I started a three-week, doctor ordered, cleanse today where all I can eat is vegetables, fruit, brown rice, and lentils and the second two weeks I can add a little chicken and fish. NO pastries, NO bread, NO dessert, NO croissants, NO cheese, NO coffee, NO macarons, and NO chocolate (I may have forgotten a few things) for 30,744 minutes or 504 hours or 21 days. Am I crazy to attempt this cleanse living in Paris or what? I told some French people at a dinner party a few weeks ago about my upcoming cleanse and they looked at me like I was a space alien. The pleasure obsessed, neurotically hedonist French couldn't wrap their mind around not being able to consume wine, cheese, and the above mentioned products for any length of time.
On Saturday I was plotting my literal last licks before my cleanse when I decided to go for a double scoop of Amorino gelato. Amorino is a super popular, upscale gelato brand started in Paris in 2002 and now has branches throughout Europe with one newly opened in New York on University Place. They use only organic and natural products. Feeling like I was going to the electric chair, I had to choose my last dessert wisely. After taste tasting as many samples as I could without getting thrown out (they have a smart policy, whereby you pay for your gelato first, and then you can sample) I gave my final answer -and did not win a million euros- and decided on Caffe puro Brasile and Pistachio Sublime. The server filled the cone first with the pistachio, which was a dark beige color rather than the light green tone you usually get and then padded it down with the coffee flavor artfully making it look like a flower. The nut flavor was intense from the pistachio and in the past pistachio ice cream was always more like a perfume of pistachio rather than a nut flavor. The strong coffee flavor offsetting the pistachio was a choice I was very happy with and I was more than satisfied before going to the chair.
Wish me luck on my cleanse and hopefully I will be healthier and thinner in three LONG weeks. I am already hungry.
Amorino has 43 locations in Paris and below is their website with a list of their locations.
http://www.amorino.com/en/
In addition to my Eye Prefer Paris Tours, we now offer Eye Prefer New York Tours, 3-hour walking tours of New York's best neighborhoods including Soho, Meatpacking/West Village & Tribeca. Tours cost $195 for up to 3 people and $65 for each additional person.Come take a bite of the Big Apple on an Eye Prefer New York Tour!
Come experience my blog ìliveî with my Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I lead. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.Tours cost 195 euros for up to 3 people, and 65 euros for each additional person. I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris. www.eyepreferparistours.com
New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotteís professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.
Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
Minimum of 2 students, maximum 6 students.
Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.
