Guide to France
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Eating (Way too Well) in Paris: Third Stop at Le Gourmet
Eating (Way too Well) in Paris: Third Stop at Le Gourmet
by: Phil Chavanne
Yet another interesting stop in our culinary adventures in Paris, the Le Gourmet restaurant offers great French cuisine for prices I hadn't seen in Paris in 15 years.
Lunch time, where to go?
This is the third installment of the series of articles which I set about to write a couple of weeks ago on eating out well in Paris. I love food, I love good cuisine, and I want fellow travelers to enjoy Paris to the hilt. That's enough reasons to guide them to those places I am certain they will enjoy.
Lunch time in Paris is restaurant time. People who work in the city do not carry their lunch bags with them. They rarely enjoy the benefit of a corporate catering service, but even if they do, such catering is hardly a feat for anyone's eyes and taste buds.
Small restaurants perform a vital service: they feed the locals rather satisfactorily, inexpensively, and in record time.
What applies to locals applies to travelers, and your next culinary stop happens in just such circumstances. After a long morning walk in the quaint streets on the slopes of the Montmartre hill, you feel nicely hungry. Your steps lead you to Place de Clichy, a busy crossroads between the 17th, the 9th and the 18th districts (metro station: 'Place de Clichy').
Time for a gourmet experience!
Le Gourmet
You may be hungry, but you are no fool. You want to eat well, and spend your heard-earned cash on food worth this name.
In my considerate opinion none of the eateries positioned around Place de Clichy are worth the money they ask for. I find their cuisine either overpriced, or downright vulgar. I never had a satisfactory lunch at any of these places.
So where to go? Not far away.
When you are on Place de Clichy, turn yourself so as to face the downward slope, with the metro station in your back. Aim at Rue de Clichy, left of Rue d'Amsterdam. Walk down the street for about 200 yards, and turn left in Rue de Bruxelles. Walk another 200 yards. There you are on the right sidewalk.
Your next favorite food stop is located at No. 19 rue de Bruxelles.
Name: Le Gourmet.
Identifiable sign: its French bistro-style facade. And a crowd.
Entering the bistro
If you happen to walk in at around noon thirty, you may have to wait just a tad. The place is packed. I have been to this restaurant numerous times, and I still have to be there the day it is not packed at lunch time.
My advice: come at around 12:00 am, and grab a spot before everybody else does.
The place exudes old charm, with dark wood panels, old posters, menu slates marked with chalk on the walls, a traditional bar, a mosaic floor, bistro-style chairs and tables. It smells good, though cigarette smoke can become an issue at times when the facade door isn't left open.
The owner and chef bought the restaurant about 2 years ago from its first and long-time owners, an elderly couple who retired after having steered the ship for longer than any local can remember. The new owner liked the decor, and decided to preserve it as-is, except for the facade which was changed early in 2006.
In this very Parisian setting, patrons feel immediately welcomed and are quickly seated either by the boss or a smiling waitress. This is lunch time, and they know patrons are in a hurry. No unnecessary delay.
Seated, and menu in hands
The menu is in fact chalked on the slates that hang on the front and back walls. A remarkable feat for such small a restaurant, the menu changes every day.
Anyone who lived in Paris for some time knows that restaurant menus do not change beyond the 'plat du jour' - the main fare for the day. Even the 'plat du jour' does not change that much: from one week to another, the same courses tend to get back on the menu.
Not so at 'Le Gourmet': the menu changes everyday and no two weeks are alike. True diversity. Even if you were to eat there every day for 20 days, you could try 20 different courses.
Gourmet cuisine is a mission
The boss comes from the province of Touraine, in Western France. He likes to work on French traditional dishes, and his cuisine draws its main inspiration from the famous Burgundy and Lyons regions.
Among the 'terroir' dishes served at Le Gourmet, you can taste veal knuckle (souris de veau), prime cuts of veal (onglet de veau), roasted gilthead bream (daurade royale rôtie), stewed duck (pot-au-feu de canard), pike dumpling (quenelle de brochet). And the list goes on.
To get fresh products from his favorite suppliers, he wakes up at 3:30 am every day to go to the wholesale market (the Rungis market, situated south of Paris). He buys only what he needs for the day, loads up his truck, and heads back to his restaurant where he's spend the rest of the morning to cook for lunch.
