Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
European Union and Cooperation (Spain)
Directorate Of International
Payment And Transfer.
Debt Reconciliation/Audit Unit MAEUEC /
Sede Palacio de Santa Cruz
Plaza de la Provincia, 3
28012 MADRID
Ref: SP/EU/XX951
Unit MAEUEC.
IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF YOUR FUND US$1.5M ONLY VIA ATM MASTER CARD OR BY CHECK
It is a pleasure to write you that we have reconciled with our logistic department on the reimbursement of some fund spent by you during the cause of your
Inadequate dealings with some impostors who claim to be staff in banks and other regional payment centers. Our reconciliation teams with the prospectus
instruments of the United Nations after freezing suspected impostors accounts. These supports was fully effective with the help of World Bank after a summit meeting in EUROPE, on the financial analysis on financial stability issues fluctuating their economy with the international global standard.
After gathering of this sum, our logistic department gave us a list of customers to be paid the sum Eur 1.5m (One million, Five hundred thousand Euros)
Who fell victims to these impostors due to unawareness And mode of payment was as well specified for proper conducts and financial regulations to kick against
Criminality during process of payment. We have arranged your payment through our swift card centers, which is the latest instruction from International Monetary Fund Reconciliation Office.
The card centre will send you an ATM master card loaded with cash which you will use to withdraw your money in any ATM centre, Banks and Union Pay Credit outlets
in the world, or a satisfy cheque to your mailing address You are hereby selected as an honor for this payment approval, which you are to acknowledge the receipt of this mail in returning the required below to the Bank Department. For more information Contact Barrister.Fenado Garcia Bernal Legal practitioner , Tfno/Fax:+34-6319-50-465 E-mail: rojichambers@lawyer.com
Finally; for the purpose of proper verification of your claims, it is imperative that you furnish us with the following of
your details necessary to process release/remittance of your payment:
1) YOUR FULL NAME(S).................
2) FULL ADDRESS, CITY ( FOR ATM Card or cheque DELIVERY) ................
3) STATE.............................
4) COUNTRY ... .............................
3) DIRECT HOME.......................
4) MOBILE PHONE AND FAX..............
4) COMPANY NAME......................
5) POSITION AND ADDRESS (IF ANY).....
6) PROFESSION........................
8) AGE, AND MARITAL STATUS:...............
9) A COPY OF YOUR INT'L PASSPORT/DRIVERS LICENSE:
For your information, you have to stop any further communication with any other person (s) or office (s) to avoid any hitches in receiving your payment.
Because of Impostors, we hereby issued you our code of conduct, which is (ATM-7750) so you have to indicate this code when contacting the Card centre by using it as your subject.
Kindly be informed that recipients shall be liable to all cost arising for the delivery of the donation parcel. This is due to Legal law protecting all donation funds misappropriation.
Yours in Service,
Antуnio Guterres
Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
European Union
Coordinator.
NOTICE: This E-mail (including attachments) is covered by the
Electronic Communication Privacy Acts, 18 U.S.C Sec 2510-2521, is
confidential and may be legally privileged. The information is solely
for the use of the addressee named above. If you are not the intended
recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution, or other use of the
contents of this information is strictly prohibited. If you have
received this E-mail in error, please notify us by return e-mail and
delete this message.
January 02, 2009
Info
Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
European Union and Cooperation (Spain)
Directorate Of International
Payment And Transfer.
Debt Reconciliation/Audit Unit MAEUEC /
Sede Palacio de Santa Cruz
Plaza de la Provincia, 3
28012 MADRID
Ref: SP/EU/XX951
Unit MAEUEC.
IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF YOUR FUND EUR 1.5M ONLY VIA ATM MASTER CARD OR BY CHECK
It is a pleasure to write you that we have reconciled with our logistic department on the reimbursement of some fund spent by you during the cause of your
Inadequate dealings with some impostors who claim to be staff in banks and other regional payment centers. Our reconciliation teams with the prospectus
instruments of the United Nations after freezing suspected impostors accounts. These supports was fully effective with the help of World Bank after a summit meeting in EUROPE, on the financial analysis on financial stability issues fluctuating their economy with the international global standard.
After gathering of this sum, our logistic department gave us a list of customers to be paid the sum Eur 1.5m (One million, Five hundred thousand Euros)
Who fell victims to these impostors due to unawareness And mode of payment was as well specified for proper conducts and financial regulations to kick against
Criminality during process of payment. We have arranged your payment through our swift card centers, which is the latest instruction from International Monetary Fund Reconciliation Office.
The card centre will send you an ATM master card loaded with cash which you will use to withdraw your money in any ATM centre, Banks and Union Pay Credit outlets
in the world, or a satisfy cheque to your mailing address You are hereby selected as an honor for this payment approval, which you are to acknowledge the receipt of this mail in returning the required below to the Bank Department. For more information Contact Barrister.Fenado Garcia Bernal Legal practitioner , Tfno/Fax:+34-632 572 471 E-mail: rojichambers@lawyer.com
Finally; for the purpose of proper verification of your claims, it is imperative that you furnish us with the following of
your details necessary to process release/remittance of your payment:
1) YOUR FULL NAME(S).................
2) FULL ADDRESS, CITY ( FOR ATM Card or cheque DELIVERY) ................
3) STATE.............................
4) COUNTRY ... .............................
3) DIRECT HOME.......................
4) MOBILE PHONE AND FAX..............
4) COMPANY NAME......................
5) POSITION AND ADDRESS (IF ANY).....
6) PROFESSION........................
8) AGE, AND MARITAL STATUS:...............
9) A COPY OF YOUR INT'L PASSPORT/DRIVERS LICENSE:
For your information, you have to stop any further communication with any other person (s) or office (s) to avoid any hitches in receiving your payment.
Because of Impostors, we hereby issued you our code of conduct, which is (ATM-7750) so you have to indicate this code when contacting the Card centre by using it as your subject.
Kindly be informed that recipients shall be liable to all cost arising for the delivery of the donation parcel. This is due to Legal law protecting all donation funds misappropriation.
Yours in Service,
Antуnio Guterres
Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
European Union
Coordinator.
NOTICE: This E-mail (including attachments) is covered by the
Electronic Communication Privacy Acts, 18 U.S.C Sec 2510-2521, is
confidential and may be legally privileged. The information is solely
for the use of the addressee named above. If you are not the intended
recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution, or other use of the
contents of this information is strictly prohibited. If you have
received this E-mail in error, please notify us by return e-mail and
delete this message.
European Union and Cooperation (Spain)
Directorate Of International
Payment And Transfer.
