My contribution to Monocle's Quality of Life Survey 2008

Introspection

**Just Re-read this , it's very boring and pathetic- (but maybe someone will feel sorry for me and contract me! **


Please. Can someone explain to me why I am always skirting the edge of food writing success? I've written for the best. Condé Nast Traveler contacted me because they liked a photo on my crappy blog of the Cantine de Quentin and paid me handsomely for it. Monocle has put their trust in me (albeit in very tiny articles..). Time Out, Nota Bene, and Luxe City Guides have invested in me for my restaurant intelligence. Every inflight in the UK wants me (almost)- but the pay is so-so. Gridskipper, Life in Cities and a million websites have contracted me (at low cost most of the time) to give them fresh foody intell. The world's richest, most famous, most discerning gastronomes count on me daily. I know some of the best chefs in the world on a friendly basis. I've been voted best concierge in the world.I've been featured in the Figaro. And I'm still not getting the cream. I'm skimming the top off of it.

And why do I continue this blog- I mean, who the hell reads it anyway?

Crudus

Interesting little place recently suggested by an Italian friend who is bringing the Costes empire to Dubai , this is apparently the only restaurant Italien bio in Paris. Although it was completely empty the night we were there (literally) , an enjoyable meal was had by all. Great calamari (not normally a fan) and Jambon de Parme with melty mozza, followed by a pretty decent risotto and good tagliatelli with cepes mushrooms. Comfortable dining rooms (don't know about those see-through tables, though.)



Jambon de Parma with melty mozzarella cheese


Calamari with zucchini and balsamic reduction


Tagliatelli with cepes


Crudus
21 rue Saint Roch, 75001 Paris
+33 1 42 60 90 29

Le Hide

Already lauded with unanimous acclaim by the Parisian food press (and soon by the NYT, Condé Nast and the rest ..), Le Hide, Japanese chef Hide Kobayashi's bistro is probably the best value in Paris. Having trained with some great chefs (Robuchon, Bouchet) , Hide has retained some impressive cooking skills and put them to use in a classic French, three course menu that is a steal at 29€ (especially being located in one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in the city). The starter of fresh leeks with a vinaigrette sauce was delicate and delicious, the faux filet firm and responsive, and the cod cooked to perfection and the desserts (tarte tatin, tiramisu, ile flottante) well turned out. Despite the waitstaff of two, and kitchen staff of one (!), things ran smoothly, making this a definite comeback resto..The dining crowd included neighbours, a Japanese couple, lots of locals and a few English tourists from a hotel next door (coming back for the second night in a row)


Leeks with vinaigrette sauce and a sprinkling of Guérande salt

Faux filet steak (200g, Desnoyer)

Cod with sauce beurre blanc

Tarte tatin with bourbon vanila ice cream

Le Hide
10 rue du Général Lanrezac, 75017 Paris
+33 1 45 74 15 81

Bistro Paul Bert - GOGO review

British Midland Bistronomy

New British Midland article up...

Flavor tripping

This looks like a lot of fun- a West African berry called "miracle fruit" that chemically enhances taste , and makes things taste sweeter, turning Tabasco sauce into doughnut glaze, lemon to sugar , and beer to velvety chocolate. The active ingredient in the fruit, miraculin, apparently 'binds' the taste buds, creating the strange reaction. The fruit (scientific name: synsepalum dulcificum) may be purchased online at this website. and here The fruit has been known to westerners since the 18th century, wonder why I haven't heard of it until now... Might be time to pick up a copy of Adam Leith Gollner's book The Fruit Hunters, which has an entire chapter on the subject, and to special order some berries for a party chez moi..

Filet o' Fish global homogeny (or lack of)

I'm not a big fan of McDonald's but from time to time (drunk or starving, or both ) have been known to partake of their corporate cornucopia of processed products. One thing that fascinates me with global corporations like McD, is their painstaking recreation of all products globally , whether the meat, bread etc be locally sourced or not, the end product in China, Brazil and Russia is identical to Cowtown, USA. Yesterday I found myself in the middle of the Champagne region hungry and dropped by the local Golden Arches for a Filet o' Fish, and was given this:


No cheese, no tartar sauce, just fish and ketchup, surely some mistake!


No..... product served exactly as it should be (in France..)


The REAL DEAL


I thought that they had been mistaken in giving me a sandwich with no cheese or tartar sauce, but upon seeing the packaging, the sandwich was intended to be exactly this way. I'm confused, because although I know they adapt to local markets, this is one of their "core products" that never changes. Waiting for their press office to explain, I'm really intrigued

**VERDICT** Just received a (very serious) e-mail from McDonald's press, who inform me that I was served a "McFish" , a variation of the Filet but without the tartar and cheese, exactly as described. It was a sandwich conceived for the Happy Meal, to replace the nuggets. So it appears I was served the wrong sandwich....

