Blogs by Contributing Editors
Blogger Buzz: Around My French Table is Here, Enfin!
Sep 1st
Well, according to Amazon, Around My French Table is officially out in the world! It’s a surprise to me, since I thought the book wasn’t going to be available until October 8, but it’s a great surprise – I’m thrilled it’s arrived. And oh how I hope you will like it!
The book is filled with my favorite recipes (more than 300 of them) for what I think of as ‘elbows on the table’ food from France. It’s the unfussy, delicious food that my friends and I make in France. This is not a by-the-rules book on French food. It’s not Mastering the Art of French Cooking (what else could be?). And it’s not a book of traditional French food (a Basque tortilla made with potato chips is hardly traditional), although it’s got its share of time-honored recipes – I can’t wait for you to try the Cheese-Topped Onion Soup! Instead, it’s my personal take on the bright, fresh, simple food that’s being cooked today in the country of my heart. Oh, and there are lots of stories and lots of gorgeous, gorgeous pictures by Alan Richardson.
> Continue reading at Dorie Greenspan
Blogger Buzz: Le Fooding celebrates its 10th birthday with an all-star lineup of chefs
Sep 1st
Le Fooding celebrates their 10th anniversary this October with an incredible lineup of 18 of Paris’s best chefs who will take turns cooking for 72 hours non-stop in homage to ‘La Marmite Perpetuelle” –the continuously bubbling pot– a reference to Madame De Marme’s 18th century establishment on what is now the rue des Grands Augustins, where she sold capons simmered in a large pot over a fire that never went out. Legion says that the fire lasted nearly 100 years and more than 300,000 capons were cooked, one after another, in the same stock.
Here is the schedule:
October 1
00h00- 4h00 : Inaki Aizpitarte (Le Chateaubriand) ; 4h – 8h : Yves Camdeborde (Le Comptoir du Relais) ; 8h – 12h : Christian Etchebest (La Cantine du Troquet) ; 12h – 16h : Alberto Herraiz (Fogon) ; 16h – 20h : Stéphane Jégo (L’Ami Jean) ; 20h – 00h : William Ledeuil (Ze Kitchen Galerie)
> Continue reading at Paris Notebook
Blogger Buzz: Le Saotico in the 2nd – a solid, solid meal by the team that made Le Reminet great
Sep 1st
5.5 Le Saotico, 96 rue Richelieu in the 2nd (Metro: Richelieu-Drouot), 01.42.96.03.20, currently open only weekdays 8 AM – 8 PM, has been open Madame Surcouf informed me for only three weeks and Alexander Lobrano has already written it up on his “Hungry for Paris” Diner’s Journal. In the article/review, he notes that Madame and M. used to run Le Reminet on the Left Bank, one of his and my favorite places.
That resto had maybe 30 covers and this two-story place has about double that number, in very commodious space. We were supposed to be five and for that we needed to be able to communicate. Even with the four that showed up, I’m glad we were on the second floor.
> Continue reading at John Talbott’s Paris
Blogger Buzz: Q-TEA restaurant in the 9th – home-cooked Chinese
Aug 31st
Q-TEA restaurant, 19, rue Notre-Dame de Lorette in the 9th (Metro: ND de Lorette) is a place a Chinese/American woman who lives in Paris I know came across in her neighborhood and indicated that it had real “home” (that is from scratch) Chinese cooking. I asked what area in China and she all over. Even though it seats only 14, 8 of us were able to sit at one table and share the food and wine (it’s BYO).
While each dish takes about 20 minutes our hostess said, once they started appearing, they came in prompt succession and if I’ve got it right, we had a salad of bitter cucumber and some kind of sliced sweet pear, Shanghai spring rolls with bok choy, fish with slightly hot red pepper on cellophane noodles, a seafood, tofu and XO marmite, chicken croustillant (that I thought was the hit of the evening), turnips stuffed with shitakes, a whole fried bass (my #2), a mango/melon melange and a vanilla “milkshake.”
> Continue reading at John Talbott’s Paris
Blogger Buzz: La Terrasse at the Galeries Lafayette in the 9th – high prices, high quality
Aug 30th
4.5 La Terrasse on the 8th floor roof at the Galeries Lafayette, 40 blvd Haussmann in the 9th, 01.42.82.34.56 (but getting to them via phone is like dealing with american airlines), open only for lunch store days, thus closed Sunday, is open from March-Sept. A friend who’d been asked me why I was going since it’s just fancy soups and salads and I had no good answer, but today I needed a light place I could eat early at since I’m going to a Chinese banquet tonight.
