John Talbott's Paris

Le Bistrot du Dome in the 14th; Maybe you can't go home again.

Sometime after we first bought our pied-à-terre in Paris in 1990-1991 we read a review by then Paris Food Critic Patricia Wells (now a colleague at Paris By Mouth) in the IHT about the Bistrot du Dome in the 14th and we're blown away by the great quality of the fish, the selection and the prices, including the wines, all of which, if I'm not mistaken, priced at 99 FF a bottle (about 18 E then.)

I'm happy to say that in these 20 or so years, the decor is as bright and semi-nautical, the service as wonderful and the wine as well-priced (although now at 24.10 E a bottle) as ever.  The ardoise, however, is a bit different; it used to feature coques or patagos, salmon tartare, grilled sardines, tuna and smelt but today featured langoustines, solettes, bar, cod and the like - a step up in popularity and price.  And the staff, all of whom I knew and vice-versa, have turned over 20 times.

I alone ordered a starter, shown here as a half-consumed, decontructed "salad" of perfectly cooked langoustines with greens on a lukewarm tomato/onion base; quite nice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colette had two wonderful (but too much for a single dish) rougets with an OK ratatouille side-dish and our downstair's neighbor and I had the ray with capers which instead of the subtle browned butter sauce of my memory, had an enormous amount of creamy cream on top, with superb potatoes aside - and I'm no potato-judge.

The deserts all looked familiar, classical and good.  You may note something on the chalkboard Colette and I have never seen before - a reduction in the price of the chocolat (and it was similar with the ray) - hummm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The millefeuille with rum had a great crust and good rum but a ton too much whipped cream, or am I just getting crankier and older?;  Colette's moelleux was made with about the best chocolate ever; and my baba was of good texture with the same good rum but also had a ton too much whipped cream, or am I getting even crankier and older?

Our bill with a bottle and glass of wine, typical served-with-bivalves-bread and three terrific coffees, was 139.50 E, ergo 93 E a couple.

Go?  As they say in my crowd; "let's give it a rest."

Garnier in the 8th: Our traditional fine festival fish feast; if one sticks to plain ole fish.

5.5 Garnier, 111, rue St-Lazare (Metro: St-Lazare) in the 8th, 01.43.87.50.40, is open 365 days and thus is a natural for the Bermuda triangle week between Christmas and New Year's.

We were here just exactly one year ago and it's still as elegant and posh as always but the dead-as-a-doornail lobster lying on the back in the fish tank has mercifully returned to his maker.

The "menu" is still a reasonable 39.50 E for 3 courses plus a glass of wine and coffee and the sole and bar are still an unreasonable 43 and 30 E respectively.  My oldest food-finder implored me last night (as he had last year) on the phone not to have the "menu" but spring for the sole which he described (as he had last year) as the Greenwich Gold Standard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colette passed on a first, our friend, the incredible taste-bud taster, had carpaccio of haddock, which we all thought was very good and our other friend, the almost-in-recovery from French "flu" friend and I shared a platter of creuses de Bretagne n°3 and Utah Beach n°3's - nickel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK. The fish mains: from top to bottom - grilled fresh sardines, daurade, bar and sole - were all good product, perfectly cooked (although Colette believed that the price-quality ratio of her bar was mighty poor) - I thought the sardines and daurade may have been the best I've ever had and my sole was terrific, but it was almost ruined by its being drowned in a sea of butter.  Now I like butter, but there is a limit, even for someone whose ancestors ruled Normandy before the perfidious French regained it 808 years ago, but who's counting?  However, the accompaniments - a puree of eggplant, a butter-less potato puree (now here's where Robuchon's butter with potato would come into play) and a hot-house winter tomato something, were respectively ghastly looking and tasting, bland and cardboardy and bland and boring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, dessert.  It's always great to have your opinion tested by others' palates - unless they differ 180° from you/one/me.  I thought the chocolate fluffs and pear tarte were just plain fine, but the guys felt they'd been misled with the nomenclature of theirs being called a mousse and Colette thought her tart was "lacking in flavor."  (And "expensive at 14 Euros"......"at 14 Euros it should have been spectacular!" quoth her.)  Ouch.

