John Talbott's Paris

Le 6 Paul Bert in the 11th: They really pulled this one off in great fashion.

7.0 Le 6 Paul Bert, 6 Rue Paul Bert in the 11th, 01.43.79.14.32, closed Saturday night, Sundays and Monday lunch is a winner and a half.

It says it's a bistro-epicerie-etc-etc and indeed, the show case of luscious stuff is pretty impressive.

The lunch menu at 20 E for 3 courses is a must, although several items on the rest of the carte (scallops and pigeon) which are said to be half-way between an entree and plat, looked pretty tempting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we entered, I was spotted by the chief wait-person even though the reservation was in the name of my more famous dining partner, so of course this review is subject to that conflict-of-interest (although nothing was comp'd).  We had a tough decision what to have but she being adventuresome, was willing to split all courses and we ordered the 2-2-2.  First off, a divine langoustine broth with delicious blettes and what was called dried pork salad but was a spicy shredded delight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we shared the veal which was perfectly cooked with sprigs of herbs and the echine of pork with braised endives - equally seductive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The finales were more semi-freddo than ices (and I say that with the utmost of respect to the dessert chef's skills) of white chocolate and a squash and thyme and citron.

With a bottle and glass of Octobre 2012, good bread, four fine coffees and no bottled water our bill was 77 E.

Go?  Please don't ruin it for us; stay away farther downtown.  It's much too far out and besides the wait-folk are far too nice.  Plus it's too calm (dB level 65).

Reviews of reviews: The week of January 14th, 2013

Monday-Tuesday in A Nous Paris, Jerome Berger awarded 4/5 dots to Le 6 Paul Bert, at you’ve got it, 6 Rue Paul Bert in the 11th, 01.43.79.14.32, closed Saturday night, Sundays and Monday lunch with a 20 E lunch menu, a la carte about 30 E serving chicken livers, echine of pork, soups, sweetbreads and lemon canolis; while Philippe Toinard gave 3/5 dots to Le Petit Verdot, 9, rue Fourcroy in the 17th,  01.42.27.47.42, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays with an a la carte at 30-45 E with a rabbit terrine, veal cutlet and chocolate mousse or rice pudding.

Tuesday, Yves Nespoulous in Le Fooding, wrote up Septime La Cave aka Restaurant Septime La Cave, if that doesn’t sow confusion in the eyes of the enemies, 3, rue Basfroi in the 11th, 01.43.67.14..87, closed Sundays and Mondays, costing 16-35 E for items such as Kalamata olives Cantabrique anchovies, smoked eel or smoked duck.

On Wednesday, in Figaroscope Emmanuel Rubin reviewed and gave three hearts to La Table du Connetable in Chantilly (Hotel de l’Auberge du Jeu de Paume) where for 100-150 E (67 menu at lunch and others for 88 and 125 E) one eats truffled Jerusalem raviolis, perdrix and a chocolate “cylinder.”   He gave 2 hearts to the Italian Cicccetti in the 8th and one each to the Cuisiniere Lyonnaise in the 17th, the Yankee Lefty and the pizzeria Cerise sur la pizza.

The Dossier this week by Colette Monsat, Alice Bosio and Francois Simon was judging the best croissants in Paris as follows:
1 Pierre Herme
2 Sebastien Gaudard
3 Bread & Roses, Landemaine and Les Gateaux & du Pain
6 Boulangerie Julien Nelly, Delmontel
8 Ble Sucre, Gerard Mulot, Dominique Saibron

Francois Simon, went to Guest editor Fabrice Luchini’s favorite – La Table d’Eugene in the 18th where he says to go.

On Saturday, in a special article not Croque-notes, Hadrien Gonzales and Francois Simon reported in Figaro on the best city for food – Lyon, Dijon, Tours…

And Sunday, Aurelie Chaigneau in the JDD gave 6.5/10 to the Cafe Pinson, 6, rue de la Forez in the 3rd, 09.83.82.53.53, open 7/7 with a formula at lunch of 17 E for bio non-gluten food ; 6 to Il Prezzemoto and 6.5 to Les Affranchis, coordinates given before.  In Paris et Moi they considered 58 Qualite Street an « excellent meal. »

La Cuisiniere Lyonnaise in the 17th; A breath of Lyon in a cloud of French snow.

