La Table d'Eugène

A Parisian friend recently took me to La Table d'Eugène, a bistro tucked away in the 18ème arrondissment, behind Montmartre. This little restaurant (33 seats total, packed very tightly) has received a lot of good press lately, including a recent short review by Mark Bittman and being named one of the top five Paris bistros for 2011 by the authoritative bistro guide, Le Petit Lebey. The cuisine is interesting and well-prepared and reflects the best of what's available in the market at a given date. The chef trained at the Bristol, among other places.

Daurade


Slow-Roasted Veal Loin

Between us, my dinner companion and I sampled daurade, octopus with Iberian ham, small lamb chops cut from the rack, slow-cooked veal loin, a hazelnut dessert and a very lemony lemon tart. All were well executed and quite beautifully presented, although certain stylistic motifs seemed to recur. The service was gracious and competent. The décor is simple but pleasant. The rapport qualité/prix is excellent: 35 euros for a three-course meal, and some inexpensive but interesting wines. In short, La Table d'Eugène is just the kind of place everyone is looking for. Its good reviews are deserved, and it's worth the slightly difficult trip.

La Table d'Eugène, 18 rue Eugène Sue, Paris 18ème, Métro Jules Joffrin.

Bobby Jay

Good Thai Restaurant in Paris

About a year ago, I was complaining about the lack of good Thai restaurants in Paris, despite a huge number of mediocre Chinese/Thai places, to an antiques dealer who has spent significant time in Thailand and seems to be knowledgeable about food. He recommended Thabthim Siam, which he said has authentic and really good Thai food.

This week I finally went (twice) to this simple restaurant, which claims to serve "cuisine Thai traditionelle." I can't vouch for the the authenticity, but the food is good. My first meal consisted of two daily specials -- shrimp and vegetable nems made with battered (rather than wrapped) whole shrimp and shellfish with red curry -- and an indescribable but excellent dessert of curls of jackfruit stuffed with coconut-infused sticky rice. Feeling that I should try some normal menu items, on my return visit I had shrimp and lemongrass soup (tam yam koun), chicken with green curry sauce, and an assortment of sorbets (mango, coconut and passionfruit). The flavors in all my dishes were beautifully blended, spicy but not hot, leaving me happily warmed inside.

Thabthim Siam is in a little section of Paris where no tourists go, even though it is not far from the beaten path. The nearest Métro station is Liège, where I don't think I have ever before gotten off, but which is located in the 9ème between Gare St-Lazare and Place de Clichy. Really not inconvenient at all.

Thabthim Siam, 28 rue de Moscou, Paris 8ème, Métro Liège or Europe.

Bobby Jay

Joyeuses Pâques

It's Easter in Paris. Although this does not affect daily life much (Good Friday is not a holiday, but Easter Monday is), it is reflected in the windows of the city's pâtisseries and boulangeries. Here are some images.

Joyeuse Pâques cake at Dalloyau

Chocolate Easter eggs at Dalloyau

Breads at the famous Poilâne bakery

Bobby Jay

Hand-Made Pasta Lesson

Despite trying many (too many) recipes and methods, I have never been able to make good fresh pasta. So I decided to take a course to get a base method and a feel for what the dough should be like at various stages of the preparation. The course that seemed best suited to my needs is the one given by Gerri Sarnataro at the Institute for Culinary Education (ICE), on West 23rd Street in Manhattan.

After more than two years of trying to get into this popular course, I finally did it this weekend. It was fun and rewarding.












There were 14 of us in this hands-on course. We all made pasta dough under Gerri's careful supervision and then broke up into smaller groups to make two pasta dishes each. We then rolled our pastas and cut them according to the recipes our respective groups were making. My group made papardelle with a rich duck sauce and fettucine with peas and ham. Others were responsible for butternut squash ravioli with sage butter sauce; fettucine with onion confit; ricotta ravioli with pesto sauce; tortellini filled with sausage and ground veal and turkey; and fettucine bolognese. These were tried and true recipes and all were really good and authentic.

I love taking cooking lessons and generally find them both enjoyable and helpful. Gerri's course was one of the best.

