John Talbott's Paris

Baltimore: Donna's on St Paul: New chef, very disappointing

Donnas, 3101 St Paul has a new chef Andy Davis and Colette and I ate there Sunday night. 

Back-story: I'm a big fan of Donna Crivello and have generally loved what she did/does but the Charles Village location will not see me again. 

The pasta with sausage was overwhelming and Colette found the pear salad and bean soup only OK.

Bill (with a bottle of OK wine) = $57.93

My life as a wine contrarian and the Salon des Vignerons Independents 2009.

A lively friend of mine from another journalistic life calls herself a contrarian or libertarian not a Republican or conservative, despite her ties to the most illustrious conservative operation in America (outside of Fox News) there is. As I was thinking about my life and wine it occurred to me I should probably define myself this way as well.

I’ve previously published essays on my ambivalent relationship with wine, such as “Holding down wine costs,” “Wine snobbery,” “Wine, whining and me: liked or worshipped, war stories and facts” and “Ordering the cheapest wine on the menu” that have as a common theme my skepticism that most people, including the experts, know what they’re talking about. (You can Google or Search for them by title if so desired).

Now, wouldn’tcha know, that most conservative of all American newspapers, at least on its Editorial and Op-Ed pages, the Wall Street Journal, comes out with an article entitled “A Hint of Hype, A Taste of Illusion: They pour, sip and, with passion and snobbery, glorify or doom wines. But studies say the wine-rating system is badly flawed. How the experts fare against a coin toss” and talk about reinforcing my stereotypes, its author, Leonard Mlodinow, does a fine job.

The title and subtitle give away the plot, denouement and ending and the fact that the author is a Professor of “Randomness” at Caltech tells you its spin as well. I love his finding out that some Languedoc in 1973 was marked “Salable as Beaujolais to Americans.” This being the time of Beaujolais Nouveau, I should give a brief nod to the wine we love to hate, saving longer diatribes for another day.

Because I want to move back to Professor Mlodinow’s article. He notes that another wine-obsessed Prof, from Humboldt, one Robert Hodgson, and others have found that:

- despite tasters’ claims of spotting 6 or 8 scents or flavors, homo sapiens cannot “identify more than three or four”
- raters give widely different descriptors to the same wine,
- experts agree on characteristics (tannins, sweetness, fruitiness) 25% of the time,
- color additives change raters’ opinions of what they’re drinking,
- the same expert drinking samples from the same bottle judged each sip differently,
- medals are “spread around at random,”
- flips of the coin are just as accurate, and
- while most wine experts dispute these findings as “hogwash,” vintners, editors and even Robert Parker, are not surprised.

 

So, back to the Salon des Vignerons Independents at the Porte de Versailles last weekend. I intended to go and as I always do, visit my favorite vintners Catherine and Pierre Breton as well as Rolet Pere et Fils, then drift around, regretting that I didn’t eat the great looking paella or cassoulet.

 

But, not wanting to schlep wine home (my car schlepped itself home years ago) or schmooze with the vintners or any stranger I might meet, I repaired instead to the Metro, and once again identified myself as a wine contrarian. No matter who said it, I fell into the “road to hell is paved with good intentions” crowd very easily.

Years ago, J. Russell Lynes, a word-ly writer and editor at Harpers (and coiner of the highbrow, middlebrow, lowbrow definitions) also teased out snobbism to its ultimate antipode – the anti-snob snob, a zone I’ll happily admit inhabiting.

Where we ate before my intended trip:
Thoumieux
79, rue St Dominique in the 7th, (Metro: Invalides)
T; 01.47.05.49.75
Open 7/7
Weekday lunch costs 20 € lunch, a la carte costing 40-50 €

Spring Boutique in the 1st: Fine food, expensive sure, but fun.

The Spring Boutique, 52, rue de l’Arbre Sec in the 1st, (ergo around the corner from the new Spring on the rue Bailleul) 01.58.62.44.30 is open Tuesday-Saturday 10:30 AM – 9 PM and has the same sign as in olden times.

Daniel Rose and Marie-Aude Mery and Josh Adler hold forth selling high end sausages, fruit, coffee, wine and well, everything one might need for a late light dinner after a long day’s work (which is when they get really busy).

I cannot attest to all the products but their grey pleurotes in olive oil (10.75 € from Camille des Lys in Autoire) served on a bed of very thick (#14) spaghetti and an organic apple ensured that I’ll be back. 

Oh and he has a new card replacing the fruit-laden bicycle basket:

 
(permission granted to post)

Boston Eats

November 10, 2004, elsewhere, I had posted a note: “Due to some family, personal and professional obligations we did less ethnic food on the fly than we'd planned. We had our best meal (once again) at #9 Park and a surprising tapas tasting at Tapeo. Great Bay did well with the scallops but poorly with the fish, indeed good old Legal did better. And as for ethnic I loved the eel at Peach Farm but almost nothing at Khao Sarn…….”

