Ptipois

Pennylane, Aligot is an easy recipe. Tomme blanche may be found in any shop selling "produits d'Auvergne" (a quick Internet search should do it for Paris) or at any good fromager. The frozen aligot sold by Picard is quite acceptable.

I think what pitpois means ,opinionated sommelier.Someone with strong opinions about certain wines and I assume if you mention or order a wine that he does not care about ,he will then let you know in no uncertain terms. I have run into characters like that .Actually I like them ← OK. No, not at all. What I mean is that he has a personal, poetic way of doing his job. (And I didn't mean Pierre, I meant Ewen.)

It is quite common to order only a main course. The "plat principal" is not ready to disappear in France.

Can you go into more detail about what makes the sommelier idiosyncratic? ← I'm afraid this defies description... You'll have to go there (when it opens again) and appreciate for yourself.

I feel exactly the same as you do about Racines. It is definitely not a "destination" bistrot in the common sense of the word. I think not everybody, especially if "attracted" by the English-speaking press or media, will get it or even like it. Which is why I never worried about it being spoiled in the first place. The other reason is (and there again I agree with you) that indeed neither the chef or the sommelier (one of the most idiosyncratic in Paris) would bend over backwards to meet every whim and fancy, which would result in a loss of soul. Actually it is so much like French bistrots of decades ago, the type that very people would like if they came to life again (same phenomenon as the so-called "baguette de tradition française" as compared to true traditional baguette as it used to be made), that I think it is not likely to cater to a universal audience. It is not even likely to please all the French, far from it. Even the wines won't be to everybody's liking. Many people, when served one of their sparkling, unfiltered, appley-peary Loire chenins, will wonder if someone is not playing a joke on them.

Only a few nights after Racines opened it was packed with everyone and his brother from the food press. I thought of keeping it quiet for awhile but I soon realized that would make no sense: nothing could happen to this place that hadn't happened to it already. And, furthermore, I think it is one of those places that wouldn't change, whatever or whomever you could bring there. The only difference is that instead of booking a few hours in advance, you'll soon end up booking one month ahead.

Quite simply there is a "before" and an "after" period for Le Buisson Ardent and unfortunately the "before" period was quite a long time ago. Since Le Buisson stopped being a nice neighborhood bistrot with motherly aged permed waitresses wearing black dresses and white aprons, and that must have been in the late 80s, it has been consistently terrible. Food that used to be served there was coquilles saint-jacques provençale, blanquette de veau au coulis de poireau, bourguignon, everything was good. Then it became a "bistrot moderne" and it was the beginning of the end. I just pass by it and hardly ever notice it's there anymore. Too bad for the lovely setting.

Why don't you guys just go to Chez Camillou in Aumont-Aubrac, it's close by, and very good. Chez Camillou

I agree with you. I never use it. My favorite combination is rinds, pork belly and small peppery sausages, and preserved goose or duck when I have some. On the other hand I adore lingot beans with mutton or lamb (navarin aux haricots or haricot de mouton), more a Parisian dish and one that should never be baked, but slowly simmered in a cocotte.

Mutton is one of the many local additions (for instance in Carcassonne and Toulouse), not a heresy. Other local variations may or may not include confit and/or sausage, but a good assortment of various meat products (sausage, confit, garlic sausage, pork belly), is constitutive of cassoulet. The essential, basic addition is salted pork rinds. Failing that, what you get is baked beans.

Excellent cassoulet for one at L'Ecureuil, l'Oie et le Canard, 3, rue Linné, 5e. Tél : 01 43 31 61 18.

I've always seen it written 'zaalouq' or 'zaalouk'.

Randy, sorry I'm replying so late. The tea house I'm referring to is right at the corner of rue de la Coutellerie and rue de la Tacherie, where they merge into avenue Victoria. It is between the Hotel de Ville and the Tour Saint-Jacques. I have only passed by while riding buses, and have never had the opportunity to stop there. I intend to do that soon, I am curious to know whether they make, or provide the means for, a proper gongfu cha. Braden, Terre de Chine has been around for some time now. I haven't been there yet though. I'll take a look, thanks for reminding me.

In France when a waiter asks "Tout va bien monsieur (or madame) ?", only a positive answer is actually expected. When they hear a negative answer (as I happen to give every once in a while, when it is really justified) the expression I get in return is one of sudden bewilderment followed by muffled hostility. If the only answer you get is a dry "Merci, on lui dira!", you know your comment is not welcome. That should not keep anyone from telling what is wrong and why. That should be why they are asking, or it all boils down to a hypocritical game that is, when you think of it, offending to the client and counterproductive to the restaurant. Do tell if something is wrong. Do tell why and how, you're helping the restaurant and the diners, even if both waiting staff and cooking staff are trying to make you feel otherwise. The way a waiter or chef reacts to a negative comment tells a lot about the actual level of professionalism of the place. Of course there are nuances and degrees. Sometime you feel it's just not worth saying anything:the place is hyped, the contents of the plates are show-offy and pathetic and everybody seems to be enjoying them a lot — in that case, why bother? Just do not go back. Sometime the place is worth it, the staff deserves to be helped along the path of improvement and you are doing them a favor. Or the problem is only a detail, you can tell it doesn't happen all the time, it could easily be avoided, so by all means tell them about it.

