John Talbott's Paris

Reviews of reviews: The week of December 2nd, 2013.

Monday-Tuesday, in A Nous Paris, Jerome Berger gave 3/5 dots to Les Nautes, waterside at 1, quai des Celestins in the 4th, 01.42.74.59.53, closed Mondays & Tuesdays with lunch menus at 17.50 and 20 and dinner at 29 and 35 E, serving items such as 4-vegetable soup, tuna and an apple dessert;  and Philippe Toinard reviewed and gave 3/5 dots to the Bistrot Valois, 1 bis, place de Valois in the 1st, 01.42.61.35.04, closed Sundays, costing between 30 and 50 E a la carte for items such as beef, hambourgeois and andouillette.

Tuesday, in Le Fooding, the review was of the restaurant Miles in Bordeaux.

In Wednesday’s Figaroscope, Emmanual Rubin awarded 3 hearts to the previously mentioned Le Caillebotte in the 9th, plus two hearts each to 2 two places, the Spanish Iperber in the 3rd and Paradis, 14, rue de Paradis in the 10th, 01.45.23.57.98, closed Sundays, where for about 35 E one can dine on a perfect egg, abalone & sweet onion gratin.  One heart each went to 2 places, the Restaurant Marignan in the 8th and Ma Poule in the 16th.

The Dossier this week was all about new gourmand boutiques in Paris.

And Francois Simon devoted his Hache Menu to Le BAT where he recommends you go.

Sunday in the JDD, Francois Lemaire wrote up the previously mentioned Bistrot Belhara in the 7th and Aurelie Chaigneau wrote about several places already mentioned for the holidays – Monsieur Bleu, La Regalade Saint-Honore, the Beef Club and the Rose Bakery at Bon Mache.

Clamato in the 11th: Wonderful product, wonderful staff, wonderful experience. But? No buts.

7.5 Clamato, 80 rue de Charonne in the 11th (Metro: Charonne), 01.43.72.74.53 (but no reservations and lots of counter space), open Wednesday to Sunday nights but lunch only on weekends.  Backstory: Yesterday my know-it-all (in the best sense) friend asked if I'd been to Clamato because she'd had a blowout meal there (again) the night before.  "No," said I, "it's only open at night."  "Not so, it's open for lunch on weekends."  "Ahhhhright!"

So realizing it took no reservations, I arrived at 12h15 and was seated at the only 2-seat table that didn't abut tables with those pesky fellow Parisiens.  While waiting I had a glass of (get your) Jaja('s out) and read my JDD about Mandiba, Ghandi and Barry.  My invitee, who lives near Voltaire, arrived on the dot and we wrestled with the choices on the menu.  As you can see, or maybe not, there really are no clear entrees or mains (excepting the oysters) so we regarded our meal as a small plate free-for-all which was the way to go.

The best tasting dish for both of us was/were the slices of octopus with cooked leeks and hit-you-in-the-face chorizo bits - wow!  Then tied and close behind were the rillettes of tuna and sweet herring  with a good portion of salad on top and the scallops and héliantis (me neither) and the hazelnut sauce.  Pulling up last, but hey, anywhere else it would be outasight, the ceviche of mackerel with cabbage.

We elected to share a dessert, a good move, because the Sicilian lemon financier with ice cream was superb.

Our bill, with a glass and a bottle of 1901 (the brand not the year) Rhone white wine (I'm only on Photoshop Lesson #80 so I haven't yet learned how to turn rosé into white wine, but I assure you it was a white), decent but not extraordinary bread and a staff that worked the door, tables, bar, counters and kitchen seemingly seamlessly, with enthusiasm, humor and pretty damn good English once they heard us chatting, was 76 E.  And the dB level never exceeded 80.3 dB.

Go?  "Nation" as Colbert would say, "Nation, wake up, go, enjoy!"

Les Nautes in the 4th: Very cool setting, very nice food, very warm service.

