The Gold Standard - Monday, 8 November

Lunch today: the cassoulet at Comptoir de la Gastronomie at 34, rue Montmartre in my 'hood!  It's still drizzling or raining almost constantly, and the temp hovers just below 50 F., so this dish, usually enjoyed in winter, was most welcome now.  (Note: the forecast is for rain over the next week but considerably warming temperatures this coming weekend.  Sure.  Just after I leave on Wednesday it will start to get nice!)

The cassoulet consisted of perfectly cooked large white beans (tender and creamy and not at all mushy) swimming in a delicately flavored sauce with a couple kinds of sausage, pig's foot, and fabulous confit de canard (preserved duck leg/thigh).  The confit was absolutely gold standard - succulent and sweet and salty and tender and moist and intensely flavored.  Wow!  I'm meeting a friend here on Tuesday and ordering just the confit with sauteed potatoes.  Lots of other places (including Spring restaurant last week) pass off duck legs/thighs that have merely been slowly roasted in duck fat as confit de canard, but it's not the same thing.  The true confit is preserved by rubbing the meat with salt and sugar, then setting it aside to cure, then roasting it in duck fat, then jarring it (covering it with, you guessed it, more duck fat!).  Before serving, excess fat is scraped off (and saved for future use) and the duck pieces are warmed under the broiler until the skin is shatteringly crisp.  There's nothing like it!

I haven't had a cassoulet this good since the early days of cafe un deux trois in the Foshay Tower when Andrew Zimmern was at the stove.  That was a long time ago!

With a glass of the house Bordeaux, a basket of bread and a coffee my bill came to just over 20 euro (about $27 this week).  This is one of the reasons I keep coming back and back and back and back to Paris!

By the way, this establishment has a small epicerie adjoining the restaurant, where you can buy their confit de canard and a ton of other gourmet specialties - foie gras (fresh and preserved), smoked duck breast, dried mushrooms, smoked salmon, caviar, sausages, smoked quail, terrines, spices, wines, champagnes, vodkas, preserves (I bought a jar of fennel and thyme preserves - can hardly wait to try it when I get home!), mustards, etc.  And it's just two blocks from my favorite cookware store, E.Dehillerin - see my post on this blog from 6/20/09 for more about this historic shop and my good pal Franck!  (And Comptoir de la Gastronomie is across the street or around the corner from half a dozen other cookware, tableware, and baking/cooking ingredients shops - just ask me for the list!)

Not at all Lugubrious! - Sunday, 7 November

Antti Manninen, pianist

Just about every Sunday The American Church in Paris sponsors a 5:00 p.m. free recital (offering basket at the door) in their theater or their sanctuary. Today a young Finnish pianist by the name of Antti Manninen gave a program of works by Tschaikowski (seven movements of his "Seasons," op.37b), Albeniz (the allegretto from his "Rhapsody Espanol," op.70), Sibelius (movements from "Valse," op.24/5 and "Romance," op.24/2), Merikanto (the andantino from his "Sur la Mer" arrangement for piano, op.47/4) and the world premier of Krzysztof Aleksander Janczak's "Ballade No.1." The tempo marking for this last piece was "andante lugubre" (or a lugubrious, mournful walking tempo!). I didn't find it particularly lugubrious, but instead forceful and complex and reminiscent of the style of Rachmaninoff.

It was a great recital, and I'm guessing that 150-200 people came. Unfortunately, there weren't any introductions, so I don't know much about the performer, Mr. Manninen. Although he appears a bit stiff in these photos (typical Scandihoovian!), his playing was very musical - lyrical, forceful, and intelligent.

The program notes did say that the composer, Mr. Janczak, had studied composition and orchestration in Warsaw and Paris. The composer was filming the recital, but I didn't think to take a picture of him - duh! 

(Notice the great seat I had! For once I got to a concert early!)

You'll find lots of free and inexpensive concerts and recitals in various venues across Paris on Sunday afternoons/evenings - I highly recommend them - you'll have great experiences in beautiful surroundings and often support important emerging artists in the process!


