It's been five days since the sisters went home. I am missing them but my credit cards are not, they are taking a well deserved rest until 25 June when the sales start. I am thinking of a studded belt à la SATC, Carrie wore it no less than 4 times in the movie A few more dresses wouldn't hurt too.
May and June seem to be the peak visitor season chez umami. So far, two sets of friends and of course the sisters have dropped by, and we're expecting 4th sister C and her friend this weekend, then more friends the following week followed by Mummy and Aunt Lily. July is quieter, only one person expected. And these are just the people who are staying with us, as some have just enough time to meet us for meals in between traipsing around the continent. We love it because people bring for us lovely stuff like giant bottles of pei pa ko, premium dried goods, Sarawak red rice and murukku, the latter so outstanding I finished a big bag within a day!
Last week, on the one day we didn't deliberately go shopping (but anything fashionable along the way was considered fair game) the sisters wanted to eat fallafel. Exiting the bus we walked past Boulangerie Malineau on rue Vielle du Temple. As usual the fantasy marshmallows and cute animal shaped cookies stopped everyone in their tracks but there was an even more lovely surprise inside. Just next to the cash machine was a basket of freshly fried apple fritters. Light puffy batter coddling sweet sliced apples tasting more of ripe bananas (a very good thing in my book) and gratifyingly free of the usual spices like cloves and cinammon. We made short work of this before we even reached L'as du Fallafel. The fallafels here seem denser and moister compared to the lighter, and my preferred, version from Chez Marianne's but the sisters love them as they were; they were better incorporated into a sandwich, their heft ameliorated somewhat by the crunchy vegetables and some choice pieces of tender and smoky grilled aubergines. Unfortunately L'as du Fallafel didn't have any liver that day, I would have loved to see how their chopped liver compares to Chez Hanna's which I adore.
I made another discovery. Hana Food (15 rue Lettelier in the 15th arr) has, besides their weekly consignments of home-made kimchis and banchans, also started selling deok. Delicious with a cup of the excellent tieguanyie given to us by my grandmother. Best to go early on weekends, like the kimchis they sell out fast.