VivreManger

The best commercially marketed source for concentrated stocks in the US, Aromont, no longer carries their old French-made products. In Paris I have been trying to find something comparable. A few months ago at Detou (58, rue Tiquetonne, between Etienne Marcel cross street Montorguiel, 75002) I purchased two Belgian-manufactured Nestle concentrés that while better than anything I have found in the States are still inferior to the best Aromont used to carry. As far as I recall Detou stocked no other brand of concentrés. Is there any shop in Paris that might have a bigger selection? What other brands are available? By the way the Flemish names are respectively Gevogelteglace and Vleesglace.

Last time I was in Paris I picked up some Albert Menes (Ménès) [using both spellings so a google search will find it however you enter it] preserves at a Monoprix (I believe). They were quite good and considerably cheaper than the over-priced and over-hyped (imho) Christine Ferber competition. So on my next trip I resolved to get more. Googling revealed their coordinates and various information that I wish to confirm: http://www.albertmenes.fr/ Their retail coordinates are: Boutique Albert Ménès, 41, Bd Malesherbes (and rue Roquepine), 75008 Paris Tel 01 42 66 95 63 / Fax 01 40 06 00 61 boutique@albertmenes.fr [not working??] le lundi de 15h à 19h, du mardi au vendredi de 10h30 à 14h et de 15h à 19h. Métro :Saint-Augustin Obviously this is a shop that still keeps what we used to call bankers hours. They stock a full line of almost everything one could imagine canned, bottled, bagged, that could be drunk or eaten. Curiously this is not a brand name that pops up regularly in the blogosphere. Does anyone know why? I also want to confirm that its business hours are accurately posted. Anyone know its products and can make some recommendations? ADDED Later. For those who have it handy, Boutique Albert Ménès is in Gault et Millau 2007. However it does not appear with any substantive detail or reviewers' comments in the on-line guide, http://www.fra.webcity.fr/guide_paris/AccueilVille though its basic coordinates - - no hours -- are listed.

Several years ago there was a place I went to in the Thirteenth, not too far from the Mitterrand Library, near rue Tolbiac, which claimed to specialize in bouillabaise. At this point I cannot remember its name, largely because its bouillabaise was unmemorable. I would not recommend it. However I am still eager for a good soupe de poisson, a likelier find in Paris than bouillabaise.

In fact my itinerary is much more complicated than I have detailed. I am beginning the day in Heidelberg and then heading by train in Germany to the south of Strasbourg. The schedule allows me a bit of time in Freibourg bfore heading to Colmar. So I will not be in Strasbourg at all until after my lunch. From Colmar I will taxi to the Auberge for lunch and from the Auberge I will taxi to Selestat whence I take a train to Sbourg arriving only around 4:30. I will then have three hours to explore before continuing the day of travels. This itinerary allows a combination of some (admittedly limited) sightseeing in three of the most beautiful cities of the German-French frontier along with a meal in a lovely setting at a 3-star resto. So what I have sought is a combination of sights and tastes. Please note that Beurehiesel is closed on Sunday so given my schedule it is not an option.

My preference in this choice is a bit Proustian, a la recherche des temps perdus. The Auberge is by most accounts distinctly not modern. It well represents a type of traditional French Alsacian cuisine which rarely is now maintained at this level. My introduction to French cooking in general dates from the fifties when that tradition still held sway. While certainly not a table I would always like to set, on this occasion I want to turn the clock back a bit. If I am going to do it, I should do it at its best representation.

I have friends who ate there even earlier than you, John, but they still remember it fondly. As for the consensus, MarkK's opinion may be extreme, but there is at least one other foodiee out there who dislikes the place. She preferred Beureheisel in Strasbourg. However that establishment is closed on Sunday and seems to have fallen out of the stars, according to recent reports. You are right. Illehausern is in fact about thirty miles from Sbourg. And I will have to depend on taxis and trains to get there, but for a variety of reasons I think it worth the schlep. The setting, by universal account, is supposed to be lovely. In fact I am getting there by a somewhat round-about route that will allow me to spend a short bit of time in two lovely cities, Freiburg-im-Breisgau and Colmar. Eventually I will have about two hours to explore Strasbourg itself before TGVing it to Paris.

Thanks for the responses. After checking around I learned that the best place that will be open that Sunday afternoon is the three-star Auberge de l'Ill, a bit outside of Strasbourg. With one or two exceptions it has gotten consistent praise. I welcome any further comments from those who have dined there recently.

