simon says french food blog

Is Paris The World Champion of Gastronomy?

By Joe Ray
PARIS

That's the question French food critic Francois Simon posed to a little panel: Nick Lander, Carlo Petrini, Ken Hom, Anissa Helou, Yumiko Inukai and...yours truly. For a recent article in Le Figaro's magazine, Figaroscope.

Here's my response in Version Originale...

World capital? That's loaded question.
Twenty years – even 10 – ago, the question was bandied about for fun but we already knew the answer, but now, just using the places I know well, it’s a legitimate debate. Barcelona combines an unquenchable curiosity and solid base to keep themselves on cuisine’s front edge. Sicily combines incredible raw ingredients with solid value and New York could win on sheer numbers yet it is Paris’ equal in quality and exponentially more diverse. India is a time machine whose cuisine never ages.

Plus, in Paris, coffee is awful and the beer second rate. It’s also pricey. That said, you forget all problems instantly when the former butcher who can hold four bottles of wine in one hand and owns Le Severo puts a côte de boeuf aged 40 days under your nose. You forget it when Pierre Gagnaire boils down a great vat of red wine to make a tiny component of a sauce. You forget it when Laetitia at Le Bistro Paul Bert greets you with a smile, seats you at your favorite table and gifts you with a glass of wine and when it comes to choosing a bottle of wine doesn’t foist something you can’t afford on you. You forget it when three bottles, two glasses of Calvados and one conversation into a meal, you realize with a start that it’s 5 a.m. and you’ve been at the table for nine hours.
Undeniable world champ? Not anymore. However, the French exception still reigns. Let’s call Paris first among equals.

Food and travel writer and photographer Joe Ray is a Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year and author of the blog Eating The Motherland. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter: @joe_diner. 

 

NEWS FLASH: EARLY CHRISTMAS IN COBBLE HILL

By Joe Ray
BROOKLYN

The Txikito gang has been doing some early Christmas shopping. Alex Raij and Eder Montero, the couple who made Chelsea a better place by opening both Txikito and El Quinto Pino, signed a lease on Monday for a new Brooklyn restaurant, La Vara, slated to open in early 2012.

Located in the spot recently vacated by the ill-fated Breuckelen restaurant at 268 Clinton St. - next to the lovely Ted & Honey Café - Raij says the cuisine will be “Spanish food seen through its Moorish and Jewish roots.”

The food will be a mix of small plates and shareable larger dishes.

“The basis will be home cooking, not the traditional ‘meat, starch, veg,’” says Raij.

Who’ll be running the line? “We will, for now,” she says.

Somewhere in there, Raij will also be having a baby.

“We did our last opening like that,” she jokes.

Why change now?

Food and travel writer and photographer Joe Ray is the 2009 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year and author of the blog Eating The Motherland. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter: @joe_diner. 

 

Le Stuffing - Eight Chefs & Eight Meals in 48 Hours

By Joe Ray
New York City

It begins with a discussion about trick journalism. It ends with a self-imposed dare to eat eight meals in two days, cooked by some of the world’s best chefs. I don’t even need to move. All I have to do is stay awake and hungry.

I score a seat at eight of them — four on Saturday from 1 a.m. to 5 p.m. and four more in the same time slot on Sunday, with a few hours on Saturday night to run home, take a shower and lament the dark circles beneath my eyes. Along with my camera gear and notebooks, I bring a Dopp kit and extra pressed shirts. On site, I take frequent catnaps in a back office set up for event staff and journalists, a space that rapidly takes on a locker room smell.

... read the rest here in The Daily.

Food and travel writer and photographer Joe Ray is the 2009 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year and author of the blog Eating The Motherland. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter: @joe_diner.

 

GHOST RESTAURANT

By Joe Ray
NYC

The boss is in town, looking to dine and wants to know where we should go. I almost panic. Where do you take the most-feared food critic in France? I call friends and comb over the list of places I’ve been until I remember the place I really want to try: M. Wells in Queens.