Bobby Jay

Hot Sauce Tasting

I love hot sauces and use them frequently, on scrambled eggs, in tuna salad, on burgers and leftover meat sandwiches and in a millon other ways. So when I heard about Austin, Texas-based Tears of Joy Sauces, which sells hundreds of hot sauces from around the world, more than a year ago, I decided to order a bunch of them. This month, I finally took the plunge.

Hot Sauces from Tears of Joy Sauces

But what do you do with 14 bottles of hot sauce of varying strengths and tastes? Have a hot sauce tasting party, of course. So today, four friends and I tasted the 14 new sauces, and some of us also tried my old standards - Tabasco hot, chipotle and jalapeno and Rooster Brand Sriracha - by way of comparison.

The Old Standards

We had great fun. Our methodology was to try the sauces in ascending order of hotness (based on Tears of Joy’s excellent product descriptions) with tortilla chips, matzohs, flatbread, corn crackers and, best of all, thin slices of brioche bread brought by one of the participants, accompanied by lots of beer. After we had been through all 14, with some of us tasting the supermarket standards for comparison, we had some relatively mild turkey chili with additions of selected sauces. Our conclusions, developed as we cooled down and chatted over spicy, but not crazy, Chile Bear Jams Spiced Chipotle jam on brioche bread:

• There was no single winning hot sauce, although certain sauces garnered quite a bit of support and a couple were generally disliked.
• Almost everyone loved Liziano Salsa, a Colombian all-purpose sauce that is spicy but not particularly hot. I definitely recommend that you get this one, which is probably not that hard to find.
• The sauces varied more than you might think and they all have more character (not necessarily better) and brighter flavors than supermarket hot sauces like Tabasco and Frank’s. Nevertheless, I still like Tabasco's Chipotle Sauce and consider Sriracha to be an essential and versatile condiment.
• The hot sauces that most of us liked were Marie Sharpe’s Green Habanero Sauce, Trinidad Habanero Hot and Lottie’s Yellow Hot Pepper Sauce (see pictures above). I will probably buy a few bottles of these and give them as gifts.

Afterwards, each participant got a bottle of his or her favorite sauce to take home and, surprisingly, there were no conflicts that had to be resolved. So go to Tears of Joy's website and go a little crazy. Bobby Jay

Sampling Chocolates

My friend Paul and I had another chocolate making session, sampling various chocolates in different applications. We tried Callebaut Bittersweet, Jacques Torres 60%, Ghirardelli 65% (obtained by mixing 60% and 70%), and, in deference to Paul's wife, a 40% milk chocolate called Jade that I found at Fairway.


The results: Jacques Torres produced a beautiful, somewhat complex chocolate that was easy to work with. Callebaut was denser, harder to work with, but deliciously bitter (my wife's favorite); it also had the snappiest texture. Ghirardelli was not easy to work with and did not have the complexity or pungency or texture that the others provided. Neither of us likes milk chocolate, but it is easy to work with once you get over how liquid it is, and produced beautifully defined shiny molded morsels, assorted leaves in our case. Paul's wife loved it.

So, Callebaut or Jacques Torres for now, but research continues. The best we ever used was the hard-to-find and expensive Valrhona Manjari that we used last September for my birthday party at the Institute for Culinary Education. It had a complex series of earthy and spicy notes that the others don't match. We need to try that one at home.

Also, there are people who swear by Scharffen berger, so we also need to give that one a try.

Bobby Jay

Yakitori Lovers of New York . . .

. . . rejoice!

About two years ago, I wrote a post on the Totto family of restaurants. Soon after, Yakitori Torys, their great East Side yakitori restaurant, closed, giving way to a ramen restaurant, Hide-chan, owned by the same group. Their sister yakitori place, Yakitori Totto, doesn't take reservations after 7:00, making it quite impractical for my wife and me. We were despondent.


Until now. It turns out that the yakitori team and menu from Torys have been moved to Soba Totto, the same group's excellent soba restaurant at 211 East 43rd Street. Of course, you can also get authentic soba, which is great by itself or paired with yakitori (although this would never be done in Japan). A great sake and shochu selection is available to accompany your meal.

Eggplant Miso Yakitori (L); Chicken Stuffed Shishito and Beef Yakitori (R)

I have never tried Hide-chan in silent protest of its usurpation of Torys. Now that I have reconnected with my favorite yakitori, I will give it a try. Given the high level of quality and authenticity of the Totto restaurants, I am sure that the noodles, broth and the toppings will be excellent.

