Today's Featured Book:
Moveable Feasts:
Paris in Twenty Meals
by Chris Newens
Genre: Travel; Foodie
Published: February 3, 2026
Page Count: 368 pages
Summary:
Paris has a justifiable claim to be the center of European gastronomy—but beyond its trademark terrasses and zinc-topped tables, what can its cuisine tell us about the city? Chris Newens, an award-winning food writer and long-time resident of the historic slaughterhouse quartier Villette, takes us on a delightful gastronomic journey around Paris' twenty spiralling arrondissements, seeking out, sampling, and attempting to recreate a dish that represents each as it is today.
Hemingway wrote that "wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” From Congolese cat fish in the 18th to Middle Eastern falafels in the 4th, to the charcuterie served at the libertine nightclubs of Pigalle in the 9th, Newens lifts the lid on the city's ever-changing, defining, and irresistible food culture.
A Paris bistro is the stage of a thousand cliches. Surly waiters in their suits, barflies crowding the zinc, a terrace of small tables and rattan chairs that all face the street, coffee, croissants, steak frites.
Le Mistral, at the corner of the rue des Pyrenees in Belleville, fitted this description so perfectly it deserved World Heritage status; it was a place so familiar to the global imagination that, like Paris itself, I felt I knew it before I even came to visit the city, let alone live here.
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The transubstantiation of raw into cooked is a low-grade miracle. You witness in real time something repellent become its opposite. Never, though, had I seen a change as profound as I did then. Raw, the kebab had looked like a prolapse, but now it was starting to resemble, well, a kebab. The layers of turkey and lamb were drawing into one another: sizzling, browning, beads of flavour escaping from within. And the smell: that commingling of proteins which hits somewhere at the top of the nose, combined with a base note of smouldering charcoal. It was actually working! Of course it was working. It was meat on a stick.
The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.
Do you read one book at a time, or juggle a few at once? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee-Addicted Writer)
Ha! I was reading fifteen books at one time at the start of this week. Ha!
I usually have four or five going at one time.
Oh wow! That's impressive! I can only handle one at a time these days. I'm likely to mix details up if I were to even try! Lol. Even if I did different genres, names would definitely get mixed up somewhere down the line! Lol.
ReplyDeleteHere's my BBH
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower :)
It amazes me that you can keep five book straight in your head. Two is about my limit!
ReplyDeleteI usually juggle around 3 books at a time.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a fascinating book! I can typically juggle about 4 books at once but 15 is impressive!
ReplyDeleteI thought of Hemingway when I saw the title, this sounds great! Good for you juggling multiple books. I can usually handle a fiction and nonfiction but don't do that often.
ReplyDeleteYou win. You have the most books going at one time of anyone I know. I have five going right now and hope to cut it down to four by days end.
ReplyDeleteI go back and forth about reading more than one book. Sometimes I do what I call 'read/listen' - listening to the audio and then picking up the print or e-book where I left off and visa versa. Other times, I am listening to one book on audio and reading one or more in print or e-book form. Just depends. Deb, I'm just so sad for all those Central and South Texas people with the floods yet again. Kerrville - so, so sad. We know of a couple of business that just had finished their renovations and then were flooded again. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteUgh. I hate that, too, Kay.
DeleteDear Deb, this looks like a fascinating book.
ReplyDeleteI read one book at a time.
ReplyDeleteI’ve only been to the Villette quarter once or twice, so I think I would like the book with its details about that area of Paris. I think quite a lot of the quarter was redeveloped with great success after my long stays in Paris. So I enjoyed your review of this book. best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteReading about food is one of my favorite things.
ReplyDelete15 books is remarkable, Deb! I usually have 3 going at once, but last week it was actually 4. One audio, one re-read for book club, my year long read (The Winds of War), and my regular pick of the week. I'm always surprised that I don't get confused.
ReplyDeleteSo sorry to hear about the flooding in Texas again this summer. Simply awful!
yes i like to have several books on the go at any one time. One for bedtime does not suit one for the day and so on ...
ReplyDeletecheers
sherry