John Talbott's Paris

Reparate in the 11th: Nice in January; mais oui! And no English spoken.

5.1 Reparate, 64, rue St Sabin in the 11th, 01.55.28.63.98, is a place Le Fooding described when it opened almost two years ago as "Anchovies, tuna, eggs and incredible black olives have fallen from the sky to create the best salade niçoise in Paris. And there’s more besides! The sun is shining and the Med is dazzlingly blue…"  Lovely description of the food, which just could have been written by my eating partner today.  In fact, I think it was. 

They are known, as is hinted at, as a place to have the Salade Nicoise, no matter the time of the year; so we did (despite my reservations about tomatoes in January); actually sharing the 32 E Nicoise Assortment which when we talked about adding mains to it, our friendly waiter said the Gallic equivalent of 'You've got to be kidding."  They do however have a "menu" with 2 dishes for 13 and 3 for 16 E and daily specials shown on the chalkboard.

The decor is funky, the place jammed (20 covers including two stools at the tiny counter) and for someone auditorially-challenged, it's challenging.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Out came the fine tapenade with fine bread, the grilled peppers with a caper-olive-olive oil sauce and the salade Nicoise - wow.  Thanks.  Now I'll go home, but no.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Out came the girolle omelette, pissaladiere and trucchia (Don't know what that is?  Neither does Google) - apparently a dish of minced meat stuffed in peppers and zucchini - all more than adequate.

Of course at that point we should have quit but the lady next to us was having a divine looking lemon meringue pie and I had to have it.  It was the only disappointment of the meal, not what I wanted/expected; oh well.

Our bill with almost a bottle of house Cahors, no botled water and two coffees was 60.80 E.

Go?  While fun, unless you're looking for nice Nice, I'd say not necessarily.

Le Pas Sage in the 2nd; No light at the end of this tunnel (all the Photoshopping in the world can't fix that).

1.0 maybe -1.0 Le Pas Sage in the 2nd, 1, passage (pun, get it?) du Grand Cerf in the 2nd, 01.40.28.45.60, closed Saturday lunch, Sundays and Monday nights, is a place that opened just after the rentree to one hand clapping but which a trusted colleague said was an A+ find; so off we go.  It's on the rue St Denis, which as my informant noted is "...famous for its sex shops and ladies of the night lurking in doorways", right next to Messages, which describes itself as an upbeat florist.  The hookers are still there, also the sex shops, but it's not quite so grungy as 10 or 20 or 50 years ago.

The place is a railroad boxcar room with no lighting and heat from one pathetic electric thing and loud "world" music so it tested our hearing, eyesight and body temperature.

So the carte; cannot read it eh?; neither could we with 10x bifocals - and my loaner camera pleaded nolo.  I didn't go here for a "Dans le Noir" Experience, no.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My oldest friend in Paris ordered a soup of courgette musquee de Provence aka "Fairytale Pumpkin Squash" which was interesting, while I had the Jambon “Prince de Paris” ham, reputed to be "the only jambon de Paris still being made the old-fashioned way by a local artisan, with no nasty additives."  OK.  But the bread was fabulous, the butter equally.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then she had the choux farci with veal which was OK, but I thought I'd better order something different - how about a "hot dog" of Toulouse sausage with melted cheese much beloved by my fellow followers on the bloggosphere - awful bun, tough dog, so-so cheese, in sum; inedible.

At this point, all I wanted was light, heat and the freedom from funky music; the bathroom offered that respite.

Our bill, with no bottled water or dessets, and some wine in a carafe of indeterminate size and 4 coffees was 74.80 E.

Go?  Huh?  Nope, despite th terribly nice wait-guy who spoke Aussie English, great bread but what my pal called a menu with "weird food?"

Reviews of reviews: The week of January 23rd, 2012

Monday, in l’Express Anne-Laure Miam wrote up the Japanese Gyoza Bar as did Yves Nespoulous in Le Fooding Tuesday.

Tuesday in A Nous Paris, though, Jerome Berge reviewed and gave 3/5 dots to Le Square Gardette, 24, St-Ambrose in the 11th, 01.43.55.63.07, closed Sunday nights and Mondays where for 14 at lunch or 36 E at dinner one has items such as razor clams, a pot-au-feu terrine, haddock brandade and strawberries (in January?); while Philippe Toinard gave only 2/5 to L’Ere du Temps in the old Hier & Aujourd’hui spot (which even I thought/think is one bridge too far to go to), closed weekends, where like its predecessor they have stuff on the chalkboard in which the principal product is “killed;” like a shrimp galette, sandre and tiramisu for 17.50 and 19 at lunch and 30 E at dinner.