Bobby Jay

Japan

It is impossible not to be shocked and saddened by the images of Sendai that we have been seeing for days, no matter how often they are repeated. The tragedy is truly unfathomable.

Having lived in Japan, and knowing the strength and spirit of the Japanese people, I am confident that Japan will somehow rebound, find its way back from darkness to a better place . . .


. . . and soar again.



Bobby Jay

No Country for Old Locavores

A recent trip to the Union Square greenmarket shows why it's nearly impossible to be a locavore in New York. Few vendors and fewer shoppers. At least the wonderful Flying Pigs Farm had a stand there.

And spring is coming soon.

Bobby Jay

Boiled Peanuts

Boiled peanuts are a traditional southern snack that I had not experienced until recently. I found raw peanuts in the shell at the supermarket and determined to make them. I checked the internet and the back of the bag for recipes and ended by doing something that borrowed from several of them.

Basically, you just boil them in heavily salted water for a couple of hours, and they turn into something a lot like edamame, another legume. Like edamame, boiled peanuts are an excellent accompaniment to cocktails or, better still, beer. What I did was to add 1 pound of raw peanuts to 6 cups of water containing 4 tablespoons of Kosher salt and 2 tablespoons of Old Bay seasoning. The 2 tablespoons of Old Bay is optional, but I think it's nice to add something besides pure salt. Next time I plan to use a Cajun seasoning blend that I like.

Easy, cheap, fun.

Bobby Jay

Dawn

Despite the heading, this post is not at all poetic: it is about dish washing liquid.

I recently heard from a knowledgeable food friend that the only dish washing liquid to use is Dawn, which I had never tried. He said that he had switched when he read that Dawn is what is used to clean birds that have been soaked in oil spills, and found the grease-cutting ability of this brand to be markedly superior to others. Faced with this compelling advice, I have switched and I think it's true. So give Dawn a try.

To find out more about the use of Dawn to clean oil-soaked loons, pelicans and cormorants, follow this link to a thread on the International Bird Rescue Reserarch Center's efforts.

Bobby Jay

En Passant . . .

From time to time, ideas cross my mind, often in response to questions from friends, that are worth writing about, but do not individually merit full posts. This is the first post in a series devoted to such matters.

1. Rancho Gordo sells many varieties of wonderful heirloom beans. They are so fresh that the overnight soak is generally reduced to four hours. http://www.ranchogordo.com/

2. I love Cook's Illustrated, and have a rather unwieldy collection spanning many years. An easy way to access the work done at America's Test Kitchen is to buy The Complete American's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook 2001-2010 and The TV Companion Cookbook 2011. I won't swear to it but it seems to me these books have all, but if not most, of what you find in Cook's Illustrated, including a somewhat shorter version of the analysis that makes the recipes so useful. I still haven't thrown away my Cook's Illustrated but probably could. And certainly it's nice to have so much in a single book (or 2 books).

3. I haven't written about The Art of Eating. This is a very scholarly, no-nonsense, no-ads publication, edited by Edward Behr, that comes out four times a year. I usually read it from cover to cover even though I will never make use of most of what's in it. Occasionally, though, I do use what I learn there; for example, I recently discovered a great product, Trahana, a kind of Greek sour couscous-like grain made with yogurt and dried on the rocks of sunny Greek villages. http://www.artofeating.com/

4. If you use a mandoline to slice vegetables, you will know that it's a great tool, but dangerous to use. To get the last bit of the zucchini requires a scary motion, and the food pushers that come with mandolines are not good. The solution: get a cut-resistant glove, made from super-tough space-age fibers, and slice with abandon. Microplane makes a good one, which sells for about $15.

5. Like hot sauce? Tears of Joy Hot Sauce Shop, in Austin, Texas, has 300 types of bottled hot sauces from around the world. I have not yet ordered because my wife is not a crazy hot sauce fan like myself. I'm looking for a partner for an order. http://tearsofjoysauces.com/

Bobby Jay

Japan on 47th Street

If you like Japanese food - and for this purpose I don't mean sushi - then take yourself to East 47th Street between Fifth and Third Avenues. These three blocks host at least three excellent finds for Japanese food lovers.

