A Bona Fide Bistro du Quartier

 

Ever since I moved to the rue Saint Lazare a year ago, I've been happily discovering the wonderful vie de quartier along this narrow, pretty street, which is lined by some very beautiful 18th and 19th century buildings. (N.B. The rue Saint Lazare I'm referring to runs from the rue Notre Dame de Lorette to the Place Estiennes d'Orves, and has nothing to do with the broad, traffic chocked artery of the same name that constitutes the other half of the street). Not only are there several excellent bookstores along this ancient road, along with a couple of superb antique shops and one of the oldest and most distinguished parfumers in Paris, Detaille at No.10, but it also has a wonderful assortment of cheap, low-key neighborhood restaurants, my favorite of which is Aux Sources.

A self-described "Bar-Brasserie," Aux Sources is a hugely popular and very simple little hole in the wall that gets packed to the gills a lunchtime with a curious but amusing mix of fashion execs from the nearby Galeries Lafayette offices, bankers and brokers, and harmless neighborhood odd balls who stop by for a drink or three and a chat with the amiable patron, known and appreciated for his generous pour.

The mise en scene: there's a bar just inside the door, a hard-working young cook works in a kitchen in the corner of the room, and the small room is dominated by exposed stone walls, mosaic floors and a wry waitress in leopard-print mules rules the roost with her raucous voice and friendly teasing. I took a friend from Chicago to lunch here yesterday, and he was agog--"This place is exactly like a French movie!", said Tim. And it is, right down to the mustard pot on every table and the perforated aluminum bread basket filled with excellent baguette. While we studied the menu, the waitress told a bunch of neck-tie wearing bankers to order the steack tartare, so that they could "please a woman, for a change," and listened patiently while a stout lady in a house coat, clearly a regularly, told no one in particular that the reason she couldn't lose any weight is because she only eats pasta and potatoes. "Eh bien, ma petite, t'as une vrai probleme," quipped the waitress for the benefit of all adjacent ears.

We ordered oeufs mayonnaise (hard-boiled eggs with big dollops of delicious ivory-colored homemade mayonnaise) and a plate of freshly sliced jambon de campagne to start, and then Tim had the tartare and I went for the plat du jour, Les Petits Farcies, a Nicoise dish of eggplant, tomato and zucchini filled with a fine veal stuffing and baked. The tartare came with real pommes sautee (crisply fried potatoes) and was perfectly seasoned, while my vegetables were bathed in a delicious thyme-scented fresh-tomato sauce. "I think it was because of places like this that people used to say you couldn't get a bad meal in Paris," observed Tim, and he's right. These very simple, neighborhood places with real cooks and a lot of pride in what they serve used to be the bedrock of good eating in Paris. Unfortunately, rising rents and changing eating habits--central Paris is increasingly filled with salad and soup bars--mean that they're becoming scarce.

Next, having noticed the excellent cheese plate on the table next to us, we decided to split one, and it was outstanding--perfectly ripened camembert, reblochon, comte and bleu d'Auvergne, an ideal quartet with which to finish up our 50 cl pitcher of very good Coteaux Lyonnais red. When I complimented the waitress on the cheese, she briefly emerged from her bawdy serving personna. "Merci," she said with a gentle smile. "I buy them myself at a cremerie in the rue des Martyrs every couple of days and, If faut qu'ils soit bien, bien affinee," she said (They must be perfectly aged)."

In the end, Aux Sources always moves me, because it unfailingly reminds me of why I fell so hard for Paris all of those years ago--the delicious food, the ambience of communal pleaure in the dining room, and the wry banter of the waitress, which implies, "Eh oui, the world's going to hell in a hand basket, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't all have a good lunch before the curtain drops." 

Open for lunch only from Monday to Saturday, and our meal cost us 19 Euros a piece.

Aux Sources, 31 rue Saint Lazare, 9th, 01.48.74.20.89

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

After two weeks in Bali and Singapore, it was time for a truly French feed tonight. With much of the city still in slow motion as the vacation season winds down, my choices weren't as rich as they usually are, so summertime oblige, we decided to combine a major grocery run to the Grand Epicerie at the Bon Marche with a casual dinner at the Cafe Nemrod, one of my favorite cafes.

When I lived in the rue du Bac, Le Nemrod was my local canteen. Why? The Auvergnat family that ran it for years was hugely proud of the quality of the food and wine they served, prices are easy, and it pulls a terrific crowd. This is why I was wary when the rosy-cheeked Auvergnats were bought out by a competitor who has made a career in taking Left Bank cafes upmarket (i.e. trendier decor and higher prices, with the sop of brand-name produce on the menu).

