And at long last, here we are at the final installment of my Paris series. My family and I absolutely love seafood. I grew up eating sushi, sashimi, oysters, crabs, lobsters: you name it, we've probably tried it, if not harbored an undying obsession with it. During our time in Paris, there were two notable seafood meals.
The first was at
Huitrerie Regis, a magical tiny oyster shop with a handful of tables and a small counter. I apologize for no photos, but the couple I snapped turned out woefully blurry. The menu here is tres simple: oysters, shrimp and a few other items. We ordered four dozen oysters and a bottle of Sancerre, which were shucked by the same person who took our order (note: there were maybe two employees running things, which included a stream of to-go customers who seemed to be regulars at carting off massive platters of raw oysters to their holiday soirees). We had a variety of local oysters, which were impeccably fresh, briny and different from what I've had in the U.S. I recommend Huitrerie Regis with all my seafood-devoted heart. They've made it onto all sorts of "Best Of" lists, so you may want to employ our strategy of arriving right when they open up for dinner.
And now onto the second meal, which took place on our last night in Paris. We opted for
Le Bar a Huitres (the Saint-Germain location) for our special end-of-the-trip dinner. We were not disappointed.
Yes, this raw platter really happened. Breathtaking. Oysters, mussels, crab, cockles and such. Truthfully, I am not entirely sure of all that we consumed on this bad boy.
My sister ordered scallops again. From what I remember, they were buttery excellence. The French really know their way around a scallop (okay, and a million other food items, too).
I got a crab dish, which caught my eye because the crabmeat was already shelled and required nothing of me, but lifting fork to mouth. I took the photo before I turned over the shell, which was stuffed with crab meat. Light luxury with a side of potatoes, carrots and peas.
My dad's dinner. Prawns need very little adornment on the flavor side, but they did feel the need to spruce things up visually with seaweed.
As seafood-centric people, this meal really wrapped things up on a high note. Thank you for reading about our time in Paris. If you think you don't need to visit the city because it's been touted by too many to possibly be that remarkable and amazing, I would say, you need to go there first. Then we'll talk.
Huitrerie Régis
3 Rue Montfaucon
75006 Paris, France
Phone: 01 44 41 10 07
Le Bar a Huitres (St. Germain)
33 Rue Saint-Jacques
75005 Paris, France
Phone: 01 44 07 27 37
