France Day 3
t says: On the third day of France-mas, we continued with the sights, but mixed it up g & t style by hitting up Le Bon Marche in the middle of the day. We started with Musee D’orsay which was absolutely amazing. There were so many works in there that I would have never imagined seeing in person. It was truly humbling. Unfortunately, Olympia was closed that day, but next time, right?
As for Bon Marche … on one hand, it was little more than an “interesting” department store, but on the flip side, they had “La Cave” in the basement. This place had an impressive selection of VERY recognizable Bordeaux … including the ones inside their fancy cellar:
Something new …
… something old.
Behold! Norte Dame.
We took SO many pictures inside, but this one was by far my favorite, especially given the certain current events that were going on in Paris the weekend we were there, as well as the wrong order of colors on the rainbow.
We also visited St Chappelle which was amazing, but my panorama shot was too big to download, so I’ll just leave a space for it here ….
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We then visited Pierre Herme, which proved to have some very nice macarons (superior to Laduree) and beautiful other desserts. I quite liked it. And the millefeuille I bought was very good – but about one ounce of chocolate away from being the best dessert of the trip.
After these awesome holy grounds, we then went to La Cremerie, which provided us with an amazing bottle of cheap wine and a good time (it was probably The BEST red wine we had in our entire time in Paris!)
This day concluded with dinner at Les Papilles, an eat-in wine shop (where reservations are recommended) with a fixed price menu for anywhere between 30-40 Euro. You don’t get to choose much, but I can guarantee that you’ll leave stuffed …
Appetizer was perhaps the most complex vichyssoise soup I’ve ever had … no … after further thought, make it the best. Plain and simple. Sorry a, this one is taking GTC’s to the cleaners … Plus, the family-style giant terrine worth means we could go back over and over. So delicious. Easily the best soup of the trip.
The sommelier-ish guy suggested this bottle of easy-drinking Burgundy, and he nailed it. It was a fantastic bottle to share and easy on the wallet. However, for big-spenders out there, there were plenty of options (they had some Petrus for ~900 Euro).
Welcome to the most controversial dish of the trip. What you see is duck. Now, normally, duck is a slam-dunk to be had at pretty much any “contemporary American” or BYO or “farm-to-table” restaurant in Philly. But at Les Papilles … the duck was very different: it was a bit more toothsome than nearly every other duck I’ve ever had – however, the it was clear that the duck was a perfect medium rare – so what’s the deal? g blamed her lack of sharp knife. I blamed her lack of knife velocity. n felt it was lack of sharp teeth. m quietly ate his duck without much fuss. In any case, we agreed that the duck was a little tough and let it go … but then later on, in Burgundy, g and I encountered an identical slab of duck with the same done-ness and somehow the same degree of toothsomeness. What the? Well, maybe we’ve just never had French duck before, but I hope that someone over there visits the US for either a lesson in duck cookery or access to US duck supply …
The cheese and dessert courses followed, both of which were rock-solid, but not necessarily mind-blowing. But don’t think that we had a bad time. On the contrary! At the end of the trip, the four of us voted, and Les Papilles was the clear winner of “restaurant we’d visit on our next visit to Paris” as well as “best overall experience” and “best value”. Bravo Les Papilles!
France Day 2
t says: Blogging while on vacation is hard. Fortunately/unfortunately (depending on how familiar you are with out travel), I had some time today to go through pictures. Here we go:
I liked the Mona Lisa! g remarked how the means of display prevents it from being appreciated up close, but it was actually still impressive – I don’t care how many people dis’ it! Other than the other two ladies, the Louvre was just too huge for my feeble mind to take in. I’m glad we went, but it kind of was a long walk for a short drink.
Lunch at a local cafe …
… Which for some reason a picture of this horse we saw at Hermes is n the middle of.
Lunch at Le Cafe des Inities wasn’t ad. Certainly overpriced, but it did not taste “bad”. As I ponder the burger and croquet Monsieur, I am confidant that we would just not go back and eat somewhere further from the Louvre.
We then conquered the Eiffel Tower …
But lacked the will to wait in line to go up top. We also conquered the Arc de Triomphe but felt similarly about attempting to get to the top. Lauren gave us a nice macaron or two, but we would find that to be only the very tip do the macaron-berg.
