Flying over Normandy for D-Day - Thursday, 6 June

 

Today, shortly after we departed Paris, our pilot announced a special treat for passengers on the right side of the plane (not me, unfortunately 🙁) - on this, the 80th anniversary of D-Day, they would be able to clearly see the beaches of Normandy for about 5 minutes.  I believe that many of the rest of us breathed a silent thank-you to the soldiers (very few still living) who risked or lost their lives there.

On a related note, our flight was delayed over an hour because the flight crew's shuttle was stuck in a traffic jam for 3 hours caused by motorcades for Biden and other prime ministers, presidents and monarchs who were on their way to the commemorations.  A delay is a small price to pay ... no, it's no price to pay for their sacrifice and for our freedom.

Putting an Accent on the Last Syllable! - Wednesday, 5 June

 

I hadn’t planned to have a Michelin one-star lunch today, but I didn’t want to leave Paris with the slightly sub-par lunch at Pantagruel as my last adventure, so I decided to book lunch at my long-time favorite, Accents Table Bourse.  And I’m glad that I did!  

Through the kitchen window,
Manager and Cheffe Pâtissière
Ayumi Sugiyama (with Chef Romain Mahi
barely visible on the right)

The food by Chef de Cuisine Romain Mahi and Cheffe Pâtissière Ayumi Sugiyama is fab, of course.  And they have a new Cheffe Sommelière, Léa Salomon.  She replaces the wonderful Étienne Billard, who left during the pandemic.  And hoo boy, is Léa ever wonderful!  Fascinating parings & inventions, and clear descriptions (she has worked in Belgium, Australia and Canada, so her English is excellent).  

My welcome drink: an elegant Rosé Champagne Maison Abelé 1757.  It’s a very small producer in Reims, so this Champs is apparently hard to get!  Tiny very dense bubbles, with the taste of raspberry, strawberry, and white pepper.  60% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot noir.  Gorgeous.  No matter what kind of mood you're in when you arrive, with a glass of this you'll achieve calm and bliss!

Then my amuse bouche:

Half of a cherry tomato with all the flavor of a big tomato, some kimchee liquid, and a sliver of anchovy on top.

A little meringue that absolutely evaporated on the tongue, flavored with horseradish.

Sweet and fluffy black pudding purée that was formed in a little piggy face mold.  It almost tasted chocolatey.  

With these, a glass of tomato water containing a celery ice cube.  So refreshing and vegetal!

Next, mussels that had been lightly poached in wine and, I think, pushed through a food mill (the texture didn’t feel like it had been puréed), with squid ink added to half of the batch, formed into square logs, and cut into cubes.  Perfect, lightly sweet and sea-salty.

With the mussels, a Chenin Blanc “l’Échelier” from the Loire by Thierry Germain.  Dry and tannic with hints of citrus, chalk, flint, oak.  70-year-old vines grown on limestone give this a sturdy character!  And it balanced the sweet mussels beautifully.

At this point my server brought a slice of their signature home-made crispy-thick-crusted sourdough bread with a cute teddy-bear-shaped knob of cherrywood smoked butter.  Nirvana!

Then, sea bean (samphire) “risotto” (made with tapioca beads rather than rice) with chopped peanuts and diced apples, topped with a salty foam made from the broth of the sea beans.  Sorry that I failed to snap a photo of what was under the foam!

With the risotto, a very interesting “martini” made with unfiltered green apple juice.  It tasted appley alone but turned a bit sweet and pear-like with the food.  I still had some of my Champagne, which brought out the nuttiness in the dish, and some of my Chenin Blanc, which brought out the saltiness.  Fascinating! 

Next, a filet of arctic char with hot roasted-on-the-pit dark cherries, a Tomme de Savoie (cow’s milk cheese) sauce, oysters, and young tender fir needles.  Oh, the richness!  Fatty in the best possible way.

With the fish, a Domaine Jessiaume Santenay “La Cassière” Burgundian Pinot Noir.  Fresh and a bit floral, the cherry flavors harmonized beautifully with the dish.  

Then, a small pastry saucer containing cuttlefish (similar to squid) and topped with caviar that had been aged two weeks in duck fat.  On the side, a crispy filo “cigar” filled with crab gelée.  Sweet, salty, seafoody, earthy, funky, juicy, fatty, crispy, a bit of heat.  What kind of genius invents a dish like this?!?  Amazing.  

 The beverage with this dish was equally fascinating.  Sommelière Léa poured a dash of Loda Vita Homard Bleu, a brandy made with lobster carcasses, into a small glass of Jo Landron “Atmosphères,” a tiny-bubble sparkling wine (Folle Blanche, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay).  It was funky on the nose, but not as much on the palate.  Salt and funk came forward with the caviar.   