Chinese resto 'tude in Belleville

Maybe it's a Chinese thing, but why is it that lately I find the Asian restaurants I frequent strangely unfriendly? Special mention to last night at Le Pacifique in Belleville (good dim sum pictured left, apparently not mass made in some bathtub in an apartment for 20 in Ivry....the rest forgettable), Lao Siam (one of my Thai regulars), where only the male waitstaff seem to be friendly, while the females routinely make faces, ignore you or pretend not to understand what you are saying, especially while bringing you the wrong order (several times over), and, probably the king of the hill, Krung Thep, who are legendary for their inflexible booking policy, fine by me, but once, when asking 6 or 7 times for the bill and being routinely ignored, I was more than a little ticked off when the waitress asked my guests and I to immediately vacate the table as the second service had begun. I told her I would have if the bill I had (repeatedly) asked for for the last thirty minutes had come.


Oh, and for all these people saying Belleville is so great (thanks! Guardian and NYT), I know it's the land of Piaf and all that, but it is still emminently skanky, full of bums and junkies and dirty. I'll take my bobo tenth any day..(but still make occasional forays for cheap Kirin at Paris Store and Tigre Qui Pleut on the rue de Belleville)

REAL Red Bull now authorized in France

Guess it finally happened...

Real Red Bull with Taurine will be released in France soon (or so a little birdy told me...)

Chez Jeannette/ "Trendy in Paris"

Funny how some places can, in a moments time, attain the sacred status of being labelled "cool". A number of establishments in Paris have been deemed "in" and "trendy", and the recent Fooding winner for deco , Chez Jeannette apparently belongs to these ranks. This afternoon I went for the first time, and although it is located in an appropriately soon to be bobo part of the tenth and has acquired the timeworn patina that sometimes characterizes these places (Anahi, Charbon, etc) it's not enough to convince me. The clientelle is very arty/studenty (ie no fucking idea how to dress) and the staff, while friendly, seem a little aloof/bored with serving.

Food is ok. Jambon de pays Beef tartar (hamburgered) with green beans, big chicken salad with balsamic vinegar sauce and feta cheese (enough for two).

Might warrant another visit to check out the night flora and fauna at 3h55 am..


47, rue du Faubourg Saint Denis, 75010 Paris

Review:

French Red Bull has no taurine!

(Doesn't) give you wings..?

I thought this was pretty interesting, Red Bull, who has always made such a show of their taurine content and how this makes them different from other energy drinks, actually removed the ingredient to access the French market. Lucky I can still get the real stuff imported from Lithuania at my local supplier.

La Bulle

Le Dali

Chiaapas

The Cork and Cavan Paris

Black Calavados - Wagyu hamburger

What could be more decadent than this - a wagyu hamburger with black soy ketchup and homecut fries, a black dining room, rock ambience, and charming company.

Barcelona postcards

Corso, Paris - GOGO Review

La Briciola Paris, GOGO review

Full Michelin 2008 Guide Rouge results/ Michelin Red Guide 2008

Here.

Michelin Paris Red Guide 2008 Rumours

**LATEST NEWS** according to François Simon's blog: one star each for Il Vino and Aida, and no retrograding for Arpege (but maybe next year...)


It's the time of year when the rumour mill starts predicting who will win and who will lose those precious Michelin stars. Thanks to Chroniques du Plaisir for creating the first online discussion site on facebook and especially François Simon, who, for the last decade or so has had the goods before everyone else.

The guide comes out on March 6th.

Here are a few of the predictions, which seem pretty solid to me. Arpege, seem to be having more and more trouble with their organization (I have sent them tables daily for a very long time) and have noticed a huge difference in the (lack of) quality in their telephone manners and general professionalism. I think they've taken on too many low paid, non- experienced stagieres. . I'm sure the cuisine is still superb, but they need vast improvement on the PR side of things.

Gérald Passédat at Le Petit Nice (last year's espoir) in Marseille will get three stars

Philippe Legendre at Le Cinq will get back his third star

L’Oustau de Baumanière aux Baux- de-Provence, gets two stars and an "espoir" rating.

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon gets two stars

Jean-François Piège (Les Ambassadeurs, Hôtel de Crillon) misses out again on his third star.

Didier Elena (Les Crayères) gets his third star (false rumour?)

