I hope to do more cooking at our apartment in Paris than I usually do when we travel.
We'll have a nice kitchen, fabulous markets nearby, and more time than we usually have while traveling. Also, and this is the exciting part, I'll have at least a few chances to cook for friends!
A few months ago, I went through a little Amazon shopping frenzy and added several more French cookbooks to my collection, looking for just exactly the right one for this trip to Paris. I based my choices on good advice and recommendations from my friends on the Slowtrav message board. I'm happy with all the books I bought, because I'm firmly convinced one can never have too many cookbooks, but the one that made it to my "pack for Paris" stack is one I already owned, Patricia Wells's The Paris Cookbook.
Why? I think because it was the most specifically Parisian. While many of the recipes are simple and don't require special equipment or a well-stocked pantry, most are the creations of Parisian chefs or use some wonderful ingredient I look forward to shopping for in Paris. Maybe I'm a little strange, but I love the idea of baby leeks!
It remains to be seen just how much I'll cook. The owner tells me the oven at the apartment isn't working, and unless that gets fixed before we arrive, that will be a limiting factor. I won't really know what I can do until I see how the kitchen is equipped. There's the temptation of all those lovely French restaurants instead of cooking in, and even on evenings when we aren't tempted to go out, Paris makes it very easy to eat well at home without a lot of effort. The rotisserie chickens, bread, cheese, Picard just a few blocks away...