On this deliciously cool August night, though (it rained cats and dogs in Singapore yesterday, and the whole city was steaming when our plane took off last night), I was ready for a Gallic feed par excellence, and this is exactly what we got. A generously served plate of jambon de campagne from the Auvergne made for perfect nibbling while we waited for the piece de resistance--the steak tartare. Made with Salers beef and accompanied by REAL (not frozen, but made from scratch) frites, this is one of the most satisfying dishes in Paris. The coarsely chopped beef was perfectly seasoned with capers, cornichons, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, sea salt and freshly ground pepper, and the frites, after two weeks of rice, were heavenly. And after two weeks of middle-brow Australian wine (with the exception of a couple of Californian, Chilean and New Zealand bottles, the Aussies have shrewdly sewn up the booming Asian wine market), a Morgon Vieille Vignes was a sublime relief, since it had the finish and complexity that most brand-name industrial wines so sorely lack.

Before dinner, I'd really been looking forward to going tor broke--and you have to, since it's so expensive--at the Grand Epicierie, since I love the Big Shop that follows a long trip away and can't get at my weekly organic market in the Batignolles until Saturday morning. Stepping into this highly praised and highly priced supermarket where I shopped at least once a day for almost ten years, I was let down by the slipping quality, shoddy service, and ever higher prices of this place, which doesn't hold a candle to any of Whole Foods better stores. In late August, it was a disgrace to be selling tomatoes from Dutch greenhouses, the fish counter has shrunken and become mediocre, and it's generally obvious that management is trying to wriggle away from as much fresh (or perishable, and hence money-losing, food as possible). If I'd once have rated this store a B+/A-, I'd now generously give it a B-.

Finally, highs and lows of Asia:

*Best meal in Bali: Sarong, Seminyak--hip new pan-Asian place with excellent menu, stylish decor, and intriguing crowd.

*Worst meal in Bali: Mozaic, Ubud--the dainty modern European cooking here is pretty good, but horrendously overpriced and the service is insufferably pretentious. Who needs Michelin attitude in a place as enchanting as Ubud?

*Revelation: Yan Ting, the Chinese restaurant at the St. Regis, Singapore. Quite simply the best dim sum I've ever eaten.

And what did you do on your summer vacation?!

Cafe Le Nemrod, 51 rue du Cherche-Midi, 6th, Tel. 01.45.48.17.05.

Summertime Rants and Raves

During the salad days of August, I run into a lot of olive oil and a lot of vinegar (at home, I make vinaigrette with fresh lemon juice, but few restaurants do--vinegar is cheaper and faster), and so I've been thinking a lot about both. Olive oil is one of my favorite food stuffs and something that I collect during my travels--at any given moment, I have a dozen or so different varieties of oil in the kitchen. The three best oils I've found this year are the extra virgin Lagune Malinovo Ulje from Istria in Croatia, Stonehouse California extra virgin house blend, which is almost as good as the French Jean Marie Corneille oil from Mausanne in Les Alpilles, and a wonderful oil from Montpellier, La Violette de Montpellier, which is made by the Domaine de l'Oulivie. For summer salads, I like a slightly fruity, green oil, and unfortunately, this is something that rarely turns up in Paris restaurants or cafes. Cafes are the most problematic, since many of them fill their cruets with pomace, which is an essentially industrial grade olive oil.

Vinegar, of course, is another subject altogether. Ordering a salad in any better Paris restaurant, I always tell them NOT to dress it with balsamic vinegar, which is a food stuff that I wish would return to its original status as a rare condiment. I hate balsamic vinegar on salads, because most of what's used is medium grade and so strong that it masks the taste of the greens, tomatoes and other ingredients. If I could, in fact, I'd banish it from Paris kitchens altogether. Squirt bottle zebra stripes on any restaurant plate serve as an immediate stop sign to me.

Ditto "truffle" oil, which is a sad cheat of a product. Most people assume that the truffle taste comes from soaking truffles in oil. It doesn't. The taste is an artificial flavor, and so it has no business being in the kitchen of any good restaurant. The only decent flavored oil I've come across in a longtime is Stonehouse's Persian Lime flavored oil, which is delicious dribbled on grilled fish, and, depending on the ingredients, is also good in salads.

And speaking of salads, there's a wonderful place to get a meal style salad right in the heart of Paris. It's called Le Scoop and it's run by a delightful American woman who worked as a lawyer before falling in love with Paris and throwing it all over for une vie gastronomique. They also do chicken quesadillas, salmon with wasabi, and the very best cheeseburger in Paris. This is a terrific spot for a lunch after the Louvre or a light dinner, since prices are very reasonable, the service is friendly and the eclectic cooking is excellent. Note, too, that they do a very good Sunday brunch and are open seven days a week. 154 rue Saint Honore, 1st, 01-42-60-31-64. Unfortunately, they're closed in August, but I'll be champing at the bit for one of their burgers when they re-open in September.

A Great Cheap Chinese in Beaubourg

To give credit where it's due, it was my friend Richard who discovered Restaurant Ba-Shu. As he explained to me, all of the Chinese hoteliers who've come to town on business recently invariably end up eating with him at this very simple little place not far from the Centre Pompidou in the Beaubourg neighborhood. And it's true that this little hole in the wall is nothing to look at, but this didn't stop our group of four from having a truly delicious and wonderfully inexpensive feast here last Sunday.

