Le Mary Celeste & Le Richer - Brooklyn on the Seine - Not That There's Anything Wrong With That

Yeah, I know, I know - still blogging about Paris, even though we've been back for 2 weeks now. Whatevs, right?  I mean, when you're on vacation, how much do you actually want to sit at the computer and write (I think I did OK by posting 3 or 4 times)? But, now that we're back and I'm doing some reflecting, there's some stuff I missed, and since the very nature of a blog is self-indulgence, what the hell.  Also, by writing I get to refresh my memory - before I forget everything.

Now - where was I?  I wanted to talk about two places which, even though there are those who'll argue, reminded me of NYC - and since we're talking about hip, young and happening (not that I'm any of those), we might as well just call it, like I did in the title of this post, Brooklyn on the Seine.

Paris has changed a lot since the first time Significant Eater and I visited...at least a dozen or more years ago.  Cocktail places abound.  There's great coffee. And there are plenty of places to eat that don't take reservations, that have counters, that have lines waiting to get in...all unheard of back then, at least to these ears. Of course, since that's often the way we like to eat and drink, we had no problem at all dealing with the Brooklynish-ness of it all.

Take Le Mary Celeste - a fine place for cocktails and oysters. There's more on the menu, but we used it once as a nitecap place for Sazeracs and once as a pre-dinner place for Martinis and oysters...

Now, if anyone wants to argue with me about certain Paris eateries and drinkeries not trying to co-opt the alleged hipness of Brooklyn, I'd ask - what's with all the Brooklyn beer on tap? And what's with this...

Be that as it may, I love Brooklyn. Shit - I was born there. And the cocktails, the service and, indeed, the oysters at Le Mary Celeste, I would gladly consume any day of the week.

But what about Monday nights in Paris?  Used to be it was as hard as a Sunday night to find a place that was open. Not any more. Take Le Richer, in the 9er. No website, but a Facebook page, of course. No reservations, counter seats if you want 'em, open all day...just like...well, you know.

So in we wandered on a Monday evening, around 7:30 - and no, we weren't the first ones there, wiseguys.  Plenty of younger types - we were seated next to a party of 6 celebrating a birthday. Le menu...

Short and sweet, with 4 entrées and 4 plats. We began with a platter of this...

Which was quite delicious.  And since we'd had a big lunch earlier, Sig Eater just ordered an entrée for her dinner, the vitello tonnato, not exactly French, but a winner nonetheless...

I had a full plat, the lapin, simply the best rabbit I've ever eaten, so nice and juicy. Plates were cleaned.  Cheese and dessert were ordered - and shared. Not a traditional French meal in the least, but apparently the way some French men and women eat now.  A couple of cocktails to start, a bottle of wine, a bottle of water, and this great food - all at a very reasonable price.

So - Brooklyn on the Seine?  Not really. As much as they try, as many tattoos and piercings as they get, as many no-reservation, uncomfortable-counter seat places that open up, it'll still be Paris and the Seine, not the Gowanus Canal.

To Steven Shaw, An On-Line Food Pioneer

Much has been written about the passing, at the all-too-young age of 44, of Steven Shaw.

On eGullet, there's a multi-page thread devoted to the subject, and here's his obituary in the Times.  Practically everyone who has a blog has written their thoughts as well.

Here are mine:

I met Steven Shaw, at first online, and then in person a year or two later, when our families dined together at a fine Korean restaurant in NYC's Greenwich Village. We were never close friends, more so online acquaintances, but it never ceased to amaze me how much Steven enjoyed a good argument about food.

Co-founder, along with tech guru Jason Perlow, of the web forum eGullet.org, Steven's curiosity, work ethic and tireless devotion to all things delicious, were key factors in the development of the then nascent on-line world of food journalism. He practically saw this future, and was not afraid to dive head-first into a then seminal world.  

I've been a member of eGullet since 2002, including a 5+year stint as a volunteer host, and during that time I've made many friends, shared countless meals, hoisted numerous cocktails, cooked with people from near and far, and even started this, my own, self-indulgent blog.  Without Steven, would this have been possible?  Perhaps, but he sure made it easier for us all, by following his heart (and stomach) wherever it led him.

Here's to you Steven - may you be soigné-ed for all time.

Strozzapreti with Asparagus & Crispy Prosciutto - Know What I Mean?

