Paris - A Manger

Paris by addresses - my growing list of places in Paris to eat, to drink, to snack and to shop. Something I can add to on subsequent visits - which, there will be many of. Without a doubt most of these places are going to centre around my favourite area - Le Marais (3eme and 4eme). I am biased as this is the area I have spent the most time in, but, after my most recent trip, also extends to the 1eme and 2eme, around the Rue Montorgueil area. 

Being able to spend a full week in Paris with no real agenda, with could dos, not must dos and having the time to just soak in the Parisian charm, people watching and sipping aperitifs is a luxury that I could relive again and again. There is a certain joie de vivre in Paris that you just can't escape.

On an unrelated note, I learnt a new French phrase yesterday - "Plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose" - The more things change, the more they stay the same. Whilst can be applied to many things, my love for Paris is certainly one of them.

A manger (To eat) - The lines are rather burred given the large number or Parisian 'bar a vins', that also serve meals but nonetheless these are my distinctions. 

Les Fines Gueles - beautiful building

Les Fines Gueles - Beef Tartare

The best beef tartare in Paris? Fameux Tartare de Limousine au Couteau - Hand-cut steak tartare. The meat was drizzled with olive oil and mixed with fresh basil and aged parmesan. I hadn't had French beef tartare until now so I have no point of comparison but the beef was hand cut and the dish resembled an Italian beef carpaccio with the addition of basil and parmesan, Whilst nice, I do prefer the Czech version though sun and lack of appetite detracted from this meal. However, equally it was one of these so called bar a vins, housed in a beautiful building near the Place des Victoires, where you could have an aperitif in the afternoon.

Les Fines Gueles

43 Rue Croix des Petit Champs

Paris, 75001

Metro: Bourse or Sentier
http://www.lesfinesgueules.fr/ 

L'avant Comptoir

Savoury macaron of black pudding and pig trotter croquette

Ham croquettes and Fried foie gras 

L'avant Comptoir was easily one of my favourite places of my most recent trip - so much so, that I went twice and the waiter recognised me and gave me a frequent visitors card. If only I could. It was a mixture of the food, service and experience on both occasions. It is a tiny tapas bar, next door to the well known bistro - Le Comptoir, but unlike its neighbour - you can walk in anytime of the day. With only standing room at the bar, you would have a better chance in the off hours where you could stand leisurely and have the place almost to yourself - as we did. The menu is hung on the ceiling with laminated cards and ranged in price from EUR3-7 for bite size, tasty, and some creative tapas. A perfect way to wile away a wet afternoon.

L'avant Comptoir
9 Carrefour de l'Odeon
Paris, 75006
Metro: Odeon

Kunitoraya Sainte-Anne

Onsen tomago - highlight of the meal

Natto udon

Katsudon

Recommendation and a craving for Japanese lead us here. A udon place in the Japanese area around Rue Sainte-Anne. A small line was formed outside the restaurant when we arrived, and like all places Parisian, we were greeted by a small dining space with just a few seats around an open kitchen. Whilst the udon was good, we perhaps did not choose the best, ordering the Natto (fermented soy beans) version, and the Katsudon was the better dish. The highlight however, was the Onsen Tamago (Hotspring egg)- a super creamy egg cooked slowly at a low temperature. I first had this at an Onsen in Japan and whilst it created a curiosity of how to replicate this homestyle, sans hotspring waters, the taste in Japan actually did not compare to the one in Paris. It's just an egg you say - it is, but an extremely creamy and tasty one. We tried to order more, but they said no. I don't think it was personal, the kitchen was just closed.

Kunitoraya Sainte-Anne
39 Rue Sainte-Anne
Paris, 75001
Metro: Pyramides 
http://kunitoraya.com/ste-anne/

Verjus

Crispy Basque pork belly,  pickled chillies and spicey mayo

Celery Root Dumplings with dan dan sauce

Verjus - interior 

Supper club, Hidden Kitchen, run by an American couple has been turned into a restaurant/wine bar called Verjus. The menu at the bar a vin consists only of 7 or so small savoury plates, some cheese and a handful of desserts. Only open in the evening, the dishes are all heavily Asian influenced. Worth a stop perhaps if you are in the area for a glass of wine and a craving for buttermilk fried chicken or dumplings, Oriental style. 

Verjus
52 Rue deRichelieu
Paris, 75001
Metro: Pyramides
http://www.verjusparis.com/ 

Au Petit Sud-Ouest

Foie gras cru (raw) 

Foie gras poelee (fried)

Margret de Canard (Duck breasts with Cepes)

French heavy, hearty fare does exist in Paris - we just really didn't eat much of it on this occasion -instead preferring little wine, tapas bars, picnics or Oriental eateries. On a previous occasion a group of us had a meal of duck and foie gras - that was essentially what the menu consisted of. So if you don't like duck, foie gras, or really, if you don't like artery clogging, fattening food - I would suggest you don't visit this place. Duck itself being already a highly fatty meat, combined with large portion sizes makes for rolling out of this place - but great service and a private room/cellar/storeroom made for an enjoyable evening.

