The Parisian diet:

5th July 2010

Text with 3 notes

The Parisian diet:

For breakfast:
• Nothing. I wake up early enough as it is (6:30) to get to work on time, and that leaves no time for making or buying breakfast.

Mid-morning:
• A cup of tea. Two, if I’m feeling hungry.

Lunch:
• Bavette frites— pretty much a hunk of beef and fries.
• Celeri remoulade— kinda like cole slaw, but nicer.
• crème brulée for dessert— half the ramekin, since they’re too big.
• diet coke

Afternoon:
• Another cup of tea during coffee break.

Dinner:
• If I go out, I usually grab a sandwich or a galette (savory crêpe).
• If I stay in, it’s a salad or a sandwich, nothing that requires heavy cooking (I don’t have my full kitchen here)

Midnight snack:
• Greek yogurt with fruits

Um… no wonder I feel like i’m losing weight. I’m not eating as much as I used to, and when I do it is much lighter on the stomach. I don’t get super sleepy after lunch the way I used to— I used to actually take a nap after eating!— but I feel pretty satisfied.

I’m not exactly making an effort to eat “lighter,” but it’s just that there’s so many tasty fresh foods here that I don’t feel the need to eat a lot of it or pile on the grease. The strawberries are unbelievable, tiny and sweet like they should be. Grapes are intensely flavorful. Raw-milk cheese tastes so good that only a sliver will do. Tomatoes so ripe that they go bad in a few days. Delicious and cheap bread. Terrine de campagne! Anchovies! Red wine! I’m dying.

And I also don’t have access to my favorite American junk foods. No nachos, no Buffalo wings (which my fellow intern and I were dreaming of today), no good burgers, no real ice cream (all they have is gelato!), no super-sized anything. I miss the junk, but I’m eating so many tasty French things on the cheap that I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything.

I really, really love eating in France.

a girl in Paris

The Parisian diet: