Ptipois

Last time I was at Les Vapeurs, the moules à la crème were as perfect as they come. And there are plenty of moules à la crème on the Northwestern French coast, many of them remarkable, but these were tops. Fries that came on the side were just okay. The atmosphere of the place was also great and the waiters adorable. But it was February 2009 — who knows, they may have gone downhill since then... Besides I never said Sa.qua.na was not good (though I am increasingly tired of those restaurants that could be planted anywhere in the world), just that if someone is expecting to find a taste of the region there, even remote, deconstructed and interpreted, this is definitely not the place. I was assuming that someone asking for recommendations in Honfleur would have expected a place that fit into the larger picture.

At the very least I would not recommend Sa.qua.na if you're after a Norman experience. This place could be anywhere else and I even wonder why it isn't in Paris, so that it could make way for another chef who'd be more respectful of the region. They even go so far into de-localization as serving Breton butter on the table. This really made my Norman hair stand on my Norman head. One of my ideas of a Norman restaurant experience would be a big tureen of moules à la crème at Les Vapeurs in Trouville, with a Paillette beer on the side (brewed in Le Havre). Or just about any moules à la crème at any seaside café between Dieppe and Cherbourg. Or Le Bistrot du Pollet in Dieppe. Or L'Espiguette in Rouen. Or a canard à la rouennaise at the Hotel de Dieppe in Rouen, or in Duclair. Just take a stroll through the weekly markets that take place in every village and you'll understand why it is so important, in Normandy, to stick to "local". In Honfleur, I hear a lot of good about L'Endroit.

After a phase of gentrification for the last ten years or so, most big brasseries no longer serve brasserie food that is worthy of the name, but a standardized, homogenized fare. Brasserie cooking has not disappeared, it has moved downward to corner cafés and simple troquets, a few unpretentious cafés that still remain and cater to office workers for lunch. Not the big names. Not all serve good food, but if you're looking for brasserie food, it is in that sort of places that you will find the last remains of it. I have no particular names to give, it takes a bit of exploration and peeking through the bay window at customers' plates. Somewhere you might even find true gems, much superior than anything served at a trendy bistrot. For instance I had a good meal at Le Canon des Gobelins last Winter, nothing to write a review about but quite good as brasserie meals go.

I do not remember it being chewy. The picture is quite speaking, besides.

Well, I did. I found that bœuf de Coutancie to be quite good. I am not sure what it would have needed to be better.

The best Salers meat I ever had was bought from a small butcher shop in Auvergne, it came from an old animal, ande was beautifully marbled, tender and tasty. I never found the same quality again in Salers meat. One of the problem with modern butchering is that the animals are frequently too young to yield proper "beef". John: I am puzzled, roast beef is one of the most delicious foods in the world, far better than steak. Although few people seem to make it right and it takes a large cut to make a proper roast. I agree, I too feel like screaming whenever I see Bordier Desnoyer etc. It seems that some people have come to confuse good products and big names. But good food is not a matter of names. The job of a chef is to search and there is plenty to search from. Stopping at the big names level and piling them up on the chalkboard now seems like a lack of resourcefulness. I got a good example of that at Sa.qua.na when I discovered that the butter served at table was from Brittany. I found that quite shocking in the heart of Normandy. I told the hostess about it, and she explained that they had not found butter of sufficient quality in the surrounding region. There was no way I could buy that. Not finding excellent butter in Pays d'Auge is like not finding water in the sea, it only means that no one bothered to take a stroll in any of the local markets. At the OFF3 Omnivore Food Festival in 2008, Petter Nilsson was using a lemon in a recipe. The host commented: "From Menton, of course" and Nilsson replied: "No, not from Menton. If you keep putting stress on extraordinary products, you leave ordinary products with no chance of improvement." That was simple, but it really changed my opinion of how chefs and cooks in general should seek their primal matter.

