Living the Life of Luxury with AC! - Sunday, 7 September

 

It's been pretty temperate here, mostly in the 60s and 70s, but today the temp rose to 88⁰F, so my apartment was pretty hot when I got home from lunch.  So I got to use my AC for the first time!

It's a big honker on wheels, connected to a flange in a window pane, and it works well.  In the cooler months it rolls into a big cabinet, freeing up floor space.  As someone who doesn't have AC at home, this is quite the luxury!  Yay!

Thank Goodness Michelin Subsets the 45,000 for Me! - La Dame de Pic - Sunday, 7 September

 

There are about 45,000 restaurants in Paris.  This year 123 of them were awarded at least one Michelin star (10 received three stars, 17 received two stars, and 96 received one star).  Every trip I try to visit a few more (although I don’t have any illusions of hitting all of them in my lifetime).  But I also keep coming back to my top three, and one of those is the gorgeous La Dame de Pic.  Anne-Sophie Pic is the most awarded female chef in the world – she has 5 restos in 5 cities and a total of 10 Michelin stars between them.  Thank goodness Michelin was there to let me find her!

There’s nothing like your favorite mineral water in a heavy crystal tumbler to say “come on in, take a load off, relax and let us take care of you for a few hours!”  

For my amuse bouche:  

• A tender brioche-style bun flavored with turmeric (which gave it a little spiciness), hollowed out and filled with a bit of creamy corn – gentle, informal, made you feel like a member of the Pic family
• A sandy-crusted tartlet with radish cubes and tarragon cream – again, a lovely mix of tenderness with just a little kick from the radish and beautiful herbaceousness
• A pie crust ball (as my server called it!) with sardine, smoked whisky (glorious) and mint.

The scrubbed stones they sat on were great props and an eye-catching backdrop.

For my first course, a whole tomato that had been skinned by charring – they intentionally left remnants of the char, giving it a wonderful slight smokiness – enhanced with marigold, filled with sweet caraway ice cream, sitting in a tart shell, and surrounded with tomato juice (as in the fresh stuff you squeeze out of a tomato, not the bottled stuff!).  Delicious and fascinating of course, but also interesting since gardeners typically plant marigolds next to tomatoes to keep the bugs away!  They’re partners in growth and service!

With this course, two drinks: 

• 
  Distillerie Cazottes “Tomates” liqueur made with tomato juice, marigolds and eau-de-vie.  Vegetal, with a sense of the stems as well as the tomatoes, tangy, a bit floral, slightly sweet.  It comes from a winemaker who grew up on a farm and who likes to produce unusual vegetal wines every year in addition to his traditional wines.  Laurent Cazottes and his father Jean grow 208 varieties of tomatoes plus flowers and aromatic plants which they combine with their own eau-de-vie and age.  Poured over a giant ice cube, I can tell you that I’ve never had anything like this before.  And I’d be happy to have it again!
• Pic's homemade no-alcohol tomato-strawberry juice.  Yup.  Another first!  Sweet and tangy at the same time, cloudy, fairly heavy viscosity, slightly sparkling from macerating the tomatoes with sugar?  A sense of earth/dirt.  A marvel!

Cheffe Pic’s signature Berlingots came next.  These are pyramidal stuffed pastas shaped like a favorite hard candy from her childhood.  Each time they’re stuffed, sauced and accompanied with something different.  Today it was glorious just-warm Camembert (I imagine that these take just a couple minutes to cook), Camembert chips, artichoke broth, lavender and verbena foam, and a roasted artichoke heart, sliced to mimic the shape of the Berlingot.  Warming, tender, sweet, creamy, floral, romantic (an interesting description that I borrowed from my server!) with slight barnyard funk and just a touch of pungency.  You can tell how excited I was to eat this dish – I dove right in and remembered to take a picture after I had eaten 2/3 of it!

So when the Berlingots arrived for my neighbor at the next table, I asked her if I could take a picture of them!  