Debt Reconciliation/Audit Unit MAEUEC /
Sede Palacio de Santa Cruz
Plaza de la Provincia, 3
28012 MADRID
Ref: SP/EU/XX951
Unit MAEUEC.
IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF YOUR FUND EUR 1.5M ONLY VIA ATM MASTER CARD OR BY CHECK
It is a pleasure to write you that we have reconciled with our logistic department on the reimbursement of some fund spent by you during the cause of your
Inadequate dealings with some impostors who claim to be staff in banks and other regional payment centers. Our reconciliation teams with the prospectus
instruments of the United Nations after freezing suspected impostors accounts. These supports was fully effective with the help of World Bank after a summit meeting in EUROPE, on the financial analysis on financial stability issues fluctuating their economy with the international global standard.
After gathering of this sum, our logistic department gave us a list of customers to be paid the sum Eur 1.5m (One million, Five hundred thousand Euros)
Who fell victims to these impostors due to unawareness And mode of payment was as well specified for proper conducts and financial regulations to kick against
Criminality during process of payment. We have arranged your payment through our swift card centers, which is the latest instruction from International Monetary Fund Reconciliation Office.
The card centre will send you an ATM master card loaded with cash which you will use to withdraw your money in any ATM centre, Banks and Union Pay Credit outlets
in the world, or a satisfy cheque to your mailing address You are hereby selected as an honor for this payment approval, which you are to acknowledge the receipt of this mail in returning the required below to the Bank Department. For more information Contact Barrister.Fenado Garcia Bernal Legal practitioner , Tfno/Fax:+34-632 572 471 E-mail: rojichambers@lawyer.com
Finally; for the purpose of proper verification of your claims, it is imperative that you furnish us with the following of
your details necessary to process release/remittance of your payment:
1) YOUR FULL NAME(S).................
2) FULL ADDRESS, CITY ( FOR ATM Card or cheque DELIVERY) ................
3) STATE.............................
4) COUNTRY ... .............................
3) DIRECT HOME.......................
4) MOBILE PHONE AND FAX..............
4) COMPANY NAME......................
5) POSITION AND ADDRESS (IF ANY).....
6) PROFESSION........................
8) AGE, AND MARITAL STATUS:...............
9) A COPY OF YOUR INT'L PASSPORT/DRIVERS LICENSE:
For your information, you have to stop any further communication with any other person (s) or office (s) to avoid any hitches in receiving your payment.
Because of Impostors, we hereby issued you our code of conduct, which is (ATM-7750) so you have to indicate this code when contacting the Card centre by using it as your subject.
Kindly be informed that recipients shall be liable to all cost arising for the delivery of the donation parcel. This is due to Legal law protecting all donation funds misappropriation.
Yours in Service,
Antуnio Guterres
Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
European Union
Coordinator.
NOTICE: This E-mail (including attachments) is covered by the
Electronic Communication Privacy Acts, 18 U.S.C Sec 2510-2521, is
confidential and may be legally privileged. The information is solely
for the use of the addressee named above. If you are not the intended
recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution, or other use of the
contents of this information is strictly prohibited. If you have
received this E-mail in error, please notify us by return e-mail and
delete this message.
January 02, 2008
Bonjiorno Milano!
Kind of like the SOUTHWEST of Europe, Katy and I were able to get tickets from Paris to Milan on EASYJET for just $80 or so each. Like Southwest, Easyjet is a first-come, first-serve, no-reserved-seat airline with very cheap pricing. But they do have new planes, and the flight was easy and we arrived into Malpensa with little drama, although the flight was delayed about 30-40 minutes. Most shockingly, though, was the baggage service.
When we arrive at JFK or SFO, we can generally count on a good 45min to an hour wait until we see our bags. We showed up at the baggage claim area at Malpensa...5 min later the conveyor belt starts moving...5 bags in are both of our bags. It was like a dream about what baggage claim should be!!!
On the other hand, the taxi ride from Malpensa to our hotel in the middle of Milan was less dreamy. Who would have thunk that the taxi would take nearly an hour and 75 euro (over $100) to get into town? Ouch. But we got to our hotel, the Westin Palace Milan, in the heart of the city at the Piazza Repubblica, and settled into a very large room...perhaps 3 times the size of our hotel room at the nice, but petite Hotel Bel Ami in Paris.
While still in Paris, I looked up an old friend of mine, Piero Scotti, from my SGI days who used to work in the SGI office in Milan. I hadn't talked to him in years, but thank yahweh for social networking services...it took all of 5 min for me to track him down. While in Paris, we exchanged e-mail catching up on the past 10 or so years and agreed to meet for dinner in Milan the night that Katy and I arrived.
Chowhound and Fodors seemed to agree that a restaurant called La Milanese was good for classic Milanese cooking, so I called the Westin while still in Paris to ask them to book us a table there...which the concierge very considerately did. Our late arrival at Malpensa and the long ride into town resulted in me being late to the restaurant by perhaps 30 min, but thankfully Piero was as well. Katy was feeling a bit under the weather, so we agreed that she should focus on her health and I went off to meet Piero on my own.
Taking the taxi into the center of old Milan, I arrived at the restaurant...located on a street that was barely wider than the taxi itself - very charming. My only concern was that the restaurant, which both Chowhounders and Fodors had called La Milanese was called Trattoria Milanese. This was the right address, I thought, but the name was different. In a bit of a panic, I called the concierge at the Westin and, even though he wordlessly booked the restaurant for me, told me that "there is no La Milanese - Trattoria Milanese is the name of the restaurant". Whew!
I think I'll have to have a word with Mr. Fodor.
Piero met me there and it was like no decade had passed between us at all. I had gotten on with him better than perhaps anyone at SGI in Europe and he and his wife had entertained me before. It turns out that he had moved from the Milan area to Umbria, where his wife is in city management in Todi and where they purchased a 600 year old mill house that they've been restoring.
Although I've always been in love with France, Italia (yes, Lisa, you were right) was starting to sing its siren song to me...
When we arrive at JFK or SFO, we can generally count on a good 45min to an hour wait until we see our bags. We showed up at the baggage claim area at Malpensa...5 min later the conveyor belt starts moving...5 bags in are both of our bags. It was like a dream about what baggage claim should be!!!
On the other hand, the taxi ride from Malpensa to our hotel in the middle of Milan was less dreamy. Who would have thunk that the taxi would take nearly an hour and 75 euro (over $100) to get into town? Ouch. But we got to our hotel, the Westin Palace Milan, in the heart of the city at the Piazza Repubblica, and settled into a very large room...perhaps 3 times the size of our hotel room at the nice, but petite Hotel Bel Ami in Paris.