Randy, I do not wish to be too explicit concerning the serious flaws of La Maison des Trois Thés. I am merely going to point out that, however well you were treated and how much time was devoted to your samples, I see no proof of tea expertise there. It does not take any particularly skill or competence to spend twenty minutes on bagged teas and telling someone they are not top quality. None of the tea experts of my acquaintance that have been in contact with La Maison des Trois Thés, including my own Cantonese tea masters, have acknowledged it as a serious reference. Mariage is quite a different matter, I have no reason to criticize them except their way of overflavoring average-grade teas with essential oils, but this is the contemporary French way with tea and it has to be enjoyed such as it is, or not at all.

How nice of you to say so; I assume that eGulleters who are told to wait 8 months for a table can PM you so that you can arrange something for them? If not, why mention the well-known fact that the rules are different for those who have some sort of grip on a restaurant's image (or are believed to by the restaurateur) and for the hoi polloi?

I think I'd go back to Spring, quite simply.

Does it have to be an existing place? The place I'd really want to go back to does not exist anymore. It is Ecaille et Plume, a small restaurant rue Duvivier, in the 7e. The chef was Marie Naël, who now gives cooking classes, and she was a culinary genius. Among the existing places... I can't think of one. Le Cambodge, maybe.

Agreed. (I like Chajin though.)

Oh, wow! "one of the greatest French chefs alive"? I have enormous love and respect and admiration for you Pti, but I have a problem with consistency, or should I say inconsistency, and the fact that I've had 33.3% bad meals at Le Comptoir and 12.5% bad meals (notably when I touted it and took friends/colleagues/acolytes with me) to/at La Régalade makes me cautious. Now you/one could counter that 66.6% and 87.5% ain't bad but ........ I got better things to do with my life.Perhaps we should start another topic on something like; you've got a limited time left here for any number of reasons (worst - death, intermediate - transfered, best - PDG of Baker & McKenzie) - so where would you eat? ← Yes, I do believe Camdeborde is (potentially, I should have added) one of the greatest chefs alive, and I also agree that he is inconsistent, and lately, more than inconsistent. I have had, personally, 80% bad meals at Le Comptoir (the 20% account for the time when I was lunching with a food journalist, so that hardly counts). I have had 100% great meals at La Régalade in his days. But if I had only that experience I would not be so enthusiastic. I have eaten stuff that was prepared by him for special events when he really bothered and meant to impress people and steal the show, and what he cooked that night I will always remember as some of the very best food I ever had. Something that I did not think existed anymore since Flaubert wrote his descriptions of Norman banquets. Incredible food, clearly above a lot of 3-star food I have been served.. So it is only normal that I judge him as a chef in the light of the best he can do. You wouldn't judge Alain Passard from one of his bad days.

I never saw them particularly stressed. And it is many other people's job to greet lots of tourists everyday, they're not the only ones. The least that can be expected from them is to be courteous, all the more since it is actually part of their job to take the reservations. As for the reviews in travel glossies, if they are so bothered by the result, let them just give up the reservation system entirely. That is how crowded places perform the best. I think Yves has been making a mistake from the start by serving more "elegant" food at dinner. The place is just not meant for that and he no longer seems to have the stamina to do that well. If he stuck to the excellent bistrot and traditional fare he's known for, with the odd touch of refinement here and there (that was his style at la Régalade), he'd do much better.

Camdeborde is — and I still believe this in spite of the dreadful lunch I had at Le Comptoir the last time — one of the greatest French chefs alive. He had a choice to enter the star race and preferred not to. He was an important influence on the French bistrot style of the early 2000s, he left a deep, durable mark on French restaurant history, and his former co-chefs like Stéphane Jégo and Benoît Bordier are now the best incarnation of his style. Better than him, I should also add. Clearly Camdeborde, even on his best days at Le Comptoir, has never reached the excellence of his former days at La Régalade but I think it is partly a fatality (the place is very different) and partly a choice. Managing the hotel at the same time makes a big difference and I think much energy is devoted to that — getting people to rent rooms in order to eat at the restaurant. Hence, perhaps, the icy attitude of people at the reservation desk if you're not a hotel guest. However, when Camdeborde really concentrates on cooking, he is the best of all. It all depends on what he concentrates on. Poppy, it would be a bit strange if there were not one French person sitting at Le Comptoir at lunchtime. What Margaret wrote above remains true: Le Comptoir is a victim of its international fame and, apart from a few neighbors who can easily grab a table at lunchtime or the ever-present faithful friends, or food journalists who are not likely to be treated like the common customer, the place is considered lost for Parisians and I am not sure the chef minds that much. Still I believe Le Comptoir is better at lunch than at dinner. On good days, that is.

I have some difficulty believing this all-booked-up thing. Many other small, successful and, I should add, better restaurants do not impose such a long wait. The restaurant is not that good anyway. A three-week, one-month wait, would perhaps sound acceptable. But November until June... I just don't understand. I even think that would be reason enough not to try to book there; maybe if no one ever tried again they would update their manners.

Right where you are, which is not Provence strictly speaking but quite close to it culturally. To answer your first question, I'd pick Provence or the North (Lille, Valenciennes…). And Alsace of course, but everybody goes there.

Christmas in Provence is nice too. Though not so spectacular as in Alsace, it is very poetic. Big santons and crèches in the churches, Christmas markets, special Christmas cooking and food specialties in the shops, the Thirteen Desserts, the pressing of the first olive oil... Not so obvious and touristy as Alsace but, IMO, much more charming in a humble sort of way.