John Talbott's Paris

Diane de Meridor in Montsoreau (the Loire): Solid country cooking.

5.0 Diane de Meridor in Montsoreau: Solid country cooking.

In the Saumur region, there are not a lot of grand opportunities but we seized on a Michelin Bib for dinner and were not terribly upset, nor were we ecstatic.

 
The amuse-bouche (dried out crushed peas), the bread sticks and bread were subpar.

We both had the regional menu at 28 E. They substituted smoked salmon for asparagus (which we both would have ordered) so we chose the rillettes of rabbit with mango (chutney) and rocket salad was/were quite good.

Then the usual mid-meal dip; Colette’s sandre was ultra-boring to me although the veggies were fine; my rollatine of pintadeau with crustacean sauce was not as intense as I like my dead carapaces to be, but again the veggies were quite good.

 
And we both had the strawberries in verbeine liquid with its ice cream, again quite good.

Our bill = 82 E.

Go? Where else on a night like this?

La Gambetta in Saumur: What a different a day and star make.

8.0 La Gambetta in Saumur: What a different a day and star make.

This is a place Meg the Magnificent rec’d to us and was she right.

Our amuse bouches were a shrimp tempura and onion fluff, which started us off on the right foot.

We both ordered the 41.50 E “l’Eveil du Gout” menus. Colette started with sesame fried gambas and an egg several ways (NB: this [several ways], is this chef’s signature – he says gambas and a declinaison of egg but it was a quail egg with salmon eggs, soft-egg with fluffy sauce in the shell and one other I forget now). I had a similar treatment to my foie gras with langoustine; there was a foie gras “sandwich” of foie gras/melon/foie gras, fried langousines and Pineau des Charentes ice cream.

 
Then we waited with baited breath – we’d ordered daurade and pigeon – he couldn’t do this (multiple tricks) with them could he? Yup. The daurade was also a “sandwich” with ham inside with asparagus and my pigeon was a pigeon leg, pigeon breast and pigeon sausage/forcemeat with an artichoke heart stuffed with who knows.

Finally Colette had the souvenirs of the desserts from your childhood at the French equivalent of a county fairgound: cotton candy, an ice cream cone, a lighter-than-air chocolate waffle, toffee “cigarette” and a mini candied apple while I has strawberries three ways: as a tarte, as dipped in white chocolate and as a mascarpone combo.

The service was professional, although conducted by folks quite young, the breads were great, the coffee strong and the wine list reasonable. The “treats” that accompanied the coffee were delicious.
What more could you ask for? Well, Colette thought some A/C in this old building might help on a day the temp reached 90. Me, I used my old mess-hall in Viet Nam approach: move slow, think cool, you will be cool.

 

Our bill without bottled water or cheese (how could we?) was 113.80 E.

Go? If this restaurant were the only one in town that was great and it practically is, it alone makes up for all the others.

“And also…without forgetting…..” Great places that may be overlooked.

Each week, the gang at Figaroscope (Colette Monsat et al) come up with what used to be called a “Dossier” about restaurants in Paris that have summer terraces or have club sandwiches or some other unifying theme.  And often, after listing the ones that are the top choices, they have a category of “Et aussi” (“And also”) or “Sans oublier” (Don’t forget.”)

 

I daresay most of us look at the first few and then our attention wanes.  But after the top picks, there are still places that merit our attention.

 

This Spring, in the blogosphere and on traditional print sources, the new places that have gotten the most attention are Michel del Burgo’s Chez La Vieille Adrienne, l’Agrume and Bruno Doucet’s off-shoot of Le Regalade – the Regalade St Honore.  Then there are the next few – l’Agapé, Chez Grenouille and l’Aromatik.

 

But I sing today of the next tier, which, I suspect, most folks have seen the names of, but passed over as too far down on the list of favorites tried.

 

Let’s start with the Bistrot Volnay in the 2^nd.  Here we’ve got a place that has seen three chefs come in as many years and the cooking is very good, the location central and the pleasurability of a meal, superb.  I was impressed by the white asparagus caramelized with parmesan atop and the marinated microtomed mullet with chips of lemon rind and a really big kick of really hot black pepper aftertaste; the bar and veal kidneys with a sauce of sweet sauteed onions and sliced raw mushrooms and nicely crisped macaroni; the rice pudding with a fine caramel sauce and the strawberries with Chantilly.

