Chinatown / Asiatown in Paris

Today Kim and I were feeling a bit homesick so what better way to cure that, when you are from Vancouver, then to go to your local Chinatown/Asiatown in which ever city you live in.

Considering the massive supermarkets in Paris barely have any asian food (1 size and type of soy sauce for Budda's sake!), you have to venture into Chinatown for all that you need to satisfy you asian palate. Also considering the population of China is over a billion it's really not surprising that a few got out and established Chinatown's in major centres (well i guess there is the fact that at least in Vancouver they were basically stolen away to build the railroad, but i digress).

So off we went, taking the Metro to Place d'Italie in the 13ieme arrondissement and walking south on Ave de Choisy. Unlike the Chinatown's I've been to in Vancouver, San Francisco and New York, the Paris version just sort of creeps up on you. It basically starts with the restaurant Le Kok and then a few more stores and restaurants appear. No big entrance gate with lions or dragons, temples or even buildings with the Chinese architecture that you would expect. All the stores and restaurants are on the ground level of your typically French buildings, or even worse, in stark, grey and dull 1960's high rise apartment buildings. Unfortunately these buildings are more common the further out you go from the centre of Paris. To save your eyes I didn't take any pictures.


Tang Freres: The Parisian version of TNT supermarket - but a bit smaller. Once we move into the centre of Paris, this will be our Asian shopping destination for sure. They have almost everything you need!



Of course no trip to Chinatown/Asiatown would be complete without eating. Luckily we passed a nice looking restaurant on our way in and made a note of it that we could eat there on our way back. Considering that Chinatown is only about 3 by 3 city blocks, we were back at the start quite quickly. One thing we definitely noticed is the Vietnamese influence as well. Considering France's history in Vietnam this isn't surprising at all. We also noticed what appeared to be a few high end / trendy / modern restaurants, so we'll have to try those later. Basically all the other restaurants in Asiatown are what you'd expect. A good variety of Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese restaurants, all reasonably priced and packed full on a Saturday afternoon.

So, back to the start of our little sojourn and to the Mondol Kiri Cambodian restaurant. I can honestly say that this was some of the best Asian food I've had, and I've had a lot. Hopefully this wasn't just my palate hungry to eat anything Asian kicking in! This place was great, and we will definitely return, with a larger group so that we can try more of their menu.



More picture in our Picasa web album