John Talbott's Paris

La Regalade St Honore in the 1st: The game's afoot - II

Colette and I went back to La Regalade St Honore in the 1st with two dear friends from San Diego we just love eating with and have enjoyed for 33 years, I figure.  They've been tracking my "finds" and enjoying them; so they were game (sorry) to have some game from Bruno Doucet's marvellous chalkboard (one entree, sauteed cepes; 4 mains, perdreau, palombe, beef and I forget the other as well as two unwritten items: a foie gras entree and I forget the main).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Madame V. and I had the foie gras which was a lot to finish and Colette and Monsieur G. had the ubiquitous potiron soup with crisy bacon and croutons; both Gold Standard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then Madame had the red perdreau with a puree of celery, spinach and a generous slice of sauteed foie gras entier, Monsieur had a merlu with a creamy sauce and Colette and I split one order of perdreau and one of palombe with garlic, thyme, foie gras and wood mushrooms - it would be difficult to pick a winner among the three.

 

  
 

We finished up with Madame having the roasted figs, Colette having the souffle Grand Marnier and Monsieur and I having the chocolate praline two ways with a creme anglaise (just like my French "Mother" made in the summer of 1953 and which Colette serves on very special occasions to this day.)

With 4 coffees, the Doucet/"tradition Camdeborde"'s terrine of terrine with his great crusty bread, 2 bottles of quite passable wine and the final 4 madeleines our bill per couple was 114.50 E - that's with 33 E in supplements for the game; thus instead of 33 E for three courses, a game feast would be 47-48 E pp, which certainly beats out Gerald Besson et al.)

Go?  Need I say more?

PS  While La Regelade is on Colette's list of top favorites in Paris, she wishes that the menu were arranged so that one might select two dishes instead of three, as is done in several other fine dining places we so enjoy.

Saadane Afif (Prix Marcel Duchamp), Arman & Orozco at the Centre Pompidou: hummm.

 
I sacrifice my body and stomach in particular for my dear wife and family and dutiful readers by eating at every new resto that opens in Paris that sounds worthwhile and my eyeballs for others who have my taste or lack of it, in art.

Today was my day in the Pompidou barrel (see Joke #2045 A) - an experience Colette refuses to share with me, entering as far as the bookstore to flip through the catalogues and say "See you later."  I should have listened to her.

The first exhibit I assisted at was the Prix Marcel Duchamp and was a 2-meter long coffin that is described in the handout as having "multiple layers of meaning."  Unnnh, hunnh.  I guess it was in the tradition of the "Fountain" urinal signed R. Mutt - maybe, probably, surely.

I next ventured into the Gabriel Orozco exhibition which Le Figaro September 6th listed as the top art show of the rentree - I'm sorry, it was another "I don't get it" moment; I must have missed that class.

Finally, up to the top for the show in Galerie 2 of Arman's work that two very sophistocated Manhattan art-types touted me on/to - with translations into English such as "Garbages and Full Up," "The critical Mass & the Object," and "I am born again painter." Jeez, I could have a fourth career doing their translations. 

Go? So many negative Wow's I cannot count them.

Le Verre Vole in the 10th: just plain good chow, no more, no less.

 
I'd forgotten this poster of my favorite vintner couple in the Loire - the Bretons - but it greeted us as we sat down as did

 
the wine cellar, frigo, storage space facing me this time, out of which a lot of good things (i.e., oysters, wine, cheese) come.

We looked at the daunting ardoise and all three of us were fixated on the same items.

 
First, we shared two enormous soup dishes full of very lightly dressed heirloom tomatoes with a few slices of spicy onions that set them off perfectly.

 
Then all three of us had the magret of duck, each ordering it cooked differently, but all enjoying his or her preparation best, on a bed of lentils which Colette swears had some citrony-fruity thing in it but that neither Madame our neighbor nor I could not detect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, the two gentleladies had crumbles of apple that were made with a subtle cream on top the crust that they loved, and I a non-crumble-fellow found OK.

Colette took one taste of the 29.50 E bottle (which retails for 20E, thus not a bad mark-up and corkage fee), of bio/natural/unfiltered/etc/etc Vinci Rafalot red wine from the Côtes Catalanes bitter and full of detritus (I recalled from last time, the wine guy will not let you select your wine, you have to put your trust in him) and opted for a 7 E glass of a Cote de Rhone with none of the above characteristics that she liked much better (we must remember that.)

With the bottle and glass of wine, no bottled water, incredibly crispy-crusted bread and three coffees, our damage was 123 E, thus 82 E a couple.

Go?  Absolutely; despite the noisy packed-full room and detritus-ridden/acidic/bio/etc wine per Colette we all thought this a fine feed, especially on a Sunday near the Canal St Martin, BoBo Central.

Fiac Four and the 7th edition of Art Shopping at the Louvre

I stumbled into the 7ème édition du Salon Art Shopping 23 et 24 octobre 2010 au Carrousel du Louvre sort of by mistake; it advertises itself as featuring contemporary art work for under 5,000 E (although the piece that spoke to me ran 9,500 E).  I had fun; it's open through tmrw.

