John Talbott's Paris

Jeanne B.: Sunny, summery, satisfying.

To celebrate the arrival of Colette and my favorite cousin-visitor to France with his lovely lady (R) on this "maybe-it's-going-to-be-summer-soon-after-all-afternoon," we Montmartrebussed up the hill to Jeanne B.  As you'll recall, they have an astonishingly priced 23 E three-course lunch and astonishlngly-priced magnums of wine starting at 41 E. (after breathing a bit, the wine was very good)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So off we went; R ordered a wonderful house terrine (chicken if you beklieve it); cousin and Colette having the glassful of avocado and shrimp which needed some Tobasco or salt or both; and I some bulots with an herb-flavored mayo.  A good albeit not overpowered start.

 

 

For mains, R had a huge pork short rib, Colette a veggie salad with a few bites of chicken, and the boys milk-fed Spring lamb, all of which were good product, well prepared, albeit sending up no shooting stars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unimaginatively, the three of them chose to close ith an apple-rhubarb crumble and I had what sounds unimaginative, but was anything but - a delicious fruit salad.  Our bill with 4 coffees and no bottled water, was 71.50 E a couple.

 

Boudin at the Jacquemart Andre til July 22.

I broke my boycott of block buster and especially impressionist/postimpressionist ones today because we ate lunch nearby and my two friends and wonderful wife wanted to go.  Ironically i was the only one who did because they were so daunted by the hour+ long wait they bailed out.

I loved three of his works - the Pont de Bordeaux for its complexity, the Pointe du raz for its impressionism and the Coin de ferms for its simplicity - none were Boudinesque; Boudin's paintings of beaches striking me like Pisarro's of Montmartre streets, Caneletto's of canald and Sisley's of farms
 - too much of a good thing.  The three are worth the price of admission but not the wait.

110 Taillevent: A place with good food that doesn't gouge on the wine by the glass.

 We met our NYC friends and enjoyed a very nice reurnion with them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two of us started off with the menu's escabeche of sardine cooked tempura style with fava beans in a soup of crustacian essence and one of our guests had a beautiful green salad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For mains, Colette had the rascasse with avocado which she (and I ) found boring and borderline poor product; one of our friends had the duck with an intense sauce; the other, queneles de brochet - he lapped up every drop; and I had the paleron of been topped with a nice ball of cabbage and surrounded by what my friend Paga would deem dark brown/brown sauce.

For desserts, Colette chose the dessert assortment of childhood - chocolate mousse, rice pudding, flan and floating island, one of our friends had the cheesecake and I had two tasty slices of St Nectaire.

 

Our bill per couple was 95.50 which included a bottle and glass of wine (you gotta love a place that charges almost the same proportionately for a glass of wine as a full bottle), darn good bread, bread sticks, two coffees and a bottle of Chateldon.

Best price-quality places these days. Part I: on a budget

Every few months I’m tempted to tackle this issue and it takes a lot of time and digging (I know, you really feel for me) but I hope it’s to someone’s benefit (it’s the hopeless doctor dreamer in me).

So after today’s meal at Jin Xin Lou with has a 19.80 3 course “menu” and bottles of wine under 20 E I’m  tempted to try again.

So here goes with some of the most recent ones:

Le Verre Moutarde
145, rue de Saussure in the 17th (Metro: Wagram)
T: 01.42.27.35.55
Closed weekends
13.90 for 2 courses, wine and coffee

Jeanne B.
61, rue Lepic in the 18th (Metro:  Absesses)
T: 01.42.51.17.53
Open 7/7
17.00 E for 3 courses

Jin Xin Lou’s French section
63, rue de l'Amiral Mouchez in the 13th (RER: Cite Universitaire)
T: 01.53.80.27.89
Closed Wednesday dinner, Saturday lunch and Sundays.
19.80 for 3 courses

Reviews of reviews: The week of April 8th, 2013

Reviews of reviews: The week of April 8th, 2013Monday-Tuesday in A Nous Paris, Philippe Toinard reviewed and gave 2/5 dots to the cave a manger Le Zag a vin, 18, rue Duphot in the 1st, closed Saturday lunch, Sundays and Mondays, 01.40.15.06.69, formulas 22 and 27 at lunch, menus 28 and 38 E serving overly creay cream of cauliflower soup, smoked magret, cod and cheesecake and lots of wines in the old Vin Chai Moi space; and Jerome Berger gave 3/5 to two steakhouses whose coodinates have been given before – Ma chere & tendre and Le Boeuf Volant.

Tuesday, Yves Nespoulous, in Le Fooding, reviewed the Edgar, 31, rue Alexandre in the 2nd, 01.40.41.05.69, open 7/7, chef’d by an ex-Petit Cheval de Menage, costing 16-35 E, serving fresh seafood (oysters, clams, herring, cod) and items such as an echine de porc and a bavette as well as rice pudding and home-made ices.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin reviewed and gave 2 hearts to two places – Leo Dupont, 16, rue de la Grande-Chaumiere in the 6th, 01.43.29.43.31, closed Sundays and Mondays running one 35-40 E without wine,  for items such as a haddock tart, lieu jaune and a salad of dates and oranges as well as Les Petits Plats d’Emile, coordinates given before.  He also tested the one-heart Broken Arm in the 3rd and Slice in the 2nd.   He gave a busted/broken heart to the Lobster Bar in the 1st.

The Dossier this week by Hugo de Sainte Phalle and Colette Monsat was on business meals at:
Sola
Pirouette
Cobea
Terroir Parisien
Les Tablettes de Jean-Louis Nomicos
Garance
Le Coq Rico

And Francois Simon tried one of them, Cobea, which he thought was good and you should go to.

