Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
I had a good meal at Le Waly Fe (sp?) once, compounded by the delighted 
astonishment when they offered to bag the leftovers to take home. It's 
African, but other than that I'm not sure. 

Everyone is always stunned that I go to Paris every January, but I 
generally have not had completely discouraging weather and it's perfect 
food weather. Not so good for picnics, but then I hate picnics. Although I 
did have one memorable picnic once where a french friend casually threw 
together a picnic of salami, which she just cut hunks off of with a knife 
in a very french way, cold omelet, and a strawberry tart that she just 
whipped out. and wine of course. It was in the Bois de Vincennes on a 
lovely summer evening. I don't have to have another picnic in Paris now 
that I've had the perfect one. 

Oh, and one thing that strikes me as interesting is the number of 
restaurants with cuisine from islands like Reunion, and other places you 
just never see here. 

 
  

    
My favorite African restaurant is Moussa l'Africain, 25-27 avenue
Corentin-Cariou, 19th, 01.40.36.13.00. The cooking is this huge lively
place (even more fun on Saturdays when they have concerts)is West
African, with a lot of Camerounais (from Cameroon) dishes like 
mafé, n’dolé, and poulet DG. Lots of fun and very African. 

My favorite Senegalais restaurant in the 20th closed recently, so I'm
now making Chicken Yassa at home (easy and delicious). 

Re "Creole" cooking, which in French parlance refers to the cooking of
both the French West Indies and the Francophone Indian ocean islands,
it's a little out of fashion right now. There used to be a fun
Seychellois place in the 13th and La Chamaree, which was
Franco-Mauritian had delicious food (it had a Michelin star) but stuffy
service and a dreary setting in the 7th arrondissement. The chef team
there has now moved to the Moulin de la Galette in Montmartre. 

If Parisian chefs are turned on by any particular part of the world
right now, it's southeast Asia, which has had a huge impact on the
cooking of such terrific chefs as Pascal Barbot at L'Astrance and
William Ledeuil at Ze Kitchen Galerie. 
  

    
Chicken yassa! That's what I had. Where do we find a recipe?
  

    
Alec, my friend reminded me that we got good pizza at La or Le or 
something Rughetta in Montmartre. I wish there were good pizza trucks in 
Paris like there are in the south of France. 
  

    
Here's one--there are lots more.  

>http://www.dianaskitchen.com/page/poultry/senegal.htm
  

    
Another one:

http://www.cookingcache.com/poultry/westafricanyassachicken.shtml

They all seem to use lemon or lime juice and a hot pepper like
habenero are jalapeno or habenero.
  

    
The chicken yassa that I've had in Dakar usually uses little bird's
eye peppers like the ones used in Italian or Caribbean dishes, plus
lots of thinly sliced onions and the poultry is often sauteed in peanut
oil. In Senegal, they usually use lemons instead of limes, too, and
some chefs add preserved Moroccan style lemons. It's a perfect and
relatively easy dish that's great for parties. 
  

    
Re the sad state of pizza in Paris, on this rainy night I went to a
place in the 9th arrondissement that's been highly recommended, La
Pizzetta, and it was a crashing disappointment. Too expensive, service
with attitude, etc. 

On the other hand, I had a spectacular lunch at Laurent (41 Avenue
Gabriel, 8th, 01.42.25.00.39, www.le-laurent.com). It's mind-blowingly
expensive (I was invited by a rich friend from Johannesberg), but the
patio garden is a magical place for a meal, and I loved my main
course--steam sole with plump Pantelleria capers, white asparagus, and
a sauce of pureed chorizo and Basque peppers. The cheese course was
amazing, too--from Quatrehommes in the rue de Sevres, and they had
Maroilles, one of my favorite cheeses, and a rare one--they're only a
few producers left in the north of France where it comes from. 
  

    
You know, some of the menus you mention eating in your book, and the one 
at Laurent -- really suggest a Spanish influence. Are you seeing that in 
Paris?
  

    
The Spanish influence in contemporary French food is most pronounced
by the fact that France and Spain share the Basque Country
(southwestern France, Northwestern Spain), which is one of the most
spectacular destination for good eating in the world. On both sides of
the border, the food is absolutely brilliant. For a long time, Saint
Sebastian, in Spain, has been the best food city in that country. More
recently, the French Basque country has become a hot food destination.
Why? They have superb produce--great seafood, wonderful cheeses, good
meat, great wines, and a new generation of talented young French chefs
have chosen to settle in this part of the country. Two great addresses
that show off the best of contemporary French Basque cooking are
L'Auberge Basque in Saint Pee and Hegia near Hasparren.
  

    
In my book HUNGRY FOR PARIS, I blast Parisian brasseries as offering
some of the worst eating in the capital and of taking advantage of the
tourist trade (places like La Coupole, Bofinger, etc. are in all
guidebooks). Has anyone had a really good or a really bad meal in a
Paris brasserie lately?
  

    
Alec, my understanding is that brasseries originally served Alsatian food 
and beer, but the places that are called "brasseries" now just seem like 
big restaurants to me. Could you elaborate a little on what a brasserie 
is? 

I like walking by Bofinger on Sunday afternoon, because lots of very 
conservative families with super dressed up kids seem to go there for a 
big lunch (conservatively dressed anyway). But I have never gone in. 

There's a place at the Place de la Republique that has flowers in baskets 
all over the facade, and I have been told it doesn't totally suck, but ... 
faint praise and limited time in Paris means I have not bothered to check 
it out. 

