Food

Paris Restaurants

thesamovar — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 01:21:08 +0000

People occasionally ask me where to eat in Paris, so this is a brief guide with some of the places I've been. Prices are estimates of the price I would expect to pay if I went there (no wine, I don't drink). Details (exact location, phone number, etc. are included in the link). The approximate location is given by the arondissement (e.g. 13th).

Favourites

Cave la Bourgogne. 5th. €20. My local bistro, probably the place I end up eating out at most often. It's a jolly place and the food is reasonably good. No need to book.
Le Pré Verre. 5th. €30. Probably some of the best food I've had in Paris at this price range (3 courses for 30 euros). Notable for mixing French cuisine with Japanese influences. I particularly like the suckling pig with cabbage and spices (including star anise), and the sesame ice cream that comes with the moelleux au chocolat. Book a few days in advance.
L'Alchimiste. 12th. €30. Very nice bistro with a 3 course menu for 30 euros, good food and good atmosphere. I recommend the gambas with caramelised mango to start with, the duck pastilla for main course and the moelleux au chocolat for pudding. Book a few days in advance.
Itinéraires. 5th. €40. Extremely good food, classic French style. Book a week in advance.
L'Astrance. 16th. €70. Possibly one of the best restaurants in Paris, with three Michelin stars and featuring highly most years in the top 50 restaurants of the world list (although the list is a bit dubious as they take donations from some of the restaurants listed). Go for the lunch menu at 70 euros, as the dinner menus are much more expensive and the lunch menu is basically as good. At around 13 courses, expect to be there for around 3 hours. The lunch menu is a surprise, and features whatever the restaurant plans to serve that day, however they will give you different things depending on which wines you order (or if you have allergies, etc.). Note that it's a very small restaurant, and only open Tuesday-Friday so you'll have to book a long time in advance (a month, say).

Recommendations

Au Trou Gascon. 12th. €45. Good value 5 course dinner at around 45-50 euros. One Michelin star. Book a week or two in advance.
La Cerisaie. 14th. €35. Southern French, meaty fare, good selection of game. Book a few days in advance.
L'Avant Gout. 13th. €31. Can be very good, uses unusual spices etc., but occasionally misses. Book maybe a week in advance.
L'Ourcine. 13th. €30. One of the first restaurants I went to in Paris - an auspicious choice. Fixed price menu, changes frequently, usually very good. Book a few days in advance.
Ribouldingue. 5th. €30. An extraordinary restaurant that basically only serves offal. Go there if you're brave and don't mind eating udder salad (really!), testicles, brains, etc. Having warned you, I can say that despite being slightly scary, the food is very good.
La Biche au Bois. 12th. €30. If you love game, and you love big portions, go here and eat with some of the happiest and fattest people of Paris! Make sure to go in game season if you can though.
Pierre Gagnaire. 8th. €130. Another three Michelin starred restaurant, this one rather more expensive, but equally fantastic (and open slightly more often than L'Astrance). Again, the lunch menu is considerably less expensive than the dinner menus, and you can only book one month in advance so its worth doing so at the first opportunity.
Le Chiberta - too expensive at around 100 euros but extremely good.
Le Violon d'Ingres - too expensive at around 70 euros but very good.
Buisson Ardent
Coco de Mer
Epsilon
Temps des Cerises
Chez Mamane
Mussuwam
Le Sirocco
Foyer Vietnam

Other places

I've been to these and thought they were OK, but can't remember them very well.

Le Pergolese - nice, but not wowing.
Les Papilles
L'Anacréon

Not recommended

Some posh restaurants I've been to that were disappointing.

Helene Darroze - my first trip there was excellent, but they changed the menu and the format and it's a bit disappointing now.
Senderens - not worth the price.
L'AOC
Christophe

Food shops

Just a little selection of food shops I wouldn't miss in Paris.

Patrick Roger.
Pierre Hermé.
Jacques Genin.
Michel Chaudun.
Hediard.
Patisserie Aoki.
Rue Mouffetard.
Le Palais des Thés
L'Empire des Thés
Grom
Berthillon

Chili con carne

thesamovar — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 01:56:37 +0100

Origin: Gordon Ramsay

Serves 3

1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 red chilli
2 sprigs thyme, roughly chopped
500g beef mince
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
3 fresh toms / 1 beef tom
400g chopped toms
100-200ml chicken stock
3 tbsps tom puree
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
400g kidney beans
sour cream or yoghurt to serve

Sweat onions, garlic, chilli, thyme. Brown mince separately. Add dried spices to onion mix and stir in beef. Add toms and cook down for 5 mins. Add stock and tom puree, cinnamon and bay. Simmer (1h maybe?). Add beans and cook 5-10 mins.

