The Paris street no food lover should miss - Los Angeles Times
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The Paris street no food lover should miss

Fish on display at Poissonnerie Quoniam on the Paris market street Rue Mouffetard.
(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)
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Paris notes to keep the Olympic spirit going. Plus, reader taco picks, Michelin stars and something we all need in the midst of summer — a guide to margaritas. I’m Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with this week’s Tasting Notes.

Rue Mouffetard’s Movable Feast

Mushrooms, fruit and more produce at a vendor along the Paris market street Rue Mouffetard.
(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)

With all the Olympics coverage out of Paris these past two weeks, including Snoop Dogg discovering a love for lardons with Martha Stewart, I’m sure I’m not the only one inspired to plan a trip to France. I love exploring Paris’ neighborhoods, including the African food and fabric shops of La Goutte d’Or, which I’ve written about before. Another place I definitely want to revisit is Rue Mouffetard.

Rue Mouffetard is not an undiscovered Paris street. It got a mention in Ernest Hemingway‘s “A Moveable Feast” as “that wonderful narrow crowded market street.” And Eiffel Tower trinkets are abundant in the shops here, even though the 5th Arrondissement neighborhood is, as travel writer Rolf Potts wrote in his book “Souvenir,” “not particularly close” to the tower.

At the same time, the 5th, he points out, “isn’t among the top five tourist districts in Paris” so you won’t stumble across Rue Mouffetard if you spend all your time around the Louvre or Champs-Élysées.

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It’s worth seeking out. The Latin Quarter’s cobblestoned walking street, home to fishmongers, bakeries, cheese shops, produce stands, coffee spots and cafes, is the kind of spot cooks and eaters love to explore. Just as our Santa Monica, Hollywood, Alhambra and many other farmers markets have become destinations for locals and food-focused tourists, there is a similar mix among the shoppers along Rue Mouffetard.

Many gravitate first to the Mouffetard location of Androuet, a small fromagerie chain founded in 1909 by Henri Androuët, who became France’s leading cheese ambassador and is the person who named the beloved triple-cream Brillat-Savarin after the gourmand and writer Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. The cheesemongers in the Mouffetard shop are knowledgeable and happy to help you choose a great walking-around cheese or a more elaborate selection for a picnic or party.

Not far from the Androuet is the site of a bakery I fell in love with last fall, Patisserie David Doualan, where the young, charming baker made gorgeous pain au chocolat, tarts and an incredible financier. I’m sad to report that the pastry shop shut down earlier this year. If you spot Doualan at another location, let me know.

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Of course, there are many other bakeries and places to stop for coffee along the street, including Dose, which uses small-producer coffee beans and makes an excellent espresso (not always easy to find in Paris).

There’s even a modern izakaya-style bistro, Otto, a wine and small bites spot from Stéphane Offner and Tony Alvarez-Parage, two friends who teamed up with chef Eric Trochon of the nearby Michelin one-star restaurant Solstice. I had a terrific meal there last fall. “Fish no chips” came with black curry mayonnaise, yakitori skewers are cooked over binchotan coals and I think even escargot-averse Snoop would have liked the fried celery root beignets with hazelnut sauce.

But my favorite thing to do on Rue Mouffetard is to stop at Poissonnerie Quoniam, not only to admire the beautiful seafood display, but to have a glass of cheap but crisp white wine and half a dozen oysters. You eat and drink with little to no ceremony from an ice-filled foam tray while standing at a tall metal table while watching the street life all around. Sometime you’ll even hear someone burst out into song and dance. A perfect Paris moment.

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