Since it was a nice day, we sat at a table outside--the decor indoors is a bit daunting, think a Chinese luncheonette--and then we opened fire on the menu. We ordered until our heart's content--easy to do here, since almost no dish costs more than 10 Euros, and the banquet that followed was absolutely wonderful, which made it no surprise whatsoever that all of the other customers were Chinese. Among the dishes we decided to try were chopped pork ribs with salt and pepper, grilled Shanghai style dumplings, "soupe de ravioli," Szechuan style vegetables (pickled Kimchee style), "Aubergine a la sauce YuXiang," "Porc a l'ancienne," cold Szechuan noodles, and Fish with pickled cabbage.

Then there was a pause, and I jumped in. What about all of the abats? (innards and gizzards, which the menu also has in abundance). It seemed to me that we'd be chickening out if we did push our limits a bit. My suggestion was meet with a determined silence. "Do you really want to eat sauteed pork liver and kidneys, Alec?" queried Jerome, rather sardonically. Everyone laughed. "Well, why not?" I said, to a round of nervous giggles. So I ordered eels with hot pepper and pork tripe, both of which were delicious. In fact, these dishes, which I'd never seen on a Chinese menu in Paris before, were the stars of a meal in which there wasn't one dish that was outstanding.

Though the servers spoke wobbly French, they were very friendly, and a very decent bottle of Cotes de Provence rose ran a good-deal 10.80 Euros. Our total bill, for enough food to feed an army and two bottles of wine, came in a 25 Euros a person, a great buy indeed. They also have set price lunch menus from 6.90 Euros to 15.90 Euros, which makes this a terrific address for lunch for anyone who is going to the Centre Pompidou, and they'll be open the whole month of August. I can't wait to eat my way through the rest of the menu, too.

Restaurant Ba-Shu, 170 rue Saint Martin, 3rd, 01-48-87-87-38. Metro: Rambuteau. 

Brilliant Japanese Food in Montmartre

If you've read HUNGRY FOR PARIS, you know that I didn't include many foreign restaurants in the book. Only places that I found really exceptional, like Liza, a terrific Lebanese in the 2nd, made the cut, because I think most people come to Paris to eat French food. Tonight, however, I went to one of the best Japanese restaurants I've ever been to anywhere, Guilo Guilo in Montmartre, and it will certainly be included in any subsequent editions of HUNGRY FOR PARIS.

I've only ever been to Japan once, but seated at the counter of this delightful restaurant tonight, I realized that this single trip four years ago had had a big impact on me. Quite simply, I fell in love with Japan--the people, the food, and a culture that attaches so much importance to the aesthetic side of life. I ate some of the best food I've ever had during this trip, too, notably sushi at 4am at the Tokyo fish market, fresh soba (buckwheat noodles), and an amazing Buddhist vegetarian lunch at a temple south of Tokyo.

Unfortunately, most of what passes for Japanese food in large western cities very little resembles what you find in Japan. In fact a Japanese friend from Kyoto who recently passed through Paris told me he wouldn't touch the sushi served in western cities with a barge pole, or perhaps a very long chopstick. Why? He could see that the fish just wasn't fresh enough.

Guilo-Guilo is the new Paris address of renowned Kyoto chef Eichi Edakuni, a charming man who runs the open kitchen with the precision of an orchestra master. Edakuni explained that the name of his restaurant is a variant on the Italian expression "Giro-Giro," which means turn-turn, or a process of evolution. The reason he chose this term is that the single menu at his restaurant changes monthly. Assuming I'll be able to book a table every month, this means that I'll be looking forward to at least one spectacular meal in the future.

Our meal began with tempura of New Caledonian shrimp with an intriguing corn sauce, a dot of real wasabi and a chunk of mango, and it was an exquisite preview of what was to come. Next, a plump Gillardeau oyster cooked tempura style and served with a deep-fried chicken liver, a seaweed and sesame salad, and a sushi wrapped in a fried tofu wrapper. White miso soup with seaweed and a delicious dumpling of chopped sardine followed, and then an exquisite dish of mackerel mi-cuit (I watched Edakuni as he flamed the fish skin side up so that it became completely charred). The mackerel came with seaweed and creamy codfish eggs as a garnish. Next, drop dead good beignets of taro root and foie gras with a sauce of eel and mirin and garnish of enoki mushroom and okra. Finally, a cold noodle dish with sliced omelette, a grilled sardine, and pickled cabbage and bitter squash. Dessert was a green tea flan made with soy milk and garnished with watermelon balls marinated in lychee licquer.

This fabulous feast unfolded over the course of two hours and ran 45 Euros a head, a relative bargain given how astonishingly good the food was. Guilo-Guilo has a wonderful sake menu, and also serves wine by the glass--Edakuni told us that he finds that white Macon is the French wine that best teams with his cooking.

It took three weeks to get this reservation, and even then, we had to settle for the 7pm service (the second one begins at 9.30pm), so even though the restaurant is going to be closed for most of August, you should try and book asap if you're going to be in Paris in September.

Guilo-Guilo, 8 rue Garreau, 18th arrondissement, 01.43.54.23.92. Metro: Abbesses.