After visiting Montpellier, Carcassonne, and Toulouse, we ended up where we started, in what is probably our favorite city. And this time, to make things a bit more interesting, we would be staying in Paris for two weeks, where we could really get a feel of actually, just like a popular travel and television personality says, being a "temporary local". The results would be interesting.
I got us an apartment in the 3rd Arrondissement, on what I thought would be a pretty busy street. But it turns out that this portion of Rue Réaumur was pretty quiet.
It was what I consider a typical Parisian apartment, on the 2nd (that would be 3rd floor by American standards) floor, no lift, cozy, comfortable, with a washer, kitchen, just steps from the Arts-et-Métiers metro stop, and there were no less than 3 Boulangeries within a block of the flat! Man, talk about living the life.
I always create Google Maps for when we travel and this one looked especially "busy"……
Well, part of staying so long in one place would mean having choices in terms of cuisine. While doing a bit of research in the area, I found several Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants within a block and two Boba shops on the same block. This is the Marais mind you! I also noticed a couple of Wenzhou style restaurants and was wondering why that was. In digging into that a bit, I found that the first Chinese to migrate to Paris were from Wenzhou in 1876. And many settled in the Arts Et Métiers area, basically right where we were staying. Of course, over time gentrification has changed things and the now the 13th Arrondissment is considered Paris's "Chinatown" or more appropriately "Quartier Asiatique".
We had already been traveling for two weeks and were ready for some Chinese food. After looking thru things, I selected Maison de Chengdu. The state of Sichuan food in San Diego is pretty sad these days so I thought we'd see how this place matched up.
The place is a tiny hole in the wall and the dining area takes up two floors. Those guys you see waiting outside are food delivery folks. This place does a huge volume of takeout and delivery.
The customer base is interesting about 50-50 Asian to non-Asian and the staff speaks both Mandarin and French.
Looking over the menu, we decided on what we wanted and the Missus placed our order. Which started (of course) with a TsingTao.
First dish to arrive was our favorite; the Intestine Dry Pot.
Man, this was the best Sichuan I'd had in a while! The pork intestine was crisp and full of porky-offalness! It had decent, but not overwhelming spice, and we got a good "buzz" from the Sichuan peppercorns. The Missus really enjoyed the potatoes which had a nice starchy-sweetness magnified by the ma-la flavor. We enjoyed this dish so much that we returned two more times (heck it was almost across the street) during our stay.
The Eggplant was nicely cooked as it basically melted in your mouth.
But was overly sweet.
The Shui Zhu Niu Rou (Water Boiled Beef) was tender.
But was lacking balance in terms of savory tones (garlic – Doubian Jian – Soy), "Ma" (numbingness from the Sichuan peppercorns), and oil (too much). It was not bad and better than what we'd had in Paris before.
Still that intestine dish would keep us coming back two more times!
Maison De Chengdu (古味成都)
16 Rue Volta
75003 Paris, France
The pig tongue was as expected, fairly chewy and very porky. Quite typical.
We quickly noticed that on this visit, the dumpling wrappers were very soft, lacking in the slight "pull" that we enjoy in jiaozi wrappers. The filling of the shrimp, pork, and leek was very moist and actually had a good amount of "soup" in them…very nicely flavored, though a bit short in the shrimp department.
But man, that filling was so gamy, moist, juice just poured out of it when I took a bite.
We did notice that the dish has changed since our last visit. The shrimp shells and the shrimp seems to have some coating; like the tofu skin, the portion size is smaller. The shrimp is not quite as delicate as it used to be. But the flavor is still there and the shells and tail are a pleasure to eat.
Soon enough the large plate of bun, herbs, and veggies. And of course the Missus enjoys the Banh Trang Me dipping it into the mam nem. As for the Mam Nem, we noticed that it's not quite as potent as it used to be.
Can't get much more generic than seeing something like this. 
Sure, you could walk up and grab a menu…but walking up and reading the walls can be more fun. 
Walk to the corner, order and pay. Have a seat.
