RandyB

I am only tentatively sticking my 2 Euro into this thread. I have eaten at 3 star restaurants only twice, and neither was a recent visit. So I can`t compete with the commentary on the high end. On the other hand, I have been taken out to some quite expensive NY restaurants where I have been very disappointed. My bias is that if you spend over $50 per person for food, or 50 € including tax & service, it should be consistently excellent and wonderful. Otherwise, it`s just a ripoff. Unfortunately, that happens too often in France and the US. There are times when I`d rather have a good pizza than risk a big tab at an unknown place. I do think Robyn made a telling comment regarding creativity replacing simple cooking of wonderful ingredients. In the Pacific Northwest, where I spend more time than anywhere else, there are some lovely restaurants taking the simplicity approach. But they often find it hard to compete with the flashier places. As for French cooking in general, I do think it has become much harder to find a good, reasonably-priced meal, and easier to find a bad one, in recent years. This is a reversal of what it was 20 years ago. There`s also a decline in consistency, the hallmark of a great chef. You can see this in so many threads, where one writer has a wonderful meal, and a few weeks later another is seriously disappointed. On the other hand, sometimes the surprises are so wonderful that they do blow me away. A few years ago I was staying by chance in La Rochelle at la Corderie Royale. I knew nothing about the hotel restaurant, but it was convenient as I was without a car. This was one of the best meals I`ve had in years, and the prix fixe for entrée, plat, fromage, and dessert was 36 €. I described it here.

This thread reminded me how much I enjoyed dinner there last year. So today on the spur of the moment (and late) I went to that area, foolishly thinking I could go without a lunch reservation. At 13h30, Chez l'Ami Jean was full. It`s a quick walk to Violin d'Ingres. Unfortunately, a woman pushed in ahead of me and got the very last table. I nonetheless had a very nice lunch next door at Constant`s café, les Cocottes. A wonderful creme of pumpkin soup with bits of chestnuts (châtaignes). A cabillaud (cod) baked with tiny potatoes and carrots, in a meat (!) sauce ("au jus de viande acidulé"). Very nice. See photo here. The entrée and plat totaled 23 €. Next door at V d'I the prix fixe would have been 19 € for entrée and plat. That pushy French woman owes me 4 €. Meanwhile, I really like one of the two breads they served. It was a pain de campagne from Secco, a nearby boulangerie I had never visited. I picked up half a large loaf on the way home. I buy half a large, rather than a small loaf or a baguette de compagne, because I find it has the best bottom crust.

You are lucky! They did tell me that today was the likely day for the mange-passion. Unfortunately, I could not go today. Instead, I was learning to make a Bûche de Noël (for me, a Chanukah Yule Log) with chocolate and raspberry. Tomorrow or Friday I`ll go back to Genin.

Well, I looked at the possible restaurants. Then I happened to be in the covered market at the Marché d'Aligre and there they were: Gillardeau No. 2 oysters at 20€ for a huitrier`s dozen (i.e., 13). For another 1,50€ I bought a little hand protector, and borrowed an oyster knife from a neighbor. These guys were SWEET and meaty. Seemed like twice as much meat as a No. 2 fine de claire. Which is good, since the fines de claires cost half as much. Incidentally, the oysters keep well in the fridge for several days if you keep them flat and covered with a damp dish towel. I didn`t miss the vinaigrette that most restaurants provide, since I think those oysters should be eaten naked (pun intended), or with no more than a couple of drops of fresh lemon juice.

I couldn`t wait! I just zoomed over to the new boutique. It is gorgeous. The charming server Anne offered me several tastes, including a red tea in dark chocolate that showcases the Genin subtlety. In this respect he is in the category of M. Linxe. The same subtlety can be found in the unusually light caramels, although I only tasted the ginger one. I was hoping for the mango-passionfruit, but it had not yet emerged from the laboratory/factory upstairs. I did not try the pastries or the hot chocolate, but would certainly enjoy sitting in the cafe another time.