This week’s L’Express had a review by Charles Patin O’Coohoon of La Grande Cremerie, coordinates given before; Anne-Laure Pham covered the Lobster Bar, ditto; Marie-Amal Bizalion wrote up Lumineux Café Edmond by Serena in Marseille and Francois-Regis Gaudry went to Pierre Sang Boyer in the 11th.

Ardeo & Bardeo in DC: A wonderfully good meal.

Colette and I had the opportunity to take a day off last week and visit Washington and supped that evening at the merged Ardeo & Bardeo, 3311 Connecticut Ave with one of our daughters, a former chef, and husband.  I went expecting no fireworks but was [pleasantly surprised.

The burrata salad was better than average but my starter of a scallop schnitzel, yes schnitzel, was extraordinarily inventive.

For mains we had crispy skate, salmon, beef carpaccio and pork belly with clams, again the latter was a most creative composition as well as incredibly tasty.

Finally we had the chocolate tart, pear pie and savarin with maple syrup; once more, inventive combinations and fine execution.

Our bill with two bottled of wine, was $104.00 a couple before tip.

Go?  We certainly will in the furure.

Paris Photos: Long Island in Paris?

FAQ: “John. Any must restaurants to recommend? I have been reading your blog, but I can't tell which ones are really musts.”

This is probably the most common question I’m asked.  So as a guide to the perplexed, here are the ones I’ve been most impressed with since the rentree that I rated higher than 6/10:

8.5 Jean-Louis Nomicos
8.0 110 Taillevent
Sergent Recuiter
7.5 Petit Champarret
Premices
Vivant
7.2 Felicity Lemon
Clandestino
7.1 Abri
Marloe
7.0 6 Paul Bert
Garance
6.9 Crom’Exquis
6.8 Atelier Vivanda
6.7 L’Office version iv
6.5 La Gagnage
La Verre Moutarde
6.4 Flamboire
6.3 Les Degres de Notre Dame
6.2  Jeanne B.
Novices
6.1 Mamou
Jin Xin Lou

Not forgetting those that opened on the cusp of the summer vacation:
7.5 Pierre Sang in Oberkampf
Flora
Pirouette

Reviews of reviews: The week of April 1st, 2013

Monday-Tuesday in A Nous Paris, Philippe Toinard reviewed and gave 2/5 dots to Les Petits Plats d’Emile, 8, rue Jean Jacques Rousseau in the 1st, 01.42.60.08.00, closed Sundays, with a lunch formula at 13 E and lunch menu at 19 E with items such as brandade, sweetbreads, choux with chocolate or a Paris-Bresst; and Jerome Berger gave 3/5 to the Italian Il Goto in the 12th.

Tuesday, Yves Nespoulous, in Le Fooding, reviewed the Mediterannean sandwicherie Reparate, 128, rue Charenton in the 12th, 01.40.19.15.68, closed weekends, costing less than 15 E for take-away sandwiches or socca.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin reviewed and gave 2 hearts to Ma Chere et Tendre in the Hotel Meridien Etoile, 81, dlvd Gouvion-Saint-Cyr in the 17th, 01.40.68.30.40, open 7/7, running one 40-60 a la carte but 35 E on a menu – featuring items such as crabcake, angus onglet and a cobbler-crumble as well as the new team at Afaria, coodinates well known & given before – now serving items such as a boudin, parillada of seafood and Basque cake on 22 and 26 E lunch formulas and 40-50 E a la carte.  He awarded one heart to La Colere du Gorille in the 16th, Le Café Blanc Courreges in the 8th and Duplicata in the 11th.

The Dossier this week by Colette Monsat, Alice Bosio and Hugo de Sainte Phalle was on new meat places in Paris and included:
Le Flamboire
Drugstore Steakhouse
Chez Boris
Atelier Vivanda
L’Aller Retour
Les Provinces
The Beef Club
Le Boeuf Volant
Bang
Les Tontons (the newest in the 13th)
La Maison de l’Aubrac
Aux Lyonnais
Sergent Recruteur

And Francois Simon went to the new fish restaurant, Helen in the 8th, 3, rue Berryer, 01.40.76.01.40 costing 100 E.

This week’s L’Express had a review by Francois-Regis Gaudry of Masa in Boulogne-Billancourt.

Charged for leaving things on your plate.

Ohhh la la.  Recently I read an article saying that “Restaurant fines diners who leave food on plates.“

So now I’m in fear.

The day this was written, I left 1/5th of my merlan and veggies uneaten (PS I finished all my tapenade, soup, langoustines and dessert.)   So did they charge me?  No.

But I find, even though I’m not a real Food Critic, but do write every meal up, that the Big Boys don’t polish off every dish; FS says he often has bottled water and part of one course. 

In often told stories (by me) there are three incidents that spring to mind when I haven’t finished my meals and would have had a fit if I’d been charged.

The first was at an Alsatian place which will go un-named where we simply ordered too much flamenkuche and my buddy said “get out one of your bags, John and we’ll dump the excess in a Vigipirate container on the way home.”  Dutifully I did and a few blocks away, he said ‘OK here’s one, dump it there” and I realized I’d left it on the floor of the restaurant.  Go back?  Are you kidding, we high-tailed it away.

The second was at Helene Darroze with the same pal and our wives where the food was so dreadful we got out our sacks, carefully emptied our almost full plates and purposefully left them on the floor a a gesture of disgust at Ms. Darroze’s cooking.

And third is an occurrence that occurs everytime I have steak in France.  It is simply too much to finish.  So once again out comes my handy ziplock bag, in goes the steak and that night the remains are perfect with Worchester sauce.