Something of a media darling, M. Wells is/was also a gastronomic UFO housed in a diner: they do what they wanted to, which is pretty admirable in my book. It received incredible raves and, since I’ve been there, one blazing, bizarre review whose subject matter I’m not touching with a ten-foot pole.

Since then, the restaurant has apparently been forced out of their Long Island City location by their landlord and, at this point, there are only rumors about it resurfacing.

When we arrive, François promises to share some of his Caesar salad with smoked herring but it disappears before I point my fork in his direction. I try ‘Bacalao Magasin’ a veritable bath of olive oil that poaches, heats or finishes carrots, shrimp, beans, peas and salt cod in a great terracotta bowl.

For our ‘Big Dish’ – menu choices here are divided into ‘big’ and ‘small’ – we try the ‘BibiM Wells,’ a seafood riff on the Korean dish, which is something of a bunt that could have been a home run with more thought given to the play of texture that make the original so good.

The night we’re there, I wish we were with a much larger group to try the big dishes, where much of the creativity appears to lie – BBQ short ribs, lamb saddle with za’atar, tahini and pomegranate molasses, chicken wonton pot-au-feu – but get a sense of the bigger game the chefs seem to be after with an escargot and bone marrow pasta dish with shallots and a red wine ‘purée’ – the mollusk cousin to octopus and bone marrow pasta. M. Wells’ snails are served right in the bone, two forms of slippery goodness bathing in the wine sauce, covered with crunchy, garlicky breadcrumbs.

What is (“What was”?) most interesting at M. Wells is the idea factory the place became. Francois and I get talking about it - in Paris, you’d wonder about the chef’s motives, what they want to accomplish and, often, what their next step will be. Here, creation seems to be the whole point – there is no next step.

Brouhaha aside (please) it’ll be interesting to see what happens next.

Food and travel writer and photographer Joe Ray is the 2009 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year and author of the blog Eating The Motherland. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter: @joe_diner. 

 

INSERT GONG HERE

By Joe Ray
MANHATTAN

On a recent trip to Richmond, B.C., the value of a good guide was reaffirmed when exploring Chinatown. (Anywhere, for that matter.) With thousands of options, how do you figure out where to go, let alone the two specialties on 100-item menu?

Craig Nelson figured out Manhattan’s Chinatown on his own. Not For Tourists guide editor by day, Nelson spent years worth of lunches trying every place he could walk to near their offices. Then he made his own app – Chinatown Chow Down. (Insert gong sound here).

We started with pork buns at Mei Li Wah Bakery – brown (baked) or white (steamed) – is about all you need to say at the counter. We scarfed them in the street - they’re packed with sweet, meaty flavor. Total cost for both? $1.60! Cheaper than a Snickers bar!!! Ha!

We had sit-down handmade noodles around the corner, fritters and a mustard green sandwich from a street-food vendor which we ate in the park under the West Side Highway. We capped the tour with my favorite – fresh sour plum juice at Yuen Yuen. It’s sweet, sour, funky and smoky. How did they make it smoky? No matter – just keep it coming. How much? $1.25! Fresh juice for less than a Coke! Where’s that gong?!?!

 

Chocolate - Distilled To A Science in Red Hook

By Joe Ray
Red Hook, BROOKLYN




The mysterious voicemail from a well-informed friend arrived at the last minute. “Dude, we’re meeting in Red Hook in an hour and going to this bar that’s never open to taste homemade chocolate and drink homemade hootch. Wanna come?”

I arched an eyebrow, checked on clearing my schedule and called back.

“The guy designed one of those James Bond-style jet packs. That’s all I know. This is New York — are you coming or not?”

How do you say no?

... read the rest here in The Daily.

NYC'S SWAN SONG OF THE ALABAMA SLAMMER

NYC
By Joe Ray

A bit out of sequence, but, this stuff isn't getting any younger. Above, a shot from the scene at the 'pop-up' Fatty Johnson's in the Village last night - barman/journalist/pal Toby Cecchini announced "sundry a selection of reviled cocktails from the 70s through the 90s" signing off on the invite saying "Join us if you dare, and feel free to bring anyone you don't particularly like."

