The Paris Store in Blois (with the employee's scooter)Maybe with new boots I will be more nimble on my feet out in the vineyard. We were both successful. We first went to a Décathlon store out on the north side of Blois, but the merchandise there had really been picked over. They didn't have anything we liked in our sizes.
Dried beans from the Paris StoreThen we stopped in a the Paris Store, which is just off the Ave. de Châteaudun right next door to an establishment called American Car Wash. I hope Paris Store makes a go of it. It's a great place to find Asian food products of all kinds, from fresh vegetables to dried noodles and rice, canned goods, and a lot of frozen food. They stock foods you don't find anywhere else out here in the provinces.
Rice vermicelli for nemsFor example, we bought 2 more kilos of those big lima beans, a kilo of black-eyed peas, and a kilo of haricots roses — pink beans. We bought two or three kinds of rice- and wheat-flour noodles. One of our upcoming projects is to make a big batch of nems — Vietnamese-style egg rolls or spring rolls — to put in the freezer. For those you need rice vermicelli, along with carrots, onions, dried mushrooms, and meat. We plan to use pork, duck, and shrimp.
Raw shrimp peeled and de-veinedSo we bought two big packages of frozen shrimp. We had taken a cooler and a couple of ice packs with us. By the way, I made Loulou's corn chowder recipe again and added shrimp to it this time. I just dropped them into the cooked soup and let them simmer for three or four minutes until they turned red. Delicious. It is really nice to get these shrimp — raw, headed, and frozen — from the Asian market.
Corn chowder with shrimpI think I'm turning into a food hoarder. You should see the stockpile we have in the cellar — not to mention the freezer.
We were successful in finding boots at another store in south Blois called Go Sport. And they were on sale — mine were 40% off and I'm optimistic that now I'll have drier feet and an improved footing.
Yum, those shrimp look devine. Why can't we find uncooked shrimp in the stores? I'm tired of the typical crevettes roses.
ReplyDeleteHi Dedene, I hope you are having a good 2009 so far. And I agree with you. The cooked shrimp are good, but you can't really cook with them. Do you have a Paris Store near you — in Orléans, maybe? I grew up on the coast in North Carolina, and we ate a lot of shrimp, mostly fresh. But frozen, as they sell the shrimp at the Paris Store in Blois, is good too. We had a nice Asian-style noodle stirfry with shrimp and green beans for lunch today.
ReplyDeleteTrue confession: I'm a food hoarder, too. The freezer and cabinets are almost always stuffed or overflowing. I don't know where that comes from.
ReplyDeleteNow who else could create an interesting article out of boots and shrimp? ;-)
ReplyDeleteBettyAnn
Adding shrimp to the chowder is an excellent idea! Thanks for that one.
ReplyDeleteAnd black eyed peas....don't see those down here very often. I usually bring them back from the States. You're lucky to have a Paris Store in the area!