The Jetpacker

When you think of restaurants that are open 24 hours a day / 7 days a week, you probably think of Denny’s or Norm’s or some other artery-clogging eatery named after a heavy-set man.  But in France, there’s a famous restaurant that’s open 24/7… and it’s fine dining.

Au Pied de Cochon has been a pork lover’s paradise since 1947.  They literally use every part of the pig:  shins, feet, ears, tail, snout, you name it.

They serve “normal” food too, like rotisserie chicken.  And in hindsight, I probably should have stuck to something I was familiar with.  I’ll try weird things, but I’m no Andrew Zimmern.

The name Au Pied de Cochon is literally translated as “To the Foot of Pig”, so I ordered the pig’s foot.  Underneath a breaded crust was a gelatenous, mushy substance that had the faint smell of bacon and the heavy taste of fat.  It was like eating a baked piece of grissel.  It melted quickly and coated my tongue with a waxy layer of fat.  Getting it down was like a game of pretend.  “Pretend it’s bacon.  Crisp bacon.”

That’s not to say this place was bad.  Au Pied de Cochon is a classic restaurant with a great reputation (and exorbitantly high prices to match that reputation).  The pig’s foot just wasn’t for me.

I’ll tell you what was for me: the dessert.  We had a deliciously dense crepe flombayed with Grand Marnier.  Now, I thought that when they set fire to the liqeur, it was supposed to burn off the alcohol.  Well, this thing must have been doused with like six shots of liqueur, and only one got burned off.  This thing was definitely intense.  Lip-numbingly intense.

They cap off your visit with a cute little merange shaped like a pig.  I ate almost the whole thing… except the foot.

Au Pied de Cochon
http://www.pieddecochon.com/
6, Rue Coquillière
75001 Paris, France
+33 1 40 13 77 00
Metro: Les Halles