This year, about the same time, we returned and here’s our score-keeping. We ate at Legal Seafood, for different reasons, on three occasions. The first, at the Prudential location, was quite good for the littleneck clams and mussels, so-so for the special fried flounder on foccacia, supposedly with aioli and poor on the flight of red Chilean wines (Bill= $61.74). Our second Legal meal was at the Copley location and while my littleneck clams and East Coast oysters were good (I am so used to Paris sizes, they must let them grow longer there, I was surprised), my boiled lobster had an almost burned (not in a good way) taste to it. Colette had an OK fish soup. Finally, leaving from Logan we ate at the one in Terminal C and once again I had great clams (this time cherrystones) but very mediocre Portuguese soup with a chorizo that was overcooked poor product, while Colette had the mussels again, whose sauce this time she was less impressed with than that at the Pru. (Bill=$64.04). For some reason, I think Legal has dropped off in quality for other-than-shellfish items, which remain of the top quality. Just so you don’t think I’ve lost my taste for fish, I will note that at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central a day later I had big (Paris-sized) oysters and an oyster pan roast that was as good as ever.

An interesting new place (for us, it didn’t exist during my college years) was the Antico Forno in the North End, which with the bringing down of the elevated highways, is no longer a city apart. I started off with a great assortment of fresh greens with Balsamic and EVOO, followed by a papillote of clams and linguine, really quite nice. Colette’s home-made fettucine and Bolognese didn’t meet the Luigi Buitoni standard, despite the Signora’s statement that American Bolognese was the same as Italian (I demurred: same carrots, veal and pancetta? I think not). (Bill= $65.80.)

Equally new to us was Gari, self-described as a Japanese-fusion maki-sushi place, near Coolidge Corner (once the burbs now the center). We ordered a wonderful wok-fried, interestingly-battered calamari dish with ample greens and (untastable lemongrass) and fine makis: spicy scallops and flying fish, yellowtail and scallions, and eel and avocado. In sum: one of the most innovative experiences we’ve ever had in Boston. (Bill=$58.85.) 

Tapeo was a complete disappointment this year – what has happened? – we liked not the tiger shrimp, chicken with (ephemeral ginger) and garlic and sausage (so so) with one good fig; dessert of rice pudding was good, however. Bill= $75.97.

Harvest (in Cambridge) was disappointing in a major way; despite their assurance to my pal that they had regular menu items at a Sunday lunch-time, the only way we could have selected individual items from the pricey brunch menu that did not even include coffee ($35) was to move from our table near the garden and sit in the dimly lit bar. So, we were cowed and ordered the brunch: the onion soup and the yogurt/fruit with too little honey were OK and the eggs Benedict and fried shrimp were better and the crème brulée and chocolate pot au crème were the best. At least we enjoyed the company of our friends. Bill= $94.69

For one dinner, we took the T (15 minutes only) to Malden, from where one of my college roommates hailed, to FuLoon, much loved on Chow Hound. Once again we were done-in by our upper-Manhattan memories of wonderful Szechuan food: the pork pancake was OK, the wok baked scallops and shrimp were OK and the Kung Pao chicken was (well, I’m sorry to say), only OK (Bill=$58.30).

Sonsie might be terrific for dinner but at lunch it’s largely soups and salads and sandwiches rather than “real food,” by my book. I had what was called a Cubano, and I guess I am scarred for life by the great Cuban sandwiches at W. 160th St circa 1959; what I was served was essentially an all-right croque-monsieur with pickles or a ham/cheese panino, but not as advertised – spicy pork was nowhere to be found (Bill=$34).

All prices above are net, with tax but sans tip.

Food Guides 2010 - 1- The Gault-Millau

Food Guides 2010 -1- The Gault-Millau

Yesterday the Gault-Millau went on sale and on its cover promises 2000 tables less than 30 € (and there are probably are that many but there’s no index or symbol for them).

Chef of the Year is/was William Ledeuil of Ze Kitchen Galerie and Kitchen Galerie Bis.

There were also six greats of tomorrow named; in Paris it was Adeline Grattard of Yam'Tcha ; also 22 young talents (under 32 years): none in Paris.

Of the 5 chef toques (no more numbers remember) in Paris were/are: Yannick Alleno (Le Meurice), Pascal Barbot (l'Astrance), Alain Ducasse & his chef Christophe Moret (Plaza Athénée), Pierre Gagnaire, Alain Passard (l'Arpège) and Guy Savoy.

Going Green in Gallons: Water and wine without wessels.

Today, I got to chatting with our amiable waiter at KGB, the spicy not the torturing one, about William Ledeuil's nifty new (1 month old) machine that "makes" bottled water (fizzy and flat), thus saving the environment all sort of polluting effects and afterwards Colette found an article in the IHT about the New York resto Sojourn serving red wine from 10 liter barrels instead of..... well you get the point. 