Why Philistines? Le Relais de Venise on boulevard Pereire still serves what is, in my opinion, the very best steak-frites one can experience in Paris. To answer brescd01's question, beef in France is always grass-fed. Sometimes it is marbled, sometimes not. It mostly depends on the breed, the age of the animal, and the raising methods. There is a culinary culture of unmarbled beef as there is a culture of marbled beef. Unmarbled beef can be good. It should be aged for a shorter time than marbled beef. It generally has a strong taste that not everyone enjoys. Some bovine breeds do yield very tender and tasty, though unmarbled, meat. Camargue cattle seems to be a good example. Right now I am in Montpellier and enjoy, as often as I can, a small rib of Nîmes bull's meat, which has no marbling but is very tender and tasty. As a child in the Nice region I would sometimes be served grilled dark red steak, Italian-style, that had no marbling at all but was wonderfully flavorful and melting. No meat is supposed to be tough but all meats can be tough when not properly butchered, aged and prepared. Salers is no exception. I suppose that takes care of the Salers question, but I should add that beef served in France is frequently not aged enough and therefore tough.

I am surprised by your remark. It happens all the time in Paris. There are definitely a few good steak places and more than a few côtes de bœuf to be had all over the city. You are forgetting Christophe which isn't bad at all. And in every neighborhood there is at least one good butcher shop that will provide you with good, sometimes excellent beef. I am beginning to think that the recent stress put on star food providers (like Desnoyer for meat and Thiébault for vegetables) is a bit misleading, and for all that star-system many can no longer see the woods for the tree — the many very decent neighborhood food shops. I also disagree about the fact that good beef, chicken and lamb are uncommon in France. They don't roam the street either but actually they never did. But they are definitely not uncommon. Besides, I never had to insist at the Boucheries Nivernaises that I wanted well-aged beef. All I ever did was point to one cut of meat and say: "I want this one please." One thing French restaurants cannot seem to make right is, for some reason, roast beef.

You're definitely being unfair to French beef. Come to think of it, you probably want to keep all to yourself our delicious, properly-aged, and grass-fed tasty Normande, Simmental, Aubrac, Salers, Bazas and Coutancie bovine delights... Not to mention the taureau de Nîmes which yields some of the tastiest côte I have ever tasted. Even charolais and limousin can be good when raised and prepared the right way.

Lipp is not touristy, it's just not worth it if you're not a politician, a TV-movie-music celebrity, or any other type of glamorous citizen. Even I can get served a stale sole meunière at Lipp. The tartare is pretty good though, but there are other places for that.

Yeah, that's right Julot, blame me for putting you to work! As for the rest of your post: I couldn't have put it better.

I was expecting the Wikipedia reply to turn up sooner or later but I do not consider it a valid argument. It refers to a medical context and thus distracts us from the topic. Narcissism as a term is not solely used in a strong, patronizing way and restricted to a stern psychiatrical use. It is used every day to describe benign, ordinary behaviours, sometimes annoying, sometimes just a bit amusing, sometimes just characteristic of a trend. Sometimes it may only be a style of expression. One should perhaps not let the play on words stray too far but stay focused in the context. Not stumble on the term, but take into account the words that surrounded it, i.e. the whole post. These days it has become impossible to use ordinary words without being morally sued in a "procès d'intention". Although we are surrounded by that kind of verbal dictatorship (as we are by narcissism and other things too), I do not accept that way of relating to the verbal word. So enough splitting hairs for now, and I will resume the discussion with those who have really understood the simple, dispassionate, impersonal meaning of "narcissistic" in the ideas we are trying to convey.

I do not know how Julot will respond on that, but I am a bit surprised at how quick a passionate individual response my rather abstract, general and unemotional answer to Robyn's questions provoked, and how instantly it has taken the debate on the personal level, where I do not wish to follow it. I must say that I do not understand the reactions, and think they are a bit disproportionate and are taking the debate astray. "Narcissistic" is not a mean word, folks. Bear with it. I stand by it because it describes very accurately the trend we're referring to. Going back to the topic, I was mentioning the narcissistic trend in cooking in regard to the economy, to say that perhaps the current "crisis" might weaken that trend, or encourage more examples of more down-to-earth, purely culinary trends. But for philosophical reasons, not necessarily for economical reasons. The financial shock is, indirectly, inducing changes in the way people think and in their priorities.