6.4 Les Nautes, 1, quai des Celestins in the 4th (Metro: St Paul or Sully-Morland), is open Wednesday through Sunday, 01.42.74.59.53, and occupies an old abandoned Ports de Paris building, recently restored.  Today was the beginning of Nautic 2013 at the Porte de Versailles, so that seemed a good excuse to look out over the water and sample the cuisine of Sofia Bouziane (ex-Robuchon, ex-Pourcels).  The interior is cool, almost butcher-block tables, slatted metal ceiling, 2nd floor seating (not to mention the tables outdoors on the quai itself which during Paris Plage must be teeming.)

My invitee had already installed herself in the corner and by the time I arrived, the rain had stopped and the sun was shinning brightly in her eyes - "Would you like to move over here a bit where it's shady," said our genial host.  "Indeed," and it was done.  The menu had several intriguing items and when we mentioned a Languedoc as our wine, our host proposed two bottles both of which he had us taste.  The Bois-Sans-Soif pleased my compagnion most and there we went.

After a bit of hesitation, she ordered the shaved fennel with agrume wedges and I had a dozen No 2 oysters (for 18 E, a bargain I thought); both were very good.

Again hesitating, she asked our host's advice on a main course and she had it - a big ravioli with a nice dish of shaved parmesan on the side - which she deemed OK.  But I loved my baby pork shoulder with turnips from Pardailham in the Hérault/Languedoc-Roussillon - scrumptious.  Finally, we shared an outstanding Paris-Brest.

Our bill, with no bottled water, a bottle of wine and two coffees, was 91.60 E.  dB level 71.3.

Go?  If it was good today, on a sunny day in summer it'll be divine.

Lessons (for me) from the Life and Death of my friend Mandiba

Lessons (for me) from the Life and Death of my friend Mandiba

From his life:
You can survive 27 years in a box
You can smile throughout it all
Principles and Gandhian positions, do count
The world may eventually come to its senses
Anyone can change his/her mind about gays

From his death:
Blacks and whites, men and women, without religious symbols, veils, coverings or segregation, can
Celebrate a life together not just grieve

But:
We still have racism and the hatred of blacks, especially smart blacks, like Christine Taubira and Barack Obama who were called “monkeys” by Anne Leclere and Barbara Espinosa, respectively.

La Table des Anges in the 9th: Pas mal.

 5.8 La Table des Anges, 66, rue des Martyrs in the 9th (Metro: Pigalle downhill, St Georges uphill), closed Sundays and Mondays, 01.55.32.24.89, is a place that's been on my list for my famous dissident-agitator friend who dislikes leaving the 9th (except for Stephane Jego) and is Parnassien-approved.  Minimalist outside, brick/stone/crazy paintings inside and a "menu" at 20 E for three courses that is damn appealing.

I arrived a few minutes before my celebrity-date and within seconds was served a glass of very nice Macon, slices of very peppery-spicy charcuterie and a jar of beef boullion with ? barley at the bottom which was very peppery-spicy.  This is not a French guy cooking, no, something is different.

My friend and I wrestled over what to have, but I had long ago settled on my choices.  For her a mousseline of cauliflower - BORING, EH? UNH UNH - on top of the smoked peppery-spicy speck with peppery-spicy nuts on top it was primo; and my bisque of hairy crabs was as good as it gets.  Several times, the three wait-guys came over during the meal, and spoke to us in English - OK, we're speaking English, even if that's neither of our first languages (Cantonese her, German/Yiddish me) but there was something about that that pricked my curiosity.

Both of then had the quenelles de brochet with a ton of greens and veggies and mushrooms, all of which she loved and ate and most of which I did, but it was not the classic dish and my stick-in-the-mud traditionalist bent caused me to rebel.  But the Bergerac was quite nice - and we two reminiced on how horrible the wines of the South-west were eons ago and how nice they are today.

Now she, because she finished her meal, didn't get dessert and I, who didn't, did.  Wait a  minute, that's not how it''s supposed to work - our mom's said the opposite, but that's long ago and far away.  The creme brulee with carabar was extraordinary, really beyond the speed of sound.  But then, with our OK coffee we got house-made caramels - Oh beam me up.

Our bill, with a bottle and glass of wine, no bottled water and five courses and three add-on's each, was 75 E.

Go back?  You can bet your life on it. 

