-sheila mooney

speaking of the nytimes: they had a recipe a while back for risotto with duck confit. here in montreal i can get great confit, i have homemade broth and canaroli rice. the result? hubba hubba ding ding! and it's easy enough for a friday after work come on over dinner.

have you ever tried roasting a whole bone-in, skin-on chicken breast? set it on a bed of sliced potatoes, carrots, onions, unpeeled garlic, herbs -- s&p and olive oil, maybe some lemon juice. then roast at 400 for about 30 min (depends on size). good stuff.

i'm from out of town but i sure like the eggs-benedict-on-spinach at le cafeteria (prince arthur et st laurent) and the blueberry pancakes, chockablock with fruit.

Why? Did you tell the lady anything? ← no. i believe it would have been disrespectful (she is the friend of a friend's mother). and useless: her behavior was gauche but harmless en somme. and i would never see her again.

check this: i was in wepler's 2 years ago with a couple of ladies from my home town who had asked me to show them around (at that point i had lived in paris for upward of 20 years). one lady sent back the salmon to have it re-cooked. no problem, de gustibus and all. the other lady, in her mid-seventies, pulls out her makeup bag between le plat et le dessert and starts applying mascara, lipliner, blush... j'en passe. the young waiter expressed disgust to me (in french). i told him nicely and in french to pipe down. but jeez... i don't have a problem with people speaking english next to me. but -- behave!

timbales de laitues made with butter lettuce -- from simca's cuisine. i think she suggested serving them with roast pork studded with prunes. lush!

Funny you would say this, since it's exactly my problem. I grew up on Hellman's and French mayonnaise is too strongly flavoured. I don't want mustard in my salmon or egg salad. It just doesn't seem right. I have never made mayonnaise myself since it seems kind of intimidating but maybe I should give it a try. You can actually find both Hellman's and Philadelphia cream cheese at the Galeries Lafayette Gourmet in Paris, but this is a pretty unusual and expensive resource. It's nice to hear about substitutes that are available throughout France. ← now that i'm back in North America for a spell i can get Hellmann's all right -- but i *really* miss those little jars of Maille mayo in the refrigerated section. i virtually stopped whipping up mayonnaise from scratch when that stuff came on the market... not sugary like the non-refrigerated product, nice and mustardy... mmm

l'express is ok -- but i wouldn't call it a must. well, maybe for atmosphere -- but if you neither recognize nor care about local celebrities, it's not such a trip. i ate there 2 weeks ago with a couple of montrealers who recognized several tv personalities. .. i, in the meantime, was wondering where in hell they had found the foamy-textured "goat cheese" they had put on my entree salad. paris, indeed! however: good wine -- a chinon for 40 bucks. and fun waiters; the guy at the bar is a riot. but for food AND a groovy atmosphere what i have liked recently is le continental -- the crowd and the wine list and the freshness of the food made me go "whoa!" -- voila, an outsider's 2 cents' worth.

Rouge burger (we also liked the fries and the happy, friendly bar crowd) one night + Amada tapas/wine/"bad education"/flamenco dancers the next = the highlights of a stay in Philly just before Christmas at the Sofitel (great room, great price).

Just this week i've partaken of 2 breakfasts and 3 lunches provided by Avocado. Very informal, served at our agency for working sessions with clients. Very fresh ingredients, nice clean flavors. Our clients had very nice things to say about the pastries in particular. Of course a working lunch for 15 isn't a wedding reception...

very luxe neighborhood (and property) indeed! you'll be loving that rue Cler market. There are great permanent shops too, along that street and the Poujauran bakery not far from it -- i've seen pix of the food you cook in other threads: bring your camera along to record your paris exploits! bon sejour...

you might want to visit La Chablisienne wine coop when you're there -- great welcome and great value wines.

shell them and simmer for 35-45 min -- they turn out creamier than dried beans, so very good! toss them with a dressing of olive oil, garlic and rosemary with a good dose of sea salt and cracked black pepper. wish i could find some up here in the (literally) frozen north -- i'll be cooking out of my cupboards this weekend...

