These posts are little out of order.  This one talks about September 25th, my (Maxine's) birthday.  While I'll admit that I'm starting to hate getting older, it's pretty big consolation to celebrate in Paris!




I had a lovely day starting with a trip to the local outdoor food market on Blvd Raspail.  After lunch, I stopped by an open house for WICE, an organization that offers courses and cultural programs for the English speaking community in Paris, followed by a walk in beautiful weather, and then dinner at a favorite restaurant, Verjus.  This is when I have to confess that I'm a terrible food blogger since I forgot to take photos of all the courses, especially the main course.  But here is what we ate.  Each course had a wine pairing too.

First course was 5 canapes, all great flavor combinations in small bites.



Grilled peppers with a tarragon and parsley sauce

What an American restaurant might describe of chickpeas 2 ways, in a socca (looks like pita bread here) and in hummus with many fresh herbs.  Tom just saw this photo and told me again how good this was!

Eggs with peach -- not an adequate description for a delicious dish

Potato nests with fig and heirloom carrots (on the skewer) grilled with plum sauce which was the most surprising dish both in appearance and taste!

Second course was a combination of peppers, raspberry and octopus.  Again great flavors but could have used more octopus (Maxine) or none at all (how Tom's dish was served).

Third course --Eggplant caviar on bed of almond milk with blinis.  And, yes, there was actual caviar (farmed in France) on the eggplant caviar.

Here is where the combination of good food and wine made me careless/complacent.  I forgot to photograph the main course which was a steak tartare made with lightly smoked beef and served with a corn risotto and bone marrow.  I'm not a big bone marrow fan since I don't like the texture but the smoked beef made into a tartare was outstanding.


There were two desserts but I only have a photo of one -- a rice pudding with fig, dried raspberries and meringue.  The crunch from the raspberries and the meringue really added to the dish.

The second dessert was fruit in Compari which was a refreshing end to the meal.

A great birthday celebration!


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