Laurie and I spent Christmas 2000 in Paris. Ever since then I’ve been doing something dumb: lamenting the things we didn’t do, even though almost everything we ate was fantastic. Now my friend Emily, who is currently in Paris, has given me another thing to pine over.
While in Paris, I noticed an unusual type of store, one specializing in frozen food. I never actually went into one, but the name, *surgelés* (as in “under ice”), stuck with me. So when Emily mentioned that she’d been buying frozen food, I said, “You mean at a surgelés store?” Yep, she said, one called [Picard](http://www.picard.fr/).
If you love French food, don’t click that link or you’re going to blow your whole day. Right now they’re having a 15 percent off sale on *cuisine evasion,* which means foreign food, not food you flee from. *2 soupes au raviolis à la chinoise.* *Boudins créoles.* *Paella au poulet et aux fruits de mer.* You can also buy frozen sauces like bordelaise.
Here in the States we’ve got Budget Gourmet!
So if you keep an apartment in Paris, (a) I hate you, and (b) look for the blue snowflake.
Nicole and I were fascinated by Picard. At first we thought it was a French version of Grocery Outlet, which we love here, but on entrance turned to each other and said “Is … everything… here… frozen?” (It was sort of creepy; I kept expecting to find a small-town mayor or something in one of the freezers.) We toured several of them–hailing each branch like an old friend–but for some reason, never found anything we wanted to buy. Well, I think there was probably a lot of meat.
Do you think your friend Emily would send us some caramel sauce that we’re really desperate for? I would send her money or something she wants from the US or two tickets from Paris to Charles de Gaulle (20 euro value!) or anything else in the world. I can’t find it on any French grocery sites, possibly because it is possibly the French version of, like, Smucker’s Butterscotch Ice Cream topping or something.
On a recent This American Life ep on NPR, David Sedaris did a really funny rift about Picards in a way only David Sedaris can. The show should be available online now (www.thisamericanlife.org)