Paris - odds and ends

An assortment of odds and ends from our trip to Paris.



The window display mentioned in our previous post.



Either chickens, or possibly guinea fowl on the left.



Quality burger! Having never tried this French burger chain, I absolutely had to, just for the experience.



Over 7 euro for a burger, fries and chips? This had better be damn good squishy.



These pseudo MacDonald's can be found all over Paris.



Back in our hotel room, the contents of our paper bag is quickly dispensed. Chips are crisp; good.



The burger has a little neck collar, like they have for dogs. Perhaps they too bite their stitches? The verdict: not awful, but not great. The bread is sweet and slightly brioche-like. The patty is fairly bland and generic, and the cheese is... processed cheese.



Pomme de Pain is a chain of baguette/sandwich eateries dotted around the place. I was told off for taking photos inside, but they mainly sell pastries, filled baguettes etc.



Crepe man on the Champ Elysee



Just before visiting the Musee d'Orsay, we stopped for a quick lunch. The restaurant/cafe/bar is located immediately behind the Musee itself.




Seated at the window, we overlooked the museum.



A's steak tartar was very nice, but unexpectedly was mainly flavoured with mustard. The texture and flavour of the meat was very nice, and the chips were crisp but slightly dry and bland, needing either more salt and/or less cooking



The steak was a little too cold for A's liking, and numbed her taste buds slightly. The seasoning was just right, and the mustard flavour didn't overwhelm. The beef was a good cut, and had been chopped, and not ground.



I made the unfortunate mistake of ordering roast chicken. France is famous for its treatment of roast chicken, and indeed on a previous visit to Paris I had the most amazing rotisserie chicken, which I'd hoped to revisit. A food critic once wrote that you should never order roast chicken in a restaurant that did not require prior booking, or at least a delay.

The less we say about this chicken, the better.



The damage: a carafe of house wine, and two mains came to €36. The service was extremely friendly - indeed we only had one incidence of the infamous Parisian waiter syndrome, but everybody else was friendly and helpful.

Honourable mention:



Outside the Jardin du Luxembourg we stopped for a cafe breakfast, and A had the most amazing cappuccino and croissant, and an even better freshly-squeezed orange juice.



My espresso was rich and the crema was, well, creamy!

Paris - L'Ecurie

L' Ecurie
2, Rue Laplace
75005 Paris, France



Having read about this little hole-in-the-wall, we were on a mission to find what was reputed to be a not-to-be-missed spot for a real French menu. The first thing we see is the proprietor, chain smoking outside dressed in an old sweatshirt and ripped jeans.



Literally around the corner from the Pantheon, and in the university district, to my extreme pleasure I discover that this was a place where I had eaten once before: in 2004 a friend who had been to the Sorbonne showed me around Paris, and we had lunched here then.



The blackboard of specials probably hasn't changed in decades, but then it seems that neither has the price.






The menu is simple and looks as if it's been coloured in by a 4 year old. Maybe it was?



What we're after is the super gambas - reputed to be every bit as super as it claims to be. Easily the most expensive item on the menu at €20, most mains cost around €6-7, and entrees around €3.



Beef seems to be the speciality of the house.



Along with bottled wine, house wine is served in jugs for €8. Remembering it to be quaffable in my poorer days as a student, we decide to give it a go.



Delicious young table wine with crusty bread- lunch of the everyman.



Augmented by a slab of farmhouse pate. I had ordered the blackboard house set menu - three courses for €11.50 - now that's a bargain!



Steak frites for €10.90, but for 60 cents more we were offered two more courses.



The chain-smoking owner served us, while his business partner manned the small kitchen located right at the entrance to the small store.

Having first waved us indoors, we asked if we could sit on one of the two small trestle tables outside. Being February, and still rather chilly, the man shrugged and made a noise somewhere between disbelief, acceptance and the disclaimer that our health was in our own hands.



The aioli joins the bread.



Sitting outside the restaurant, we are literally a stone's throw from the Pantheon.



My steak frites arrives. Rather than a cheap cut of meat, as would befit a cheap set lunch menu, and certainly what one would expect from any restaurant in the UK, I was served a beautifully thick piece of entrecote, rib eye, grilled on the surface and bloody and rare on the inside - exactly how I specified it. The frites were hot and crispy, and didn't need the rich and garlicky aioli - but that didn't stop me.




