John Talbott's Paris

Reviews of reviews: the Week of November 9th, 2015

Monday-Tuesday, in A Nous Paris, Jerome Berger reviewed and gave 3/5 dots to the previously mentioned Fulgurances in the 11th and Philippe Toinard awarded the same to the second restaurant of Top Chef Thibaut Sombardier (#1 being Antoine), Mensae, 23, rue Melingue in the 19th, 01.53.19.80.98, closed Sundays and Mondays where for 20 E at lunch or 36 E at dinner one can eat such dishes as cepes pate, roast chicken and apple ice.

Tuesday in Le Fooding, Yves Nespoulous reviewed the seafood oriented La Meduse, 177 quai Valmy in the 10th, reservations by Internet, open 7/7, where for 16-35 E one can eat items such as Normandy oysters, tuna and chocolate ganache.

Wednesday, in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin reviewed his usual 5 places giving two hearts to the above mentioned Mensae; the Schechuan Trois Fois Plus de Piment in the 3rd; the Indian Baranaan in the 10th; the pizzeria 10 Vines in the 1st; and the epicerie/cantine G. IV, 3, rue Poissonniere in the 2nd, 06.20.89.28.39, closed Mondays, where for 20-30 E one can have items such as duck rillettes, a jar of chicken and veggies and other fish and goat cheese preparations.

And in his Hache Menu, Rubin wrote up La Gauche Caviar in the new hotel Le Montana in the 6th.

The Dossier this week by Colette Monsat, Alice Bosio and Hugo de Saint Phalle was about the best desserts with caramel or coffee, that included: Les Cocottes, The Grand Colbert, Recamier, La Bourse et La Vie, Graindorge, Emporio Armani Café.

Also Wednesday Heidi Ellison’s Paris Update raved about the previously mentioned AG Les Halles in the 1st.

Thursday, in L’Express, Mina Soundiram wrote up the previously mentioned Trois Fois Plus de Piment.

A horrible sad weekend.

Some time ago, with the death of dear friends, my wife and I have honored them by having a dinner alone with the nicest cut of beef available and the finest bottle of wine I could dig out of my cellar.  With the murder of so many innocent people Friday I decided it was time to open our last 1921 bottle of Charmes-Chambertin.

Paris Pix: Good grief

Paris Pix: Liberté

Paris Pix: Color along the Canal St Martin

Reviews of reviews: the Week of November 2nd, 2015

Monday-Tuesday, in A Nous Paris, Jerome Berger reviewed and gave 3/5 dots to the Venezuelan/S. American Galia in the 14th and Philippe Toinard awarded the same to the previously mentioned Salt in the 11th.

Tuesday in Le Fooding, there was a review of the taco place Santa Rosalia in Toulon.

Wednesday, in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin reviewed his usual 5 places giving three hearts to the previously mentioned Fulgarances in the 11th and two hearts each to L’Amarre, 5, rue de la Fontaine-au-Roi in the 11th, 01.48.06.56.85, open 7/7, where according to your desires you can have oysters, daurade and a clementine tart for from 30-50 E as well as the the ice cream parlor Une Glace a Paris in the 4th,  Garnering one heart each were La Guinguette d’Angele in the 1st and the General Store in the 2nd..

And in his Hache Menu, Rubin wrote up Pierre Gagnaire’s menu at Fouquet’s in the 8th where he says the bill is one only found on mars – 130-150 E.

The Dossier this week was devoted to places where members of the food and editorial staff of Figaro enjoy eating certain dishes.

There was also a rating by Alice Bosio & Colette Monsat of the best places to go for a chocolate tart – Jean-Paul Hevin coming out #1.

Also Wednesday Heidi Ellison’s Paris Update raved about the previously mentioned Salt in the 11th.

A tribute to my dearest friend Steve Markow aka Paga – 1935-2015

Yesterday would have been Steve’s 80^th Birthday; I know this because today I reached the same milestone.

Steve was one of a kind, heralded in the New York Times when judging a B-B-Q competition in Taylor not Tyler Texas, which in his natural generous way, he got about 6 more of us to be judges the following year; flanneur in Paris always seeking the interesting new restaurants (and recording their menus on a hand-held tape-machine (pre-internet, iPhone, etc.)) and gourmet in Brooklyn and Manhattan, whom one could call and say “I gotta be at 14^th St on the West Side tomorrow, what’s good there?” and like Johnny Apple and Pierre Salinger, he knew where to go.

I met Steve in my first year and his in Medical and Dental School respectively at Columbia P&S where we shared courses together and both worked for room and board at the NY Psychiatric Institute in Washington Heights – he was on the night shift on the Child Unit, an awful responsibility, but I had lucked into being the evening librarian-assistant in the fabulous Library (where Freud’s own collection was housed, but that’s another story.)

All the medical and dental and nursing students ate together three times a day at the asylum and the food was pretty dreadful.  But Steve and his buddy Steve Murphy, both over 6 feet 4 tall, and both ex-rowers, would plead for seconds, and the Irish women staff members, after hearing their pitiful cries, would come out with more overcooked steaks or whatever.

Fast forward to France; several times after graduate school, Steve and his wife Deb, an art historian, rented places in southern France to which they invited folks like us.  At some point, I think after randy cats invaded our house in Villeneuve at midnight, Steve & Deb came to Paris and found an apartment in their building in the 18^th that would accommodate us and we were “in.”

