Green Hamburgers and Pastrami Waffles: American Food in Paris
2/27/202651 min
Reporter Rebecca Rosman takes us to one of France’s favorite grocery stores—Picard—where everything is frozen. Every spring they celebrate “America Week” with concoctions such as popcorn ice cream, doughnuts made of ground-up potatoes and marshmallows in places they don’t belong. Is this really what American cuisine looks like in the eyes of the French? Plus, Adam Savage of “MythBusters” fame joins us to break down his favorite food experiments, including the time he dropped an Olympic swimmer into a giant vat of syrup; J. Kenji López-Alt cracks the code on Chicago thin-crust pizza; and we travel to Rome for Cloud Bread.
Photo credit David Lebovitz
Get the recipe for Roman Cloud Bread here.
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First 90 secondsChristopher Kimball· Host0:00
[upbeat music] This is Mill Street Radio from PRX, and I'm your host, Christopher Kimball. There's a myth that you can cook a piece of shrimp by firing it from an air cannon through several rings of fire. When Adam Savage heard this, he rolled up his sleeves.
Adam Savage· Soundbite0:18
I lined up four sword forges that were at over, I think, 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, and we fired the shrimp through all four of them, exposing it for as long as we possibly could to an extremely high temperature.
Christopher Kimball· Host0:32
So the question is, does it actually work? We'll find out later on in the show when we sit down with professional mythbuster, Adam Savage. But first, we're heading over to Paris. Every year, something curious happens in a supermarket there, something that caught the eye of Rebecca Rosman, an American journalist who's lived in France for nearly a decade. She brings us her report.
Rebecca Rosman0:55
I'm going to let you in on a secret about one of the greatest food stores in France. It's a grocery chain called Picard.
David Porrata· Soundbite1:06
Picard is a lifesaver. When I first moved here, I married into a very old French family, and it was like, "Picard, Picard, Picard! You won't believe how good Picard is."
Rebecca Rosman1:15
This is David Porrata. He's a Canadian American who has been living in France for 16 years.
David Porrata· Soundbite1:21
The prices are fair. The selection is really good. [chuckles] I come at least once a week.
Rebecca Rosman1:28
Maybe you're thinking that Picard