While still in Paris, I looked up an old friend of mine, Piero Scotti, from my SGI days who used to work in the SGI office in Milan. I hadn't talked to him in years, but thank yahweh for social networking services...it took all of 5 min for me to track him down. While in Paris, we exchanged e-mail catching up on the past 10 or so years and agreed to meet for dinner in Milan the night that Katy and I arrived.
Chowhound and Fodors seemed to agree that a restaurant called La Milanese was good for classic Milanese cooking, so I called the Westin while still in Paris to ask them to book us a table there...which the concierge very considerately did. Our late arrival at Malpensa and the long ride into town resulted in me being late to the restaurant by perhaps 30 min, but thankfully Piero was as well. Katy was feeling a bit under the weather, so we agreed that she should focus on her health and I went off to meet Piero on my own.
Taking the taxi into the center of old Milan, I arrived at the restaurant...located on a street that was barely wider than the taxi itself - very charming. My only concern was that the restaurant, which both Chowhounders and Fodors had called La Milanese was called Trattoria Milanese. This was the right address, I thought, but the name was different. In a bit of a panic, I called the concierge at the Westin and, even though he wordlessly booked the restaurant for me, told me that "there is no La Milanese - Trattoria Milanese is the name of the restaurant". Whew!
I think I'll have to have a word with Mr. Fodor.
Piero met me there and it was like no decade had passed between us at all. I had gotten on with him better than perhaps anyone at SGI in Europe and he and his wife had entertained me before. It turns out that he had moved from the Milan area to Umbria, where his wife is in city management in Todi and where they purchased a 600 year old mill house that they've been restoring.
Swedish penis enlargers Restoring old houses is my bag, baby!
Although I've always been in love with France, Italia (yes, Lisa, you were right) was starting to sing its siren song to me...
January 01, 2008
Farewell Paris!
Well, after nearly seven beautiful, interesting, and inspirational weeks, the time had come to bid Paris adieu.Katy was done with her work and we were off to Milan for the next phase of her project. Just four more days and we'd be off to Rome for our long-awaited vacation (since we actually had planned to be in Rome and Puglia in May of 2007 so that we could visit Katy's uncle Herb and aunt Joey in Rome, but we were forced to cancel since Katy had some critical work at the time and couldn't afford the time).
The departure was bittersweet. Paris was lit up in its Christmas glory. I had gotten a couple of great last-minute meals on my own while Katy was off at work (notably chef/owner Christian Constant's Les Cocottes where everything is served in a cocotte [basically a cast-iron covered cooking pot in various sizes - typically manufactured by Le Creuset or Staub], be it the velouté de potiron [pumpkin soup], the main or the dessert). I had walked around a little more to take in the last of the Parisien ambiance, and said my silent goodbyes.On our last day, true to Paris form, we had a special treat. Searching for one last hot chocolate before leaving town, I took Katy to Steiger for that melted-dark-chocolate-bar cup of yumminess. Uh...no. Not doing hot chocolate today. Ugh. OK. Plan B. Head over to that standby classic of Paris hot chocolate luxury - Angelina's. Score! No big line of tourists out the door...they sat us in less than 5 minutes...and we had a wonderful salad (with foie gras, thank you very much) and a croque monsieur and, of course, their marvelous chocolat chaud.
Taking a taxi back to our hotel from Angelina's before heading to the airport, we got into a cab near the Rue Rivoli, told the driver where our hotel was, then this little guy peeks up over the passenger seat. Awwwwwwwww. What a nice way to end our visit!Ciao, Italia!
A sweet farewell...
Before Katy wrapped up her work in Paris and before we headed off to Milan for the next stage of her project, I stopped off at the shop of one of my favorite Pastry chefs, Pierre Hermé. At home in San Francisco, I have two of his cookbooks and I have used them extensively and with tremendous results. I just had to visit his palais de chocolat!
As a little present to Katy, I purchased a variety of his macarons - but not your garden variety Chocolate, Raspberry or Hazelnut. No...I got:
As a little present to Katy, I purchased a variety of his macarons - but not your garden variety Chocolate, Raspberry or Hazelnut. No...I got:- Vanilla (well, the girl just loves them, so this one was a gimme)
- Caramel w/Fleur de Sel
- Olive Oil Vanilla
- White Truffle
- Black Truffle
- Foie Gras
Katy, Girls. Girls, Katy.
Since I'd been blathering on about Katy to my classmates for the whole of the 6 weeks that I was in school, and since two of my classmates, Sarah and Suzie, had taken on 1-week internships in the main kitchen of the Ritz and thus were still in town, I set up a lunch date so that they could meet Katy. One of our other classmates, Yuko, was in Paris for an extended stay and was getting ready to start more courses, so she was able to join us as well.Sarah and Suzie were spending 8+ hours each day prepping vegetables, learning new techniques and recipes, and even plating some dishes...for paying customers...very cool.
Going through my research notes about where to eat in Paris, I kept seeing the name of one restaurant show up over and over on Chowhound and elsewhere. Mon Vieil Ami is a bistro just a couple of blocks away from Notre Dame, but on the Ile Saint Louis (Notre Dame is on the adjacent Ile de la Cité). Set in a very old building right on the main street that runs down the center of the island, they've chosen to "hip it up" a little - using modern tables, chairs and design, but retaining the amazing old exposed stone walls and enormous dark wood ceiling beams.
Suzie and Sarah met Katy and me at the Saint Germain metro stop nearest our hotel and we walked the mile or so to the bistro, meeting Yuko there. The day was beautifully sunny, but the wind was blowing and it was fri-gid! It wasn't unbearable as long as you kept moving, but it was certainly bracing.
We arrived at the restaurant and they sat us at a tall communal table to the left of the entry - there are also separate tables around the restaurant for parties of 2 or 4. The French couple seated right next to us greeted us as well...and became conversation partners through the rest of our meal...some in French, largely in English. The husband travelled the world for business, so he had been everywhere that each of us lived. Cool guy. I just have to say that I've sat next to more nice people and started some great conversations over lunches and dinners in Paris. It was truly a warm place to be...even when it was cold.
Mon Vieil Ami is a modern bistro by Antoine Westermann specializes in Alsacienne cuisine, so there are german influences, various stews, soups, etc. We were blown away. The food was absolutely fabulous, but if you should choose to go, I heartily recommend sharing - the portions were huge - particularly the stews. I had a soup to start with cooked shrimp and decorative vegetables and herbs onto which they poured a lovely chestnut velouté (like a purée). I followed that with a 
Confit de Veau with roasted vegetables and fresh noodles served in a large dutch oven that was both huge and uh-maze-ing. 
