Miscellaneous Food: Paris

One of the good things about studying in the UK is that the rest of Europe becomes extremely accessible. Paris, in particular, is only a train ride away, and it doesn’t take much excuse to go visit. One such excuse was the recently-concluded French Open, though with all the good food in Paris, it’s really only a marginally better excuse.

Although this wasn’t supposed to be a food-oriented trip (insofar as that is possible where I’m involved), naturally food wasn’t completely ignored either.




Our first good dinner was at Le Chansonnier – a petit bistrot on the corner of Rue Eugene Varlin. Very French, it had a very relaxed attitude towards animals – a dog sat comfortably at one of the tables, while the lady of the house waged an endless war with the resident cat.

This was a Lonely Planet recommendation, so I wasn’t expecting much, but surprisingly, the food was excellent, and even more surprisingly, service was wonderful as well.




I started with white asparagus spears, steamed, with a simply-dressed salad. I wasn’t entirely sure the asparagus was fresh, as it seemed a bit stringy, but the spears were juicy and fairly succulent.




Some of my friends had the duck confit, which was meltingly tender, though served with some slightly questionable garlic roast potatoes.




I was debating between the osso bucco and the souris d’agneau, but in the end the latter won out, simply because I haven’t had lamb shank in a while. Braised in a rich sauce of red wine, tomatoes, herbs and orange zest, the lamb was tasty and hearty, though the mashed potatoes were a bit chunky.

No dessert, as we were all a bit full. Nonetheless, Le Chansonnier restored my faith in Lonely Planet recommendations, and demonstrated that good food at decent prices isn’t really too hard to find in Paris, provided you know where to look.

Le Chansonnier
14 Rue Eugene Varlin
Tel: 1 42 09 40 58

It was rather fortuitous that a few days before I left for Paris, Chubby Hubby posted an extremely helpful six-day itinerary of things to do in Paris.




One of the places he recommended was Bechu, an artisanal bakery known for winning le Grand Prix de la Baguette de Paris, or the Best Baguette in Paris.




There was already a queue outside the bakery when we arrived, and we saw satisfied customers leaving with armfuls of baguettes, the heady aroma of yeast and dough permeating the area.




As it turns out, Bechu is not just a bakery, but also a patisserie and salon de thé, though the last is a slight exaggeration; customers sit outside sipping their morning cafés.

The baguette here is rather good – the crust is crispy without being gum-piercingly solid, and the soft, billowy interior is at once tasty and comforting. Bechu offers a number of different types of baguette, but we had the classic. Interestingly enough, when a Frenchman ahead of us in the queue asked us what we were eating it with, he was aghast to hear that our reply was 'nothing'. Do the French not eat their bread plain?

Bechu
118 Ave. Victor Hugo; 16th Arr.
Closed Mondays
Tel: 1 47 27 97 79




Lunch was at a random restaurant fronting Place de la Bonaparte (?), which, again, was better than expected. The mussels in cream sauce were exceptionally flavoursome, and we were given a generous quantity of the molluscs, which meant there was more than enough to share.




I had intended to make another reservation at L'Os à Moelle, but unfortunately they seem to be closed on Mondays, and I made a reservation at Le Petit Pontoise instead, a restaurant with a similar reputation for quality food at friendly prices.

The restaurant has an interesting concept – there are no individual menus, merely multiple blackboards that adorn the walls advertising the choices on offer, with a separate blackboard for fish. The review I had read recommended the braised pork cheeks, but oddly enough none of us ordered it.




I started with the baked brie, with balsamic vinegar and truffled sauce. I’m not entirely used to starting with cheese (unless it's something like goat’s cheese salad), so I found this very rich and heavy. While the brie was warm and gooey, I couldn’t taste any truffle, and I thought the dish could have benefited from more vinegar in order to cut through the cheese. While good, I was not able to finish all of it.




