u m a m i

Lyon, the Capital of Organ Meats.

Our first meal in Lyon was dinner in a bouchon which is their version of a bistro. Daniel et Denise was named the best bouchon of 2008 and on a Monday evening it was packed with enthusiastic customers. The menu reads like a cardiologist's nightmare: quenelles of brochet in deliciously rich lobster-bisquey Nantua sauce, cured legs of pork, whole veal kidneys cooked in their own fat, and my favourite, tripes lightly battered and roasted with loads of caramelised shallots. We barely finished half the tripes but I enjoyed every bite of the chewy yet tender tripes, their deep earthy meat flavours offset with some some sweetness from the shallots.

And the kicker? Every table gets the same side dish of sautéed potatoes, thinly sliced and very delicious, their edges golden and crispy. I won't be surprised if they had cooked it in duck or goose fat, in Lyon foie gras seem to be the local butter. At the food hall in Les Halles I would later find dozens of stalls selling the fatty liver in all forms, from the rustic Wellington-esque foie gras baked in pastry to chi-chi little canapés all ready for their turn at an elegant dinner party.

Dinner over, we made our way to the hotel. Our group, for we have been joined by my lovely friends Tony and Florence, will have some great food and wine adventures in the days ahead.

The wines of the Rhone region is a complete mystery to me. I had asked husband to limit our wine excursions to one a day, not wanting to traipse around yeasty-smelling cellars and getting too tipsy too early, so he and our friends had to prioritise their choices. First on the agenda was a drive to northern Rhone to the winemaker and wine distributor E. Guigal. Thanks to our friends' connections we were allowed entry, given a private tour and more importantly, a tasting of some very amazing wines, including one of their three "la la las" or La Turque, La Mouline, La Landonne. Silly me, I should have known that my friends would do things in greater style.

Then it was back to Lyon again for lunch. This time we went to a modern place. La Remanence is a cool and elegant white-tablecloth establishment in the heart of the old town. We passed a very civilised afternoon here over a beautiful lunch and a little bit more wine. Children get either fish or meat, served with gorgeous spring vegetables of artichoke hearts and green asparagus.

I had some more organ meats of course. Ever since I read Hard Times by Charles Dickens I have been fascinated with sweetbreads; one of the many among the not-likeable characters in the book, Mrs Sparsit, likes sweetbreads in brown sauce very much. If I see sweetbreads in a menu, I would likely order it. This was excellent although I found the sweetbread a little too large to be truly delicate. The mushrooms sitting on the bottom of the plate were pure deliciousness.

Later there were desserts, coffee and more treats in the form of delicious little caramels and financiers, but we were too satiated to notice. In the car on the way to Orange, we slept while husband and Tony up in the front drove and navigated their way into Provence. There was a detour to a pretty village and lovely sunny weather and puffy clouds in the sky.

Eventually, we reached Orange and their best lodging they have to offer, which turned out to be a motel run by Campanile. The motel was very clean and comfortable, and we were surprised to find ourselves hungry again, in time for dinner at Le Parvis. The menu is provencal, lots of olives and vegetables and less heavy on red meats and offal. My dinner of duck and a  fruit-based dessert was very good and relatively light. The service was rather cold, but that didn't matter, because down in Provence and all the places in Rhone we visited, people are very nice. Cars actually stop to let you cross the street, even when they saw you from afar. People do not walk into you as if you are invisible, and they smile a lot more. Is it because of the gorgeous weather, the beautiful produce, or their wines? I think it's all three, don't you?

In the next post, we discover the best of Southern Rhone.

Daniel et Denise
156 rue Créqui, 69003 Lyon
Tel: 04 78 60 66 53

La Remanence
31, rue du Bât d’Argent - 69001 Lyon
Tel: 04 72 00 08 08

Le Parvis
55 cours Pourtoules, 84100 Orange
Tel: 04 90 34 82 00

Schwartz's Deli and their Crisp-Boat-Fries

It is not easy to find good french fries in Paris, most are undercooked so they end up soggy and pale. You have to order them 'bien-cuit' in the hopes of getting some with crisp exteriors and melting interiors. Maybe they cannot get their oil hot enough, maybe they don't double-fry, whatever it is, the reason remains a mystery to me.

Recently though, I came across a version that may adress these problems. The fries served at Schwartz's Deli in the Marais have a unique shape, looking more like long boats than cylinders. This shape allows more surface area to come into contact with hot fat, so the exterior cooks up crisp and brown. I have some conflicts about the interior though, ,mainly that there is less of it, at times it felt like I was eating crisps (which is what they call potato chips in the U.K.)) instead of fries. V on the other hand loved it so much we ordered another side portion. For her, fries are just vehicles for scooping ketchup and these boats do a really good job, she probably ate a third of a bottle by herself.