The chef's motto is "fresh products, traditional preparation". He uses butter, not margarine. He doesn't buy frozen products, and no off-the-shelf sauces as he prepares his sauces himself. He is light-handed on spices which he thinks 'are all too often used to hide something'.
Appetizer, main course, dessert, wines
Le Gourmet's menu typically offers a choice of 4 appetizers (such as a warmed up goat cheese served on a loaf of country bread), 3 or 4 main courses (meat, fish, poultry), and 4 desserts.
The choice of desserts is also 'old-school': depending on the day, your selection may include chocolate whipped cream, baba au rhum (a spongy cake saturated with dealcoholized rum), biscuits with ganache (a mix of chocolate, cream and butter), orange cake, fondant cake, floating island (beaten egg whites floating on a French custard), red fruit pies, and so forth.
Light wines get the lion's share of the wine list. The chef's hometown is Valencay (in the heart of the Touraine region), and he purchases his bottles directly from local producers. The list comprises a variety of well-thought-of vines: Gamay, Cabernet, Valençay, Bourgueil, and Saumur-Champigny.
All this for how much?
Beyond the quality of the food you are served at Le Gourmet, the check is another pleasant surprise. For a meager 13 Euros (about $16), you have a full meal served in record time in a most pleasant atmosphere. For just a few more bucks, you have the wine to complete your experience.
To be honest, there are very few Parisian restaurants which will give you that much for such a low price. Le Gourmet wins my vote any time, any day. I recommend it to you wholeheartedly.
Where?
Le Gourmet
19 rue de Bruxelles
75009 Paris
Tel: 33 (0)1 48 74 53 42
Subway station: Place de Clichy
Lunch and dinner
About The Author
Phil Chavanne shares lots of useful advices and travel information on Paris with the help of his Paris experts team. Click here: Paris Restaurants to find now about French food and Paris hotels.
by: Phil Chavanne
Yet another interesting stop in our culinary adventures in Paris, the Le Gourmet restaurant offers great French cuisine for prices I hadn't seen in Paris in 15 years.
Lunch time, where to go?
This is the third installment of the series of articles which I set about to write a couple of weeks ago on eating out well in Paris. I love food, I love good cuisine, and I want fellow travelers to enjoy Paris to the hilt. That's enough reasons to guide them to those places I am certain they will enjoy.
Lunch time in Paris is restaurant time. People who work in the city do not carry their lunch bags with them. They rarely enjoy the benefit of a corporate catering service, but even if they do, such catering is hardly a feat for anyone's eyes and taste buds.
Small restaurants perform a vital service: they feed the locals rather satisfactorily, inexpensively, and in record time.
What applies to locals applies to travelers, and your next culinary stop happens in just such circumstances. After a long morning walk in the quaint streets on the slopes of the Montmartre hill, you feel nicely hungry. Your steps lead you to Place de Clichy, a busy crossroads between the 17th, the 9th and the 18th districts (metro station: 'Place de Clichy').
Time for a gourmet experience!
Le Gourmet
You may be hungry, but you are no fool. You want to eat well, and spend your heard-earned cash on food worth this name.
In my considerate opinion none of the eateries positioned around Place de Clichy are worth the money they ask for. I find their cuisine either overpriced, or downright vulgar. I never had a satisfactory lunch at any of these places.
So where to go? Not far away.
When you are on Place de Clichy, turn yourself so as to face the downward slope, with the metro station in your back. Aim at Rue de Clichy, left of Rue d'Amsterdam. Walk down the street for about 200 yards, and turn left in Rue de Bruxelles. Walk another 200 yards. There you are on the right sidewalk.
Your next favorite food stop is located at No. 19 rue de Bruxelles.
Name: Le Gourmet.
Identifiable sign: its French bistro-style facade. And a crowd.
Entering the bistro
If you happen to walk in at around noon thirty, you may have to wait just a tad. The place is packed. I have been to this restaurant numerous times, and I still have to be there the day it is not packed at lunch time.
My advice: come at around 12:00 am, and grab a spot before everybody else does.