 

And then there’s the La Grande Ourse, in the 14^th, another place that I ate at just a year before, where I had had a fine meal, but again, the chef had changed so I tried it again. Again much was to be liked: the tartare of salmon and the croustillant of snails and mushrooms; some very nice beef, cooked to perfection, daurade, equally well-sourced and prepared and a saddle of lamb which was spring lamb, tasty and tender, not over the hill mutton which they're still passing off as lamb.; concluding with a trio of sorbets shared by three of us. 

 

And finally, in an area bursting with babies, bobos and bunnies, there’s Le Chalbens, in the 20^th, which I learned had taken over the old Vin Chai Moi space.  Here I was impressed by the interesting sounding stuff on the ardoise but limited myself to some excellent green asparagus with rocket salad and parmesan; the last scallops of the season with a classic puree and the best corals I've ever had; and a banana flambee, not a la Foster but in its skin - delicious and perfectly cooked.

Sometime afterwards a friend of mine who is a loyal reader of my stuff, emailed to ask if I’d ever been to Le Chalbens and if so what I thought of it.  I replied that I surely had but wondered why she hadn’t seen it nor the references to it elsewhere.  Probably because it’s not among the top three generating the buzz this Spring. 

 

This is really a shame because it’s places like the Bistrot Volnay, La Grande Ourse and Le Chalbens that are the heart and soul of Parisian cooking.  For a fine meal,  ranked I my top 15, look no farther.

 

Their coordinates are:

 

Bistro Volnay

8, Rue Volney in the 2nd (Metro: Opera)

T: 01.42.61.06.65

Closed weekends

Menus = menus at 24, 32 et 38 €

 

La Grande Ourse

 9 rue Georges-Sache (14th) Metro Mouton-Duvernet

T: 01.40.44.67.85

Closed Sundays and Mondays

Lunch formula = 18, menus 29 & 37, a la carte 35-50 E.

 

Le Chalbens

33, rue de la Chine in the 20^th (Metro: Pelleport)

T: 01 40 33 48 01

Closed Sundays and Mondays

2 courses for 27 (I think), 3 for 30 €.

Le Bistro (ex-Café) de la Place in Saumur : a monster sacre?

- 2.0 Le Bistro (ex-Café) de la Place in Saumur was a place Le Fooding called a monster sacre (the last time I heard that term, it referred it to G. Depardieu) and said it had “the loveliest terrace in town.” Well, remember those ancient maps that said “here be Monsters” - you’ve got it! No monsters, no sacre, indeed no nuttin’.

 
Colette and I scoped it after a long drive from Tours and thought the terrace seating looked great. We booked on the spot and returned 1.5 hours later.

There was an energetic band in the Square St Pierre that almost made up for the food; they played show tunes, Basque bullfight music, the Hora, the Saints Go Marching In and Old Lang Syne.

The food, John, the food. Oh. 

Well, I started with spicy encornets, inedible, I truly left 97.6% on the plate pleading a big lunch and Colette, having no ready excuse ready, said her bruchetta was “not to her taste.” Wimp!

 
 

We saw the cheese board being offered and she said – “Cancel your liver.” Good idea, the wait guy said “I have your liver, it’s rose,” I said “I ordered it blue,” the waitress who took my specific instructions , having departed 10 minutes before, was nowhere to support me, he replied the equivalent of “hard cheese old man.” It was awful, but amazingly, when slavered with salty mashed potatoes, it was barely edible.

Colette’s cheese board was quite good.

Go? Yes if you order oysters (pretty reasonable) and cheese. Bill = 34.30E

Charles Barrier in Tours; The old U-shaped meal.

6.5 Charles Barrier in Tours; The old U-shaped meal.

Colette and I TGV’d to Tours to pick up a car and toodle around the Loire and reserved lunch at Charles Barrier, a 1-star where Herve Lussault has been at the piano, he says, for 15 years. BTW, he was most attentive to me altho’ I swear he didn’t out me.

 
Colette was dazzled by the garden and the offstreet parking and I was sure we were in for a treat.