The fricasée of escargots that my friends had, on the other hand, was rather delicious. It reminded me of the signature dish at Sage, though without the poached egg. The dish was bursting with the taste of the plump and succulent snails, without the traditional oiliness of the parsley butter.




My main course was calf’s liver, served with a meaty brown sauce and creamy mashed potatoes. I can’t remember having liver before, which was mainly why I ordered it. It had a most interesting texture – crispy and almost meat-like on the outside, before becoming pastier, slightly chewier on the inside. It tasted characteristically liver-esque, much like foie gras paté, though much less silky and rich. It was a good change, though I think I prefer steak.




The duck breast here is quite good, though served with somewhat unpresentable snowpeas and carrot discs. The potatoes and grapes were a nice touch though, with a sauce that had body without being overpowering.

While perhaps not as dramatic as L'Os à Moelle, the food here is by no means inadequate, and Le Petit Pontoise benefits from having a much better location. The restaurant is very small though, so bookings are essential.

Le Petit Pontoise
9 rue de Pontoise
Tel: 01 43 29 25 20




Of course, no trip to Paris would be complete without a trip to Ladurée and Pierre Hermé for some macarons, on which you can read more in one of my earlier posts.

Technorati Tags: Food, Miscellaneous, Paris

Paris: Dernier Jour

Save the best for last, they always say. Respecting that trite maxim, I made sure that my last day in Paris would be filled with its most compelling bakeries and patisseries.




Going to Paris without having macarons from Ladurée is the culinary equivalent of going to London and not watching a production. They're both fairly expensive (a box of seven macarons will set you back €11) and over rather quickly, but they're both extremely enjoyable and make you seem very sophisticated.




Ladurée was bustling with activity; the number of customers trying to purchase a box of macarons at any one time was quite astonishing. And the macarons themselves! An amazing panoply of colours; deep reds, blushing pinks, inky blacks, hazelnut browns, verdant greens and toffee browns all laid out in clear boxes, waiting to be scooped out of their plastic nests and into the anticipating hands (and mouths) of the impatient customers.

There were so many macarons in that small space that a diabetic could have become hyperglycaemic simply by breathing. Some of the must-try flavours from Ladurée include their orange blossom, chocolate, strawberry and pistacchio. Steer clear of their réglisse and mille et une nuits unless you're fond of liquorice and harissa.

Ladurée
75 av des Champs-Élysées
Metro George V

Déjeuner

Lunch was at L'Etoile Vert, apparently a bistro that's been serving reasonably-priced meals for the better part of two decades.




I've never seen soup served in a metal bowl before, but I suppose when one pays less, one should expect fewer accoutrements as well. In any case the tomato soup was hearty and robust, and a welcome change to the many bowls of pumpkin soup I'd already had.




My main course was another braised beef dish - this time with carrots and potatoes. I am very fond of braised beef, because slow-cooking really coaxes the flavours from the meat and breaks down all the tough sinews that sometimes can plague even the best cuts of meat. It's almost like external digestion. While not terribly sophisticated, that's the whole point - braised beef announces its rustic charms, and nothing says rustic like potatoes and carrots. My only beef (sorry, couldn't help it) was that the accompanying sauce was a bit too thin for my liking.




Dessert was a simple, straight-forward chocolate mousse, which was airy without being ephemeral. Again served in a metal container, this was starting to bother me at the point.

L’Étoile Verte
13 rue Bre
Metro Charles de Gaulle-Étoile




After lunch, we paid a visit to the oldest boulangerie in Paris, Poilâne. I was somewhat surprised and disappointed to find that they occupied such a small shop space; I had expected them to be an immense, bread-making factory straight out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Although famed for their huge, 2kg miche Poilâne, I contented myself with a small, savoury apple tart from the venerable, world-famous bakery. Somehow the irony appealed to me.

