Mr. Meow didn't even know about there being a Chinatown in Paris until he picked up a copy of "Tomato", a local free newspaper. Paris Chinatown is located in the 13th Arrondissement at Place d'Italie down Avenue de Choisy. If I remember correctly, there's the metro station at Place d'Italie and drops you off at the beginning of the street. The Asian stores are still sparse in my opinion but it is still more concentrated than the rest of the city.
When I told my parents about trying Chinese food in Chinatown in Paris, they turned their noses up like "how good can it be?". Well, it is certainly much better than here.
We had some trouble finding the area too as the cabbie we got in with was rather useless and had to flag down a bypassing Asian to ask for directions. FIL (father in law) heard that there's a big Asian supermarket with the likes of T&T but didn't know (or forgot) the name, so that didn't help either. Apparently, the supermarket was called "Tang Freres" or Tang Brothers. There are 2 stores in Chinatown, a big one and a smaller one but has a little fast food outlet next to it. Needless to say, the supermarket was unimpressive, it was like walking into Lucky 97, if even.
We got out of there and looked for food. Funny enough, there's no dimsum places, or at least not that I've seen, most of them are like buffet style or cafe style. And we were approaching 2 o'clock where lots of eateries would close to comply with the 35 hour work week regulation, so food was becoming scarce. Of what remained opened, and none of us having a clue as to which place is good, I went for the old rule: if it is busy, it must be good - and went into La Lune. There were no regrets, the rule still holds true.
Royal milk tea. Yeah, no. Weak piss.
Longan, lotus, gogi berries, and bunch of other stuff brewed into a "tea".
Yes please.
DF fish fillet. It was so crunchy...!
DF shrimps. FIL ordered seconds. So you know it's THAT good.
Singapore fried noodles.
Extra fine angel hair vermicelli, small portion, perfect.
Thai style stir fried scallops. Okay.
Shanghainess pork dumplings. Not bad either. Pleasantly surprised.
La Lune
A produce store in Chinatown. It has better stock and selection of
fruits and vegetables than here.
Of course Chinese food was good in Paris! All the ingredients were fresh Fresh FRESH! This is the KEY in Chinese cooking - as long as you have fresh ingredients, you can't fuck it up. The fish croquettes was phenomenal! I do wish there is Chinese food of this caliber in this city, but alas, we are land locked and fresh ingredients is few and far in between.
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