For historical accuracy's sake, the bag-in-box in restaurants was adopted by Christian Constant in his Les Cocottes de..... from its opening (in a terrific, groovy, made-for-him wine rack holding a dozen or so boxes) and I was introduced to the concept in 1989 by a French pal who kept his outside his kitchen window.

Chicago eats (Palm, P. Sogno & T Piano) and Culture

Colette and I spend a lovely long weekend in Chicago.

We'd forgotten how fat Midwesterners are/were and at our late lunch at the Chicago branch of the Palm, where we ate because it was in our hotel, we got bushwacked by the portion sizes.  But like the old joke about Grossingers that said that the food is lousy but you get a lot of it, the food was cheap but we got double the amount we wanted.  For $19.95 one had three courses, salads (for Colette mixed, for me Caesar), mains (8 oz of filet for me, lots of shrimp for her) and "Key Lime" (sure) pie for both.  I forget the total because it was on the hotel bill.

Culture that day consisted of a visit to the Chicago Architecture Foundation home (ex City Public Library) which had a wonderful exhibition of the design and fate of Burnham's 1909 Plan.

That evening we went to Piccolo Sogno - sitting outside in the glorius garden - and mindful of the portion size problem ordered judiciously.  Colette had only the antipasti selection which was good but hearty while I had incredibly good fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with cheese and a 1/2 portion of lasagna Bolognese which did not meet Luigi Buitoni's Gold Standard.  Our bill was $83.25 with a bottle of fine wine.  As we exited there must have been 40 persons younger than we hanging by the bar awaiting entry.

The next morning I perused the new Renzo Piano wing at the Art Institute which I thought worked better for hanging modern/contemporary art than all the Gehry attempts although I did not feel the Cy Twombly exhibition was up to Piano's bar; Colette did lots of walking and walking tours and suffused herself in architecture.

I was then tied up for 24 hours at the function that was the reason for our visit.

The final morning we took the Chicago River Architecture Tour was incredible with a docent who knew the name of every building, its architect and firm and year it was built.  Time and money and mental energy well spent.

Finally we ate at Terzo Piano in the Piano wing which is simply splendid in location and OK in food.  I didn't like the whipped whitefish but loved the fried perch and unique fried lemon slices (both of which were too large for appetizers) while Colette was pretty pleased with her mizuna salad with chicken breast.  With a bottle of wine and two doppios = $97.63.

Alizee Restaurant in Baltimore: a second (rough) incarnation.

This spring, the Alizee Restaurant in the Colonnade represented a wonderful reincarnation in what seems to be a cursed space.  We liked the "French fusion" menu then but just a few months later the hotel took it over and hired Chef Christian deLutis, ex-Wine Market, ex-Dogwood, ex-Harbor Court to oversee a menu called "modern American, French forward cuisine," whatever that means.

Six of us ate there the other night and about the only thing anyone liked was the scallop starter (which luckily Colette and I both had); the sweetbreads, pear salad, fish and other dishes were all deemed bad.  Our bill was $242.

The Waterfront Wharf in New Bedford (MA); many memories, few fireworks.

The Waterfront Grille on Homers Wharf in New Bedford is a huge success; packed to the gills with young and not so young, big seafoodish menu and beautiful setting.  Ah, ah, ah, John, you're hiding something.

Back story: I spent many a happy summer on the beaches and grand houses from Buzzard's Bay to Newport where my Mother's very successful family ran a bunch of elegant department stores in the glory days.  Now of course, much of the inner city areas are blighted but the beaches and posh communities remain and this restaurant serves the latter population.  Thus I was thrilled to have an old friend suggest we eat on a wharf in a charming place.

However, but, ah, the trouble is the food and service and kitchen didn't match the setting and clientele.  It was deafeningly loud, it was impossible to order or get dishes in a timely manner and gaffs such as taking silverware off one dish to use with another, or "forgetting" that main courses came with salads, spoiled it further.

The food: well, my buddy who lives 10 minutes away said "I'm never coming back," but I must say I rather liked my crispy crusted cod and Colette's seabass with chorizo was dry but interesting.

Our bill before tip with a bottle of wine but no coffee or dessert was $71.19 a couple.

Duckfat in Portland (ME); a true one-of-a-kind.

Duckfat on Middle St in Portland is a one-of-a-kind; funky, moderately quick, great simple chow and reasonably priced.  We've been dropping in for a couple of years as we either go up to the Maine woods or on return. 

Colette had the ratatouille panini last year which she thought lacked pizzaz but I thought didn't; this year she had some duckfat fries with Thai Chili mayo and a bowl of beet soup with untasteable orange (by both our lights.)

I once again had the duck confit panini - this year spread on black mission fig mostarda, much better than the blueberry base I had last year but still not adding much value (I cannot figure why they don't just let it go with the confit?)

With a half bottle of wine our bill was $42.27.  Terrific.