The place exudes old charm, with dark wood panels, old posters, menu slates marked with chalk on the walls, a traditional bar, a mosaic floor, bistro-style chairs and tables. It smells good, though cigarette smoke can become an issue at times when the facade door isn't left open.
The owner and chef bought the restaurant about 2 years ago from its first and long-time owners, an elderly couple who retired after having steered the ship for longer than any local can remember. The new owner liked the decor, and decided to preserve it as-is, except for the facade which was changed early in 2006.
In this very Parisian setting, patrons feel immediately welcomed and are quickly seated either by the boss or a smiling waitress. This is lunch time, and they know patrons are in a hurry. No unnecessary delay.
Seated, and menu in hands
The menu is in fact chalked on the slates that hang on the front and back walls. A remarkable feat for such small a restaurant, the menu changes every day.
Anyone who lived in Paris for some time knows that restaurant menus do not change beyond the 'plat du jour' - the main fare for the day. Even the 'plat du jour' does not change that much: from one week to another, the same courses tend to get back on the menu.
Not so at 'Le Gourmet': the menu changes everyday and no two weeks are alike. True diversity. Even if you were to eat there every day for 20 days, you could try 20 different courses.
Gourmet cuisine is a mission
The boss comes from the province of Touraine, in Western France. He likes to work on French traditional dishes, and his cuisine draws its main inspiration from the famous Burgundy and Lyons regions.
Among the 'terroir' dishes served at Le Gourmet, you can taste veal knuckle (souris de veau), prime cuts of veal (onglet de veau), roasted gilthead bream (daurade royale rôtie), stewed duck (pot-au-feu de canard), pike dumpling (quenelle de brochet). And the list goes on.
To get fresh products from his favorite suppliers, he wakes up at 3:30 am every day to go to the wholesale market (the Rungis market, situated south of Paris). He buys only what he needs for the day, loads up his truck, and heads back to his restaurant where he's spend the rest of the morning to cook for lunch.
The chef's motto is "fresh products, traditional preparation". He uses butter, not margarine. He doesn't buy frozen products, and no off-the-shelf sauces as he prepares his sauces himself. He is light-handed on spices which he thinks 'are all too often used to hide something'.
Appetizer, main course, dessert, wines
Le Gourmet's menu typically offers a choice of 4 appetizers (such as a warmed up goat cheese served on a loaf of country bread), 3 or 4 main courses (meat, fish, poultry), and 4 desserts.
The choice of desserts is also 'old-school': depending on the day, your selection may include chocolate whipped cream, baba au rhum (a spongy cake saturated with dealcoholized rum), biscuits with ganache (a mix of chocolate, cream and butter), orange cake, fondant cake, floating island (beaten egg whites floating on a French custard), red fruit pies, and so forth.
Light wines get the lion's share of the wine list. The chef's hometown is Valencay (in the heart of the Touraine region), and he purchases his bottles directly from local producers. The list comprises a variety of well-thought-of vines: Gamay, Cabernet, Valençay, Bourgueil, and Saumur-Champigny.
All this for how much?
Beyond the quality of the food you are served at Le Gourmet, the check is another pleasant surprise. For a meager 13 Euros (about $16), you have a full meal served in record time in a most pleasant atmosphere. For just a few more bucks, you have the wine to complete your experience.
To be honest, there are very few Parisian restaurants which will give you that much for such a low price. Le Gourmet wins my vote any time, any day. I recommend it to you wholeheartedly.
Where?
Le Gourmet
19 rue de Bruxelles
75009 Paris
Tel: 33 (0)1 48 74 53 42
Subway station: Place de Clichy
Lunch and dinner
About The Author
Phil Chavanne shares lots of useful advices and travel information on Paris with the help of his Paris experts team. Click here: Paris Restaurants to find now about French food and Paris hotels.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
I Love French Wine and Food - A Burgundy Chardonnay
I Love French Wine and Food - A Burgundy Chardonnay
by: Levi Reiss
If you are looking for fine French wine and food, consider the Maconnais area of the Burgundy region in eastern France. You may find a bargain, and I hope that you'll have fun on this fact-filled wine education tour in which we review a local white Chardonnay.