Poilâne
8 rue du Cherche Midi
Metro Sèvres Babylone

While I did stop by Le Bon Marché's Grande Epicerie, the smorgasboard of fresh produce and gastronomic products was slightly gratuitous by this point, especially since I wasn't actually buying any of it. Definitely worth a stop if you're in the area though.

Le Bon Marché
24 rue de Sèvres
Metro Sèvres Babylone

By late afternoon, it was time to pay a visit to the one chocolatier and patisserie in all of Paris I'd been dying to go to, named for its eponymous owner and enfant terrible of pastry, Pierre Hermé.

Unlike Ladurée, Pierre Hermé is located in a very modest district, and can take several tries to find. Despite this, the boutique is no less busy, and there is a constant queue for his macarons, which at €9.50 for 8, are cheaper than Ladurée's.




Naturally there was no way I was going all the way without trying Pierre Hermé's signature Ispahan; the famous rose-flavoured palm-sized macaron, encrowned with deep crimson raspberries. One bite into the crisp pink shell, and even before your teeth sink into the rosewater-scented cream, before you feel the explosions of slightly-tart sweetness as the raspberries burst upon your lips, you become aware of the incredible complexities of this classic. The immaculate blending of textures; from crunchy to soft, the perfect mixing of flavours; rose, cream, raspberry and lychee, and the most beautiful scent all strike your senses and linger even after the macaron is long gone.

It is this dedication, sensitivity and artisanal quality that you find in all of Pierre Hermé's macarons that truly set them apart , and it is then you understand, if you haven't already, what the fuss is all about, and why the culinary world goes slack-jawed at every new creation. If you're looking for a culinary experience, or the best macarons you've ever had, you'll probably find both at Pierre Hermé.

Pierre Hermé
72 rue Bonaparte
Metro St-Sulpice

Technorati Tags: Miscellaneous Food, Ladurée, L'Etoile Vert, Poilâne, Pierre Hermé

Paris: 5e Jour

Apparently Parisians take their food quite seriously, or at least, so Lonely Planet would have you believe. I was having some doubts about that after eating in some of the more questionable bistros.



La Librarie Gourmande changed my mind though. Paris is full of little bookshops, but this is the only one entirely deveoted to food. Almost any cookbook you could probably want can be found here. The only drawback, of course, is that most of them are in French. Still, a good number of them are in English, and even the French ones look mouth-wateringly tantalising. I could have spent the entire day in that bookshop, among Escoffier, Robuchon and first-edition copies of Larousse Gastronomique. Unfortunately, though, I had other things to do, and so I had to be happy with buying myself a copy of Pierre Hermé's Chocolate Desserts.

Librairie Gourmande
4 rue Dante
Metro Maubert Mutualité

One of the things I had to do was to visit Galeries Lafayette. Not to go shop or anything naff like that, but to go gawk at the gourmet section of the very posh grand-magasin.



There was certainly plenty to gawk at. The foie gras counter alone boasted an amazing assortment of livers, patés and terrines. Guaranteed to give any animal-rights activist apoplexy.



Then there was the beautiful fruit display; blackberries, raspberries, red currants, gooseberries - all manner of globules, bursting with colour and swollen with ripeness. Some of the fruits on display I'd never even seen before, let alone tasted.



Of course, what's a spread without sweets? Paris boasts a multitude of patisseries on every street corner, but the pastries and desserts of Sadaharu Aoki, with their seductive glazes and perfect presentations, simply take the cake.

Galeries Lafayette
40 blvd Haussmann
Metro Auber or Chaussée

Déjeuner

I rather foolishly left Librarie Gourmande without eating lunch, in the mistaken assumption that I would find a bite to eat at Galeries Lafayette. Of course, the prices there tend not to be too encouraging, so I was left with the option of walking around the neighbourhood in search of lunch.

Luckily, there were a few bistros in the area catering to un-savvy tourists looking for a simple meal. One such was Café Bistro, which attracted me with an offer of coq au vin.