Oh, my. Practically in my neighborhood. I could walk there, but even then it wouldn't justify the calories. I visited his atelier several years ago and managed to get in. I spent over half an hour not guessing correctly most of the flavors he fed me. Then I was amazed at his caramels. They were the first I've ever liked, perhaps because they were light, not densely chewy. (I`ve not tried the caramelized butter mousse truffles at Maison du Chocolat, however, because I just heard of them.) He allowed (!) me to buy a half kilo to take home at a very reasonable price. But now I will no longer be among the privileged few. Sigh. Everyone can go to the new shop. It remains to be seen, judged, and of course disputed whether the myth of Jacques Genin can live up to reality and the competition of the likes of Maison du Chocolat, Jean Paul Hévin, and Pierre Hermé.

I guess I do, too. I just noticed I had a post in this thread dated 2003. Meanwhile, I still think Bofinger serves a nice choucroute. If you have a kitchen, or at least a hot plate or microwave to reheat food, then doing takeout from Bofinger is a real bargain. The takeout portion is enough for two, if maybe you add a salad. They even take off a Euro or two from the menu price when you take it out.

Thank you all.

I`ll be back in Paris for the first two weeks of December. In mid-Sept I had some great oysters at la Mascotte in Montmartre. It was a first time for ma copine and she loved them. I know some of you are oyster fans. Do you have some suggestions where we don`t have to pay 3-star prices for the rest of the meal? I should note that my apartment is a short walk from the Bastille. I`ve walked by the seafood at Bofinger many times, but have never tried it there. My usual Bofinger meal in winter is choucroute from their take-out, an incredible bargain.

Thanks to you both. I'll try to check out Baan Boran. Unfortunately, their site is another one of those where the designer was really not thinking about users. The only way to look at a menu online is in a popup window. Either the windows just aren't working, or they have such questionable features that neither of my browsers will allow them to to display anything once the window opens.

No. but I think I found it by chance today. I was doing some errands at Mora and G. Detout and found it nearby in the rue Mandar. Not all that close to the Biblio Nat. It's called Silk and Spice. Do you know anything about it? They have a website, but it's one of those where the designer didn't care about users with anything less than superfast broadband. My internet in Paris is pretty good but the site still loads like molasses. The link that should get you past some of the opening garbage is Silk and Spice menus This links to a French page. There is apparently an English version of the site, but I wasn't about to go back to the beginning to switch to it.

I remember reading recently about an interesting Thai restaurant in the 2nd. I just can`t remember where I read it or the name. I`m looking for a lunch place to take a friend who works at the Bibliotèque Nationale. There are many ethnic restaurants in the area but most appear quite boring. What I read sounded much better. Any thoughts on this?

My friend, Alex Miles, professor of cooking and author of "Ces hommes qui cuisinent : Le plaisir de partager" (These Men Who Cook: The pleasure of Sharing) lives in Dijon. He tells me the best pizza in France can be found at a restaurant there. Unfortuntely, my planned visit to Alex and his chosen pizza joint was stopped by the November rail strike, so I never found out the name.

There have been non-smoking restos in Paris for several years. What I am really looking forward to when I arrive this Friday is non-smoking JAZZ BARS!

I agree with much of what Anne Paris said. I spend a month or two each year in Paris and often dine out with French friends. I have found that most expect to split the bill unless someone proposes something different, i.e., specifically invited me to the dinner. With my poorer friends, I often make clear that I am inviting and they are my guests, or I may in the course of the meal announce that I want to treat everyone to a bottle of good wine. With one friend, we just take turns. But I have never done a precise calculation of "who had what and what do they owe," which is so common and annoying in the US.

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. ← There were 4 or 5 different meat products. I can't even say for sure that some smaller pieces were duck confit or something else. The sausages were definitely there, and a nice, crispy pork rind. The taste combination was excellent.

