Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Sidekick 09 Use The Internet

La Porte Montmartre: we had better shut up!




Not long ago, we told you the good of the Grands Boulevards the brewery open 24 hours per day. Unfortunately, we returned, and it was much worse. We saw the hotdog to 8.40 € with his sausage at half mast, the bartender unpleasant, the waitress who becomes suddenly blind when it calls ... and we left after waiting too long to simply be noticed.
That'll teach me to speak well!

Monday, February 15, 2010

Dragon Age How To Get Into The Wolves Lair

Valentine: our tips for 2011



And you, how was Valentine's Day this year? Chic and cheap? Dull, chick? In these times of scarcity, when moreover the feast of love falls on a day when only bad restaurants are open, that you it is our feasts?

Some beautiful products, little kitchen, caressing a long day before the fire, and voila. That's how we emulate next year.

First, a brief stint at the fish in the Rue Cadet: some smelts and bottarga. A little further down the street, Speck thinly among the Italian delicatessen, some goat cheese dried opposite. Bread, you buy divine, the morning market of the Church of Pantin or lacking in your favorite baker accomplice.

is coming home.

Throughout the day, coiled on the couch, you can sample at will a few thin slices of seasoned Poutargue lemon pepper and olive oil (Portugal, A Capela dos Olivais , the families will Baussan among Oliviers & Co, the fresh herb), a little speck, cheese slices, a little fried smelts (sprinkled Flower Moon Olivier Roellinger, pepper, lemon drops, fried parsley), accompanied by a lovely Champagne ( Larmandier Bernier, Blanc de Blancs).

The charm works.

And if we do not have all these marvels at hand, you say? Well, we improvise with the materials at hand, and nobody wants you, because basically, for a successful Valentine's Day, just like it.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

What Would An Abnormal Chest X Ray Mean

Alain Passard: it is beautiful?

So it's almost ten years since I wrote to Alain Passard to complain of a lunch at L'Arpege heartbreaking. To be honest, I expected nothing in return for that stammering. But accepted the invitation of the maestro who claimed via his press secretary make amends. And did one of the best meals of my life. Like what, when and guest is announced, things can be very different ... and better value for money.
After this second breakfast, I explain again to Alain Passard, who remembered only some of the contents of my letter, the reason for my confusion first, and he admitted to having eaten divinely When prompted by him. The leader ended the exchange by a "much better, then you come back? It is the beautiful?"
I do not know what to answer, and snicker at the silly joke, before taking any measurement of the expression, as it is true that Alain Passard, despite all the talent that he now concedes, "is beautiful" . Open a random women's magazine: Passard is the new Martin! Some titles? Alain cultivates his garden, Alain plays clarinet, Alain roasted poultry, Alain takes the pose of Rodin's Thinker in front of a wall painted with a sponge, a tubercle on the shoulder ... ad lib.
And me, I want more ... Is it because the beautiful?
retrospect, ten years later, while the lunch menu is 120 €, I want to answer him: "Let's start by making peace." For beautiful, one thinks!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Canada Never Summer Sale Pandora

10 years already: letter to Alain Passard


Paris, April 26, 2000

Sir

Let me write you after a lunch made at your restaurant last April 4 (please find attached the addition of which he s 'acts). I confess
qu'alléché by what you hold in attractive magazine Palace, which you are the editor in the spring of 2000, I yielded to the desire to taste your cooking. As
read everywhere, and assumed by me, everything - or almost - in the lunch menu was perfect (except for a layer cake and uninspired ... everything sec), I will not repeat for fear of redundancy, praises the obvious that your talent deserves.
Just as I would not find fault with the service attentive and precise (without being cold or frozen, as in many large tables), nor the place (it is so rare to find in a modern setting this sober elegance, a word that taste) who accompanied us to dinner.
But what about a menu announced in a quarterly magazine to 390 francs, and charged 490 francs a month after the publication of that magazine? What about the fact that its new menu and prices do not appear on the map outside the restaurant? How to deny that the reproduction of the map of L'Arpege, coupled with the paean about you in the Palace, can - and seeks to - attract additional customers, and that the customer is deliberately misled? You probably will object
the menu has been modified. I would tell you that I have not found that new content has a new cost (unless a sudden and rampant inflation in the price of egg or onion, which would have escaped?). And this seems to me, after verification, valid for all products on your menu. I also say that it is very unpleasant to feel trapped and as you all know that when we booked a meal well in advance, we dreamed about and it does everything for that perfect moment becomes a real time, so we do not fall from the table to go after seeing the map. And we ask it even less when the question is, as I was accompanied by a lady.
Unfortunately, we were not yet out of our disappointments. The final blow came with the reading of your wine.
I remembered thinking of one of my friends sommeliers who had quarreled with a large head, partly because it is applied to the price of bottles of multipliers exaggerated. There was talk then, on bottles inexpensive coefficient 6-7, very rarely 8 (but on the duty, of course). I blessed God that this friend has not seen your book cellar. Some examples? Two small price (sic), so among the bottles that you sell 500 Francs, the least expensive: The Ebrescade, Marcel Richaud Cairanne from home, I buy my wine store to stupidly at ... 58 Franks, Clos de la truffle, Domaine du Deffends, the hills of Var Red Lanversin JS, I am sending to ... 45 francs a bottle. We then have a multiplier of 8.6 and another of over 11 on the retail price! For my part, I was recommended a Côtes de Bergerac, the Castle Tourmentine, I did not know, and which, for decency, I dare not reveal the margin that you release (also selling this bottle 500 Francs !). You probably just count on the ignorance of your customers' wines to dare such miracles.
finally understand that this is not just a question of money. The pleasure is priceless, they say. I do not wander longer to look at you. I will try to forget what seems like a sad abuse, moreover cynical.
I left for pleasure more than you knew me squeeze by deception. And I would have won more than your tarnished image and the memory of your dark eternal calculations.
One thing is sure, Mr. Passard, you're probably a great cook, but you're not an honest man.