This was one of our favorite meals. Reaching the restaurant after walking the entire Mouffetard while hungry was a challenge but we made it. Southwestern cuisine run by a husband and wife that could not have been any more friendly. They were featured in the NYT a while back, so its seemingly back to locals these days. Nice atmosphere inside, not so much outside in this case.
When I was young and had my more hair, my favorite French dish was Cassoulet. When I saw it on menus I would stop reading the rest of it. These days itās not something I see on NYC menus much, and Iām told not so much in Paris either. At La Forge itās one of the specialties, and it was as glorious as I was hoping and then some.
Looking good! Love the cuisine of the South West of France. Still remember the steak with a big slap of foie gras on top of it in Bordeaux a while ago!
I love wines from Italy and France, but itās hilarious how snobby the citizens of said regions can be when it comes to New World wines. Seriously short sighted and ignorant.
One of the problems, I think, are in the costs that come with importation. These make certain wines (and especially the more common ones seen in supermarkets) overpriced for what they offer.
I love these reports! They make me so hungry. And they make me think I really need to get back to Paris. My mum lives way out in a rural area, so itās rarely on my itinerary when I head down.
āSeriously short sighted and ignorantā¦ā Sommeliers in France are rarely ignorant, they are highly trained professionals. But why would you drink Californian wines in France (or more generally imported wines) except by curiosity, as you already have such a choice available. Unless of course you were matching a foreign dish with its original wine. The same is true in reverse: Why would you drink French wines in California, or in Italy, or in Spain, etc. unless by snobisme. When in Romeā¦
Well, I can think of several reasons to drink French or Italian wines in California, one being that they are frequently less expensive than their California counterparts.
My comment about sommelier making a comment about Calif wines at Parcelles was meant in a lighthearted way after op commented they didnāt love the service at Parcelles. We liked everyone and it did not offend us in anyway. To appreciate and love your own country and regionās food and wine and culture is what makes travel interesting. Going to new places and eating their cuisine has become my main interest in traveling as I get older. Anyway, I drink Calif wine when I am at home (with an occasional French rose purchase at Trader Joeās) and I drink French wine when in Paris!
My answer was specifically to Hunterwaliā's remarkā¦ I had understood your comment on the Sommelier was lighthearted :o) as was probably the Sommelierās reaction to Californianās wines. I talked at length to the Sommelier at āPantagruelā, and he admitted to know very little about āforeignā wines, because they had not been part of his training. So, there you are!
I just returned from a week in Izmir for tasting Turkish winesā¦ which I did not even know existed (and honestly not really worth the trip, but still interesting).
thanks for the toppng list! pizza canotto is a modern style of neo with a large, airy crust. From the photos, I believe thatās the Canotto style. I make mine with a biga
unfortunately iām fairly inconsistent with it and now that weāve moved into the city and sold our pizza oven, no chance to improveā¦though I have my eye on a kickstarter electric oven capable of neo (900F+) temps
I would think that any professional sommelier who disses wines from any part of the world (even jokingly, for this is not a relevant kind of joke for a som) only deserves to stand in a corner wearing a dunce cap. Good wines and bad wines are made everywhere. And it is the job of a sommelier nowadays to be aware of that. Such a joke might have been kind of funny back in the 1970s but not anymore.
Rarely ignorant, but that does happen. Thereās still the odd one who insists on keeping your bottle at the other end of the dining room and serving you when he fancies, or makes stupid jokes about French wines being superior just by nature to any other wines in the world. Weāre all humans and so are sommeliers.
I think we told her we were from Santa Barbara next to Santa Ynez valley where lots of wines are from these days and she made a slightly deprecating comment, but again all in good fun.
Not bad, but probably the most disappointing meal of the trip. Too many variables involves for all of us to agree on every place I suppose. Its quirky, the staff is young and friendly, and this is perhaps the first small menu weāve encountered that we wished was bigger. Normally Iām a fan of small concentrated menus. The smaller the better. But out of the three mains, duck (had a duckfest for lunch), mushrooms (the one thing she doesnt eat), we were essentially left with a very large fish for 2-3.
Early on it was more or less promising. The beets and goat cheese dish was fine, but fairly basic. Got bored with it midway. We couldnt pass on another tartare because we are suckers for āour signatureā. It arrived like an ice cream cone, with the egg ātoppingā inside of it. You supposed to demolish it and mix, and it broke down as soon as I picked it up. The flavor after mixing it up was nice. Probably the best tasting tartare of the trip.
The large dish turned out to be a monkfish, and it suffered the same fate as the beetsā¦ boredom. Large chunks of Monkfish with a bunch of other stuff as you can see, most of which uneventful. The broth was fine. But when I think of the many large fish dishes weāve had, I expect whole fish with bigger, bolder flavors, especially in an Asian or Asian inspired. I just dont think Monkfish works as a large dish.
We opted to skip dessert and have crepes by the Iphone Tower.
this attitude sums up why, despite having a stupid number of cases of fine wine, we donāt attend wine dinners any more. Really, a som canāt make a joke about a wine region? Is there any other profession where the practitioner canāt make a joke about their trade?
At wine dinners, people are so serious/humorless about the wine that they forget, itās just something meant to have with a meal and the meal should really be the focus of the event. And the food doesnāt havenāt to be fancy or great, itās about breaking bread with old and new friends. itās kind of odd because when we worked in the wine trade, just about everyone had a great sense of humor around wine.
Oh, soms can absolutely make jokes about a wine region in the context of their activity if they donāt mind making fools of themselves. Thatās perfectly all right, but I donāt think a person whose profession means acquiring as much knowledge and open-mindedness about wines of the world as one can manage (and indeed these are qualities shown by most contemporary sommeliers) should be expected to show that sort of outdated, unprofessional wine bigotry.
Maybe that will help you to understand what I meant, but failing that, I will gladly let you attribute that to my humorless attitude, which incidentally makes me think Iāve been wasting my life until now, since Iāve never been to a wine dinner.
(Iām not particularly addressing the issue of the sommelier at Parcelles ā I wasnāt there and canāt possibly evaluate what happened, and how and why.)
