John Talbott's Paris

Les Degres de Notre Dame; A bit more Japanesy today.

Les Degres de Notre Dame is a place that the first time around seemed to feature Japanese chefs cooking mainly French food but today it seemed tilted a bit more toward the Orient.  We were honored today by our two daughters, who, springing free from their jobs and family duties, are in town to help us move.

 

 

 

 

The firsts today were totally different from those a month ago; a salad of winter lettuces and vegetables and sliced rare duck, salmon 3 ways (lox, cooked and eggs) and the special of sweetbreads topped with eel prepared in the Japanese manner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then onto the mains: scallops in a light white sauce, a seafood soup Japanese style with a Japanese lemon condiment and rollatines of farm chicken stuffed with sweetbreads and parcooked winter vegetables.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of our daughters had the halfcooked chocolate, really a moelleux; and we all had a bottle of the Graves and 1/2 the Pinot Noir, plus good country bread, no bottled water, and 4 coffees for a total of 65.50 E a couple.

58 Qualite Street in the 5th: Quality lacking; products reheated Metro stuff; Japanese chef trained by Sendra nowhere to be seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.5   58 Qualite Street, 58 Rue de la Montagne Ste-Genevieve in the 5th, 01.43.26.70.43, but no reservations taken anyway for these jam-packed, jam-filled, jam-cheek-to-jowled tables where the decibel level reached 82 dB, I think a two-week high.  I apologze for the blurry pictures but since the food was itself blurry, perhaps they reflected my mood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The two ladies I had inveigled into going with me today under the ruse that they were going to help me write an article on Japanese chefs in French kitchens; in this case Hirotaka Okata, who, Le Fooding's Yves Nespoulous had said, was cooking in this mini-epicerie dreamed up by Sylvain Sendra, he of Itineraires and Temps au Temps, had what was called a Clam Schowder [sic] with three palourdes and potatoes that recalled memories of canned soup.  On on the other hand, I cleverly ordered the ouef mayo that was a halved boiled egg swimming in a sea of recently congealed mayo-stuff; hardly your French grandmother's oeuf mayo.  Not a great start.

 

 

 

For mains, Colette had the vegetable lasagna, over-flowing with cheese and large chunks of eggplant and tomatoes; my oldest American friend in France (circa 1953) had chunks of biche in a sea of gratin; and I had half-warm, half-cold beef cheeks in red wine with the only decent portion of the day - some good mashed potatoes and one small pickled onion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colette was the only stalwart left to try dessert - a ris au lait she said was the probably the worst she's ever had.  We three had coffee, and that, plus a bottle of wine, no bottled water and a poor excuse for bread resulted in a bill of 74.50 or about 50 E a couple.

Go?   If you're a student on this hill, need a ticket restaurant and don't care about Metro quality food - maybe, but 10 steps away is Christophe - So go North-East young man.

Les Degres de Notre Dame in the 5th: Another outstanding French restaurant with Japanese chefs.

6.3 66.8dB* Les Degres de Notre Dame 10 Rue des Grands Degres in the 5th, 01.55.42.88.88, closed weekends, was a place about which an astute reader of this blog - Claire - said "Cold day, like the funky rustic auberge decor, in the mood for the Maroccan woman cook's tagine on an otherwise French cuisine menagere menu. Surprise! Japanese staff in the house and the kitchen. New menu, Japanese French cuisine. Japanese chef. Started 10 days ago. Same decor, if possible even funkier."   Well, you gotta try a possibility like this, eh?

The carte is quite impressive, with 2 dishes at lunch at 19 E.  Knowing my two guests, one a sommelier and the other a fancier of fine food and wine, would probably disapprove of the Chateau Martal or Talmar I would order, from, of all places, Morocco, I ordered it before anyone could object - actually, we all agreed it was quite good.

We had four of the starters, sharing them liberally: the oysters and pork cromesquis, grilled scallops, red shrimp and calamari in a broth, soup with seafood and trumpets of death and sardines grilled simply with a large salad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For mains, our dining pals again insisted that we test the entire offerings so we ordered and shared a magnificent duck with lentils, another fish soup, described as Japanese but you couldn't prove it by me, a cote de boeuf and what I call a rollatine of chicken stuffed with foie gras that one of us thought was the winner - all came with wonderful vegetables of the season.

With two bottles of wine, no bottled water or desserts, slightly doughy bread and the equivalent of 4 coffees, our bill was 121.10 E or 60.55 E a couple.

Go?  Boy, in this location, at this price and with the staff (mostly Japanese) we encountered today, I would insist on it.

*the dB ratings are decibel max's recorded on my handy-dandy acoustic sound level meter, an idea Francois Simon pursued for a while.

