John Talbott's Paris

Anicia in the 6th: Francois Gagnaire's bio-farm to table food is not for everyone; but I like it quite fine.

Anicia in the 6th is a place a cookbook writing chef friend of mine touted me on and I thought another chef who leads cooking tours would like it; so we agreed to meet up and dejeune today.

I arrived way early and ordered up some "ass wine" (see photo) and since there were no daily newspapers delivered in France today, looked over chef Gagnaire's collection of cook books.  Soon, our pals and then Colette arrived and we swiftly ordered our firsts: two green asparagus's with olive oil, fish eggs, Kalamata olives and two orders of poulpes a la plancha with trout eggs, potatoes and almost spicy spinach leaves.  Madame spotted her asparagus as too near the temperature of the frigo and pointed this oout very nicely to the waitress who said the chef (who later apologized in person) said she was correct.  Meanwhile, her husband and I after a first bite of octopus that was too tough, found the rest easy sailing.

After a switch to a Cotes de Blaye, for mains we ordered three:
- a pot-au-feu made with "fin foie" (beef) and of course veggies (our friend the chef said the bouillon was excellent, but she did not like the beef)
- mullet with veggies
- Sebaste from day-boats with a generous portion of very good veggies.
Colette and I enjoyed our fish greatly but our friends were not as enthralled

To finish up (2 courses were 29, 3 were 6 E more), we  sort of shared chocolate tarts made two ways and noisette ice cream and a Mediterranean lemon cream with coconut.  The lemon dessert was a hit!

Our bill with no bottled water, 3 bottles of wine, fine bread and 2 coffees (offered) was 244 E, thus 122 E a couple.

Le Table d'Eugene in the 18th: We haven't been in a while but our Franco-Swiss drama student friend said "Wow, a place like this here? (that is, the 18th)"

Le Table d'Eugene in the 18th, has been around the block from us for only 6 years, but chef Geoffroy Maillard, ex-Frechon, cooks with maturity and inventiveness.  A few weeks ago the daughter of one of my oldest friends, who is studying theatre over near Marx Dormoy, said she could squeeze in lunch if it was nearby; so I said to Colette, "let's go to Eugene, even though he's now got a star and the prices are probably (neologismically) astrospheric".  Our friend arrived and said "Wow, a place like this here?"  "Yes, even here."  It was the first wave of Boboism.

For firsts, our friend and I chose the duck raviolis with petit pois, smoked tea and shitakes with mushroom bouillion (1st and 2nd photos) and Colette had the unpictured confited salmon with coques, Noirmoutier potatoes and wasabi.

For mains, Colette chose the Julienne (sea burbot not turbot) which was wrapped like a crude old baseball made from old string around scallops with strips of zucchini filled with excellent broccoli puree, wakame seaweed, cedrat lemon and Kalamata olives; while we two had delicious pieces of spring lamb with green asparagus, with brocciu cheese, radicchio and gnocchis. Subtle, sophisticated and yet inventive and bold.

For dessert we had the creamy carrot, mango, thyme lemon, kumquat and grapefruit sorbet and the chocolat-cassis, cocoa-biscuit, Chantilly maple syrup and chestnut-orange condiment.  My oh my!

Our bill, with a bottle and a glass of wine, one Chateldon, terrific rolls and three coffees, was 181 E, thus 120.66 E a couple.  Toques off chef, you're staying the course if not beating into the wind, even better.

Le Clandé in the 12th: "My the blend of flavors and ingredients is quite something."

 

 

Le Clandé, ex-Clandestino, pre-Virtus is a place I ate at in the fall of 2012 several times when it was touted as a pop-up - well it's grown-up and is a big-time resto now, but next month will emerge chrysalis-like as Virtus in the same space with the same chefs as today - Chiho Kanzaki and Marcelo Di Giacomo, while the former chef Masayuki Shibuya, ex La Gazzetta and Bigarrade,  flies away to the Left Bank with the Clandé brand. 

Colette and I were eating with a full-time friend but part-time ex-pat, who seized on the 3-beet salad with fresh goat cheese, which was really tasty, while Colette had an equally powerfully tasting veloute of broccoli with mascarpone cream with citrus, and I had innovative "beignets" of asparagus with a classic Béarnaise sauce, which, naturally, I thought was the winner.

Then Colette had the pork filet mignon (with terrific veggies) which was tenderness itself while our friend and I had the mushroom risotto with both cooked mushrooms and sliced raw ones, very very good.

To wind it up, Colette ordered a wheat crumble with apples and caramel beurre-sale; our friend had the sacher biscuit (a mi-cuit chocolate like fudge) with meadowsweet ice cream; and the chefs, thinking I might go hungry served me a puree of passion fruit with coconut yogurt and coconut.

With a bottle of nice Langedoc, a bottle of fizzy water, superb bread and 3 coffees, our bill was 136.50 E or 91 E a couple.

