Paris_ The Collected Traveler - Barrie Kerper [110]
I’ve long promised to try to make that pink risotto. I never have. I suspect I don’t want to disrupt the remembrance of that dinner along the Arno with my then boyfriend, now dear husband.
But as for that radish sandwich—it is a favorite that I crave every spring and summer. A baguette is perfect but radishes will stand up to any bread you like, including a whole grain. Spread the bread with good sweet butter, maybe an imported Irish or French butter because they usually have a higher butterfat content than those made in the U.S. For the radish, the slightly sweeter, elongated white-tipped radish is a great choice, but these can be difficult to find, even at farmers’ markets. So select round, firm red radishes that have a little waxy shine to their surface and minus any signs that they may have spent the last few weeks in a warehouse. Snip off the stems and roots, give a rinse, and cut each into thick slices. Arrange the slices—be generous—on the buttered bread and add a tiny pinch of your best salt (this is a time to use a precious fleur de sel if you have it).
Add a glass of cold, chalky Sancerre and it’s a perfect lunch or first course of a spring dinner.
RECOMMENDED READING
ABOUT FRENCH CUISINE
At Home in France: Eating and Entertaining with the French, Christopher Petkanas with photographs by Jean-Bernard Naudin (Phoenix, 1999). Four of the tables and maisons featured in this lovely book are in northern France—two in Paris, one in Beaujolais, and another in Brittany.
Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris, A. J. Liebling (North Point, 1986). This is one of those books that had reached legendary proportions in my mind before I even read it. It seemed to be mentioned in nearly everything I read about Paris. Predisposed as I was to like this book, it exceeded my expectations. With Liebling as a guide, I can taste the wine, hear the cutlery clanking, smell the Gitanes, and believe I’m sitting in a cane wicker chair at a Paris café.
The Cooking of Provincial France, M. F. K. Fisher with Julia Child (Time-Life, 1968). The collaborative effort to produce this book, one of the volumes in the Foods of the World series, was extraordinary, the likes of which we’ll probably never see again. (For a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the series, see “Viola, the Soufflé!,” Gourmet, January 2006.) Though long out of print, this and other Foods of the World editions turn up regularly at yard sales, in used-book stores, and on the Web.
Culinaria France, André Domine (HF Ullmann/Tandem Verlag, 2008). This thick volume is one in the very good Culinaria series, great for travelers: each book is filled with beautiful color photographs and the culinary specialties of each region are presented in depth, so that visitors will know what to expect to see at markets and on local menus. One chapter is devoted to Paris and the Île-de-France, covering such topics as Les Halles, Parisian breakfast, Jewish breads and other specialties, and everyday Parisian fare, while others focus on the surrounding areas of Champagne, Lorraine, Alsace, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Picardy, Normandy, Brittany, the Loire Valley, and Burgundy. Some recipes are included, but the Culinaria books are more informational than practical.
The Food of France, Waverley Root (Knopf, 1958; Vintage, 1992). “Eating habits,” says Root in the first chapter, “are part of our social habits, part of our culture, part of the environment, mental and physical, in which we live.” If your only vision of “French” food is limited to heavy sauces and butter, this definitive volume will open your eyes to the true diversity of France’s culinary map. There are separate chapters on the Île-de-France, Normandy, and Burgundy,