Covet, Covet, Covet - Sunday, 7 November

Directly across from me at the bus stop this morning was the car I've wanted ever since I first saw one, a Citroen 2cv "deux chevaux" ("two horses") in the "Charleston" paint job.  This one isn't in all that good shape - imagine the black and burgundy paint more intense and shiny and the graduated ivory striping framing the burgundy portion more filled-in - but you get the idea!  Unfortunately, these don't meet safety regulations in the U.S.  And since this version was made in the '60's (and they ceased production on the car itself in the late '80's), it's getting harder and harder to find one.  But a girl can still wish upon a car!

We Need all the Light we can Get! - Sunday, 7 November

It's a chilly and rainy Sunday afternoon, so not many people are out on the usually-very-busy rue Cler.  But that's good news for the Christmas lighting installers, who have the street almost to themselves!

It seems to be rushing the season a bit, but hey...I guess we need all the light we can get, especially on drizzly almost-winter days in these northern latitudes (Paris is just below 49 degrees north latitude, about the same as Thunder Bay).

Lots of Saints, but not "All" - Sunday, 7 November

The American Church in Paris (my favorite Sunday haunt - for info about the place see my 11/15/09 post on this blog or surf to http://acparis.org/) was just about full this morning - I'd guess about 350-400 people.  But to my great disappointment, they weren't celebrating All Saints' Day and therefore I didn't get a chance to bellow on "For all the saints, who from their labors rest" (the only way to sing that hymn is enthusiastically!).  The service was still good, and the opportunity to worship with people of many races from across the globe was wonderful, and the coffee after the service was as tasty as ever, but I really had my heart set on "For all the saints."  Sigh.....

The choir did give a nod to All Saints' Day by singing the lovely Agnus Dei of Cherubini's "Requiem."  I don't remember hearing this piece before, but now that I've had a taste, I'll have to seek out the whole Requiem (but with orchestral accompaniment - they used a piano, which was a bit weak against the full choir).  The piece finishes in a long diminuendo, as if drifting off into heaven...just beautiful. 

The Paris Lady's Slipper - Saturday, 6 November

Florist shops selling gorgeous bouquets and flowering plants can be found everywhere in Paris - I've always been amazed at the sheer quantity of shops and the breadth of their offerings at all times of the year - even big bundles of tulips in a rainbow of colors in November (although I must say, that seems fairly odd)!  And you often see people walking down the street with a bouquet elegantly wrapped in thick plastic film, tied with a beautiful ribbon, ready to brighten their own home or perhaps a friend's dinner table.

Today I ducked into Passage du Grand Cerf to escape the rain.  (You can read about these covered arcades, called "passages" in my blog post from 11/11/09.)  This gorgeous, almost chartreuse green orchid plant stopped me in my tracks - it might be hard to see the flower since it's the same color as the leaves, but it's shaped like the MN state flower, the showy lady's slipper.  Spectacular!  (You can click on any photo in this blog to see an enlargement of it.)

outside the florist's shop

Rainy, Lazy Day - Saturday, 6 November

Today it rained off and on. Mostly on. I got soaked when I was out pounding the pavement, so came back to the apartment for a nice afternoon nap. Ahhhhh. Vacations without an agenda, without a firm schedule, traveling solo. What a luxury!

But I gotta tell you about lunch at Cafe Centre on rue Montorgueil. (If you've read earlier blog entries, let me assure you that I do actually go other places once in a while, but the homing device just keeps pulling me back here!) As I was sloshing along in the rain I walked by Cafe Centre just as the waiter was putting up the blackboard with the lunch specials. Top of the list: Brandade with a green salad! A perfect dish for a day like today, and I haven't had it in years. It's basically cod and potatoes, but oh so tastily prepared! You poach the cod in milk (yup, in milk) that you've seasoned with some herbs, bay leaf, etc. Meanwhile you boil some potatoes. Then you mash the potatoes, adding plenty of the poaching milk and some butter. You flake the cod, chop some chives, and mix it all in with the potatoes. My goodness, it's rich and warming and better than chicken soup for what ails you! The cafe added a flourish of fresh herbs (parsley, dill, chives, chervil) and a couple slices of lemon to the presentation. With a glass of Sancerre and a puff pastry cracker and a slice of baguette - glorious! See for yourself.

