John Talbott's Paris

Le Tintilou/l'Aiguiere in the 11th: Maybe this is the Rapture?

 7.5 Le Tintilou/l'Aiguiere, 37, bis rue de Montreuil in the 11th, 01.43.72.42.32, closed Sundays (Metro: Faidherbe-Chalingny) is the hot resto of the month for sure.  Everyone loves it and I can see why: Chef Jean-Francois Renard, whose food initially at least at the Carte Blanche, was exciting, but later in the game turned a bit too edgy, is back in good form.  He calls this place Le Tintilou and all the reviewers have repeated that but the sign out front and cartes still bear the l'Aiguiere imprint.

If the pix of the interior looks familiar, it's because Lobrano, Ellison and I were apparently captivated by the same things - the combination of colors, beams and works on paper (a mosquito biting was a bit off-putting, however). 

 
I arrived a bit before my famed chef-friend and I used the time to have a bit of intensely flavored white Cotes de Rhone, accompanied by an amuse-gueule of fennel with curry (whoa, best use of curry this year) on toast and soak in the setting.

Renard offers two approaches to lunch: a "bento" with four starter/mains/desserts&coffee for 25 E and a menu/carte with about four each of the above.  My pal, in a bit of a hurry to make an appointment in the 16th, ordered the bento and I the 35 E "menu."  Both were equally good so you cannot go wrong (many of the working stiffs eating there just had the bento and got in and out in fine time.

His bento contained a whipped foie gras royale (that's what he called it anyway), a puree of garbanzo beans, a chunk of marinated pork atop a nice assortment of veggies and two mini-madeleines.

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we were considering ordering he sub-vocalized "well, I'd like the boudin noir with mango raviolis and the daurade with coques and lima beans (in a sort of vegetable soup)" which sounded pretty good to me and which we shared to some extent and then agreed I should order the pistachio mousse with an airplane wing cocoa tuile; all were very very good.

 

At this point he had to leave and I sat quietly and enjoyed my coffee, orange marshmallows, A Nous Paris and the remaining wine (for those who disagreed about the Shiraz, it's no longer on the wine list.)

The bill with a bottle and glass of wine, no bottled water and one coffee was 87 E.

Go?  How can you not love a place where "I love Paris in the Springtime" is playing when you enter and "Kiss me Kate" is as you're leaving?  I've already made my rez for Colette's arrival.

Le Petit Cler in the 7th: a perfect place on a perfect day.

 
5.5 Le Petit Cler, 29, rue Cler in the 7th, 01.45.50.17.50, open 7/7, is a place written up by Alexander Lobrano of Hungry for Paris a few weeks ago as a "great little bistrot for a casual meal,... [open] .....for good simple Gallic grub on a night when they're not a lot of other choices available", and judged by Meg Zimbeck of Paris by Mouth more recently as having a "bustling bistro ambiance with dead cheap prices."

It was a perfect Paris day: 80 degrees, sunny, with no humidity and on a Sunday, on a market street, it was heaven (even with the occasional unmufflered motorcycles going by.)  I arrived a bit earlier than my guest - the person in France I've known the longest - and shuddered when I saw the jammed together ice cream tables, jammed full of rambunctious kids and jammed with smokers.  Whoa!

The place looks like 1,000 other ice cream joints in town, the menu is unremarkable (light salads, heavy beef and heavenly Berthillon) but reasonably priced.  I ordered up some wine as I sat finishing my JDD, marvelling at how long the legs were on the DSK rape story (is the Middle East problem(s) now over, Cannes dead, Iceland no longer rumbling?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She ordered a mixed salad and foie gras; both of which were quite good and I had 6 snails, equally fine.

 

Then I had the cote de boeuf for one, cooked more or less blue as ordered with fried potatoes she couldn't stop eating but I thought merely standard (which here is no compliment) and a side portion of green salad.

 

Then we finished with her tarte tatin (OK) and my scoop of Berthillon caramel ice cream (superb). 

The bill: 87.50 E with a bottle & glass of wine, 2 coffees, a calva and no bottled water.

Go?  Let me go back to the punch-line of the story I often tell when Gerald Asher told me about the lady at Sherry-Lehman who wanted to buy the wine she had with a young man at sunset on Capri: "Madame, I can get the wine but not the man, sunset or Capri."  So go if it's a perfect Sunday in May, 80, sunny, with no humidity but don't expect fireworks. 