Condiments are brought out and you can hear the sounds of chopping and stir fry happening in the kitchen.
Soon, a large bowl of Wor Won Ton Soup ($11.99) was brought out. Chicken, shrimp and pork filled won tons (dumpling sized) along with a plethora of fresh vegetables made this a great meal in itself.
Every vegetable was fresh and crisp. The shrimp were plump, chicken pieces were moist and quite large and the dumplings/won ton were flavor filled. 
Since this was a first visit, I had to order the Egg Foo Young ($12.99). The chef here had yet another unique way of preparation. 
The patties were batter dipped and fried to a crisp brown color, not filled with bean sprouts but instead, cabbage. Topped with the chicken (you could also order pork or shrimp EFY), ubiquitous peas and carrots and a good (not too salty) gravy, all flavors and textures remained bright throughout the meal.
The menu is the same and the price of each item has increased by $1, to $8.50.
Coffee (accompanied by sweetened condensed milk) remains at 70¢,
as does the hot tea.
This is #3, Fried Noodles with Bean Sprouts and Soy Sauce; always satisfying having a crunch for breakfast. #1 and #2 are also noodle dishes.
#31, all the way at the bottom of the menu, Fried Rice w/ Lunch Meat, is the only rice offered at breakfast and has a wonderful, smokey 'wok hei' flavor along with the "Spam", egg and peas and carrots. Sometimes we will order it just to we can take home for lunch. 
#10, Shrimp Dumpling Noodle Soup, is quite satisfying. The dumplings are quite large, with pork and shrimp and the bok choy and egg noodles are satisfying to round out the meal.
#8, Fish Filet Porridge, is almost always ordered just because it's a comfort-breakfast food. 
You can order a Chinese Donut ($2), which is made fresh (used to have to run across the hallway to buy one at the 99Ranch steam trays ) and it is freshly fried. 
Tearing the crisp, airy donut into the porridge brings up the comfort food factor. 
#23, Roast Duck Lo Mein, is a great savory item. The herby and savory 'soup' is just perfect for dipping both the duck and the noodles. 
#24, BBQ Pork Lo Mein, is also a good choice on some days. It all depends on what you are craving. 
The hot food display window is filled in the morning. The steam tray choices next to it are 'To-Go' or you can eat at one of the two tables in front of the display.
My goodness, this was a lot of noodles. I moved the noodles to a large plate, which turned out to be a good idea. Because when I poured the sauce over it there was all this "stuff" on the bottom.
Of course, in typical fashion, when there's just too much to see, like when 
The fat on this was quite velvety, but the meat kind of dry. The flavor was a lot milder, lacking in the sweet-soy, ginger, and slightly pungent tones I'd used to in this dish. It also had a bit too much of a greasy mouthfeel for us as well.
They sure didn't short us on the chilies did they? And more preserved vegetable which just lifted the dish in my opinion. Great smokiness to the dish, perfect amount of soy and sodium flavors.
Not sure who was cooking on this day, but I'm hoping the person will always be there on my visits! And the dishes really brought some heat this time around….maybe it was a new delivery of chilies? The one a sat next to while waiting for my takeout?
The skin on the Roast Pork was slightly crisp, but the flavor was way too sweet and the flesh was too hard and chewy. The skin on the roast duck wasn't bad, the fat had been rendered nicely, unfortunately this too was quite bland and tough.
I noticed that ordering here is done strictly with QR codes, something that I've gotten used to in my travels.
The broth was clear and lacking in beefiness, was overly salty, and pretty "plain". The beef while a bit on the chewy side, had good flavor.
You can tell one was pan fried a bit longer than the other. The crusts were hard and chewy; like a good amount of rice flour was used. The beef filling was very tasty though and a good dash of block vinegar helped things along. These were pretty small overall.
Actually, these were not bad, even though I got the Beef-onion instead of what I ordered.. The wrappers were a bit on the brittle side, in need of a bit more "pull". A couple of them had burst during the cooking process. This caused the fillings of the dumplings to become "waterlogged" during the boiling process.
