John Talbott's Paris

Reviews of reviews: The week of July 9, 2018

Monday-Tuesday, in A Nous Paris, Philippe Toinard awarded 3 dots to Food, 26, rue St Paul in the 4th, 09.81.10.69.68, closed Sundays and Mondays where chef Kazuki Yasukawa (ex Vivanda. Akrame & Quintessence) on an 18 formula or 23 E lunch ((carte 50E) serves up items such as a perfect egg with stuff, burrata and cod.  His colleague, Jerome Berger gave 4 to Robert, 32 Fontaine au Roi in the 11th, 01.43.57.20.29, closed Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays, for 21 and 25 E at lunch and 50 E at dinner serves items such as white asparagus, merlu and rhubarb and yogart sorbet.

In addition, Alexis Chenu in ANP discussed French places that have opened, bucking the trend  of “burgers, pokes, buns, vegetarian hot dogs and all vegan” places. They included: Au Vrai Paris, Poule Au Pot, Zebra, Bleu, La Lorraine and soon – Astair.

Tuesday in Le Fooding.  Aïtor Alfonso wrote up the refurbished Yard in the 11th.

Wednesday, Heidi Ellison in Paris Update reviewed the Japanese Hakata Choten most positively.

La Poule au Pot in the 1st: Biggest food fraud of 2018, another “zombie restaurant.”

Backstory:  In 1953, before they tore down the wonderful Baltard-designed Les Halles and turned it into an illegal drug selling center, I ate here and recall it as a traditional and ok place for a cynical adolescent.  Sometime later, maybe 1985, I was seized by a nostalgic impulse to have some onion soup at some weird hour and trundled down and it looked exactly like it did before, but the onion soup was watery, the cheese heated by a blowtorch and the bread so stale even I couldn’t stand it.  I said “never again.” However,.............

-3.0 La Poule au Pot, 9, rue Vauvilliers in the 1st, 01.42.36.32.96, as I said open all the time (Metro: Les Halles), has gotten universally rave reviews since being revived by Jean Francois Piege - absolutely no one has found a single fault, so maybe it was me, or my wife or my blogger pal, or the phases of the moon, or the junior varsity cooking at lunch, or a nightmare in the kitchen, or, or, or....I’ve run out of excuses.  But it was dreadful from start to finish excepting the crusty bread, tartare sauce and Loire wine.

We arrived promptly at noon, because my blogger pal had to be at her office by 14h30.  Welcomed.  “Would you like some water?”  “Absolutely, a carafe d’eau, please.” “No, our water is bottled and starts at 3€?”  Incredible, illegal and ill advised.  Well it went downhill from there, excepting the crispy crusted bread, tartare sauce and wine.

Colette looked at the 48€ 3-course “menu” and said, “I’ll have it.”  We two others chose a la carte which was 37€ apiece.

Colette started with a gigantic silver bowl full of greens, many of which had passed their due date, with a pathetic vinaigrette and my pal and I shared 6 escargots with tasteless chopped parsley from Metro, and undetectable butter, maybe olive oil, my friend said.  She was trying to put a good face on what looked to be a horrible experience.

Next, Colette had the fried merlan, "pretty tasteless" she said, with tartare sauce and fries, which I found inedible, although the tartare sauce was ok.  My friend and I had the blanquette de veau with the driest, most unappetizing chunks of veal ........even Metro can do better.  “The rice is OK,” the ladies said.  “Harrumph.”

For dessert, Colette had a panoply of tarts, cut hours ago, straight out of the frig...... even Carrefour does better.  For a closer a plop of caramel creme brûlée was dumped on a plate for the 3 of us to share.

Our bill, without any water, but with 2 bottles of wine instead and 3 coffees, was 205€ or 136.67€ a couple.

Go?  Back to the worst meal of 2018 or the 21st Century?  No way.  Plus there was no A/C.

The Dude in the 10th: Most creative resto in Paris 2018 moves; fans weep.

The Dude in the 10th opened, it seems like yesterday, with both a great front--room guy and cuisine chefs, and after another spectacular meal with another more famous blogger and our spouses, we were literally shocked when they informed us they were closing at the end of the month and moving elsewhere.  "Yikes, Wait, I don’t believe it, It can’t be, holy cow!"