5.5 La Cuisiniere Lyonaise, 37, rue St-Ferdinand in the 17th, 01.45.74.69.20 (Metro: Argentine), closed weekends brings a breath of Lyonnaise cooking to this weird part of the 17th where there's little competition except for MBC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has the bouchon "look," the Lyon specialties and a "formule" of 2 courses for 18.50 and three for 25 E that's hard to beat.  I was tempted by the quenelles but horrified by the chunks of white chicken that went by me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It turned out that I and 50 other customers (the place was bursting at the seams) ordered it too because by 1:18 they were out.  It started with a terrine of heavily jellied veal parts which you don't want to know about, that was not much of a much until you put a little nice dressed greens on it and then it sang.  (However, I bet it would be even better if they'd served us all the promised sauce gribiche.) The boeuf bourgignon was unlike that one usually gets here, where they throw in the worst gristle and sinew of bad cuts of beef - this was high end and beautifully cooked.  (Not up to Colette's version of Julia's but OK on a dreadful afternoon weather-wise).  Finally the crepes Suzettes were quite acceptable. 

With a pot of Cotes du Rhone, coffee, fine brown but weak white bread and no bottled water - in a bouchon? - My Lord - my bill was 36.50 E.

Go?  Well, if at the Convention Center and as an alt to MBC, sure, but not worth a trip acoss town.  Noise - 83.3 dB.

La Buvette in the 11th: Good, albeit cold products on an icy afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.0 (6 for the products; 4 for the lack of warm ones), La Buvette, 67, Rue St Maur in the 11th, (no reservations; only 9 covers) was perhaps not the best choice for a Sunday outing when no car was seen on sidestreets, buses were scarce and the Metro had suspect packages and gravely injured passengers fouling up the system.  But there I was.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The menu, as I implied, has just cold items, many from named suppliers/producers and there's a nice selection of wines (corkage fee 8 E).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I started with a plate of Galicean sardinellas that were super dooper but then felt the giant white beans with orange zest were lacking ooomph.  The bread was superior as was the coffee.

My bill, without bottled water or dessert but a 1/2 bottle of California Cab, was 31 E.

Go?   Well, I can't figure out why the critics are falling all over themselves on this one; sure the products are nice, but the only other customers seemed to be friends and the lack of anything hot/warm on a sub-zero day was a bummer. 

Richer in the 9th: Lovely food, lousy photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.5 Richer, 2 Rue Richer in the 9th, 01.48.24.44.80, open 8-1 AM 7/7 is the sort of bar/cafe/bistro everyone wants on his corner.  Especially on a cold, snowy, icy day.  It's the brainchild of Charles Compagnon, of L'Office across the street and a welcome addition to a quickly growing food area in a previously strange area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They have about 4 entrees, 4 mains and 4 desserts which are nicely spread across the food chain.  My dining pal, a former food critic in Paris who left for love a year ago, had a very nice soft egg in a soup of mustard-flavored corn - interesting eh?  And I had marinated salmon trout with shaved teeny tiny veggies that were equally tempting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For mains, my friend had confited lamb which I think was sort of a parmentier and I had nice files of duck withe beets and nougatines of mole, if you know what I mean.

With a bottle and glass of Combier Crozes, 2 coffees and no desserts or bottled water, our bill was 92.60 E.

Go?  As I said, I wish I had one like this on my corner.  Decibel level 69.2 at the start but exceeded the acceptable range at the end of the meal.

PS Apologies for the washed-out pix, long story, but thanks to Paga and Elan for useof their hi-speed internet connection while Freebox/France Telecom figure out how to get to the 21st Century.

Birroteca in Baltimore: Best Pizza in Years.

Birroteca is the newest kid in my old home town and I had the opportunity to eat there practically just after I'd eater at Il Brigante in Paris (see below).  What a difference!

Four of us shared two pies - one spicy fennel sausage and the other Blanco cheeses - and both were superior to almost anything I've had in Naples or NY's Little Italy or anywhere.  How an American guy - one Cyrus Keefer - can outclass the native Italian Salvatore Rotiroti at Il Brigante, is beyond me.

With two bottles of Malbec Revolution and a banana cake, our bill before tip was $43.88 a couple.