And here is view from my table to the shops across the street. From left to right, a vegetable shop, a fruit shop, a fish shop, a beef shop, a ham and sausage shop.

Paris Amazed Mom - Friday, 5 November

I thought of my mom (now gone almost 6 years) today as I was trying to enjoy my lunch of roasted chicken, parsleyed potatoes and Leffe ale (my favorite!). A group of four guys were two tables away. They first shared a bottle of champagne (I wonder what the occasion was) and were really enjoyng themselves, laughing and arguing quite loudly! This is traditionally "not done"in France - normally people talk at a low volume and intensely focus on each other in conversation. And the sound systems in restaurants are usually at a moderate volume, so one doesn't have to shout to be heard. (Have you noticed the trend to louder and louder sound systems in the U.S.?) But we were sitting at tables outside on the sidewalk, where "the rules" are a bit more relaxed.

Anyhoo, back to my mom. When we were kids she really didn't approve of too much gabbing at the dinner table. She would use a phrase in Swedish which roughly translates to "let you food keep your mouth silent."

Well, when these guys' food came (big hunks of grilled beef and sauteed potatoes and a bottle of red wine), the volume subsided considerably and only one or two of them spoke at once! Unfortunately, they ate very quickly and their festive converstion jumped right back to loud! I hope it was about sports - I don't know since I really don't speak French. It mangled my musings, but it managed to make me remember mom.

I brought my mom & dad to Paris about 20 years ago.  My dad had been in France in WW II but my mom had never been here.  It amazed her.  At least 10 times a day, she would say, "I just can't get over the way they...." (fill in the blank with comments about eating, transportation, conversing, shopping, etc.).  But she wouldn't have been quite so amazed at these guys!

Here's the view from my table after I finished lunch. The dark red awning about halfway down the block on the right is a store called G.Detou.  It's THE place to get all your baking supplies plus chocolate, preserves, honeys, candied fruits, nuts and nut flours, etc. etc. etc. Guess where I shopped after lunch?

Cheese "Greeter" - Friday, 5 November

Of course, we all have a cheese grater at home.  But how many of us have a cheese "greeter?"  Here's one welcoming shoppers at one of the fromageries on rue Montorgueil!

Zoom, Zoom - Thursday, 4 November

After stopping at the Monoprix on Boulevard de Sebastopol for some supplies tonight, I decided to rest my feet and have an espresso at a big cafe across the street before heading back to the apartment with my big-sack-o-stuff.

As I struggled to hear my own thoughts amid the noise of the insane traffic, I wondered if the drivers here get their kph and mph confused. In theory, the speed limit in town is 50 kph (or about 31 mph). Maybe they see the 50 kph sign but look at the mph markings on their speedometer, thus pushing it to at least 50 mph (or 80 kph). And, of course, they must achieve that speed from a dead stop in 2 seconds (or 1 second for the motorcyclists)!

Happily, things are a bit calmer on the smaller streets and "pedestrian" streets, although even there the bicycles and delivery vehicles make their presence known quite forcefully.

(OK, OK, I know that I'm an old biddy, but gosh, they drive alarmingly fast here! So trust me, I stay away from the boulevards whenever I can.)

"Spring" in the Fall - Wednesday, 3 November

"Spring" is one of the hottest new restauarants in town, and the best seats in the house (but there are only two of them) are at the counter right next to the kitchen. Well, almost the best seats. They are fairly uncomfortable stools without convenient footrests. Happily, nobody was occupying the other stool so I kept shifting around until I found a fairly comfortable arrangement. There are maybe two dozen other seats at tables, and a bar downstairs, but the kitchen counter is THE place to be!

