Parn: "I’m not sure if the classic boeuf bourguignon with tiresome and not always tender chunks of beef at Joséphine Chez Dumonet is at all comparable to the always tender beef cheeks modern version, more easily described as a daube/ stew de joue de boeuf à la bourguignonne, at Chez Fernand Christine. The daube de joue de boeuf at the very authentic and time-warp Chez Denise in Les Halles is also a very worthy parisian version of a similar stew".
Thank you for this. You just pinpointed one of the reasons I’ve not appreciated so many beef stews. Whether French classic, my wife’s ancestral Irish (we tend to emphasize her Italian half, but…) or my mother’s East European (passed down from my grandmother), its the non tender meat that I’ve all too often (not always) encountered that has turned me off. Now that I know that some places are using beef cheeks in their stews, I will gladly focus in & try again.
A well-made stifado, guvetch, goulash or kharcho is as tender as a well-made boeuf bourguignon or beef daube.
I think some people are turned off dishes because they tried mediocre versions first.
@ParnParis , of course Cologne isn’t too far from the border, and some German cooking techniques are similar to French cooking techniques . Sauerbraten also begins with marination in wine and/or vinegar. I haven’t ordered it in Cologne for 10 plus years. If anyone visits Munich and is looking for a good stew or braise, the Sauerbraten and the Beef Gulasch at Spaten an Der Oper, across from the opera house, have always been exceptionally tender in my experience.
Well! Its true!!
If I’m travelling alone, then sky is the limit! However, this time, I am travelling with someone taking BP medication and cholesterol / tri-glycerides level higher than me! So, meal choices sometimes have to take that into account. Likewise, I LOVE OYSTERS but sadly he’s only so-so. Hence, have to make a bit of sacrifices sometimes! Worst is, I have a huge sweet tooth but at the same time doctor told me I am borderline diabetic! So, I have to take it easy with desserts…another area where ’ health consideration’ comes into play! Sigh!
How nice if one could be young again?! Ha!
OK, Fellow foodie friends! One LAST ’ Non Boeuf Bourgignon ’ question if I may?!
When I was living in Tour Panorama, Rue Emeriau 75015, years ago. After work on my way home, I always grab myself a yummy ’ Tarte Normande ’ ( Sweet buttery short bread crust, a thin layer of custard cream, diced apples topped with roasted almonds flakes ) from a neighbourhood pastry shop close to Metro-Charles Michel. Sadly, from Google map, looks like the whole area has had a total face lift and the shop is long gone?!
Question: Does anyone, direct or indirect, know of a patisserie/Boulangerie that offers this tasty delight? I’m willing to go anywhere for it and in the process hoping to recapture some long lost nostalgia.
Have been doing a lot of Google searches but most places only offer the more common ’ Tarte fine aux Pommes '!
Thank you ’ John T BBQ '!! I’ll Google search them!
As for Phillipe Teillet, I think I’ve come across the name before?! He won ’ Best tasting Apple Pie ’ in Paris a while back? No?!
BTW, we actually have a ’ John’s BBQ ’ here in Greater Toronto that offers one of the best tasting Cantonese BBQ pork outside of the Orient!!
Chez Papa is a small chain of family restaurants. Not bad but not remarkable in any way either. I’m not sure if they have a central kitchen that serves all their restaurants but maybe.
Zafito no longer exists.
And yes, Boulangerie Philippe Teillet in the 5th does sometimes have tartes normandes.
First experienced in your Charles Michel neighborhood, husband discovered Les Merveilleux de Fred . Rather indescribable morsels of pastry topped with ethereal meringue and else, theye melt in your mouth . A bit too sweet for me, but he will cross town to one of Fred’s made in house outlets.
OIC! I thought Chez Papa is a patisserie offering Tarte Normande?!
Great to hear Teillet have Tarte Normandes sometimes. If not, still worth my while paying a visit and get their award winning Apple Pie!
if possible, save the chicken meal for a future trip. Make the most of what you can eat in the capital.
You need to go to this region to eat it (photo from my France book). Not difficult to reach Lyon without own transport.
Once there you can also eat all kinds of fine fowl!. (Ready to eat stuffed pigeons are one of those.)
Tasting this chicken might bring a tear to your eyes! (Price is from 2019, probably costs more now.) Some roasters can roast one for you with a day’s notice. It will be the most expensive roast chicken but the absolute best one you’ll ever eat! I did buy one and cooked it myself. In cream with morels is my favourite treatment.
Eating it in a restaurant you usually get the breast, or whole bird.
Thank you very much for the advise!!
Having lived and frequently visit the Orient, I have had my fair share of great tasting free-range chicken.
May be for this trip, I’ll just settle for the ‘Free-Range chicken cooked in Yellow wine’ at Auberge Bressane?!
Still debating whether we should visit L’Ami Jean?! Ha!
Do be aware that while Bresse is an extraordinary breed, it is not always prepared in ways that celebrate its attributes. Roasted, it can be uninspired. As @Presunto recommends, it and many lesser breeds shine with morels, cream and l’ll add, vin jaune. But again, don’t get sucked into lesser preparations which can certainly disappoint.
We have spend a fair amount of time in the Bresse, and have sadly encountered many plates where a Bresse died in vain.
Parn, I return to this important post of yours. What you say is absolutely correct. My food porn or snapshot at you call it, it indeed just one couple’s experience. When I find a place worthy of describing, it means that we have visited enough times to consider it reliable.
But as you say, menus change, chefs unexpectedly change, and none of us can predict or control the other diners in the room that night. Moreover, what any diner brings to the room exponentially affects both what he experiences on the plate and indeed what is brought to his plate. Vibes echo from dining room to kitchen and back.
So in the end, we share on these forums what we take to and from the dining room. Full circle, an album of snapshots of our visits.
I will voice an outlier opinion. We’ve dined at Chez l’Ami Jean a handful of times over a handful of years. We have gone as a couple, not as part of a convivial party of people known to the house. Food and service and price have been beyond complaint but nothing above or equaling what we expect in comparable places. It’s crowded, noisy, fine if the crowd is yours and the noise is from your table. Last visit, with son and d-i-l, the three of us luxuriated at a small table for four while a foursome next to us was squashed into a table for two.
After any single visit, I’ve never felt an itch to return. But its huge following disagrees.
I’ll Google search them!
