20 Little Cities » Food

Maison POS, Paris: Daily deliveries of fresh, seasonal organic food.

admin — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:20:42 +0000

Maison POS in Paris is a tiny food store that opened in December 2010. It has a small selection of seasonal and organic produce (if not organic it is pesticide-free) as well as some carefully selected dairy products (cheeses and yogurts), charcuterie, wines and ciders. Maison POS in Paris buys directly from the producers and chooses to buy in small amounts to get a quick turnaround of their products, thus ensuring their freshness. Maison POS makes a big pot of soup every day (flavor of the day on their black board) and it is sold to go with some organic bread. They sell oysters on the weekend!

Maison POS
90 Rue de Charonne
75011 Paris
tel: 01.43.70.83.01
Metro: Charonne

7/7
M: 5pm-9.30pm
Tu-F: 11am-2.30pm / 5pm-9.30pm
Sat: 10.30am-2pm / 5pm-9pm
Sun: 1pm-2.30pm / 5pm-9pm

K mart: A Korean and Japanese supermarket in Paris.

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:52:31 +0000

K mart is the new Asian supermarket in Paris to go to for Korean food as well as Japanese products. This is the only place I know of where one can purchase non-filtered sake in Paris. Alongside the sushi grade fish and the fresh meat counters is the produce shelves with shitake, enoki and shimeji brown mushrooms, daikon radishes, shiso leaves, fresh ginger, red and green chillis… Also, don’t miss the supermarket cafeteria for a quick lunch or food to go.

K mart
6-8 Rue Sainte Anne
75001 Paris
tel: 01.58.62.49.09
Metro: Pyramides, Palais-Royal - Musée du Louvre

Open 7/7
M-Sun: 10am-9pm

Le Panier Bio: A basket full of organic produce for pick up at a store near you.

admin — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:22:33 +0000

If you don’t have time to shop for organic seasonal produce at your farmer’s market or at your local health food store there is always the other nice option of stopping by one of your neighborhood shops (a flower shop, wine bar, cheesemonger, bakery…) and picking up a basket full of fruits and vegetables already put together by the producer himself. Those baskets can also be delivered to your work place or at your home. In buying the Panier Bio you not only contribute to sustainable agricultural practices and support the local farmers but you also eat organic and save yourself some quality time avoiding the long lines at the supermarket. You might even find yourself titillated by having to learn how to cook vegetables you never heard of before—Mon Panier Bio knows you might need help with that and has some recipes on its website. Mon Panier Bio lists all of the associations providing baskets of organic produce for delivery or pick up, and their pick up locations in Paris.
Following are links to several websites who offer different Panier Bio options:

Bio Culture
Bio Culture offers different sizes of baskets with the option of adding or subtracting some produce of your choice. It also offers the option of a “baby basket” with fruits and vegetables that can easily be pureed. Baskets can be delivered at home or be picked up at specific shops in Paris’ 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th and 20th arrondissements.

Tous Primeurs
Most of the produce sold at Tous Primeurs are picked the day before they are delivered and a new selection of produce is offered every week. There are different sizes of baskets for different needs (single, couple or family.) Home or work deliveries require a minimum of 4 subscribers (or a minimum order of 4 baskets.) The pick up locations for Tous Primeurs in Paris are numerous.

123 Bio
123 Bio offers 4 different kinds of baskets: all vegetables, all fruit (from May to October only), a mixture of fruit and vegetables (1-2 kinds of fruits, 6-7 kinds of vegetables) and the cabas bio ménagère (a basket filled with the ingredients needed for the sweet or savory recipe of the week.) 123 Bio also sells all different kinds of flours (wheat, buckwheat, spelt, rye), fruit juices (apple, cherry), 1st cold press oils (sunflower, rapeseed) and pastas. With a monthly membership 123 Bio will deliver the goods to your place every week.

Le Campanier
A little bit of the countryside in the city. Le Campanier offers 3 different kinds of baskets, a vegetable one, a fruit one and a mix of both fruit and vegetables. Basket orders should be made at the stores (also called les points relais) that Le Campanier delivers at, and should be placed a week ahead of time. Internet orders aren’t possible yet.