Actually I should be in Paris in less than a month and hope to drop by Genin's to score some caramels. I assume that shipment from the States to Canada should not present a problem, though who knows what Canada Customs and Excise will do. You might suggest on a PM how to handle that issue.

I did do a side by side test comparison between Genin and your caramels. Admittedly the Genin caramels were not fresh. I had bought them in mid-March and kept them in the fridge, but they keep pretty well. I compared your mango and mango-passion fruit to his mango-passion fruit. The taste was in the same ball-park. I think you got as close to the taste of his mango-pf caramels as one could imagine. However your mango only were very different. To my taste it was not as good as your other or his. However the real difference was in the consistency. Yours had a typical caramel slight sticky waxiness. That is they stuck to the teeth. On the other hand his simply melted in the mouth. The consistency was in the same in your more cream and less cream versions. I do not know how Genin achieves this exceptional consistency, but it is unlike any other caramel I have ever tasted. I know you are working on taste, but in my opinion you are pretty close already in the batch that you were kind enough to send me. I enjoyed them very much. But the real difference is the melting consistency. A few suggestions as to what might make a difference, from an admittedly inexpert judge: First might you reduce the glucose and increase the butter and sugar. I suspect that glucose stickies up the candy and butter and sugar should make it softer and more easily melted. The other thing to note, which might run contrary to my first suggestion is that your candies retained their shape at room temperature less well than Genin's. Lastly his candies are about 1/2 the size of yours. Again thanks for the privilege of tasting your caramels. They are wonderful. If I have any criticism it is simply because yours are being compared to the best, probably in the world. Good luck with the next batch.

I am travelling from Germany to Paris, the day after Bastille day and was considering a stop in Strasbourg on a Sunday afternoon, before hopping back on the TGV. Unfortunately the train connections would drop me in Strasbourg around 2 and I would get back on the train around 6, that is an awkward time for dining in France. The problem is even greater since it is the Sunday of Bastille weekend. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what would be open in Strasbourg and Paris on such a day? For S. it would be the afternoon. For P. it would be the evening.

Everyone goes ga ga over the felafel spots on rue des Rosiers, l'As du Falafel and the others in the Jewish quarter, I say, feh. Perhaps if you are coming from Preoria they are primo, but they aren't worth it. Coming from Brooklyn as you do, I am sure you can get felafel that is just as good. It certainly is inferior to what I have tasted in Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, Beirut, and Cairo. Others like the Jewish pastry shops, but here again I say, feh. New York has much better strudel and other pastries. Why eat inferior heavy Jewish pastry when you have access to light delicious French? A few blocks away is Pain de Sucre 14 r Rambuteau 75003 PARIS 01 45 74 68 92, excellent and imaginative pastries, among the best in Paris. The other shops on that street will do in a pinch when that one is closed. Another exceptional shop nearby is the branch of Marriage Freres on rue Bourg Tibourg. They offer elegant tea service, to be sure packed on Sunday, and a range of dry tea comparable to Fortnum's in London. The shops around rue Montorguiel, notably Stohrer: 51 rue Montorgueil Mon-Sun 7:30-20:30, specialty baba au rhum, near Etienne Marcel Metro, are excellent. They are about a 10-15 minute walk away. G. Detou 58 rue Tiquetonne, 75002 Paris 01 42 36 54 67, right around the corner form Stohrer has excellent preserves, dried aromatics candied lilac petales and other exotic products difficult to find in the US, even at Zabar's.

I still have several Genin caramels, mostly ginger and mango, which I have kept refrigerated since returning to the States in March. If you wish a comparison test test, I am happy to offer myself as a guinea pig. My own experience is that Genin caramels have a very strong fruit flavor, the mango being more assertive than the ginger. However I have not tasted the passion fruit so I lack that point of comparison. It may very well be that compared to the passion fruit, the mango is subtle. So if you want to send some of your mango caramels I am happy to receive them. If you are willing, contact me via PM and I can send you my coordinates. To make it easier for you, over the next few weeks my wife and I will be in Montreal so you needn't bother sending the samples to the States. By the way what was the origin and provenance of the mango? Have Alfonso mangos made it to Canada from India? Thye are supposed to be exceptionally good. So far I have only tasted canned Alfonsos.

She may have changed her mind. So it is worht a call. She did not say why.

When I was in Paris in mid-March, Pain de Sucre co-owner, Nathalie Robert, told me they were no longer carrying Genin's caramels. Genin is right to be concerned about butter in the US since his caramels depend on an exquisite use of its ingredients. As for LeRoux's products, are they available in Paris?