On Wednesday, in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin reverted to reviewing 5 places, however this week they were all rated ¼ hearts: Verjus, coordinates given before, mentioning smoked eggplant, grilled basque pig and ice and mousse; L’Intention, coordinates also already supplied, mentioning the sald with eggs, chicken breast and poached pear; the 4th pizza place – Pink Montmartre in the 18th; Le Bougainville, 5, rue de la Banque in the 2nd, 01.42.60.05.19, closed weekends, serving for 20-30 (lunch formula 16.50 E) items such as ham persille, andouillette and pear tart; and an “authentic Parisian café” Le Vide-Gousset, 1, rue Vide-Gousset in the 2nd, 01.42.60.02.78, open only til 8 PM and closed Sundays serving for 25-35 E Ospital charcuterie, veggies and chorizo, burgers & frites and a piece of Stilton.

The Dossier this week ranked places making apple tarts, the top 10 were:
Boulangerie de Monge
Raoul Maeder
Poilance
Rollet-Pradier
La Petite Rose & Sebastien Gaudard
Stohrer
Gosselin
LeNotre
Coquelicot

And Francois Simon’s bottom line on his Hache Menu about Le Grand Colbert was that the food is banal but he likes it for its brasserie atmosphere.

In Saturday’s Croque Notes in Le Figaro, Francois Simon talked about the synergy between Rem Koolhaas’s décor and Anaki Aizpitarte’sfood at the Dauphin.

And Sunday in the JDD, Aurelie Chaigneau rated Le Garde-Robe des Batignolles a 6.5/10, Chez Taeko a 6 and La Maison Mere a 6.5 while in the version femina, Francois Lemarie extolled 4 crepe places in anticipation of the Chandeleur holiday Thursday: La Compagnie de Bretagne, Breizh Café, Ty Breiz and the West Country Girl.

Le Petit Broc' in the 14th; Great company, OK food.

6.1 Le Petit Broc', 206 Blvd Raspail in the 14th, 01.40.47.74.83, open 7/7, has apparently been open since October and as I looked for a place on my infamous "list" that was open Sundays, that I hadn't eaten at, and served more than a dreaded brunch, this seemed it.

The interior is quite lovely and I entered just as Madame was exiting to do some important chore or other and Monsieur at first greeted me and then turned his back to do another important chore at the computer.  She re-entered and said the equivalent of "why are you ignoring that nice elderly man in the suit with the phony briefcase standing by the entrance waiting patiently to be seated?"  So I, and we, were.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My chef-buddy, on a busman's holiday, opted for the lentils with poached egg (evidently from my last few months' eating experiences, all the rage this year), while I had a salad of thinly sliced carrots and cukes with nicely-dressed lettuce and other greens surrounded with strips of shaved cucumber and topped and surrouded by wonderful sauteed scallops and unripe raw tomatoes.  "Tomatoes and cukes at the end of January?" sez I, "Oh, I was offered fraises de bois the other day," sez he.  Goodness gracious, so much for slow food, locavore and save the planet.  But BTW, both our dishes were in his words "quite tasty."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then he had what was called the fondant of beef, but as he noted and I confirmed, it was more akin to (his wife's) boeuf bourguignon, not that it wasn't OK; and I had the croustillant of gambas which were terrific save for the sauce which was like the sweet sauce that come in packets with take-away Chinese food - too damn cloying.  But again, the gambas tempura'd were just fine; and again there were a lot of thinly-sliced veggies, this time cooked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Desserts were really weird, not bad, just unexpected.  His chocolate mousse was more like a cross between a chocolate fluff and whipped cream and my brownies were unlike anything Fanny Farmer ever saw the likes of, more like a cross between a fudge strip and chocolate bar, with dried fruits and nuts that had seen better days.

With a bottle of wine, two coffees and their own water, our bill was 103.20 E. (in fairness they did have a three course menu for 22.50 E, even at Sunday lunch).

Go?  Well, if I were staying around the Gare Montparnasse I might go back.