Squash soup

thesamovar — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:02:23 +0000

Origin: Heston Blumenthal

One onion, peeled and thinly sliced
One squash, peeled and thinly sliced (this may take awhile)
Around 100g butter
Cayenne pepper and salt

Equipment needed: something capable of blending - as Axel says, hand blender is best.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and cook the onion at a low heat, stirring all the while, until it goes soft. Add the squash, and cook covered until it goes soft (more stirring - it's important that nothing browns). About 5-10 mins. Cover with cold water, bring to the boil and simmer for about 20 mins. Blend very thoroughly (you don't want to see any traces of onion bits). Season with the salt and cayenne pepper. Done.

For a little more excitement, cook some of the squash in several different ways, e.g. sauteed, roasted, etc. and stir in at the end to get bits.

Other nice things to stir in or drizzle:

Eclats de marron (little chopped up bits of chestnut)
Hazelnut oil
Cream
Tiny chopped strips of fatty ham would probably be good

Easy vegetable cous-cous

thesamovar — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 12:20:57 +0100

Origin: Viola

Ingredients

1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon of turmeric
1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground cinnamon (I often double up all the spices, but that's just me)
equal quantities of garlic and ginger pulped into a paste (I usually use 2 or 3 cloves of garlic and a fat chunk of ginger) add a green chili into the garlic and ginger paste if you fancy it
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 sweet potato, diced
half a butternut squash, diced (you can also use some normal potato, or things like turnip/other root veg here if that floats your boat)
1 red pepper, sliced
1-2 courgettes, sliced
a handful of button mushrooms, sliced (optional)
handful of raisins
1 tin of tomatoes
1 tin of chick peas
bunch of coriander, chopped
olive oil

Heat the oil in a pan. Add the ground spices and stir for about 10-15 seconds.
Add the ginger/garlic paste(&chili) and stir for another 30 seconds or so.
Add the onion and cook for a few minutes until it's turning transparent.
Add the carrot, sweet potato, squash and pepper and cook until pretty soft.
Add the courgettes and mushroom (if using), give it a few stirs, then add the tinned tomatoes, raisins and chick peas. Cook down for about 10 - 15 minutes.
Add the coriander a minute or so before serving.

Serve with couscous (and feta if this whole recipe is looking a bit healthy and vegan for your liking).

Spicy vegetable couscous

thesamovar — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:28:24 +0000

Origin: Ayshea (but not sure where from originally)

The couscous recipe: (serves 2 pretty generously and makes it pretty spicy)

Ingredients

1 onion
garlic
1 potato
2 tomatoes
1 green pepper
1 courgette
some okra
raisins or sultanas
2 tsps black or yellow mustard seeds
tsp paprika
tsp cayenne pepper
s&p
couscous

Par-boil potatoes.
Heat spices in oil til they smoke and crackle but don't burn (they do go brown), add onion and garlic; fry for a bit; add other veg and raisins (just as you chop them is fine) and the potatoes and salt and pepper. Cook til it looks ready - about twenty to thirty minutes - keeping it moist and stirring occasionally. Eat with couscous.

Ragu bolognese (aka spag bol)

thesamovar — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:56:37 +0000

Origin: Marcella Hazan

Serves 6

oil
45 butter
85g onion, chopped
3 sticks celery, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
350g minced beef
250ml full fat milk
whole nutmeg
250ml dry white wine
500g tin tomatoes

And to serve it with:

tagliatelle
parmesan

Heat oil and butter and soften the onion. Add celery and carrot and cook for 2 mins. Add the meat, some salt and pepper and cook until it has lost its raw red colour. Add the milk and simmer gently until it has bubbled away. Add 1/8 tsp nutmeg. Add the wine and simmer away until it has evaporated. Add the tomatoes and just barely simmer for at least 3 hours (Heston Blumenthal suggests 5-7 hours), stirring occasionally. You'll probably have to add water occasionally if it gets too dry. At the end, there should be no water left - no loose liquid. Serve with tagliatelle and plenty of parmesan.

