Pudlo, Schmudlo (well, just this once!) - Wednesday, 5 October

I recently read that the classic French bistro, Au Lyonnais (in the 2nd arrondissement, near the Bourse), is the resto critic Gilles Pudlowski’s (Pudlo's) favorite lunch spot.  He is very popular, has written multiple guides and for multiple periodicals including Saveur.  Normally his stuff is right on, so I just had to book a lunch at Au Lyonnais this trip.  But today my reaction was “huh, really?”  Alain Ducasse acquired the resto in 2000 - it’s one of his 60 restos in seven countries and three continents, so I’m guessing that he doesn’t visit each of them all that often!

My reservation was for 1:00 and it was fairly full.  But it was absolutely buzzing by 1:30.

For an amuse bouche they brought a shallow dish of finely diced cucumbers in crème fraiche with shallots, chives, pepper, and olive oil.  A couple thin baguette crisps accompanied it.  Refreshing, but not particularly inventive.

I wanted the “River” first course (crayfish, smoked pike perch, trout sausage), but they were out of it.  Bummer.  So I went with the “veggies from the farm” option (Ducasse is famous for supplying his French restos from his farm in the southwest of France).  They were mostly raw, some just lightly cured.  My favorite was the endive with pear, basil and fleur de sel - simple but multi-dimensional and interesting.  The slender slice of daikon with some kind of steamed squash and hazelnuts was tasty, but there were some inedible bits of tooth-breaking shell (happily my tongue found them before my teeth did!).  The dressing quite viscous - I believe it was an orange vinegar, olive oil, and a bit of syrup.  All the veggies were very fresh and pure, but sorry, they really do benefit from some cooking (in my humble, but outspoken, opinion!).  I loved the fresh walnuts to dig out of the shell.  Terrific crusty bread.  

My antique-looking “chanteur” plate was very cute - Manon the singer singing “here is the sun ~ it's spring ~ it's awakening ” in the rain!  You can click on the photo to enlarge it.

With fall approaching, I thought that the hare main course would be lovely.  The one small piece of seared duck foie gras on top was almost worth the price of admission - I’ve rarely had any this good - I’m guessing that it came from his farm as well.  From the hare, the shredded roasted leg meat in red wine sauce was good - hearty and deeply flavored - but it contained a few bits of bone (they seem determined to break diners’ teeth!) and thyme stems. The sautéed breast meat was overdone.  There was some grainy organ meat.  The celeriac leaves were delightful (I’m guessing that they sliced the celeriac very thinly on a mandoline and then poached the slices in some vegetable stock).  The potato purée was very nice. 

The Laurent Combier 2021 Crozes-Hermitage was quite pleasant with the hare - dry, full-flavored, with impressions of pomegranate, tart cherries, red fruits, and slate.

The room is lovely with dark wood, beautiful ceramic tiles, mirrors, brass, traditional moldings, etc.  I'm glad that I checked out Au Lyonnais, but it won't be my favorite lunch spot!

When Ya Don't Have Much Space... - Tuesday, 4 October

 
Well, I haven’t seen one of these before.  It’s a clear cylinder filled with thin (about 1mm) black plastic rods stacked vertically and secured on the bottom.  It takes up only about six inches of counter space and holds plenty of knives - in this case seven of them plus scissors, with room to spare.  Just stick a knife in and the rods move aside to make space for it.  And no nicking of the blades.  Clever!!!

Yemen, the French Great West, England, and Corsica - all in One Meal - Tuesday, 4 October, 2022

Back in 2009 a cool little resto, with just about 20 seats, opened on the almost derelict rue de Nil of the 2nd arrondissement.  It was called Frenchie.  Read about my first visit to Frenchie just a few months after it opened:  http://mariellen-musing.blogspot.com/2009/11/frenchie-saturday-14-november.html

I’ve been lucky enough to eat there a few times, but these days it’s almost impossible to get a reservation.