A's super gambas was every bit as good as reputed: the prawns were enormous, but aside from the generous serving they were also incredibly delicious. Fresh as can be, the prawns were grilled hot and fast so that the shells crisped and became crunchy. Just below the surface was trapped mouthfulls of rich juices augmented by sweet aromas of garlic and savoury smells of the sea. Served simply with a half lemon and three halves of grilled tomato, the prawns outshone my almost-perfect steak. Even the tomatoes were incredibly flavourful, well seasoned, and a superb palate cleanser.



The final course of my set menu was a rather large creme caramel. Not perfect, it was still smooth and soft, with a sweet caramel sauce.



On a quick trip indoors we snapped off a couple of photos. Although small, the place was full of what looked like regulars. From our vantage point outside, we could see customers arriving in twos and threes, pay the outside decor and menus nary a glance and duck into the dark interiors. Obviously regulars!



Dark and full of little corners, the restaurant is relaxed and intimate.



The grill where our meal was made. Simple and small, the skill and speed at which our courses came was surprising given the constraints.



Odd decorating motifs in the window.



The very friendly proprietor, who did not speak English, had bustled over us for the duration of lunch, checking that everything was ok, and bringing everything with a proud flourish. He did all of this in between chain smoking cigarette after cigarette outside the restaurant.

After desserts were cleared, he returned with two generous glasses of calvados, apple brandy, and presented them to us with a slightly embarrassed smile saying "for the cold".



The damage: a set menu and a super gambas came to just over €40. An absolute steal given the quality of the food and the absolutely lovely service.

Paris - Au Pied de Cochon

Au Pied de Cochon
6 Rue Coquilliere
Paris, 75001



Having read about this temple to the pig, we felt that it would be rude to leave Paris without having sampled some of their porcine wares.



Cold and weary, we gratefully stumble into the warm and cheery hall of the restaurant. According to lore, Au Pied de Cochon (literally pig trotters) has been open 24/7 since 1947, and that the main doors have no lock.



The Valentine's special - an advertisement card on our side plates advertising shellfish. Shellfish for Valentines makes sense, but at a restaurant reputed for its pigs?



Cute little emblems peeking from every surface reminds the diner that this is a homage to the pig, and all things porky.



Every surface except for the menu, which has a very sizable seafood section. Alluring though the fishy options were, we held fast to our original intentions of cradling some pork.







The front of the menu gives a cartoonish but gruesome reminder that a (or possibly more than a) pig died to give us this meal.



More reminders of piggy goodness. By now, we really could not wait to try the food.



A nice bottle of beaujolais to wash down our porkiness. We didn't feel like white, and felt that anything most robust would wash away the more nuanced flavours of good pork.



In a rare show of your intrepid reporter, my main was brought to the table under a highly polished copper dome.



Which was whisked away to reveal the ultimate homage to nose and tail eating: nose and tail.



A chose the slightly less adventurous dish of a single trotter, deboned and stuffed with truffle, served with baby onions, mushrooms and bacon. Mmm, more pork. We both loved A's dish - the flavours were rich but well defined. The stuffed trotter was meaty, and as it had been boned out, not at all difficult to eat. The baby onions and mushrooms were cooked in a slightly sticky brown sauce - probably jus from the pork - which was highly reminiscent of coq au vin sauce.



My dish of pork, pork and more pork was served with extra large potato chips, more roast potato than chipped potato. Fried with a crust so crunchy that it literally shatters to the bite, and a large jug of bernaise on the side.



I had ordered 'La Tentation de Saint-Antoine': the temptation of St Anthony - a veritable panoply of the ends of a pig: its snout, ears, trotter and tail. The snout was literally split in twain and served as is - nostril still highly evident and all its porky glory left evident. Every piece was brined, crumbed and had the crap deep fried out of it. Certainly not fine dining, the flavours were strong, robust, and the texture sticky and unctuous - just how I love it.



It took me very little time to reduce the pieces to well-gnawed bone.



Our dessert was preceeded by a bottle of rum. Yes, we were given a bottle of rum.



Baba - a fluffy sweet brioche topped with shaved chocolate and powdered sugar, dotted with whipped cream and then doused in rum - heaven on a plate.



The brioche was sagging badly from the amount of rum we'd doused on to it. Maybe it ruined our palates and maybe it was silly, but it certainly put us in a good mood for our last evening in Paris.



The damage: €90 for two. A margarita and a bottle of wine increased our bill from middling to slightly steep. The service can be slow and the waiters can often overlook a waving hand, but the food is good, if you like pork. A table of French people by us ordered exclusively from the seafood menu, and their meals looked delicious. Perhaps the next time we visit this porcine pleasure palace, we will opt for fish instead.