Paris Street Food: Decadent Crepes

One of the biggest "musts" while traveling is to sample the wide variety of tasty street foods a culture has to offer. Every nation has a specific palette of spices, smells, textures, and presentations - as a visitor, it is your obligation to try to experience at least some of these. At least, this is my opinion as a person who loves both travel and eating.

Stereotypically, street food comes on sticks or on paper plates. But the city of Paris does street food with more class and pizzazz, or so it seems!

The Parisian Metropolitan entrance in the Saint-Michel district.

During my Europe trip with my Junior High students in 2010, as we were walking around the quaint, cobble-stoned district of Saint-Michel in the historic Latin Quarter, I smelled something mouth-watering. Like a Disney character who floats down the street, held aloft by a drifting waft of fragrant air, I found my way to the source: a man on the edge of the sidewalk making crepes. He had a stand with a mounted, circular griddle, a giant jar of Nutella, and the greatest chef outfit I've ever seen on a street vendor.

Our engaging street vendor pours the crepe batter onto the griddle.

I wandered up to him, eyes wide and mouth salivating. He noticed that I was with several young students, and decided to put on a show for us. With a flourish and a flair, he poured some crepe batter onto the griddle, used his spatula to even it out with a quick twist of his wrist, and proceeded to make a pile of crepes within minutes. I snapped photographs of his step-by-step cooking show, and he smiled and hammed it up for the camera.

Spreading the crepe batter.

Now here comes the skill - flipping the paper-thin crepe without tearing it!

Success!  A nicely browned crepe, ready for some yummy Nutella!

He then smeared the goopy, chocolatey Nutella onto the crepes, deftly rolled them up, and offered them to his audience of admiring onlookers. We all bought one, cleaning up that stack of crepes instantly. They were delicious! (No pictures of us eating them, since we were all so focused on enjoying our fare.)

Yum! Crepey goodness!

To this date, I have not eaten a crepe that has tasted as good. Nothing has come close. Thank you, Parisian street vendor, for such amazing food!