At La Grande Épicerie, the glamorous food market in Paris, the expansive dairy section is clogged with people. They reach over each other to grab items from the refrigerated cases, trying to keep their baskets from bashing the heads of the shoppers squatting below them or wedged on either side. They’re scrambling to get a brick of butter studded with truffles, pepper, seaweed, lemon, onion, garlic, or caviar. I’d be happy to list all the different butters, but La Grande Épicerie stocks 200 varieties, and we have better things to do.
When I visited the store several times recently, the butter hoarders I spoke to were mostly American, other than two from Canada. Some said they were heading straight to the airport with the cache in their roller bags. When the store managers noticed the surge in butter’s popularity among tourists, they offered to pack it in vacuum-sealed bags for one euro. As I paid for my stash, I mentioned to my partner something about freezing it, and the cashier jumped in, appalled: “No, no, madame. You must not! It will destroy the integrity.”