Alain Passard, loss of one star (probably false rumour)

William Ledeuil (Ze Kitchen Galerie – Paris) gets his first star

Alain Ducasse gets a star for his opening of the Jules Verne (wow, not bad after being open a month or two!)

This is a work in progress that will be continually updated as I get more intell....

Les Fines Gueules - GOGO

Just a I predicted, The Guardian mentionned my gridskipper "cool" smoking post in their recent article on the ban.`

Guess yet another travel journo is dredging up hot intell on my blog in view of writing a "cool" article like : "Bobo Burgers in the City of Lights", etc

Gridskipper Report: Paris Restaurants

Right here, written in collaboration with the lovely Meg.

Les Fines Gueules

Excellent tuna rolled in sesame seeds and accompanied with avocado purée and Joel Thiébault salad

Killer steak tartar


Nice surprise. Wine bar/bistro behind the Banque de France. Most probably the best steak tartar I've ever had. (Desnoyer meat au couteau with pesto, parsley and aged parmesan, and a side salad with Joel Thiébault veggies). Wine list is a little limited and I wish I hadn't seen the guy who worked in the kitchen leave the bathroom without washing his hands, but hey, we're in France..and it's still a great bet for getting drunk on a Sunday afternoon eating raw meat.

Or, as my GOGO review says:

Les Fines Gueules

Steak tartar with grenade potatoes, 17€

Located just off of the place des Victoires, this wine bar/bistro was a pleasant surprise during a recent Sunday lunch. Raved about in the French press when ex-Bistral owner Arnaud Bradol took over last year and gave the small, three-floored eatery a major makeover, their continuing success is due to a simple idea: offer the best produce cooked well. A plate of delicious charcuterie, sliced on a vintage hand-worked machine started us off just right, followed by a starter of juicy tuna, rolled in sesame and served with an avocado purée. The piece de resistance (which pretty much everyone in the restaurant was having) was a superb steak tartar au couteau , made with top grade beef from Desnoyer, mixed with persil and aged parmesan, and served with roasted grenade potatoes. The pear tarte tatin with fresh cream was a delightfully decadent ending to a satisfying meal.

Open daily for lunch and dinner, 43 rue Croix des Petits Champs, 75001, M° Pyramides, 01.42.61.35.41

The Guardian is hunting me down

Quite a strange experience today (not the first, but worth noting..). I wrote a gridskipper post last week about the coolest places to smoke after the ban in Paris, and then wrote it off (no pun intended) as a relatively uninteresting post doomed to virtual oblivion. The day before yesterday, a Guardian journalist, came to my place of work (Parisian palace) and asked me about smoking in and out of the hotel, if it was cool,etc, and then started asking questions about the other places I had blogged about... I realized immediately that he had seen my post, and had come to the City of Lights after having read it. I said nothing, but almost kicked myself afterwards for not having unveiled myself as the author... Then, walking to the Rival for a drink after work, I bumped into the journalist and told him everything. He told me that gridskipper was very cutting edge, and that he found my description of the Rival as the "poontang central of the Golden Triangle" a little far fetched as the place (afternoon time is always like this..) was full of old men smoking cigars. Can't wait to see the article. Proves that the Guardian seems to know where to find the real deal. Now, if only I can figure out how to get a few freelance gigs with them..

CPH

Cantada II - lucid night

The cast:
Failed/Useless Food Writer/Hospitality Slave (ie, "Yours Truly")
Luisa: Travelling-uber-chef/Talk-Show Host, Mega-Fixer, bloggeuse-extraordinaire
Heather: Smoking hot yankee hack and guidebook writer
Peter: absintheur, historian, niche businessman wunderchild and all around nice guy
Daniel: white-hot young yank chef in the City of Lights, bored of his golden existence, yearing for something new, soon to travel afar...
David, famous cookbook author,experienced pastry chef and expat
Olivier, funny guy, from a wine family, with his own special, unique tour company , highlighting France's wines..
... and assorted side characters..

Place: the Cantada II, Paris' (France's?) finest absinthe bar, retrofitted funnily enough into a strange goth/punk bar, peopled with aging New Music fans of all kind and persuasion (perversion?).

Fuelled by Pete's extraordinary absinthe offerings (100 year old Berger anyone?), this turned out to be a unique and enjoyable evening.

Funniest (most illuminating?) moment: A newbie, when proffered the ultra-rare, pre-prohibition CF Berger absinthe to taste, tipping back the contents of the glass into his mouth , then proclaiming, with a shrug of his shoulders :"Tastes like Ricard". Puzzled sigh coming from Peter's corner..Heathens never die..