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Post by imec on Jun 10, 2009 18:26:21 GMT
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Post by traveler63 on Jun 11, 2009 0:30:15 GMT
Imec:
I am no Paris expert and I haven't heard of these two. However, I am with you regarding Foie Gras. Any other restos that you have been to for that wonderful food in Paris would be great if you shared!!!! We will be there too, I think you said you were going in the fall?
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Post by imec on Jun 11, 2009 0:35:04 GMT
July. First time!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2009 4:56:19 GMT
I've never heard of the first one, but I know that the Relais de l'Entrecôte is quite popular. I have never been to it, however.
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Post by traveler63 on Jun 11, 2009 23:52:43 GMT
imec: Oh, first trip to Paris!!!! Wow, I remember ours and it was 2001 first for Paris and international . I really hope you have a wonderful time. I remember the first day walking out of the hotel we stayed at and I turned to Kirk and we almost said it together; we could live here !!!! This will be our third trip, and not only do we love Paris, we love France. I am adopted and so I am not sure what my background is, but there surely must be some French ancestry, because I feel at home. Maybe that is crazy!!!  |
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Post by bjd on Jun 12, 2009 16:52:06 GMT
Imec, if you want to eat foie gras, do it in southwestern France. You can get good foie gras in a local supermarket or shop in Gaillac. Eat it with good bread or toast, a salad and a sweetish Gaillac wine (vin doux) or Sauternes if you are feeling very rich.
As for feeding your kids' rare steak habit, any brasserie will ask how you want it cooked. Just remember that Canadian rare will be à point in France.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2009 17:21:29 GMT
I always recommend Chez Papa to people who want to eat a significant quantity of food cheaply. There are about 10 locations in Paris, and it is the only place I know where the waiters will warn you if you are ordering too much to eat. "Attention, c'est très copieux, Monsieur." It is rustic, cramped, does not take reservations and often has a line (of hungry Parisians) waiting in the street. It specializes in the cuisine of Southwest France, so there is plenty of duck, foie gras, gizzards and snails on the menu. |
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Post by imec on Jun 12, 2009 19:11:32 GMT
Thanks bjd. Up until last week, I had only eaten it in seared slices. In Quebec City last week I had it cold, "a la torchon" - my god, I thought I had died and gone to heaven!! What should I be looking for in the supermarket to enjoy it this way?
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Post by imec on Jun 12, 2009 19:13:43 GMT
Chez Papa is exactly the kind of place I was hoping to find. Thanks kerouac.
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Post by Jazz on Jun 12, 2009 21:14:36 GMT
I don't think that it will be that difficult for you to find cafes, bistros and restaurants with delicious rare steak or foie gras. Le Relais Entrecote has an excellent reputation, but I have not eaten there. Here are a few suggestions for good to great and reasonably priced meals...I have eaten at most of them and enjoy the food and ambiance. 1. www.bofingerparis.com/en/This is part of the Flo chain and I like Bofinger, or go to Le Petit Bofinger across the street. Great atmosphere and is close to the Bastille metro stop. You will be near (in?) the Marais and close to the Seine. 2. www.leon-de-bruxelles.fr/Now, I know you said rare meat, but if you are in the mood for delicious and modestly priced mussels, go to one of these. 3. www.la-mosquee.com/htmluk/entreeuk.htmI'm not sure how old your kids are, but this may be a great outing. La Mosquee de Paris is in the Latin Quarter (5th Arrondissement) and has a beautiful tea garden for lunch...also a restaurant. You could also go into the Mosque. 4. afoodiefroggy.canalblog.com/archives/2007/02/21/4081006.htmlYou may find yourself exploring the marche Aligre, in the 11th Arr. The marche Aligre, Richard Lenoir, or, Bastille, (also 11th arr.), and Place Maubert are my favorite food markets in Paris that I have yet visited. This food blog is good and notes a couple of great rest stops. Here is the menu of La Table d'Aligre, a wonderful restaurant within the market, www.latabledaligre.com/menus/en.html5. www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/jul/17/paris.restaurantsThis would be a list worth having a copy of in your pocket if you end up being gloriously lost and don't know where to eat. This is a book that I recommend for you since you are traveling with children. I only discovered it after I last came back from Paris, had never heard of it ( and, I have about 200 books on Paris) and I think it is excellent...and I don't have children! www.amazon.ca/Parisians-Paris-Bill-Gillham/dp/1873429819/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244839327&sr=8-1I love his approach. He has been travelling to Paris for 50 years with his children and now, his grandchildren...."Quiet hotels, characterful breakfast cafes, traditional bistrots, museums that are often overlooked, unusual and interesting shops, gardens where you can sit and eat your lunch (and where to buy it)...together with practical advice on getting best value on the metro, how to cope with a summer heatwave, the six very best expeditions for children...., " |