Our bill, with two bottles of what I thought was terrific wine, and one coffee, was 232.50 E, thus 116.25 E a couple, although we were charged a mysterious 8 E extra, instead of having 8 E deducted from the bill beause the "glass of wine included" never arrived.  So be it.

Go back?  I would in a flash for the fish and oysters, but 365 days from now I'll have to find another place to entice Colette, because I have a sneaky suspicion she will be walking on the other side of the rue St Lazare from now on.

Patrick Faigenbaum at the Musee de la Vie Romantique; Why bother?

At lunch today, Colette wondered about our going to the nearby Patrick Faigenbaum Exhibition at the Musee de la Vie Romantique.  Had I been?  I didn't remember.  Our pal looked up my Art comments on the blog.  Nothing.  Guess I hadn't.  Good reason; it's pathetic.  Trust me.

Wows?  Sorry.

Les Affranchis in the 9th: Still solid albeit not dazzling.

Les Affranchis in the 9th is a place I considered "Another fine neighborhood bistrot" 3 weeks ago and couldn't wait to bring Colette.

The ardoise was quite similar and the prices not yet elevated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our friend, my former co-host at eG, ordered the oeuf mollet meurette (which sauce was spectacular) and I boringly repeated the foie gras I had last time, this time with a different chutney (onion rather than citrus).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we diverged: Colette having the cod with a superb frothy cream of fennel over and fennel under; P. had the blanquette of joue de pork, very soft; and I repeated the thick slice of calves liver with onion and roasted garlic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finished up with a rice pudding Colette found not flavorful (I'm not able to judge them) but my chocolate pot which consisted of hard, soft and creamy chocolate all together was a wonder.

With a bottle and glass of wine, Illy coffee, terrific bread and a chocolate nummie at the end or bill was 124.50 E = 83 E a couple.

Go?  If only to see what happens to a friendly/welcoming Spring alum in the front room.

Comme Chez Maman v2: If only Ma had cooked as inventively.

6.0 Comme Chez Maman, 5, rue des Moines in the 17th, 01.42.28.89.53, open 7/7, but brunch on weekends, is a place I rated a 6.0 on March 19th (amazing consistency eh?) when they had a menu on which were only featured dishes for two.  Interestingly, the outside sign is no longer a red on white Chez Maman but the above white on green one.

I returned because I'd heard they'd abandoned that conceit and the new version (v2 if you will) has a huge number of possibilities for one person, from which decisions were hard to make.

My Romanian pal made a brilliant choice though and ordered one portion of coquillages brûle main for all four of us; mainly mussels and razor clams cooked in a cast iron pan, not unlike the signature burnt fingers mussels dish (aka Moules de bouchots brûle-doigts) at La Cagouille - quite yummy - photo shows how quickly it was consumed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colette had scallops on braised endives that we both thought were truly unique, sweet and with that wonderful burned flavor correctly-cooked endives have; my Eastern pal had a seafood pot au feu which he rather liked and two of us denizens of my neighborhood in the 18th had superb spicy (aromatic) kidneys on a bed of mashed potatoes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Desserts were also a bit out of the box, in a very good way; the tarte tatin was like nothing Colette had ever had (and I learned after 50.5 years of marriage that she's a strict constructionist) - while I loved the deconstructed, puree-like apple; my friend up the hill had a chestnut cream that I thought was dreamy and our other pal from the Oriental side of Europe had slices of baba with a very fine rum.

Our bill, which we usually and traditionally wrestle over, literally and figuratively, was 175 E; and that with 4 glasses of white as aperos, a bottle of Bordeaux, very good bread and pretty good coffee.

Go?  I'd say go now before the French Pentagon brass move into their over-the-top post-Hussein palace in the Batignolles dessert intended for the 2012 Olympics that the perfidious Anglanders stole from us.

Bonus points for those who live nearby - they have take-away.

Are Restaurant Ratings Really the Dismalest Science?

Thomas Carlyle is fingered as the person who first called Economics – The Dismal Science. Well, what could be more dismal than rating restaurants?

I realize that many of my readers respect me for having the guts to put my butt on the line in rating Paris restaurants or at least are enablers to my doing it. I also realize that many readers think that any such rating system is pure hokum, hooey and baloney.

But since I cut my teeth in writing at the Lampoon and have spent my life in science, I’ve developed a solid explanation of how, where, why, when and who –the journalist’s measuring tape.