While g then napped, I conquered Du Pain et Des Idees, a well-known bakery in the tenth. It was amazing because there was an orderly line when I got there of French people, just waiting to acquire their evening baguettes. But I assure you I did no such thing:
This trip I ate a LOT of pain chocolate. This one was the best, but it was still a disappointment. Why are there only two rods of chocolate? I recall a chocolate croissant from my childhood (i.e. college) where at the library’s coffee cart, they’d sell chocolate croissants that had chocolate disbursed throughout the layers, leading to even distribution of chocolate. I found not one of these magnificent beasts in France. Maybe it was only a dream?
It’s ok, ecause they did have these “escargots” that featured no snail, rather, chocolate and pistachio. It was quite delicious!
Later that night we went to Frenchie. Mmmmmmm.
The foie was pretty good. It had those accompanying dots (citrus), and the bread was delist, but I think that the chef should have done something to the foie to make it more interesting. It was a giant hunk of liver and that’s it. Lame!
Apps: that dark one was mushrooms, poached egg, bacon, and either grain or bean (hazy memory) that was out of control. g felt that she won, however, with that asparagus fish concoction. She also liked the actual dish, itself that had these flowers etched into the rim. Whatevs – I was too busy focusing on the food to notice.
I forget g’s dish … Oops. Lets call it entree du foam …
The lamb dish was insane! Holding the title for single best tasting main dish of the entire trip. I could have eaten it 7 days straight. The lamb, the veggies, the artichoke, the lamb, the thin strip of “skin” was all so delicious. This, plus the bottle of ormiale 2009 a nice combo. It was a rustic Bordeaux from a fabulous year. I’d age a bottle or two in the US if I could find it.
To finish, g did cheese, and I did dessert. Nothing in particular about the dessert (a rum baba) was that insane (it was solid, but my face remained intact), so no picture uploaded …
That was a pretty nice first full day in Paris. If only it was warmer and NOT rainy, we would have enjoyed it more (this would be a recurring theme …)
France Day 1
t says: We’re in PARIS! We’ve never been, so this is super-exciting for us. Time for some photo-journaling:
The view from our room at Bed and Breakfast Bouchardon.
Lunch at Le Cepage in Montmartre began with Escargots (better than BLM, but not as good as Pierre’s) and French Onion Soup (darn tasty!)
Salad x2 (mine had foie, and cured meat, and likely duck heart … So it was more meat than salad, and great!)
So, when g and I walked into this dessert place, I greeted the woman with a “Bonjour!” and then, in French, asked if she understood English, to which she curtly responded “No”. But it wasn’t just “no”, it was like saying “no” in such a way as to imply giving someone the finger … Undeterred (i wanted pastry, damnit!) and suspicious that she knew plenty English, I proceeded to order the above “Trois Chocolats” in my horrible-terrible French, to which she responded “Just one?”. Aha! You were holding out! Well, at least the pastry was de-lish!
Dinner was at Cafe Constant in the 7th Arrondissement near the Eiffel Tower (it didn’t sparkle for us). As I ascended the stairs, I overheard a couple leaving while a waiter asked them what was wrong. They responded, “there are too many Americans!” … in perfect un-accented English … dressed exactly like every other American in the room … with a sense of hoity-toity holier-than-thou attitude that could only be American. Look: it’s Sunday night …. in the same district as the Eiffel Tower … at the affordable restaurant of a fairly renowned chef … so YES – there are going to be Americans there. 1) why are you copping an attitude with the wait staff -as if they can help who patronizes their restaurant . 2) those other Americans are quietly enjoying their vacation and pose no threat to the good food that you, too, could have enjoyed. 3) you are the reason why stubborn-pastry-lady hates Americans.
The aftermath of an appetizer of deviled eggs and an oyster/salmon tartare that were both amazeballs as you can tell.
I went for leg of lamb that looked fairly anemic (g insisted that it wasn’t lamb -the waiter gave me a “what are you -stupid?” look when I asked. But it was quite good. Best ever? Nah – needed more depth of lamb and herbs – but the texture was nice!