Suzie had this fabulous duck, also served in a dutch oven, perfectly cooked and seasoned, properly warm, and particularly enjoyable since it was not your traditional Parisienne bistro magret or confit.The waiter was responsive, efficient...and had a very wry sense of humor. The only thing that caught me off guard was the wine.
I told him what we were having and what style of wine we were looking for. Rather than the typical pulling out of the wine list, pointing out various options and describing them, he just said "Ah", then walked off. He came back with a bottle of wine which, naturally, I expected he would show to me and describe. Nope. With nary a word, he opened the bottle and poured. I was a little shocked, but I tried it...and the wine was lovely...but I'd never had a waiter or sommelier do that before and wasn't sure that I liked the presumption. Nevertheless, it turned out well and he was great overall, so this is just an observation, not a complaint.
Over the course of nearly two hours, Katy, I and the girls enjoyed our several courses, Katy got to get a feel for my new friends and what it was like when we were all bantering back and forth at school every day, and we made some connections that I hope we can keep over the years as our travels bring us to Sarah's UK and China, Suzie's Thailand, and Yuko's Japan.At the end of the day, we had a tremendous time and I can't help but recommend it - Mon Vieil Ami was truly fabulous.
She's here! She's here!
Well, it was a few weeks ago, and "here" was Paris at the time, but I was pretty excited that after 6 weeks apart, Katy arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport on Dec 13th. We had planned to vacation together in Italy after my class, but by an amazing stroke of luck and fortunate timing, she and her company won a bid for a research project in Europe that would require a researcher in Paris and Milan starting just a week after the end of my classes!Boo-ya!
So now I have to thank her company, Cheskin, for bringin' my baby back to me.
"Thank you, Cheskin!"
I do have a question for the airport authorities at CDG, though. Looking at this warning sign to the left of the passenger exit from customs, I have to wonder...what the heck is a person if they're not a "physical person"?And with all of the hoopla in the US of A about Illegal Immigrants, why is it either (a) a problem to be a "legal person" or (b) 10 times as expensive a fine if you're a "legal person" versus a "physical person"?
Arunh?
Whatever. The girl's here. I'm happy.
Dinner with the Gang of Four
With the end of our program approaching a few weeks ago, a few of my classmates and I decided to go to a restaurant - 404 - (which I'd been praising to them for some time) for a kind of farewell dinner. I'd been suggesting that they all go for a while, but with my time in Paris running out and us all soon to part, we chose that as our group destination. I knew that it was in the 3rd arrondissement, which started right around the corner from my apartment, but only when I ran their address through Google Maps did I realize that it was a scant 400 paces from my front door. Well...I was just getting to know my way around this town and that was a happy surprise.Katy and I had learned about this fabulous and hip Moroccan restaurant from our friend Iana last year and had gone there while we were in Paris for my 45th birthday and had just loved it. Started by the same owner as the fun and delicious Momo in London (which Katy, but not I, had been to and loved), 404 kicks out chill Moroccan lounge music while serving delectable Pastilla, Tajine, and Cous Cous.
I had even recommended it to a nice Aussie family that I met a couple of nights earlier over dinner and, oddly, they showed up shortly after we were seated and sat at the next table. Spooky.
That's me and my gal pals (Jessica, Sarah, Suzie, and Yuko).
What's up with the French and Woody Allen?
I'd always heard that the French had some odd obsessions with Jerry Lewis and Woody Allen (but not as a couple, I don't believe). Being in Paris for even a short time, the Woody side of that equation quickly became inarguable. In the Etats Unis (US) these days, Woody isn't terribly visible on a day-to-day basis, but in Paris, he's the king of the town (roi de ville). There's a movie of his (Cassandra's Dream), a play, magazine covers with his mug, and numerous best-selling books lining the front shelves of bookstores with huge 64-point type on their covers proclaiming WOODY. Oy.
My god it's been a long time...
To all my fearless readers, I apologize.
Today I have about 10 or 15 entries to create since I have been largely without Internet access for...gasp...two weeks. Since moving out of my apartment in Paris on Dec 13th, I was in a series of hotels with poor or very expensive Internet access and couldn't get online. Now I'm in NY and thankful to our friend Mara for giving me back my electronic lifeline...
Happy New Year, everybody.
Today I have about 10 or 15 entries to create since I have been largely without Internet access for...gasp...two weeks. Since moving out of my apartment in Paris on Dec 13th, I was in a series of hotels with poor or very expensive Internet access and couldn't get online. Now I'm in NY and thankful to our friend Mara for giving me back my electronic lifeline...
Happy New Year, everybody.
December 14, 2007
I love the nightlife, I want to boogie
...well, maybe not. But I did have some fun a couple of weeks ago when my Greek friend, Kimon, asked me to join him one evening at the Buddha Bar. He was friends with the DJ (of course) and was trying to recruit the bartender to come consult for him at his hotel in Thessaloníki. 
Given that we weren't supposed to get there until around 10PM, I was a tad reluctant (since we did have class the next morning), but Kimon is Greek! No problem! We never go out before 10PM! We always work the next morning!Perhaps if I had accepted a little more training from the inimitable Stephan W., I would have been better prepared. You see, when I go out to dinner or grab a drink back home, it's one glass of wine - or if I'm going crazy, maybe two. Going to the Buddha Bar with Kimon, it's a glass of wine, followed by a Long Island Ice Tea (that
Kimon so thoughtfully ordered for me), followed by a 
vanilla vodka shot (that Kimon so considerately arranged for us w/his new bartender friend), followed by a rhubarb shot (quite delicious and graciously called for by...ummm...what's his name?), followed by the cucumber shot (lovely and soft and...no...wait...it's Kimon, right?), and some other something or other thing I...uh...what was I saying?
December 13, 2007
Man About Town
During my sojourn here, I've been trying to capture a little of what the experience has been like walking around Paris and visiting the countryside (which, so far, I've only done once, thanks to Pierre and his mother, Stephanie).Thanks to a turn in life 20 years ago when I lived with some architecture grad students in Ann Arbor Michigan, I have long been interested in and have appreciated architecture - not only for how it looks, but what images and memories it can conjure, how it interacts with its surroundings
and with the people whom it serves, how it plays with, focuses, and delivers light, and how elegantly it does (or does not, all too often) serves its purpose.
Doing residential projects in the US, I think about all of these things a lot. Being here in Paris, surrounded by so many beautiful buildings and structures, I can't help but think of it every day.One of the things that I think about constantly here is how much craftsmanship was and is involved in many of these structures. While the trend for many years has been towards a minimalist form of modern architecture, with extensive use of steel, glass, and concrete, I have always found these structures cold and impersonal. Not 100% of them, but most.