I have a soft spot for coq au vin, and the one I had here was quite good. Flavourful and tender, the chicken was a breeze to eat and came with almost all the traditional accompaniments; mushrooms and bacon lardons, but unfortunately no onions. I wasn't entirely sure about the polenta though, as it came in one big cake and there was far too much of it to finish.



Paris is not the city to be too adventurous, especially where food is concerned. Since I wasn't entirely sure what the desserts of the day were, I told the head waiter to get me "something with chocolate". I think he assumed, by my bad French, that I had to be English, so he took it upon himself to find me some "pudding au chocolat". Incredibly, it turned out to be a real English chocolate pudding; extremely stodgy and heavy. While I certainly couldn't finish it, I was quite amused by his attempt to make me feel at ease.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in the company of more food emporiums. I once had to do a French comprehension passage on Fauchon and Hédiard, so it was only natural that I pay a visit to these two eternal rivals of gastronomy.



Fauchon was evidently in full preparation for Christmas; with beautifully-wrapped hampers lining the walls and stacked literally from floor to ceiling. The entire shop space was dominated by the distinctive fuchsia of the luxury food company.

Fauchon
26-30 place de la Madeleine
Metro Madeleine



Not to be outdone, Hédiard was clearly also gearing up for the holiday season. Their hampers were just as classy in their striking orange and black, and both stores clearly reflected the near-manic food consumerism that's only to be found in Paris, and perhaps the food section of Harrods.

Hédiard
21 place de la Madeleine
Metro Madeleine



Only a few doors away is La Maison de la Truffe, which, as its namely obviously implies, is devoted to the cult of the truffle. The display window alone contains what must be several thousands of euros worth of black and white truffles of obscene dimensions, as well as other truffle-complemented delights like foie gras, smoked salmon and sweetbreads; giving a whole new meaning to the French term for window-shopping, "faire du leche-vitrine" (to lick the window-display).

Dîner

I'd really been looking forward to tonight's dinner. A friend had recommended this restaurant as offering the best value dinner in Paris, and at six courses for €38, I'm inclined to agree. The popularity of the restaurant, L'Os à Moelle, was such that a reservation was absolutely imperative.



Dinner commenced with an amuse-bouche of porcini espuma, chicken broth and chestnuts, very similar to Sage's signature chestnut and oxtail soup. That little sense of familiarity was an added bonus to the already excellent amuse-bouche.



The soup course was a pumpkin soup served with some compté cheese. The melting cheese served to enrich the soup and enhance both its hearty flavour and velvety texture, an interesting variation of the normal dollop of cream or creme fraiche.



I'd been bemoaning the fact that I wasn't getting any foie gras in France, so I was quite happy to be served a traditional confit of duck foie gras with a toasted crôute and beet salad. The foie gras was smooth and rich, nicely offset by the well-dressed and sweet salad.



Every multi-course meal needs a fish course, and in this case it was a pan-fried zander, served with chanterelles, caviar and endive salad. I'm not a big fan of fish, but the fish was perfectly-cooked; none of the toughness or flakiness commonly associated with poorly-cooked fish was in evidence. The only fault I could find was that the accompaniments to the fish were very strong, and may have overpowered any taste of the fish.



The main course was a braised paleron of beef, served with bone marrow, carrots, purple potatoes and trumpets de mort. Even though the beef was not very large (in fact the portions were well-sized, neither too generous nor too parsimonious), it was meltingly tender, sweetened by the carrots, enriched by the bone marrow and mellowed by the black trumpets. All the elements worked well together, and it was quite delicious.



Traditionally, a cheese course arrives before dessert, and this was updated and presented as a goat's cheese salad. The slight tartness of the goat's cheese and the cleanness of the salad assumed the function of a palate-cleanser, helping to prepare our appetites for dessert.



The meal rounded off with a quenelle of chocolate mousse, served with a saffron-scented creme anglaise. The mousse was more of a creamy marquise, delectable and smooth; a fitting end to a very satisfying meal.