First, notes on tonight's menu (it changes every day). Then some more about the restaurant. It's a prix fixe menu of five courses. You just come in, sit down, order an aperitif if you wish, and they start bringing the food! For me it was a 2.5 hour experience featuring:

1. Eggplant, smoked eel, thinly sliced radish - the eggplant appeared to have been cooked at a low temperature (the skin was still nice and smooth) and chilled/dressed, or maybe it was just marinated; the eel was nice and oily and just lightly smoked, a great contrast to the eggplant; the radish provided very nice crunch and freshness.

2. Seared St. Jacques (scallops), chilled green apple/ginger "soup," apple matchsticks (perfectly cut by hand - I watched!), thin salted slices of white radish, chopped black walnuts - sweet, herby, just a touch of acid, pure.

3. Bar (sea bass) Parmentier with braised leeks, lemon, lime, beurre blanc - the fish was extremely high quality and very tender and sweet without being mushy; the "Parmentier" came in the form of mashed potato croquettes (the mashed potatoes were piped into little blobs and deepfried) that were enhanced with a tiny bit of lemon zest (brilliant - the best "tater tots" ever); the leeks were very tasty but a bit difficult to eat since the hadn't been sliced (they looked like a thin tube of manicotti), and of course the beurre blanc tied it all together beautifully.

4. Duck two ways with beets three ways: half of a seared magret de canard (duck breast from specially fed animals), "confit" of duck leg and thigh (not the traditional preserved duck confit, but instead slowly roasted in duck fat), glazed red and yellow beets, thinly sliced raw beets, tiny beet greens - all beautifully prepared and delicious, but it was (shockingly) almost too much duck for me at this point of the meal (I'm guessing almost a pound of meat) and there wasn't enough contrast between the various elements of this plate (all sweet and dark and earthy and on the "heavy" side); also, if the duck breast had been sliced traditionally it would have been easier to eat.

5. Dessert in four waves!

5a. First, a little saucer of "love in a cage" fruit (a.k.a. groundcherries) that accompanied the rest of the desserts - they were small orange fruits in a papery husk - the fruits tasted like a cross between apricots, passionfruit and sour cherries.

5b. Next, pistachio cake crumbles with a scoop of yogurt sorbet, some pear puree, and bits of cocoa bean - very interesting taste and texture contrasts and yummy yummy yummy.

5c. Third, one deeeeelicious chocolate "beignet" in a pool of sweetened cream with pomegranate seeds - I think the beignet was actually a hunk of chocolate double-dipped in batter and deepfried - who needs the now almost passe molten chocolate cake?!?

5d. And finally one of the most unusual desserts I've ever eaten - a scoop of olive oil and vanilla "butter" sprinkled with black Hawaiian sea salt and dusted with a bit of lime zest! I believe that the olive oil and vanilla bean seeds were just beaten (a long time) into a thick buttery consistency. Very tasty sweet and and a bit mysterious! The "love in a cage" fruits were especially good with this.

eggplant, smoked eel, radish



St.Jacques, green apple, white radish

bar, leeks, potato croquettes

duck 2 ways, beets 3 ways

"love in a cage"

pistachio cake, yogurt sorbet

chocolate beignet

olive oil "butter"

Beverages: a delicious kir royale (a dash of blackberry cordial in a glass of champagne - perfectly balanced), an unusual medium-bodied fruity and spicy and a bit tannic red Burgundy wine (2008) called Nuits-Saint-George, a sweet Reisling with dessert, a Swiss still mineral water called Thonon, and an espresso with sugar cubes and chocolate.

Chef Daniel Rose is originally from Chicago, but has lived in Paris for several years. He and his French wife Marie were the complete staff at two previous incarnations of "Spring," but although they now have several other multi-national sous chefs and staff members, they are font-and-center in the kitchen and the heart-and-soul of this charming new restaurant. One of their "things" is that every day they prepare food that they've never made before, based on what's fresh and great in the markets. Obviously, some of the sauces are other ingredients are prepared earlier in the day, and all required ingredients, oils, butters, herbs, etc. are well organized and in place ("mise en place"), but it's worth the price of admission to get a reservation for 8:00 p.m. (when they open for dinner), get one of the seats at the kitchen counter, and watch them figuring out the logistics for preparing and serving food to the first customers! From that perch you also get to chat with Daniel and other chefs and just watch the dance as at least four cooks occupy the small yet brilliantly-designed kitchen at the same time. They even have a little container with a ramekin of water and small squares of paper towel on the counter in just the right spot to grab, moisten, and clean any drips of food off the plate before it goes to the customer.