Other than fries, Schwartz Deli also specialises in pastrami sandwiches. They may not have many competitors for this dish in Paris, but their claim of having the best in town is probably justified. Barely held together by slices of rye bread, the thinly sliced pastrami was plentiful and delicious. I loved the colourful coleslaw too.

Macaroni cheese looked more European than American. I was expecting something white and creamy but this was agreeable too, the cheese flavour seemed to have been cooked into the pasta.

Chicken soup with matzo balls was another first for me. The taste reminds me of Knorr chicken stock cube, only less salty. The matzo balls were borderline stodgy, but paired companionably with the slices of chicken breast under the surface. I probably wouldn't order this again unless I was feeling exceptionally unwell.

Pancakes, looking like an improved version of those served at McDo's, were served warm with very cold butter. They were tasty enough. The burgers that were served to other diners look good, I want to go back to try them out next time. At least we know the boat fries would be good.

Schwartz Deli is open every day. Come here for a slice of Americana, the decor feels like an American diner, the pickles and condiments are placed on the table for people to help themselves with, if you go early you might even snag a booth table and play Archie and Veronica (or Betty).

Schwartz's Deli
16 rue des Ecouffes, 4th arr
T: 0148873129

Hey Presto Pesto

Ages and ages ago I saw on BBC TV how pesto is made. It involved  a marble mortar and pestle and much slow grinding of pine nuts and dribblings of olive oil, you know, the old mama cucina way, with sun dappled Tuscany mountain view a requisite backdrop. That kind of intimidated me and thereafter I only ever ordered pasta with pesto sauce in restaurants. Eventually I stopped eating pesto altogether, because restaurant versions became watered down or weirder e.g. crusted on salmon steaks, and it  kind of fell out of fashion. Readily available commercial versions didn't help either, most are too salty or taste like crushed up grass.

Fast forward to May 2009. I went to BHV and was so seduced by the Magimix demo (grated carrots!, coleslaw!, aioili! the chef magicked them all up on the spot) that I bought one on the spot. There was a recipe for pesto in the manual, and looking around my pantry and fridge I did have all the ingredients on hand. Chunks of 26 month old organic parmesan, fresh basil, pinenuts sitting in the fridge waiting for this very fate ( I toasted them slightly but it was quite a redundant move), couple of cloves of garlic, olive oil and salt. As simple as that. I think the proportions was something like 2 cloves garlic: 200g nuts: 200g cheese: 1 bunch of basil.

All the dry ingredients together with half the basil leaves were pulsed with a little olive oil and salt until roughly chopped, then the rest of the basil went in and the button pressed to "blend". Olive oil was dribbled in until the pesto became creamy, et voila, we had pesto. The kid licked the spoon and pronounced it yummy. I thought we would smear it on toast but we ended up eating it neat as it was so delicious.

I saved some to dress some linguini the next day, mamma mia it was a good lunch.

Itineraire

Two weeks ago I had a really fabulous lunch at Itineraire. I'll also admit that I haven't been so excited about any restaurant in a very long time.

It is centrally located near metro Maubert Mutualité, in the Latin quarter.

The room itself is not cavernous, neither is it tiny. Tables are spaced far apart you regretfully cannot hear your neighbours' conversation. There is white tablecloth and proper table setting with padded seats but nothing stiff about the decor. There is plenty of natural light streaming in through the large pane windows to put people in a good mood, at least our table of six were when we went for lunch.

The service staff smile, make eye contact and work smoothly and efficiently.

The food. It's good value and as I'll elaborate later, mighty damn fine. The menu is written in chalkboards, the prix-fix is 36 euros for 3 courses, with hardly any mention of supplements which is very unusual these days. 2 courses go for 29 euros and there is also an à la carte menu. The cooking style is new wave bistro, they take mainly regional and local seasonal ingredients and deliver adept new twists on familiar classics, it's a style of cooking that every wannabe hot restaurant in town aspires to but rarely get right.

My starter of cold velouté of white asparagus with tofu arrived looking coolly voluptuous with its extravagant shavings of fresh white asparagus and scatters of violet petals. The sweet nutty flavours of the white asparagus in the soup were in no way diluted by the pillowy blobs of tofu floating on top, if anything the play of narrowly contrasting textures and temperatures completely seduced me. Suddenly, the teeth crunched on something more solid;it's a candied hazelnut, how fun! I was not expecting to enjoy soup so much, but I did. All around me, the ladies were exclaiming their pleased surprise, over seemingly mundane dishes such as marinated mackerel fillets and veal carpaccio.