We shall return General.

Il Brigante in the 18th: A pizzeria with an attitude.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.0 Il Brigante, 17, rue du Ruisseau in the 18th, 01 44 92 72 15, closed Sundays, is another place around the block and I've been waiting to test it and its whirling Dervish Italian pizzamaker for an appropriate evening.  And it arrived.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had four: a vegetarian, a Cardinale, a Brigante (Margherita with lots of stuff and spices) and their most peppery - the Vivante.   For Paris it was pretty good stuff, but as you will see, tommorrow, Americans still produce better pizzas overall than even Italians in France.

The bill, with two bottles of wine and nothing else except a decibel levdel of 80.2, was 95 E.

Go?  I suspect I will go back.

Spring: A reward for the moving team.

Spring is a place my daughters have only heard about and somewhere in the week of packing, moving and unpacking, they said "Dad, how about "springing" [sic] us free and taking us to your favorite place instead of forcing us to eat at these neighborhood joints?"  Fair enough; so off we went on the last day of move week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So let's see if we can reel off these lovely dishes: creme fraiche, Grannies, eel and onion; scallops and pears; a puree of foie gras with fried oysters; mackerel and oysters;  rouget with a sweet & sour sauce; chunks of veal with almond puree, spinach and foie gras pastry; passion fruit, vanilla ice cream, mango and pistachio, litchee and pineapple and chocolate tartes - whew!

The bill, with two bottles of wine, no bottled water and four coffees was 252 E or 126 E a couple.

Sonia's Indian Restaurant in the 18th: It seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.0 Restaurant Sonia aka Chez Sonia, 8, rue Letort in the 18th, 01.42.57.23.17 is a place I've been passing on my early-morning "limpies" since it opened about 3 years ago and never had occasion to go, not eating out nights. It was rated 5/5 by everyone on TripAdvisor and one poster claimed it was “Le meilleur indien de Paris !”   Whoa!  So after a tough day of unpacking, the moving crew and I went around the corner to what looks like a typical Indian place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I looked at the bill it showed a staggering list of 12 items, but among them were wine, raita, dal, nan and paratha; so what we really concentrated on were the vegetarian samosas, chicken vindaloo, eggplant pakora, baignan burtha, prawn tandoori and vegetable curry.

For four of us it was 98.40 E, thus 49.20 E a couple.

Go?  Well, if this is the best Indian food now in Paris, I despair.  It was serviceable, OK for "Cook's Night Out," but not the "knock your socks off" food you get in Delhi, New York or even sad sad food-deprived Baltimore.

 

Japanese chefs, cuisine and sensibility in Paris.

On a food website recently, a poster under the title of Fusion Food asked for suggestions on places that “that had the best of both worlds: French food for me with a Japanese flair for her."  Many of us plunged in with ideas but I realized there was really a spectrum of places and here I’ve tried to codify them.  All are places I’ve been to, most since 2010.

Restaurants that are almost purely French cuisine cooked by Japanese chefs:
L’Office
Au Passage
Vivant
Kei
Chez la Vieille (Adrienne)
58 Qualite Street
Hide
Ribouldingue
Breizh Cafe

Restaurants that are almost purely Japanese cuisine cooked by Japanese chefs:
Yuzu
Concert de la Cuisine
Guilo Guilo
Enishi
Abri

Restaurant that is almost purely Japanese cuisine cooked by French chefs:
Qui Plume La Lune

Restaurants in between that have some Japanese products, herbs and spices:
La Clarisse
H. Kitchen
Les Degres de Notre Dame
Clandestino

Restaurants in between where French food is influenced by Asia/Japan:
Monjul
Carte Blanche

Restaurants with French chefs inspired by trips to the Orient:
MBC
Ze Kitchen Galerie

Restaurants in between that are ½ terroir ½ Japanese:
Passage 53
Le Kolo of Asafumi Tamashita

Restaurants in between in using raw veal & fish more than the usual:
L’Agape
Stella Maris
Atao

Restaurant whose original mission was to offer French and Japanese food separate but is more now like French food cooked Japanese style:
Sola

Japanese chef cooking French food with a Japanese flair or French food cooked by a chef who happens to be Japanese:
La Table d’Aki