Jello shot and a Blue Hawaiian, anyone?

Fatty Johnson's - MAP
50 Carmine Street
New York, NY 10014
+1.212.929.5050
www.fattyjohnsons.com

BERRA PIZZA LOGIC

By Joe Ray

BOSTON

It might be my inner Red Sox fan talking, but the best pizza we found in New York was in Boston.

This is completely unscientific but while in the city, I had to make a choice between burgers or pies and went with the former. Pizza stops were a bonus. Spills and all, Spunto was grand and Lombardi’s had fantastic toppings, but their crust must be an acquired taste.

Seeking a slice in Boston’s North End a few weeks later, we asked a Sox-capped local in front of a packed back street bar where to get a slice. The ‘slice’ part of the request gave him some trouble as he flipped through his mental Rolodex.

“Ah! Il Panino Express.”

Sold.

We ordered at the cafeteria-style counter, sat, bit and stared at each other in amazement.

She said: “This is better than New York.”

He said: “Yeah.”

Crisp crust, sweet sauce, a good dose of good cheese.

We’ll get ‘em next year.

Il Panino Express - MAP
264-266 Hanover St.
Boston
+1 (617) 720-5720

Food and travel writer and photographer Joe Ray is the author of the blog Eating The Motherland and contributes to The Boston Globe's travel blog, Globe-trotting.

 

MONKS AT THE TABLE

MANHATTAN

By Joe Ray

There’s a lot to notice when we arrive at WD-50. The most outstanding is a booth of guys who look like they could be fraternity brothers, yet they’re silent as monks, paying close attention to what they’re eating; the antennae are up, they love the challenge.

You have to be up for the ride. Chef Wylie Dufresne bristles at the thought of preparing anything leaning toward making standard bistro fare for his customers. He’s just not interested.

What would he rather do? Stuff like floating plump scallops and pine needle udon in a bowl of grapefruit dashi. He deconstructs eggs benedict. He chars avocado. (?!?!) Even if his family is in the business you have to wonder how he thinks of this stuff, but when you put bites in your mouth, the combinations and preparations will stand hairs on end and leave you wondering how no one thought of it before.

Daniel Boulud’s kitchen at Daniel has a beautiful wall of spices sourced from around the world while Dufrene’s wall has pectins, starches and syrups. Yet the adjectives Dufresne cuisine inspires are words like ‘clean’ and ‘clear’ – you leave feeling like you’ve eaten a healthy Japanese dinner. His parsnip tart somehow makes me rethink my understanding of the vegetable. Parsnips!

Some argue the validity of this type of experimental cuisine - they should eat here to join the converted.

Finally, all hail Dufresne for having the confidence to keep and highlight the work of pastry chef Alex Stupak. Instead of a clash of egos (that would usually lead to the latter getting dumped), you just sit there and say ‘wow’ all meal long.

Count on about $65 plus drinks if you go à la carte. The tasting menu runs $140 plus $75 for wine pairing.

WD-50 – MAP
50 Clinton Street
New York
+1-212-477-2900
www.wd-50.com

Full disclosure: I ate at the restaurant while working on an upcoming story about Dufresne and his collaboration with chef Daniel Boulud. That said, Dufresne didn’t realize we were in the restaurant for dinner until dessert was over and the check was paid.

Food and travel writer and photographer Joe Ray is the author of the blog Eating The Motherland and contributes to The Boston Globe's travel blog, Globe-trotting.

FORK SLAPPING GOODNESS

MANHATTAN

By Joe Ray

I lied. I said there was ‘one’ NYC restaurant I’d really like to go back to eat in and, well, like I said…

Even at brunch a short while back, you could tell the new Le Pescadeux is a spot to watch: there’s a perfect smoked trout omelette and a steak and eggs that might stop your heart for multiple reasons at prices that won’t. And that’s not even counting Champagne and chats with Chuck.

