John Talbott's Paris

Crom'Exquis in the 8th: Boy, Marc Meneau's kid Pierre really slings great hash.

6.9 Crom'Exquis, 22, rue d'Astorg (the "g" is pronounced) in the 8th, 01.42.65.10.74, closed weekends, has been open but a few weeks but it's already jam-packed with suits who overflow and stand, suits standing mind you, eating at the bar.  I'm sure Pierre Meneau is tired of being compared to his starred Dad in Vezelay but Dad's cooking has sure rubbed off on him.

The menu is 3-3-3 with two sorts of cromesquis (androuilette and foie gras and truffles) and at lunch is a bargain at 28 E for 2 dishes and 39 E for three.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We started out, how can you not?, with the signature cromesquis with andouilette (if you don't know what heavenly creatures they are, look here) as well as a fine Cotes d'Auxerre.  The waitress (they all wanted to speak English to us and we happily replied in French) explained that you had to pop it all in yourmouth and watch out because breaking into it could result in it spraying all over your neighbors.  Since there were 3 of us, I said we'll break this French rule and cut them three ways and you know neither the waitfolk nor food gods took revenge on us.  BTW they were terrific.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The global physicist had the pumpkin soup with foie gras and an egg (everybody is doing it this fall) and my fellow Board team/examiner friend and I had the bonito warmed on the outside with marinated onion strips and teeny tiny cauliflower flowers and carrots - yum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then she stayed with fish, with a nice piece of cod and grilled eggplant while the boys went over to the meat side with a somewhat too chewy magret but outofsight potatoes cut like they were intended to be fried but were not, they were confited in duck fat - that was a first for me.

 

 

 

 

 

At this point I folded my cards while my two ex-skiing buddies plowed into the pineapple roasted in olive oil and three types of sorbets.

With 1.5 bottles of wine, no bottled water, great bread and three coffees but omitting the cromequis (which I urge you not to, you'll find the 6 E on the street someday) the bill for three could be 163.00 E or 108.66 E a couple.  The credit card receipt reads Burgundy Cooking 89 Vezelay - Papa lurks.

Go?  If you can get in, be my guest, and Pierre's and theirs.

FAQ: Where do I eat near my hotel in the ?th arrondissement?

FAQ: Where do I eat near my hotel in the ?th arrondissement?

Now, a lot of Americans, especially those coming from the West Coast, ask bloggers and food website habitues where to eat near where they’re staying or working or viewing and that makes sense when you don’t want to incur big taxi bills or walk enormous distances in hilly places.

But Paris is not La Jolla.  It has one of the most efficient and comprehensive public transportation systems in the world.  Maybe not the newest, but it’s being constantly renovated, expanded and improved.  And, it has far more escalators than places like New York.

The combination of city and suburban buses, subways, trams and suburban rapid-trains (RER) enables you to go from the far reaches of the 18^th say, where I live, to the far reaches of the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th, where I frequently dine, in 30-50 minutes.  And even through, even seasoned visitors balk at going outside the peripherique, Paris’s city limits, to places like Levellois-Perret or Le Perreux Sur Marne or Meudon, those too are where good eats can be found.

Plus - one weekly pass (the Navigo) that you just swipe or plotz is not only good on everything, it covers the whole Ile de France on weekends, if Versailles or Disneyworld tempt you.

So while I suspect my loyal readers know all this, if someone Googling my site for the first time wants to know where to eat in the  ?th arrondissement, the answer is “Go West, young man,” or East, or North, or South.

Reviews of reviews: The week of October 15th, 2012

Monday-Tuesday, in A Nous Paris, Jerome Berger gave 2/5 dots to Marloe, 12, rue du Commandant Riviere in the 8th, 01.53.76.44.44, closed weekends where for about 50 E one can have items such as bellota, eggs, cod and vegetables ; Philippe Toinard awarded 3/5 to the aforementioned Crom’Exquis in the 8th.

Tuesday in Le Fooding, Matthieu Jauniau-Dallier reviewed Le Sergent Recruter, 41, rue St Louis en l’Ile in the 4th, 01.43.54.75.42, closed Sundays and Mondays, costing more than 51 E (menus are 65 at lunch and 95 and 145 E at dinner) for charcoal-cooked rabbit, foie gras and beef as well as eggs and figs.

