A Visit to Rungis

On a cold winter morning, the Anglophone program (both Cuisine and Pastry) headed to Rungis market at 4am because this is when the trading/buying/selling period begins for most produce, apart from fish and seafood which ends around this time (and started at 10pm the previous night). Rungis market is the largest wholesale food market in the world used by most of the restaurants in Paris and the country, with about 2000 companies and 15 000 employees working there. Apparently, there are at least 20 000 visitors to the market each year. It is so big that we even took buses to get to different pavillions of the market: fish and seafood, organs, meat, poultry, fruit and vegetables and finally cheese. Unfortunately, the market is not open to the public and you cannot buy the produce there unless you're interested in buying 400 kg of potatoes at a time! 

In our winter jackets and all (it's colder in the pavillion than outside!) covered with 'sanitary' jackets and matching hat

If you're a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, he shot an episode in Paris and went to Rungis too. 

I took a lot of pictures of produce so the pictures are pretty-self-explanatory.

1. Poissons et Fruits de Mer (Fish and Seafood)

Beautiful coquilles St-Jacques (Scallops)

Crab claws

Swordfish

Some of the fish

Looking chirpy in the early morning

Though it's 5 am in the morning, some of us were wide awake (hum, hum Marysol and Carolina)

Love the mussels

2. Triperie (Tripe pavillion)

Looks almost like clay...

3. Viandes (Meat)

Totally wanted to take this home with me...

So did Marysol...star of today's blog entry :)

Suckling pig anyone?

On the job...

3. Volaille (Poultry)

The best chicken (poulet) from Bresse

This could have been a great Turkey for Thanksgiving..unfortunately we can't purchase anything

4. Fruits et Legumes (Fruits and Vegetables)

I found a lot of them to have been imported from Chile, parts of Africa and the Caribbean compared to meat, poultry and fish.

Some herbs

Citrus fruits

All the colors...of the tomato

5. Fromages (Cheese)

Huge bloc of Parmeggiano

The day, or should I say morning ended with breakfast in the Rungis restaurant. Pork belly and fries with table wine...sounds good, especially for me but unfortunately the horrible flu made me lose my appetite, and it was made worse with the switch from cold air (outside), freezing temperatures (inside the pavillion) and super hot air (from the bus)...yes even for pork I had to sit this one out...