I chose a seat with a view towards the side of Sacre Coeur I don’t usually face and regarded the menu: expensive soups, salads, sandwiches and pastry and ices by Herme. OK, I’m a big boy, I knew what I was into.
> Continue reading at John Talbott’s Paris
Blogger Buzz: Batofar in the 13th
Aug 29th
An unusual place, an unusual experience, and an unusual result.
Batofar, Port de la Gare (or more descriptively, really down at Seine-side, Left Bank, alongside 6-8 other boats) in the 13th, 01.53.60.17.00 (but no reservations when they’re serving outside), is open lunch and dinner except for dinner Sundays and Mondays. It reopened earlier this year with a ”new team, [new chef], new spirit, methodical cleaning” and positioning between jazz joint and restaurant (said Figaroscope at the time.)
Usually when I go to a place, I’m calculating a rating between 0 and 10 in my mind as I move through the meal, and this time, I realized there was no one “summative” one and instead I had to break it down into components.
The location: 6-8, because if you live within access to the #14 Metro, it’s a cinch (a half hour for me from the deepest 18th), otherwise it’s a schlep.
The setting: 8-9, beautiful situated as it is between the other such boat/soiree/restaurants, facing the lovely Gardens of Bercy rather than ugly towers of F. Mitterand’s Library with the neat Beauvoir double-swooping bridge just West.
> Continue reading at John Talbott’s Paris
Blogger Buzz: I Cugini – bit of Italian in the 10th
Aug 28th
I Cugini, 33, rue de Paradis in the 10th (Metro: Chateau d’Eau), 01.48.01.65.34, closed Sunday and Monday is a place that fit my new boss’s requirements: open Saturday, near enough to her place and quiet enough to be able to do some business. It opened earlier this year and has the sparkling but genuine feel of a neighborhood trattoria. Its menu is pretty representative of those in most major Italian cities, no surprises but no goofiness either.
The Boss-lady had pasta (tortiglioni) with gorgonzola (not pictured) which I thought was quite fine but she thought stuck a bit to the stomach; our collaborator/friend had the daily special – penne with porcini that was also quite good but my linguine with vongole was about the best I’ve ever had, even though it needed doctoring (massive amounts of freshly ground black pepper and parmesan [I know, I know, no cheese with seafood pasta for purists, but I'm not]) to bring out the maximal flavor.
> Continue reading at John Talbott’s Paris
Blogger Buzz: Les Fines Gueules Redux – new chef but the old formula still works
Aug 27th
6.0 Les Fines Gueules, 43, rue Croix des Petits Champs in the 1st, (Metro: Les Halles), 01.42.61.35.41, is open everyday (including in July and August) and has recently undergone a change in chefs to a Japanese guy (according to the last A Nous Parisbefore the Great Flight). It seems totally unchanged – seamlessly transitioning from one chef to another; which is all to the good, since the original formula – good product, well cooked, presented in a pleasant manner by friendly staffers – worked well when it opened in April 2007 and has stood the test of time.
I started with beautifully-marinated ceviche of sardines with chopped tomatoes and lovely greens and then moved on to the chunk of cochon, crisp on the fatty outside and tender and tasty on the lean inside with a huge amount of sauteed girolles.
> Continue reading at John Talbott’s Paris
Blogger Buzz: Comme a Savonnieres in the 6th
Aug 25th
5.8 Comme A Savonnieres, 18, rue Guisarde in the 6th, 01.43.29.52.18, closed Sunday and Monday, opened a bit before everyone (but me) took off for climes South. Between the first Bison Fute and hint of the Rentree, I keep a list of places that look promising to try on my re-emergence from the grand holidays. And my late August strategy is to start telephoning on hitting the ground and see what’s open. Bingo! – in more ways than one.
The resto is called “Like in Savonnieres” Why, because it’s clearly in the heart of St Germain des Pres and this photo of a disorienting, sliced verson of Les Deux Magots and the church from a nearby gallery is better than a GPS in orienting you. So why? Ah, the patron hails from this town in the Indre-et-Loire, found among better known places such as Amboise, Azay-le-R, Chinon and Vouvray and is known for its andouillette and fouaces (thank you Wikipedia).
> Continue reading at John Talbott’s Paris