Through the use of geometric qualities like sharp angles (Louis Kahn) and huge spaces (the new American Airlines terminal in NYC), I feel that much of this architecture is impressive in CAD and when viewed as an abstraction, but while some of these structures have played interesting games with light and form, the loss of connection to human scale and to a connection with the earth or with people has disturbed me.The grand architecture of Paris, realized in edifices like the Petite Palais (see photo) and the Grand Palais, the bridges across the Seine, the cathedrals
, and the thousands of 16th, 17th, and 18th century buildings also suffer, at times from a crisis of proportion - 
they were meant to impress - but unlike the huge expanses of steel, concrete and glass that are found in modern structures, the human touch is to be found in every square inch of these monuments to craftsmanship. The detailed carved stone, mosaics, leaded-glass windows, light fixtures, ironwork, and sculptures each call out for your focused attention and alert you to the human touch that went into crafting each little part. The big modern slab concepts could just as well have been formed in a factory by some machines, transported by other machines, and put in place by yet other machines. The human is not evident.
Walking around town, appreciating craftsmanship by sculptors, stonemasons, iron smiths, and mosaicists at every turn, I feel connected to them through their work, appreciative of their art and skill, and connected to the past in which they lived and crafted their works. This tangible connection to a distant past is something most Americans don't generally get to experience (outside, perhaps, for some parts of New England. Heck, in San Francisco, we consider anything built before 1911 historic. In Paris, London, Rome, Athens and Jerusalem, among other places, that's downright modern.
Unlike the grand monuments, when it comes to the functional buildings of Paris - the apartments, the restaurants, the offices - the focus is definitely about human scale. A typical 1BR apt here is usually about 30 sq. metres (about 300 sq. ft.). The restaurants pack the tables in tight - you usually have to pull the little 2-tops out into the aisle to get in and out of the seat by the wall. Older shops tend to be very intimate - it helps to walk in sideways ;^)While our first impression is often that these places are too small, as Americans raised on large spaces (think Wal-Mart or Target or even the typical Il Fornaio), the intimacy forces you to forego unnecessary "stuff" in your apartment and gives you a good reason to strike up a conversation with those people at the next table whose elbows you keep bumping against. Paris hs t
December 07, 2007
Basque-ing in the Light of Mon Ami
A little while ago, I went back to one of Katy and my favorite restaurants...Chez l'Ami Jean. This little Basque gastro-pub out in the 7th at 27 rue Malar is crazy popular. My chefs at the Ritz knew about it. My friends in Paris go there regularly.
I was telling my classmate, Kimon, about it since he arrived in Paris, and he was eager to try it. Since I could only get us in at 10PM, we did what we had to do and waited up for it.
I won't waste your time w/a lot of frivolous text here - just enjoy the photos (that's the caille [quail] on the right, 3 sauces- olive oil&garlic, orange, lemon sauces, and on the left, the sardines with tête et pied de veau). I should note that we ordered entrées and main plats and happily waited with our carafe of wine for them to come. After a while, the waiter looked at our clean table and, with a face of consternation asked if we had received our entrées. We said "no". 
He then ran off to the kitchen and brought us back an extra entree of the fromage de tête de veau to share.
The Magret de Canard (duck breast, right) was fab-u-luss and their presentation belies the pub-like setting. So if you see other notes from people that talk about the lack of service in restaurants - don't think that that's a universal axiom. It doesn't apply here.
Although it kind of sounds like Groucho Marx or W.C.Fields not wanting to join a club that would accept people like them, I should note that the restaurant was half-filled with les Americains. I refrain from a "ptooey". Not 3 weeks after Katy and I went to l'Ami Jean last year, the NY Times published a half-page article on the restaurant on the front of the Travel Section. No more "secret little find". Nevertheless, the cooking has not suffered and it is still a top destination for me every time I'm here.
I was telling my classmate, Kimon, about it since he arrived in Paris, and he was eager to try it. Since I could only get us in at 10PM, we did what we had to do and waited up for it.
I won't waste your time w/a lot of frivolous text here - just enjoy the photos (that's the caille [quail] on the right, 3 sauces- olive oil&garlic, orange, lemon sauces, and on the left, the sardines with tête et pied de veau). I should note that we ordered entrées and main plats and happily waited with our carafe of wine for them to come. After a while, the waiter looked at our clean table and, with a face of consternation asked if we had received our entrées. We said "no". 
He then ran off to the kitchen and brought us back an extra entree of the fromage de tête de veau to share.
The Magret de Canard (duck breast, right) was fab-u-luss and their presentation belies the pub-like setting. So if you see other notes from people that talk about the lack of service in restaurants - don't think that that's a universal axiom. It doesn't apply here.
Although it kind of sounds like Groucho Marx or W.C.Fields not wanting to join a club that would accept people like them, I should note that the restaurant was half-filled with les Americains. I refrain from a "ptooey". Not 3 weeks after Katy and I went to l'Ami Jean last year, the NY Times published a half-page article on the restaurant on the front of the Travel Section. No more "secret little find". Nevertheless, the cooking has not suffered and it is still a top destination for me every time I'm here.
December 06, 2007
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Over the last 6 weeks, we've crammed a lot in. Being a basic cuisine class, we learned about the basic pastries, the basic sauces (orange, hollandaise, bernaise, bechamel, anglaise), the basic stocks (veal, chicken, fish), and how to prepare, cook, and serve fish, meat, vegetables and desserts.
Some of what we've done has been very Good. Like learning how to:
Most of the recipes that we've made are very old French recipes - many of which result in meat or fish that's overcooked, heavy butter and cream-laden sauces that, while saying "old school", also seem to say "Please call my cardiologist. NOW!". Surprisingly, many of these sauces, which the chefs thought tasted good, resulted in me and Susie looking at each other with wrinkled noses and thinking "I don't think so". They were just plain Bad. Many of these recipes came out looking bland and/or tasting bland or overly rich, but underly flavorful and left me thinking that I'd never ever make those at home.
But I'm not one to let a few bad apples spoil the cart.
I tried to do as much as I could to learn. I feel like I'm taking quite a lot away from the experience...from things like Fish Stock - that we made enough times that I could almost make one blindfolded (aside, perhaps, from the part where I use the cleaver to chop up the fish bones) to turning vegetables and steaming them with aromatics in the water to impart flavor without fat (imagine that!!!).
I've spent a lot of time on plating and feel that I'm much improved in terms of making presentable dishes, but, sadly, that was not so evident in my final exam.
The exam was last Thursday night. It was a 3 hour affair where you're handed the names of two recipes and you have to make them from scratch doing all prepping, cooking, plating, and cleanup - without recipes. Although I am renowned the world over for my poor memory, I did manage to mostly remember the 6 recipes that they told us might be on the exam. For that, I feel like I accomplished something that night.