On Wednesday in Figaroscope’s « Nouveauties A La Carte » Emmanuel Rubin gave 3 hearts to Le Sergent Recruteur, see above.  Then came 3 one-hearters : the World food Cosmo in the 3rd ; the Italian Pizza Nolita in the 4th ; and a retro-bobo creperie Lulu La Nantaise in the 3rd.  Finally he judged Un amour de burger in the 9th a broken heart.

Figaroscope’s Dossier this week by Colette Monsat, Alice Bosio and Hugo de Saint Phalle centered on good and healthy places and included :
Supernature
Cantine Merci
Noglu
Nanashi
Helmut Newcake
Restaurant de Sers
Le Bar a Huitres
Rose Bakery
Colette Water Bar

But in his Hache Menu, Francois Simon went back to Au Moulin a Vent which he says hasn’t changed much since 1946 ; costing 119,50 E, caloric and worth the trip to the past.

In L’Express, Charles Patin O’Coohoon reviewed Le Brigout, coordinates already given ; Marie-Amal Bizalion reviewed 3 pizza places in Marseilles : Mama Pizzeria, Chez Saveur & L’eau a la Bouche ; and the staff announced the opening of Philippe Starck’s Ma Cocotte in the St Ouen flea market, coordinates already given.

On Saturday, Francois Simon in Figaro's Croque-Notes went to Le Sambuc in Arles.

Paris Pix: Man in Car

The rating game*. Where’s it come from and does it mean anything?

If you think you’ve read the answer to my question here before, you’re right; and a variant of this question is asked all the time on the busy food websites.  But repetition is the best way of teaching/learning, so here goes.

Just a few weeks ago Joe Nocera, in a NYT column entitled “The College Rankings Racket" asked “…..Can you really say with any precision that Princeton is “better” than Columbia? That the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (No. 6) is better than the California Institute of Technology (No. 10)?.....”

While he’s talking about U.S. News & World Report’s annual college rankings, anybody who thinks rating scales of things is new or rating restaurants is something the Zagats or bloggers invented, is seriously mistaken.  Michelin, whose first Red Guide was published in 1900, but was about where to get tires when on trips, started rating restaurants in 1933 and everyone knows the stars and knife and fork system by now.

Nobody really thought of challenging them for a half-century until Gault and Millau began their eponymous Guides and monthly magazine in 1965 based on toques and x/20 numbering.

While there were rival guides that had various systems (Lebey’s Eiffel Towers for example) of rating places yearly it really wasn’t until Francois Simon pitched the Figaroscope idea to the venerable daily that anyone else challenged Gault/Millau’s monthly rating of places just opened, on a 5 point scale each week.

Wandering off the point story: A few years back an unsuccessful candidate for one of the Boards of Medicine sued saying that the cut-off line was set arbitrarily.  Gosh oh golly.

Twice in the past, I’ve focused on the subject of Emmanuel Rubin’s ratings, since I think he’s the most respected to food raters in Paris and I addressed his most common grade of 2 hearts.  In two periods of a few months I went to quite a few 2-heart choices, writing up my experiences in essays entitled “What on earth do two hearts mean?” in 2006 and “What do two hearts mean? Redux.” In 2010. 

This experience plus my own attempt to go to decimal points and into negative ranges led me to take a look at my own scores and like Nocera, question whether the difference between Bistro Volnay’s ranking of 7.1 really means anything up against Magali Alcover & Delphine Marlan’s second restaurant (Les Jalles)’s rating of 7.0.

Lesson:  Nocera’s subtitle says it all: “everyone cares about” such “silly list[s].” So for sure, we should all try to judge places, but like the silly scores for MIT and Harvard, don’t take the exercise too seriously.   

*Ref: The Dating Game was an early reality TV show that ran in the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s.