L'Auberge du 15 in the 13th: "ze next big thing"?

 
7.0 L'Auberge du 15, 15, rue de la Sante (yes that Sante) in the 13th, RER: Port-Royal, 01.47.07.07.45 is closed Sundays and Mondays and was "found" by Adrian Moore who posted a post on his blog this week saying "go now before it's impossible to snag a table" [because] "Food Intelligence, Fooding, Figaroscope, L'Express, expat bloggers, etc etc, [will soon make it] "ze next big thing." 

I arrived to find my English food critic pal sipping a quite decent white.  They have a 26 E no choice "menu" (today petit pois soup, a fricassee of turkey and blanc mange or was it fromage blanc? - no matter) and a 59 E degustation one.  The regular carte has about 2 entrees, 5 meat choices (all but one for 2 or 4 persons) and one fish dish (today); so a major deficit is the limitation in choices if all wish to order their own way.

The chef (Nicolas Castelet, ex of Ralphs, Arpege and Ledoyen) first offered us the soup of petit pois which had a dollop of cream and bits of pistachio (exactly like Adrian's watercress soup); delicious.

Then I had the asparagus (white stems and green flowers) with morrels and a intense-tasting sauce (also pictured by Adrian) which both of us soaked up with the warm country bread; again delicious.

Then we shared the 68 E rolled fillet of lamb in whose center was a morsel of lamb kidney - nice touch and absolutely nickel product.

 

My friend then had the cheese course, all three of which were very very good, again with the fine bread. 

With two coffees, a St Chinian and no bottled water our bill was 131 E.

Go?  Indeed.  As the now re-patriated Richard Hesse would put it:

Pros: Great food, terrific product.

Cons: A bit overpriced and overcharged (until pointed out); and very loud.

 

I recalled that the last time I was on the rue de la Sante, I saw what was reputed to be Paris's last vespasian (Americans always called them pissoirs), but passing by the famous prison today where the famous are shielded by tinted glass not "perp-walked," was saddened to see it had been replaced by a banal guardhouse.

 

Way out where Redux?: an archival* essay.

Leaving aside Versailles, where the big boys are currently playing with Gordon Ramsey at the Trianon Palace or opting for better food at 1/6th the price at L’Angelique, there are other interesting developments taking place beyond the city limits.

Take, for instance, Aulnay Sour Bois – Aulnay what? Wait a minute, that’s the place you whiz by as you’re bypassing all those grubby stops on the RER B going directly to the Gare du Nord from Roissy Charles de Gaulle no?. Yah, what’s there? A one star Michelin? No.

But yes, my friends, here in the unlikeliest of little towns, not far from the land of burning cars and throwing rocks, is an actual auberge that has earned a star. Why? How do I know, but it did and it deserves it.

My pal Atar, with nothing better to do apparently, than flip through the Environs of Paris section of the Michelin Red Guide came across almost the only place we’d never been to (my heart still belongs to the Table des Blot and Les Magnolias, but that’s another story.) Or is it?

In fact it isn’t, because Colette, she of the “I’m a woman and I’m not competitive” school, sat down and made a list of every one star place in the Environs of Paris and by George, we had indeed been to almost all of them with the exception of the Belle Epoque in Chateaufort for which one needs a car, which I only have every seven years (but that’s yet another story).

So in any case, on a beautiful sunny afternoon* in the midst of the most horrible March in Paris I can recall, four of us lit off for Aulnay. Despite our fears of unruly adolescents, roaming the streets on a day the schools were on strike for reasons only marginally understandable, we had a nice stroll to the resto. We exited the station and went through a sizeable street market and alongside a huge covered market.

The streets are lined with plane trees, the houses quite nice and set back and you had a sense you were a 100 rather than 10 kilometers from home. We entered the Auberge des Saints Peres and it sure looked like an auberge in the countryside.

I won’t describe the meal in detail because I’ve done so elsewhere, but suffice it to say that it was genuine one star food at reasonable prices. The amuse bouches were spicy, tasty and inventive and the firsts modern versions of old favorites (scallops and white chicken liver). The mains, where even one stars often fall down, were inventive – for example, a “paella” that was deconstructed, onglet topped with a sauce made with, of all things – capers, and a rascasse dish with great veggies; the cheese board groaned; and the pre-desserts and desserts and mignardises sang, in one case from aspirin used to make the sauce bubbly.