I felt good about how I was doing with my prep - everything cut the way it was supposed to be and in neatly separate prep bowls...until I started carving the chicken. I was cutting it up into several pieces to make Poulet au l'Estragon (tarragon) when I got a piece that didn't look right. I thought I needed to cut off a certain part when one of my chef instructors, Chef Christophe, came through the kitchen, looked at what I was doing and said "Please don't tell me that you were in my class. Please don't tell me that you were my student." O..U..C..H.
I told him what I thought I needed to do next, but he repeated his chide. I went on and did some other things first since I had lost some confidence about my meat-cutting skills when chef Christian returned...and then proceeded to show me what I needed to do...doing exactly what I had told him I thought I needed to do...but now I looked like a loser. It was so sad.
So I made my two dishes - Oeufs Meurette (eggs with a red wine sauce) and the Poulet. Burnt a little toast here...broke one of my poached eggs there...failed to sufficiently reduce and thicken the sauces...and finally, although I got both plated and warm to the table, the chicken was insufficiently cooked. Quelle désastre. Well, I thought, at least I can say that I went here even if I don't get my diploma the next day:^( I was actually OK the next day, but I was seriously depressed after I finished at 9PM that night...especially since my classmate Susie's dishes looked like they were right off the table from Gary Danko or Bouley. OK, OK, but she had worked in the kitchen at the Four Seasons in Thailand, so I don't want to pound myself too hard for this. Nevertheless, it would have been nice to have ended on a slightly higher note.)
Didn't really help that it was raining, either.
Ultimately, I did pass...not with flying colors, perhaps, but I passed. I now have a shiny new diploma to show for it and a little of my confidence has returned. Perhaps the fact that I gave the chefs a bottle of Koehler Pinot Noir improved my fate. Or not. Regardless, this has been a wonderful experience so far and I'm blessed for having had the opportunity.
I'm glad I came and I've gotten much out of living in Paris for a spell. My French, I fear, has deteriorated since I've been here, but I think that if I could stay for a year or two, I'd get the hang of it.
All in all, Paris has been beautiful. Heck, it was almost 60 degrees last Friday night (even though it was nearly 30 degrees last night). The architecture at night, lit up with lights, is just inspiring. The Xmas decorations are starting to appear (though not so much on the Rue des Rosiers - the main the Jewish quarter) near the Ritz and out in the 7th, near La Tour d'Eiffel. That whole "magic of the season" is definitely happening.
Living here has been extraordinary, if relatively brief. It's been great to settle into a neighborhood, find my way around the city a little better, explore the arrondissements, and not feel like I have to rush to this museum or that shop or get that perfect restaurant reservation every day, the way you do on a 1-week trip.
My ability to form a coherent sentence in French seems somewhat better, and although I'm still struggling with verb tenses, my vocabulary is improving. Frankly, I think that I won't get to sound much better than a 2-year old until I get to live here for a few years.
Sooooo....honey? What do you think? :-)
Some of what we've done has been very Good. Like learning how to:
- Fillet fish and prepare or remove the skin
- Poach and pan fry fish
- Tie up poultry to roast or cut up poultry into parts
- Season while cooking
- Appreciate Wine
- Not be anal about recipes and use taste and judgment along the way
- Make all the basic sauces
- Make preserves
- Prepare chocolate truffles
- Utilize tools like metal rings and chinoise and spiders (like a wire-mesh slotted spoon)
- Tap the awesome power of rich stocks to make sauces great
- And a little bit of technique for presentation...
Most of the recipes that we've made are very old French recipes - many of which result in meat or fish that's overcooked, heavy butter and cream-laden sauces that, while saying "old school", also seem to say "Please call my cardiologist. NOW!". Surprisingly, many of these sauces, which the chefs thought tasted good, resulted in me and Susie looking at each other with wrinkled noses and thinking "I don't think so". They were just plain Bad. Many of these recipes came out looking bland and/or tasting bland or overly rich, but underly flavorful and left me thinking that I'd never ever make those at home.
But I'm not one to let a few bad apples spoil the cart.
I tried to do as much as I could to learn. I feel like I'm taking quite a lot away from the experience...from things like Fish Stock - that we made enough times that I could almost make one blindfolded (aside, perhaps, from the part where I use the cleaver to chop up the fish bones) to turning vegetables and steaming them with aromatics in the water to impart flavor without fat (imagine that!!!).
I've spent a lot of time on plating and feel that I'm much improved in terms of making presentable dishes, but, sadly, that was not so evident in my final exam.
The exam was last Thursday night. It was a 3 hour affair where you're handed the names of two recipes and you have to make them from scratch doing all prepping, cooking, plating, and cleanup - without recipes. Although I am renowned the world over for my poor memory, I did manage to mostly remember the 6 recipes that they told us might be on the exam. For that, I feel like I accomplished something that night.
I felt good about how I was doing with my prep - everything cut the way it was supposed to be and in neatly separate prep bowls...until I started carving the chicken. I was cutting it up into several pieces to make Poulet au l'Estragon (tarragon) when I got a piece that didn't look right. I thought I needed to cut off a certain part when one of my chef instructors, Chef Christophe, came through the kitchen, looked at what I was doing and said "Please don't tell me that you were in my class. Please don't tell me that you were my student." O..U..C..H.
I told him what I thought I needed to do next, but he repeated his chide. I went on and did some other things first since I had lost some confidence about my meat-cutting skills when chef Christian returned...and then proceeded to show me what I needed to do...doing exactly what I had told him I thought I needed to do...but now I looked like a loser. It was so sad.
So I made my two dishes - Oeufs Meurette (eggs with a red wine sauce) and the Poulet. Burnt a little toast here...broke one of my poached eggs there...failed to sufficiently reduce and thicken the sauces...and finally, although I got both plated and warm to the table, the chicken was insufficiently cooked. Quelle désastre. Well, I thought, at least I can say that I went here even if I don't get my diploma the next day:^( I was actually OK the next day, but I was seriously depressed after I finished at 9PM that night...especially since my classmate Susie's dishes looked like they were right off the table from Gary Danko or Bouley. OK, OK, but she had worked in the kitchen at the Four Seasons in Thailand, so I don't want to pound myself too hard for this. Nevertheless, it would have been nice to have ended on a slightly higher note.)
Didn't really help that it was raining, either.
Ultimately, I did pass...not with flying colors, perhaps, but I passed. I now have a shiny new diploma to show for it and a little of my confidence has returned. Perhaps the fact that I gave the chefs a bottle of Koehler Pinot Noir improved my fate. Or not. Regardless, this has been a wonderful experience so far and I'm blessed for having had the opportunity.