 
Then I went to the last section of FIAC, this in Cour Carree of the Louvre and once again, while a bit overwhelming, had a good time.  No pictures this time, even of the awful bookshelves with rocks.

Le Bouchon et l'Assiette in the 17th: Good solid food, good solid fun.

I finally got back to Le Bouchon et l'Assiette with Colette and my charming ex-co-host at a website; I'm not sure why it took me so long since it was nice in January as well as now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colette chose to skip a first, but Madame had an excellent potiron soup and I had nice slice of boudin noir with cantal, cauliflower and confited lemon.

 

 
 

Then Colette had 5 very nice scallops with confited turnips and an orange sauce, Madame a hefty piece of beautifully cooked daurade with white cabbage while I went with the onglet of beef with a pepper sauce and smashed potatoes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The desserts exceeded the prior dishes, sending us all home happy: figs, rice pudding and a great chocolate mousse with nuts.

Our bill with a bottle and glass of wine, no bottled water and three coffees, was 131 E, thus 87.33 E a couple.

Go?  If anything, it was even better than last time when I rated it a 5.8/10.

PS All photos courtesy of Phyllis Flick's Flickr.

FIAC 3: The real deal.

 
I've been going to FIAC (the Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain) forever it seems and it always both astonishing, exhausting and frustrating.

 

Astonishing, because you come upon these works you couldn't imagine finding, such as the photo of Charlotte Rampling and Brazilian supermodel Raquel Zimmerman, both nude, in the Louvre by Juergen Teller.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exhausting and frustrating because of the mobs and tons of "so what art."

Le MiniPalais in the 8th: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

The MiniPalais is a place I had a great meal at about three weeks ago with a pal and I was eager to take Colette back along with two art-types from Manhattan, who with us, were "doing" FIAC.

We were again seated in the sunlight adjacent to the great terrace looking out at the Petit Palais across the street.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My friend, colleague and ancient comrade in arms ordered exactly what my pal last month did - the clafoutis of cepes, which when I look at today's photo vs last month's seemingly has fewer cepes and more clafoutis but who cared? - the cepes were wonderfully smoky and the "cafoutis" substantial.  I on the other hand, ordered the more interesting sounding but boring looking, blindingly white, squid circles/vermicelli with Piment d'Espelette which were spectacular tasting despite their appearance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colette had the OK but expensive St Pierre atop a bed of "so so" aubergine.  Our friends had a tartine of foie gras and a duck breast burger with foie gras - both terrific.  I ordered the same thing I did last time (Merlan) but  was disappointed - it needed not only a more spicy tartare but more ooomph. I had to ask for salt and it did help,  but hence my comment - "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."  My mistake.  However they made one too, serving Madame the Art Maven two potato dishes, including "my" chips which I only figured out were mine after they were cold - "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." 

 
In any case, last time I was here, B. and I oooh'd and ahh'd over a dessert we didn't order called the "fameux crazy pot" which looked fantastic and indeed it was: a mixture of meringue, creme, caramel and red and brown chocolate squiggly things. Colette said it was really yummy!

Our bill with no bottled water but two bottles of wine and four coffees was 192 E.

fiac ii: the Art Elysees tents' section: worth the 15 E? I dunno.

 
On my way to lunch I walked through the Art Elysees tents (yes, tents pleural, as I recall they started off with one pathetic short one but now have grown.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the most part, it's rather forgettable stuff, the likes of which the old Gehry/American Center in Bercy and Whitney Biennial drooled/s over but the Daniel Buren pillars (he of the pillars in the Palais Royale) and some fantastic Manhattan scenes were neat.

FIAC: sculpture in the Tuileries until Sunday

 

FIAC, that incredibly big display of contemporary art from almost 200 galleries from all over the globe showing the works of 3500 artists at the Grand Palais has been gradually moving outside into sheds and now the Tuileries with almost 30 sculptures.  Here's a sampling:

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 











 

 

And don't miss my favorite title for a work "Why don’t you put your beautiful head between your legs, where your reason sits among the lice of your debauchery and the running sores of your depravity."

 

Bistrot Volnay in the 2nd: Elegant, simple & well-done; plus the games afoot.

While I've seen single items of game on various cartes, here and in Geneva, today was the first day that there were four on the chef's specials page.  The breast of grouse spoke to me so strongly that Madame wanted to know if I was Scots in origin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colette was on a sea kick today and started with three of the finest scallops I've ever had; I had a soup of millions of shellfish reduced to a delicious creamy smooth soup with a dollop of what I think was a sauce montée which I found described as "a warm mayonnaise"; that was good enough for me, as was the soup with some cepes.

 

 

Then Colette had a bar with coco beans with unusually flavorful baby clams while I dug into the grouse (no puns today readers) which had stuffed cabbage and a dressing of grouse offal and foie gras that was heavenly albeit left me staggering under the fat globules spinning around my Circle of Willis. 

 

We had two classic desserts, both of which were perfect: a Grand Marnier souffle and crepes with Grand Marnier. (Colette described her souffle as unusually delicious.)

With two coffees and a bottle of wine but not bottled water our bill was 112.50 E (that's after 15.50 E in supplements; the 3 course menu is still just 36 E.)

Go?  This is one place that's beginning to get complet (it was yesterday), so call ahead a bit.