This underdog blagger and experience junkie will be back to business soon with New York stories, thrills, chills and adventure .... watch this space!

Even Ralph Lauren can't get his friends into Ralph's (yeah right)

Either this is PR Bullshit or he needs to fire his staff (oh! wait that's happening as we speak, because they apparently have no idea what they're doing..)

Quick Review - Nakagawa

In far-flung NorthofBelleville, a decent little sushi counter with (gasp!) a real Japanese chef. Looks like any old cookie-cutter establishment, but serves better than average quality fare for your fish and rice fix. Nice location overshadowed by the neo-Gothic Saint Jean Baptiste church. Also tempura (greasy) and yakitori (didn't try).

Nakagawa

HUGE translation project for France's most cutting-edge food guide has kept me silent. You'll hear from me soon, dear readers. Thank you for your religious rockstar god devotion..

Pre Holiday Gastro Slam Day

The dishes you'll see at the Passage 53 when they reopen after holidays!

And what you can eat at SPRING now!

Quick Review - Le Stube

For those globetrotting clubbers who can't get enough of the ultimate after party Berliners snack, a passable rendition of curry wurst has finally come to Paris at a small snack counter called Le Stube , not far from the Palais Royal and run by the same family who owned the (now closed) Stubli temple to German gastronomy.

Quick Review - Ginger

One of the least well known eateries on the Costes periphery, this Triangle d'Or demi bling bling establishment sells fusion-y food to mostly area businessmen and a few averted tourists. One dish made me stand up and take notice, a very tasty sea bass tartare with wasabi mayo, followed by an unfortunate "asian" fish and chips (there was nothing asian about it, two pieces of fish were deep fried to a charcoal and it was accompanied strangely by exactly the same potato chips and salad as my startare.) Oh, and it was accompanied by wasabi mayo (again) . Forgettable desserts, and Hong Kong/Paris servers.

Tartare of sea bass with wasabi mayo

Spring has sprung. Daniel Rose does it again, and evolves.

I think it would be fair to say that Daniel rose to the occasion (I can hear the groans already....) , and I was lucky enough to be one of the first (along with a "best of" Paris' expat blogging community/fangirls)  to dine at the new Spring restaurant, just down the road from the Louvre.

The restaurant, hidden on a quiet, narrow little street not far from the Spring Boutique, has been really well thought out, with a large open kitchen behind which a team of chefs (this is no longer the one man chaud of the former Spring in the 9th..), performing like clockwork, with Daniel overlooking and supervising the operations. The dinner is the same concept as before - a no-choice market-driven tasting menu, that changes almost daily according to the seasons and the chef's whims. We had: lime flavored, mint specked melon with lomito, an eggplant platter (in croquette, pickled, mashed) with eel, sashimi quality tuna with flash cooked gambas, artichoke hearts, and a delicious pigeon with ris de veau and the tiniest girolles you can ever imagine. Desserts were a very interesting serving of black cherries with fresh almonds and apricots with a lemon verbena syrup.

 I loved the buzz and the open kitchen, and hope the fact that an American has created the most interesting restaurant in Paris in years might make them sit up and actually do something about it. As Daniel says, he is hoping to take Paris restaurants into the 21st century.

The restaurant , still a work-in-progress, is on three levels, with the lower level being a soon to be unveiled wine bar/tapas counter , which , hopefully will be doing good champagnes and wines all day long with luxury comfort food such as boudin blanc hot dogs and the lobster rolls that Rose tested out in the dying days of the old Spring on his Sunday get togethers. There is also a well stocked wine cellar with some surprisingly rare bottles, although it has yet to be fitted out with ventilation.

Can't wait to try the lunch menu of "tapas" , based around a bouillon concept.

Here are a few photos (in no particular order):

Spring
6 rue Bailleul, 1st
01 45 96 05 72
64€ set menu including 5 dishes, cheese and two desserts

Summer Nights in Paris

Recipe for the perfect night. Start with a Florida Tarragon at the Prescription Cocktail Club, then walk up the street to L'Avant Comptoir and order a few helpings of croquettes with Iberico ham from Eric Ospital  (3€) , oxtail croque monsieur (3€) ,boudin noir macaron, supplied by Yves Camdeborde's brother and a "pannacotta" of crab with a Ricard foam. Walk back to the Prescription and follow up with Very Old Cubans, Bloody Bullshots, more Tarragons, and drinks not even on the menu (the Doctor Funk from Tahiti needs a bit of work) . Pepper liberally with excellent company and sparkling conversation.

Adrian Day and Night

Another ten days and I'll be experimenting with a new medium, much more rock and roll and in your face.

