Sunday, March 6, 2011

A Paris Christmas: Part 5

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.

Le Bar platter
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.

Le bar scallops
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).

Le bar crab
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.

Le Bar prawns
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 RĂ©gis
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

11 comments:

weezermonkey said...

OH!
MY!
GOD!!!

K and S said...

wow! wow and wow!

Marie said...

Weezermonkey: Oh Mon Dieu!! :) It was so awesome.

Kat: Ha, thanks! It was so good!

Esi said...

Yep, I'm still insanely jealous of your Christmas in Paris. :)

bagnatic said...

that crab pic! it looked like it was standing up and getting ready for a fight.

oh i so want to go to paris :(

Marie said...

Esi: Ha, well, I hope I inspire you to go to Paris asap! :P

Bagnatic: That was one exciting seafood platter. I did wrestle a little bit with the crab, but I won.

sasasunakku said...

Those crabs! The only time I've had anything that comes close was in Hokkaido in Japan. Oh, I miss seafood, Austria is not the place to be for a seafood lover!

Marie said...

Sasasunakku: Thanks for stopping by! Seafood aside, I can think of several amazing things about Austria (never visited, but want to)!

Stephanie said...

Holy cow! I literally had to blink my eyes a couple times to make sure I was really seeing what I was seeing. That crab is huge! I am a huge, huge fan of crab -- I honestly think I could make some major damage on that thing if let to my own devices. :-p Sounds like you had an awesome time in Paris! I'm making my way through Julia Child's cookbook and I have to say, I'm falling deeper and deeper in love with all things French. They certainly know how to make some tasty things, don't they? :-) Wow.

Stephanie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Marie said...

Stephanie: I loved my time in Paris! I'd like to visit again when it's warmer to see how the food/produce is different. I've never cooked through Julia Child's recipes, but it sounds like one of those things one must do in life!