Braden Perkins
Blogger Buzz: Smoking with Frenchie
Jul 26th
He had me at hello. No seriously, I speak French like sling blade, so when Greg Marchand the chef at Frenchie in Paris said “Hello” in English, I was smitten. The meal that followed that night was one of the best examples of ingredient love and technique restraint that’s quite frankly hard to find in Paris. We started with the smoked trout, a mesquite smoked filet served over avocado puree with pickles and dill. Our main course was a pleasantly salty roasted fork tender pork over cranberry beans, with favas and baby carrots both sweet and still slightly crunchy. Dessert was a milky panna cotta just barely set and served with red fruit coulis and a topping of fresh raspberries.
I stumbled home that night and while still drunk and happy sent a giddy e-mail to Frenchie saying “you have built it, they will come”. And come they have. In just over a year that Frenchie has been open, they have garnered the praise of every blogger and publication in Paris, raves from the New York Times, picked up a Michelin bib and Greg himself took home the Le Fooding chef of the year honors. Sadly, all this acclaim has also made our once a week spot into once a month treat, if we can score a reservation.
> Continue reading at Hidden Kitchen
Blogger Buzz: The 3rd way
Jul 10th
Paris hearts NYC. Although for as much as the City of Lights-out-at-Midnight loves the City that Never Sleeps, Paris gets around to borrowing only 5% of NYC trends, usually years after they become popular stateside. Hence the current trend of coining Parisian neighborhoods with NYesque names. The neighborhood centered around rue de Martyrs which includes places like Le Cul de Poule,La Pizzetta and Rose Bakery is now referred to as SOPI (south of Pigalle). NOMA is the north Marais, an area usually defined as north of rue des Quatre Fils/rue de la Perle and on either side of rue Charlot and rue Vieille du Temple.
While the south-side of the Marais is frequented by more of a Harissa and falafel stained belly shelf type of cliental, the north-side is inhabited mostly by the spindly hipster varieties, all geared up with moleskin planners, converse sneakers and dark ray bans. Keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle for this tour though, cause while they look lanky and waifish, if the check from home hasn’t cleared, all that peddle biking, those tightjeans and some caffeine deprivation will make them grouchy.
> Continue reading at Hidden Kitchen