Aux Verres de Contact in the 5th: Pretty good stuff.

5.5 Aux Verres de Contact, 33, rue de Bievre (Mitterand's street) in the 5th, (in the old Vartan space, which with La Bievre, he used to frequent, if memory serves me correctly), 01.46.34.58.02, closed Sundays (Metro: Maubert-Mutualite) is the second by the Jadis gang and was where I had a reservation for June 25th when electricity was lost on the street.  So, back today we go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has an open kitchen and impressive wine bin as well as a back room with primary colored chairs, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Originally I read the Verres as just wine but then realized it was a real restaurant too with a full carte, tapas as well as a 15 E 2-course lunch "menu" which I almost had, the plates of which I saw go by were very appealing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went for the delicious heirloom tomatoes with basil and Balsamic and my guest had the oeuf moellet with spinach and what I thought was spinach essence but on reflection was a salpicon of smoked herring (which I couldn't taste).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then she had the chicken with cocos de Paimpol (white beans) and Thai sauce (that I couldn't taste either) and I had frogs' legs (whose taste once again eluded me) with haricots verts and pasta shells and a cream of parsley sauce.

Finally we had a most tasty and tasted chocolate mousse.

Our bill, with 50 cl of a Domaine de l'Ancienne Mercerie from Languedoc Roussillon, 50 cl of their house made water, a 6 E supplement for the frogs' legs, wonderful warm bread and two Illy coffees was 92 E.

Go?  Despite the elusivity of tastes of the sauces, I'd say so.

Beaurepaire in the 5th: Perfect weather, company, food and view; imperfect service and photos.

Aux Verres de Contact, the new trendy cave a manger, is sited at 52 blvd St-Germain on the corner of the Rue de Bièvre where I'm told Francois Mitterrand used to hang out at the then-Restaurant Vartan.  But when my date and I showed up it was dark with an ominous bunch of back-hoes, dug-up sidewalks and a hand-lettered sign saying "Closed exceptionally due to power cut-off."  "Plan B."  But I had no plan "B"; maybe Atlas Gourmet or Le Reminet or the Rotisserie de Beaujolis; first closed, tramp to other two.  And, on our way we passed two intriguing looking places - 1st one's door open only to air it out, but the second looked promising despite being in tourist central.

5.9 Beaurepaire (de Stephane), 1, rue de la Bucherie in the 5th, 01.43.29.73.57, closed Sunday and Monday nights, has apparently been open just about a year and we did something I shudder at when friends tell me they "were walking by and stopped because it looked so nice, so we went."  Shocking.

The carte is not half-bad and it was perfect weather - sunny, 70⁰, 50% humidity, birdies chirping; heaven under the trees except impossible to get photos without some shade.  So what?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She had the divine-looking and divine-tasting sliced green asparagus in a zippy butter-cream sauce and I stared at my Basque pate from Jean Haget which was straight out of a tin which tin sat there full of cornichons; well, I was screwed, clearly, how could I be so dumb, so naive, so.......wait a minute, on the terrific toast it was spiced heaven, oh my!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had ordered a lamb chop, rare and a very, very, very rare, almost blue slice of veal liver with Balsamic sauce and we waited and waited and waited for them to come.  When they did the waitlady said to me "here's your very, very, very rare, almost blue" dish and to her just set it down.  We bit into our respective dishes - hers was very, very, very rare, almost blue and mine over-cooked - whoops; half-way-through we essentially swapped and were both happy.  BTW the room temperature puree of zucchini with herbs and warm puree of cauliflower and parmesan accompaniments were also wonderful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally there was one miss - her strawberry cake was not much of a much but I tried to compensate by liberally sharing my fine chocolate mousse that was gold standard. 

 

With a bottle of their house red (a never-heard-of-it Cote de Thongue L'Arjolle Cab-Merlot mix from Pouzolles in the middle-of-nowhere Languedoc), 2 Illy coffees and no bottled water, our bill was 101 E for two.

Go?  Boy, if you have friends who want to plotz and eat after a tiring climb up the Notre Dame Tower - this is the place; even if not, it's a gem in the middle of tourist-trap heaven.

Terroir Parisien by Yannick Alleno: Hyped before; undervalued afterwords; silly French critics.