Au Petit Sud-Ouest
46 Avenue de la Bourdonnais
Paris, 75007
Metro: Ecole Militaire
http://www.au-petit-sud-ouest.fr/

To be Continued.....

Pret A Diner - 'Italian's Do It Better'

Ready to Dine - at 50 St James Street

I hesitated before booking in for the Pret-a-Diner pop-up restaurant experience (their tagline reads: 'This is not a pop-up restaurant, this is a dining experience'), wondering if we were going to be paying for a gimmicky night with all style over substance. However, it did sound rather interesting and hey, the world is going to end in six months right. The concept was born in Berlin and moves around the world and with different themes.

This years theme was 'Italian's Do It Better', and promised Italian artists, music and of course food by various Italian chefs both in London and Italy. Upon walking up the stairs we are greeted by a red cross apparently made up of 500 red LED lights. The dining room itself is made to look like a basketball court (sort of) with fences and 'graffiti' on the walls. The wooden tables were decked out with candles and flowers and as always we were in the naughty corner.

Starting with an amuse bouche of a creamy apple and celery substance and tuna tartare and warm bread rolls in brown paper bags that were ripped open. For the three courses (2 starters/1 main with dessert and wine extra), we were given a choice between a traditional menu or a creative menu. We were also able to switch the courses over or 'upgrade' the main to a particular type of beef for an extra 13pounds - which we later discovered was well worth it, definitely the best dish of the night. I chose the creative menu and would say 2 out of 3 courses were better than the traditional menu. Dessert was rather disappointing for both. We tried but failed to get hold of the menu in the end so I only have memory to go off!

Two musical acts performed whilst we were there - first was a girl named Zara Kershaw who performed some covers and a song or two of her own. As much as the guys wanted to request, I don't think she was going to do Call Me Maybe. The other act was a guy by the name Hypo-potamus - I have no idea how to spell it but it wasn't hippopotamus. A beatbox? kinda act with some jungle-like sounds complete with Capoeira swaying movements, it was surprisingly intriguing and captivating.

Whilst not something you would do everyday and by far not the best simple, nor creative Italian food to be had - the service, music, setting, combined with the the food, company and even a birthday wish - rounded up the evening rather nicely. Next stop...Berlin...

Stairway up to the dining room

Ready to Dine

Amuse bouches

Bread rolls in paper bags

You'll miss me when I'm gone

Entree 1 - creative menu - Beef tartare with burrata

Entree 1- traditional menu - Scallop sashimi 

Que sera sera.. except it said Che..

Entree 2 - creative menu - gnocchi with smoked salmon and balsamic

Entree 2 - traditional menu - tomato risotto - very uneventful

Main - creative menu - Slow cooked veal - nice, if not for comparison of the other 2 mains

Main - traditional menu - Veal cheeks, again, not as nice as the upgrade beef

Hypo-potamus

Creme brulee -  blah

Is ti gravity or attraction that keeps me here?

Let's go get lost

The setting

The open kitchen which was like a trailer

Irony: No matter how many times we tried, we could not take this picture. It said 'I can see clearly now'

This is not a pop-up restaurant, this is a dining experience

Un Verre de Vin Rouge

Ma Cave Fleury - Terrine de la maison

Je vais prende un verre de vin rouge et une assiette de terrine. This small wine bar/wine shop in the 2eme, where champagne and wine memorabilia, chalkboards and wine bottles adorn the walls, floors, tables and the pavement outside. Bar stools, wooden tables and standing room create an atmosphere of casualness, where wine and champagne is key. In search of a night cap in the form of a hot drink last night, we  instead ended up here with a glass of champagne and un assiette de fromage. The champagne is from the Fleury champagne house and was sold cheaply by the glass and upon the recommendation of Mde Morgane Fleury we tried a glass, instead of wine. An easy drink but a glass of red would have been preferable to accompany the cheese platter which we really did not need after our dinner. So tonight, un verre de vin rouge it was. A one woman show last night becomes two tonight. Clientele is mixed - young couples, older friends who appear so jovial with their wine and company (ou peut-etre un peu drunk). 

Located at the seedy end of Rue St-Denis, and looking onto a row of peep shows and stores doesn't immediately arouse ones' curiosity, but would I seek it out if I was not staying around the corner? Definitely. A nice place to while away a few hours over un verre ou un bouteille de vin avec de assiette de fromage, charcuterie, foie gras or something more substantial. If visiting in the daytime, there is a little vintage store across the road and in the evening, there are plenty of other drinking dens, like the Experimental Cocktail Bar, a tapas bar and others on Rue Tiquetonne and Rue Saint-Sauveur to name but a few streets. 

Ma Cave Fleury

177 Rue St-Denis

Paris, 75002

01 40 28 03 39

Shopfront

Champagne and cheese

Assiette de fromage

Wine memorabilia adorns the small space

Voulez-vous gouter? Oui.