I did not take a picture of my excellent main course but click on this twitpic link to see a blurred image. Roast Challan chicken with beef tomatoes and squid ink mustard. The roast chicken was delicious, the meat moist and really flavourful, but the insanely delicious squid ink mustard really took the thunder. While the combination didn't really work for me, when eaten in tandem- a bite of chicken, followed by another of tomatoes and squid ink sauce- they complement each other very well, like a good food and wine pairing.

I was really full by then, but with the two previous courses showing so strongly I was very curious about dessert. I chose strawberries and rhubarb. I asked the waitress if the rhubarb would be sour. She said the strawberries would alleviate some of the tartness but a rhubarb being a rhubarb I should expect some acidity. When the dish arrived I was not expecting to see the rhubarb in a barely-cooked state. All these while I have been cooking rhubarb to mushy pulp along with loads of sugar and a good dollop of some creamy stuff like fromage frais or heavy cream to balance its assertive tartness. Understandably then, I was a bit worried, but went for it anyway. The knife cut through the stalk easily. It was not raw-tasting, but mildly sweet and intensely rhubarby with a tender-crunchy bite, together with the macerated strawberries they make an ever so elegant couple. And you know what? The rhubarb was not even sour, the lip-puckering I had been expecting simply did not happen, so I could relax and enjoy the bright medley of flavours, to be then followed by a little coffee and excellent home-made madeleines.

My lunch companions were in a similar state of rhapsody too. I've known them for nearly two years, and have not seen them so happy about a place before. Amazing food at reasonable value in a comfortable setting in the middle of town, really, what else can one ask for?

Itineraire
5 rue de Pontoise, 5th arr
T: 01-46-33-60-11
Metro: Maubert-Mutualité.

Going on a break, follow me on Twitter

We're off to Lyon and the Rhone Valley. I will post to my Twitter account often. Cheers

Eating well in Deauville Part 2

We stayed at the Villa Josephine. Husband emailed them and they had a good deal for the low season; they were very nice and upgraded us to the best room which has a big bed and very luxurious bathroom facilities- separate shower area, jacuzzi tub, separate toilet and double sinks one of which we used exclusively to wash V's bottle and the dogs' bowls. The property is small, quiet and furnished in luxurious country style. Breakfast is served in a sunny room with a working fireplace. The continental breakfast includes home-made yoghurt, apple compote and excellent charcuterie, all served on china flatware with heavy silver cutlery and damask linens bien sur.

The only restaurant we went to in Deauville itself was the l'Essentiel which serves inventive cuisine. The menu is small but carefully put together. I had an excellent dish of veal confit with a mash of sweet potatoes that threw me a bit until I figured out the flavouring which was lemongrass, it shouldn't have surprised me since I really like this combination. We ordered a dessert of apple compote for V, we're in apple country after all. It was layered with a sharp citrusy foam and a crisp meringue, a far cry from her favourite gouter (French children's teatime ritual) snack which is exactly like baby food apple purée, this was a little too sophisticated for her. I finished it instead, it was light and fruity, a perfect finish for a lazy day out.

On the third day, we stopped by the seaside town of Touques for lunch. Landiers is homely and welcoming, the clientele a mix of well-off retirees or three generation families on their Easter vacations. The children's menu offered more than the usual ham and chips; V loved the salmon and ate most of the lightly cooked vegetables. Dessert was ice cream, commercial chocolate ice cream with requisite packaged toy, she was real charmed, by the toy.

I really enjoyed my first course of borsch. It's not typically French but delicious nonetheless, the broth rich and thick with beef and simmered vegetables, judiciously balanced with a light background sourness to keep the appetite going. 

Husband enjoyed his slow-cooked lamb but I think I had the better deal. As we were still in Normandy country I ordered a steak and for once it was totally amazing; instead of the usual tussle to chew the meat down I got a beautiful piece of aged beef which had little gristle and was a series of long beefy flavours. There was a cheese plate too, as usual we zoomed in on the really excellent camembert. Leaving little room for dessert, but I finished mine anyway as it was made with pineapple, something very exotic for these parts. What a great end to a sunny holiday eh?

l'Essentiel

29/31 rue Mirabeau 14800 Deauville

T: 02 31 87 22 11

Landiers

90 rue Louvel et Briere 14800 Touques

T: 02 31 87 41 08

Eating well in Deauville Part 1

We had a marvelous time at Deauville. The timing couldn't have been better, it was unexpectedly sunny the three days we went, the sky totally clear and cloudless. Hot under the sun and a bit nippy under the shades. We didn't do much except go to the beach and loll about under parasols and read gossip magazines.