Dinner’s what I’d really like to try, preferably with a partner for footsie. The restaurant’s fish-focused Quebec cuisine (harking back to owner Charles Perelmutter’s origins) is on display – and he’s breaking his new chef’s back to please by offering dinner ‘duets’ - a pair of half-sized portions – a great way to showcase what you can do and get a good new restaurant’s good name out there. Perelmutter chalks it up to “culinary A.D.D.”

I checked in with Perelmutter to find out about a chef change – the impressive Matthew Ridgway left and has been replaced by Adriano Ricco (clever poaching on Chuck’s part as Ricco’s done stints at BLT Fish and Tabla) – here’s what Chuck had to say about the ‘duet’ concept.

Even if I am in a great Seafood restaurant I get bored with my fish halfway through, and look to see what I can 'mooch' from others, usually with no success (people don't share anymore). I decided I would not be bored again and now I, and my guests, can enjoy 2 different half orders of fish prepared 2 different ways without getting their reaching fork slapped away.

Note the capitalization of Seafood.

Right now, I’d take the grilled octopus and Wild Rock bass with a little neck nage … kick the tires on a fun concept and see what the new chef can do.

Le Pescadeux - MAP
90 Thompson St
New York
212-966-0021
lepesca@yahoo.com

Food and travel writer and photographer Joe Ray is the author of the blog Eating The Motherland and contributes to The Boston Globe's travel blog, Globe-trotting.

EYE FOOD

BROOKLYN

By Joe Ray

They could serve Spam in the can here and I’d still come back. With a view this good, it really doesn’t matter what you eat. At Alma, it’s all about the view of southern Manhattan from the roof.

I joined friends of mine here - they were nibbling away on sturdy Mexican food - and accidentally figured out a peculiar system that allows you to bypass the restaurant’s Mexican-themed drink offerings, get a tasty microbrew at the b61 bar downstairs (try the Sixpoint Ale), then walk it topside and enjoy it with your guacamole and fish tacos.

“It’s almost winter!” you cry?

No worries - the roof deck is still open on the weekend and imagine it to be just as blissful watching an autumn sunset or when the snow flies.

Alma - MAP
187 Columbia Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231
+1.718.643.5400

www.almarestaurant.com

Food and travel writer and photographer Joe Ray is the author of the blog Eating The Motherland and contributes to The Boston Globe's travel blog, Globe-trotting.

EGGING FOR MORE

RED HOOK, BROOKLYN

By Joe Ray

Now that I’m back home and typing up a bushel of NYC blogs, the one place I really want to go back to is Brooklyn’s Fort Defiance. Not only are the drinks top notch, chef Sam Filloramo wowed me while, thanks to some sort of new restaurant timing/shipping glitches, he was still working from a half-empty* kitchen.

His deviled eggs were so good, I went home and told my mom about them and if that wasn’t enough to get me to want to go back, the ever-changing menu they now post on their Web site does: rabbit and chorizo hash, oysters Rockefeller, pan-fried catfish … my word. Apparently, they even do breakfast and all I can do is imagine the possibilities.

I’m interested to see how the combination of a serious drinks bar combined with chef who’s making his mark pans out. It can only be good.

Fort Defiance - MAP

365 Van Brunt St

Brooklyn, NY

+1 347-453-6672

www.fortdefiancebrooklyn.com

*Apparently, in mid-September, after the equipment arrived, a health inspector stopped in to check the kitchen and found gas equipment without gas service - like a car with an empty gas tank - and decided the restaurant would be better off closed for the week until they got the pipes hooked up… go figure.

Click here to see my Boston Globe Travel story, “Small Wonders” - featuring an interview with Fort Defiance owner and drinks expert St. John Frizell.

Food and travel writer and photographer Joe Ray is the author of the blog Eating The Motherland and contributes to The Boston Globe's travel blog, Globe-trotting.