From this point on, Steve would search out restaurants, culinary shops and interesting clothing at H&M or C&A, tell the rest of us and we would go – eat, taste and buy – his taste was spot-on; we never starved nor ate poorly (oh, there was his obsession with an awful Indian take-out place, but that was an exception.)  He (and Johnny Apple) found the Barrier de Clichy, Patricia Wells and Paul Bocuse as well as obscure places in the 18^th (La Table d’Eugene), 19^th (Eric Frechon) and 20^th (Zephyr) as well as places outside the peripherique for weekend dining.

But most endearing was his sense of humor, he didn’t pun, he did stand up but sitting down.  At dinner tonight, my wife, looking in the mirror over our dining table tonight said – “Steve’s not here” – because he and she were always mugging and joking in the mirror.

No one has taught me more about food, enjoyment or the zest of life than Stephen Starr Markow; I miss you Steve; I think of you every meal; be well wherever you are.

The Bistrot Belhara in the 7th: "Parfait Bistrot" says Marianne; A tribute to Paga say I.

The Bistrot Belhara in the 7th has been on our circuit for quite a while and while Colette also admires the flowers (above) I was captivated by the article beneath from Marianne's On Passe A Table declaring chef Thierry Dufroux "La Virtuose du Parfait Bistrot."   Whoa, high praise indeed.

The restaurant features itself as traditional yet modern (as is said explicitly about its onion soup and we always find something intriguingly such.  For me it was the two specials - the sautéed mushrooms and perdreau with chestnuts and shallots- but whoops, the barely readable chalk says the partridge is only available at night - oh well.

So two of us ordered the mushrooms which were easily enough for the 3 of us and represented a perfect traditional-modern entry into fall, along with a very nice Minervois, although it was over 70° F.

For our main dishes, our friend turned to the aforementioned tad-mod onion soup (trad in that the onions were reduced to a sweet state and mod in there was no bread or melted cheese); Colette had a ravioli of scallops with a cepes sauce; and I had the waiter's favorite - a spicy dish of Basque tripes with raw fennel but without the truffles.

After a brief discussion, Colette indicated she was up for the apple tart with caramel ice and we helped her out a bit.

Our bill with an homage to Paga M., whose 80th birthday today would have been - a glass of Vielle Prune - no bottled water, superb warm bread with butter, one bottle of wine and 3 coffees, was 132.50 E or 88.36 E a couple.  And the two waiter-comics didn't charge for any banter or jokes.

 

AG Les Halles in the 1st: "The fried l'os a moelle was the best, no, the No cheesecake was, no, the foie gras ravioli was....."

6.9 AG Les Halles, 14, rue Mondetour (the old Autobus Imperiale space, which I last visited in early 2005) in the 1st, closed Sunday nights but open other days for all 3 services, (Metro: Les Halles, Etienne Marcel), 01.42.61.37.17, is Alan Geaam's 3rd place (L'Auberge Nicolas Flamel and AG having preceded it but now running on their own very good steam) opened or reopened this week in the midst of the pounding of construction around it (but muffled once inside (7.5) - which is gloriously refurbished personally by the chef, including the Braque-Picasso-esque mural).

We argued among us as to who would order what, but finally settled on a reasonable set of choices.

But Chef Geaam thwarted our intent to order minimally by sending out some champagne, brioches with olive oil and black grains and mascarpone on a noisette sable with cracked nuts.

We stuck to our guns, however and ordered only two firsts: a tartare of huge oysters and bar with sticks of Granny Smith, fennel, pistachio and yuzo and sautéed wild mushrooms with chestnuts, parsley sauce and miso sabayon.  And then suddenly, appeared three portions of raviolis with foie gras, butternut squash and citrus slices that perfectly offset the sweetness of the foie gras - just wonderful!

For mains we ordered crisped chicken, cochon de lait made like pot-au-feu and a pave de Chevillard (apparently what the wholesale butches in the ancient Halles put aside for their retail restaurants nearby) with l'os a moelle made like cromesqui, crispy fried balls of heaven.

They had three desserts on the ardoise and we asked for descriptions of each, declining our very terrific waiters' suggestion we order one of each, settling for one "No cheese cake" but were thwarted again by he and the chef, getting the chocolate, praline and caramel sauce and savarin with rum and wonderfully offsetting pineapple as well.  We loved each one.

We finished up with fine coffees and mignardises and on her wanderings Colette snapped a pix of the cheese tray from chez Sanders which looked great.  Next time.

All of us went to their toilets and were blown away by the floor tiles wall tiles and hanging faucets - wonderful!!!!!  Best of the year.

Our bill with no bottled water, much comp'd, good bread, 1.5 bottles of wine and 3 coffees, was 125 E for 3 or 96.66 E a couple.

Go?  While not quite up to the original AG's level, I predict in a few weeks it'll be there.

Porte 12 in the 10th: "My this is good" said a chef/tour leader friend of ours.

Porte 12, 12 rue des Messageries in the 10th has such a small porte it's easy to pass up as I always do.  Once inside though it opens up revealing about 5 chefs in the open kitchen and about as many waitfolks in the sale.  It's zen, cool, with artless walls, conveying a "we're serious about food" attitude.  It's a forced menu, 35 E for 3 courses 55 E for 5, plus an amuse and financiere.  We went with three.

So here's how the dishes (all superb) rolled out:
- a "nature" Languedoc
- radishes with a fluffy mayo and parsley
- tiny carrots in the soup with incredibly tender shrimp and carrot sauce & orange emulsion
- 4 brioche set on hay/straw
- melt-in-your-mouth pintade with a caramelized onion sauce and squash and the greatest burned tiny onion imaginable
- a chocolate-caramel-cocoa "cigar"
- the financieres.

Our bill with two bottles of wine, two coffees, nice bread and no bottled water, was 227 E for four, thus 113.50 E a couple.