I am aware that pointing out to the existence of this narcissistic trend is bound to raise controversy and urge some to discuss it frenetically as if it were a theory, doubled with an attack on persons. But is is not a theory, and not an attack either; it is a search criteria based on a very simple, instinctive perception of food. It is not aimed at dismissing certain chefs and diners or at creating yet another new excommunication bureau (narcissistic does not mean bad food, and again it describes an approach, not persons), but at setting a few concepts right, which have been mysteriously overlooked in the general food discourse for a few years. And that Julot and I have been discussing recently in the light of many meals we have had.

April 12th, 2009, Ptipois said on the topic on the economy in France: Self-centered chef cooking, narcissistic cooking, cooking aimed at the chef's self-expression rather than feeding the customers in a generous, sensuous, unselfish way, what is referred to in French as "faire à manger". While "faire à manger" is an outward movement from the source of the cooking to the eater, "cuisine narcissique" is an inward movement, a reality that is often blurred by the admirers of the chef who value "innovation" and "creativity" over taste, and maintain the illusion that they are really satisfied for sensorial reasons, when in fact it is more a matter of being part of a cultural elite. Although at first sight this might be a case of the old traditional-contemporary dichotomy, actually it is not defined by style but by spirit. For instance, Cyril Lignac's (or whomever he puts in his kitchen) cooking at Le Chardenoux is self-conscious and narcissistic because its main motivation is to show the chef in a certain light. While, to take a very eloquent counterexample, the cooking of Inaki Aizpitarte, IMO, is quite the opposite of narcissistic, it is very brilliant and inspired "real" food, as is the cooking of Ferran Adria. So the line isn't drawn between contemporary and traditional, altough the narcissistic streak is more often associated with contemporary chefs and a certain "assemblage"-style cooking of which Bras' gargouillou is the archetype. The most eloquent example of narcissistic cooking I can think of right now is Sa.qua.na. One frequent feature of narcissistic cooking is the serving of dishes inspired by Asian (generally Thai or Japanese) techniques in a sligthly show-offy way that makes diners say oohs and aahs as they used to do for flambé dishes 40 years ago, when the corresponding dishes in Japan or Thailand are just correctly balanced everyday food. Beware — I do not mean to say that Alexandre Bourdas is a narcissistic person, only that he works in a style that can be described as such. It can be good, too. But before being good, it is self-conscious.

Did Phyllis or I ever hinted that we were not going through an economy crisis? I do not see that. As ladies (and I am not that young) who live in France on a daily basis, do not belong to the fortunate classes and have some opportunities to travel to the regions, we were only pointing out that the article, like many others, was sloppily documented and hastily written. Which any French person can see at a glance. There is no knowing in advance what will come out of this crisis though no one needs to be a prophet to figure out that there will be hard times for some, bountiful times for others as usual, but one thing seems certain to me and I can already see it applied, in restaurant cooking and dining styles: superficiality and artificiality in cooking are suffering a fatal blow (and this is not a matter of tradition or modernity, it transcends the duality), this may well be the end (my friend) of "cuisine narcissique" (quoting my friend Julot on this), self-conscious cooking. Besides, the reasons why there no longer are in France restaurants of the type Robert describes (20 to 30 in kitchen, a plethora of menus, etc.) are taking us way back into the past, long before the present crisis and even before the spreading of its root system (which roughly began about 17 years ago), are due to many different factors that include food culture, intellectual culture, health culture and economy, and these reasons would be far too complex to recall here. At least they have very little to do with the hard times we are now experiencing.