Onya serves freshly made udon, thick Japanese noodles, with any number of additions, including chicken, beef, curry, tempura, kimchi and my personal favorite, kitsune (a thin pillow of flash fried and then blanched tofu). The texture is authentic - toothsome but not al dente - although I like a little more body to my udon, and so is the taste. At peak times, there can be a bit of a wait, since the takers-out and the diners-in share the same assembly line where they choose their ingredients. There is a pleasant, bright eating area in the back for those who prefer to consume their udon on site. Onya, 143 East 47th Street.


Everyone knows tempura, but not everyone knows that the Japanese are great at frying a broader range of items. Katsuhama serves a full range of katsu (fried) dishes, traditional ton-katsu (pork), chicken katsu and ebi-katsu (shrimp). The lunch special is a fantastic deal - excellent miso soup, choice of pork or chicken katsu, pickles, cabbage and rice for just $11. The non-prepossessing front section of Katsuhama is a busy take-out store, but the restaurant in back is pretty pleasant. Being alone, I sat at the nicely designed counter. Katsuhama, 11 East 47th Street (there is a second location at 43-45 West 55th Street).

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Then head for Dainobu, a Japanese grocery store, which stocks a broad range of Japanese sauces and prepared foods - miso, pickles, sembei, noodles, tea, etc. They do a big take-out business, selling onigiri (rice balls), freshly made ramen and various bento boxes. Dainobu, 229 East 47th Street.

I said at least three good places, because there is also a restaurant called Donburi-ya (rice bowl place) next door to Onya, which may be good. However, I have not tried it and cannot express any views.

Bobby Jay

An English Outpost in Manhattan

Myers of Keswick's Window

Before I was a Francophile I was an Anglophile. So when my friend Suzie, who is English, told me about Myers of Keswick, an English food store in the West Village, I raced to get there.

It's a small place, with an assortment of traditional English packaged foods - Branston Pickles, HP Sauce, Marmite, etc. - as well as a selection of homemade meat pies and a few uncooked fresh meat items, including bangers and Irish style bacon. Things that are not necessarily the greatest delicacies in the world, but that do remind you of England and its quaint food traditions, and certainly a must for English expats. Needless to say, I bought a few items (pictured below). Myers is located at 634 Hudson Street, between Jane and Horatio Streets.

My purchases from Myers of Keswick (not the book)

Cheers.

Bobby Jay

Délicieuse Année 2011

As the sign at La Grande Epicerie de Paris says, I wish you a "délicieuse année 2011" filled with great meals, health and happiness!

Bobby Jay

Paris - Restaurant Jean

A number of people have asked me to recommend restaurants near the Opéra, which is a quartier not well represented in my blog. The reason for this is simple: there are not a lot of good restaurants in that area. However, my wife and I recently discovered a really fine restaurant in the area, Jean, near Notre-Dame-de-Lorette and perhaps fifteen minutes' walk from the Opéra.

Jean has imaginative, attractively presented food in a comfortable setting with capable team-style service. There is a moderate-sized but very attractive à la carte selection, as well as a 3-course menu for 45 euros, a 4-course menu gastronomique for 65 euros and a 7-course menu gastronomique for 78 euros.

We opted for the 4-course and were very happy. After several interesting amuse-bouches, we started with an inspired cauliflower (yes!) dish, consisting of cauliflower puree and tiny cooked florets, topped with thin raw slices, perfectly perfumed with a hint of sancho pepper oil. Next was sauteed scallops with a creamy almond sauce, topped with small slices of sauteed abalone and served over crispy cabbage. The meat course was a perfectly cooked fillet of venison with a simple but classic jus (my wife, a non-lover of venison, was offered an excellent magret de canard instead).

Dessert was a heavenly chocolate disk filled with a creamy mixture of flavors that we could not identify, and some little pastries on the plate. The pastry chef is an American woman, Alison Johnson, who previously was pastry chef at Artisanal, Picholine and Eleven Madison Park in New York City. This altogether satisfying meal was completed by a complimentary cognac.

Our menu did not include a cheese course, but we were tempted by the relatively small, but well chosen, selection of perfectly ripened cheeses. However, we were lucky enough to enjoy the aromas as the woman at the adjacent table ordered a small piece of each of the ten or so cheeses on the plate.