With the Berlingots a white tea from Nepal.  Flowery, gentle, my server said it was chosen for the romance it created with the Camembert.  Hmmm.  OK.  I would say that they did harmonize nicely!

Next a fish course.  Very tender and mild red tuna cooked to rosé on the Japanese bbq grill.  Despite the fact that it was barely cooked it flaked nicely – what a fine and fresh fish!  On the side, tender green and yellow beans cooked al dente and glazed with honey, figs, salty-vinegary fir buds, juniper beurre blanc, all dusted with what I think was powdered green peppercorn.  Surf, farm, dairy, beehive, forest, all working together like we all should!

With the tuna, a Spanish red “Migan” (Listán Negro grape) from Envinate in the Canary Islands.  Senses of currant and dried cranberry, wild herbs, minerality, freshness.  Another great pairing.

Then veal for the second time this trip!  They dry-aged it in ground coffee overnight (another technique I’ve never heard of before!) then quickly grilled it to medium-rare just before serving.  With it, a slice of pressed potato cake (thinly sliced potatoes stacked in a pan with butter and roasted until deep and crusted, then pressed, then sliced into small servings) with sour cream and a not-bitter-at-all coffee sauce.  Oh, the creativity.  The brilliance of the veal shown through (God bless that baby cow) with just enough accompaniment-reinforcement and no heaviness.

With the veal, two wines and a little quiz!  My server brought two small tastings and told me that they shared one grape, and one was from France and one from another country.  I had to guess the common grape and the countries.  Yikes!  Both had great legs.  The one on the left was fresh, kind of wild, a bit salty, terrific raspberry and black currant, rosemary.  The one on the right was more minerally, a bit of slate, red currant, pepper.  I guessed the common grape was Cab Franc, the left one from Corsica and the right from Uruguay.  

BZZZT.  Wrong (except that the left one was indeed French).  The common grape was Syrah.  The left was a St. Joseph (northern Rhône) from Domaine Cyril Courvoisier.  It was a 2021 vintage, an unusually cold year that yielded wines that tasted like those from many years earlier (per my server). The right was from Santa Barbara California, a Piedrasassi, a “modern” Syrah (for the second time this trip, and I'm still not sure what that means).  Gotta say my guesses gave my server a bit of a chuckle, so y’know, a good day all around!

The dessert course celebrated peaches at the end of their season!  A crumbly almond cookie base with peach slices, peach sorbet, peach purée, smoked vanilla (who wouldda thunk!) orange blossom mousse, and a lacy cookie.  Yummers.

With dessert, a very cold Japanese late-harvest-tasting fruity plum wine served over ice.  I didn’t catch the name of the producer. 

For my mignardises, a herbal slightly peppery lollipop gel, a coffee-hazelnut tart with a dab of verjus which brought brightness, and a semisweet chocolate truffle.  My espresso was made with the same coffee they used on the veal – a subtle but precise note.

As the host was helping me to my taxi after lunch he asked “will we see you again?”  “Yes.”  “Next week?”  “Ha ha, no, in about eight months.”  “Oh, we will have moved by then.  We’re staying in the neighborhood but it will be a different location.”  I love their current location (on rue du Louvre just north of rue de Rivoli), but hey, something to look forward to!

La Dame de Pic, 20 rue du Louvre, 75001 (for now).  One Michelin star.  https://anne-sophie-pic.com/paris/?lang=en

Water! Pop Rocks! Amâlia! - Saturday, 6 September

 

Water!  It’s absolutely essential for survival, and once in a while you run across one that elicits an “oh, ya, baby!” and today was one of those times at Restaurant Amâlia.  The sparkling mineral water Abatilles was new to me – medium viscosity, fresh, lovely minerals, just a hint of salt, fine bubbles.  It comes a close second to my favorite Badoit.  This afternoon I learned from a friend that Abatilles is sourced near Bordeaux and frequently seen in restos there.  Subsequent research revealed that it originates at the Arcachon basin at a depth of 1,548 ft; the depth – consisting of layers of sand, limestone and clay – functions as a filter, ensuring the water’s pristine qualities and keeping it free from nitrates.  So glad that it has made an appearance in Paris! 