I'm glad I came and I've gotten much out of living in Paris for a spell. My French, I fear, has deteriorated since I've been here, but I think that if I could stay for a year or two, I'd get the hang of it.
All in all, Paris has been beautiful. Heck, it was almost 60 degrees last Friday night (even though it was nearly 30 degrees last night). The architecture at night, lit up with lights, is just inspiring. The Xmas decorations are starting to appear (though not so much on the Rue des Rosiers - the main the Jewish quarter) near the Ritz and out in the 7th, near La Tour d'Eiffel. That whole "magic of the season" is definitely happening.Living here has been extraordinary, if relatively brief. It's been great to settle into a neighborhood, find my way around the city a little better, explore the arrondissements, and not feel like I have to rush to this museum or that shop or get that perfect restaurant reservation every day, the way you do on a 1-week trip.
My ability to form a coherent sentence in French seems somewhat better, and although I'm still struggling with verb tenses, my vocabulary is improving. Frankly, I think that I won't get to sound much better than a 2-year old until I get to live here for a few years.
Sooooo....honey? What do you think? :-)
December 01, 2007
Procrastination...alright, it's a part of me
Well, I know it seems like these posts are getting farther and farther apart...well...I guess they are getting farther apart. I think the huge backlog of things I've wanted to write about have created a bit of a block for me. But today I clear the backlog. Prepare thyself for the torrent.
TRADITION: COOKING
Let's get in the wayback machine and take a look back at last week. When we last left our hero, he was enjoying a lovely pork chop over at Le Temps au Temps. Since there wasn't enough fat in that pork chop, apparently, I decided to make my first attempt at making a foie gras terrine, back at my apt. I bought the whole foie, found an appropriate ceramic terrine just around the corner at Simon A. cookware (great toy store for cooks!) , and had some Sauternes-like Jurançon in my fridge.
Seemed pretty simple...you just de-vein the foie, shove it in the terrine mold w/the wine, cook it at a low temp for quite a bit of time, then put a cutout of cardboard with heavy weights on top to squeeze all the melted fat to the top. What I hadn't really counted on was how hard it would be to balance the cans on the cardboard - think of it like a surfboard - floating on a sea of deliciousy foie gras fat. I think I can hear a whole cardiologist's convention breathing either a heavy sigh of sadness for our future or of relaxation at knowing that their future business is assured.
How did it turn out? Well...looked great. Texture? Not so much. I think I failed to weight it down properly. We'll see if I try again...I do still have the terrine mold, after all.
TRADITION: BISTRO
What worked out a little better was the lunch excursion that I and my classmates took last week to Aux Lyonnais. 
This 19th century pub had fallen on hard times when the famed Alain Ducasse bought and refurbished it just 3 or 4 years ago to it's original glory. Unfussy, this very warm and traditional bistro is affordable (~28 euro for a prix fixe lunch) and always packed due to its classic lyonnais cuisine. More country than high cuisine, we enjoyed a variety of fish and meat dishes, from classic entrecôte (steak) to veal liver to rillet to pan fried fish.
I tried to be as good as I could be - starting off with a light root vegetable dish cooked - steamed mostly - en cocotte. If you don't work hard at it, it's all too easy for there to be nearly no vegetables in a typical French meal - or at least nothing other than some form of fatty potatoes (fried - frites, scalloped - dauphinoise, or whipped - almost always with a healthy (ahem) dose of cream). Nevertheless, I prevailed! Certainly a classic French lunch experience.
TRADITION + EXPERIMENTATION
This week, I took a few very different routes. Whenever I'd traveled to Paris or elsewhere in Europe in the past, I was only there for a few days, perhaps a week. As a result, I always stuck with regional cuisine. Now, for the first time, since I've been here a month, I set out to look for something different. I walked all over the neighborhood checking out innumerable french bistros with their confit, magret, entrecote, and foie gras but decided I had a hankering for something I-talian.
Fortunately, one of the closest restaurants to my apt, Terre et Soleil, with a warm and cosy atmosphere, had an extensive Italian menu. The "classics" that we would expect at any American Italian restaurant, aside from the Penne all'arrabbiata, weren't really there, but they had Osso Buco, various pastas and sauces, so that'll do (, pig).
I really wanted pasta, so I passed on the Entrecote, Escalope de Veau, and Osso Buco and perused the pasta list. Making my way through the unusual options, there were familiar pastas and sauces combined in ways I hadn't really seen, like the Carbonara, but with a tubular pasta called Sadoni that I'd never heard of and familiar pastas with unusual sauces.
What to have?...what to have?...
Ah...wait a minute...THERE you go! Yeah...that's what I'm talkin' about...boyyyyy.
Amongst the primaveras and arrabbiata's were a couple of real gems. The cavatappi with foie gras and figs and the rotelle with confit de canard and apples. Italian...yet French. Oh yum.
I wasn't hungry enough for both, so I went with the cavatappi. Good choice. VERY good choice. I may even have to see if I can talk Delfina or A16 into serving it!
Finishing the evening off with a little poached pear with sabayon was just the ticket.
TRADITION: BRASSERIE
Since the dollar is so damned weak, I do try to conserve my ducats at most meals. The odd 30 euro prix fixe lunch or dinner is fine, but not every day. So I take advantage of the ubiquitous crepe stands and the simple but delicious 5 euro tartine sandwiches available at Paul right around the corner. I also decided one evening to follow the advice of my lovely bride and try out a very old and traditional (and cheap) brasserie - Chartier. Tucked away behind an interior courtyard in the 9th, this place looks the classic brasserie. Bustling and packed with the black and white be-decked waiters running to and fro, it had a great energy.
And the menu? All the standards are there...and they are chee-eep. Where else can you find a 3 euro salad? Wow. Unfortunately, the couple right next to me turned out to be serial smokers, and the food, while inexpensive, was just adequate. My waiter? Ornery old guy - took quite a while to come by and then just stared at me waiting for my order without a word. When I ordered my food and hesitated about the wine...off he went. I guess with small bills and service included in the bill, there's not much to be enthusiastic about while working there.
My lamb chops were overcooked and a little dry, but the frites were hot and crispy and the Lyonnais salade was decent if not dee-licious. Those and a half bottle of Cote du Rhone totaled just 17 euro. Overall, a decent deal. Will be even better starting in January, when the restaurant smoking ban comes into effect.
TRADITION: SOUFFLÉ
On a different end of the refinement spectrum was a lunch I got one day on my own when I stopped off at a restaurant near the school for lunch.