Chestnut and chorizo soup

thesamovar — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:48:35 +0000

Origin: Moro cookbook

Served 4

oil
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stick, diced
2 tomatoes
120g mild cooking chorizo cut into small cubes
2 garlic cloves thinly sliced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1.5 teaspoons finely chopped thyme
2 small dried red chillies, crushed
500g cooked peeled chestnuts
20 saffron threads infused in boiling water
1 litre water
S+P

In a large pan, heat oil. Add onion, carrot, celery, chorizo and some salt and fry for about 20 mins until everything caramelises and turns brown. Add garlic, cumin, thyme, chilli and cook for 1 min. Add tomato and after 2 mins the chestnuts. Add the saffron liquid and water and bring to boil - simmer for 10 mins. Roughly blend and season.

Pesto

thesamovar — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 01:27:33 +0100

Ingredients (for 2)

80g basil leaves, removed from the stalks and carefully washed and squeezed dry
1-3 garlic cloves, peeled
2-3 tbsp pine nuts
6 tbsp olive oil
40-80g pecorino or parmesan, or a mixture of the two (use sardo, a Sardinian ewe’s milk cheese for maximal authenticity), grated
Salt and pepper

Blend the basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil, salt and pepper to a rough puree. Stir in the cheese. Add a few tbsp of the boiling pasta water just before draining and mixing them together to loosen it up a bit.

Aubergine and mozarella pasta sauce

thesamovar — Wed, 16 May 2007 19:31:53 +0100

Origin: The recipe below is mine, but adapted from three recipes. One is from the recipe book of the Walnut Tree Inn, from back when it was an excellent and highly regarded Italian restaurant, another from the River Cafe cook book, and the last is from Marcella Hazan’s Classic Italian Cooking. I highly recommend all three.

Ingredients (for 2 hungry people)

250g pasta - fettucine or other flat pasta is good, wholewheat works well
1 aubergine, halved lengthwise and very thinly sliced
1 onion, finely chopped
1-2 chillis or dried chilli flakes (these work really well actually)
1 tin tomatoes, or equivalent amount of chopped fresh tomato
Parmesan
Olive oil, quite a lot
Salt, pepper
Optional: fresh basil or coriander
Optional: 1 ball of mozzarella, preferably buffalo mozzarella, torn or chopped into bite sized pieces

In a large saucepan heat the olive oil. The amount you use is at your discretion. At the very least, you need a good covering of the base of your pan, but considerably more is preferable. The reason is that later on the aubergine will soak a lot of it up. This is a good thing and a bad thing - it’s good because it’s delicious, but it’s bad because you run the risk of burning the aubergine if you’re not careful. More on that in a moment.

Soften the finely chopped onion in the oil. Now add the thinly sliced aubergine. It’s important to make these slices as thin as you can be bothered. I usually go for about pound coin thickness as a trade-off between effort and reward. At this point, you can also add the chilli or flakes. Cover this pan and cook, occasionally uncovering and stirring so it doesn’t stick and burn. You need to keep cooking until the aubergine is soft enough to eat. Taste it to check when you reach this point - it’s always important to do this at every stage of cooking anything actually.

Now add the tomatoes, turn up the heat and reduce until the sauce is thick and there is no loose liquid in the pan, but no further than this. Season to taste. Take it off the heat and add the herbs and cheeses and stir them in. Mix with the pasta and serve. You may have difficulty with the melted mozzarella going everywhere, but it’s all part of the fun.

Pheasant, chestnut and pancetta stew

thesamovar — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 21:58:49 +0000

Origin: Moro cookbook

This is how I remember a recipe I cooked from the Moro cookbook. It's roughly right, and it worked fine cooked like this.

Ingredients

For two large portions

2 pheasant pieces (chicken, guinea fowl etc. will do)
200g chestnuts (vacuum packed is fine)
100g pancetta thinly sliced (or bacon)
Small glass of white wine (vermouth works OK)
Onion, finely chopped
Carrot, finely chopped
Tin of tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 pieces cinnamon
3 cloves, ground
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 bay leaves
A small number of coriander seeds
Rice
Olive oil, salt, pepper

Heat some oil in a large pan or casserole and brown the bird pieces at a high heat. Set aside.

Fry the pancetta until it begins to crisp. Add the onion and carrot and sweat until soft. Add the garlic, cinnamon, cloves, paprika and bay leaves, stir and cook for a minute. Add the chestnuts, stir and cook for a minute. Add the wine boil it for a few minutes.

Add the tomatoes and bird pieces and simmer until they are done. About 20 mins for breasts or up to 40 mins for legs. Depending on how long you are planning to cook it you should cover the pan or not. You want the sauce to have just a tiny amount of loose liquid so that it's mostly thick but not dry. Check for seasoning.

Meanwhile, boil your rice and put the coriander seeds in with it. As you eat the rice, you will occasionally crunch on one of the seeds and get a 'flavour burst'.