Oh, by the way, about all that English, as I'm coming up from the bathroom, the chef, on the landing descending, says "Sorry" in real, not school English.  My garrulous friend, exiting, says to one of the upstairs guys, the equivalent of "who was that masked man?"  Ans. The chef, apparently one Yan Duranceau, who passed through the Plaza Athénée, Fouquet’s, Taillevent, Grand Véfour, Closerie des Lilas, Steak & Lobster, and the Comte de Gascogne, is half-American (Louisiana).

Plantxa/Plancha in Boulogne Billancourt: Where? Where they wear suits and ties, sport wedding rings and covered women eat ham sandwiches.

 

7.4 La Plantxa aka La Plancha (just look at its sign), 58, rue Gallieni in Boulogne Billancourt, (Metro: Marcel Sembat), 01.46.20.50.93, closed Sundays, is chef'd by a former (2012) Top Chef, a 25 y.o. Colombian who also passed through the kitchens of the Ecole du Cordon Bleu and L'Acajou.  Now, some disclosure: I watch the occasional Top Chef and Masterchef - my endurance is measured in seconds not hours, and I can't find the right word for my reaction to the fate of its contestants - cynical, no; sceptical, no; uninterested, yah, that's it.  Most disappear into the foodosphere, and except for Pierre Sang Boyer of Oberkampf or Romain Tischenko of Galopin, nobody has lit my fire, until today.

 

Philippe Toinard of A Nous Paris said that chef Juan Arbealez changes the menus every few days but one thing that seems constant is a giant burger (some 6 inches tall) that two amply-sized ladies were having, sorry for the blurred pix but I was miles away.  As I was deciding what besides that to have, I had some nice red Scaia Corvinoa from Veneto.

 

I started with microtomed scallops with microtomes agrumes (which I swear had some microtomed beets, Japanese radishes and other non-citruses; all very nice indeed though.)  Then I went to the duch (cooked just right) with practically raw carrots, pureed parsnip, bits of divine (unadvertised) foie gras and quince (I was going to rate this a 7.1 but the foie gras pushed it up immediately).  There were an incredible number of flavors in the dish and while i usually mock too many ingredients as representing the worst of Aspen-Las Vegas-Los Angeles cooking, this guy pulls it off beutifully.  I finished with a deconstructed lemon tart with tiny diced pieces of mango - nice touch.

My bill, with no bottled water, so-so bread, a half-bottle of wine and a coffee, was 53 E thus 106 E a couple.

Go?  If you're in B-B, the 16th or anywhere near, for sure.  But reserve - they were turning people away.

Le Terroir Parisien Bourse in the 2nd: Yannick Alleno strikes gold again.

 

 

 

7.5 Le Terroir Parisien Bourse in the Palais Brongiart, 28, place de la Bourse in the 2nd (Metro: Bourse), 01.83.92.20.30, open 7/7, is a bit tricky to find - I actually walked around the whole building before seeing the tiny sign down a set a stairs in the near-basement on the South-West side facing Mori Venice Bar.  It's cool, huge (maybe 60 covers with a 12-person table d'hote) and despite its size and iron supports has a decibel level of only 80 dB, so one can talk, mainly because of the multi-leveled, beveled, and shaped wood ceiling (would Saturne had such.)

 

 

 

My dining partner and my eyes both seized on the saucisson de ris de veau simultaneously and had to have it, and we were right, it was superb, especially with the parsleyed potatoes, along with the Faugeres which she selected - sorry for the shakes but I'd just knocked my first glass of wine over on my corduroy suit (PS it all came out with plain old water).

 

 

 

Then my dining guest had a piece of beef, perfectly cooked, with a cafe de Paris sauce, which if you go to wikipedia, you'll learn more than you wanted to know about it.  It came with rather OK fries for Paris.  And I had veal escalopines with a great sauce of mushrooms, scallions and artichoke hearts that I thought was simply super.  Madame finished with a millefeuille that was equally terrific.

With the bottle of wine, a bottle of Chateldon, lousy bread and 2 coffees our bill was 119.90 E.