So let’s take an example from last month – Mark Singer’s Le Dodin.

As I sat recording my impressions on a handy-dandy Rhodia Bloc pad I was mentally thinking through how the meal was going and at the time of delivery of the coffee and the check – wrote 4.5 in the upper left corner. Why? Because, as I tell my grandchildren, as my children before them, that’s what it was.

But what’s the science behind, what’s the basis of, what’s the explanation underlying a number like 4.5 in a 0-10, really a -2 to 9 scale? Why not 6 or 4 or 4.66666? Like the Wizard of Oz or Jonathan Safran Foer, all will be illuminated. Here, now, by me, alone.

By now, I was all alone at my table, my guest/buddy/pal/supporter/friend/etc, having left for a real job and I dissected the meal like a cadaver; piece by piece.

8.0 Setting (I had my 60th Birthday party here in their private dining room when it was my beloved Petit Colombier, the primo game joint in town, and it’s been improved if anything.)
6.0 Amuse of a soup of Jerusalem artichoke, semi-warm, smooth, nice!
2.0 Bread from some jerk down the street, almost crisp crust, soggy interior, for what they’re charging, they could do better.
6.0 Terrine of lapereau with marinated onions and diced marinated veggies, too much sel on top but otherwise quite good.
5.0 (reminder, 5/10 is modal, average, standard, midrange, not bad/not good) Cream of lentil soup with bacon strips on top.
4.0 Sauteed or roasted pork belly with gnocchi, so, show me something.
-1.0 A circle of pressed fish with one (nice, succulent) tiny bit of lobster and lots of sauce and other stuff such as black olives that didn’t belong there.
9.0 A white chocolate concoction that was simply the best dessert of the week, the month, the decade? Boy oh boy!
5.0 An apple tartlette that was again, just average for the territory.
7.0 Service – friendly, brisk in a nice sort of way, efficient, watchful of one’s index finger, etc. Snippy though when asked about private room on floor 2.3.
1.0 Price-quality

So if my math is correct, and it’s better than a guy I ate with earlier that week who works in the Financial Sector who was off by 10 Euros in calculating my portion of the bill (which I refused on principle, this isn’t my Mother’s Schraft’s after all – even though when I got home and looked, I had had 1 E more) but hey, it’s all Merkel’s fault, non?, 52÷11=4.7. I swear to you I have nothing up my sleeves, no bunny I didn’t eat, no handkerchiefs in a pencil – just pure instinct. Aren’t I wonderful?

Rating systems, paraphrasing Churchill on democracy, are the worst form of judging restaurants, except “for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

Reviews of reviews: The week of December 19th, 2011.

Monday-Tuesday in A Nous Paris, Jerome Berger gave 3/5 dots to Albion, coordinates given before, noting the parsnip soup, half-duck breast and British panna and his co-reviewer, Philippe Toinard gave 3/5 to L’Escargot 1903, 18 rue Charles Lorilleux in Puteaux (T2=Puteaux), 01.47.75.03.66, closed Saturday lunch, Sundays and Monday nights, with a 4/4/4 menu at 37 E with items such as a chicken breast, lamb raviolis, all chocolate or lemon tart. The side-bar mention is of the epicerie/lunch cantine Causses-La Fabrique, 55, rue ND de Lorette in the 9th, (Metro Pigalle), serving sausage risotto and Jerusalem artichoke soup.

In Tuesday’s Le Fooding, Philippe Lafon reviewed En Plein Nature in Quint-Fonsegrives. Also the Le Fooding award went to Septime.

In l’Express, Francois Regis Gaudry named his 10 best restaurants of the year :
Restaurant of the Year
La Grenouillère, La Madelaine-sous-Montreuil (Pas-de-Calais)
Best Chef’s (Jacques Maximin) Bistro
Le Bistrot de la Marine, Cros-de-Cagnes, Cagnes-sur-Mer (Alpes-Maritimes)
Best classic bistrot
Neva Cuisine (8th)
Best foreign place
Bon Kushikatsu (11th)
Best shot at a Michelin star
Cobea (14th)
Best gastronomic bistrot
Septime (11th)
Best cave a manger
Le bar a vins du Frenchie (2nd)
Best duo in the kitchen
Chatomat (20th)
Best resurrection
Au Crocodile Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin)
Best traditional restaurant
L’Auberge du 15 (13th)
He also reviewed Le Tire-Bouchon in Strasbourg.