Strozzapreti has interesting meanings; according to the wik, it means either priest stranglers or priest chokers, depending on who you ask (this is Italian, after all).  But it only has one meaning for me - and that's delicious.

So when I came home with a bunch of asparagus and some prosciutto, I decided to make a pasta for Significant Eater and me. I always try to match the pasta with the condimento (yeah, the sauce) I'm making and since asparagus was the main ingredient, I went looking for some penne in my cupboard, but staring back at me was a bag of strozzapreti, so that became the choice - and a great one, since this was an organic pasta from Emilia-Romagna.

I cut the asparagus into the same lengths as the strozzapreti, leaving behind the woody ends.  Then I blanched the asparagus in the pasta cooking water, while starting the sauce...it's easy to overcook asparagus, and the asparagus is going to get some more heat in the saucepan, so 2 to 3 minutes is plenty; don't forget to shock that asparagus after blanching - that way it keeps most of its nice, green color.

At the same time, I crisped up some of the prosciutto I had cut up in a tablespoon or two of good olive oil; after crisping, remove the ham, leaving the oil, and set it aside. Start the pasta, then slowly saute the garlic and hot pepper in the oil left in the pan, add the diced tomato, and when that all starts bubbling add the wine or vermouth and reduce till there's very little liquid left in the saucepan.  At this point, you can throw the asparagus back into the pan to bring it up to temp...

When the pasta is almost done, remove it directly to your saucepan with a strainer or slotted spoon - I use a Chinese strainer, aka spider, which scoops up large amounts of stuff and drains perfectly.  If you are going to pour the contents into a colander, make sure to save a cup or so of the pasta water - you need it!

Now toss the pasta with the sauce, turn the heat off, and start adding the Parmigiano and a little pasta water and keep tossing and tasting. Hot enough? Peppery enough? Salty enough? Cheesy enough? You know the drill...keep adding cheese, pasta water, and seasoning until it's to your liking...that's why you remove the pasta before it's fully cooked - it will keep cooking as you finish saucing it. Finally, right before plating, add the crispy prosciutto and give a final toss. A little more cheese and maybe some black pepper on top before serving, and you're set. Enjoy...and leave your priest alone...

Strozzapreti With Asparagus, Prosciutto, Tomato and Parmigiano-Reggiano

1/2 pound Strozzapreti (or penne, or whatever - just don't use a stupid shape)
1 bunch asparagus - about a pound
4 ounces prosciutto, cut up like the picture
1 Roma tomato, peeled, seeded and diced
2 ounces Parmigiano-Regiano, grated (yes, good Pecorino may sub)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. hot pepper flakes
1/2 cup white wine or dry vermouth
2 T good olive oil
Salt & Pepper

Method above.  Serves 4 as a primo, 2 as a secondo.

Le BAT and Bones - Two Winners, One Day

Who’d ever expect to find a damn good restaurant on a stretch of Parisian boulevard that looks like it could be located in the heart of tourist central Manhattan?  Stuck in between a Chipotle, McDonald’s, Starbucks, and yes, Subway, sits Le BAT, a relative newcomer to the restaurant scene in the City of Lights, though the major domos running the place bring along good pedigrees.  Entering, we’re struck by the size of the room, all tall ceilings and hard surfaces, with a large U-shaped bar where you can watch the cooks ply their craft. Meeting friends for lunch, however, we were seated at a nice, roomy table instead.

Le BAT’s lunch menu is simple; 2 courses are €22, 3 courses are €25, and the plats du jour run €16 each.  As in most Parisian restaurants, the 2-course dejeuner is your choice of entrée + plat or plat + dessert (or cheese). Significant Eater’s 2-course deal started with a beautiful entrée of marinated sardines. Gorgeous specimens these…

While I opted for the crab ravioli in a crabby, fennel-ly, saffron-ny bisque…

Quite delicious, these.  Moving on, Sig Eater’s plat was a quinoa (yeah, I know) salad topped with perfectly cooked shrimp, served with a side of some of the best tempura veggies (that includes you, Japanese restaurants in NYC) we’ve had recently...

My plat, since I’ve never met a hunk of pork I didn’t like, was great.  Check out the cooking on this piece of piggy, and the veggies that accompanied were sweet and luscious too…

A winner of a lunch, and of course getting to spend a bit of time with expat friends made it even better.