Go?  For certain.  If you go, you must reserve, the place, albeit big, was packed.  And as you exit you'll see a counter full of jars of Alleno's own stuff - I picked up jars of a terrine des foies of chicken Aniel Zelie and pate de campagne which he (one Guillaume) forthrightly said could be kept for a month.  Also, there's a big black-board of rillettes they start serving at 6 PM.

Le Bistrot Valois in the 1st: A genuine, real, down-to-earth bistro with a great staff near the louvre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 5.7 Le Bistrot Valois, 1 bis, place de Valois in the 1st (across from Le Lulli), 01,42.61.35.04, closed Sundays, was described in A Nous Paris as a cantine for the Ministry of Culture 50 feet away, and Backstory: an old friend of mine works there and when hired as the third person in the Hollande government was given a choice of two offices - a big, huge suite facing the Rue de Valois or a teeny, tiny telephone box facing the Gardens of the Palais Royal - guess what?  Anyway, a cantine for the artsy bunch sounded good for me and my culturati friend who sings operas you've never heard of, restores houses you cannot afford and teaches MIT and Harvard graduate students stuff too esoteric to be mentioned in polite society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got there first and from my welcome you'd have thought I was the Minister of Culture (it's a she by the way); hearty hellos and welcomes and "let's move the table so you have more room, M. Talbott."  My friend, in training for his trip to India next week, ordered two entrees, the first smashed avocados with terrific ecrevisses and I the classic gratinated onion soup that I thought used onions that were too sweet when cooked and skimped on the melted cheese.  The bread (Poliane supposedly, but we know what that means) both in the soup and on the table looked terrific but was not up to what our fellow Cantabrigian, Appolonia, can turn out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The polymath's salad with dried tomatoes arrived and he was most happy; I, having asked "Is the liver thick?" was told "No," "Thin?", "No", "So between?" "Yes."  OK.  And it was, but with a great burnt exterior and pink interior that made the day.

Having informed me that this was his breakfast, my pal needed some fruit, so he ordered a pear tart that we both thought was most excellent.

With one small bottled water (I told you, he's in training for India), the equivalent of a bottle of wine and two coffees, our bill was 84.15 E.

Go?  Now when I'm asked where to go after or between visiting the Louvre, I've got two places - this and Le Lulli (and maybe Balm next door which looks cool.)

Dina Vierny's Collection at Artcurial: Breasts, breasts and more.

When I read that Dina Vierny's collection of art was to be sold at auction today, I thought how neat.  1. I like private collections, never seen before and 2. I wanted to see what she and Maillol collected.  Well, first off, I doubt that what was on display today was their entire holdings and secondly, having seen Dina' breasts at the Maillol Museum in all their splendor, I don't think I need to see them much more, but I did.

There are many other works up for sale at Artcurial, but like Vierny's breasts, Francis Bacon's huge offerings here wear thin and I got most excited exiting and seeing Gustaf Eiffel's circular stairway - now that's genuine art.

Maison F in the 9th: Call me a stick-in-the-mud traditionalist but.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 3.0 Maison F, 5 rue Rougemont in the 9th, 01.42.46.23.16, closed Saturday lunch, Sundays and Monday night is a really nifty, cool-looking place with warmly welcoming waitfolk and a limited but interesting-sounding series of "menus."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We started off with one of us having a salad frisee with an egg (undercooked) and smoked salmon (rather than tuna apparently and instead of lardons) and soggy croutons with a nice dressing and the other two having what they said was foie gras with epices douces but which tasted more like a trendy South Beach appetizer spread and bread which whether toasted or not was just so-so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For mains two of us had what was called beef tartare (but had a strange sweet taste to it, attributed to the mint, basil & coriander added to this classic dish, which also had a slice of parmesan and two capers on top..  The other of us had the (unpictured) chicken with endives which was nothing to write home about; and allo shared thick and thin-cut fries and what I think were ultrathick polenta fries.  Dessert shared, was a blanc manger made with cardamon - OK.

Our bill with one bottle and two glasses of wine and three coffees was 101 for three, thus 67.32 E per couple.

Go?  Not unless they go back to basics and made classic salad frisees and beef tartares despite the nice sound level (61.6 dB even withe the American music.)