Last Hours in New York

By François Simon

NEW YORK CITY

The party's almost over, it's time for me to leave New York. A visit to the Lowell Hotel (Member of the Leading Small Hotels of the World; 28 East 63rd St.; (212) 838-1400; www.lowellhotel.com), conveniently located just off Central Park, tucked away in a tree-lined enclave - is profoundly comfortable with a fireplace in certain rooms. There’s also a visit to Zabar's (2245 Broadway, between 80th and 81^st St.; www.zabars.com): an Aladdin's cave of cookware - highly recommended by our friend Gould. Thank you! Feeling petered out, hot and somewhat homesick … 

BLINK AND YOU’LL MISS IT.

The Food Leprechaun strikes again.

We found SoHo’s 10-seat Snack by walking in front of it - all three paces of the facade’s width. The name is odd for a sit-down Greek restaurant, but it’s a perfect lunch spot: the hummus is deep-flavored, brightened by lemon and there’s a fish roe spread that’s pure sea-salty goodness.

Two doors down, there’s an even tinier establishment – Porto Rico Importing – a four-seat coffee shop with three beautiful ladies holding court on a bench out front. We sit with them, sip an espresso and watch the world go by.

Snack - MAP
105 Thompson St, NYC
+1 (212) 925-1040

Porto Rico Importing
107 Thompson St. NYC

NYC: At The Four Seasons Restaurant, Taste the Sweet Thrill of Power

By François Simon

NEW YORK CITY

Here, you are at the foot of the Seagram Building (99 East 52nd St. and Park Ave.; (212) 754-9494), a prime example of the influence the Bauhaus had in New York. Here, you'll see only extremely serious looking gentlemen, the egghead type, admirably boring (very few women); they're probably congressmen, mayors… These are the characters who fall victim in our fantasy scenarios to corruption, violent death and perverse girlfriends They're gathered around very classical dishes like this wild salmon; the fish, at least, is quite honorable.

I was delighted by this episode because it carried with it a sort of irresistible atmosphere - the feeling of power or something like that - and I enjoy approaching it and feeling its sweet thrill. The setting is magnificent, though the grill is much nicer with the bar. The restaurant - on the other side - is more academic

Map  Web

New York: Lunch at the MoMA

By François Simon

NEW YORK CITY

This Sunday morning had a funny little taste to it. I found myself roaming the streets for hours. The rain stopped and out came the sun with its sticky thickness. I took shelter in the Museum of Modern Art, jumping from one room to the next to avoid groups and caterpillar-like queues before dropping into the museum restaurant.

At first, I regretted not having gone to the dining room that offers a view of the gardens. That's where you'll find the gastronomic restaurant ($ 55 for lunch; (212) 333-1220). I actually sat at the bar. Much better as it turned out with its fashionable small-plate snacks like this vegetable-lobster verrine. It was perfect.

I left feeling revived, all the more so because I'd found my lost copy Tom Wolfe 's "From Our House to Bauhaus." Then, I stopped by Tiffany's and came across a very funny elevator attendant. A man distractedly walked in and pushed the number for his floor – the 3rd floor. Expression of surprise on the capped employee's face: "Why don't you go ahead and push all the buttons… Want my cap, while you're at it?" The daydreamer looked stunned, the elevator car audience was delighted.

Map www.themodernnyc.com

THE NEW YORK CITY BURGER ATTACK – PART II

 

By Joe Ray

Our gang watched late-summer jazz in Madison Square Park, but eyes rolled when we saw the line at the Shake Shack. It snaked hundreds of feet from the order window out through the park gates.

“What about the secret burger place?” said Maria.

We all stared and she smiled and dragged her toe in the dirt like she might not share her secret. It was rather sexy.

We got her to spill the beans and six of us bolted uptown by bike and subway to the … Parker Meridien. A burger joint in one of the city’s fanciest hotels? Hard to figure.

