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!)