Barbecunomique/ Fooding d'été

Always a good time, Le Fooding's charitable yet uber-cool food events attract an interesting crowd, Paris' most cutting edge chefs, in unique settings, and with a great vibe. Today's event in the Domaine de Saint Cloud, with food stands from chefs such as La Bigarrade's one star Michelin rated Christophe Pelé (tender cut of beef marinated and grilled with mild chili and anchovy), Jadis' Guillaume Delage, who prepared a Provincial style grilled veal tongue with spring vegetables, Cyril Lignac who did a Thai style filet of beef that was(more than) a bit tough and my least favorite dish of the day, and the Lao Lanexang's Lamdaun Chinnasri, who did a nice entrecote with lemongrass, bergamot and a caramel/tamarind sauce. Bruno Doucet was a bit of a disappointment, as they ran out of food an hour and a half before the end of the event :( . Desserts by Julie Rothhahn , culinary designer (with the participation of Haagen-Dazs) included a delicious vanilla/grapefruit jelly glace, Marie Quatrehomme did cheesesticks with nuts, Chapoutier provided the vino, and tunes were provided by Ariel Wizman and Teki Latex. And the sun was shining, and pretty girls were everywhere. It was a good day.

Trying to figure out what people find interesting in this blog. Is it cutting edge food intel? My humor? The iconoclastic personage behind the screen? My fuck-all attitude to things? Or just the fact that google sent them to the wrong page after searching for goat sex or something of the like? (oh no!, I said 'goat sex', now I'm going to get a deluge of hits from Afghanistan..)

Next week will begin serious restaurant testing again. Any takers?

Pink Flamingo

A hip, Miami-style eatery in the Marais called the Pink Flamingo should be an instant hit with just the name alone, however, this is probably one of the best pies in the city. Their first outpost was on a tiny side street next to the Canal Saint Martin, and this tiny place, next to happening neo-bistro Glou, and behind the Musée Picasso is in prime Upper Marais real estate. They offer a variety of interesting pizzas, all made with thin crust bio flour, and cooked to perfection with exotic toppings. I tried the "Ho Chi Ming", with chicken and gambas with a coconut milk sauce, coriander, lemongrass and sprinkled with crushed peanuts. I thought Alice Pizza was the best I'd ever had in Paris, but this one made me seriously reconsider. Went down well with a cold biere bio of their own fabrication.

Pink Flamingo
105 rue Vieille du Temple

Another food memory

Once upon a time in a little hick town in NW Pennsylvania, there existed a restaurant called the RED BULL INN. It remains one of my most poignant memories of when I was a child, and I always relished going there to eat. It was a small chain, and the theme was that of a Victorian eating house with buxom maids, pewter beer steins, and hearty food. The ambience was dark, and moody, and although kids loved the place for the crayons and toys, I was equally attracted to the ample cleavage on hand... I especially remember when my grandparents came to visit from Yorkshire, and we brought them there. My grandfather ordered the prime rib. And when the enormous piece of meat was served, he proceeded to cut it up for everyone seated at the table, as he'd never seen a piece of meat that size before, and thought it was to share for everyone!

Really feel like eating DIP tonight..

Voy Alimento

This tiny little shop (formerly a 19th century bar) located on a street just next to the Canal is the most extraordinary plant shop in Paris. Created by Frenchman, Jean-François Hammerle, after having lived in Peru for ten years, they provide equitable plant products produced in their own cooperative farm. Some of the products (especially the Amerindian foods) had never been seen before in France. Everything is cultivated and prepared with respect to keeping the plant molecules intact, and all products come from either alpine microalgae, the dessert, the Andes mountains or the Amazonian basin. More than a shop, this is a place of exchange with people passionate about creating pristine, non-industrial and beneficial plant products. (also energy milkshakes, and Sunday dietary brunch)


Voy Alimento
23 rue des Vinaigriers, 10th

Can't wait to see this

Gillardeau no.2's

I guess you can trust a family that's been farming oysters since the 14th century. Yesterday, they were perfect. And sharing them with someone special for the first time- even better..Icy cold, iodine taste, sea air..

Didn't know a blog could be undeleted! That takes all the fun out of rash, destructive impulses! Damn!

So, here I am, the one that...

Poignant food memories

Eating wild strawberries, blackberries and blueberries handpicked from the Pennsylvania forrest. Raw hotdogs from next to the BBQ grill when my parents weren't looking, potatoes roasted on the grill in tin foil with parsley, leisurely walks to the local corner store on hot summers for fudgesicles or orange creamsicles , most of which ended up on my t-shirt, lobster with butter at the Red Bull Inn

cold beers on a terrace with packets of nuts tasting like sawdust...