The lobby was everything you’d expect: high ceilings, artwork and fancy bars and restaurants … but it smelled like burgers.

Sure enough. A David Lynch-esque floor-to-ceiling curtain juts out into the lobby concealing the secret space. Approach and you’ll notice a skinny corridor with a neon-sign hamburger and a right-pointing arrow at the end.

Inside, it’s night and day; the space looks like a cross between Arnold’s Drive-In from “Happy Days” and my fraternity house basement. The burgers are great -you get to choose the cooking temperature and usually, you can elbow your way to a just-opened table right when they call your order number.

A good burger joint in one of the city’s fanciest hotels. Go figure.

Count on around $15-20.            

Burger Joint – MAP
119 W 56th St
New York, NY
+1 212-708-7414

Food and travel writer and photographer Joe Ray is author of the blog Eating The Motherland and contributes to The Boston Globe's travel blog, Globe-Trotting.

New York: Clean-Cut Corton

By François Simon

NEW YORK CITY

The most sought-after table in New York is called Corton and you immediately know why: a refined cuisine that delivers smart clarity free of any aggressiveness: vegetable salad, variations on lobster and a deconstructed Vacherin enhanced by litchi, honey and earl grey… The customers are reserved (a nice change from the vociferating hordes) and the wait staff anxiously watches over the tables. There's no denying that they're doing their utmost…

Corton: 239 West Broadway;  (212) 219-2777.  www.cortonnyc.com Map

New York: A hidden address where one night Madonna…

By François Simon

NEW YORK CITY

After dining at Locanda Verde, I went for a long walk through the city. New York City gives you the urge to walk for hours. Sometimes I stop only after three hours, feeling satiated. I didn't want to go back to the hotel, I was expecting more from the city. So I went for a late dinner. Prosper and Martine Assouline had mentioned a place not in the guidebooks: Monkey Bar (60 East, 54th St.; (212) 308-2950). I strolled in and was lucky enough to get a table. I liked the restaurant, not for its gastronomic interest, but for its handsome atmospheres. Frédéric Malle told me that the last time he went there, the dining room - which usually rustles copiously - suddenly went silent. Madonna was walking in. That evening I kept silent, but she never came. I was happy sitting there, with my river salmon and my glass of Italian white. I needed nothing more… except maybe Truman Capote, de George Plimpton, an "oral biography," meaning a succession of personal accounts. Truly good reading. Leaving, I photographed the stairs then headed for bed.

Map

 

KILL SOUP DUMPLING!!!

NEW YORK CITY

By Joe Ray

Years ago, when I cooked at the Left Coast’s Betelnut, a hidden army of wizened Chinese men would come in to roll dumplings in the basement. These quiet, artistic men were lost in their craft, turning dough into flat discs that, with a twist of the fingers, would encase whatever filling they put inside them: crustaceans, meat, vegetables, love.

They would make what seemed like thousands at a time and, unlike the other cooks in the kitchen, once that task was done, so were they.

Lucky bastards.

My first visit to Joe’s Shanghai was part of a get-to-know-you weekend with a former sweetie’s parents a decade ago. Then as now, there’s a reason the grease-splattered walls are festooned with pictures of mayors and glitterati with their arms swung around the owners: Joe’s dumplings are the bomb.

Instead of searing something (like a steak) and hoping all the tasty juices stay inside, here, the pork and crab goodness is held neatly inside the dumpling.

Skewer one with a chopstick and sip the juice that fills the spoon, or take a bite and blush as it runs down your chin.

Shudder with happiness as you swallow. 

Joe’s Shanghai - count on about $10-15

http://www.joeshanghairestaurants.com/ - while on their site, do not miss the “Kill Soup Dumpling” video.

Three Locations – I went to Chinatown - MAP

9 Pell Street
New York, New York 10013
+1-212-233-8888

Food and travel writer and photographer Joe Ray is the author of the blog Eating The Motherland and contributes to The Boston Globe's travel blog, Globe-trotting.