Sat, Aug 23 - Paris

11.06am - I had assumed that by this time of day, I would already have stuffed myself with an assortment of croissants, pains au chocolat, brioches and the like. But alas, it's 2am LA time, and in spite of all best intentions, there was just no way I could get myself to eat anything. I did get up early though to walk around and explore - and after a good bit of idle strolling ended up here: This is the window at Laduree, with what are supposedly the best macarons in Paris.

11.06am - more macarons at Laduree

11.11am - and these are the ones I actually managed to eat - thank god they're tiny: mint, violet-cassis, orange blossom and licorice. The mint one was the best, surprisingly. I had expected it to taste kind of like After Eight, in that fake mint kind of way, but instead it smelt and tasted like a fresh bundle of peppermint. Or some peppermint tea. You get the idea, real mint. The orange blossom one tasted a bit like soap, though. Violet-cassis was nice, considering it had a jam filling instead of ganache, and even licorice was good, not too obtrusive. Now I know where Paulette in Beverly Hills got their inspiration...

2.14pm - some amazing baguette de campagne, at Le Bistrot d'Henri on Rue Princesse, after an extensive outing to La Grande Epicerie at the Le Bon Marche (kind of like the Food Hall at Harrod's). My booty to feature on this blog in the future. to the extent that I can carry it back to LA...

2.15pm - salade d'haricots verts (green bean salad) with an incredibly delicious tarragon dressing (and I'm no friend of tarragon), at Le Bistrot d'Henri.

2.27pm - escalope de veau a la normande, avec des pates fraiches (veal escalope with a butter mushroom sauce and home made pasta), at Le Bistro d'Henri

2.51pm - un petit cafe creme

2.58pm - my bill - no idea how they get through the day with bills as vague as this and wildly diverging prices for their dishes. All it says is: 1 appetizer, 1 entree, 1 coffee.

3.14pm - and strolling back to Laduree - couldn't help myself...

3.24pm - Laduree have an interesting orientalist-colonialist tea salon in the back, and I still had hopes of trying one of their incredible, otherworldly looking cakes or puff pastries

3.35pm - but all I could fathom after that heavy, buttery lunch was something light and fruity: a passion-fruit raspberry tarte and an orange blossom tea. Not bad at all, but by this point I was way to full to really appreciate anything. Really didn't feel that good, and had to go home and crash for a bit.

8.33pm - a lemon Fanta, on the Rue St. Jacques.

10.53pm - Moules frites a l'escargot, gratinees (mussels with the garlic-butter-parsley sauce normally served with escargots, baked with cheese on top and french fries) plus a bit of a lovely Red, at Leon de Bruxelles, with Cesar and Denis. Cesar and I went to film school together here many years ago, and hadn't seen each other since before I moved to LA. So we were due for a reunion, and it was duly celebrated with two plates of mussels each! It has to be said though that once you dish out for the first, you get the second one for 1 Euro.

11.48pm - I had a bite of this Cesar's dessert but can't remember for the life of me what it was called. It involved apples at the bottom, vanilla ice cream of course, plus some Belgian crumble on top, called something like spekuloos (?), which reminded me of the German Spekulatius, which is a Christmas cookie kind of thing. Tasted like it, too...

Fri, Aug 22 - flight to Paris

10.25pm - mint tea from Starbucks and some peanut butter crackers from some airport store, waiting at the gate at Los Angeles airport.12.46am LA time (3.46pm Paris time)- welcome dinner aboard the Air France flight to Paris, including a glass of champagne, a personal bottle of chardonnay, some grilled salmon with a tomato coulis on saffron rice, a provencal pasta salad w/ olives and tuna, some cheesecake, fresh strawberries, and bread and cheese, of course. God bless the French and their airline.

8.02am LA time (5.02pm Paris time) - breakfast on board. Even Air France has to scale things down a bit it seems. I have fond memories of lovely cheese and ham omeletts and toasted croissants and bread from previous flights. This was all cold :(, so all I had was juice and tea.

9.40pm Paris time (12.40pm LA time) - first meal in Paris - Moroccan! An aperitif on the house at Au Bon Couscous in St. Germain.

9.47pm Paris time (12.47pm LA time) - the tagine de Fes, chicken so tender it fell from the bone, cooked with (and buried under) onion, raisins, cinnamon and orange (juice I would think), plus a big ole plate of couscous, at Au Bon Couscous.

10.27pm - stumbled across this on my 40-min walk from the left bank through the Marais to east of the Bastille. I had so wanted to do some walking here, and loved it! Funny how you don't appreciate things - when I lived here, I spent all my time in the metro.

11.08pm - also walked past the house I used to live in on the corner of the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine and the Rue Traversiere - my window is just to the right of the circular corner thingie, third floor. The one with the broken/missing balcony. Ahem. I swear it was still intact when I left..
12.02am - my second caipirinha, with Nicole and a bunch of her friends at her farewell party at Bottleshop on Rue Trousseau. I met Nicole when we were both teaching in Rio de Janeiro, hence the caipirinhas - and tonight I caught her on her very last night in Paris before she heads back to New York, after a year at Sciences Po.

This blog is hitting the road...

…so to speak. Really, it’s getting on an Air France flight to Paris, for a culinary speed tour before heading on by train to Germany to steep for a bit in this girl’s native habitat.