Using the Pudlo guide that Katy had so thoughtfully provided me, I found a little restaurant called, simply, Le Soufflé. Now, having made soufflées in class, I was curious about a good restaurant's take on that dish. Also - I had mostly enjoyed classic soufflées in my life - Grand Marnier, Chocolate - but not many others. So I endeavored to experiment. For 28 euro, they had a nice prix fixe lunch with a choice of savory soufflé, sweet soufflé, salad and choice of a glass of wine or a demi-bouteille of water.
I went with a scallops and pétoncles soufflé as my main and a noisette (hazelnut) soufflé for dessert. Wow. I didn't think that you could make a soufflé with seafood or heavy nuts and have it be delicate and light. I was wrong. These guys were good. Everything - even the simple salad, was great. Now I'm looking forward to experimenting more at home!
TRADITION: COOKING
Let's get in the wayback machine and take a look back at last week. When we last left our hero, he was enjoying a lovely pork chop over at Le Temps au Temps. Since there wasn't enough fat in that pork chop, apparently, I decided to make my first attempt at making a foie gras terrine, back at my apt. I bought the whole foie, found an appropriate ceramic terrine just around the corner at Simon A. cookware (great toy store for cooks!) , and had some Sauternes-like Jurançon in my fridge.
Seemed pretty simple...you just de-vein the foie, shove it in the terrine mold w/the wine, cook it at a low temp for quite a bit of time, then put a cutout of cardboard with heavy weights on top to squeeze all the melted fat to the top. What I hadn't really counted on was how hard it would be to balance the cans on the cardboard - think of it like a surfboard - floating on a sea of deliciousy foie gras fat. I think I can hear a whole cardiologist's convention breathing either a heavy sigh of sadness for our future or of relaxation at knowing that their future business is assured.How did it turn out? Well...looked great. Texture? Not so much. I think I failed to weight it down properly. We'll see if I try again...I do still have the terrine mold, after all.
TRADITION: BISTRO
What worked out a little better was the lunch excursion that I and my classmates took last week to Aux Lyonnais. 
This 19th century pub had fallen on hard times when the famed Alain Ducasse bought and refurbished it just 3 or 4 years ago to it's original glory. Unfussy, this very warm and traditional bistro is affordable (~28 euro for a prix fixe lunch) and always packed due to its classic lyonnais cuisine. More country than high cuisine, we enjoyed a variety of fish and meat dishes, from classic entrecôte (steak) to veal liver to rillet to pan fried fish.
I tried to be as good as I could be - starting off with a light root vegetable dish cooked - steamed mostly - en cocotte. If you don't work hard at it, it's all too easy for there to be nearly no vegetables in a typical French meal - or at least nothing other than some form of fatty potatoes (fried - frites, scalloped - dauphinoise, or whipped - almost always with a healthy (ahem) dose of cream). Nevertheless, I prevailed! Certainly a classic French lunch experience.TRADITION + EXPERIMENTATION
This week, I took a few very different routes. Whenever I'd traveled to Paris or elsewhere in Europe in the past, I was only there for a few days, perhaps a week. As a result, I always stuck with regional cuisine. Now, for the first time, since I've been here a month, I set out to look for something different. I walked all over the neighborhood checking out innumerable french bistros with their confit, magret, entrecote, and foie gras but decided I had a hankering for something I-talian.
Fortunately, one of the closest restaurants to my apt, Terre et Soleil, with a warm and cosy atmosphere, had an extensive Italian menu. The "classics" that we would expect at any American Italian restaurant, aside from the Penne all'arrabbiata, weren't really there, but they had Osso Buco, various pastas and sauces, so that'll do (, pig).
I really wanted pasta, so I passed on the Entrecote, Escalope de Veau, and Osso Buco and perused the pasta list. Making my way through the unusual options, there were familiar pastas and sauces combined in ways I hadn't really seen, like the Carbonara, but with a tubular pasta called Sadoni that I'd never heard of and familiar pastas with unusual sauces.What to have?...what to have?...
Ah...wait a minute...THERE you go! Yeah...that's what I'm talkin' about...boyyyyy.
Amongst the primaveras and arrabbiata's were a couple of real gems. The cavatappi with foie gras and figs and the rotelle with confit de canard and apples. Italian...yet French. Oh yum.
I wasn't hungry enough for both, so I went with the cavatappi. Good choice. VERY good choice. I may even have to see if I can talk Delfina or A16 into serving it!
Finishing the evening off with a little poached pear with sabayon was just the ticket.
TRADITION: BRASSERIE
Since the dollar is so damned weak, I do try to conserve my ducats at most meals. The odd 30 euro prix fixe lunch or dinner is fine, but not every day. So I take advantage of the ubiquitous crepe stands and the simple but delicious 5 euro tartine sandwiches available at Paul right around the corner. I also decided one evening to follow the advice of my lovely bride and try out a very old and traditional (and cheap) brasserie - Chartier. Tucked away behind an interior courtyard in the 9th, this place looks the classic brasserie. Bustling and packed with the black and white be-decked waiters running to and fro, it had a great energy.
And the menu? All the standards are there...and they are chee-eep. Where else can you find a 3 euro salad? Wow. Unfortunately, the couple right next to me turned out to be serial smokers, and the food, while inexpensive, was just adequate. My waiter? Ornery old guy - took quite a while to come by and then just stared at me waiting for my order without a word. When I ordered my food and hesitated about the wine...off he went. I guess with small bills and service included in the bill, there's not much to be enthusiastic about while working there.My lamb chops were overcooked and a little dry, but the frites were hot and crispy and the Lyonnais salade was decent if not dee-licious. Those and a half bottle of Cote du Rhone totaled just 17 euro. Overall, a decent deal. Will be even better starting in January, when the restaurant smoking ban comes into effect.
TRADITION: SOUFFLÉ
On a different end of the refinement spectrum was a lunch I got one day on my own when I stopped off at a restaurant near the school for lunch.
Using the Pudlo guide that Katy had so thoughtfully provided me, I found a little restaurant called, simply, Le Soufflé. Now, having made soufflées in class, I was curious about a good restaurant's take on that dish. Also - I had mostly enjoyed classic soufflées in my life - Grand Marnier, Chocolate - but not many others. So I endeavored to experiment. For 28 euro, they had a nice prix fixe lunch with a choice of savory soufflé, sweet soufflé, salad and choice of a glass of wine or a demi-bouteille of water.I went with a scallops and pétoncles soufflé as my main and a noisette (hazelnut) soufflé for dessert. Wow. I didn't think that you could make a soufflé with seafood or heavy nuts and have it be delicate and light. I was wrong. These guys were good. Everything - even the simple salad, was great. Now I'm looking forward to experimenting more at home!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