  

And it certainly started that way with two amuse bouches: Two teeny-tiny slivers of marinated mackerel, two slim slices of asparagus (one white and one green) and a small knuckle of pigeon in honey as well as a creamy soup of a variety of cultivated and wild mushrooms. Both divine.

Then Colette had a superb duo of bar, a tartare and a microtomed slice with asparagus and I the rollatine of rabbit which had a rich forcemeat and slice of foie gras and wild mushrooms and fluffy sauce. I wrote down – “This guy is about to get a rare 8/10 from me."

 
But then, like the World Cup refs, he lapsed mid-game, and we had two OK, well, banal, dishes: she the maigre with a caper sauce, microtomed beets and green beans (we’re in the Loire folks, where fresh veggies made their rep) and I a lamb that I asked for blue, he tried for blue, but had to admit it was over-cooked (and in my opinion - bad product and tough.) As I say, M. Lussault was all over me, from the solicitous to the slightly annoying.

 
Onward. Colette had the very good, “true”, profiteroles, not your usual, industrial cardboard things and I enjoyed 3 chevres from around town and a vache that was as runny as it can get. Up again. But, woops……..the coffee was not good. 

So there you have it. Great first ½, limpy next ¼ and bursting final quarter.

Go? OK. You decide. At the end, M. L. comes over again and says (I’m trivializing it) “So (implied, Big Shot from Paris [he had my 01 tele number]), can you get a meal like this in Paris for 32 E?” Me: “Well, there’s Bruno Doucet’s new Regalade St Honore, just a few Euros more and the new chef at l’Agape’s for just a few more than that.” Smile (me).

Reviews of reviews: The week of June 21st, 2010

Monday-Tuesday, in A Nous Paris, Jerome Berger awarded three/five dots to the new off-shoot of Agape, Agape Bistrot, 75, ave Niel in the 17th, 01.42.27.88.44, menus at 30 and 35 (lunch), 55 and 70 € at dinner, closed weekends, serving risotto, sweet potato soup, veggies and caramelized banana mousse; meanwhile his compatriot Philippe Toinard gave 3/5 dots to the relocated (from the 9th) Cornelius, 9, pl Henri Barbusse in Levallois-Perret, 01.47.57.63.45, closed weekends, serving their famous cote de boeuf at 58 € with an entrée and dessert, as well as menus at 16.50 (lunch), 23 and 28 € containing terrines, chicken livers, herring, matchstick potatoes, rabbit thigh, faux filet and raspberry pannacotta.

Tuesday, in Le Fooding, Yves Nespoulous reviewed the Italian Rossi Co, in the 2nd

Wednesday in Le Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin reviewed his usual five new or changed-chef places: 2 hearts each went to the Bistro T, 17, bis, rue Campagne Premiere in the 14th, 01.43.20.79.27, closed Sundays and Mondays, serving beef salad and brandade on menus of 18 & 24 E (a la carte 40 E); and the Italian Giogio in the 17th. The three one hearters were: the light-food replacement to La Douceur Angevine, Les Escapades in the 13th , serving goat cheese, grilled shrimp and chocolate mousse for 14.50 E at lunch and 30-45 E a la carte; a burger-hot dog-nachos/cheese place Happy Days Diner in the 4th; and the bar-boite-club-cabaret Les Filles de Paris, 57, rue Quincampoix in the 4th, 01.42.71.72.20, open Tues-Thurs for foie gras, cotes de boeuf and moelleux at 35-40E.

The “Dossier” this week is on Restaurants with courtyards and the places meriting mention included:
Hotel Costes
Ralph’s
Le Restaurant de l’Hotel
Noura Montparnasse
Le Patio Opera
Hotel Amour
Le 404
Café Bonpoint
Café A
L’Assaggio
And also Le Parc aux Cerfs, ChantAirelle, Primo Piano, Le Bistro des Dames + Le Café Suedois..
And the hotel gardens Plaza, Bristol, Prince de Galles, Le Cinq, Café Faubourg, Sers, Pershing Hall, Relais du Parc + Patio Etoile.
And Francois Simon, chose to go to the Lancaster, for sole, wine, Badoit and espresso = 154 E. Go ? If you have the means.

On Wednesday as well, in Paris UpdateRichard Hesse reviewed the meat place Lelouchebem in the First.