Just yesterday their new outpost, Frenchie Pigalle, opened in Montmartre.  I was able to get a reservation for lunch today.  It is quite a bit larger than the original (I believe that it’s attached to a hotel), but you’d better get here soon, before it too becomes impossible to get in!  https://www.frenchie-pigalle.com/

For my first course, a Yemenite Tostada.  A thick cornmeal tostada (sort of like an arepa) was topped with peppery sundried (or oven dried) cherry tomatoes, mixed salad greens, mint & dill (brilliant!), and a creamy (sour cream?) dressing containing just enough harissa to wake up your palate without blasting the top of your head off.  There was something sweet in the toppings as well - perhaps just a touch of chopped golden raisins? - in any case, it added a fascinating dimension.

For my main course, slices of perfectly roasted pork, served with a lovely sauce made from puréed roasted sweet red bell peppers and cream, and tiny dried purple plums that almost tasted like figs, and finely chopped spicy hazelnuts, and freshly brined cucumber ribbons.  Deelicious and so beautifully balanced.

For my dessert, Stilton with sweet cherries in heavy syrup.  The texture and flavor of the cherries suggested that they were dried before they were cooked in the syrup - dense, but not leathery, intensely flavored.  And the Stilton, well, just classic.  Delightful!

I ordered a glass of the Corsican Sant'Armettu Rosumarinu Red 2020.  It was gorgeous - dry, with beautiful fruit (hints of currant, a bit of cherry and apricot), licorice/anise, flint.  Made from the Sciaccarellu grape.  The waitress said it came from the southwest part of the island.  

• Its flintiness was refreshing with the heat of the peppery first course.  
• The fruitiness absolutely exploded with the sweetness of the main course.  
• And the licorice/anise character was dominant with the cheese and cherries.  

Amazing!

I think they like Chartreuse!

Today G7’s network was down when I tried to order a taxi to the resto.  Happily, Uber worked, but I was reminded that Uber, because they are private cars, cannot use the bus lanes (whereas taxis can), making the trip in the whacky traffic pretty slow.  But it was a gorgeous day and the slower pace allowed more observation of the steetscapes!  

On the way home we drove through the Louvre.  Good golly, I don't remember ever seeing so many tour buses and so many tourists in the courtyard.  It's a little hard to see from my taxi-window snapshot, but even my driver had a few choice comments on the situation!

Merveilleux! - Monday, 3 October

 

Ethereal, sweet, crunchy, Merveilleux!  These little "cakes" contain a base of baked meringue, a thin layer of custard or pastry cream, and a mound of whipped cream (all customized to a particular flavor), and are rolled in little chunks of meringue or chocolate shavings or nuts.  How did I only recently read about these delicacies?!?  There are eleven Au Merveilleux de Fred shops in Paris, and one of them is right across the street from me.  Danger, danger!

The mini Merveilleux were available in 6 flavors today.  I chose three (chocolate, hazelnut and caramel) and am eating the caramel one with my afternoon coffee.  They're made fresh throughout the day, and they recommend that you eat them within 48 hours of buying them.  No worries!  

(BTW, they come as full cakes, individual cakes, and the minis.  The minis are 2 euros each.  They do evaporate on your tongue, but still...what a bargain!)

https://auxmerveilleux.com/en/3-our-products

Must try my hand at making some!  (P.S. Wouldn't you just know it, Dorie Greenspan published a recipe in her blog on 3 November!  https://doriegreenspan.substack.com/p/marveling-at-the-petites-merveilles?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email )

Help Wanted - Church Organist in Paris! - Sunday, 2 October

 

For decades my favorite Sunday morning activity has been to head over to The American Church in Paris for their 11:00 service.  Decent preaching, quasi-formal liturgy, FANTASTIC music (organ, instrumental, choir, handbells, visiting ensembles, etc.), the most racially and nationally diverse congregation I’ve ever seen, great post-service coffee hour, practical publications, and astonishing service programs for the whole community.  One of the big plusses has been their organist and music director, Fred Gramann, who also directed their very fine choir and the whole program.