We started after a long interchange with the amiable bilingual front room guy and began with chickpea fries (offered), watermelon squares with black pepper and olive oil with creme fraiche and pain gua bao made with squid ink stuffed with incredible strips of gravlax after which we surrendered.

For our mains (everything is made to be shareable) we had a poitrine of pork, peche du jour (today mackerel) with apricots and sardines grilled on a kebab stick with vegetable hummus.  We not only surrendered, we offered up our first born children.

For dessert we shared a chocolate black Forrest cake with cherries and a rhubarb, strawberries and rose baba presented by the pastry chef.

After finishing our coffee and our friends declaration that they would “highly recommend it” the chef came over and informed us they would be closing at the end of the month and relocating elsewhere, hopefully by Fall.  We went nuts.  “Is that what they really said, did I misunderstand, it can’t be?”  Luckily, he, Geoffrey Rembert, gave us all his card with his phone and email, 07.81.60.91.10 and [email protected], Facebook @chefgeoffreyrembert.  And we will await his relocation with great anticipation.

Our bill, with their filtered water, 2 bottles of wine and 3 coffees was 131.70 for four, or 65.85€ a couple, A COUPLE!   Shout out the news...get to The Dude very soon so you too can enjoy a wonderful meal before the end of July.

Vava in the 18th: Inventive, clever, enuf, “I’ll be back.”

Vava in the 18th was my choice for my first meal freed from culinary deprivation and I wanted to make the best of it with Colette and two dear friends from downtown.  The 20-25 menus and 38-60€ carte choices are stunning and pre-dinner “tapas” temptingly varied.  One look and everyone fixed on the gazpacho and sweetbreads.  But all not of us stuck with our first impulse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Indeed, we went three ways for firsts- the gazpacho with tomato, pineapple, algarve syrup and olive oil; white asparagus with poutargue, tarragon and a mousseline sauce and squid minirolls (Incredibly crisp, moist and tasty), petit pois, pickles and a sauce of spicy smoked herring (oh boy!)

Then three of us stuck with our first impulses, and had the (unpictured) sweetbreads with nori, cauliflower, fennel and curry, the latter of which I got not a hint of.  Colette decided to go with a good product but mild tasting bar with almonds, cherries and an “ok” side of Long grain rice.

For dessert we shared a strawberry tart with elderberry flower and pistachio, cherry, vanilla creme glacée and Chantilly mascarpone - just look at the ingredients listed.

Our bill, with 2 glasses white wine while Colette and I kept our friends waiting coming from the food Sahara, 2 bottles of Beaujolais, no bottled water but 2 coffees (offered), was 291€ or 145.50€ a couple.

Culinary Interlude TBC

Review of reviews: The week of July 2, 2018

Tuesday in Le Fooding. Aïtor Alfonso wrote up the refurbished Yard in the 11th.

Wednesday, Heidi Ellison in Paris Update reviewed the previously mentioned Sanjo.

Sunday, in the jdd, Aurelie Chaigneau reviewed her traditional 3 places: the previously mentioned Belles Plantes in the Jardin des Plantes in the 5th (6.5/10); Ristorante National in the 3rd (7); and the Breizh Café in the 6th (7.5)

Grand Coeur in the 4th: what happened to this formerly great place?

The Grand Coeur in the 4th is a place where I’ve had at least 2 fine meals and whose executive chef Mauro Colagreco's cooking in Menton included the best grilled bass of my life.  But something has happened.  Colette and I went with my very oldest Paris friend, circa 1953, who lives and works nearby and who also used to love it.

Despite the fact there were few customers at the outdoor tables, it took forever to get menus and put in our orders, as the background classes in dance, grunting, thumping and beginning drum-banging increased in number and volume.  Ok, we were among the herbs, pollinators and calm breezes in the price-crazy Marais. Get Zen.

For firsts, the ladies had a mediocre salad of strange looking artichoke heartlets, fennel, greens and Parmesan while I calmly sat and waited for the treasure of the week - a pintade.

For mains we had lamb, Vitello tonnato and my anticipatedly great pintade with tiny mushrooms which turned out to be not much of a much.