Their concept is actually quite efficient and sensible and waste-free from a restaurant ownership perspective too. They have only one "seating" a night, so they know exactly how many people they will serve (since they're always full). They decide the menu, so they don't have to order enough ingredients for multiple alternatives. And they cook in the classic French style of wasting nothing (e.g., Daniel told me that the portions of the apple that weren't made into matchsticks were pureed for the "soup" for the second course). Smart smart smart.

I'm happy to say that they use the same copper pots as I have at home. (What comes out of my pots isn't QUITE at their level, but hey...I don't cook 8 hours a day...and I'm not half as clever!)

At 10:30 the scrubdown began - Marie washed all kitchen surfaces (cooking irons, countertops, blacksplashes, griddle, etc.) with soapy water, then pulled a hose from its little nook and squirted down everything, then squeegy-ed it dry, pushing the water to the floor and from there into a drain. So efficient! Their booking calendar is kept on an iPad - so modern! It really is a great spot. You must visit when you can. A full evening's entertainment and some of the tastiest and highest-quality food I've had in months was a mere 109 euros. Make your reservations well in advance - as I said at the top, "Spring" is one of the hottest spots in town - I called about a month ago, and this was the only opening they had for the whole week I'm in town. They are also open for lunch (I assume that you need reservations for lunch too).  Address: 6, rue Ballileul (1st Arrondissement) Metro: Louvre-Rivoli  Phone: 011.33.1.45.96.05.72 Other reviews at: http://parisbymouth.com/our-guide-to-paris-spring-restaurant/

Marie

Daniel




cleanup time!

 

Yup, Back in Paris! - Wednesday, 3 November

Horrors! I almost broke my "to Paris at least once a year" rule - the last time I was here was 51 weeks ago. Whew. Would sure hate to break a perfect record.

The apartment I rented is in the 2nd Arrondissement, just a few blocks from where I stayed last year and 2 blocks from rue Montorgueil, one of my favorite food shopping streets. My street, rue Saint-Denis, seems to specialize in ... um, well ... adult entertainment (and I don't mean bookclubs!) but I feel perfectly safe. I punch in my digi-code, and open a giant wooden door to enter a lovely courtyard featuring big rounded paving stones that are a bit hard for me to navigate, so I'm glad that I brought my cane along - it makes walking a lot safer (here and elsewhere in town).

entering the apartment



detail of the entry floor tiles

You can see a bunch of photos of my very comfortable and roomy and inventively decorated studio apartment on this website: http://parisaddress.com/paris-apartment-rental/apartment/STDE183.html   But let me add a few of my own! The building's elevator runs up the middle of an almost circular staircase.  I enter my apartment through big curved burgundy-colored double doors. 

The entry hall has large slate-colored tiles, but some of the tiles are set in a diamond shape and framed by smaller tiles of the same color interspersed with narrow sparkly red glass tiles - just lovely!
 
As in many French apartments, the toilet room is separate from the bathroom and is very small. Mine is way cute, with a half-wall covered in 1-inch red square tiles. Instead of a sink in the toilet room, there is a little porcelain "garden fountain" in the hallway - too cute! And even little alcoves are used to display something fun to look at. So stylish.




the toilet room



cute alcove

hand-washing fountain!

view from kitchen window

view from bedroom window

The bed is very comfortable, the appliances work just fine, the kitchen is roomy and well-equipped, there is plenty of hot water for the shower, the views from the windows are pleasing - couldn't ask for much more!



Stay tuned for more news. A post about my wonderful dinner at "Spring," one of the hottest new restaurants in town, is coming soon!