Here a a few other related sites that I have found useful: http://www.fra.webcity.fr/restaurants_paris/Restaurants which describes itself as "Le guide des restaurants de Paris". Its great advantage is that it includes details on opening hours and days of all of the listed restaurants. I don't see the reviews as cutting edge, but it does consolidate in one place much useful practical information. Another more funky site is http://www.restoaparis.com/restoaparis/rap...il!openform I am not certain what its advertising policy is and therefore how objective its reviews. But a comparison of some of their reviews with those on this and other sites seems to suggest that it is not wildly off the mark. However until I learn more I would exercise caution in relying on it alone. If anyone can add more information to its provenance, please do post here. One practice does raise a question. They encourage you to mention "restoaparis" when you dine at their recommended establishments, in return you get a free kir or similar aperitif. They seem to pay attention to new and cheaper places. So it is not just the same old, same old, regurgitated Wells and Frommer. What I also like about its reviews is that they highlight the signature dishes of each place, under the distinctive rubric: "A goûter absolument".

I spoke to a US Department of Agriculture inspector on the Canadian US border earlier today. She told me the following: "the only animal products from France allowed into the US through passenger baggage are cooked processed poultry or egg products (such as pate or soup mix) that are NOT from VS-defined areas of avian influenza. I was unable to get a hold of our Port Vet during working hours today to get the specific regions of France classified as VS-defined areas." She or I will be contacting the veterinary expert for that within the next day or so. In the meanwhile, she said, one can find information at the World Health Organization website www.who.int/en/ "What it means though, is that any products you bring back will have to have labels with proof of origin specific to regions and not just "Product of France." I did check the website and it had nothing on Metropolitan France, though it did have information on French territories in the Indian Ocean. In other words one can bring French canned foie gras or confit de canard into the US as long as it does not come from an infected region. On the other hand in addition to the anti-ruminant restrictions (beef, lamb, venison, goat etc.) they are also enforcing anti-swine regulations against French products.

Not when you roast them. And even boiled the color remains. I have never gotten a pale/white vegetable. When peeled in advanced, I usually reserve the cooking liquid for couscous, which produces a brilliant purple red color in the grain, quite spectacular. Other grains I cook in turmeric or saffron water. Once cooked I combine the two together to create a brilliant combination of colors.

You lose that outer glistening glow. Furthermore because of the grit problem, the maple sauce created by beet juice, olive oil, and syrup becomes unusable.

The outer layer is slightly browned and tinged with bright glistening maple syrup. The golden beets I just cooked are a beautiful bright color.

When I cook them with a bit of maple syrup, I try to carmelize them slightly. Peeling after undermines that resulting texture.

A good peeler can make them look even better than the original.

It is fairly standard to peel beets after they have been roasted or boiled, but I find it better to clean and peel them before. I wonder why some do otherwise. The first problem with peeling them after is that it means the cooking juices have to be discarded since they are usually made gritty by the residual dirt in the peel. The second problem is that when one flavors roasting beets - - I often roast them with a bit of maple syrup - - peeling them afterwards, even when they have been carefully scrubbed, but not peeled, to remove all grit and sand, a tedious and I submit ineffective task, removes a layer of the flavor. Is there some reason for delaying the peeling? To be sure, it may be easier after cooking, since a strong blast of water from the tap will remove much of the peel, but if there is the only reason, it makes little sense.

Don't assume that anything works. Recently I read about another naive American who booked on-line, as I recall EVEN got a confirmation, and then appeared at the appointed hour in Paris to discover there was no reservation. Surely at the largest public university in the United States, you must be able to contact someone who knows enough French to book the table for you. That is my best advice. Alternatively you might take a crash course in French. Actually talking to the resto is the only way to ensure you have a booking, and even then....

Unfortunately the problem began with a claim that Laduree macarons were being confiscated in CDG. That may be false, but the source believed this first hand report. No one has done anything to enhance the credibility of that initial report, fortunately. However other issues have been raised along the way. They are not directly relevant and have had their previous days in court. Unless and until there is another report of CDG solid food confiscation, I think we can now all sleep more easily, Good night. And I hope you enjoy that raw milk cheese and ruminant charcuterie of your way to the States.

I conducted a blind tasting of non sparkling water in paris last winter. We tasted in crystal glasses evian. vittel, badoit ,paris tap water and new york city tap water. the results were as follows -new york tap -Badoit -paris tap -evian -vittel Incidentally in restaurants i always order carafe of Chateau de la seine (paris tap water). I think the perceived difference between the various bottled water is psychological due to marketing by the various companies. ← BTW how was the NYC water (aka Chateau de la Hudson) stored and transported for the tasting? Did someone supervise its affinage?