Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Fresh mint tea

The Northern African community makes many wonderful contributions to the French culture - music lovers, check out Souad Massi, one of my favorites, who sings in French and Arabic, as in her hit Raoui.
Today as I was early for an appointment, I stopped by Tesnime (rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine), an Algerian pastry shop, for their trademark mint tea - fresh mint leaves, sugar and scalding water (in Tunisia, they also add roasted pine nuts). Northern African pastry relies on almonds, honey, and other scrumptious ingredients I can't resist - resist I didn't.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't have resisted either, sounds delicious.

marie said...

i make this at home..without the sugar
i love it too (especially with honey and almond middle eastern sweets, miam!)
oh and the tea set is beautiful!

ALL THE BEST said...

Sounds wonderful!!! Happy Valentine’s Day!

pve design said...

fill my cup! i love fresh mint tea!

Anonymous said...

I think there must be something wrong with me because i just can't seem to get into the mint tea thing. i love the concept, i love the look of it (i love shooting it), and i love mint. but everytime i make it or order it i just don't like the taste - what's wrong with me people??!!!

Anonymous said...

Cela me rappelle la Mosquee de Paris (2, bis place du puits de l'Ermite, 75005 Paris) et son joli salon de the ou j'allais quand j'etais etudiant dans le quartier latin.

Anonymous said...

ooooh I love sweets!!! Though I am a bigger fan of chocolate (not the adorned kind that uses such distracting additions like nuts or fruits embedded).

Joanna Goddard said...

yum. when i was in paris w/my mom last sept, we had mint tea at that beautiful mosque. it was a really nice memory. this looks delish!

Anonymous said...

Ohhh comme il est joli ton blog, frais, raffiné, merci de m'avoir laissé un message, ça m'a permis de découvrir le tien.
PS : oui j'ai assisté à la vente Poiret, sans en rater une miette... et t'es-tu décidée finalement
PS2: mais au ft je t'écris en français... je suis trop nulle avec la lague anglaise, tu me pardonneras...
a bientôt !
Poirette

Anonymous said...

okay so obviously there is something wrong with me. and i still havent gone to that mosque. perhaps when i get back to paris we can meet there for tea mary-laure?

Mary-Laure said...

Pia, few things would be more lovely than chatting with you over tea in Paris! I am SO eager to meet you...Mint tea does have a very peculiar taste, sometimes bitter; but come on Pia, nothing is wrong with you!!!

As Pierre (thanks for the address!) and Joanna mentioned, the Paris mosque is also a great place for tea.

Taocito, I know you like chocolate - especially my Toblerone, no?

Adorable Poirette, I was at the sale too! I'm going to blog about it today.......

Elina said...

I'm also partial to mint tea, at some point I did not drink anything else. And all those honey-almondy-pastries, I just love them! Lasta weekend I learned to make italian cantuccinis (not sure if I spelled that right). They are lovely biscuits with almonds, nuts, honey and orangepeel.

artycho said...

When I read your post I am away in an arabic café somewhere in paris but it could be marseille, lyon...oh how much I miss that! when tomorrow I may go for scones and breakfast tea in a tea room instead!

Mary-Laure said...

Ekub - honey, orangepeel and almonds are 3 of my favorite foods ever; would you mind sharing your recipe? It sounds so good!

Artycho - yes, I'm lucky to have those wonderful delicacies on hand but I am sure the scones you get in your part of England are to die for! (Actually, I am always frustrated in London not to find good scones... My grandmother lives in Uruguay and makes fabulous scones, but that's a bit far too!)