I totally agree with Phyllis, and I wonder when journalists who write that sort of articles will ever get it right. Never, I suppose, for I believe they know the contents even before they have started writing. I gather with friends sometimes, neither among us is particularly privileged, things are tougher this year than the year before, but we never talk about "la crise", mostly because there isn't much to say about it that bears any interest. Whatever "la crise" is actually. Perhaps the lady quoted in the article should stop gathering with friends altogether if doing so proves so depressing. Recession or not, I see no sign of depression at street markets, and I believe that many people confronted with a shortage of money do just as I do there: keep buying good products because they are more nutritive and a little goes a long way. You save nothing by purchasing low-quality products. And since it is important that the current economy crisis does not destroy small producers, I insist on buying from them more than ever before. And Paris bistrots and middle-range restaurants are fuller than ever. High-end dining is suffering, but even in that case, not all of it is. It would be interesting to know why L'Ambroisie is doing badly and L'Astrance and L'Arpège are full. Last night I was at Le Châteaubriand and it was packed as usual. One chef of another one of these medium-priced, good-quality Paris bistrots was telling me the other day that he just got a visit from his neighbor, a famous three-star chef, lamenting that his restaurant had lost most of its customers. "Of course, you fool, said my friend. They're all at my place."

I've taken comments from another topics and split them. Here are the ones related to dim sum: Diane (LuckyGirl) on April 7th said: Julot on April 9th added: Tricotin, avenue de Choisy. Best dim sum in Paris, huge room, always packed. Always open for Sunday brunch so I suppose on Easter Sunday as well.

Agreed. And more reliable places too.

Lue being a small village in the Landes de Gascogne, I think 45 minutes South is awfully far away to be considered in the vicinity... Didn't your cousin really say "45 minutes South of Bordeaux"? I do not know about any restaurants in Lue (I have never heard the name before) but I see you're close to Mimizan, Biscarrosse and not far at all from Gujan-Mestras and the bassin d'Arcachon. Arcachon is a good place for oysters and seafood. Bazas is celebrated for beef (a local breed). The wines of the Sauternais and Graves nearby needs no introduction. Tursan is the local Landes wine (red and white), the white is quite nice indeed. Given where you will be, i.e. the SouthWest, you'll certainly have plenty of dining options in small roadside restaurants. Head for the confit, foie gras, enchaud or confit de porc, grilled entrecôte, fish, shellfish and oysters. For 'higher' dining, there is always Claude Darroze in Langon and Michel Guérard in Eugénie-Les-Bains. Take a look at these: Restaurants in Arcachon I heard some good about Diego and their broiled shrimp. Restaurants in Mimizan.

Hi, I think the décor is of little importance. You should try Ménélik, it is really good. The first Ethiopian restaurant that opened in Paris was Entoto.

The interesting thing about the wine choice is that you do not get to choose the wine. I do not recommend the place to anyone who likes to choose what they eat or drink. It is also avenue d'Ivry, not de Vitry. A different location, like rue Sainte-Anne to rue de Richelieu, for instance

Technically Paris-Brest is not a choux ring filled with crème pâtissière. It is a distinctly different thing: a choux ring (sprinkled with chopped hazelnuts before baking) filled with praliné (hazelnut) buttercream, or a mixture of praliné buttercream and crème pâtissière for those who find buttercream too consistent.

Note that Les Papilles is a wine restaurant/bistrot but not technically a wine bar. You may buy wine to go or sit down to lunch and dinner with a bottle of wine, but not just meet and drink wine as in proper wine bars. For a real wine bar in the neighborhood, I recommend Café de la Nouvelle Mairie, near the Panthéon.

Morteau is a smoked raw sausage, it has to be cooked. You won't die and probably won't be sick from eating it raw since smoking gets rid of some of the possible bugs, but it requires 30 minutes of cooking in simmering water. Same instructions appy to jésu de Morteau (a larger version of the same sausage, 1 hour in simmering water), Montbéliard sausage (a thinner version of Morteau), cervelas de Lyon and diots fumés de Savoie, not to mention saucisse au chou from canton de Vaud, Switzerland (a large sausage that contains shredded cabbage). A properly simmered morteau (saucisse or jésu) should be eaten warm and sliced with plenty of cancoillotte poured over it, a few boiled potatoes and a well-seasoned green salad with lots of shallots.