But g was very impressed with her beef stew.
Dessert was profiteroles with tons of warm chocolate and an almond salted caramel cream concoction.
Fitler Dining Room
t says: g and I have been psyched about the Pub & Kitchen expansion for quite a while; Meme wasn’t bad (for dinner), but it just wasn’t thrilling enough. And as the P&K crew moved in, set up shop, and painted over Meme’s yellow, g and I have been peering in windows and open doors (when we could – they kept stuff under wraps for a while), hardly able to contain ourselves. For the record – it’s not because we think P&K is actually all that good in terms of food, rather, just because the new Fitler Dining Room is physically the closest restaurant to our front door … so of course we were hoping for deliciousness!
February 2013, Sunday Dinner, Party of 3. We got together with bw to celebrate FDR’s opening. The menu looked a little pricey, but we just had to try it. I have to say that the person on the phone wasn’t particularly nice to me when I asked how much corkage would be, addressing me with a tone of superiority as if it would be unthinkable that a patron would want to bring their own wine to their establishment. Look. I’m sure your wineguy/gal did a very nice job on your wine list. I’m sure that your wines taste fine. All I’m saying is that the emotional connection I have to a wine that I went out of my way to hunt for and acquire (and in some cases, transported thousands of miles on a plane) might make something taste more-better than something I know that I’m paying a 100-200-300% markup for … (As a former neuroscientist and human being, I can safely say that state of mind dramatically affects perceived tastes … why else does “every table wine in every restaurant in <insert French or Italian city here> taste way better than those in the US”? It’s cuz you’re frickin’ in that French/Italian city on vacation! duh!). Ok, stepping down from my soapbox: I did find a cab franc on their list that was actually quite delicious – almost worth the amount that I paid for it! And g sipped on Gruet – an old-time standby in our home for bubbly wine. bw had some other sparkling which I’m not recalling …
Now for the the pictures!
the inside of the place is dimly lit (in a good way) and featuered nice dark tablet-tops, plenty-big wine and water glasses – it really looks quite nice in there – like a good date spot. Also, the servers are clad in Japanese selvage denim aprons (but they couldn’t tell me more about them – I was quite intrigued! I might want to acquire one of those!) It has the feel of a small-cozy Brooklyn restaurant but with a nice clean aesthetic and a dose of nonchalance (real nonchalance – not contrived hipster nonchalance). That said, the servers were spot-on with a polite attitude, constant attentiveness, and precise execution – it was like they’ve been doing this for months, not days …
pillow-soft gnocchi and tender escargot. no – the escargot on their own were not as nearly as good as Bibou’s, but the glory of this dish is that they are not the star – they contribute one component of flavor that is so deftly combined with each and every single other item on the dish. I went hunting so that each fork could have a little bit of everything, and boy was I happy when it worked out. Who knew a toasty hazelnut, a wondeful gnocchi, a tender snail, some herbs and carrot would all come together into something so delicious? True, the combination is a little “fussy”, but boy is it worth it.
salad: fresh, crisp, nicely dressed = delicious. simple and to the point … like a sharp knife.
Shortrib: deciding to see what FDR would do with an already-awesome cut of meat, I ventured the shortrib – I didn’t care if it’s “soooo 2008”. It was the most expensive thing on the menu, coming in at ?$28?, but hey – I’m worth it. Well, the hunk of meat was ginorous. Seriously – look at it! The bone reminded you of what exactly a cow rib looks like. The meat was cooked perfectly with a beautiful glaze/jus, and it balanced beautifully opposite the Cab Franc I had ordered. If I might make one request, it would to have ~20% less meat and give me a little more starch for balance. Every single thing on the dish was perfectly cooked – but I would like a counterpoint to the meat that’s a little more substantial.