They took our dessert order and Madame, a local mind you, said we wanted our coffees promptly after dessert because she had an appointment.

We waited, and waited and waited, until finally our friend had to leave at which time Colette made not one but two trips to the 'welcome desk' to ask for/beg for the check! 

For dessert we had a strawberry “soup” and lemon meringue tart, delivered after much requesting of speed since Madame had an appointment to see a patient as time went by.  Well, as you can see we polished them off quickly.  The explanation of the delays was that “there’s a problem in the kitchen” reminding me of the “Cauchemar en cuisine” TV show.

Our bill,  with a bottle of wine and three coffees, not even offered, was 166.60  for 3 persons or 111.07€ for two persons.  The price quality ratio was not good!

La Condesa in the 9th: Want to know what happens behind the magician’s curtain? Me too.

La Condesa in the 9th popped up unheralded on the rue de Rodier less than a year ago and every time we go, Chef Indira Carillo welcomes us, saunters around, chats everyone up at length and generally doesn’t look like he has a worry in the world.  He is the anti-Jego, anti-Bourdain, anti-Ramsey - cool, collected and clever, oh so clever.  He never boasts, say of “farm to table, beak to feet, don’t waste the radish tops,” he doesn’t need to, it’s obvious from the plates that come out of the kitchen that there’s a magician behind the curtain.

Once again, let me just post some photos followed by an incomplete description of each.

a nutty wafer “sandwich”

Swiss chard around hake, that’s what my note says, well fish any way

sorrel

watermelon in watermelon juice, ricotta and sumac

rhubarb, salmon, turnip, radish and radish top purée

asparagus and watercress and oh so tasty clam

two breads

oh so tender poularde, cherries, greens of another sort

bread ice cream with sour dough sauce “I swear to Buddha” on chocolate.

Our bill, with three glasses of cremeux offered, 3 lunch “menus”, 1.5 bottles of wine and 3 coffees comes to 168€ or 112€ a couple.

Sellae in the 13th: creative, inventive; old boy, old school, new boy, new school? Who cares?

As I was walking out of the polling station in the US last month, a bystander said behind my back “old boy” which an official told me referred to my shirt, bowtie and seersucker suit.  I’m never sure what “old boy, old school cooking” is in France but one might think that escargots, frogs’ legs and chocolate mousse would be pretty similar to what I had in 1953 at a country auberge.  Unh, unh.

Sellae in the 13th is the recently opened sibling of Mensae both of which are far from my digs but well worth the schlep.  The menu and carte choices look super-traditional in print but one look at what came out of the kitchen to our neighbors showed burrata with a ton of fruits and veal with a ton of veggies, in dishes that were totally unfamiliar.

Colette started with gazpacho with both a melon and watermelon twist, peanut bits and ham and I had escargots and mushroom strips besides a very large portion of purée.  Wow!

Then she had the snails and mushrooms as a main course and I had a "partiger "course of frogs’ legs, crisply fried and then presented swimming in a sauce of clear butter. Zowie!

For dessert Colette had the strawberries with sorbet and I had what was called a chocolate mousse.  Guess what?, it wasn’t.  It was a bowl of divine warm chocolate poured over a scoop of ice cream.

Our bill, with a bottle and glass of wine, their bottled water and two coffees was 118€?

Zebulon in the 1st: If you appreciate good solid cuisine, thus is your place in a relative food desert.

There used to be a number of great places around the Palais-Royal but I’m challenged these days to name but one, Zebulon, luckily it’s one of the best anywhere.

Zebulon in the 1st, I used to describe as an offshoot of Pirouette near Les Halles, but that doesn’t do credit to its host/owner and the chef Takeshi Aoki.  We went today with a longstanding French/French-Canadian friend and we’re all most pleased.

Our friend took the 28€ 3-course menu and started off with gambas and cuttlefish in a cauliflower veloute and Colette had a gazpacho with gambas as well.

Then she had the confit of lamb, Colette the daurade with bok choi and I went for the 36€ pigeon royal with preserved blood that was incredible.

Finally our friend had a large slice of chocolate tart with cassis ice and Colette and I shared a lemon meringue.

Our bill, with no bottled water but a bottle of wine and three coffees, was 148€ or 98.67€ a couple.