Foie gras de canard cuit au torchon chutney a la mangue/carvi (Le Vin Quatre)

How is it that we have descended into mid-April already? With each year, time seems to pass scarily faster and every now and again I get a feeling of eeeek. Perhaps it is that I am filling up my days too much and not taking a chance to stop, breathe and well, look around. Although I don't think that is the case, as most days I still wake feeling how much I still appreciate and have time for London, consciously making the time to do the things I enjoy about this city. So maybe time just moves faster as we get older! Ah, les temps est precieux! With Easter suddenly upon us and fleeting mentions of a mini trip into France looking unlikely, I thought I would be content to stay in the UK and just enjoy London.

This lasted about the time it took to scour Ryanair for a destination with the most reasonable balance of flight costs, timing and things to do (read: eat). This brought us to Bergerac, a small French market town in the Aquitaine region in the South West of France in Dordogne. Land of truffles, armagnac, sunflowers and most importantly foie gras. Decision made and flight booked. Limited transportation meant we were rather restricted on what we could do but I was rather looking forward to a chilled and quiet weekend and a chance to catch up on sleep but early train starts, coupled with eating and drinking can be rather demanding. On researching I found several farms producing their own foie gras and offering cooking courses - closest being 13kms from town. I had in my mind thoughts of cycling out there from Bergerac and wanting to watch the process - or at least believing that I did.

Alas, upon asking - we were told unless we were very fit it was unlikely that we would be able to do it. 13kms didn't seem far at all? Doesn't matter though as the farm and alot of places were closed for Easter or not yet open for summer - hence the non response from the canoe company and the non-usage of our bikinis. What we encountered instead were some of the friendliest French people we have ever met, always with a smile and ever so welcoming. A taxi driver who was determined to show us the city by night, a quaint town with great food, sweet wine and a town where all roads didn't lead to Rome, but instead to 'au-Plus-Que-Parfait', a small bar where it seemed no matter what Rue we walked down, we ended there and so there we ended - each night and day. It was also situated next to the best and best value meal we had in Bergerac at 'L'Imparfait'. The Central Perk of Bergerac perhaps where everyone knew everyone, chatting and exchanging stories, where one bartender was happy to tell us how he ended up back in Bergerac after living in London for 13 years, and where the other would freely top up our wine glasses, and google our music requests, yet not so freely tell us his age (21, but hey, 'age doesn't matter - it was the car, not the driver'). A small town where the simple life can and still exists, where you buy baguettes from the boulangerie and your groceries from the farmers markets, where you know your neighbours and share your wine. Et pour moi? A renewed desire to immerse myself in one of these towns for however, but hopefully not too short, a while.

So, foie gras, our main reason for picking Bergerac over the other random French towns that Ryanair flies into. Our first night had us sample both a mi-cuit version and a fried version in a caramel sauce, which, no matter how much tried, it was just too rich to eat much of - the portion sizes did not help. Visiting Sarlat and the famous Saturday market allowed us to sample in abundance for the traders were all very willing for us to test their products. Voulez-vous gouter? Oui. Quality control of course. So we sampled. So much so that for the rest of that day and night all we consumed was almost sugar and seafood.

More-ish, guilty? pleasures. First common perception is the cruelty that the duck or goose must endure to be force fed, in order to fatten their liver unnaturally and then for this to be farmed for sale to people like me, who love eating it. Upon reading abit more, it sounds like some farms do so in a way so that the animals are not in distress. I guess it is a case of believe what you will and choose. I didn't get a chance to witness the process so, for now, I will go on enjoying. It tasted a treat with an ice cold glass of sweet Montbazillac wine on our final lunch at 'Le Vin Quatre'. Google and you will find many a discussion on the process but for some light information, here is the farm I had hoped to cycle to. Cooking class anyone? - I need 8 people. http://www.biorne.com/faq.html - Nous avons eu un bonne weekend.

Perigourdine Salad - gizzards, walnuts, smoked duck breast et foie gras

Foie gras fried with caramel sauce and fig compote. Heart attack on a plate

Cake stop in Sarlat to dry off and warm up from the rain. Citron and Caramel

Tarte de Fraise

The yummiest cake! Dark choc mousse with raspberry coulis. Je veux!

Michelle's fave...pannacotta like with raspberries...soo.good.

Tarte Citron et Frambroise tiramisu

White asparagus - foie gras, smoked duck, parmesan, walnut oil - L'Imparfait

Scallops with yummy pea mash - L'Imparfait

Lotte - a type of fish in L'Imparfait's version of Bouillabaisse

Chocolate Mille Feuille - so many different layers and textures

Le Bistro Du Coin foie gras - rest of the meal was a disappointment

Dos De Lieu Jaumme grille with Sea Urchin Béarnaise sauce - Le Vin Quatre

Poitrine de Cochon - pork belly at Le Vin Quatre

Ahhh the piece de resistance... the best foie gras of the trip at Le Vin Quatre

Montbazillac wine to accompany  - c'etait parfait

Where all roads lead...

Carpe Diem