John Talbott's Paris

La Cachette in the 6th: Here's a dilemma for you; split decision.

5.2 La Cachette, 8, rue des Chartreux in the 6th (around the corner from the Luxembourg or for Pierre Capretz fans - where Mireille Belleau took classes) where the tired old Le Chartreux used to be until November or so.  Whew!  In any case, the telephone is 01.43.26.66.34, its metro is - awww faggedaboudid, it's supposedly open 7/7 (brunch on Sundays) but web-info is contradictory, it's part-owned by Fred Testot (of Omar & Fred but more about that later) and it's chef'ed by Mathieu Baumer formerly at one of the gems of Paris - the Dome du Marais. 

Anyway why did I go?  It was a Saturday and slim pickin's then, my French friends were up from the country staying not too far away and some friend/colleagues and many web posters have loved it.  When I took a look at the menu I and Madame wanted to flee - soup, salmon or foie gras;  chicken, a burger, vegetarian risotto, tartare or fish & chips (made from salmon, salmon, good grief).  Yikes!

Well after much pondering and back-and-forthing we ordered and my friends from the South and 15th polished off their soups of potiron and carrots (despite their complaining that it/they was/were out of a can; but on second thought, maybe one starves in the Massif Central and anything will do) and I did major damage to great slices of lox with a great sauce, I don't think either came from Metro, but maybe I'm easily fooled.

Then Madame had the cuisse de poulet with what she claimed were mashed potatoes made from a packet; M. said they tasted like cardboard; but my tartare of Charolais beef was pretty damn good and the frites (now recall that I maintain that no one in France can make French fries, three folks in Belgium can do duck fat ones and maybe five Yankees do Freedom fries well) were just about as good as they get.

The bill; with a bottle and a glass of Faugeres, no bottled water, warm, yes, warm bread, no desserts and three coffees, our bill came to 66.26 E a couple.

Go?  Well, I love Omar and Fred and wish the latter well, but ummmmm, no.  The service is too haphazard, the music is overpoweringly loud (80.9 dB worth), and the food too chancy - (I scored, they didn't) and the location too out of the way for folks like me.

Gego at the Maison de l'Amerique Latine; A truly different exhibition.

Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt 1912-1994), a Venezuelan artist is/was not easily classified.  Her works are largely made of wire or painted like wire or reflected wire on bare walls.  In any case, I was fascinated.

3 Wows.  Until May 14th.

La Maison de l'Amerique Latine: "The best meal we've had", New chef, new carte, new ambiance; same glorious garden.

7.3 The restaurant of the Maison de l'Amerique Latine, 217, blvd St-Germain in the 7th, open weekday lunches only (don't believe what you read elsewhere), 01.49.54.75.10, (Metro: Solferino) has changed hands and everything else except for the great garden and wonderful private rooms.  The chef, one Thierry Vaissiere, has been everywhere for someone so young - la Maison Blanche, le Café Faubourg, le Jardin des Sens, la Tour d’Argent, Lucas-Carton, and Drouant, when it was under Yannick Alléno's hands.  I was warmly welcomed by the front man, Jean-Pierre Galmisch, who doesn't know me from Adam but I felt right at home. 

On the 40 E 2-course and 51 E 3-course menu, the entree that leapt out to all three of us was/were the foie gras raviolis which were ravishing.  Then Madame from the Tour Totem (no, not Madame Courtois) had nifty crispy strips of bar in a divine sauce and M. and I both had the 7-hour snout to feet pressed pieces of lamb that came with a royale sauce just like lievre a la royale - head-spinning.

To terminate, my friends and I shared an apple tart with an apple syrup that one of us thought was maple syrup, it was so rich and tasty.  Now a word about the wines; unless you're a 1%'er, you either go with South American ones or as we did, a Brouilly, which was very very good.

A bill, for a couple having 2 dishes, 1 bottle of wine, no bottled water, 2 coffees and quite fine bread runs one 114 E (and here's a kicker - one pays 1 E per person Membership charge - neat eh?)

Go?  For sure, indeed I plan to come back in a few days to try what they call their "bar" see above, which has a terrific selection of items - no reservations here though, but one must reserve at the main resto - it was totally full by 13h00.

Le Petit Matieu in the 10th: Hopping, popping and (at times) heart-stopping.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6.0 Le Petit Matieu, 55, rue des Vinaigriers in the 10th, 01.46.07.09.49, open 7/7, has been open about a year and word finally reached me to move it up on my "list" - so..... The exterior is the requisite cool, minimalist style now standard and the interior raw wood and slate blue, and it has a long wine list and a tempting chalkboard for apero-stuff and dinners.  But we were there for lunch so....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A quick look at the lunch "menu" revealed a forced 2-2-2 choice 18 E - 18 euros folks - for three courses, cannot beat that.  And we started off with my new friend ordering toasty veggies with some olive oil and I a veloute of broccoli and kiri (winter squash) - one of the finest soups in my life.  For a wine, my friend, a classics Prof who knows his stuff (maybe the Chinese invented wine, but the Greeks perfected it) chose a very fine Bourgueil (our host Matieu knows a thing or two about wine as well.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then my friend ordered the 7-hour lamb that had one of the nicest crispy skins/moist interiors possible with quite decent dauphinois potatoes and I had the grondin (named such because it grunts/groans [gronder] when caught) - see, you can learn something every day - with par-cooked leek bits.