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Post by traveler63 on Jun 12, 2009 21:31:27 GMT
Jazz:
This is great!!!!! Especially the one for mussels, which we dearly love and is of course on our list for our trip in September. !!1
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Post by Jazz on Jun 12, 2009 21:59:46 GMT
Special foie gras memory...Two years ago, exhausted, I sat down on the patio of Chez Clovis. This is a small and old bistro/restaurant, just opposite the gardens of les Halles in the 1st arrondissement. To this day I regret that I never had the opportunity of seeing the original les Halles market, 'the Belly of Paris'. Lovely view of the gardens. The interior was 'fin de siecle,' but it was hot and I always choose to sit outside to people-watch and to write. Since I was the early and only customer, the owner lavished attention on me...a Parisian man who had mastered the art of making you feel like a beautiful woman. My simple lunch was warm foie gras with little toasts... superbe!!!, a fresh salad of mixed greens and a half carafe of the house wine. Inexpensive. Moments later, a young Australian man sat at the next table (almost as charming with women) and we enjoyed a fabulous lunch. He was a writer. I am not sure if Chez Clovis has changed ownership, but I have never in my life had such delicious foie gras. This is worth reading, about half way down he talks about Chez Clovis... www.saveur.com/saveur-travels/europe-middle-east-and-asia/the-belly-of-paris-55147.html |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2009 22:40:40 GMT
At least visitors have time to savor the restaurants of Paris. Those of us who live here, except for the wealthy layabouts, know very little about most of the eating establishments of the city.
These days, I do almost all of my eating at home.
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Post by Jazz on Jun 12, 2009 22:47:10 GMT
Jazz: This is great!!!!! Especially the one for mussels, which we dearly love and is of course on our list for our trip in September. !!1 Thank you, Trav63...I love Leon's and I think you will as well, they are all over Paris. My favorite location was the one on Boulevarde Sainte Germaine. On each trip a visit to the le Musee Cluny is de rigueur for me to look once again at the Unicorn tapistries and sit quietly in the tiny courtyard. Then often, I would go to Leon's for lunch or dinner, a mere few blocks away. On my last trip, I rented a studio on rue Maitre Albert for a month (June) and I was perhaps a 10 minute walk from the Cluny. Since I was there for a month, my choice of where to eat was eclectic. Budget and balance. Sometimes I would go to a high end restaurant, or, a modest but delicious place, or, buy food at one of the beautiful markets, or small food shops and picnic, or cook 'at home'. Usually, I would have lunch out and then perhaps one of three nights, I would cook a late dinner at my studio. You are going in September and this is my most loved time of year to date. I rented an apartment in the 11th on rue de la Roquette for a month, a five minute walk from the Bastille Arsenal, the beginnings of the Canal Saint Martin. Each day was hot yellow sun and turquoise sky, with some refreshing brief rainstorms late afternoon for about an hour, and a few primal night storms. The temperature was highs of 19-23. It was perfect. |
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Post by lagatta on Jun 12, 2009 23:02:46 GMT
kerouac, how true. I actually missed the opening of a film for which I did the English translation including texts for voiceovers and off-camera readings, research and interviews, because a client insisted that I do something else yesterday evening. I was very sad. I'll no doubt see the documentary film, but on a monitor, not in a cinema. About the only reason I get to restaurants other than the usual ones is showing people from out of town about.
I do go to restaurants a bit, but they are very casual bistros of our "apporter votre vin" avv - bring your own wine - variety; these sprung up because we aren't blessed with your wine prices and people in Québec really like a good supper with friends and wine. We usually go to the same two or three - but that is so in many countries where restaurants, modest and lavish, have many regulars.
A downstairs neighbour years before was in love with New York City and said if she lived there she could go out every evening and listen to jazz. I laughed and said she'd be working 12 hours a day to pay for the cost of her tiny studio - at the time flats were very cheap here, and despite a great increase that is hard on poor people, they are still much cheaper than NYC or Paris.
Jazz, yess, that is wonderful. I only went out to eat in Paris when I was meeting friends and colleagues, if not, I was more than happy to eat in, as I love markets and had also discovered the joys of Picard (actually good frozen food) at least two decades ago. Sadly, my first trip to Paris when I had any time for outings was soon after they had demolished Les Halles. That still makes me sad - oh, I do think it was imperative to move the wholesale market out of the city centre, but that Halle would have been precious now.
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Post by traveler63 on Jun 13, 2009 1:18:05 GMT
lagatta and Jazz:
Thank you for your posts. Lagatta, Kirk and I have always wanted to come to Montreal. He was closer when he was young, he grew up in Michigan, just outside of Detroit (go Redwings!!!!). We have your city on our list.