What are they running from, and where are they running to?

..and maybe it doesn't matter - the running's the thing...

Passage 53

Veal medallions with mashed potatoes

Very decent steak tartar (not as good as Fines Gueles, tasty fries though)

Faux filet with roast potatos (Desnoyer meat, cut in strips, cooked and seasoned perfectly and pretty damn near perfect)




A kind of hipper, more inspired Glou, this little lounge/bistro in Paris' oldest covered passageway has a lot of promise. Good products (Desnoyer meat, excellent Jabugo) , Mr. Sato, a chef trained at the only one star Japanese in the city, friendly service and easy prices. And their cred is snowballing in the Paris foodie blogosphere. Next Figaroscope 2/3 star? Only critique: the decor, which is neither "lounge" nor "bistro".

53 passage des Panoramas, 75002
+33 1 42 33 04 35

Yam'Tcha

Shrimps from Mozambique with Korean mushrooms and a garlic sauce

Fresh seasonal asparagus with pan-fried foie gras and mustard leaves

Fillet of beef

Chevalier with pok choi

Olive oil cake with milk ice cream



The future next cult resto in Paris, Yam'Tcha, will no doubt figure in next week's Figaro (3 hearts I'm sure), Le Fooding, express, etc etc . Adeline Grattard, who worked with Yannick Aléno at the Hotel Scribe (pre-Meurice), Astrance and Bo Innovation in Hong Kong , does a subtle cuisine, somewhere between asia and France in a nice little space not far from the Louvre. For lunch, there is a 30€ meni, and in the evening there are 45€ discovery menus and 65€ tasting menus (5 dishes) . This evening, the menu consisted of an amuse bouche of soy with smoked tofu and coriander, shrimp with korean mushrooms and a garlic sauce, fresh , seasonal asparagus with pan-fried foie gras, filet of beef with some sort of asian eggplant, and an excellent olive oil infused cake with milk ice cream...The name means 'drink tea' and Adeline's husband proposes a number of different teas throughout the meal, prepared in three different infusions.

yam'Tcha.
4 rue Sauval, 75001
+33 1 40 26 08 07

19 hours

If you knew an asteroid was on a destruction path with the earth in nineteen hours, would it change anything? What would you do differently? What would you do the same? Do you really think that we would change, even in the face of ultimate destruction? Would we continue with the same status quo or give in to our every desire and temptation, or embrace that which we love? Or continue along the same path and ignore the essential.

Well, an asteroid did crash with the earth the other day, and astronomers knew only a short time before.

Maybe we need an asteroid every day.

Sunday

Not enough sport recently. So today, wake up, one coffee. My sit up regime (ouch). Plain penne for lunch. Bike ride along canal to La Villette while multitasking : listening to music (Paris Sunset 7) and writing the two articles (in my head) that I owe NYLON for tomorrow morning. All the while planning secret surprises and dreading work tonight.

Alain Ducasse

It's hard to say no when (arguably) the world's best chef invites you to test the cuisine of his flagship restaurant. Despite the fact that I'm very critical of all these super-chefs opening global franchises, microwave "gourmet" food and consult from everything from cruise ships to chips, Ducasse's gastro hit all the right notes. Good humored impeccable service (yes, they noticed I eat left handed), great wines (can't complain when you're plied by 2005 Riesling Grand Cru, 2004 Chablis, 2001 Chateauneuf-du-Pape and an insane Pineau des Charentes....


Patrick Jouin "exploded" chandelier


Live langoustines, soon to become...


...Formerly live langoustines ...topped with Iranian Oscietre caviar and accompanied by a ginger broth


Scallops with caramelized endives and black truffle


Line caught sea bass with "prébelle" green asparagus, peas and fevettes


Pithiviers game pie with (copious) black truffle, foie gras a Périgueux sauce


I've heard of truffled salads before, but this is ridiculous! A salad inside a package of shaved black truffle


Fresh forest picked strawberries with a coconut sablé and ice cream

“Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously!” -- Nietschze

Adrian just cleaned out his khaki 30L Brabantia poubelle while listening to Metallica tell him the sunshine never comes..

Nepenthe

I've always been fascinated with the word nepenthe, which I first encountered in the poetry of Baudelaire. The magic potion, which apparently drives away care and sorrow was first mentionned by Homer in the Odyssey when the wife of the King of Egypt Thonisgave nepenthe to Helen, son of Jove (also known as Jupiter and Zeus) and Leda, who was ravaged by the god , posing as a swan.. It is an elegant and poetic word coming from ne, not and penthos , grief or sorrow. Someone should market it, sure they'd make a killing.