L’Os à Moelle
3 rue Vasco de Gama
Metro Lourmel

Technorati Tags: Miscellaneous Food, France, Paris, L'Os A Moelle, Fauchon, Hediard

Paris: 4e Jour

Déjeuner

Breakfast was originally supposed to be at the open-air market at Place de la Bastille, but with all the luck in the world, I had been ill-advised by Lonely Planet; the market only opened on Saturdays. After an eventual detour to another market at Place d'Aligre, we were ready for lunch

Lunch was originally supposed to be at Les Grand Marchés, a café at Place de la Bastille (which would have been the perfect segue had the market been open), but with all the luck in the world, the café turned out to be closed.



Luckily, I had learned from the lessons of the previous days, and my back-up was Les Vins des Pyrénées, a bistro not too far from where we were. Thankfully, they were open, and so we installed ourselves for a comfortable lunch.



My first course was a pumpkin soup, which didn't really break new ground, but it was quite competently prepared, and satisfying on a cold blustery day, even though it was not very hot. Oddly it tasted somewhat carroty, which is unsurprising since carrots are a natural addition to pumpkin soup, but I did think the pumpkin flavour was somewhat overpowered.



My main course was a slice of roasted leg of lamb with thyme and mashed potatoes. I've always wanted to roast a leg of lamb (Anthony Bourdain has an awesome seven hour leg of lamb recipe I've been dying to try), and after trying this tasty morsel, I'm quite convinced that it would be an excellent main course - the lamb was succulent and served with a rich sauce.

Les Vins des Pyrénées
25 rue Beautreillis
Metro St-Paul/Bastille

The rest of the day was spent walking around Paris, exploring assorted food-related joints, such as A L'Olivier, a boutique specialising in olive oils and vinegars. The aroma of the shop was wonderful, with the fruity and oleaginous notes of the various oils blending and wafting to form one unctuous, mellow perfume.

À l’Olivier
23 rue de Rivoli
Metro St-Paul



Another place we popped into was Cacao et Chocolat, a chocolate shop with a South American theme - many of their pralines had Aztec designs and motifs. I was particularly attracted by their macarons, and bought a few, in order to compare them to the ones I was looking forward to from Ladurée and Pierre Hermé. Cacao et Chocolat's macarons actually weren't too bad, but certainly weren't as attractive or imaginative as their more famous cousins, as I would find out the day after.

Cacao et Chocolat
36 rue Vielle du Temple
Metro St-Paul



Next stop was Mariage Frères, where I was quite surprised at how seriously Parisians took their tea. I always thought the French found tea relatively unsophisticated in comparison to coffee and chocolate, but this venerable teahouse was a clear indication that tea was obviously a respectable drink and a valuable commodity.

Mariage Frères
30 rue du Bourg Tibourg
Metro Hôtel de Ville

Dîner



We went to Robert et Louise for dinner, supposedly a countryside-styled, traditional restaurant, complete with fireplace and leaking rafters.



An old-fashioned eatery calls for old-fashioned food, and there's nothing new-fangled about pork rilletes. Just a lot of pork fat and liver. Coarse, sinewy and porcine, the rillete was very nice.



Equally old-fashioned was the duck confit, served with roasted potatoes and some lettuce. While the duck confit was falling off the bone, I was slightly disappointed that the skin wasn't crispy and crackling, as is usually the case here. Apparently the house specialty is a massive côte de boeuf that is roasted over the afore-mentioned fire, and is enough to feed two.

Robert et Louise
64 rue Vielle du Temple
Metro St-Sébastian Froissart

Technorati Tags: Miscellaneous Food, France, Paris, Les Vins des Pyrenees, Robert et Louise

Paris: 3e Jour

Déjeuner

Paris, I discovered, is the city of back-up plans. I had planned to go to a bistro recommended by Lonely Planet near the Gare de Lyon, but when I got there, I found that it had closed. Apparently Paris is also the city of unforgiving consumers.