For my final meat course, a juicy fat slice of chicken breast with blackberries and morels, topped with a very deep veal demi-glace!  On the side, onion confit purée covered with lacy crispy chicken skin.  Hooy boy, so much going on here, and the very definition of earthy!

With the chicken, a small (very cute) glass of warm Sake.  Léa said that it was made in a modern style, more fruity than vegetal.  It had a thick viscosity and a beautiful sweetness, with hints of vanilla and pistachio.

Then, dessert #1: a white chocolate sphere containing soft foamy meringue and raspberry jam with wasabi; watercress sorbet; milky gelatin tubes containing fromage blanc; watermelon; cookie crumbles; minced herbs.  So cleansing and refreshing!  

A crispy rice shell filled with lemon cream.

And finally, there’s always room for chiffon!  Cheffe Ayumi’s signature Japanese chiffon cake, this time orange, with apple compote, chunks of dried orange, and dill.  

And an espresso, of course.  Wowzer!  What a finale! 

By the way, this is also one of those restaurants where you just let your server know how many courses you want, whether you have allergies or dislikes, and whether you want the wine/beverage pairings.  The chefs take it from there, and your server describes the dishes as she/he (Léa Salomon in this case) brings them to you.  Let the party begin!

Next year they will be remodeling the place a bit to add a bar and to open the kitchen (both very trendy at this time).  I think it will be a big hit with the financial crowd at the Bourse just a block away.  I don’t know how long the renovation will take, but I sure plan to make another visit when I’m back in town in November!

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

Scratch & Sniff! - Wednesday, 5 June

 

So, apparently these "scratch & sniff" stamps have been pretty popular!  I went to the post office around the corner to see if they had some, thinking that they'd make a cheap souvenir.  The somewhat exasperated postal worker told me nope, they were gone (or the equivalent in French with the appropriate guttural emphasis!).  Apparently I wasn't the first tourist to ask!

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/05/17/france-s-la-poste-celebrates-baguette-with-scented-stamp_6671788_7.html 

Of course, some individuals more entrepreneurial than moi bought up a bunch and are selling them on eBay!  

Kind Parisians and Head-Scratching Art - Wednesday, 5 June

I ordered a G7 taxi for my trip to Accents Table Bourse today (all about that lunch in my next post!).  Normally, the driver can stop right in front of my apartment, but today he called to say that he couldn't get through because of an accident and stoppage on rue de Rivoli, so he was waiting on the corner of Rivoli and rue du Pont Louis-Philippe, just under a block away.  I said I'd be there in a couple of minutes.  He saw me hobbling along and quickly jumped out of his cab to cross rue de Rivoli and help me across the street and into the cab.  If you think Parisians are rude, talk to me!  (And, BTW, G7 is a terrific service https://www.g7.fr/en/ ).

On the way to the resto, I saw this strange sculpture/installation outside the Bourse de Commerce (the former grain exchange, the big round building on rue du Louvre at Les Halles, now the Pinault Collection of modern art).  Boulders in a tree.  Hmmm.  Need to think about this for a bit!

Here's a short blurb about the Pinault from the current issue of a free magazine offered at the airport!  (Note that you can click on any photo in this blog to see a bigger image.)

Some Nice Moments, but there Won't be a Sequel - Tuesday, 4 June

 

In support of my little project to dine at as many of the Michelin one-star restos in Paris as possible (an impossible goal since there are 80 of them and some drop off every year and some are added, but hey…), today I had lunch at a new spot, Pantagruel in the 2nd arrondissement.  It’s a bit off the beaten path, on a narrow street, and wouldn’t you know, my taxi’s progress was inhibited by a delivery truck (seemingly delivering the complete contents of a new establishment’s equipment, furniture, etc.) and a garbage truck and …).  I arrived just a little late!

I was seated across from the open kitchen.  Quite a few young cooks were working in that small space, but they seemed well organized!

My three amuse bouche:  

Asparagus soup with an herby oil, mustard seeds, lots of salmon roe, and almonds. Sweet!  A cylinder of lobster cream cheese with pastry discs, tarragon cream and herbs  An asparagus bud with horseradish cream.

Next, a three-part first course:

   

A mini tart with lemon cream, topped with blanched slices of beet and carrot.  Carrot broth with some shreds of lobster and a fluffy poached meringue (ala ile flotant).  A blanched carrot strip encasing an egg yolk, grated carrots, and crispy rice in a peppery (Aleppo?) vinegar, topped with a mound of fluffy and smoky egg white.  In the background you can see their seaweed miso butter.