Couleurs Bio
This is sort of your organic online supermarket. You sign up with Couleursbio and shop online and they will deliver to your home or office. It sells everything from produce to meat, fish, dairy, food for pets, house cleaning products… With a membership you can get your basket of organic produce (different sizes depending on your needs) delivered to you weekly or every 15 days for the amount of weeks you sign up for. Deliveries are usually made within 48 hours of your order and will take place from Monday to Friday between noon and 10pm.

Dans Mon Panier Bio
Four different baskets of organic produce delivered to your home: two are assortments of seasonal fruits and vegetables already picked (small or big basket); one is an all-fruit basket and the fourth one is made up of fruit, vegetables and other foods picked by you. New selections of produce are offered every Monday. Orders an be placed until 8pm for next day delivery at home (4, 80€ fee if order is under 60€) or at the office. Payment can be done online or at time of delivery.

For more organic foods and products, here are a few shops and supermarkets in Paris:
Naturalia stores, in and outside of Paris. They are numerous and offer a wide variety of goods. They also deliver to your home.

Biocoop. With over 300 hundred stores in France and 9 in Paris, Biocoop is the leader in organic foods and fair trade goods resale in France.

Les Nouveaux Robinson co’op supermarkets sell bulk food, organic goods, green products and much more. They also offer online shopping. These 4 stores are located right outside of Paris city limits but can easily be reached by metro or bus.

Paris Bio
179 Rue St Denis
75002 Paris
tel: 01.40.13.08.40
Metro: Réaumur-Sébastopol, Etienne Marcel

Sur Les Quais in Paris: Gourmet tapenades, olive oils and specialty products.

admin — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:00:23 +0000

Sur Les Quais is located in the covered market Marché Beauvau in Paris’ 12th arrondissement (it is adjacent to the marché d’Aligre farmers’ market.) It sells quality regional products such as Spanish chorizo, lomo, jamón serrano, salchichon or the gourmet Ortiz canned tuna; Mediterranean first cold press olive oils (you can fill up your own bottle); mustards, spices, pain d’épices, artisan ice-creams… But what keeps me going to Sur Les Quais are the excellent tapenades, especially the green ones (€2,75/100g): lemon tapenade, basil tapenade, cilantro tapenade…

When shopping at Sur Les Quais do not miss the Graineterie du Marché, the great chocolate store Goût, Thé et Chocolat or my favorite wine shop in the Aligre neighborhood: Les Crus du Soleil.

Sur Les Quais
Marché Couvert Beauvau
Place d’Aligre
75012 Paris
tel: 01.43.43.03.16
Metro: Ledru-Rollin, Faidherbe-Chaligny

Tu-F: 9.30am-1pm / 4.30pm-7.30pm (only from 9.30am-1pm on Thursday)
Sat: 9.30am-1.30pm / 4pm-7.30pm
Sun: 9.30am-2pm
Closed on Monday and Thursday afternoon.

L’Épicerie de Bruno: Spices and herbs from all over the world in Paris.

admin — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 00:26:26 +0000

I was looking in vain for some hard-to-find smoked jalapenos peppers when I stumbled upon l’Epicerie de Bruno. If you are looking for some chipotle chiles in Paris, l’Epicerie de Bruno has them. It is a great little store who sells all sorts of spices from all over the world (Iranian saffron, bbq spices, balti masala, Argentinian chimichuri, habanero chile, ancho chile, mola chile, piquin chile, niora chila…), as well as lots of specialty salts and peppers, herbs (avocado leaves, hora santa leaves, hibiscus leaves, hyssop leaves, dried Thai basil…), specialty sugars (rose petal sugar, maple sugar, unrefined Bolivian sugar cane, palm sugar, Muscovado sugar…), specialty rice (squid ink risotto, Carnaroli rice, riz-au-lait, sushi rice…) Last but not least, are you looking for Allspice in Paris (Piment de la Jamaïque in French)? Search no further, head for l’Épicerie de Bruno. Now you can go home and make some proper hot apple cider!
All of l’Épicerie de Bruno’s goods are featured on the store’s website and can be purchased online.