I was somewhat at a loss of where to go for lunch, as even though I had a back-up venue, it was a considerable distance away. Deciding to go for it anyway, I passed a bistro along the way that seemed popular.



Relying on my Singaporean gut instinct that crowded eateries necessarily mean better food, I decided to have a seat. Since the weather was so fine, I sat outside, at the terasse, rather than indoors near the smokey bar.

The best thing about France is the prix fixe menu, allowing you to order the daily specials for a set price. Often this is a two-course affair; you get to choose an entrée and a main course or a main course and dessert as part of the formule.



I ordered the filet mignon au cumin et poivre, which I assumed would be a steak of some sort, and was quite surprised to see it turn out as a blanquette-style dish, with a creamy sauce and mashed potatoes. Still, I knew it would be good just looking at it, and the heavy cast-iron pan it was served in. It was, too, the filet mignon, while not medium-rare, was still tender and juicy, given an unusual flavour by the addition of the cumin; while the mashed potatoes were wonderfully creamy.



Dessert was the moelleux au chocolat, which I have since discovered is the French word for molten chocolate cake, derived from moelle, bone marrow. Quite appropriate too, once you think about marrow oozing from the hollow of a bone. In any case, the moelleux was simply amazing. Unlike most molten cakes, this one contained no flour, making it rich and soft and light; almost soufflé-like. The ice-cream also contained real vanilla beans to elevate it to the sublime, a sublimity enhanced by the artful decorations of chocolate sauce and caramael swirls, extra effort not commonly seen in most Parisian bistros.

La Valise
36 Boulevard Diderot
Tel: 01 44 73 95 15
Metro Gare de Lyon

After that excellent lunch, it was time to do some exploring. So what would I find interesting in Paris?



Well the answer is fairly obvious. I went to take a look at E Dehillerin, apparently the oldest supplier of cooking and kitchen equipment in Paris. While the things they stock are not significantly different from Sia Huat, the prices unforunately are.

E Dehillerin
18-20 rue Coquillière
Metro Les Halles
Website



My next stop was A. Simon, yet another supplier of kitchen equipment, but with a greater emphasis on patisserie. I espied there Stéphane Glacier's newest book, Un Amour de Macaron, which, as one would expect, is entirely devoted to macarons. Unfortunately, it is also entirely in French, and rather large.

I was somewhat tempted to buy a sheet of Silpat from A. Simon, but in the end decided to save my money. If you do happen to go for a visit though, A. Simon does offer some good deals on its professional pastry equipment.

A. Simon
48 rue Montmartre
Metro Les Halles
Website

Dîner

Dinner was supposed to be at a restaurant recommended by a friend, but unfortunately, it was closed on Tuesdays. Paris is definitely a city of back-up plans, but I had rather foolishly not made any back-ups for dinner. As a result, we ended up eating at a brasserie near the area, Cafe Etienne along rue Etienne-Marcel.



I had a French onion soup to start, and unusually it came with DIY bread and cheese - I had to float the bread and top the soup with cheese myself. I suppose it gives the diner the option of eating their bread while it's still toasted, rather than floating soggily in the soup. I thought it was somewhat untraditional though, as you forego the melted and browned cheese that is so characteristic of French onion soup.



As a main course, I had the beef bourguignon, which was fork-tender and moist, not at all dry as some of my attempts have been. I was amused by the presence of the tagliatelle, as I always thought Julia Child was joking when she said the dish was traditionally served with egg noodles.



I decided to be adventurous with dessert and ordered a Tarte Tatin instead of my usual chocolate craving. Unfortunately, I find I'm not much of a cooked fruit person, especially when it comes to dessert. I didn't really enjoy this dish at all, and would probably have been happier with something chocolatey.

Technorati Tags: Miscellaneous Food, France, Paris, La Valise, E Dehillerin