We were not overstuffed but the kilometer hike back to the RER was welcome.

A few days later, also one* when the sun finally shone, Colette and I revisited the place that the HC and I ate at last month, l’Idee in Levallois-Perret. Here, granted we were only a new blocks past the peripherique, but it’s still a psychological barrier for some folk. Again, though, the walk from the Metro was fun and nice and envigorating.

The place prides itself on bringing stuff to the table straight from the market and indeed, a few more meters up the street (Villiers) is a market that’s open incredibly long hours and has both bio and kosher produce, so one believes their claim.

I cannot say this too was a one star experience, and not everything was perfect (my beef was overdone and Colette’s fish a bit too blah) but for quite good grub made from fresh products at the right price – a 2-course formula with wine or bottled water and coffee for 24 Euros – it’s tough to go wrong.

* Our last meals were in March, 2006, fully paid for.


My favorites way out there are:

l’Auberge des Saints Peres
212, av Nonneville in Aulnay sous Bois (RER: Aulnay)
T : 01.48.66.62.11
Closed Saturday, Sundays and Wednesday nights
Lunch menu 38 €

l’Idee
52, ave de la Porte de Villiers in Levallois-Perret (Metro: Porte de Chaparret)
T : 01.41.05.05.35
Closed Sunday lunch and Mondays
3-course lunch menu at 30 and two for 24 € with wine or bottled water and coffee

La Gazzetta in the 12th: an archival* review.

HS* La Gazzetta, 29, rue de Cotte in the 12th, 01.43.47.47.05, closed Sunday dinner and Mondays, is a place almost impossible to rate. Why? Because, it’s chef’d by a Swede (Petter Nilsson from the Trois Salons in Uzes, where Colette and I were just ten weeks ago); has a French staff and an Italian name and heritage. So what’s the food like?

Well, after reading the big boys last week, who all made it sound French, I made a reservation Monday, took one look at the menu and fled – pizza, risotto, lasagna; yuck.

But then my friend, the real food critic said, ah come on, neither of us has been, so we went four days later.

And it is weird, weird nice, not weird my gawd. The menu is all in threes like Drouant intends and Gagniare does; three small starters; each main with three things, desserts ditto.

My pal and I started with the three small entrees (a tomato-carrot+something gazpacho, a pizzetta with scraped celery root and a brandade with yogurt;) then he had the risotto with toasted tiny nut pieces and pumpkin and a jellied yogurt slice – I the mullet with balsamic sauce on a bed of root veggies; finishing with a cheese (rove de garrigues) and orange cake with yogurt and something else. Sorry I cannot recall all the third ingredients but here’s my take: the starters hark back to the chef’s smorgasbord past, the mains are largely Italian and the desserts French; least successful in my mind.

We had lots of wine (they it have by the glass, ficelle and bottle from France, Spain & Italy); superb ristretto Illy and got out for 81.20 € for two mind you.

*Originally published in September 2006 (most recent visit in February 2010).

Why are the errors in the bill (addition) almost always in the house’s favor?

Now I understand that in Las Vegas the roulette wheel is rigged in favor of the house (although in “Casablanca,” Rick/Humphrey tilts it toward Jan/Helmut Dantine to save Annina from Renault’s advances, but that’s another story). But why is the check in France almost always miscalculated, if it is, in favor of the house?

Several suppositions, the:
-waitstaff are busy
-waitstaff don’t have their bacs and failed math
-waitstaff want to cheat people speaking loud English
-customers don’t read/add the bill up
-customers are a trusting lot
-foreign customers are intimidated by Garrison Keilloresque French waiters and
-everybody is just plain careless.

I think all are the case except for the “waitstaff want[ing] to cheat people speaking loud English." At least I’ve been involved in almost all of the other reasons.

As a college student motorcycling across Europe to Istanbul and back centuries ago, I stopped at a nice but not expensive restaurant in Pompei where I had a not expensive meal but the bill revealed an outrageously priced wine I had not ordered. Now granted my Italian was primitive but I pointed it out to the snooty waiter and he snootily shot back that it was my fault, I should have said something at the time. Not yet skilled in the arts of deception, stubbornness and passive-resistance at this age, I stood my ground for 2 minutes and gave up.