We chose our restaurants from the Michelin guide (book and iPhone version which I liked for the online reviews), aiming not for stars but more for value-for-money and individuality. The former we got a lot of at the first restaurant we lunched at: Chez le Bougnat in Dives-sur-Mer, one of the endless string of tiny little villagey towns along the Normandy coast.

The place is spacious and decorated with too much bric-a-brac at first I thought we had arrived at a flea market. The welcome was very friendly and relaxed, well, actually we were early and it was the chef who greeted us. By 1 p.m. the place was filled up with merry happy families eating and smiling in the golden sunshine. 

The food is classic bistro, based on good quality ingredients and cooked with practiced ease. They have three-course menus for 26 and 29 euros which represent a fair bargain compared to Paris. The fancy menu included items like oven-baked brioche has an egg on top and a good-sized gobbet of creamy foie gras inside. From the 26 euro menu I ordered beignets of boudin noir which were delicious too. Main courses of meats were huge and presented without fuss over creamy potato purée. My lamb was delicious but overwhelming after halftime but husband's dish of 72-hours slow-cooked beef stole the show, it came as a Flintstone-style hunk of meat looking very dry and black and charred at the edges, but the meat was juicy, very beefy. Its charred edges with its stippled layers of crisped skin, fats and meat were the best, outrageously sweet, meaty and rich; I actually closed my eyes in total pleasure.  

Children menus run at 10 euros for two courses. V had ham and chips and I was happy to see that it was ham-on-the-bone and not processed ham. Dessert was either ice cream or chocolate mousse.

The chocolate mousse came in a huge glass. My baba au rhum was just as bountiful, with whipped cream and rum ice cream and a full glass of rum to pour over; the baba was unfortunately overbaked but it was not important by that stage because we were really full. 

Update 1 June 2009: I forgot to mention that both menus comprised cheese course. They bring a platter and you help yourself to Pont d'Eveque, Camembert and Morbier.

Reservations are a must, we saw people being turned away. Come here for a great start to your Normandy holiday.

Chez le Bougnat

27 r G Manneville

14160 Dives-sur-Mer

T: 02 31 91 06 13

 

 

 

Really Old-School Char Beehoon

Here we have a plate of Char Beehoon (Chow Mai Fun in Cantonese, Cao Mi Fen in Mandarin). It is one of my favourite dishes, this, together with fried rice, was the dish I requested without fail every time I came home for term breaks and holidays. Yet I hardly ever make it myself because I always make a mess of it, ending up with a sorry pile of broken rice noodles each time. 

Knowing how much I like this dish, Chan-Che - who is now cooking for our family again- made it for me a few days before I left KL. Watching her cook was as ever, a pleasure and a learning experience at the same time. She does things the old fashioned way, methodically, patiently taking the time to do each step properly.

When I entered the kitchen, she was already frying up lard in some cooking oil. The lard renders more fat into the oil and turns into little nuggets of crispy porky bits.

Meanwhile, on the chopping board, she got ready to slice carrots and mince some garlic. There were also some shallots nearby, to be peeled and sliced in 2-3 mm semi-circles. I looked around and noticed the other ingredients.

Chinese cabbage, rinsed and sliced.

A stack of of omelettes cooked earlier. It would be sliced into thin strips.

A colander of beehoon, soaked in hot water and then rinsed and drained, ready for cooking.

The crispy lard pieces are set aside.

She stir-fried the shallots first, qickly cooking them until they lose their bite and yet were still sweet and crispy.

The shallots set aside, the wok was readied for sauteing some minced garlic. Garlic sticks easily, it's important to have a low fire and enough oil in the wok.

When the garlic released its aroma and turns to a shade of pale gold, the carrots were stirred in and tossed.

Followed by the cabbage. 

 

The cabbage and carrot are cooked till soft but not mushy.

In the now-empty wok, she heated some oil to saute some more garlic.

From the refridgerator, she took out a bowl of sliced pork which she had marinated with some soy sauce and pepper and cooked that with the garlic.

Water was added to deglaze the wok and make a simple meat gravy that will give tonnes of flavour to the noodles.

The noodles went in. This is a crucial step. She handled the noodles real gently, hardly stirring them, instead, she  used a pair of chopsticks to loosen the strands so they can absorb the gravy

More chopstick action when the cooked cabbage and carrots were returned to the wok.

Shallots went in right at the end.

My plate of noodles, topped with omelet strips and crispy lard bits, with some fresh cut chillies on the side. Bliss.