Jean, 8 rue St-Lazare (Métro Notre-Dame-de-Lorette), 9ème.

Bobby Jay

Paris - Bánh Mì

Writing the last post, on the return of Baoguette, reminded me that Clotilde Dusoulier, in her excellent blog Chocolate & Zucchini, had recommended a bánh mì place in Paris that I have been intending to try: Saigon Sandwich. Well, it really is good. Imagine a well-constructed bánh mì sandwich - pork pâté, roast pork, cucumber, shredded pickled carrots and radishes, cilantro, homemade mayonnaise and hot peppers - and imagine further that it's on a really fresh French baguette. Yes, you are in heaven. They also have a chicken bánh mì that is even better, or you can get the classic pork with chicken added.

Actually, I think the pork fillings at New York's Baoguette are better, but the great bread more than makes up for it.

I have to hand it to Clotilde: she is no snob. Saigon Sandwich is in a really terrible neighborhood, around the corner from the Belleville Métro station, and the sidewalks are so crowded with immigrants selling used clothes that you need to walk in the street. There are three folding chairs in the restaurant so you can eat on your lap, right next to the line of waiting patrons, if you don't want to take out. Having fully intended to eat sur place, I decided to enjoy my lunch at home.

Saigon Sandwich, 6 rue de la Présentation, Paris 11ème (Métro Belleville) (closed Sundays).

Bobby Jay

Baoguette Returns

I recently reported that Baoguette, 61 Lexington Avenue, had been closed by the Health Department. A trusted reader reports that it has reopened, with a provisional rating and lots of happy eaters.

In the absence of Baoguette, I have tried Nicky's, 150 East 2nd Street, a charming deli-like place, with three little tables for the few customers who eat in. The classic bánh mì is good (but not as good as Baoguette's), and they have other bánh mì sandwiches, including a tofu one that I plan to try next time I'm in the neighborhood.

Also, I went to Num Pang, a very popular Cambodian sandwich shop at 21 East 8th Street. The specialty, pork belly sandwich, is flavorful, but does not have the complex layers of hot, sour, sweet, salty and bitter that one finds in a good bánh mì. Also, the eating area, upstairs, is really pretty bad, even by my relaxed standards for this type of place.

I am continuing to make the rounds, but look forward to returning to Baoguette when I get back to the USA. I hope they can get their Health Department rating up to "A."

Bobby Jay

Christmas in Paris

Dalloyau's 2010 Christmas windows are as enticing as ever.

Bobby Jay

A Winter's Day in Paris

People often ask me what I do when I am in Paris, particularly when my wife is not with me.

Today was a typical, and rewarding, day.

It being Saturday, I visited my favorite outdoor market, on Avenue de Président Wilson. It being a few days before Christmas, the market is full of wonderful luxury foods: foie gras, truffles, geese, ducks, etc. I bought a lobe of foie gras to prepare for a Christmas dinner to which we have been invited, and food for a couple of lunches and dinners.

For lunch I bought a coquelet (baby chicken) cooked over the rotisserie, half of which I pulled and mixed with rice and a little Sriracha (Southeast Asian, not French, but it is great) hot sauce. Then an assortment of cheeses I found at the market, including Mont d'Or, a seasonal cow cheese from the Alps that is one of the great things to eat in this world.

In the afternoon, I went to the famous marché aux puces (flea market) at the Porte de Clignancourt, where I picked up a Napoleon III picture frame that I had bought earlier, and had a brief but unsuccessful exploratory visit. There is always a lot to see at this market, which has numerous submarkets and many hundreds of antique dealers.

Returning to the apartment, I walked the dog and read for a couple of hours.

Dinner -- at home -- consisted of saucisse mourteau, a French garlic sausage with no real US equivalent, cooked with lentilles de Puy, amazing green lentils that keep their firm texture and are great company for pork of any kind. I had enough for another meal, probably lunch tomorrow or Monday.

Saucisse Mourteau with Lentilles de Puy: in the pot and as leftovers

Then followed an extremely chocolaty store-bought organic mousse au chocolat, to which my French friends had introduced me, and a satisfying square of Lindt's new "Mytille Intense" chocolate.


Not for everyone, perhaps, but for me this was a very nice day.

Bobby Jay