Now flash forward to the week this was written. I’m just a tad older but no wiser it seems. Earlier this week, I paid a bill without looking at it or adding it up and only on getting home and writing my blog note, realized I was overcharged 7 E for the wine. OK 10 bucks is not going to ruin me and I’ll tell everyone I know about it so I’ll get 7 E’s pleasure in the end, but you know recall your Dad's saying that when someone says “It’s not the money, it’s the principal of the thing,” it is about the money.

Then today, a friend and I had “menus” – and we carefully ordered only one dessert, which the waitguy delivered as ordered (one portion). Check arrives – we’re charged 10 E for another dessert. On being shown the error in his ways, waitguy quickly corrects the addition. But,…….

When I got home after lunch I had an email from a loyal reader who said he went to a place I had liked recently and had a fine meal but was overcharged about 15 E – charging one person for dishes a la carte rather than for the “menu,” charging for two desserts instead of one, upcoding the wine and charging a couple for a third coffee not ordered, delivered or drunk. My calculation is that that amounts to more than 15 E.

Now lest you think I think errors only occur in favor of the house; two corrective experiences. A couple we eat here frequently with and we, twice were undercharged (in both cases for one rather than two bottles of wine). I went back to each place the day after to reimburse them. At the first, I’ll identify it because it no longer exists as such – Chez Catherine – Catherine herself took the money and could not thank me enough, and to prove that virtue is not just its own reward, would comp us and greet us and I’m sure produce better produce if she could henceforth.

The other guy: he just shrugged his shoulders, took the money, said no "thank you" or anything and we never went back.

My great experience was at:

Chez Catherine (Catherinelong since gone)
Rue de Provence location (long since converted to a fastfood shop)

 

Reviews of reviews: The Week of May 9nd, 2011

Monday-Tuesday, in A Nous Paris, two tapas-raciones-small plates-type places were reviewed: Jerome Berger gave 3/5 dots to Braisenville, 36, rue Condorcet in the 9th, 09.50.91.21.74, closed Sundays, a la carte about 30, lunch bento/formula 15 E, commenting on the burrata with Swiss chard, trout ceviche, pork ribs and duck filet; meanwhile Philippe Toinard reviewed and gave 3/5 dots to the Bardet-less Le Boudoir, same address as before, but in addition to the wine & tapas bar open all day, it serves items such as salads, hard-boiled eggs, cheese, terrines, chicken filets and a chocolate nut duo for 17 (plat du jour), 25 and 29 E.

Tuesday, Yves Nespoulous of Le Fooding also reviewed Braisenville mentioning the merlu ceviche, caramelized pork, black angus and seche with asparagus and yuzu – they had 9 dishes costing 5-10 E each which with three desserts cost 88 E. 

Wednesday, Emmanuel Rubin reviewed his five new restaurants in Figaroscope’s “Les nouveautes a la carte” and two merited two hearts: the exotic La Clarisse, 29, rue Surcouf in the 7th, 01 45 50 11 10, closed weekends chef’d by a Japanese guy who serves up dishes such as green asparagus, poached egg & crunchy ham, lamb and kiwi cheesecake on a 35 E menu, but 60-70 E a la carte and Le Tintalu, 37 bis, rue de Montreuil in the 11th, 01 43 72 42 32, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays, chef’d by the guy from Carte Blanche who serves a menu with coffee at 25 € and a menu-carte at 35 € and 58 € with items such as vegetable raviolis, scallops and a ravishing rhubarb and ginger dessert. One heart each went to the Japanese Oki in the First ; the second, this a wine bar, by the Miroir team - La Cave du Miroir, 91, rue des Martyrs in the 18th, 01 42 33 79 69, closed Sunday dinner and Mondays, serving terrines, herring and a cote de bœuf from 15 € to fatally more; and the neighborhood Metropolitan, 8, rue de Jouy in the 4th, 09 81 20 37 38, closed weekends, serving fried encornets with chili sauce, an andouillette in white wine and bad coffee gourmand for 35 E .