Papillion in the 17th (not the others): "The best/most innovative meal I've had in 3 weeks."

Papillion in the 17th is a place that I loved exactly 27 days ago and today we took our favorite neighbor with us for her 39th Birthday; She was blown away.  Before not after lunch (it closes at 14h30) we went to the epicerie/boutique next door, where chef Christophe Saintange's significant other runs one hellofa collection of olive oil, soups and salads to go; ideal for a supper or two or three.

We all decided after some negotiation to share among us 2 starters: 6 stalks of green asparagus with melted comte (incredible) and tarragon and a chunk of smoked salmon with a very sweet yellow beet and sour cream sauce (wonderful).

For mains we went with and shared: a lovely young pigeon with microtomed apple slices and a salmis sauce; a piece of brill with an olive tapenade and sour herbs; and a chunk of pork belly with crispy crunchy skin and a roasted parsnip and Utah beach bivalves, Whoa thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

For dessert, we decided to share their signature dish, a chocolate cake which is made in a large pan and produces an exterior like fudge and interior like moelleux; absolutely fabulous.

With a bottle of very good Syrah and glass of CDR, no bottled water but great bread and 3 superb coffees, our bill came to 182 E for three, thus 121,32 E a couple.

Reviews of Reviews: The week of March 21st, 2016

Monday-Tuesday in A Nous Paris, Philippe Toinard reviewed and gave 3/5 dotes to the seafood-oriented Le Vent d’Armor, 25, quai de la Tournelle in the 5th, 01.46.34.50.99 closed Sundays with lunch menus at 28 and 32, a la carte 50 E, serving items such as salmon tartare, scallops and confited oranges.

Tuesday, Le Fooding had a review by Julien Demond of Les Arlots, 136, rue du Faubourg Poissonniere in the 10th, 01.42.82.92.01, closed Sundays and Mondays, running one from about 36-50 E for items such as non-farmed oysters, house-made sausage and merlan.

Wednesday, in Le Figaroscope, Alice Bosio, Colette Monsat and Hugo de Saint Phalle described the new scene around the rue du Cherche-Midi, including:
La Cantine du Troquet Cherche-Midi
Sauvage
Anicia
Le Cherche-Midi
Atelier Vivanda Cherche-Midi
Café Trama
Le Bien Decide
Le Petit Verdot

And Emmanuel Rubin’s Hache Menu covered Matsushita, where a la carte is too expensive (150 E and menus 65-130) but go if you want to blow away a lot of money.

In his reviews of 5 new places this week he gave 3 hearts to the previously mentioned Bistrot Mericourt and 2 hearts to the Thai Restaurant T and previously mentioned Les Moussaillons.  One only went to the Asiatic Le Tigrr in the 6th and Italian Lala La Lasagneria in the 9th.

Also Wednesday, Heidi Ellison in Paris Update reviewed the previously described Le Clandé in the Moussaillons in the 17th.

This week in L’Express Styles, Mina Soundiram reviewed Ippudo, the previously mentioned ramen place in the 6th as well as Noun, 41, rue du Ruisseau, in the 18th, 09-83-50-67-50, closed Sunday and Monday, where a la carte (40 E) one dines on Mediterranean-focused food, such as lieu jaune, beignets of lieu and veal, open for dinner only until April 15.

This Sunday, in the jdd, Aurelie Chaigneau reviewed the previously mentioned 3 places – L’Atelier Ramey in the 18th (6/10),  Les Moussaillons in the 17th (6), and the Mini Palais (7) and JG in the jdd version femina liked the previously mentioned Restaurant H in the 4th.

Pierre Sang Boyer in Oberkampf - A glorious return; Alert to Back-packers and Sunday lunchers.

 

Pierre Sang (Boyer) in Oberkampf is the offshooter of the (Atelier) Pierre Sang on Gambey where I had a great meal recently and I asked a friend to make reservations which he emailed he'd "done"; however when we arrived they said just now we're cleaning up, go to the corner....the mother ship....and my heart sank; the last Sunday I'd been to the parent, there were no reservations, you had to be in line by midi pile to get in and you usually sat at the counter, gathering your food from the basement where sumptuous leftovers were arrayed.  Unh, unh, no more - but... his reservation was clearly written down, we were offered counter stools upstairs or a table downstairs which had no more leftover counter but more tables, inside a spaceship decorated cave and quite nice seating except the hard bench should have had a cushion. 

All four of us went with the 3-course 25 E no choice (except for those allergic, phobic or disgusted by some items) "menu" (there is one with 7 courses, that's quite a few mouthfuls).  Our first was clearly a couple of nice pieces of fish - daurade, lieu, no lotte, sure lotte?; "no" said the true distinguisher, and indeed it turned out to be carrelet aka European place fish, dab or plié but it was nicely crisped on the bed of celery puree (we all got that wrong, salsify and fennel - the second course a large beef shortrib (easy to spot) with "hot" the waiter warned us sauce, but it was not scorching to Anglos; and a multi-scooped pineapple, cream and bready dessert.

