Cuisses de Grenouille 

Cuisses de Grenouille . There are some choices in the Parisian menu that can raise the hair of every vegetarian or vegan across the world. If you don’t belong in the aforementioned categories then the Cuisses de Grenouille or frog legs are a typical French dish you should try. It is traditionally associated with France and Parisian food and cuisine though in reality frogs’ legs are cooked in various places all over the world.

Frogs’ legs are prepared with butter, garlic, and parsley sauce and then served with salad. 3000 to 4000 tons of cuisses de grenouilles are consumed annually in France, which represents around 80 million frogs. Frogs are however a protected species in France, so they are now imported from Asia.

The frog meat is so tender that it really doesn’t take much for it to be prepared or cooked. The frog legs are just dipped into flour and garlic shavings and fried in olive oil in a pan, for 5 minutes. What seems to be an impossible task for anyone who is not used to the idea of eating a frog will turn into a culinary revelation for the one who actually tries it.

For such a dish you wouldn’t easily leave the matter in luck’s hands. A great choice would be the restaurant Roger-la-grenouille on 28 Rue des Grands Augustins.  Child of 1900, Roger Spinhirny was abandoned with his brother at birth. A character with a big heart fascinated by eating, he did not hesitate to take care of the most destitute of whom he had been part, offering meals every Thursday to the orphans of Paris.

The shoe repair shop that he transformed into a restaurant in 1930 met with immense success from the outset, becoming, in a few years, the place of meetings and privileged exchanges of political and artistic personalities, including Picasso, Balthus, Saint-Exupéry, Mistinguett, Galabru, and even Pope John XXIII and the Queen Mother of England.

Known at the beginning of the last century for its light manners, the rue des Grands Augustins housed Pablo Picasso, who painted “Guernica”, his most famous painting, at n ° 7. After the war, the district was invaded by artists and “revelers” who still jostle there today. Taken over by François Pagot – part artist, part party animal – Roger the Frog returns to this cocktail of cheeky impertinence and conviviality which, in its heyday, made it an essential place of life, and of Parisian nights.