In l’Express, this week, Elvira Masson, Pierrick Jégu and Francois-Regis Gaudry wrote an article on the chic terraces in Paris that included : L’Emporio Armani Caffè, Le Pavillon du lac, l’Hôtel particulier Montmartre, La Villa, Cru, L'Hôtel + Le Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme.

Saturday, in Le Figaro, Francois Simon’s « Croque-Notes » covered Le Marsanguy, Guenmai & Passage 53. Alongside was an article by Alexandra Michot on sardines and tucked in the back a notice that Angelina was opening an offshoot in the Hotel de Sully.

Sunday, the JDD published a review by Astrid T’Serclaes on Petits Plats coordinates previously given.

This week in Bonjour Paris, Margaret Kemp wrote up news about Ralph’s, paella at Prunier and the Bocuse D’Or competition and John Talbott published an essay on “Paris Restaurant Trends - Chapter 5.”

Another lamb at another secret hidden table near Paris.

The RT Secret Hidden Table is another of these gems that is kept secret by its proprietors with good reason; if the word got out, everyone would flock to 78110 leaving Paris restaurants empty.  I had all the good intentions in the world to photograph what we had but given the circumstances - two of the group were spies working for the Foreign Service, even though they deny it - I had to take pix surreptitiously after we'd largely finished and they'd retreated to the garden for a smoke and spy-gab.

 
After some Bandol rose and radishes and such like, we were ushered into the salle where a dark brown hunk of lamb that had been cooked seven hours (like the "Oh, I just work at the Quai d'Orsay" part, I doubt the length of time too).  It matched, indeed was a bookend to the leg of lamb we had at Easter at a prior secret site earlier this year. 

It was accompanied by roasted young potatoes and garlicked green beans - super.

The finales were a freshly picked green salad and chocolate tart.

Bill = one container of Leonidas chocolate.

Go back?  You bet, if the have not relocated to Kabul, which appears to be the next assignment.

Saturday Cinema: Ghost Writer and Invictus

Ghost Writer - why?  Invictus - Eastwood rules.

3 at the Maison Europeene de la Photographie

I quickly understood the poster outside the MEP which said to me, "well, shut ma mouth."  And the photos from the Blumes described as "À la fois banals et précieux" were certainly banal and very red; I guess I missed the precious.

And going through the "Contemporary Russian Photos" = post-1990, really depressed me.  Commie parades, boys in dresses and slackers and poor slobs at home - this is modern Russia?, Woe Mother Russia?  All I could think of was the Russians that Modest Mussorgsky portrays in Boris Godunov singing : "Woe, woe to Russia, weep, Weep, ye Russian people, Ye starving people!"

The third show was about Aki Kuroda's supposed conflict living between two cultures which I also just didn't "get."

Comptoir des Mers repeat not nearly as successful.

Le Comptoir des Mers is a place I rated a 6.5/10 on Ascension Day, which from me for a fish joint is high praise indeed.  I'm afraid I really oversold it to Colette.

The decor is really cool, with red fish swimming out of the mirror and red lobsters swimming up against the fish tank glass.  And the variety of fish and shellfish which is/are displayed both inside and outside is impressive.

I started with a tempura of 6 crevettes which, with a spicy sauce, were first-rate.  But then things went downhill.  The bread revealed itself to be either stale or poor quality product.

 

Colette had grilled crevettes and I, bar a la plancha, and both of us found them to be good products but the flesh was not moist; their character went undiscovered without some offsetting sauce or olive oil or imaginative flavoring - tons of lemon, salt and pepper just didn't do it for either of us.  The veggies were nice though.

At that point, we should have quit, but Colette's unconscious took over and she ordered a cherry crumble.  I've never seen her so peeved at a dish.  It was served in a paper "thing", it was so hot she had to spread it out and her facial expression demonstrated that this pseudo crumble represented the  low point of her otherwise very satisfying week of dining in Paris.

Our bill, with a bottle of wine, no bottled water and Richard coffee from pods was 88 E.

Go?  To be kind, maybe it's a work in progress; the service "stuttered", there are still unconnected wires sticking out of the bathroom wall, unsecured rolls of toilet paper and paper towels, and a big, slimy bottle of soap beside the sink.