 

 

 

 

 

6.6 (Le) Terroir Parisien by Yannick Alleno, 24, rue rue St-Victor in the 5th, 01.44.31.54.54, open 7/7 (Metro: Maubert-Mutualite) has been open exactly two weeks and is running like a Swiss watch (except for the slow delivery of our mains). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's in the dreadful Mutualite Building, which today was the site of the graduation of the EDHEC Business School but only last month hosted ParisdesChefs, that great display of rotating blades of culinary machines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the Northwestern wall is a list of Alleno's sources/producers in the Ile de France, that's the concept, "locavore," and to the right of it are two columns of stacked vegetable boxes of many of said items.  To get a clear shot of the chalkboard, Paris' equivalent of Danny Meyers graciously stood up so I wouldn't reveal that Terroir Parisien was where he ate when not cooking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For firsts we had the musseau, which one of our guests had never had but declared it the best; eggs in a bouillon; escargot-stuffed mushrooms of Paris and langoustines in a creamy jelly sauce - all equally good.  And of course we had to have his version of the "hot dog" beautifully described by Elain Sciolino in the NYT modified by making it with tete de veau, putting it between multigrain bread and using gribiche sauce instead of mustard - delicious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our mains were the matelote, paleron of beef with vegetables, raie prepared classically and merlan fried traditionally but not biting its tail, rather it was butterflied and butterized - once again the dishes were all perfectly sourced, prepared and served.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of our guests, who had eaten here last week, indicated early on that she'd like to try the cheese platter this time and there was plenty for the four of us, all of which were interesting excepting the brie noir which I guess is an acquired taste.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For desserts, another four classics: poached pear, chocolae mousse, brioche perdu and a mini-baba (which didn't knock my socks off).

With a fine red Loire, no bottled water and two coffees, a couple can exit for just under 100 E (and this is with the hot dog and cheese plate).

Go?  I can neither understand the buzz before or lukewarm reception after its opening; this place, like Dans Les Landes.... and the Cantine de Troquet Dupleix and Christian Constant's Cafe serves simple, unfussy, great food - Run.

Mirama in the 5th: All you could want in a Sino-French restaurant in a gastronomic wasteland.

5.1 Le Restaurant Mirama, 17, rue Saint Jacques in the 5th, 01.43.29.66.58 (but don't bother, they don't take reservations,) open 7/7, 12-23h00 without interruption, is situated in a culinary dessert amidt all the cheapo kebab/etc., shops east of St Michel.

How did I find myself there with 3 others who are food-driven folks?  Easy.  We'd all "won" a lottery for tickets to ParisdesChefs: Food+Design (no spaces thank you) held by Paris by Mouth's Magnificent Meg Zimbeck and after a short spin through the world of Kitchen Aid, knives, about to be food demos by the likes of Bertrand Grebaut (Septime) and Yannick Alleno (Le Meurice) as well as music by Wynton Marsalis, needed a place to lunch at.

The window of this place that looks all the world like a narrow boxcar, tells you that you've arrived at a place that takes its lacquered duck seriously, and after a wonderful wonton soup with thin noodles

we moved on to it as well as (clockwise) beef with thick noodles and vegetables shown with some tofu stuffed with shrimp and broccolini; all adequately spicy for most patrons but even better for two of us, with the bit more from one of two hot pepper sauces.

With 50 cl of red wine, two Cokes, tea, one rice and no coffees, our bill for 4 was 75.70 E, thus 37.85 E a couple.

Go?  If caught in this Bermuda triangle, you bet, but go early because our expert said that by 1-2 PM there'd be a line out front (even by close to 13h00, the 30 more seats downstairs that were fully occupied).

Christophe in the 5th: 91% on target.

OK, let's start by saying that I had a very good lunch here a few weeks ago with two of my team-members over at Paris by Mouth and looked forward to taking Colette.  She and I entered a tad earlier than the other 3 from our Escalier A in the 18th so Colette regarded to menu right off, wanting to get to her ballet performance at the Garnier on time.

We ordere, but pretty soon, our friends arrived and we more or less ate together.

 

 
 
 

For starters, to me, Paga's bacon on bean was the tops; Colette's green salad a close 2nd and my wild snails with croutons and salad a distinct 3rd because of a strange-tasting sauce, but more on that later.

 

 

 

 

For mains, Paga had the sole in butter, not called meuniere, but surely of its ilk, which along with the two Amurican ladies' ducks, all of which came with innovative chick-pea frites, was superb, and his sole was really sole-tasting.  Madame, our French pal, who knows her espilette, had the Basque boudin which she declared was too spicy for her and I had the ris de veau which was, while too generous, good, with mashed potatoes, that I ordinarily reject, but were extraordinary.

 

 

 

At this point, Colette departed for the Opera Garnier and the remaining four of us shared three desserts: all fine; a chocolate mousse, a mi-cuit and coffee ice cream.