We ended with a most fine creme caramel (the caramel sauce was light but packed with taste.)

With a bottle and glass of wine, no bottled water and mediocre bread, our bill was 72.90 E.

Go?  For prix-qualite, it can't be beat.  And the decibel level, despite it being packed with hipsters or at least hipster-aged folk, no pesky fellow Yankees, hovered around 78.0 dB.

Paris Pix: Hey Doᴑd (I assume it's a play on words Dude)!

Paris Pix: Clever crosswalk distinctions

Reviews of reviews: The week of February 10th, 2014

Monday-Tuesday in A Nous Paris, Philippe Toinard reviewed and gave 4/5 dots to the previously mentioned Balls in the 11^th and Jerome Berger gave 4/5 to the aforementioned Le Lulli in the 1^st.

Tuesday in Le Fooding, they reviewed the Bar de la Releve in Marseille.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin reviewed and gave 2/4 hearts to the previously mentioned all dessert place Dessance in the 4^th, Hai Kai in the 10^th and the Japanese Shinseki in the 6^th.  One heart each went to the wine bar Monsieur Henri in the 3^rd and La Ferme St Simon in the 7^th.

The Dossier this week was on the kids’ dishes:

Balls – boulettes

Terroir Parisien Bourse – Croque-monsieur

Little Fernand – hot dog

Sunken Chip – fish nuggets

Lazare – saucisse puree

Pozzetto – chocolate ice cream

Café Constant – escalope Cordon-Bleu

Café Germain – coquillettes –jambon

Rebellato – Nutella pizza

Breizh Café - crepes

And Francois Simon went to L’Auberge du Roi Gradlon for Breton fare, especially crepes, urging one to go; his meal was 249 E but he had lobster.

Wednesday as well, Heidi Ellison in Paris Update reviewed places to get quality fast food: the previously mentioned Frenchie to Go, Freddie's Deli, Caluc and the Viet Namese Bulma.

Thursday, in l’Express, Francois-Regis Gaudry extolled the merits of David Toutain and his new restaurant, coordinates given before and Charles Patin O’Coohoon called L’Eclectic deceiving; it’s located in the Centre Beaugrenelle, 2, rue Linois in the 15^th, 01.77.36.70.00 charging 40-70 E a la carte, open 7/7.  Outside Paris they reviewed the Café Jean in Biarritz and the Comptoir Breizh Café in St Malo.

Paris Pix: Building

Paris Pix: Cool shop; cool shirts.

A formula for avoiding sitting next to those pesky fellow Yankees who whoop it up and disturb your meal in Paris and finding good food in “secret places.

Based on two meals, the day this was written and the day before, in very different places (Le BAT on the Grands Boulevards sited amongst the Hard Rocks and McDo’s and the Cercle Rouge in the 17th isolated among boring residential buildings and utilitarian shops) I have hit upon a strategy for those Americans who long to find places their fellow New York Times’ readers have not, where English is not spoken (especially loudly and nasally), has good food and where they will walk out texting their 1,000 best “friends” that they found a place no one else knows about. What is it?:

1. Don’t just go back to the places you liked/loved last time, 10 or the Gods forbid, 50 years ago. I know, I know, “a bird in the hand is worth two you’ve never tried,” and I respect folks who use this method; it’s just that when I started considering Paris my home (much to one daughter’s amusement), I felt liberated, unshackled and free to try new, untried places.

2. Eat at lunch when the French not the Anglos eat.

3. Go outside the inner snail circle of Arrondissements 1-8.

So, “how John, how do you find these places?” I’m asked. You listen to the tom-toms – X is rumored to be moving to Y Street to open a place. You read the blogs – in French (come on, you took it 40 years ago, some words are obvious) and English, written by people who aren’t New York Times/Travel & Leisure/Food & Wine reporters or stringers.

You become a flaneur and listen to others who are flaneurs – “Hey, I saw this new place over near the VVV, check it out.” You enter places with fresh paint, look at the menu (posted by law) and setup, ask for a card and check it out with other nosy food-types. And, going against the grain of many folks, you eat with a diverse group of food-nuts, who let slip “secret information” known only to them (yah, sure.)

I guarantee this formula works, but only if you’re willing to take risks, encounter some odd lemons and be there when the wait-folks are having bad days or their first days.