L’Epicerie de Bruno
30 Rue Tiquetonne
75002 Paris
tel: 01.53.40.87.33
Metro: Etienne Marcel

Tu-Sat: 10.30am-7.30pm
(The shop will be open in December on Sunday 6, 13, 20)

Mexi&Co.: A Mexican grocery store/restaurant in Paris.

admin — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:03:42 +0000

Mexi&Co. is located in Paris’ Latin quarter and is definitely the place to visit if in need of canned or dried Mexican goods such as Serrano peppers, tomatillos, masa (cornmeal), nopales (prickly pear cactus pads), dried chili pods, hot sauce, chipotle, and tortilla chips (8€—at least it’s a big bag) or frozen corn tortillas (in a pack of 200). Mexi&Co. has enough on its shelves to help you cook a very decent Mexican meal, which is unquestionably a plus in a city like Paris where good (and cheap) Mexican restaurants are desperately lacking. Mexi&Co. is also a restaurant (I won’t talk about their food since I haven’t eaten there yet) and a catering company. Their menu offers classic items such as chips and salsa, guacamole, quesadillas, nachos and burritos. If you are looking for good tequila such as Patrón while in Paris (and you don’t mind paying twice it’s U.S price!) I know of two places where to find it: Izrael in the Marais and Publicis Drugstore’s Epicerie on the Champs-Elysées.

Mexi&Co.
10 Rue Dante
75005 Paris
tel: 01.46.34.14.12
Metro: Clunny - La Sorbone, Maubert-Mutualité

7/7
M-Sun: 9am-11pm (Food is served all day from 12pm-11pm)

La Graineterie du Marché in Paris: A picturesque seed store.

admin — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:12:27 +0000

Located on the famous Place d’Aligre, famous for its 6-day/week farmers’ market, La Graineterie du Marché in Paris is a specialty store that opened in 1895. It’s one of my favorite boutiques in the city because it makes me feel like I’m in the countryside, and reminds me of summer vacations at my grandparents’ in a small village in the west of France. When you walk in La Graineterie du Marché it seems as if you were entering a different time—it has the look and feel of a postwar shop with an Almodovar movie color scheme. Today the shop still sells a small selection of seeds (they can be found in the back room along with terracotta pots, glass jars and metal scoops) and some aromatic plants but mainly what you’ll find there are grains, specialty flours, spices, pasta, dried fruits, teas, a great selection of artisan jams and some old school candies such as the Pierrot Gourmand lollipop and the Carambar.

La Graineterie du Marché
8 Place d’Aligre
75012 Paris
tel: 01.43.43.22.64
Metro: Faidherbe-Chaligny, Ledru-Rollin

Tu-Sun: 9am-1pm / 4pm-7pm
Closed on Monday

IZRAEL in Paris: spices, condiments, olives, dried fruit…

admin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:07:03 +0000

Located behind Paris’ town hall, l’ Hotel-de-Ville, IZRAEL is like Ali Baba’s cave, a place full of culinary treasures. Spices, condiments, olives, pickled dills, dried fruits and nuts, canned goods, teas, liquors… IZRAEL sells food from the five continents. Some of their goods are really hard to find in Paris and finding out whether the store carried spicy paprika wasn’t a sufficient reason for me to go there - to my delight it turns out I can find both Patrón tequila and pimentón picante.

IZRAEL
30 Rue François Miron
75004 Paris
tel: 01.42.72.66.23
Metro: Hotel-de-Ville

Tu-F: 9.30am-1pm / 2.30pm-7pm
Sat: 9am-7pm
Closed on Sunday and Monday

Soboa: The best ravioli in Paris.

admin — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:45:44 +0000

Soboa, Specialità Italiane. Soboa is an Italian delicatessen in Paris, near Bastille. It is tended by an Italian couple who are always busy working in the back of the shop, making small pizzas and amazing colorful fresh ravioli. I highly recommend the spicy sun-dried tomato ravioli as well as the squid ink-cuttlefish ones. Servings are between 150-200 gr/person and cooking time is 3 minutes in boiling water, no more, no less. Count 2,95€/100 gr. Oh, and don’t leave Soboa without buying some bresaola and some of their homemade amaretti cookies! There is no eating in the shop, the food is only to go.

Soboa
187 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine
75011 Paris
tel: 01.43.79.07.00
Metro: Faidherbe-Chaligny

Tu,Th, F: 9am-1.45pm / 3.45pm-8pm
W, Sat: 9am-1.30pm / 3.45pm-8pm
Sun: 9am-1pm
Closed on Monday