Historical trivia relevant to this discussion: Time was, you could do just that. Up through (I think) the 1950s, suburban housewives in Reading Railroad territory could place orders with Reading Terminal Market merchants by phone. The orders would be filled and placed on outbound Reading commuter trains for pickup at the station nearest home in time for dinner preparation. (See? There really is nothing new under the sun. The only difference between this and acmemarkets.com or genuardis.com is that it's done online now, not on the phone.) ← in the late 50s / very early 60s i would sit at the corner of our street waiting for my father to come home from the city -- he took the 4:42 (!!) train from town. he would often walk home from the Glenside station to our house; on fridays we looked to see if he had that parcel wrapped in newsprint -- fish for dinner from the Reading Terminal Market! that little ritual taught a small girl to love shad and pooh-pooh the bones....

from off the barley box: a soup that is ever so comforting with green beans (i cheat and use fresh) and finely diced beef stew meat. i cut it off the box ages ago, at my mother's house, i think. i preserve it piously among my recipe clippings and when i come across it (say once every couple of years) i feel obliged to make it. and very good it is! like running into an old friend...

Yes, please do. ← here you go... from madame jean martin of paris it was tucked into my copy of julia, which has followed me everywhere.. (i usually made half of this - and i misremembered about the shallots, sorry!) 1 kg chicken livers (no hearts or gizzards) 400 gr unsalted full-fat french style butter 1/2 liter white wine 4 soup spoons of port a pinch of quatre epices (sub allspice), salt, pepper optional: 1 truffle (i never used it) In a pot bring wine to boil, throw livers in. very imp: watch the cooking they must be pink inside - not bloody but really pink. 3 minutes timed ("montre en main"). scoop out the livers with a strainer, drain and cool. process them, adding softened butter bit by bit . mix in port, season with spice, salt and pepper. you can then pass the mixture thru a fine sieve, but neither mme martin, who gave me the recipe, nor i did that. transfer mixture into an earthenware terrine and cover with a sheet of foil and lid (or just cover well with foil). refrigerate -- give it a good 4 to 6 hours. serve with thin slices of toasted poilane or any good sourdough bread. bon appetit! -sheila

how about scalloped potatoes with (dried) porcini mushrooms? i think there's a recipe on epicurious.... i made them and they are very very good -- just don't overdo the dried porcini. good luck!

years ago i used to make a recipe called foie gras de volaille -- "chicken liver foie gras." livers cooked til barely firm with sauteed shallot, then pureed in the cuisinart, cooled and enriched with ungodly amounts of butter. seasoned with i can't remember what and flavoured with port. chilled in a terrine, then served with thin slices of sourdough (poilane) toast. have to unearth that recipe... damn good stuff.

at the farmer's market in quebec city i bought a bunch of cheeses recently, including a ciel de charlevoix (?) which i enjoyed. not roquefort by any stretch in terms of texture or tang, more like a fourme d'ambert. but great at room temp with pears; very good stuff.

quebec cheeses... got 2 words for you: kenogami. and grand manitou. ok 3 words, so sue me. what lovely things you have here. enough to make one forget new jersey peaches...

Aaaaach! Meine kleine nusstorte! It's from Demel's you should get these things!!!!! Really am sorry to hear it ... it's those kinds of disappointments that are the worst of all. Right up there with the truth about Santa Claus. Theabroma ← right. some things are better imagined than experienced -- and somehow i'm not surprised that sachertorte from the Hotel Sacher is among them....

i recently attended a blind tasting of 95 chateauneuf du pape - 7 examples plus a "mystery wine" (which turned out to be cigare volant, btw). anyway, one wine i intensely disliked for that overpowering "wheelies" scent. half of the 15 member group felt the same way; many others chose it as their favourite wine of the evening. it was domaine beaurenard, cuvee boisrenard...

whoa! RESPECT.

how do you say "proces d'intention" in english? seriously, indeed. perhaps you missed the part about the lovely food, etc. however: i maintain that guest flow and "conviviality management" are essential in a fine restaurant. the management's very kind gestures (cf my post) and apologies as we left showed that they, too, noticed something had been amiss. my post was intended rather as a heads-up for small parties of 2 or 3 to request a table in the room where the bar is not. which is what i plan to do when i dine at cc&p next month...