They offer both a vegetarian menu and an “I eat everything” menu.  Three guesses as to which one I picked.  If you’re stymied (or not), keep reading!

My little welcome bites are a cardamom breadstick and cool crème fraiche with spicy Hungarian paprika – surprising and tasty.  And with a very clever breadstick holder!

Next, three hors d’oeuvre:

• A thin caramelized pastry cylinder filled with mild red pepper and orange cream and dipped in toasted coconut – fascinating combination of flavors
• A pastry basket with fish purée, basil oil, mustard seed and a Japanese herb that I think is a type of seaweed – very refined
• A slice of a tiny cheesy tarte with a cookie crust, grated Parmesan and balsamic vinegar

With the first course, a Dehours & Fils Champagne Grande Réserve, mostly Pinot Meunier.  Flavors of pear, lemon zest, brioche; slightly heavier viscosity than you find in most Champagnes; tiny bubbles.  My server said that the blend includes wine from the 1998 vinification.  Delightful!

The dish: beautifully crafted pillowy gnocchi with poached oysters, rustic black pudding (a texture like pulled pork, organy), tiny croutons, red bell pepper sauce, and a creamy potato foam.  Sort of a funky surf and turf!  The  Champagne broke the intensity and fattiness and added a tiny citrus note.

With the next course, a Gérard et Hubert Thirot Cuvée Pierre Pinot Noir from 2020.  Dry, a bit acidic, sense of currant and sour cherries.  

  

I was so excited about my monkfish course that I dove right in before taking a photo!  It was the best I’ve had in a long time – pure, sweet, steaky (I could barely flake it), dense, not very “fishy,” served with spinach, chicory greens, black sesame seeds and vegetable stock.  On the side, some lovage-scented hollandaise with a drizzle of basil oil and a hint of garlic.  Monkfish have huge teeth and a very scary appearance (I’ve seen a complete fish only once) – so their heads are usually removed before displaying them.  Their tails, however, are absolutely delicious and uniquely flavored/textured – a wonderful treat.   The wine's cherry aspects came forward as it cut through all of this fat and deliciousness!

For dessert, rice pudding (very popular here!) topped with with rhubarb confit, rhubarb sorbet, whipped cream infused with star anise, and tiny crispy meringue kisses.  With it, a clever cocktail made with rhubarb juice and a bit of vodka(?).   

Finally with my Italian espresso (I was given a couple of options) a tiny peanut and salty caramel tart, and the most unusual and entertaining mignardise to-date: small shards of pop rocks enrobed in semisweet chocolate and dusted with a gold powder!  Remember pop rocks?  They’re caramelized sugar, taken to the hard crack stage and embedded with pressurized carbon dioxide.  These were unflavored – just the caramelized sugar – and popped surprisingly and pleasantly in my mouth for quite a few seconds, imparting a bit of zing along the way.   Total entertainment!

Restaurant Amâlia, 32 rue de la Fontaine Au Roi 75011.  One Michelin star. https://amaliarestaurant.com/en

The kitchen to my left and an open sliding door to my right - a very pleasant setting on a beautiful day!

The Best Roasted Cèpes (and a whole lot more!) - Friday, 5 September

 

Restaurant Quinsou sits just across the street from École Ferrandi, one of the top culinary schools in the world https://www.ferrandi-paris.com/en, so you can be pretty confident that the food will be good.  And it is!

Today they had a regular lunch prix fixe menu and also a “market” menu.  I went for the market menu!

My lunch started with a lovely delicate Champagne Colin Alliance Brut blanc (65% Chardonnay, 35% Pinot meunier).  Fresh, a sense of pear and white peach, floral, very fine bubbles.