With this course, a dry, lemony, slightly smoky Sauvignon Blanc “Touraine 22” from the Loire by Gaec Desloges.  Nice!

They offered a lobster “sandwich” for an extra 20 euros, so I decided to give it a try.  Here’s how I think they made it:  Breadcrumbs and butter (?) were spread on the bottom of a pan.  Then chunks of lobster meat and almonds were mixed into lobster flesh puréed with cream, and this mixture was spread onto the breadcrumbs and was topped with more crumbs and compressed.  It was probably roasted for a while, and then sliced into rectangles and crisped under the salamander just before serving.  It was served with a pool of lovely dark sauce made with the lobster carcass and some tiny squash blossoms.  Interesting and tasty, but too large a serving and not brilliant.  

For my main course, a lovely slice of soft, salty, tender-yet-slightly-toothsome veal.  Tasty, and a special treat since it’s very difficult to find veal in the U.S.  It was served with a dark veal demi-glace and a gorgeous asparagus cream with dill. 

On the side, cured strips of the leg meat with flowers and herbs, and a white asparagus salad with finely minced tarragon vinaigrette between in two large slices of daikon (?).

The Face B Calce Peaux Rouges (Shiraz, Grenache) wine started soft and red-fruity and ended spicy with the veal.  

For a cheese course, they offered a quenelle of goat cheese that had been baked with rosemary, tarragon, chervil, pepper, etc. in a casserole and then topped with fresh herbs and micro flowers.  It was served with an herb cracker and a floral olive oil.  The freshness and perfume from the herbs and flowers dominated, along with the tarragon in the cheese.  It was interesting, but I would have preferred the cheese fresh.  The Face B wine started fruity but went dry with the cheese.  

For dessert, 

Tarragon cream topped with pieces of sweet, crispy filo (or perhaps brik) pastry. 

A cute bittersweet chocolate shortbread cookie with frothy cream sweetened with honey.  A honey cookie with slightly lemony ice milk.

A chocolate sablé that was almost flavorless.  A hibiscus infusion with kumquat added a bit of zing and freshness. 

A fresh, dry Meyer-Fonné Crémant (Auxerrois, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir) from Alsace countered all of the sweetness quite well!

I felt a bit rushed throughout my lunch - guess I should have reserved for earlier than 1pm!  I was the last person out of the resto at 2:30.

Some very nice moments, but overall not up to the standard of most of the Michelin one-stars I’ve visited.  Restaurant Pantagruel  24, rue du Sentier 75002  https://en.restaurant-pantagruel.com/

Overall, there have been more traffic issues on this trip than I usually encounter.  My ride home from Pantagruel should have taken about 15 minutes, but it was almost an hour!  My driver took a bit of a circuitous route to avoid road and bicycle lane construction (lots of that happening prior to the Olympics).  

I Didn’t Need to Claw or Spear my Way into Alliance! - Monday, 3 June

Today I returned to Alliance, one of my top five restos, for lunch.  For some reason it seems particularly comfortable for the solo diner, and as a matter of fact, today three of the eight tables had just one diner!  Even though it seems to be lobster and asparagus day (read on!), I didn’t have to claw or spear my way in. 😄

After I sat down, the host wheeled over a beautiful cart sporting a large ice bucket with two options for Champagne and a tray of glasses.  Would I like to start with a glass?  Of course, the temptation was irresistible and it would have been rude (and dumb!) to say no!  So I went with a fantastic dry Rosé with tons of tiny bubbles and flavors of strawberry, cassis, cherry, rose petal, and a bit of slate and parsley.  45% Chardonnay, 20% Pinot Noir, and 35% Pinot Meunier.  Off the charts! 

My first hors d'oeuvre were a warm Parmesan gougère, two tiny chilled fresh spring rolls – one with white cabbage & honey, the other with barely blanched broccoli & crème fraîche - and delicate "breadsticks" which were actually made with feuilletés (puff pastry) and pepper.  

Then, a tiny cone filled with perfect foie gras purée and a zingy gel that was made with shallots, lemon zest and port.  Whooo boy!  And a “lollipop” of roasted lobster meat that was somehow infused with lemon and ginger - rich, sweet, balanced, with a kick of heat at the finish.  Wow!  My bouche was certainly amused by this time!

For my first course: peas!  Underneath the just-blanched young peas and the pea & sorrel foam were slightly acidic strawberries which counterbalanced the sweet foam.  Earthy, grounded, genius!  