Reviews of reviews: The week of October 8th, 2012

Monday-Tuesday, in A Nous Paris, Jerome Berger gave 3/5 dots to the Chinese Le Pont de Yunnand in the 9th and Philippe Toinard awarded 3/5 to the South Africanesque Restaurant Cap, in the former Clocher de Pereire space (Jean-Philippe Leboeuf having departed for Minimes in the Marais) at 42, blvd Pereire in the 17th, 01.44.40.04.15, closed Sunday and Monday, where in the same nice room, are served items such as risotto, veggies of all sorts, cream of chicken, biltong (a dried South African meat), chocolate and praline desserts on lunch menus of 26 and 32 E, dinner 32 and 36 E.

Tuesday in Le Fooding, Matthieu Jauniau-Dallier reviewed Pierre Jancou’s new baby next door to Vivant Table, the Cave Vivant at 43, rue des Petites-Ecuries in the 9th, 01.42.46.43.55, closed weekends, costing 36-50 E for mozzarella, smoked chicken, andouillette and foie gras (all from named sources/suppliers) with his famous natural wines.  [NB We looked in on October 8th and it really looked spiffy and the food tasty.]

On Wednesday in Figaroscope’s « Nouveauties A La Carte » Emmanuel Rubin gave 3 hearts to Crom’Exquis, coordinates given before, where hecommented on the corn crepes with foie gras, chicken breast with lobster and carpaccio of pineapple.  Two hearts each were awarded to the Atelier Vivanda, coordinates also given, commenting on the mimosa eggs, entrecote and chocolate mousse as well as caravorian Boris, 129, rue du Faubourg-St-Honore in the 8th, 01.43.59.35.39, open 7/7 where for 30-50 E one can have the frogs’ legs, a slab of beef with Beearnaise and apple tart.  One heart each went to Comme Chai Toi in the 5th and Lulu La Nantaise in the 10th.

Since this was Figaroscope’s 25th anniversaire, their Dossier by Colette Monsat, Alice Bosio, Hugo de Saint Phalle and Francois Simon was devoted to food items one can get for 25 E or less.  The meal ones included :
A plate of cheese at Chez Beillevaire
Brunch at Tartes Kluger
A confit de canard at La Fontaine de Mars
Lunch at Youpi et Voila
A lunch menu at Villaret
A vegetarian pizza at Pizza Chic
A lunch formula at Derriere
A lunch menu at Chez Philou

And Francois Simon muses on his 25 years doing the Hache Menu, starting by noting his first was about Chez Georges and this one about not eating out.

On Saturday, Francois Simon went to Au Rendez-vous des Pecheurs in Blois.

In L’Express, Marie-Amal Bizalion reviewed In Vino in Forcalquier.

Les Saisons: How pleasant, how pleasurable, how pleasing. Keep it up Jonathan and wife and crew.

Boy, does Jonathan Lutz, ex of the Crillon and Glou (we'll forget that meal) and his so very welcoming Japanese wife and their crew (who spoke English to our jet-lagged Boston colleagues, whom we met for a business meeting) deliver the goods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I entered (as is my habit) a few seconds before Colette and my colleagues, allowing me time to view the carte, menu and order the first of two 20 E bottles of St Chinian.  I took one look at the 21 E 3-course "menu" and was in love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Four of our colleagues had the cepes with an egg, which I rated "best of show" this fall and I had a Bisque Maison (homard upon enquiry) that was Heaven-On-Earth.  Hoooo boy, off to the races.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For mains, one of our companions had the entree cepes, another the entree lime-marinated ceviche of sardines, still another the artichokes barigoule with an aged almost parmesany brebis, Colette the daurade armoricaine with leeks, and I had the rollatine of pintade stuffed with good (but heady abatty) stuff with Puy lentils.  My.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For dessert, one of the bolder ones had the Baba with St James rum, Colette the apple tart with caramel (which will never measure up to her impossible standards), two the pear crumble and I the lemon cream atop meringue.  I heard not a word of discontent.

Our bill, recall this was a "business lunch centered around discussion of their 'Controversies' section in the journal I now run, with two bottles of wine, two of Badoit (one of our colleagues is French so there you have it) and the equivalent of four coffees was 208.10 E or 69.3666666667 E a couple.  Maybe the best prix-qualite of the rentree.

Neva Cuisine: Nevah Neva No.

