The Gastronomy Portion of the Tour Begins! - Saturday, 30 August

 

You may have heard me observe that gastronomy is the only art form that appeals to all six senses – taste, smell, sight, touch, and hearing (of course), and also the sense of humor!™   OK, OK, I haven’t really trademarked that observation, but it is original to me.  

I mean, y’know that sense of delight when you eat something really surprising/amazing – something so entertaining that it makes you chuckle?  Well, QED!  Gastronomy goes beyond mere sustenance (although sustenance is a wonderful thing).  Great artists of all stripes refine their tools and techniques and imaginations and knowledge and well-honed skills to create paintings, music, literature, sculpture, dance, theatre, architecture – and meals – that take our breath away.  Gastronomy is an art form worth studying, worth structuring a trip around, worth immersing yourself in.  So I do!

Thus beginneth the "fancy dining" portion of our tour!

I returned today for lunch to one of my top 3 Paris restos, Accents Table Bourse.  I've gone there every trip since 2017 except for one, when they were in the midst of a remodel! 

To accompany my first bites, they served me a fairly low alcohol gin, litchi and tonic cocktail that was just right for an end-of-summer meal – invigorating the palate and somehow calming the spirit – and also their signature tomato/basil ice cube floating in tomato water.

The little bites with these drinks were a refined black pudding in the shape of a little piggy, a thin pastry cylinder stuffed with a brie-style cheese and a hot (as in chili) chunk of white chocolate (surprising and intriguing!) and a little banana meringue.  (BTW, those sticks were just props - not part of the dish!)

Then an wonderful celeriac “risotto.”  Cubes of celeriac had been cooked to a sort of al dente level and combined with tapioca pearls (instead of rice), diced apple, and hazelnuts, and served just warm under a lovely sage foam.  An interesting and complementary play of texture, sweetness, earthiness, herbaceousness, and just a hint of acidic bite.   On the side, a baton of their mussel terrine, half of it puréed mussels and cream, and half mussels and squid ink – oceany, slightly funky, tasty.

A nice pinot noir Champagne from C.H. Piconnet accompanied the next courses.  Lovely on the nose, beautiful red fruit, with a somewhat surprising minerality that worked!

First, an a-a-a-a-mazing dish of sweet pineapple chunks (I wonder what they did to tame the bite!) and slices of sauteed shiitake mushroom in a gorgeous pineapple crème Anglaise and covered with an impossibly thin and crispy slightly salty leaf of roasted chicken skin.  Blew me away!  What an inventive combo.  Chef Romain Mahi stopped by to ask how I was doing, and I think that I actually embarrassed him going on and on about how brilliant it was!

Then, chunks of rich, slightly funky mackerel in a bouillabaisse reduction with lemon foam, crispy fish skin, a nasturtium leaf, and herb flowers.  A pristine product, and a nice balance of richness with a bit of acidity.

Up next, a generous portion of amazingly tender, just-cooked (sous vide?) wild salmon with a squid ink ravioli stuffed with a fresh cheese (feta?), diced raw zucchini, broccolini, and fish eggs in a fish stock reduction.  With this plate the raspberry tones in the Champagne really came forward.

To accompany my next course, an Argentinian red (Grenach) by Seclantas Adentro that’s grown at 2000 feet.  Those grapes suffer!  Beautiful currant and other red fruit, very fresh, a bit of chalkiness.

My final “main” course was poultry gently cooked on the Japanese bbq with a juicy cherry tomato & anchovy, a fresh raspberry stuffed with black garlic purée (a surprising and amazing jolt, harmonious with the slight smoke on the chicken), pumpkin purée, reduction of poultry stock, and some haricot verts.  

For my first dessert, coconut ice cream, salty caramel popcorn, brown sugar meringue cubes, hazelnut cream, orange segments, peanuts, and a bittersweet chocolate fan. They all played together nicely!  

With it, a caramelly yet refreshing ale that reminded me of Normandy cider (past-prime apples, stems, leaves). 

Then one of pastry chef Ayumi Sugiyama’s astonishing sugar boules.  It’s a you-can’t-believe-how-thin-sugar-can-be-blown, 2-inch diameter, transparent sugar ball that shatters under your spoon, today filled with ginger crumble, fresh blueberries, pear, orange cream, and a smaller white chocolate ball filled with crème Anglaise.  I would have said "unbelievable" if I hadn't eaten it myself!

With it they served a low alcohol cardamom-ginger-anise-cinnamon drink that amplified everything – it reminded me a little bit of Chartreuse.

Finally, a slice of chef Sugiyama’s famous orange chiffon cake with creme Chantilly, a tomato gel, a little  chocolate nugget that seemed to be a cross between mousse and cake, a dried strawberry, and espresso. 

Everything was terrific, but the two superstars today were the pineapple dish and the sugar boule.  

It's an oasis of calm just a half block from the giant Paris Stock Exchange (La Bourse de Paris) on a quiet little street.  It was about 80% full today, but with barely audible music on the sound system and people speaking in whispers, you could hear a pin drop – about only 40dB.  And that included, at the table next to me, an infant in a stroller to whom mom sang quietly when she fussed a bit!

This place is still high on my favorites list, but it has slipped a bit – slightly less intriguing wines and wine pairings (and slightly smaller pours – I really miss their former Sommelier Étienne!), slightly less inventiveness and variety in the foodstuffs.  They recently did a big remodel during which they were closed for a few months, so I wonder if the financial pressure is getting to them.  In any case, it's still a favorite and they feel like family and I’ll be back to continue cheering them on!

Accents Table Bourse, 24 rue Feydeau, 75002.  One Michelin star.  https://accents-restaurant.com/

  

Bonus:  I thought you might like to see how they characterize wines.  They have a huge cellar, and these are a couple pages from the big wine book.  You can click on any photo in my blog to get a full screen version.