Resto Coretta, Adjacent to MLK Park! - Sunday, 22 September

Most restos are closed on Sunday, but I've had Coretta on my list of places to visit for a while and they serve Sunday lunch. It proved to be worth the drive to the 17th! It’s right next to MLK Park, and of course its name honors Coretta Scott King. I’m often cheered by French tendencies to honor and remember worthy Americans (and other luminaries) in this way. Interestingly, they tend to name things after humanitarians and peace workers (I think immediately of the sweet and peaceful Jardin Anne Frank), not so much industrialists and criminal presidents!

Getting there proved to be slightly challenging since today is “car free” day in Paris, and only cabs, Ubers, buses, and police/emergency vehicles can be on the streets (some of which are blocked off to all traffic). It’s a day for pedestrians, bikes and scooters!

Anyhow, I made it for my 1:00 reservation despite the fact that three Ubers responded to my request and then dropped it before picking me up. Number four was the charm!

For my amuse bouche, swordfish tartare in a light vinaigrette on a bed of beet purée with a slice of cucumber and some herbs. Yummy, refreshing, and palate stimulating!

Jean Luc Poujuran used to have the most charming little patisserie on rue Jean Nicot in the 7th, and he made the best bread and astonishing pastries, including some savory ones that I miss enormously. He sold the shop but continues to bake for restos and wholesale clients, so I was overjoyed to see his name on the bottom of Coretta’s menu as the supplier of their bread! This was very crusty whole wheat stuff, served with fabulous salted butter.  That, with a glass of nice red wine and a bottle of Badoit could keep me satisfied for a long time!

My first course featured flaked crabmeat mixed with sprouted sesame seeds, topped with some red onion purée and a scoop of butternut squash sorbet (genius!!!), encircled with almond/passionfruit crème (some piped on the plate, some in little cylinders of blanched carrot strips) and topped with a scattering of cilantro. What gorgeous flavors and textures! The sorbet blew my socks off – must try to make some when I get home – and overall the interplay of sweet, smooth, crunchy, earthy, fruity and astringent was remarkable.

For my main course, roasted salt-crusted wild duck with beets two ways (roasted and puréed), a large fresh fig just warmer than fridge temperature, and some poultry demi-glace was sweet, comforting, warming, and deep. I used the fabulous bread to mop up every bit of the sauces. The Touraine-Malbec (Domaine des Grandes Esperances) I ordered was, when sipped independently, rather tannic and revealed flavors of currants, Belgian endive, roasted root vegetables and stone; but when sipped with this course it made all the complex flavors of both the food and the wine explode in my mouth. Wine pairing is such an art – my waiter told me that this would be a good combination, and he was right!

For dessert, now this was what I call a fresh fruit tart! A nice pastry shell spread sparingly with a red fruit jelly, then mounded with crème diplomate (a combination of crème pâtissière and whipped cream), fresh figs, apples, red plums, and Mirabelles, and then sprinkled with herbs – fairly rich, but hey, at least I got my minimum daily adult requirement of fruit!

Two tasty tiny chocolate and marron (chestnut) tarts were served with coffee.

Aaahhhhh…what a way to wile away a Sunday afternoon! I would have taken a little stroll in the adjacent Parc Clichy-Batignolles-Martin-Luther-King, but it was raining. At least that was my excuse!

https://www.restaurantcoretta.com/

Here's a pano of the entrance to the adjacent MLK Park