La Rôtisserie de l"Argent: The best oeuf mayonnaise in the world

I haven't posted lately due to a sort of paralysis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. While I continued to cook, and to read about and study cooking, someohow the zest was not there as in normal times. Perhaps because I had to cook, all the time, and was unable to mix it up with dining out at our normal haunts. Particularly difficult was not getting to Paris for nearly two years. 

However . . . we did get to Paris for a few days in December, before the raging Omicron virus spooked us and caused us to leave early. Still, before we left we were able to return to one of our favorite restaurants, La Rôtisserie d'Argent (formerly Rôtisserie du Beaujolais), and found it better than ever. They have gradually raised the level of the cuisine over the years to much better than very good bistro food to quite elegant, while maintaining the casual, friendly atmosphere that has prevailed there for decades.

In two visits, one with a friend, we sampled quite a few of the restaurant's dishes -- duck several ways, pork, salad and dessert -- and all were excellent. But for me the highlight was their oeuf mayonnaise, which I had both nights and which had recently won the Championnat du Monde de l'Oeuf Mayonnaise, sponsored, of course, by the Association de Sauvegarde de l'Oeuf Mayonnaise. Only in France, the land of AAAAA andouilette (which carries the certification of the Association Amicale des Amateurs de l'Andouillette Authentique) and other organizations watching over the most traditional French foods, including cheeses and cassoulet.

What's so great about La Rôtisserie's oeuf mayo? Everything. Look at it:

 

Oeuf mayonnaise at La Rôtisserie d'Argent

perfect texture, a yolk that straddles the middle ground between hard- and medium-boiled, a yielding white, a wonderful mayonnaise with just a hint of cumin, mustard seeds cooked in a lovely balsamic vinegar and twigs of thyme, all bundled up in a glorious package.

 No wonder it was declared the best in the world! 

Oeuf mayo may not be the height of gastronomy, but there is something about being in Paris, partaking of a perfectly rendered French classic dish, that never gets old.

Bobby Jay

Paris -- Itinéraires: Still Great

I have written about Itinéraires before, but two recent experiences confirm that I just can't say enough about this excellent restaurant, which is less than fifteen minutes from our apartment on foot, the shorty journey encompassing a crossing of Île Saint-Louis that is itself a highlight of any stay in Paris.

We went with French friends on a weeknight, when the astounding 60 euro menu is on offer. It was their first experience at Itinéraires and they were blown away.

What makes this restaurant so great is the very precise cooking and presentation, giving each of the many elements on the plate its chance to star. The spectacular vegetables all come from a single farmer, Asafumi Yamashita, and they are integrated seamlessly into the dishes.

Highlights included "Cod with Fish Sauce Scented with Saffron, Baby Greens from M. Yamashita and Ham from Patrick Duler" and "Pigeon with 1001 Nights Spices and Carrot/Meat/Orange Jus."

Cod and pigeon at Itinéraires

Other dishes were just as pretty but I was reluctant to take too many photos.

We returned a couple of weeks later with Japanese friends and this time, since we were a party of seven, were required to take the ninety-euro menu dégustation, consisting of five courses after a complement of exciting and substantive amuses-bouche. Not only was the food just as spectacular as in our earlier meal, but the multiple course extravaganza was so well calibrated that one left the table pleasantly sated but without feeling stuffed. And we ate everything.

Two of the amuses were an unbelievably thin slices of M. Yamashita's cauliflower, with an ethereal, lightly spiced vinaigrette, and raw seafood and cooked vegetables on a cucumber bridge.

Thinly sliced cauliflower with vinaigrette

Raw seafood on cucumber

The meal proper started with a carpaccio of house-smoked duck breast with red fruits (cherries and currants) to provide an acid contrast to the fattiness of the duck. A spectacular plate!

Smoked duck capraccio with red fruits

There followed the night's preparation of slowly cooked cod, this time with peas, a peanut (even the 1-1/2 peanuts were a very noticeable element) and elderberry flowers.

