Beyond French Fries: Lunching in Paris
September 30, 2008
Although not French, Grimbergen beer is a delicious and refreshing way to whet your palate while deciding on what to order for lunch. First brewed by monks at an abbey in Belgium in 1128, this is a tried and tested blond brew.
Since discovering it at our first lunch in Paris, we noticed it on many a Parisian menu and in the shops too. Of course we picked up a six-pack to enjoy at the apartment.
Once you’ve conquered your thirst, it’s time to take on contestent number two: hunger. Although salad might not seem like a likely choice for the hungry, French salads are actaully quite hearty.
Salade niçoise, although a specialty of Nice in the south of France, is widely available in Paris. It seems to differ slightly from kitchen to kitchen, but you can generally expect a bed of lettuce topped with tuna, anchovies, tomatoes, hard-boiled egg, olives, and green beans. 
Sometimes you may also encounter shrimp, potatoes, onion, capers, cucumber, artichoke and the first one I tried even threw on some rice. Perhaps they were fresh out of spuds?
Anyway you pile it on, it is a filling meal. Especially when you liberally use fresh French bread (that is always supplied with your meal) to sop up the garlicky vinaigrette.
Another salad that was a tasty and filling lunch was the house specialty at GBertrand, a Café just beside our apartment. I can’t promise you’ll be likely to find this one, but the salade Bertrand was also quite a delight.
It had a lovely mustard-based dressing that complimented the slices of rare, roast beef presented on triangles of toast. There were cubes of steamed potatoes that also picked up the lovely mustard taste while adding some body to the dish. It was finished with a sprinkle of pine nuts, corn and grated carrots.
If the rare beef in this salad doesn’t take it quite far enough for you, perhaps steak tartar is a dish you’d like to try. If you’re going to eat raw, minced beef, France is probably the safest place to do it. 
The beef was prepared with mustard, onion and gherkin. The counter-play between the spiciness of the onion and mustard and the sweetness of the pickle made for a truly delightful lunch. The fresh, hot, crispy pomme-frites were also a side no one at the table could help but steal.
A traditional French salad, a house specialty or a plate of raw meat — when it comes to French cuisine don’t be afraid to trust the centuries old traditions of a French kitchen.
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[...] rented, we were walking distance to Les Invalides and La Tour Eiffel. At the end of our street was GBertrand, a delicious lunch spot. It took us less than five minutes to walk to the nearest Metro [...]