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” this week dealt with strawberry tarts ranking them:
1 Gerard Mulot
2 Jacques Genin
3 Dalloyau
4 Laduree
5 Dominique Saibron
6 Hugo & Victor and Julien
7 Lenotre and Moulin de Rosa
8 Carette
And then: Bread and Roses, Chants de Ble, Patisserie de l’Eglise, Tartes Kluger, Le Boulanger de Monge, Gosselin & Kayser.

In addition, in an article entitled Americans in Paris, they mentioned places Americans love: Allard, Le Procope, Lipp, l'Ami louis, Le Bistrot de Paris, La Fontaine de Mars, Chez Georges, Le Baratin, Philou, Le Cafe Moderne, Quedubon & Le Paul Bert as well as places featured in American films: the Brasserie Le Grand Colbert, Hotel Raphael, Brasserie du Coq, Cafe de Flore & La Coupole.

Thursday, in l’Express, Francois-Regis Gaudry reviewed the Bistrot des Anges in Cannet (it being the week of the Film Festival in Cannes), Marie-Amal Bizalion reviewed the Italian Maccheroni in Cannes and they published a “dossier” of restaurants in Cannes (Le Martinez, The Eden-Roc, La Plage Orange) and Paris (Le Murat, Bien Decide, Le Salon du Pantheon) preferred by the stars.

Saturday, in Le Figaro, Francois Simon’s Croque Notes was all about Jacques Maximin’s new restaurant in Cagnes.

Co., Century and Ma Peche in Manhattan; Perfect pizza, luscious lamb and spicy squid.

I took time away at my 50th medical school reunion in New York to do some serious eating and loved the results.

At Co. aka Company, 24th and Ninth Ave, I had what might have been the best single pizza of my life: a boscaiola - crisp thin almost burnt dough topped with pork sausage, mushrooms, onion and chili (would you believe?) itself on top of the tomato and mozzarella base.  Divine, why can't Italians making pizza in the 18th or Nice or Baltimore do it like this?

Dinner was at the Century Association, which has a Frederic Anton-trained chef who picks and cooks top round lamb superbly, albeit not raw enough for my palate.  I loved the spicy, smoked tomato soup, though Colette did not.

Our final experience was at the western end of the David Chang empire - Ma Peche - where my squid salad with ginger so far surpassed the spring rolls (with tofu, shrimp & pork) the others had as well as the rice macaroni with lamb and the brisket, that everything was downhill afterwards (except the wonderful cookies on the $25 prix fixe lunch menu).

Picasso's Marie-Therese's period at Gagosian/Chelsea: dazzling.

Now until June 25th, Larry Gagosian's Chelsea gallery is home to about 80 works by Pablo Picasso about and during his relationship with Marie-Therese Walter; drawings, paintings and sculpture.  It is a hellofashow and well worth a detour.

Le Minzingue in the 15th: an archival* review

0.50 Le Minzingue, 5 pl Etienne Pernet in the 15th, 01.45.32.48.54, closed Sundays and Mon-Weds for dinner, located where used to sit the great old bouillabaisse palace Le Quinson, is a horror. Let me count the ways!

It’s got classic bistrot posters and food, from terrines to tartares, from herring to onglet and chocolate desserts. Me, I was eating out tonight at the house of a chef I have enormous respect for, so I wanted to eat light; therefore, I ordered two starters; only smart thing I did.

My os a moelle was unredeemable on the substandard bread, even with a liberal sprinkling of salt crystals, and the dressing on the side-salad was unappealing and the tomatoes (and remember, they’re terrific now,) were hot house Holland babies, and the vol a vent of escargots with mushrooms in a cream sauce was equally without luster; bottom line, one got a ton of fat, calories and heart-clogging stuff with no taste.

Francois Simon always asks “should one go?” me, I say “can’t you say anything nice?” Yes, they have a ton of wines at 20 € the bottle, also available by the glass and pichet; there are lots of comely young women walking by who clearly live in the nabe; the place really looks like a 1950’s bistrot and if you were in France shortly after the war, my war anyway, this would remind you of places struggling to recover with inadequate staff, poor product and forgotten cooking techniques. As deGaulle said, this is “Paris outragé, Paris brisé, Paris martyrisé…..”

The bill = 29.50 € which even if they paid me that much, I wouldn’t repeat.

*Originally published in September 2006