Series

{This is part of a new series in which I share three delicious things from the past week. Please feel free to tell me about your own 3VGT in the comments below, or to post them on your blog.}

My three very good things for the week are as follows:

~ Color-coded sandwiches from Gontran Cherrier’s bakery. I’ve already told you about Gontran, who’s both a talented baker and a friend of ours, and who runs a wonderful bakery in my neighborhood.

Every time Maxence and I go, we have to restrain ourselves and pick up just a few of the items that are calling our names, but we can never resist the sandwiches, assembled on house-made black (squid ink), green (arugula juice) or red (paprika) buns, and garnished with super fresh and cleverly combined ingredients. We eat them perched on stools by the tall windows before we go off and run the rest of our errands.

~ My first persimmon of the season. Although I only discovered persimmons in my early twenties — thanks to the loveliest of coworkers in California — I am absolutely enamored with them and their intensely aromatic, bright orange, slippery flesh. They’ve just started to appear on produce stalls in Paris, and we ate our first over the weekend. (You do know to make a wish whenever you eat a fruit for the first time in the season, right?)

~ Gianduja sablés from La Pâtisserie des Rêves. Thanks to Louise, who runs the excellent blog Raids Pâtisseries, I am now hopelessly hooked on these crisp butter cookies, topped with a layer of soft hazelnut and chocolate paste, and thinly coated with bittersweet chocolate.

I recently had the opportunity to meet the lovely Stephanie — the no less lovely Aran introduced us — and I am therefore a new reader of her blog, “where practical meets pretty.” She wrote about gratitude lists in a recent post, and the first comment underneath that post was by Mary, who talked about her weekly round-up of Three Beautiful Things.

I loved the idea, as I am definitely one to find gratitude and joy in small things. In a flash I decided it would be wonderful to start a (weekly-ish) Three Very Good Things series, in which I’d share three delicious things made, tasted, and/or experienced during the week.

Here’s my inaugural Very Good Trio. Feel free to chime in with your own in the comments section, or on your own blog if you’d like to adopt the idea too!

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Photography by J. Annie Wang.

This is part of a series on French idiomatic expressions that relate to food. Browse the list of idioms featured so far.

This week’s expression is, “Se vendre comme des petits pains.”

Literally translated as, “selling like small breads,” it means selling like hotcakes, i.e. selling quickly, effortlessly, and in large numbers. It is very commonly used.

Example: “Les exemplaires signés par l’artiste se sont vendus comme des petits pains.” “The copies signed by the artist sold like hotcakes.”

Listen to the idiom and example read aloud:

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Photography by Astrid Berglund.

This is part of a series on French idiomatic expressions that relate to food. Browse the list of idioms featured so far.

This week’s expression is, “Mettre les bouchées doubles.”

Literally (and awkwardly) translated as, “putting the double bites,” it means doubling your efforts.

Example: “Il va falloir mettre les bouchées doubles si on veut boucler le projet avant la fin du mois.” “We need to double our efforts if we want to complete the project before the end of the month.”

Listen to the idiom and example read aloud:

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