The dinner tonight at Violon d'Ingres was wonderful. My stepmother loved it. She also thought the prices were very reasonable, with a 48 euro, 3-course prix fixe. We ended up splitting the cassoulet and splitting an agneau au lait (extra price), because it turns out she loves cassoulet, too. It was good that we didn't both order it. The portion was tremendous, although the confit was not a large piece itself. Unfortunately, it was so delicious we ate more of it than we should have. The servers were very friendly. When we asked for an extra spoon for my stepmother to taste my soup (cream of pumpkin with wild mushrooms), they brought her a bowl instead (at no charge). As one would expect from Constant, desserts, too, were excellent. The only thing we didn't like were the petit fours at the end: Hard white meringue and standard caramels. Neither are things I ever like although I exclude from my dislike he Jacques Genin caramels, which are unreal. It was not too loud. Only one person in the whole restaurant was smoking and, of course, even that will end soon.

Thanks for the personal explanation of how to upload images, gfron1, so here they are. The images in it include the Mauclerc oven and Mme. Mauclerc with me in front of it. What the molds for making ganache filled chocolate candies look like at Girard, with the chocolate filling machine behind. M. Delmontel himself talking with some of the group visiting; guide Florence and the Delmontel pastry chef along side the machine that can mix and knead 50 kilos of dough at a time, bread oven on the left. Putting the passionfruit puree into the basil-flavored macarron at Mulot; covering orange peel with chocolate at Mulot;

I have lots of photos from every visit. Even some short movies taken with my regular digital camera.

I recently discovered a website that arranges visits to all sorts of small producers, sellers, and crafts people. So far, I have visited Girard Mulot to watch them make macarrons and chocolate covered orange peel. I also met Veronique Mauclerc, unusual as a woman baker and in particular because she uses a 100+ year old, wood fired oven, in an historic building. Yesterday, I visited the bakery of Arnaud Delmontel, who just won the "best baguette" award (Concours pour la Meilleure Baguette de Paris). You can visit jewelry designers, book binders, etc., not just food makers. For a small fee, from 5-10€ per person, you spend up to an hour meeting the artisan and watching behind the scenes. (We spent 1.5 hours with Delmontel, who himself was delightful.) Tours are in English and French. It`s called Meeting the French. They also arrange much longer visits and events, and have B&Bs, but I have no experience with those. The short visits are called "company visits" on the English version of the website. This is a small agency partnered with the Paris tourist office. The French owner and her chief guide are both delightful. I highly recommend this company and their mini-visits for a really different Paris experience. I have no connection to them, by the way. I found them entirely by chance on the Internet a week ago.

Excuse me for going a little off topic, but what is the significance of posts that include text in a strike-out format, as in the previous post ?

I took advantage of a couple of free hours this morning to take a look at all three restaurants. I decided that if my step-mother is intererested when she gets to Paris next week, I will take her to the prettiest of the three mentioned, le Violin d'Ingres. I was able to get a reservation for Friday night. I have never been there, but have wanted to try it. I had not realized that I could get cassoulet for one there or I probably would have gone sooner. If my stepmother does not want to go, my second choice based solely on appearance was L'Ecureuil, l'Oie et le Canard. This is where I will go if alone. Thus, I don`t have to worry about testing the current state of l'auberge Pyrenées Cevennes.

When I went by Bruno a few days ago, the sign said it was only open a few days each week. I think it was Thursday to Saturday, but possibly Sunday, also.

I cannot seem to interest any of my friends in sharing the typical cassoulet served for two people. My last, best choice, le Relais St. Paul near my family's apartment in the Marais, is now a Thai restaurant. Thus, I am looking for a good cassoulet that might be ordered for just one person in a restaurant that is not grand luxe. However, it should be something better than the 11 Euro version I saw today on the place de la Bastille -- made without any confit de canard!

There are some French dishes I don't like, but only one I think of as insupportable: When the first white asparagus come in and they are cooked to the point of looking and feeling like they came from a can. To me this is crime against nature and taste.