Two bites to welcome me:  a warm puréed green bean soup (very vegetal, with just a hint of shallot and a slightly grainy texture) with a dab of cool miso cream, and two small very crispy caramelly slightly salty buckwheat tartellets filled with celeriac cream and topped with a dab of verjus gel.  With the Champagne they got all of my textural and flavor and olfactory senses up and running!  

Next, a generous slice of foie gras terrine with an Armagnac jelly, some prune, and a dab of apricot purée.  Well made, and the texture was spot on, but the flavor of the foie left a bit to be desired – in retrospect, I should have asked for some fleur de sel.  

To accompany my next course, Château Prince Les Ardoisieres Chenin blanc from the Loire.  Fresh, white fruit, a sense of cilantro and granite.  

And for this course, spectacular tender and pure tuna carpaccio with a drizzle of concentrated cucumber water, dabs of onion gel, tarragon leaves, fennel seed, and a slice of cucumber at the bottom to clear the palate!  Wow.  Simple preparation with pristine ingredients combined in a creative and entertaining manner to partner beautifully with the flavors of the wine.  I would love to be this clever!

The next wine was also a white but heavier and smokier, with senses of yellow fruits, brioche, leek, almond, and a hint of licorice.  Dormy Pouilly Vinzelles from Burgundy – 100% Chardonnay

The dish: broiled sweet firm red mullet with delicious rich bouillabaisse sauce, celeriac crème, a wedge of braised fennel, a slice of radish (nice and spicy!), and a sprinkle of fleur de sel.  Warm and satisfying with just enough bite to surprise the palate and sharpen the focus.  And I soaked up every last drop of that bouillabaisse sauce with my bread!

Then to accompany my meat course, a wonderful very dry Côtes du Rhône, Petit Ours by Matthieu Barret.  My server told me that it was a modern style Syrah – not sure what that means, but it might be worth researching!  Lovely ripe black fruits, a bit peppery, fresh.

The course: five slices of medium rare roasted veal (always a treat – can’t really get it in the U.S.), a couple of the best sweet tender roasted cèpes mushrooms I’ve ever had (wanted more!), celeriac purée, and textbook complex veal stock.  Treeeemendous!  The wine went even drier with this sweet course.

With my cheese course and dessert they offered a lambic ale, 3 Fonteinen – light, vinegary, citrusy, a bit of malt.  An interesting choice, but it didn’t really work for me.

For the cheese course, generous portions of two goat cheeses (one fresh with a slight lavender scent, one aged) and two cow’s milk (one creamy style and one an aged firm Comté) with black olive and beetroot condiments and a cherry soaked in vinegar.  Nice!

Dessert was a delicate pastry ring filled with spice cookie crumbles, then figs, then fig ice cream and topped with whipped coconut cream.  Sweet and light and cheer-inducing!  Then the mignardises: a chocolate truffle, a strawberry-raspberry gel, and a crispy lacy brown sugar disk.

So, textbook French cuisine with whimsy, appropriately found just across the street from the Ivy League of culinary schools!  I wonder if the chef instructors stop by occasionally!

Restaurant Quinsou, 33 Rue de l'Abbé Grégoire, 75006. One Michelin Star.   https://www.quinsourestaurant.fr/

You've Got Mail! - Thursday, 4 September

 

Just a little street scene for you today!  

The mail carriers (facteurs) here use sturdy square multi-pocketed rolling cases with four big wheels for their routes.  Since the deliveries are to shops on the ground level and to a bank of mailboxes just inside a digicode-accessed door for the apartments above, it's very efficient, and they can carry a lot in those cases, and the big wheels seem to make traversing the sidewalks and the paving stones and curbs a snap!  

As I was waiting for a taxi outside my apartment today, my facteur made her deliveries to my building.  So I snapped her photo!

Here are our mailboxes...they've been upgraded since my last trip here.  I see that my apartment is lucky #13!  

A New Star in the 'Hood, Aldéhyde - Wednesday, 3 September

 

Restaurant Aldéhyde received its first Michelin star this year.  And it’s a block-and-a-half from my apartment – staggering distance!  Part of the trail is a courtyard entrance paved with those lovely ancient rounded stones, so it’s extra cautious staggering for that segment!  But I made it safely there and back home for lunch today.  It’s perfectly accessible for the mobility-challenged, with just a tiny step up from the sidewalk.   