Chene Vert in the 9th: Too much "so what." An archival* review.

5.05 Chene Vert, 99 Rue de Provence, 01.40.23.52.31, closed Sunday (when its host, Galeries Lafayette is). The easiest way to enter is from the GF wine shop and you find yourself suddenly in a restaurant not a department store.

There is modern but not goofy furniture and superb service. The place is under the wing of David Van Laer whose food I liked at Maxence + Manufacture before that. It’s a nice menu but, as I was warned, a bit pricey, 45 € for the 3 course menu, but the wines are more reasonably priced (from 15-35 €).

The amuse gueules looked “standard” but were superb. I didn’t like the choices on the carte, my companion had trouble deciding, but I was saved by the market menu.

I started with the soup of lobster and lentils and diced undercooked (properly) veggies, she had a “minute” of tuna that was vastly over-cooked (the waiter apologetically said that’s the way the clientele (who, like Galeries Lafayette customers, are a mixed lot) like it – we didn’t, although the accompanying salad was good.

Then I had sweetbreads with crunchy asparagus that was quite good; interestingly, her Iberian pork tasted more like superbly toasted on the outside, raw on the inside, slices of cote de boeuf than pork – it came with swiss chard and a butter croquette.

Finally, I had the dessert special where the pineapple was terrific, the mango sorbet OK but the Magnolias-type shot glass full of a layered thing, was “so what?”

Total = 110 €; do it again? I don’t think so.

*Originally published in September 2006

The newness of old: finding delight in days gone by, updated.

Too often, cynics like me tire of restaurants that were astonishing 50 years ago, places like Allard, L’Ami Louis, Aux Lyonnais (even after Ducasse’s attempt at defibrillation), Senderens (even after star-stripping-himself) and Taillevent, to list them alphabetically. Why? Because they became museums, keepers of past glories, sellers of rubber tires and makers of saddles that/who have long since been replaced. They serve the same dishes they did in 1952, with the same good service but with 10 times the prices and with 10 times the number of our compatriots.

Too often, great chefs, such as Bocusse, Ducasse, Gagnaire, Robuchon and Savoy (again, keeping my list alpha) have spent more time accumulating frequent flyer miles and People notations than Paris Hilton, Lady Gaga and Lindsay Lohan combined. Do we really want to eat their food in Dubai, Tokyo or Las Vegas? Not when there’s native raw camel meat, soba and hookers to savor. They’re all so yesterday.

And all too often, those neighborhood joints that decades ago seemed kinda cool – places in my nabe, Montmartre, like Chez Paula, Beauvilliers, Wepler and Charlot, now seem faded and worn and yes, so yesterday.

So off we go to new horizons - that dazzle, that delight, that deliver consistently newer and fresher dishes - places like Le Galopin, Septime, Tintilou and Vivant; not forgetting the Constant Empire, Repaire de Cartouche, Spring and Ze Kitchen Galerie, which while a bit longer in the touth, also “deliver consistently newer and fresher dishes.”

But, but, but, once in a while we stumble/tumble/crumble on a place we haven’t the darkened the doors of in eons – A La Biche Au Bois, Chez Denise, Le Petit Marguery, La Regalade or the Tour d’Argent (that I went to at age 18 and nevermore until recently) and what do we find – fine food, freshly featured, fantastically fabricated.

And, and, and, we stumble/tumble/crumble on places we’ve never eaten at, such as the Gourmets de Ternes, which has been around for 50 years, which I’ve passed 50 times and I’ve ignored 50 walky-byes. And, and, and, I’m here to tell you, that for genuine French-French food that’ll give your cardiologist cause for concern, this is serious food – from its goose foie gras to beef with marrow to its generous aka huge Baba. Is it decadent? – mais oui! Is it delicious? - mais oui! Is it what we want? - mais oui!

I rest my case.

This week's rant’s coordinates are:

Les Gourmets de Ternes

87 bvd de Courcelles in the 8th, (Metro: Ternes)
T: 01.42.27.43.04
Closed Weekends
A la carte 60-70 E

Reviews of reviews: The week of December 12th, 2011.