I was just thinking of this word on the metro home from a night's work, looking at the people going to and from their lives, not a joyous face in sight, from the girl seated next to me who was twenty and had the demeanor and bearing of a tired woman of twice her age, the Chinese kid from the 'burbs with the bleached blond mop echoeing a Japanese kid from Harajuku, head bobbing to the hip-hop he was droning out to, the woman who resembled something between a witch and a teacher, with her prematurely greyed hair, and long drawn out face, and the woman seated across from me, who couldn't help but stare at me for some reason, finding me surely strange for some reason, me tired after this night shift, waiting to get home, and do what..stay up and think, write, maybe hit the bike, maybe not, read, listen to music in front of this screen..Tell me if I'm boring you

Random thoughts

The other day I passed an old man sitting in the street. I was stopped in my tracks by his eyes, beautiful and green and full of sadness. Reminded me of the little girl on the National Geographic cover years back when I was a child. Back in the the days when my only porn was that stack of my Dad's National Geos under the stairs where I'd gawk at the bare-breasted African ladies making handicrafts in front of their mud huts. Simple life. Does that still exist? I want it badly (the simple life that is!) (Never could figure out the guys with the gourds on their private parts though maybe I could get used to it given time.... ;) )

Sunday morning

Sitting in my bed with my mac finishing up the MONOCLE 25/25 guide to Paris. Beautiful day outside but unfortunately I am going to spend most of it sleeping as I'm on nights for the next two weeks. Sometimes it's not too good to be all alone with your thoughts too, hence a one hour intensive bike ride along the Canal is probably what I need, then to sleep perchance to dream., but I'd rather be having late breakfast in bed and watching bootleg movies and my favorite cartoons all day long...

Best Pizza in Paris? Alice Pizza

Funny how once an address gets "discovered", everybody and his uncle takes a stab at writing an article on it, pretty much all within the same week. I had lunch today at Alice Pizza, a cozy little place just steps away from the Anvers metro station and Paris' red-light disctrict. The charming owner, Tahar is half-Brazilian and half Algerian, and discovered his love of pizza in Parma, where he received some training from a world famous pizza maker. The pie I took, with a gorgonzola/marzipan cream, rocket, a raspberry/balsamic vinegar, and shaving of aged Parmesan was one of the best, probably the best I've had for a very, very long time. After, to digest, a little trot to visit with Denise Acabo at her shop L'Etoile d'Or, where I got some Genin caramels in gingembre, framboise and vanille, and some Bernachon caramel milk chocolate bars. For those who don't know this shop, it's a interesting experience. Denise is over 70, and in the 36 years she's been running the shop, she's dressed like a schoolgirl (plaid skirt, pigtails and schoolgirl tie) and is a real character, passionate about what she does, and tutoying everyone who comes into the shop.

Alice Pizza
4 rue Dancourt
+33 1 42 54 29 20

L'Etoile d'Or
30 rue Pierre Fontaine
+33 1 48 74 59 55

Thanks for the coverage peeps, not sure the 'Gastronomic Circlejerk' moniker will win me many fans, but hey, it's got a nice ring to it...but, then again, when have I ever cared what people thought of my blog...?

So here it is : "Not a Gastronomic Circlejerk" (copyright)

It's official! Michelin Red Guide 2009 results

Please be aware that this is a simple translation in English of the Michelin Red Guide (Paris-centric) results announced by gastronomic demi-God François Simon in this morning's Figaro! Bon app!

New One Stars
Fogon
Le Jules Verne
35 ° Ouest
L'Arôme
etc...
Agapé
Bigarrade

New Two Stars
L'Espadon
Gordon Ramsey

New Three Star
Le Bristol

Fat Duck Closed for Health Scare!

!!!!!

Best kebab in Paris?

There is much talk in certain circles of who has the best kebab in Paris. Common consensus leads to the Doner Kebab (a Fooding fave, but strangely no longer on their website) stand in the 17th as the nec plus ultra of this Turkish fast food (and every modern drunkard's) delight. I beg to differ, prefering the sandwiches offered up by Les Quatres Freres Bedri, just opposite the Louis Blanc metro. The tiny place is packed , and the lunchtime queue running around the corner is a daily occurance. The four brothers are courteous and friendly, and hail from the Antioch region, and the sandwiches are wrapped , something not seen often in Paris.