Slow-cooked cod with peas

Next up was roast pigeon with a beet-raspberry-pigeon jus, which was as interesting and beautiful as it sounds.

Roast pigeon with beet-raspberry jus

The first dessert was a "capuccino" of mango, banana pannacotta and a light coconut mousse with Expelette pepper. Unfortunately it was photo shy.

Not so the "garden" of chocolate and fresh herbes, which looked too much like a garden for my taste, but which was a success for the palate if not the palette.

"Garden" of chocolate and herbs

What more can I say, except that I can't wait to get back next time we are in Paris.

Bobby Jay

Paris - A Week of Food

Pleurotte omelet

I recently spent nine days in Paris, without Joan or Sylvie, to do various things: check on renovations of our kitchen and bathroom, attend the annual shareholders' meeting of our building and attend the opening of Jeffrey Horvitz's marvelous show of 18th century French drawings at the Petit Palais and, the cherry on the sundae, to attend the ceremony in which Jeffrey was named a chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur.

When I am alone in Paris, I seldom go to great restaurants, preferring to save that pleasure for sharing with Joan. Instead, I cook simple things at home, taking advantage of the great products that are available, and go to simple restaurants.

The day of my arrival, I made a pleurotte omelet with grated two-year old comté. But even before dinner, I took a walk on the Île Saint-Louis and got a bitter chocolate sorbet with pine nut praline ice cream at Berthillon.

Berthillon's bitter chocolate sorbet and pine nut praline ice cream

The next day, I went with a friend to the well-know brasserie le Stella, in the 16th arrondissement, where I had a perfect steak tartare. This dish is generally served with capers, onions, mustard, worcestershire sauce and, sometimes, hot sauce on the side, which you mix in to taste. (Usually I mix in a lot of everything.) Le Stella serves theirs with everything already in, all chopped extremely fine so the texture is silken and uniform, and the seasoning is perfect!

Steak tartare at le Stella

During our last trip to Paris, we had fantastic bread at Restaurant H, and asked where they got it. The answer was Ernest et Valentin, quite far to the East of our apartment. This time I walked there (whew!) and admired the flans and other things in the window, and bought a piece of the flan, a croissant and some whole wheat bread. All were quite delicious, and I was not surprised to learn that they were voted the best bakery in Île de France by M6, a television chain, in 2016.

Flan at Ernest et Valentin

Croissant, bread and flan from Ernest et Valentin

On my third night, I made one of my go-to Parisian dinners, truffled boudin blanc with Puy lentls. Always a treat, and I got to break in my new induction cooktop and electric broiler.

Boudin blanc truffé aux lentilles

Sunday, I made quesadillas with some lovely speck and a melange of comté and emmenthal cheeses on Lebanese flatbread. On day five, I ate at an excellent small Thai place about five minutes away, and enjoyed my usual: the very spicy Tom Yang soup with shrimp and duck breast with green curry.

The next day, lunch consisted of a wonderful pork cheek stew that I made at a cooking lesson the day before; the meat was the tenderest pork I have ever eaten and the taste was rich and complex due to the mixture with assorted vegetables. Later, after attending the opening of the very impressive Salon de Dessin at the Bourse, I joined Jeffrey and a group for dinner at the nearby classic Bistrot de l'Opéra Comique, where for some reason they didn't like me and kept forgetting my orders. The food was fine, however, when it finally arrived, and a good time was had by all.

Day seven saw Jeffrey's induction into the Légion d'Honneur in a dignified ceremony at the resplendent Quai d'Orsay, after which I went to my favorite oyster bar at Garnier, near Gare St-Lazare, for the assorted oyster platter and some bulots.

The next day was the shareholders' meeting mentioned above, after which I joined the president of the board of our building and her husband and daugher at Chez Margot, a nice bistro about 100 meters away, where their son is a waiter. Very nice moules marinière.