The blog doesn’t get out much, and has certainly never been abroad, so this is a very exciting time. I doubt I'll have time to blog in Paris, but will do my best to catch up on Monday.

Only downside to all this is that Ritesh is staying home. He's already been to Europe this year and is saving his vacation days (and dollars) for some more exotic travel in the fall. So, I guess it's just the blog and I, spending some quality time together.

Thurs, Aug 21 - leaving tonight!

9.12am - peanut butter bar and a fuji, at work1.17pm - leftover gnocchi and meatballs w/ Ritesh's home made tomato sauce, at work. Fabulous sauce, but gnocchi really don't reheat too well.

2.44pm - protein fruit blend, at work

6.33pm - turkey sandwich from Subway, with some added-on avocado plus some Doritos, at home.

Wed, Aug 20 - one more day!

8.08am - blueberry smoothie and some fresh fruit, at home, halfway out the door in a rush to get to work and get stuff done before I leave tomorrow.9.18am - bumble bar, at work

10.52am - more fresh fruit, at work. It occurred to me that I didn't have any fruit or veggies yesterday, so today I'm overcompensating.

1.29pm - random mixed salad from Mrs. Winston's, including tuna salad, wasabi ramen salad, braised tofu, a bunch of greens and sprouts, some steamed asparagus, some banana chips etc., outside work

9.18pm - Ritesh made an excellent, excellent farewell dinner - homemade pasta sauce from Nady's gorgeous home grown tomatoes, with a little bit of carrot in it, just like Roberto's mamma makes it. With gnocchi, some super spicy meatballs fabricated from Italian sausages, and home made garlic bread. Delicious! Makes me not want to leave ... 9.22pm - and some Chianti. Which is, coincidentally, where my godson from London was christened a couple of years ago, Greve en Chianti in Tuscany. It's hard to fathom that at the time, 2 years p.b. (pre-blog) I did not bother to capture all the fantastic food we had. What was I thinking?

Tue, Aug 19 - two more days to go...

7.49am - bread w/ fig jam and kumquats, at home.10.31am - a breakfast pizza from Wolfgang Puck, w/ scrambled egg, fontina cheese and salmon, outside work

3.54pm - protein juice blend, at work

5.02pm - what must easily be the most overpriced rice krispie treat in town, from what we call the "airport store" downstairs in the building. Got some for the kids in Germany, and treated myself, too. If you can call it that.

7.45pm - Ritesh has gone MIA, playing soccer I hope, so made myself a lonely little panini, at home. At least Nady's tomatoes were there for comfort...

Mon, Aug 18 - three more days!

Three more days until Europe... oh, and this is week 34 of the blog.

9.14am - fruit salad including figs from Nady's garden, bread pudding, at work

11.39am - a chocolate dipped peanut bar, at work

2.14pm - chicken scaloppini from Italia Express, with garlic bread and what they call baked ziti, which you have to admit don't look all that baked. And some iced tea. Outside work.

3.01pm - Whole Foods brand dark chocolate w/ coconut flakes, at work. Cheap and not bad at all.

7.49pm - Ritesh's scrumptious grilled veggie pasta, with roasted pine nuts, parsley, parmeggiano and tons of garlic. He is such a creative cook, and this is so much better Italian fare than what I had for lunch....

Sun, Aug 17 - tomato panini

10.28am - two stunning figs from Nady's garden, plus some whole wheat banana breadpudding w/ walnuts and coffee liqueur soaked raisins, at home.1.55pm - Ritesh's outrageously spicy salsa made from Nady's tomatoes, with an omelette, avocado and pita, at home.

3.02pm - some Ben&Jerry's with strawberries, at home, with Ritesh

8.10pm - a panino made with rice-milk mozzarella, avocado and some of Ritesh's spicy salsa, at home, with Ritesh.

8.17pm - decided the salsa was better served with avocado and tortilla chips

8.20pm - panino No.2, made by Ritesh, with one of Nady's tomatoes, a roasted Jalapeno, and rice milk mozzarella, before it went into the panini grill.

8.26pm - the grilled panino in all its glory

Sat, Aug 16 - tomato and plum heaven at Nady's

9.53am - fresh mint and sage tea, at home11.11am - fresh squeezed OJ from Nady's oranges, whole wheat banana bread pudding w/ walnuts and coffee liquor soaked raisins (straight out of the oven, hence the crumpled look), at home.

1.33pm - heavenly tomato salad w/ Nady's tomatoes, at home, with Ritesh.

1.35pm - pita with leftover lebanese chicken, fried rice and Nady's tomatoes, at home, with Ritesh.

5.57pm - picked up some macarons for Nady and David at Paulette, and splurged on a pistachio one for myself. This after a 3 1/2 h ordeal getting my hair done at the Aveda salon.

7.28pm - a lovely Californian bubbly, at Nady's house, celebrating her birthday yet again - love it!

7.37pm - tomato salad w/ home grown tomatoes, lettuce, nuts, mozzarella, rosemary, lemon verbena and a great vinaigrette, at Nady's

8.21pm - David's signature pasta sauce that had been cooking for about 6 hours - amazing! And nice and spicy due to Nady's ground turkey. This was my huge portion (I guess I have a reputation...) - I did my very bestest, but even I couldn't finish it all!

9.09pm - and Nady's heavenly signature plum cake! What a jewel! Love this so much, I refused to eat ice cream with it so as not to muddle the flavor. Thanks for another great night, Nady and David!