Paris: Premier Nuit

We recently returned from our honeymoon in Paris. I won't try to sum up how wonderful and special it was in a single post. I can't do it. Just know I had a perma-smile on my face and I'll remember it forever.

Instead, let's just forego the pleasantries and get right to the nuts and bolts: the food. Although we never took on a full 11-in-11 crusade, we did hit up the 1st-17th arrondissements in search of the best baguette and pain au chocolat. Along the way we also found ourselves wishing we had a pocketsized French to English food dictionary, dining with Canadians and Los Angelenos, praising the virtues of the snail.

After a jet-lag induced 5 hour "nap" on our first evening in Paris, it was 10pm and we weren't in any shape to actually sit down at a restaurant and try out our dusty French language skills or to even try to find a restaurant in the first place. That left us with two options: either hope that the Asian salad we managed to lug from JFK, through CDG customs and the RER and metro trains in to town, to our apartment's refrigerator had sufficiently survived the voyage or hunt down a take-in meal.

And so it was our good fortune to be within walking distance of Falafel Ace (L'As du Fallafel) in the Marais. I had been craving a good falafel for months after enduring the cafeteria's rendition at work -- texturally similar to a cue ball and about as well seasoned -- and my inability to locate Fat Kitty Falafel in SE Portland. Al supposedly has a stand on 21st and SE Division but I keep going and he's never there. Dude has been hiding from me, I swear.

Which leads me back to the Falafel Ace. Their posted menu listed the usual rundown of schwarma platters, not to mention the personal endorsement of Seal (my power, my pleasure, my pain!), but I'm there for their namesake. I managed to blurt out the first French I had to speak to another individual in Paris, "Bon soir. Je voudrais deux falafels, s'il vous plait." He seemed to get the gist, I passed over my 9 Euros and soon I was carrying two falafel sandwiches, filled with pickled veggies, doused in tahini and hot sauce and the crunchy, crumbly, lovely falafels. I agree with Seal, the falafels were delightful.