She sometimes add dark soy sauce which would turn the noodles a beautiful brown colour and add a tinge of caramel saltiness to the dish, but not that day because my nephew was on a restricted diet. My mother favours a more adult version which I love too, where the noodles are cooked till very dry, almost the texture of the original uncooked state. I like very much also the street version, usually nothing more than noodles, dark soy sauce, MSG and beansprouts. I like my Char Beehoon with fried shallots toppings, or with a fiery sambal belacan accompaniment. I like them fried with sardines, with tinned pork trotters, with seafood, with pickled vegetables, heck I've never not like any that came my way.

This version though, is the one I come back to often. It's homely and familiar, and delicious too. 

Pilates congee

I don't know what people think about when they're doing their  Pilates. My thoughts are always on food, specifically, lunch; as my classes end at 11 am this leaves about 1 hour to shop for something, return to the apartment to finish housework left over from the morning rush, and serve my tired and very hungry body some food as soon as possible.

It was during one of those sessions that I built up this recipe in my head. Hot watery congee, just the thing to go with fu-yu, the fermented bean curd's assertive umami flavours mellowed by the warmth and velvety texture of the porridge. Eggs and frozen vegetables for added nutrition. On the way home I stopped by the supermarket for milk and juice and somehow a bag of Knacki hotdogs found its way into the shopping basket. 

It was quick to put together with minimal prep work, and the result was very tasty yet  a a little trashy on account of the hot dog. Fresh meat would balance the dish, but that would not be in the same spirit. I used organic eggs and peas because the flavours are better,  but that belief may be psychological.

Serves one.

1/4-1/2 cup rice depending on how thick you like your congee

1/4 cup frozen vegetables e.g. corn and peas 

1 egg

1- 1.5 cube fu-yu (normal or chilli version)

2 hotdogs

1. Put washed rice and about 2 bowls of water - use the bowl you're going to serve the congee in- to boil. A few drops of vegetable oil in the congee will give the congee a smooth finish. Let it bubble and simmer at medium heat.

2. Dump frozen vegetables in when rice grains swell up. In the meantime, slice hotdogs, I used scissors which means you don't need to take out the chopping board.

3. When rice is soft and disintegrated and the liquid has reduced in half, the congee is 95% done. Crack an egg into a bowl and slowly drizzle it into the pot so the egg cooks in ribbon-like strands. Stir in the hotdog and fu-yu, turn off the heat and voila, lunch is ready. 

Chikoja Lamen

We go to rue Sainte Anne almost every week, to buy onigiri from Juji-Ya, stock up on Japanese and Korean groceries at ACE Mart, Kioko and Workshop Issé, and of course, eat at the various eateries lining this street and its surroundings. Our favourite places to eat are Aki for okonomiyaki, and Kunitoraya for almost everything on their menu especially their chicken rice.

Last Saturday I noticed a new kid on the block and decided to try it out since the queue at Kunitoraya was too long.  Chikoja is so new their menu is not even finalised but it would feature typical Taiwanese dishes with a sprinkling of Korean and Japanese items. How interesting, I haven't come across any Taiwanese eateries in Paris before.

The Korean-Chinese owners plan to have a proper opening on  Friday 8th May. When we visited, the staff were just getting a feel of the place. A limited menu of 3 noodle-and-dumpling set meals (10 euros) was on offer- Taiwanese beef noodle, Chinese zhajiang mian and Japanese ramen.

I ate the zhajiang mian- it was delicious. The salty-smoky black bean sauce was well-balanced with lots of sweet onions and a fair scattering of pork nuggets to make a lovely sauce. The noodles were good, with a distinctive toothsome bite that is more akin to Beijing la-mian than their Japanese cousins.

Husband's bowl of Taiwanese beef noodle was even better. The beef pieces were generous, and cooked till very tender and their cartilage reached melting point. The soup was really good, a lovely beefy broth sweetened with carrots and enlivened with warm spices of star anise, cloves and cinammon. There is a faint kick of chilli in the background, but not enough to overpower the soup base.

Dumplings - shen jian bao and xiao long baos- were not that great suffering from the former being overcooked and the latter needing to wear thinner skins, but their filling of minced pork was appropriately seasoned and juicy.

The meals were filling and satisfying, and they should be able to differentiate themselves from their competitors on this crowded street. It may not be fair to write about a place that's so new, but I am excited enough about their noodles to give them an early shout-out, and would definitely go back to try their Taiwanese dishes. Lu-rou-fan, here I come!

Chikoja Lamen
14, rue Sainte Anne
T: 01 42 60 58 88
M: Pyramides