With the peas, a lovely Domaines Ott “Etoile” Rosé from Provence.  Fresh, tasting of exotic white fruits, citrus, birch, and faint tarragon.  80% Grenache, 20% Mourvèdre.  It married beautifully with the sweet peas and the sharp strawberries.

Sorry that the photo of my next course tells you nothing about its fabulousness!  It was an unbelievably tender fat spear of blanched white asparagus, broiled dates (!), roasted almonds, and chives under a cream sauce enhanced with aromatic Kenyan pepper.  What a combo!  Earthy, tangy, sweet, roasty, herby, creamy, floral, heat.  

By the way, a hint: if you are given a flat spoon that sort of looks like a shovel, it’s meant for shoveling up the sauce!

With it, Château l'Hospital BBH, a dry white wine of Sémillon and Colombard grapes from the Atlantique region (northwest of Bordeaux).  Its hints of lemon, slate and celery were a perfect counter-balance to the creaminess of the sauce and an enhancer of the other flavors.  Sipped before the food, it exhibited pleasant fruitiness, and then the dryness really came forward with the cream sauce.

Then, more lobster, multiple ways, and two breads: an olive oil focaccia and a terrific brown bread made with rye and buckwheat flours and served with a saltier-than-usual high fat butter.  

Lobster meat sandwiched between two thin slices of rye bread and fried somehow - crispy, sweet, just oily enough.

A morel mushroom stuffed with lobster 

A nice chunk of lobster claw meat, served with a lobster shell demi-glace, morel crème, and herbs.

A little cup of light lobster bouillon with a skewer of lobster meat - this was a nice palate cleanser.

Oh, the sweetness!  And the very definition of earthy.  With the bread and butter, almost a religious experience! 

With the lobster, a quite dry red wine Domaine Rolet “Arbois” Vieilles Vignes from the Jura (100% Poulsard).  Black raspberry on the nose.  Senses of cherry, cherry pit, rosemary and granite on the palate.  It was especially delightful with the claw & sauce.  Ya can tell when you’re in the hands of a brilliant sommelier!

Then a piece of very juicy chicken breast topped with thin diagonal slices of white asparagus, some roasted leg meat, a spear of green asparagus, and an intense brown chicken demi-glace (the chicken bones are roasted before making the stock), enhanced with Chartreuse (holy crap! can I get a liter to go?!?).  Seriously, that demi-glace knocked my socks off.  The whole dish complex and glorious!

With the chicken, Domaine de Montgilet “les Yvonnais” Cab Franc from the Loire.  Tannic, with notes of cherries, cranberry, oak.  Chicken breast can sometimes be flavor-challenged, but this wine brought out its subtleties.  And it toned down the intensity of the demi glace (not that I wanted it to, but...) and the slight bitterness of the asparagus.

Next, cheese from their spectacular cart!  

The goat was very lively, the Brie creamy and dense, the Bucheron acidic and herbal, the sheep Tomme intense and oily in the very best way, the bleu funky and earthy and peppery.  Wow!  

A substantial Saké made in France with ingredients imported from Japan elevated the sweetness and other unique characteristics of each of the cheeses.  It was straw-colored and there was a hint of straw, mushroom, and orange on the palate.  Medium viscosity.  The bread and salted butter enhanced the funk and sweetness.  I love a cheese course!

And now for the dessert parade!

A Japanese plum wine "Honkaku Umeshu Tirili Chiebijin" that tastes like a late harvest white with slight hints of citrus and apricot.  Yum!

A little scoop of lemon raspberry sorbet on a mousse-textured vanilla crème with crunchy quinoa.

A quenelle of almond sorbet with an almond tuille, strawberries and strawberry gastrique, roasted almonds, and basil.

A chocolate sablé with a dollop of chocolate mousse, a cinnamon sablé with cream and ice cold slices of fresh cantaloupe, and a roulade that tasted like orange creamsicle! 

Hot, intense espresso!

So, at Alliance, Chef Toshitaka Omiya chooses your food!  You just tell the host how many courses you want and if Chef should avoid anything.  Here’s a photo of him through the kitchen window.  See the papers tacked to the wall on the left?  They seem to be his order list for each table, where he keeps track of what was ordered/excluded, where the diners are in the course of their courses, etc.  Clever!  It also yields just-right pacing.

Restaurant Alliance.  5, rue de Poissy, 75005  https://www.restaurant-alliance.fr/  One Michelin star.  Want to read more?  Check out Meg Zimback’s review for Paris by Mouth:  https://parisbymouth.substack.com/p/alliance