Monday-Tuesday in A Nous Paris, Jerome Berger gave 3/5 dots to Le Petit Cheval de Menege, coordinates given before, where he mentions the cauliflower couscous, veal tandouri and cheeses and his co-reviewer, Philippe Toinard gave 3/5 to Corneil, coordinates well-known where a new team serves an entrecote, duck breast and apple tart of note.

In Tuesday’s Le Fooding, Yves Nespoulous reviewed Le Camion Qui Fume (moves about [get address from www.lecamionquifume.com] but often in the Place de la Madeleine in the 8th, 06.36.43.49.00, open 7/7, 9-2:30 and 7-10 :30 PM, serving American burgers and fries from a truck for under 15 E.

In Wednesday’s Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin named his 15 best restaurants of 2011
The Best best
Le Pantruche (or L’Os a Moelle-Schmidt)
The best off-shoot
Frenchie bar a vins (or Les Racines 2)
Best BC/BG
L’auberge du 15 (or the Bistro des Gastronomes or Les Bistronomes)
Best surprise
Chatomat (or Le Garde Temps)
Best come-back [sic]
Le Chardenoux-des-Pres (or Le boudoir or L’Os a Moelle)
Best bistrote
L’Office (or Le Pottoka)
Best Grand Style
L’Abeille (or l’Epicure)
Best nouvelle nouvelle cuisine
Septime (or Le Galopin)
Best foodistar [sic]
L’Agape Substance (or L’Akrame)
Best neobourgeois
Cobea (or Kei)
Best exo-chic
Shang Palace (or Caffe Burlot)
Best bobophilic
Au Passage (or Vivant)
Best Version Originale
Candelaria (or Le Carnet de Route or Taverne de Zhao)
Best « good in all respects »
Neva Cuisine (or Masa or Les Tablettes de Jean Louis Nomicos)
Best seafood
Atao (or La Compagnie de Bretagne)

In a teaser for what’s upcoming in 2012, he notes that :
To open are Il Circolo by the Pizzetta group
A new chef at Laperouse
Later :
A new American place in the 10th by the Joe Allen folks
Another resto in the Marais by the Café Baci, Pamela Popo, Chez Julien group
Kinugawa reprised by the Orient Extreme team
A redo of the W Hotel restaurant
In the Spring :
A new resto by the owner of La Marlotte
A Venetian tapas place by M. Mori or the Venice Bar of the same name
Even later :
Ducasse replaces Spoon with something else
Guy Savoy takes over the restaurant in the l'Hôtel de la Monnaie.

In a larger article on 100 things to do in Paris, the editors recommend eating at the following that are mainly near attractions :
Tokyo Eat
Cafe Marly breakfast
L’Astrance
Train Bleu
Lipp
Les Halles onion soup
Bertillon ice
Patisserie des Reves Paris Brest
The Grande Epicerie
Laduree macaroon
Mosquee de Paris for mint tea
Pooja tamoul
Chez Denise etc.
Harry’s Bar club sandwich
Marie-Anne Cantin
Raspail bio market
Kunitoraya 2 bento
Wine festival in Montmartre
L’As du Fallafel
L’Ami Lou's chicken
Rungis flowers and oysters
Mariage Freres teas
Pont des Arts picnic
George-V Lebanese sandwich
New Nioullaville Chinese New Years
Flore’s coffee
La Coupole platter
Apicius’s tete de veau.

And Francois Simon’s Hache Menu covered the yacht Don Juan II, Port Henri IV in the 4th 01.44.54.14.70 costing 514 E for 2, except New Year’s Eve which is 645 E.

In l’Express, Charles Patin O'Coohoon reviewed La Cantine, 46 rue Balard in the 15th, 01-45-57-78-13, closed Sundays and Monday nights, with menus at 16 euros & 19,50 E at lunch, a la carte 30-40 E, for leeks wrapped in bacon, a blanquette de veau and rascasse and Marie-Amal Bizalion reviewed the Bistro du Cours in Marseille.

Saturday, in Figaro Madame, Emmanuelle Jary wrote about “Restaurants (chez les) particuliers,” that is, the spate of new Parisian supper clubs, mentioning the Hidden Kitchen (now closed in favor of Verjus).