Chez Margot

My last night was spent with friends at their home, where we dined on dos de cabillaud, a very popular French dish. Cabillaud means cod but it is not at all like our cod. I brought what turned out to be a very tasty pork terrine that I had made earlier in the week at the cooking class referred to above. Prodigious amounts of wine were consumed in accompaniment of this lovely meal.

Not a week of showstoppers, but lots of good eats nonetheless. It's Paris after all.

Bobby Jay

Paris -- An Amazing Lebanese Feast

While in Paris, J and I and our friends Mimi and JoJo were treated to an amazing Lebanese feast at Rimal, one of the best Lebanese restaurants to be found there (at 94, boulevard Malesherbes, in the 17ème arrondissment). The meal was a family celebration organized by our friend Tania, and included Tania's delightful mother Aida, her sister Ruby and her niece Carol, along with some Kuwaiti friends.

Tania planned the meal with Roger Sfeir, the Maître d' at Rimal, who is a kind of legend within Paris' large Lebanese community, as well as Tania's admired friend Fady Khouri, one of Rimal's owners, whom Tania correctly describes as a "grand gentleman."

The meal reflected Middle Eastern principles of entertaining, i.e. way too much food, and lots of special dishes. Here are photos of many of them, taken by Tania, who is not merely a great cook but also an accomplished food presenter and photographer. (The names in captions were provided by Tania, generally French spellings of Lebanese names. You may find anglicized spellings if you try to learn more about this items.)

Garlic tomatoes

Arayess (minced meat, herbs, onions in pita, grilled)

Tabboulé

Kebbé nayé (Lebanese veal tartare)

Shanklishe (strong crumbled cheese balls with herbs)

Fatayers (spinach triangles)

Kabab karaz (an exceptional Aleppo specialty)

Kebbé  boulettes and walnut eggplant mix

Makaneks (special Lebanese sausages)

Ra'a'ates (feuilleté "from Heaven")

Cream and rose "chewy" ice creams

Karabiges (pistachio filled pastry brought from Beirut)

Natef (resemblng pine flavored marshmallow)

The ambiance was indeed familial. Aida, in particular, was beaming the whole time at the array of guests and enjoyed every second of making us all happy, and particularly those of us who are somewhat new to Lebanese food.

Aida with Roger and Jo-Jo

See? It worked!

A content moi

What a wonderful memory!

Bobby Jay

Paris -- Maxim's Museum: A Little-known Treasure

At a friend's suggestion, we recently took a tour of Maxim's and it's attached museum. There were only three of us on the 2:00 tour given in perfect English by an amazingly well-informed and engaging guide, so we could linger over things that particularly caught our attention.

Maxim's, located at 3 rue Royale since the 1890s, is more than an iconic restaurant. It is the spot where everyone who counted in Paris appeared and where the famed courtesans became some of the richest women in France. The décor, which you will recall from Gigi and, more recently, Midnight in Paris, is OVER THE TOP, but in a nice way. Every inch is decorated, and all the period details have been retained.

Seeing Maxim's empty is a treat, as you can see. It is eminently photogenic.

Various views of Maxim's

In addition to the public rooms, upstairs in what used to be the private rooms is a museum containing the very fine Art Nouveau collection of Pierre Cardin, who is the present owner of Maxim's. The presentation of the items in the collection is most interesting, and echoes the period in which the object were created. Here are just a few of them:

Gaudi chairs

Bedroom by Gallé

Rare Tiffany lamp

Bedroom by well, I forget

Pierre Cardin is 94, and owns Maxim's personally. It is not clear what will happen to the place when he dies. While the physical premises are protected, it could become anything, even a clothing boutique. So we are going to go there for dinner on our next trip to Paris, while it still will be Maxim's. The food is apparently competently prepared but in a 1950s time warp. Still, . . ..

Maxim's is not the Louvre or the Musée d'Orsay, and thus is not for the first-time (or even second-time) visitor to Paris. However, if you have done the major sites and are looking for a visual ice cream sundae, Maxim's is well worth the trip.

Bobby Jay