Our bill, with 3 bottles of wine, 3 coffees, very good bread and butter and no bottled water, was 108.50 E, but back-packers could just have the 25 E 3-course "menu" and be very happy, as were we.  But one must reserve, the place is packed and turns tables over.

L'Inconnu in the 7th: "I'm coming back" our friend said midway though the meal. (under construction, waiting for a 14 yo to get photos).

L'Inconnu in the 7th is a place I enjoyed tremendously a few weeks ago with two of my best French friends.  So today I went back with Colette and a half-time ex-pat who said he was most interested in going because the chef was coming from Passage 53, one of his favorite places.  By the time we got there the place was almost full but it became fully full as we hit our mains.

The "menus" are much like before and our friend chose the 7 course one for 50 E versus Colette's and my 5 course one for 38 E.

We all started off with an amuse bouche soup with a red puree on top of what we thought was a sweet chestnut base.  Then our friend shared his egg with quail, haricots and toasty bread crumbs.  At some point the chef sent out his signature focaccia.

We all then had superb bits of confited white asparagus with a carbonare sabayon and castelfranco wine sauce; and following that, our friend had his the fish course - a lovely piece of lieu jaune with petit pois, pois gourmand and turnips.

Then we all had two moderately large pieces of pintade breast that had absolutely the best cripy skin ever, with girolles, chives and cabbage.  Following was a dish of spaghettini with broccoli and a secret house-made sauce.

Desserts were a lovely chocolate mouse and tiramisu with roasted pear.

With two bottles of fine wine, 2 coffees (which came with 2 mignardises for 2 of us who ordered the coffee until I raised my eyebrows and voice and two more appeared, which is standard for a restaurant striving to be great) and no bottled water, our bill was 255 E or 170 E for a couple.  Our friend (and we) will be back.

Paris Pix: More Street Art

Reviews of Reviews: The week of March 14th, 2016

Monday-Tuesday in A Nous Paris, Philippe Toinard reviewed and gave 4/5 dotes to Alliance, 5, rue de Poissy in the 5th, 01.75.51.57.54 (Metro: Maubert-Mutualite) closed weekends where for 29 and 34 E at lunch one dines on such items as warm oysters, a Saint Pierre, pre-dessert, dessert and mignardises; they also reviewed the Restaurant of the Camion Qui Fume.

Tuesday, Le Fooding had a review by of Sunset, 100 Rue Ordener in the 18th 01.71.28.99.33, open 7/7, brunches on weekends, (metro: Jules Joffrin) where from 16-35 E one dines on items such as hanger steak, line-caught bass ceriche and chocolate sabayon crumble.

Wednesday, in Le Figaroscope, Alice Bosio, Colette Monsat and Hugo de Saint Phalle described the new Argentinian, Brazilian, Japanese and Lebanese “fusion” restautants:
Uma
Le Servan
L’Inconnu
Mokonuts
Biondi
Bistro Paradis
An Di An Di
Rosemary and also:
Oka
Pierre Sang on Gambey.

And Emmanuel Rubin’s Hache Menu covered Canard & Champagne, 57, passage des Panoramas in the 2nd, 09.81.83.95.69, closed Sundays and Mondays,  which he says to go to quickly before the tourist buses which will come presumably for the “menus” at 17.50, 26, 32, 42, & 62 E.

In his reviews of 5 new places this week he gave 3 hearts to Aspic, 24, rue de la tour d’Auvergne in the 9th, 09.82.49.30.98, open evenings only except Sundays and Mondays, serving mackerel, onions and veal on a no choice “menu” of 7 plates for 43 E.  Garnering two hearts each were the creperie Bretons, 56, ave de la Republique in the 11th, 01.77.10.27.07, open every day except Monday at dinner for 10.80 and 12.80 menus and the pizzeria Zazza in the 10th.  One heart each went to BBQ Bistrot in the 2nd and failed-attempt at a bistrot, Le Mercier in the 17th.

Also Wednesday, Heidi Ellison in Paris Update reviewed the previously described Les Moussaillons in the 17th.

This week in L’Express Styles, Charles Patin O'Coohoon reviewed the previously mentioned Plume in the 7th.

 

John's Top Ten in 2016 (so far)

8.5 Papillon
8.25 Elmer
8.0 Anthocyane, L'Inconnu
7.5 Pierre Sang on Gambey
7.4 Anicia
7.25 Le Boeuf Maillot
7.2 Mamagoto, Dune
7.1 Restaurant H, Clande, L'Ecorcheur
and hot on their heels:
7.0 Gentiane, Moussaillons
6.9 Botanique, Bistrot Paradis
6.8 Histoires, Flesh
6.6 XVII sur Vin
6.5 Uptown, Jacques Faussat
6.4 Le Boeuf sur le Toit
6.3 Les Jalles
6.1 Les Marches