From the La Cuisine Paris blog.
A Foodie’s Guide to the Salon de l’Agriculture
The Salon de l’Agriculture is a yearly event that draws large crowds from all walks of life. It’s an agriculture fair where you can find out about everything even remotely farm-related, from livestock, to tractors, to garden-fresh produce. The fair is massive, taking up all seven pavilions at Porte de Versailles, so how can you possibly know where to begin?
La Cuisine Paris visited the Salon in hopes of making that task a little simpler for you, whether you’re planning a visit before the 2015 fair closes on March 1st, or already making plans to attend when it comes back in 2016. We’ve created this Foodie’s Guide to the Salon de l’Agriculture so you can be sure not to miss out on any of our culinary favourites.
There are two pavilions where food enthusiasts will want to spend the bulk of their time: Pavilion 3 with Regions de France et d’Outre-Mer and Pavilion 5 with Agricultures et Delices du Monde. You can think of it as a culinary tour of the world. Pavilion 3, focusing on France and its overseas territories is our favourite, but nonetheless we definitely wouldn’t want to miss Pavilion 5’s focus on the rest of the world. By the time you’re finished exploring the two, you’ll have a greater understanding of the endless variety of things to eat within France’s regions, while also having travelled the rest of the globe with your taste buds.
We decided to start with Agricultures et Delices du Monde for a global view, then honed in on France with Regions de France et d’Outre-Mer. Take note that both sections are scattered with sit-down style restaurants where you get your own table and waiters bring you food, but we recommend avoiding these. For one thing, they tend to be a bit overpriced. For another, they’ll fill you up so much that you won’t be able to sample the variety. Instead, we recommend taking the grazing approach. Snack on the abundance of samples as you wander, and just stop to buy and devour the foods that particularly catch your fancy.
While picking your way through Agricultures et Delices du Monde, which is organized by country, you’ll find big bowls overflowing with fragrant spices, plates and plates of dried candied fruits, and steaming vats of Spanish seafood paella (a spicy stew with rice, tomatoes, garlic and a variety of seafood). We started in the Italy section with some piadinas, which are basically Italian quesadillas. Flatbread is folded in half with cheese and other goodies on the inside, then it’s all melted together. We recommend the prosciutto crudo/rucola/stracchino (cured ham, arugula, soft cheese) combo. Pair it with a peach-flavoured EstaThe (canned tea drink) for the authentic Italian experience.
Finish off Round 1 with a sweet treat from the Morocco section. La Gazelle d’Or Moroccan patisserie sells makrout (semolina dough stuffed with dates or almonds, then fried in oil and slathered with honey), fekkas (cookies with almonds, sesame and raisins), and other delicacies. Bonus: If your mouth is watering, but you can’t make it to the Salon, fret not! La Gazelle d’Or has a boutique in the 15th arrondissement of Paris that you can visit.
Enjoy your fill of samples as you continue to make your way through Pavilion 5. We tasted salamis, cheeses, olive oil, and more. Cheese lovers will have a ball in the Swiss cheese section, and should also look out for the stand where they sell lunches of assorted melted cheeses over potatoes. We recommend avoiding the ice cream in this Pavilion, as there is a much better frozen treat awaiting you in Pavilion 3. Make your way there when you’ve had your fill of Pavilion 5 explorations (but not your fill of food, please! – plenty more yumminess awaits you!).
Pavilion 3 is organized by region for the most part, with other areas designated to the overseas territories. Prepare to be overwhelmed from the moment you walk in. They have lots of live music playing and you’ll hear jovial shouts from every direction. But just look upwards to where the signs saying Bretagne, Lorraine, etc. are to help make your exploration a little more organized and for context – it’s fun to know which regions the delicacies you’re looking at came from!
We saw some delicious-looking Coquilles Saint-Jacques (or scallops as we call them in English) turning golden as they cooked in the Bretagne section. The abundance of exotic fruits on display in the Martinique section is sure to take your breath away.
One of our favourite treats was the sorbet coco from Guadaloupe. It’s a white and frothy coconut concoction, and not exactly what you normally call a sorbet. It is made from coconut and condensed milk, with touches of cinnamon, nutmeg, lime, vanilla and almond. They make it in old-style churns. In Guadaloupe they eat it on the beach, which sounds like a dream to us. And eating it as you promenade through the Salon de l’Agriculture is almost as nice!
Next, if you’re hungry for something savoury, keep an eye out for foie gras sandwiches. We spotted several vendors selling these in Pavilion 3. If you’re more in the mood for something sweet, check out the brioche aux pralines roses. This flaky bread with pink candied pralines is one of the prettiest and tastiest foods you will encounter. If you can’t decide if you’re in a sweet or salty food mood (or if you’re like us and just can’t resist) go for both and call it Lunch Round 2!
Wash it all down at our recommended last stop of the day, the drink stand in the Lorraine region section. You can find a selection of award-winning artisan beers, or a hand-crafted lemonade. We fell in love with the Lorraine homemade cola. There’s one with Mirabelle plum flavouring that gives it just the right amount of fruity sweetness. It’s to die for!
When you’re nice and full, work off all those calories with a brisk walk through the other, less-foodie pavilions. Let yourself marvel at the vastness of the fair, as you pass pens with chickens and cows, alpacas and ostriches. Day dream about home repairs as you pass displays of ladders and gardening tools. Check out the tractors, too. In all likelihood, by the end you will leave the Salon de l’Agriculture tired and (still) absolutely stuffed. Hopefully you’ll have acquired some goodies along the way to keep you chowing down until next year’s Salon de l’Agriculture – or, let’s be real, until next week, because if you’re anything like us, you’re probably going to eat it all in the next few days.