It could be time for brasserie nouveau, with artisanal sausages and beer. 
  

    
re: <60>, let me renew my plug for Hamaika, in the 1st, 11 JJ
Rousseau. Not haut, but excellent, affordable, genial and full of daily
specials.
  

    
Brasserie means "brewery" in French, and the name comes from the fact
that breweries in Alsace started the tradition of serving simple food
in little taverns adjacent to the brew houses. After the
Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), when Germany snatched Alsace and a big
hunk of La Lorraine, Alsatians scattered all over France, and many
moved to Paris, where they re-launched the beer tavern tradition,
serving choucroute garni (sauerkraut with charcuterie), and cold meat
and cheese plates to accompany big mugs of beer. These places proved
popular, and as the competition thickened, the Parisian brasserie as it
exists today was born--shellfish stand out front, fast service, grand
decor, and a menu of quickly cooked mostly grilled dishes was born.

Unfortunately, most of the brasseries were bought out by one of two
restaurant chains by the late 90s (Flo and the Freres Blanc), and their
quality went right off the cliff. This is why I tell people to just
say no when it comes to brasseries in Paris today. 
  

    
Do you know of any brew pubs, Alec? That serve their own beer? 
  

    
Kayo,

It sure is time for a brasserie renaissance, but I'm not holding my
breathe. The place that could change the idiom is a new restaurant that
will open in July 2009 in the back of the Opera Garnier at the
street-level. The chef will be Nicholas le Bec, a terrific two-star
chef from Lyon, and if there's any chance that the brasserie will stage
a comeback for the 21st century, this is it.

The place near the Place de la Republique is called Chez Jenny, and
even though the mostly Alsatian food is better than average, I don't go
there because it's too popular for big dinner's of the far-right Front
National.
  

    
The best places for brew pub culture in France are Rennes (Bretons
love beer, lots of students), Lille (northern French also love beer)
and Strasbourg (ditto). 
  

    
But if you're really into beer, cross the border into Belgium, where
it's a religion.  In Brittany, my drink of preference is the cidre a
pression, the hard cider on tap in the bars; great with crepes, even
greater with fresh breton oysters.
  

    
Belgium does do the best beer in Europe (with all due respects to the
Czechs), and I love cider, too. They make pear cider in Normandy and
it's amazing with Norman cheese like Pont l'Eveque, Livarot, etc.

You can sample a lot of regional delicacies like pear cider without
leaving Paris, but many visitors never really discover the cities
wonderful French regional kitchens. Among my favorite are L'Ambassade
d'Auvergne (killer good Aligot--potatoes whipped with cheese curds and
garlic), Breizh Cafe (excellent crepes in the Marais), and Au Bascou
(good Basque cooking). All of these places are in my book.
  

    
Norman pear cider is heaven in a glass. 
  

    

oh man. aligot! love that stuff. interesting about the brasseries. thanks!


i am not a fan of belgian beers for the most part-- not my style. but here
(SF) a few places have opened up that have huge beer lists, and the pricing
is wine-level. the belgian beer fetishists go crazy for it, but i prefer
west coast style microbrews.

it never occurs to me to have a beer in paris!
  

    
Turns out I love cheese from Normandy! I guess I'm really not up on cheese 
provenance. 

Many years ago I was taken to a cheese restaurant where one of the 
selections was "Puant de Belgique" which was presented to me as "stinky 
cheese of Belgium"
  

    
Also, with respect to Chez Jenny, noted about the National Front. Not 
going there. Weirdly, when I was in Paris in January I saw posters up all 
around Republique commemorating the French monarchy (there is some kind of 
service every January in a church near the Louvre, and I suppose other 
kind of unsavory events relating to ... I dunno what the significance of 
the date is). I took a picture; a couple hours later they were all torn 
down. 
  

    
Alec, the talk about world cuisine and diversity reminds me to ask if
you have eaten at Pinxo, Alan Dutournier's small-plates restaurant in
the Plaza Vendome (1er)?  The concept of world-fusion small plates
seemed to be somewhat new to Paris, and while the ingredients were
mostly sourced from France (it emphasizes the Southwest, where
Dutournier is from), the presentation and concept was, well,
globalist.  (A description of our meal can be found here:
<chow.ind.324.929> .)

In short, the food and service were excellent, and I'd recommend it to 
anyone, but I guess the point is that it was a meal you could have
eaten in New York, London, Tokyo, or San Francisco. And Parisians seem
a little, I don't know, resistant, perhaps to that. One thing that
stood out -- I don't know if they still do it -- was that all the
menus were in English (!), perhaps trying to make a point. 

The other thing was that the plates come divided into portions, with
the intent that patrons share them (mais non! l'audace!), but at other
tables, locals were manifestly NOT doing that, and kept to the traditional
entree-plat-dessert mode.  We pleased the waiter by sharing (and were
rewarded with a glass of eau de vie, on him, for our courage). 
  

    
I'm so glad I remembered to come over to inkwell and read this topic. Now 
I think I will reread it, because there's so much good info and 
interesting stuff.

I don't get to Paris anywhere near as often as kayo, but I also love it 
and I have been going there since 1950. I've only been there with kayo 
once, though. I would happily move there.

I'm very interested by what you say about Basque cooking, because I am 
a huge fan of Basque food -- I'm looking forward to trying the Basque 
places in Paris that you recommend. I lived in Biarritz briefly (like 8 
months I think) as a child; we lived in a hotel where the Basque 
proprietor, Madame Otondo, cooked us an incredible exquisite dinner 6 
nights a week. I still remember specific dishes and tastes, and her soup 
will always be my standard for soup. 

I'm adding inkwell to my conflist while this interview is running.