“special”arctic char: precisely cooked on top of a sweet butternut squash puree. It was a beautiful piece of fish, but the skin was impervious to the butterknife that g was given – but that’s not a negative of the cookery, rather, an issue of useless knives – don’t hold back on giving fish-eaters an actually sharp knife! (PS if you were really baller, FDR, you would have non-serrated steak knives – I haven’t seen a restaurant with these yet as they necessitate hand-cleaning, but I would give you such mad props if you had these and selvage denim aprons)
carrot cake: solid dessert item – the ice cream really stole the show, but the cake and obnoxiously-splattered sauce tasted good as well – I have no beef with this dessert aside from its presentation …
bw had an assort of items as well, however, I suspect that he was a little less thrilled. For his main, it featured a few versions of pork, including a boudin blanc (aka sausage). He, too, felt that a little more counterpoint to meat would have been nice – be it a starch or vegetable – as otherwise it was a plate of meat. The cheese selection was a little on the wimpier side, but you can’t expect Talula’s Garden’s cheese-person at every restaurant, right?
So, in summary, I have to say that we saw a lot of things we liked at FDR, including a high level of cookery and a lot of good flavors. Going forward, I think striving for a bit more balance in the components of the dish is going to be key in those meat dishes. The tariff is quite high – between the $25+ entrees and the no-BYO+no-corkage-allowed, meaning that I fear that this place is going to be more of a “date” place for g and me (kinda like Valentine’s Day occasion). That’s sad because g and I were hoping that this could be “our” place – but it’s not allowed to be if you can’t afford to go there at least twice a month. Oh well – it was delicious, and now we know we can go, so we’ll keep it in our back pocket … in case of forgotten holidays or last-minute-out-of-town visitors.
P.S. if anyone knows where I can get one of those aprons, hit up our email!
P.P.S. yea – Philly Mag is going to <3 this place … which is sad because they also <3 Meme, too, and look what happened there!
#biwinning @ BLM
a says: Vday Dinner 2013, Party of 2. We had heard many good things about Bistro La Minette (BLM) and were very excited to try it. A cheesy Hallmark holiday like Valentine’s Day seemed like the perfect opportunity. With a bottle of French red in hand (corkage), we trekked toward South Street to see if they could rock our romantic socks.
We were seated promptly (in the back, event room) and quickly transported to a French state of mind. BLM does not have the kitschy, Parisian feel of Parc but it does feel decidedly French bistro via Philly BYO (though it’s not). I started with the foie gras special and v the poached egg with mussels. The foie was lovely and comes in a close second after Fond’s. The bread crumb crust added a nice crunchiness/texture and the blood orange cut through the richness of the fat – a well balanced dish. The mussels were also rich, but complex and balanced. It reminded us both of a Cochon brunch dish (not a specific one, just in execution).
We then split the Bibb lettuce salad to pace our meal and get some greens on our plates. The dressing was perfect, very refreshing. Our waiter then surprised us with their escargot dish. (I had mulled it over against the foie while ordering.) The plating was innovative – little ceramic containers just big enough to fit butter, one escargot, and a toast bite, in that order! The contents, poured on their homemade bread was very satisfying. While they weren’t Bibou caliber, they were very good and an innovative interpretation.
Both entrees were well portioned and less delicate than one might expect at a French bistro – hearty without being excessive. v had the beef cheeks, which were tender and tasty, with (French) gnocchi that could stand with many-an-Italian style. However, the accompanying jus was off, a flavor slightly out of place. I had the rabbit and tagliatelle which was also very good. The meat fell off the bone and exceeded my expectations but the tagliatelle was lacking. The dish needed something to bring it together (More jus? A sauce?). It being Vday, we ended our meal with a shareable dessert, puff pastry with cream and raspberries. The presentation was clean and it was a nice balance of sweet/savory, crunch/cream, and freshness from the raspberries.
We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and actually became more excited when the check came (Say wha??). Our very competent waiter didn’t charge us for the escargot (#obvi), mussel appetizer (#winning), or corkage (#biwinning)! I guess amour was in the air for everyone at BLM that night. We will definitely return to try more of their bistro riffs and specials, hopefully with g & t in toe!
distractions
t says: I was made aware of some pretty fun youtube videos recently. They’re kinda-sorta-old-news, but still pretty darn entertaining. Enjoy!
several new openings on our side of center city!
t says: So g and I are really pumped with the new additions to the neighborhood:
Fitler Dining Room is opening!
And on the other side of the city, Talula’s Daily is coming!
With so many new options, I’m sure we’ll be broke in no time!
after dinner sneeze 