As if lunch wasn’t enough, dinner may have been even better. Bones is a year-old or so restaurant in Paris that’s getting a lot of love. With an Australian chef, it’s all the rage, as are any number of restaurants where the cooking is being done by non-French chefs, some of whom are cooking food that’s plenty French, but with some modern trucs. So it wasn’t that surprising when the second amuse here (the first was merely a thin slice of carrot enclosing a bit of uni mousse) was a single, Juniper smoked oyster that practically jumped off the plate with it’s pungency; but what a way to start a meal…

The real first course was another ocean-y treat: a scallop roe and konbu broth in which were floating little cubes of foie. Quite tasty…

Next course was asperge blanche aux casseron et encre, or white asparagus with cuttlefish and its ink. I think the only place I've had cuttlefish before was in Chinese restaurants - this dish, with the juicy white asparagus, surpassed any of those dishes by a kilometer...

Our main course was roasted loin of pig. Oh yeah, with some delicious accompaniments, including house-made choucroute, and a sauce of apple and scallop, but by this time we might've been in our cups, so to speak, and I have no picture and wasn't taking notes. Dessert, a gateau de carrote, with a fromage blanc sorbet, was a not too sweet ending to a fine meal. And while walking away, I took a shot so we'd be able to remember a quite fine day of dining. I mean, how often do you get two winners in a row?

You can see how slammed it is - there's actually a bar (and a bar menu) and tiny seating area for people who wander in, though many were being turned away.  

Le BAT

16 Boulevard Monmartre, 75009

+33 01 42 46 14 25

Bones

43 Rue Godefroy Cavaignac, 75011

+33 9 80 75 32 08

Restaurant David Toutain - Fancy Fun Food

Before I forget, Significant Eater and I had lunch at David Toutain's brand-newish restaurant (opened December, 2013) in the 7th this past Monday.  We generally don't dine in this neck of the woods - its pretty hoity-toity, if you know what I mean. But that doesn't mean we don't like heading over to this neck of the woods...after all, you have to in order to see a few of the sights Paris is famous for...

So, after reading much of the breathless praise lavished on Toutain's new venture, I added it to our dining schedule; dining being the only thing I actually schedule. David Toutain is one of (I'm guessing here) Paris' most lauded chefs - his resume includes stints at Mugaritz, L'Arpège and Corton; we're not talking a 3-week stage at Noma, if you know what I mean.

Amazingly, there's a 3-course lunch menu on offer for €42; there are 2 or 3 more expensive menus on offer as well, but at this point in our lives, 3-course lunches, especially if dinner plans have been made, are what we like to do. My food geekery was in full swing as soon as we were seated next to a bookshelf loaded with, well, books like this...

Yep, that's the French version of Modernist Cuisine.  And then the games began, with our first amuse...

You're looking at a pretty cool presentation of a salsify and parsnip cream in the edible tubes, meant to be dipped into the dollop of white chocolate emulsion; strange and strangely delicious. What followed was a more traditional amuse, a bite of beef tartare, with wild strawberries and hazelnut crunch...

Now we started our 3 actual courses, with this asparagus velouté, topped with a perfect 62°C egg...

As her soup course drew to a close, Sig Eater actually asked me if it was ok to lick the bowl.  Me, being the proper sort of person I am, said no - but the quite great bread was used to the same effect. The following mid-course appears to have been on the menu for a while, but we'd never tasted a such a combo - smoked eel served atop a black sesame emulsion. Hidden in the emulsion was a brunoise of green apple, adding a nice, tart, crunchy counterpoint to the richness of the eel and sesame...

Our main course followed, and it was a simple monkfish dish. Well, simple if you mean perfect monkfish served with roasted black carrot, orange carrot purée and orange reduction, amongst the swirls and swishes...

The palate cleanser was something in between a sorbet and ice cream, and since I don't remember what is was called, I'll just point out that it was a cauliflower/coconut thing, and it preceded this mille-feuille.  Our fantastic waiter/manager person (who had recently spent a year in San Francisco working at some of the top restaurants there) explained that the mille-feuille was actually baked in a waffle iron, giving it a different look than a traditional one. The cream is marjoram, the sorbet quenelle is cocoa. The whole was freaking delicious...

Of course, no 3-course meal is complete without mignardises to send you off...

And off we went, quite blown away by our 3-course lunch.  We had a lot of walking to do in order to prepare for dinner...

Restaurant David Toutain
29, rue Surcouf, 75007
+33 01 45 50 11 10