Well, when I went to their website today I saw no mention of Fred.  EEK!  Had to do a bit of digging, and I found that he just retired.  As a matter of fact, last Sunday was his last service at the church and his big sendoff.  Darn it; I just missed him.  I know that they have many other gifted musicians in their congregation, but Fred was such a wonderful constant presence and obviously an inspiring leader.  https://www.acparis.org/spire-online-2022-09#art05

So hey, are any of my organist buddies looking for a job in Paris?!?  It’s a spectacular Beckerath organ.  I wrote about it in a few blog posts, but here’s info about a concert honoring the 20th anniversary of its installation:  https://mariellen-musing.blogspot.com/2008/09/little-glimpse-of-heaven-sunday-28-sept.html   Info about the organ here:  https://www.acparis.org/instruments/173-beckerath-organ

Entertainment Tonight! - Saturday, 1 October

It’s Nuit Blanche, the yearly (this is the 20th annual) all-night festival of music, arts, performance, etc.  Really - all night - 7pm to 5am.  It’s a balmy dry evening, and the crowds are out in force!  Apparently there’s an event close to me - perhaps at Hotel de Ville - and the lines snake around the block.  I did not join those lines.  https://www.sortiraparis.com/actualites/nuit-blanche/guides/151604-nuit-blanche-paris-2022-le-programme-par-arrondissement-photos-et-video

Instead, I strolled down towards the Seine to find somewhere for a late supper and ended up at Le Louis Philippe.

Can you smell the sweet earthy vegetal aromas of the soupe à l’oignon maison?  And hear the crunch of the crusty bread crusts?  No?  Well, you’ll just have to come here yourself.  I think they used just a bit of beef or veal stock in the soup, mostly the slowly-caramelized onion juices.  Pieces of at least two styles of bread (a rye and a sourdough - interesting!) were floating in the soup as well.  Sure, you have to deal with all that stringy melted Gruyère on top, but it’s really what you came for, right?

An individual Tarte Tatin maison with tart apples, smooth sweet caramel sauce and cool foamy whipped cream was delicious.  Nice presentation.  The crust was just slightly soggy, but it had probably been made in the morning.

Love this late supper thing, and the fact that I can see L'île Saint-Louis and L'île de la Cite and the towers of Notre Dame and the Pont Louis Philippe from my table is just a bonus. Plus the cars, emergency vehicles, scooters, bicycles, motorcycles, buses, pedestrians, and one Pomeranian on Quai de Hôtel de Ville.

My waitress Sabrina was very lively and entertaining, with funny one-liners and quick retorts and friendly banter with the guests, spreading cheer among the neighboring tables.  At least one person at each table spoke English.  Sabrina said she was practicing her English.  “I’ll be famous someday,” she said.  I don’t doubt it!

 

Some Spectacle! - Saturday, 1 October

 

So, there’s this weekly publication in Paris called l’Officiel des Spectacles - it lists music, theatre, expositions, special museum exhibits, concerts, movies, and children’s entertainment happenin’ in town for the week (Wednesday-Tuesday).  This week it’s 162 pages long - pretty typical - kind of hard to get bored here!   

Anyhoo, the event featured on this week's cover intrigued me so I did some research.  It appears to be a musical theatre piece skewering politicians in the context of a culinary competition.  What a concept!  Surely you musical theatre composers and writers could do something with it!

It’s playing at Théâtre des Deux Ânes - the Two Donkeys Theatre - how appropriate!  Their tag line appears to be théâtre désobéissant - “theatre disobedient” - yup!

Here's the show's description, compliments of Google Translate:  "Flop Chef Season 2:  FLOP CHEF season 2 Why Flop Chef…? In recent years, chefs have invaded our small screens. We have the impression that now in France everything goes through the pans. And the pans our politicians do not lack. It was enough for the singers of Les Deux Anes to foment this pact between the chefs and the sous-chefs, the piano and the pipo. Like politics, cooking also has its chefs de partie, it's a copiously spicy show that the Deux Anes team offers you for this new season. A real delicacy for lovers of political cuisine."

https://www.alentoor.fr/paris8/agenda/3790532-flop-chef-le-theatre-des-chansonniers-a-paris