Among France's eleven wine-growing regions Burgundy (with its neighbor Beaujolais) is fourth in vineyard acreage. Partisans, and they are many, claim that Burgundy is really the number one or number two wine-producing region in France, if not in the world. The wine reviewed below comes from the Maconnais area of southern Burgundy, whose wine production is almost 90% white, almost exclusively Chardonnay. While this area produces three times as much white wine as the other areas of Burgundy, is not very well known.
If you are visiting the Maconnais area, and you really should, make sure to stop by the village of Cluny and its medieval abbey, once the largest church in all Europe. Today the site lies in ruins, as it has been since the French Revolution, but what ruins. This site includes a horse-breeding center which was founded by Napoleon using stone from the abbey. You'll also want to see the Musee Ochier, a Romanesque lapidary museum. Don't forget to tour the town of Autun once called Augustodonum, city of Augustus. The original name refers to Augustus Caesar who modestly described it as "the sister and rival of Rome itself." Avoid disappointment, don't expect Rome II. But do visit Autun's Portes (Archways) and the Theatre Romain, once the largest arena in Gaul (Roman France) with room for 15,000 spectators. Every August (could that be a coincidence?) traditionally costumed locals put on a period piece. Talking about Napoleon, he and his brother studied at the local military academy, where at age nine the future Emperor first learnt French.
Before reviewing the Burgundy wine and imported cheeses that we were lucky enough to purchase at a local wine store and a local Italian food store, here are a few suggestions of what to eat with indigenous wines when touring this beautiful region. Start with Pate en Croute de Grenouilles au Bleu de Bresse (Frog and Bresse Blue-Cheese Pie). For your second course savor Poulet de Bresse à la Creme-Trompettes de la Mort (Free-Range Bresse Chicken in Creamy Sauce with Horns of Plenty Mushrooms). Read more about Bresse chickens in our article I Love French Wine and Food - A Red Beaujolais. And as dessert indulge yourself with Ile Flottante (Floating Island, a Meringue Island in a Custard Sea.)
OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.
Wine Reviewed Pouilly-Vinzelles AOC 'En Paradis' 2003 Louis Latour 12.6% about $18.50
Let's start by quoting the marketing materials. This pretty wine from the Maconnais is pale yellow in color and has a beautiful nose of lemon, honey, apple, and tropical fruit. It is elegant and pleasing revealing hazelnut and fruit flavors on tasting. This wine is perfect for drinking now.
This Chardonnay was fermented in stainless steel tanks and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. The Pouilly-Vinzelles is a not very well-known neighbor of the more expensive Pouilly-Fuisse. And now for the review.
My first meal was a Poulet Chasseur (Chicken Cacciatore) that I was particularly proud of. The wine was very delicate and yet not weak. Its apple flavor expressed itself well. I enjoyed how the wine's acid dealt with the meat's grease, which was relatively low because I cooked the chicken without its skin.
The next meal was more pedestrian. It consisted of chicken legs in a soy, onion, and garlic sauce. The wine was refreshing and pleasant but fairly short.
Continuing to work my way down the food scale, the next pairing involved a baked noodle dish, a cheese-less lasagna with tomatoes, onions, peas, and chicken hamburger. The wine was appley and floral and went very well with the meal, but seemed a bit wasted.
The final meal was disappointing. It consisted of an omelet with brown mushrooms, local provolone cheese, and the fixings. The wine was pleasant but not at all special, in fact it was not particularly present.
The wine and cheese tastings were more successful than usual. The first pairing was with a soft, buttery northern Italian Bel Paese cow's milk cheese. This cheese seemed to intensify the wine's flavor. Then I tried the wine with a French Saint-Aubin, also a soft cow's milk cheese. In its presence the wine became softer.
Final verdict. I'm not sure. This wine was sometimes quite good, but I think it was too expensive. What do you expect from a Burgundy? By the way, the label's term En Paradis was not the least bit justified.
About The Author
Levi Reiss has written, alone or with a co-author, ten books on computers and the Internet. Between you and me, he would rather just drink fine French or other wine, accompanied by the right foods and people. He teaches various and sundry computer classes at an Ontario French-language community college. His major wine website is The Worldwide Wine.
by: Levi Reiss
If you are looking for fine French wine and food, consider the Maconnais area of the Burgundy region in eastern France. You may find a bargain, and I hope that you'll have fun on this fact-filled wine education tour in which we review a local white Chardonnay.