Bonus photo: Twice I've seen three identical cars with these identical giant hotdogs toodling around; seems the Scientologists are into weiners these days.  There must be some symbolism here since Ron Hubbard's name is on them.

Le Brillat in the 17th: From Apicius to this?

4.8 Le Brillat, 122, avenue de Villiers the 17th, 01.43.80.10.10, open 7/7 (except they have brunch on Sundays) is a place that the big guys at Figaro keep mentioning so I figured there must be something there there.  Cut to the chase, there isn't.  The address, 122, avenue de Villiers, probably rings a bell. Jean-Pierre Vigato reigned over Apicius here for 20 years, only moving downtown in 2004, and Emile Cotte moved in as the chef at its successor - the relooked/renamed Meating, which I thought while overpriced, was pretty good.  (Apologies for the too-blue photos).

Now for reasons no one has been able to supply me, he's left for l’Angle du Faubourg and it's again changed name and direction, becoming Le Brillat.

I went with one of my oldest food buddies in Paris and his wife today and despite a holdup in their arrival we got on track in due time.  They have a quite respectable 3/3/3 "menu", two courses for 22 and three for 26 E but I still went with the carte while they did the menu route. 

 

Our firsts were a parsnip soup with mushrooms, salmon tartare and sauteed mushrooms and gizzards, all reasonably good, not disgraceful by any means, but not out-of-sight either.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then they both had the Black Angus beef with frites and I the pork ribs with a honey-soy glaze and pureed potatoes and here, once again the food was OK but not out of the ordinary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They finished with a pistachio panna cotta and a rice pudding which were fine but no extra marks.

Our bill, with alright bread, a bottle and the pot of wine and 2 coffees was 138.50, thus 91 E a couple.

Go?  With so much good competition around, even on a Saturday, I'd advise not.

L'Escient in the 17th: Quite good but lacking that "je ne sais quoi."

6.5 L'Escient, 28, rue Poncelet in the 17th (Metro: Ternes), 01.09.66.92.49.13, closed Sundays at lunch and Mondays at dinner sounds like all the other Asiatically-influenced places opening in Paris these days - with a mother, father and daughter who have passed through the House of Ducasse and use ginger, lime, coriander, tarama, honey-soy sauce and daîkon.

They have 2 courses for 26 and three for 35 E and my cooking tour-leading friend and I both had the cold shrimp and pureed cauliflower wrapped in white raddish with bei (whatever that is.)  It was good but no sparks flew.

Then we both had fish from the daily special chalkboard; she the bar with bak choi and mushrooms and I the crispy-skinned mullet with artichokes and bergante (whatever that is).  Both were excellent product, perfectly prepared but - ah, lacking in fireworks as well.

Finally I ordered the sauteed chunks of mango, pineapple and passion fruit with a scoop of ice cream and vanilla beans and a tuile, and again, you've got it, quite good, but............

Our bill, with a bottle of wine, no bottled water and only one coffee, was 92 E.

Go?  As my old friend the RFC would say 'It's not urgent."

La Classe in the 9th: Surprisingly good, packed and fun.

5.9 La Classe, 6, rue de Maubeuge in the 9th (Metro: Notre Dame de Lorette) is one of those "theme" restaurants where the theme really works.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything from the maps on the wall, copy books of menus and wine lists, inkwells for water glasses and swings in the basement remind you of school, places like the Cafe Cache in the old city mortuary and the 2006 book "Cantines : Recettes cultes corrigées par les chefs" by Sebastien Demorand, Emmanuel Rubin and Sophie Brissaud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My guest, who actually is quite familiar with the citation above ordered the very nice eggplant caviar with poached egg and I had "All about langoustines" which turned out to be an incredible langoustine bisque with one sauteed/placha'd langoustine on a thin slice of toasted bread.

Then we did what I always counsel myself, friends and co-diners never, ever, to do - order the same thing - but bingo - luck was on our side and the daube of beef was terrific, with a rich red wine sauce and smoky bacon which totally wrapped the eating experience in pure pleasure. I neglected to photo the three scoops of ice cream (vanilla, fresh milk and basil) but they were a fitting finale to a fine find.

Our bill with good bread, no bottled water, a bottle of Corsican wine and two coffees and, and, and, just to remind you of school - a Carambar - was 72 E.

Go?  Oh yes.

 

Les Saisons in the 9th: My goodness, my gosh, my golly.

