lived in Paris. Its definitely worth checking out for the beautiful, fresh food and there are several places that you can stop to grab a bite to eat.

Goumanyat spice shop at 3 rue Charles-Francois Dupuis, 75003
If you are interested in taking home some souvenirs, this is the place to get them! This store is a cook's dream, stocked with every single spice or cooking additive you could imagine.

Jacques Genin chocolate shop at 133 rue de Turenne, 75003
This place is run by a very eccentric man who takes perfectionism to the extreme, so much so that he only serves his signature pastries once every 3 months. By some stroke of luck, we happened to be there on one of those days and got to try famous bicycle wheel (I forget how to say it in French) and it was amazing.  Even if its not one of the special pastry days, you still have to go to this place to try the amazing candies. I had a mango flavored carmel that changed. my. life.

Birthday in the Best City in the World, Paris!

After the TGV from Stuttgart delivered us to the heart of the 10th district at Paris Est in less than 3 hours, we were in celebration mode and ready to eat and drink our way through the City of Light.

We quickly stashed our bags in a locker and walked 20 minutes along the Quai to Restaurant Pierre Sang in Oberkampf. I had first read about this restaurant in an NYT article and was intrigued to see how Sang combined his South Korean heritage and his French upbringing in his cooking. The meal did not disappoint. For a mere 35 euro per person, we enjoyed a 5 course lunch (wine extra) that was inventive and delicious. The waiters changed it up a bit by presenting the food, letting us try it, then coming back to see if we could guess what it was. I don't want to toot my own horn, but I was pretty good at it. I was even able to identify the tripe course. Oh yeah, you should probably be willing to try anything when you go because its a tasting menu, meaning the chef presents what he pleases.

Although stuffed from lunch, we managed to find room for dinner at Bistrot Paul Bert. While generally recognized as one of the best Parisian bistros by almost every dining authority, we weren't particularly wowed by the experience. Sure, the steak was tasty and the sauce savory, but it seemed overhyped. Not to mention everyone in the restaurant was American. I guess we need to keep searching for our authentic Parisian bistro.

The next night was the eve of my 30th birthday so we decided to go all out. L'Ami Jean seemed like a fun place, they spoke English on the phone and accepted our reservation so that's about all we could ask for! Located in a residential part of the 7th, this restaurant was a little hole in the wall and barely noticeable from the street. Inside was a different story. The place was a non-stop whizz and whirl of waiters rushing around cracking jokes with the cooks in the back yelling and shouting instructions to each other. Guests were crammed practically on top of each other so a romantic evening was definitely out the window. However, we were seated next to a very friendly, food obsessed couple from Singapore, so we had a great time exchanging opinions on which restaurants and cafes have best food in the city.  We opted for the tasting menu and a bottle of red burgundy. Immediately we were presented with an appetizer of pate with rustic farm bread. We were served wonderful food over the course of the night but the highlight of the meal was the risotto with a squid ink sauce topped with shaved squid. I also loved the ride pudding with salted carmel for dessert.

For my birthday brunch, Kent found Un Dimanche a Paris in the heart of St. Germaine. Attached to a very famous chocolate atelier, we dined on baguettes with chocolate, smoked salmon omelets and assorted pastries, before packing up and catching the train back to Stuttgart.