Zen Zoo... Zhen Zhu... Get it?

I'm so happy ! Happy Happy. I love Zhen Zhu Nai Cha (Originally a drink from Taiwan, Zhen Zhu means pearl in Mandarin. But they spelled it 'Zen Zoo' so the French could pronounce it correctly. So clever. Nai = milk, Cha = tea). We (Amanda is a huge fan of zhen zhu as well) finally went to the Salon de Thé Zen Zoo that I had heard about from a Chinese girl I met here in Paris.

Let's back up for just a moment. In July, I went to visit a studio on rue Montorgeuil which at the time was being rented by a girl from China studying in Paris. We got to talking about where we were from and when she realized I could understand Mandarin, this "quick" studio visit turned into a good 45 minute discussion on what we were doing with our lives and where to get Chinese food AND ZHEN ZHU in Paris. Oh and I didn't end up taking the studio (obviously). In addition, I had already visited that studio 5 months earlier hahahaha.

Anyway, last week I spent a good amount of time making dots all over my Paris map of restaurants, cafés, and boulangeries that I have tried and/or do want to try. (Bonne idée, Pim!) I had a few unmarked dots in the 1ème. I was really confused because I could have sworn that I marked "Salon de Thé Zen" in my Paris plan. Amanda and I ended up walking to two other "unmarked" dots in my plan which were not the Salon de Thé Zen Zoo, but it was okay. We discovered a cool organic juice bar and another restaurant.

After a good 30+ minutes of walking all around the Japantown area, I turned my page to see that I had marked Zen Zoo after all. Oops. Determined and on a mission, we finally made it. It was quite crowded but we decided to wait a bit. We grabbed a table inside. They had just ran out of black tea but we both decided to wait another good 20+ minutes. I ordered the standard Zhen Zhu Nai Cha (hot) and she ordered the Zhen Zhu with Almond milk tea (hot).



It was well worth the wait. I loved it. It was just like back home in California. Except perhaps even a bit better! The balls here (as I like to call them) were perfectly cooked, fresh, and chewy. (Who doesn't like a mouth full of chewy balls?)

The only time I take tea with milk and sugar is with my balls. =D The tea was great and not too sweet. Amanda's almond tea was fabulous as well. The small size runs about 4,5 Euro. Zen Zoo also carry things like dim sum as well as desserts - everyone seemed to be ordering the green tea cake with red fruit. Oh, and apparently on Saturdays, they have Niu Rou mein - beef noodle soup. We weren't too hungry so we are going to save the eating for next time. I am very much addicted to balls and have them at least 2x a week back in California. Today was a good day.

I was too excited to drink my tea that I forgot to take a photo of it before hand.


Do you want balls in your mouth?! I HOPE SO !

Zen Zoo‎
13, Rue Chabanais
75002 Paris
M: Pyramides or Bourse or Quatre-Septembre
Tel: 01 42 96 27 28‎

And this is what me and Amanda saw on our way back to the metro. Check out what the French did to a Parisian architectural masterpiece. Covered it in Indian-themed memorabilia - acid trip style.