"Then suddenly he felt a quickening in him. His heart turned and he leaned his back against the counter for support. For in a swift radiance of illumination he saw a glimpse of human struggle and of valor. Of the endless fluid passage of humanity through endless time. And of those who labor and of those who—one word—love. His soul expanded. But for a moment only. For in him he felt a warning, a shaft of terror... he was suspended between radiance and darkness. Between bitter irony and faith."

Ri.No.

I'll probably catch a lot of flack for going out on a limb and actually not liking this tiny Bastille address that's had all the blaggers and critics in a collective gastronomic circle jerk since opening a few months back.

I'm talking about Rino, a hot (by that I mean no air conditioning) new bistro run by a chef , Giovanni Passerini, who seconded Peter Nilsson at another buzzing bistronomic, Le Gazzetta.

The short menu (with two courses for 18€ and three for 22€) was predictably short, with a starter of an orange tinged barley risotto and calimari, followed by a slowly cooked, and pretty tasty pork loin, served with cabbage and a side of veg. The dessert was fresh strawberries and pistachio (tasted more like peanut butter) sorbet.

The dining room was full of seniors saying things like "Ohh, I think this is nouvelle cuisine", and service (from the one man show waitstaff with vintage Ray Bans and effete Franco-Italian humeur ) was trés slow.

I was really excited to try this place, it was cheap, not so cheerful, and I'm not sure I'd come back.

Maybe for dinner, if the chef takes his culinary gloves off..

Best (only?) American style hot dog in Paris?

A recent article in L'Express on "Paris' Best Sandwiches" brought me to this cubby hole snack stand in the Marais, offering apparently, New York style hot dogs. The 3€ sandwiches are offered in three different styles: the "American", ie ketchup, mustard and caramelized onions, the "Tex Mex", otherwise known as a chillidog, and the "Alsatian" (no Asian restaurant jokes here, please..) , or a sauerkraut dog. They were doing a roaring trade , and there was always a little crowd of Rayban wearing hipsters quaffing away, wiping ketchups off their chins, bobo families, and gawking passersby.

Verdict: decent, fun for the price, but as always, the unexceptional elsewhere often seems more exotic here. Especially where "American" food comes to play.

Le Mosaique
56 rue du Roi de Sicile, 4th

Dita creams for me?

Highlight of the week: Being told by Ms. Teese herself , that I, *GULP*, made her BLUSH.

The End of Saigon Sandwich?

Belleville's Saigon Sandwich has changed owners, after having been the pilgrimage of rabid enthusiastic Banh Mi lovers for years. The original owner, who left to "travel the world and find a new wife",  according to the new proprietor , still stops in from time to time to check the tiny stand is running correctly. Things have been tidied up a bit, and the sandwiches don't seem to have changed much (the baguette with steamed chicken, cucumber, carrots, cilantro and chili with homemade mayonnaise still hit the spot on a walk through the Buttes Chaumont..)  , but is the soul still intact? 

Guy Savoy moving to Hotel de la Monnaie

Guy Savoy is to take over part of the Left Bank's Hotel de la Monnaie one of Paris' most beautiful neoclassic buildings and install both a gastronomic restaurant (first floor)  as well as a more casual café style eatery (called Metal Café)  on the ground floor of the complex. His legendary establishment on the rue Troyon will close doors, and the restaurant is slated for a 2011 opening. Jean-Michel Wilmotte, his faithful architect friend will be handling the transformation.

Best Restaurants in the World

All this brouhaha about the Restaurant magazine's 50 Best Restaurants in the World makes me think of this delightful little piece I did for the (once cool) Gridskipper website a couple years back. It also gives me a little pause for thought. And lets me share my pearls of wisdom with you. As well as snagging a bit of this high internet traffic in the process.

Any kind of "best of" list deserves a little ridicule , because "best" is so obviously subjective in so many ways, and top tables performing at the absolute gastronomic stratosphere can be so vastly different in form, function, inspiration and in what crowd they draw. They can be hard to understand and alien. So when every newspaper and website from Helsinki to Hoboken is raving about the snail porridge and bacon and egg ice cream that they never tasted, it's easy to see why people go for these easy to swallow lists. That being said, none of the judges involved were actually required to prove they went to any of the restaurants they judged, nor was it deemed important by Restaurant Magazine when they went (ie in the last year).

Anyway, as a friend (and contest judge) told me when I got all prissy about the list , "Adrian, it's just a fun party with chefs". So I'll leave it at that.

Me in Bon Appetit

I take a terrible photo, but it's nice to be in Bon Appetit!

Plaza Colada Sushi

Writing about this...uh, cocktail

Tour d'Argent changes chef (my yawn just yawned..)

Stephane Riss just published this news  on one of Paris' oldest and well known restaurants changing chefs. They need a lot more than a young chef change to turn this place around, and exchange the wave of American, Russian and Japanese tourists for serious gastronomes.

They're probably still worth a visit for their superb cellar though.