Neva Cuisine has become another favorite of ours when Colette is in town.  Today, we broke bread with two old/new friends who had never been there with mixed results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were in a bit of a hurry to make it on time with the Notaire for the apartment we're swapping up to so smack off the bat we consumed the wonderful spicy amuse-gueule rolls and some Medoc/Bordeaux (30 E).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our pal Oncle V. had foie gras with quince confiture that he quite liked, Colette had langoustines in a rich custacean sauce and the other two of us had the raviolis of gambas with an incredibly rich sauce of custaceans. Colette thought the two firsts that we shared were outstanding. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then Madame had a nice piece of cod; Colette had St Jacques with a cepes and cream sauce she found too creamy (not me); and V. and I both had the sweetbreads, crunchy on the outside/moist on the inside, that needed salt and were less impressive than in the past - but, but, but, the huge array of al dente veggies were spectacular.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To top it off, M. had the baba, Mme the amazing melting ball of chocolate and Colette a concoction of pear, chocolate and caramel

With two bottles of wine, no bottled water and two coffees, our bill was 227 E, thus 113.50 E per couple.

Three at the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie (MEP); ho hum

A dear friend told me about the exhibit at the MEP (I said, the MEP? Huh?"), aka the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, in which photos by Alice Springs (maybe she wanted you to think of Ayer's Rock), born in 1932 (Holy cow, older than me) as June Browne in Melbourne, later known as June Brunell, married to Helmut Newton, were featured.  Quite simply, the photo of the ever-depressed-looking-Charlotte Rampling on the posting outside, says it all, not much of a much.

Sorry, no wows here or with Claude Nori or Choi.

Words on Wednesdays: Sophie Brissaud (Ptipois) on Arte 15-19 October in a very inventive series.

I was I was allowed a rare opportunity this week to pre-review the videos for the Monday-Friday series on Arte written by my colleague at Paris by Mouth and frequent co-diner Sophie Brissaud, known to many of you on Chowhound and previously on eGullet as Ptipois.

Her concept/conceit was to feature 5 folks, largely chefs, who are close to the soil and sea in which their products come from; it was, despite my clear conflict of interest, a brilliant idea and pulling it off must have been somewhat like filming Hertzog's Fitzcarraldo or Terry Gilliam/Jean Rochefort's Don Quixote.

In any case, it starts off with Arnaud Daguin, he of Auch, Hegia and now sequential restos in Paris and his Auberge/Farm in the Basque country; moves on to Luke Burgess in Tasmania, who according to Foodtourist.com "not only forage[s] for hard-to-find local produce but also for the singular way in which they encourage local producers to strive for excellence and then reward them when they achieve that goal;" then to Godfrey Nzamujo, a priest if you can believe it, in this day of Church-bashing, pedophilia and disrespect for the female religious, who is sort of a modern day Pied Piper, and according to New Agriculturist "is the founder and director of the Songhai Centre, a pioneering farm, training and research centre in Porto Novo, Benin. Begun in 1985 on a single hectare of land, the Songhai project has expanded to six sites in Benin and one in Nigeria" growing local produce, previously sort of forgotten in the blizzard of canned foods, etc; Dai Jianjun, who according to Fuchsia Dunlop in the FT, is one of the best of "China’s artisanal food producers;" and our own David Kinch, of Manresa in Los Gatos CA, rated as one of the best restaurants in the world who "uses organic produce from local biodynamic producer Love Apple Farms to create playful dishes that showcase the region’s unique produce."

It is a luscious series, with exquisite scenes of where the produce comes from and how it is served to the end user - we the diners.

If you are in France next week, I strongly encourage you to tune in to Arte (number 5 on your dial) at 7 PM every night October 15-19 and enjoy.

blend of traditional specialities and produce that is new to this region of Africa - the diversity of the produce is the best argument in support of the benefits of multiple-cropping, at a time when it is severely threatened.

 

blend of traditional specialities and produce that is new to this region of Africa - the diversity of the produce is the best argument in support of the benefits of multiple-cropping, at a time when it is severely threatened.

 

blend of traditional specialities and produce that is new to this region of Africa - the diversity of the produce is the best argument in support of the benefits of multiple-cropping, at a time when it is severely threatened.

 

blend of traditional specialities and produce that is new to this region of Africa - the diversity of the produce is the best argument in support of the benefits of multiple-cropping, at a time when it is severely threatened.