Our bill, well, our bill.  This is embarassing.  I didn't look at it until I got home and realized that Christophe Philippe had comp'd us to the second bottle of wine, so I'll factor that back in for accuracy's sake but say that I should have been more effusive in my thanks and au revoirs because that was most generous.  If counted, with 3 starters, 5 mains and 3 desserts, as well as 2 bottles of bio-energetic Bordeaux, a bottle of Chateldon, 3 coffees and 2 calvas, our bill should have been 232 E for 5; thus 92.80 E a couple.

Christophe in the 5th: A spectacular retour to a genuine Parisian bistro.

 
5.8 Christophe, 8, rue Descartes in the 5th, 01.43.26.72.49, closed Wednesdays and Thursdays is a place I deemed a 4.5 on November 19, 2008 and dinged them for "the crummy décor, a moelleux of chocolate (here described as mi-cuit, which just didn’t beat the “can one do it better than at home” test) and service that ground to a halt after the dessert was served (an old, familiar problem.)" 

I republished this review a while back, and got a very nice comment from philippe whose email revealed the fact that it was really from Christophe Philippe, the chef, who said "vous devriez revenir" to which I replied "Ah Christophe, then I wouldn't be anonymous anymore, would I? At least to you. I have heard others say they love Christophe though."  So after circulating this exchange among my fideles, two co-conspirators from Paris by Mouth said they really wanted to go back; so I charged one with making the rez in her name so I would not be outed (fat chance - but more on that later).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They still have an incredibly priced 3-course meal, even on weekends for 19 E with supplements for sure, and the two ladies had that while I went with the Abat Express-to-Your-Heart-Muscle-Arterioles two courses for double that, oie.  On the left above is a photo of the ladies "cochon basque, ventrèche et boudin, en nems" which was simply divine, no other word would do and I had what's shown on the right side, the braised veal brains, which we all loved as well.

 

 
 

 

Then my very oldest Paris By Mouth pal had the famous "Boeuf de M.Charcellay!! le faux filet rôti pomme de terre Pompadour en purée" which was one of the best pieces of beef ever (more again, later), my other Paris By Mouth pal-coconspitator had the andoulillette with mashies and I had the "Ris de veau, meunière, pomme de terre pompadour en purée," which the table declared "extraordinary."

 
Having grossed myself out on innards/organ meats and wine, I passed on dessert but the ladies both had the chocolate mousse, described as "Mousse chocolat 75% cacao, croustillant à la praline," which was above standard. 

As we were finishing up two guys appeared at the table: "Do you remember me," said the younger one to me in perfect English, "Ahhhh, Christophe, ahhhh Philippe," stammered I, "no, remember the Bis de Severo,"  "But of course," and the other guy was from Severo.  Therein ensued a wonderful few minutes of talk about beef, origin, types, feed, etc.  What a small world Google has brought us into.

The bill was 128 E for 3, thus 85.33 E for the food, plus some Chateldon, fine bread and the moral equivalent of just under 2 bottles of fine wine.  Didn't we have coffee?  Did they comp us (because by the end the chef had joined us)?  I dunno.  But it was fun.

Go?  I would encourage it for a genuine Paris Bistro where the decor, chocolate & service are way up from 3 years ago.  Thanks for inviting me back Christophe.  We had a great meal.

Sola in the 5th: Hiroki's Undiscovered Hideaway

Sola par Hiroki in the 5th remains a charming, largely as-yet undiscovered gem.   Today Colette and I ate there with old/new friends who just got back from two weeks in Morocco and were hankering for fine Parisian cooking; well, Hiroki offers that.

After the last time's almost-faux-pas, when I attempted to attack the "baby marshmallow" with a knife and fork I was saavy enough today, to use the cleansing towel for its intended purpose.

The starter/amuse was a soup of fennel, grapefruit and lemon oil which, if we hadn't been told, I would have guessed to be a cream of leeks with agrume flavoring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then came minced salmon with beets, burrata and a foie gras "omelet" with shiso (perilla, wild coleus, etc.,) followed by a foie gras "omelet" (I swear) on top of white, barely cooked, or perhaps blanched and cooled asparagus, honey, parmesan and pousses de miel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then for mains, the ladies had pieces of merlan, radishes, potatoes, baby scallions, on a bed of garlic and covered with an emulsion of emulsion, and the men had slices of beautiful entrecote with Japanese mushrooms, other veggies and potatoes with a wasabi sauce.  Great both!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Desserts were a platter of a dark chocolate creme, vanilla ice cream, caramelized nuts, meringue and almond tuiles as well as nuages (yes, clouds) of soya.

With two bottles of wine, no bottled water and four coffees, our bill was 115 E a couple.

Anything else John?  As a matter of fact yes; there were so many ingredients, many of them unknown to us, we needed not only the waitguy's wonderful descriptions but the help of the gracious chef at one point.