6.9 Les Saisons (cool logo eh?), 52 (not 2 as A Nous Paris has it) rue Lamartine in the 9th, (the old great Villa Victoria space, before that the awful Velly location), 01.48.78.15.18, closed Sundays and Mondays, is a place under the direction of Jonathan Lutz who had chef'd at Glou, which I liked not at all, versus everyone else in the world of food criticism, and

has lunch formulas at 15 and 20 E as well as running one about 35 E a la carte for many more selections.  My newest dining partner and I sort of mixed and matched and didn't do badly at all.  I should note that nothing Philippe Toinard mentioned in his ANP article, only January 10th, was apparent today, which is a very good sign indeed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Madame my new friend, had the ardoise leek salad with vinaigrette and I a small but perfectly cooked chunk of duck foie gras on a bed of Jerusalem artichoke puree - both damn good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She then had the cod with a crackling crispy crust in broth and I the pigeon with both forcemeat and foie gras again - both came with many vegetables and (for me) too many potatoes.  Both dishes were way above standard quality and miles above the stuff we'd had at Glou just 3 years ago January.

With extremely fine bread, 2 quite good coffees, a nice Loire red and no bottled water or dessert, our bill came to 89.90 E - which (full disclosure) she picked up under the impression that she had invited me, even though I picked the day and restaurant.

Go?  You bet.

Le 122 Bistrot d'Hier & Aujourd'hui: A new chef who makes things even better.

7.0 Le 122 Bistrot d'Hier & Aujourd'hui, 122 rue de Grenelle in the 7th, 01.45.56.07.42, has recently changed chefs, bringing in Guillaume Ginther, who did stints at Laurent with gracious hosts Farid Saïdi and Sylvie Portela and more recently at Daniel in NYC.  Colette and I had always done well here and after I heard there was a new presence in the kitchen was curious if things had changed.  The news is that it has: it's gotten better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ordered off the carte, which with supplements, makes a meal much pricier but I owed my guest a meal for her services to me negotiating with my insurance company and Canal +, both of whom were being difficult with me.  In any case she started with an innovative dish, sliced cold scallops in a smoky haddock sauce and I had a beautiful concoction of snails and mushrooms, salad and parmesan wafers - here pushed apart so you can see the ingredients.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then she had a rollatine of croustillant of pork and I had two slices of pigeon breast which melted in my mouth; both with purees and both state of the art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The desserts were right up there as well; hers was called an apple tart and mine a parfait but both were decided improvements on the standard presentations of them.

With a bottle of wine and water, supplement for the pigeon and two coffees (bread consisted of the usual very good varieties they serve here), our bill was 124.10 E.

Go?  It's on Colette's "must do" list.

Rudeness in restaurants (and the Metro).

Rudeness. See that got your attention, didn’t it? The famous French rudeness, brusqueness, treated you like dirt, eh?

It seems that it’s impossible for websites or conversations about Americans visiting France to go on for more than a few hours before the old rudeness issue rears its nasty head.

I was thinking about this last week as Colette and I were eating at Neva Cuisine (which has become Colette’s new best favorite choice - to be a bit redundant).

- When I had called to reserve they were so nice,
- When we entered the pastry and first course chef warmly greeted us,
- When the waiters came over with water, wine or menus or to take the orders, they were nice
- In fact, the whole meal was such a pleasant experience, it made the food sing even more brightly than if it had been equally superbly sourced, cooked and presented but through the windows of the old Automat.

And then we got on the Metro.
- People crowded the door as if they were goalies guarding the net,
- No one made room for new passengers to seek out the unoccupied space a few inches away from the doors,
- The adolescents and young adults acting like adolescents couldn’t take their eyes off their smartphones or ears off their iPods or feet off the seats ahead,
- And one might as well have been traveling on an alien spacecraft, the isolation of each seated passenger was so rigidly held.

That’s rudeness, and worse, like automobile drivers making a left turn while talking on a cell phone in one hand while smoking with the other, I suspect they were oblivious to the world around them, so wrapped up in the LED screen in front of them were they. Scary, weird and enough to make you fear for the future of verbal and visual communication.

The restaurant referred to is:
Neva Cuisine

2 Rue de Berne in the 8th (Metro: Europe)
T: 01.45.22.18.91
Closed Saturday lunch and Sundays
Lunch menu, 29.50 for 2, 36 E for three courses, a la carte considerably more.