Les Quatre Freres Bedri
38 rue Louis Blanc, 10th
(lunch only)

Meating

This restaurant is one that I haven't really been at all interested in- at the beginning what seemed me sort of marketing ploy, a meat-based menu (American-imported Angus at that), even an American chef. Then things changed, the restaurant changed hands (the new owner also proprietor of the formerly trendy La Gare in the seizieme). The fact that it is also located in the former two-star Michelin, Apicius only makes the contradictions more poignant. Last year, in came former Taillevent second, Emile Cotte, and his new menu surprisingly NOT all meat based.

Consensus: probably the best (and maybe only) Angus in Paris. The chef and owner and staff are really nice people, and it's quite interesting to know that not only do they import all of their meat from the US, but the broiler as well! (for which the French gas agency had to create a special reference, as they'd never seen one before). Apart from that, service ok, and the window front tables, although large and with a great view....our table had a view of about 23 dogs peeing and defecating during the meal on the large tree just in front of us.. Bon App!!

Le Grand Colbert - Tout Peut Arriver

Thought this sign next to my table was pretty interesting, and more than a little prophetic


I mean, pretty much the only reason I ended up at the Grand Colbert was because I was hankering after a great tartar, and Les Fines Gueules decided to close early. The restaurant was about 20% full, but that didn't hinder the slow service, waiter spilling an entire bottle of wine on an English tourist's expensive couture t-shirt (they left without paying, and after a Faulty Towers-esque French accented apology in English from the Maitre d') , and then the same head waiter wiping out the entire barload of olives , which sent the little trays flying in all directions all over the dining room. Tartar wasn't half bad though I prefer very much the "coupé au couteau" to the hamburgered stuff..

Michelin Guide Paris 2009

Once again we get the (mostly) credible leaks from the Figaro or France Soir on the new red guide, and once again, it's underwhelming, and unexciting.

Three stars for Eric Frechon at the Bristol.

Two for the Espadon at the Ritz and Gordon Ramsay in Versailles

One for L'Agapé (ho-hum) , La Bigarade (why not) , ETC, Fogon, Jules Verne (of course) , 35 Ouest (what??), L'Arome (mouuui), Angelique (say what?)

Glou-ing

Although I'm sometimes a bit dubious of the Figaroscopeization of certain establishments when pretty much every French critic jumps on the collective gastronomic bandwagon, Glou is one of the better places to dine in the Marais. Just behind the Musée Picasso, run by a food media person, and offering good quality produce- lomo, marinated, unendangered white tuna, and a superb Salers burger, coupled with relatively inexpensive wines makes this a good mainstay in the area. And the added bonus of sitting next to Julien Clerc and listening to him and his PR guy diss Arthur made it pretty worthwhile too...

GLOU
101, rue Vieille du Temple

Rostang - Better than cocaine?

Perhaps the most decadent haute cuisine dish in Paris, Rostang's famous truffle sandwich is the only two-star-Michelin-eat-with -your-hands-food in the capital. Two slices of Poilane, infused in plastic wrap for 48 hours with Noirmoutier butter and a healthy serving of fresh black truffles, then taken out of the fridge and quick fried in a hot skillet for a few minutes and served a table.

The knife and fork are just there pour la forme.

L'Arome

After a couple of misfires, I decided to give the Arome another try, and was rewarded with a pleasant surprise. The new Gagnaire-trained chef does a great job, and although the menu was a little too citrus-y, everything was delicious, the service pleasant and the open kitchen fun to watch.



Iberico pork "pluma", Joel Thiébault turnips and blood orange reduction

Pré Catelan lunch

Magnificent Pierre-Yves Rochon fireplace

Damien Hirst spin dot painting? No, a rather underwhelming jelly of truffle

Wafer thin slices of beetroot with aged comté cheese. Delicious and visually pleasing

Tarte de truffe noir with onion confit

Scallop a la plancha

Scallops, scallops, everywhere!

Filet of turbot with almonds, vanilla sauce and mustard (?)

Squid ink risotto

Quail

Quail

World's most luxe banana split (I enjoyed the accompanying banana/peanut butter tart more)

Kunitoraya

Tempura


Curry Udon

Perfect winter comfort food at one of the rue Sainte Anne's institutions. Shrimp and vegetable tempura, curry udon, a chilled Asahi, and the continual show of the chefs frantic keeping up with orders and passersby enjoying the view of a little Tokyo sur Seine

Cul de Poule

Yannig Samot's new trendy trad in Rose Bakery country is an interesting place and a good lunch deal. A three course menu is 17€ and gets you a creamy endives soup or paté, followed by a copious fish dish with Japanese mushrooms or cochonailles with mushy peas, followed by an orange salad with Greek yoghurt. Friendly service. Funky crowd. Eclectic music hovering between Eminem and "My Beautiful Balloon". Can't wait to try out the expanded dinner menu.