Among France's eleven wine-growing regions Burgundy (with its neighbor Beaujolais) is fourth in vineyard acreage. Partisans, and they are many, claim that Burgundy is really the number one or number two wine-producing region in France, if not in the world. The wine reviewed below comes from the Maconnais area of southern Burgundy, whose wine production is almost 90% white, almost exclusively Chardonnay. While this area produces three times as much white wine as the other areas of Burgundy, is not very well known.
If you are visiting the Maconnais area, and you really should, make sure to stop by the village of Cluny and its medieval abbey, once the largest church in all Europe. Today the site lies in ruins, as it has been since the French Revolution, but what ruins. This site includes a horse-breeding center which was founded by Napoleon using stone from the abbey. You'll also want to see the Musee Ochier, a Romanesque lapidary museum. Don't forget to tour the town of Autun once called Augustodonum, city of Augustus. The original name refers to Augustus Caesar who modestly described it as "the sister and rival of Rome itself." Avoid disappointment, don't expect Rome II. But do visit Autun's Portes (Archways) and the Theatre Romain, once the largest arena in Gaul (Roman France) with room for 15,000 spectators. Every August (could that be a coincidence?) traditionally costumed locals put on a period piece. Talking about Napoleon, he and his brother studied at the local military academy, where at age nine the future Emperor first learnt French.
Before reviewing the Burgundy wine and imported cheeses that we were lucky enough to purchase at a local wine store and a local Italian food store, here are a few suggestions of what to eat with indigenous wines when touring this beautiful region. Start with Pate en Croute de Grenouilles au Bleu de Bresse (Frog and Bresse Blue-Cheese Pie). For your second course savor Poulet de Bresse à la Creme-Trompettes de la Mort (Free-Range Bresse Chicken in Creamy Sauce with Horns of Plenty Mushrooms). Read more about Bresse chickens in our article I Love French Wine and Food - A Red Beaujolais. And as dessert indulge yourself with Ile Flottante (Floating Island, a Meringue Island in a Custard Sea.)
OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.
Wine Reviewed Pouilly-Vinzelles AOC 'En Paradis' 2003 Louis Latour 12.6% about $18.50
Let's start by quoting the marketing materials. This pretty wine from the Maconnais is pale yellow in color and has a beautiful nose of lemon, honey, apple, and tropical fruit. It is elegant and pleasing revealing hazelnut and fruit flavors on tasting. This wine is perfect for drinking now.
This Chardonnay was fermented in stainless steel tanks and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. The Pouilly-Vinzelles is a not very well-known neighbor of the more expensive Pouilly-Fuisse. And now for the review.
My first meal was a Poulet Chasseur (Chicken Cacciatore) that I was particularly proud of. The wine was very delicate and yet not weak. Its apple flavor expressed itself well. I enjoyed how the wine's acid dealt with the meat's grease, which was relatively low because I cooked the chicken without its skin.
The next meal was more pedestrian. It consisted of chicken legs in a soy, onion, and garlic sauce. The wine was refreshing and pleasant but fairly short.
Continuing to work my way down the food scale, the next pairing involved a baked noodle dish, a cheese-less lasagna with tomatoes, onions, peas, and chicken hamburger. The wine was appley and floral and went very well with the meal, but seemed a bit wasted.
The final meal was disappointing. It consisted of an omelet with brown mushrooms, local provolone cheese, and the fixings. The wine was pleasant but not at all special, in fact it was not particularly present.
The wine and cheese tastings were more successful than usual. The first pairing was with a soft, buttery northern Italian Bel Paese cow's milk cheese. This cheese seemed to intensify the wine's flavor. Then I tried the wine with a French Saint-Aubin, also a soft cow's milk cheese. In its presence the wine became softer.
Final verdict. I'm not sure. This wine was sometimes quite good, but I think it was too expensive. What do you expect from a Burgundy? By the way, the label's term En Paradis was not the least bit justified.
About The Author
Levi Reiss has written, alone or with a co-author, ten books on computers and the Internet. Between you and me, he would rather just drink fine French or other wine, accompanied by the right foods and people. He teaches various and sundry computer classes at an Ontario French-language community college. His major wine website is The Worldwide Wine.