Jazz: Thank you also. One of the reasons why we have the apartment is to do some cooking at home. There are so many great little places to buy food in Paris, that is what we did in 2007. We want to root out the neigborhood stores and shops. We also have so many little hideway places to find. I know that we will have some good meals and maybe a couple of more expensive ones too. In 2007 Kirk took me for lunch to the Tour d Argent (dinner was out of the question !!!) for my birthday, it was one of the things on my list to do just once. Our best friends went to L Tallevant(probably not spelled correctly) for a dinner which I will not tell you how much !!!. I would rather spend that kind of money on something that would be around for a while!!! We are just going to wander around with no specific place in mind and explore and experience. This is the way that you find exciting and interesting things to write about.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 13, 2009 5:14:16 GMT
One of the most convenient things for visitors to Paris is the sheer number of restaurants available. While this is partly due to the fact that it receives the most tourists in the world, another contributing factor is the small size of Parisian apartments. It is often out of the question for Parisians to entertain their friends at home, so this means going out for a meal together.
There are a multitude of restaurants in every neighborhood, no matter how rich or poor. I know that while visitors are sometimes wary of wandering into the "wrong" place, Parisians enjoy trying new places all the time and have a complex "restaurant radar" for determining if a place seems promising. It's sort of an instant analysis of a) presentation of options and prices on the menu posted outside + b) number of people already inside depending on the time of day and day of the week + c) appearance of the tables in relation to the prices listed (i.e. cloth or paper napkins, multiple glasses or just one, etc.) + d) physical orientation of the establishment in terms of one's desire for people watching or intimacy + e) etc. etc. etc. Everybody has his own formula, and if you get a group of four friends together, you will always have an animated debate on where to go, meaning that you must also factor in an additional 30 minute delay before a decision is made. When another activity is planned afterwards, like going to a movie or something, this adds more factors like the speed and the efficiency of the serving staff, proximity to the next destination.... Very, very complicated science.
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Post by bjd on Jun 13, 2009 8:08:07 GMT
Imec, for foie gras in a shop or supermarket, look around the cold food cases where the sliced ham is, or else if it's a bigger place, near the fancier foods like smoked salmon. If it's in jars or packages, you can eat it cold. The stuff that is to be cooked or seared will not look "prepared" but will just be the liver itself, although it doesn't look like liver but is much lighter in colour.
I don't know any restaurants in Paris either. When I'm there, I usually eat in or else just walk into a restaurant that looks okay depending on where I am. Not being a foodie, I would never spend the money to go anywhere like Taillevent or the Tour d'Argent.
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Post by auntieannie on Jun 13, 2009 16:31:05 GMT
oooh! I'd loveto visit the restaurant of the mosque!
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Post by lagatta on Jun 13, 2009 17:41:40 GMT
I don't remember it being a restaurant. Is that recent? I've enjoyed tea and pastries there, in a lovely Moorish garden, with friends from the Maghreb.
(Do remember that it is a mosque, so no wine or beer).
The Paris Mosque also has a wonderful hammam. As use of the hammam is prescribed by Islam, the prices are kept reasonable. There are ladies' and gentlemens' days. All are welcome; you needn't be Muslim.
At the Mosque, you are not far from the Arab World Institut (L'Institut du monde arabe) a wonderful building by Jean Nouvel where there are exhibits, a library, a good bookshop with lovely postcards and reproductions of calligraphy, and a rooftop restaurant that is also a "salon de thé" in off hours. You can go up to the rooftop without having to enter the restaurant - free of charge, you needn't pay musuem admittance - lovely view of Paris, Notre-Dame, Ile St-Louis, Tour St-Jacques etc. Le Jardin des plantes is also nearby. A friend taught for years at a nearby university, but is retired now.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 13, 2009 18:15:24 GMT
For those going to the Institut du Monde Arabe, they should know that plenty of alcohol flows there at the restaurants and snack bars, because 'Arab' does not mean 'Islamic.'
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Post by auntieannie on Jun 13, 2009 18:19:37 GMT
lagatta, check the menu of the restaurant in the weblink above. tagines, etc...
I remember admirig the "institut du monde arabe" last time I visited Paris. magnificent building.
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Post by Jazz on Jun 13, 2009 20:40:27 GMT
Lagatta, in la mosquee de Paris there is a Moorish tea garden and a restaurant, which is off to the right as you enter and the garden lies ahead. I don't think that it is new, but the entryway is easy to walk past. L'Institute du monde Arabe was well worth the visit. The Nouvel design is remarkable.  a closeup of the windows,  |
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Post by imec on Jun 16, 2009 4:09:18 GMT
jazz (and others), it appears I completely missed several very good posts here. Thank you all - this is great information!
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