And what a lunch!  It started with a terrific Champagne Brimoncourt Brut Régence (mostly Chardonay with some Pinot Noir) – fresh, slightly sweet, suggestions of pear and peach and rosemary, tiny bubbles – delicious alone and it beautifully enhanced my first courses.

The amuse bouche was a finely chopped broccoli and tarragon tartare, which I think was bound with olive oil, topped with little dollops of sunchoke purée and a green pepper purée enhanced with just enough Tabasco-type hot sauce to wake you up and make your tongue tingle!  They served a terrific very-crunchy-crusted bread with Spanish olive oil.  

Then came several small ravioli stuffed with duck confit, on a bed of braised leeks, topped with crispy leeks, in a pool of cilantro emulsion, dusted with with some dried powdered thyme (I think).  WOW!  Warming, rejuvenating, deep, pillowy, earthy, just fatty enough.  Satisfying while leaving enough stomach space for the next courses!  With it, the herbal qualities of the Champagne came forward.

before the "sauce" was added

with the "sauce"

  Next, my fish course – the most tender and sweet and pure barely-cooked trout, slightly warm (cooked sous vide?) with a small skinned tomato stuffed with trout liver!  A “sauce” of halved cherry tomatoes, hazelnuts, red onion and (I think) cacao nibs in a well-balanced vinaigrette was spooned over the dish.  Amazing contrast of textures and flavors and levels of acidity that stimulated all areas of the palate.  

I went for a delightful Spanish medium-intensity dry red wine Alto las Cuestas (Grenache) with my meat, cheese and dessert courses.  Senses of cherry and cassis, parsley, grape stems, birch, and leeks.  I loved the tastes and the way it tamed the spicy elements of the final dishes.

So for my meat course, pristine moist rich lightly roasted chicken breast and more-darkly-roasted leg meat, slightly spicy red pepper purée seasoned with za’atar, and a small red pepper stuffed with an herbed cheese, all in a pool of delicious chicken stock.  On the side, a little pastry basket containing all the flavors of the dish, sitting on a dab of hot sauce, to be consumed in one bite after the rest of the plate was eaten – so clever!  Again, fabulously skillful blending of flavors and senses and textures that all worked together and complemented each other.  Brilliant!

I’m in France, so of course I need a cheese course before dessert!  Goat cheese chunks and a bit of Szechuan pepper flavored vinegar were in the bottom of this bowl.  It was topped with cheesy foam, fresh figs, fig compote, and olive oil also spiced with Szechuan pepper.  A great mix of fresh and sweet and hot, and the wine’s woodiness blossomed with this course!

And a real eye-opener for dessert, in more ways than one!  An almond sablé style cookie, fresh honeydew strips and purée, melon sorbet, dollops of cantaloupe and jalapeño (yup!) gels.  Wow!  The sensation of the cold sorbet against the jalapeño gel was delightful, and the whole dish just worked!  I'm pretty sure that I've never had jalapeño in a dessert before!

Finally a very strong very hot very delicious espresso with an apricot-violet jelly and a tiny financier.  What a meal!

Almost all of the 20+ seats were full.  The sound system was low, the conversations were quiet, registering about 60-70dB most of the time.  I heard a mix of languages around me, but the common denominator with wait staff was English. 

You can bet I'll be back, hopefully for dinner next time so that I can sample more of Chef Youssef Marzouk's classical yet imaginative French cuisine (with Tunisian influences).  He graduated top of his class in chemistry before following in his parents' footsteps into the culinary world, so it's perhaps not surprising that he named his first resto after the molecule contained in coriander, thus reflecting the distinctive character of his cuisine!

Aldéhyde.  5 rue du Pont Louis Philippe 75004.  One Michelin star.  https://aldehyde.paris/

    

the view from my table