Chinoiserie in Paris

Finally made my way to Chinatown. Yea, I know it tops the list of many Chinese in France, but hey, this isn't exactly a pilgrimage to my ancestral roots. Hehe. Not that they'd be on this side of the ocean anyway.

Have to say, though, that I really miss all the familiar food. Could kill for a plate of fatty, oily char kway teow or or luat right now, even though I wasn't such a big fan of it back in SG. Guess maybe the grass is always greener on the other side. When the food was readily available, it didn't seem like such a big deal, but once you can't have it, you start craving it.

Had some sweet and sour chicken, Thai basil prawns, mixed veggies and rice for dinner. I really have to brush up my incredibly bad French. Ordering was OK, until it came to my order for rice... apparently, my pronunciation was so bad, it sounded like sauce to the cashier, who finally gave up and asked me what I wanted in Mandarin. O boy. But hey, at least I got what I wanted, right?

Near the end of our meal, we were accosted by a guy who entered the restaurant and made begging gestures. Thought he was asking for money, so I said no. He left, and loitered outside. Strangely, I didn't see him accost anyone else, and when he lit up a cigarette, I felt kind of justified in rejecting him. But felt really bad when he took our leftovers when we were clearing our plates. *Sigh*

On the more positive side, found lots of interesting ingredients to cook with, stuff which aren't readily available even in the Asian supermarket in Cergy Le Haut. Har kow, siew mai, and even instant char mee. And of course, mangoes. Yum. Thai ivory mangoes cost much more than exotic mangoes from Spain, but I guess we've got to pay their plane ticket to Paris.

BUT STILL NO ABALONE SAUCE. Do I possess the only two (now down to one and a quarter) bottles of abalone sauce in the whole of France? I simply can't believe this. We combed quite a few streets, supermarkets and grocery stores, but nary a bottle in sight. There was black pepper sauce, plum sauce, Peking duck sauce!!!, fish sauce, char siu sauce, curry sauce, achar!! But no abalone sauce. *Sigh* I can see myself rationing my abalone sauce when cooking, and packing bottles of it in my luggage in lieu of the clothes/books/necessities which others pack.

Still, managed to make one of Luq's favourite dishes. Mango prawns in abalone sauce wrapped in prata. Sinful, but yummy. Can't even recall the last time I had prata. But this is one dish you definitely can't take too much of. Can feel my cholesterol levels shooting up, and the fat cells in my body expanding by the millions. OK, I exaggerate, but surely I can exercise some artistic license in my own blog?