Ethnic Food in Paris

I am thinking about this because we had pizza last night, at Golfe de Napoli, right off St. Germain in the 6th.  I like Parisian pizza places, but they share a quality with most ethnic food in Paris, which is that they are all exactly the same.  All wood-fired ovens, which is a good thing, the crust on the pizzas at Golfe de Napoli is beyond anything I ever get in all but the very best American pizza places.  All the same style, medium thick puffy crust, all the same ingredients, low grade ham, quattro formaggtio, eggplant, and egg, which is what I love and somewhat weirded out the kids.  Most pizzas come with a single egg cooked sunnyside, baked right with the ingredients into the crust.  Always perfectly soft and runny in the French style.  I love it.  

But anyway they are all the same, in this case pretty good, not cheap but cheaper than regular restaurants.  Likewise, Chinese restaurants are all the same, they even have the same sign outside, let's see if I can find a picture.  Here it is, the Lido, which is nearby and actually gets some good reviews.

It's the red sign in the upper left.  I've eaten there and it's OK, typical of Parisan Chinese food, at least in-town: OK but bland.  And they all have the same menu, the same choices.  Even worse are the take-out places that have replaced many of the old charcuteries in the city.   They are kind of mysterious because there are a zillion of them, and you never see many people actually in them, certainly not many chinese people.  They have a selection of stirfries and eggroll-type dumplings in the glass case, and they microwave them when you order one.  (I read that you can find good Chinese food out in the banlieus where the immigrants live.  Someday.)

It's the same for Indian food and Thai food, which must be really disappointing when blandified for French tastes.  Then there are Lebanese places (all with a Cedar of Lebanon on the sign), Turkish places, couscous joints, etcetera.  They each have a formula, and there doesn't seem to be the same pressure there is in New York to be the one Turkish place that is either the most authentic or the cheapest.  

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