simon says french food blog

A BROTHER FROM ANOTHER MOTHER

ISPICA, Sicily

By Joe Ray

To prepare for the cookout, Dad sits with the English-Italian dictionary to figure out the first thing he’d like to say upon meeting our gregarious host, Guido: ‘Your are my brother from another mother.’

Guido, my pal Francesco’s uncle, was born with the gift of making whoever he’s with feel like they’re two peas in a pod and this day was no different. He lent me his daughter’s scooter the first time I lived here and though I only have what the French would call notions of Italian, language never seems to be a barrier when talking with him.

My parents came to Sicily on vacation to learn about the Motherland and our family history here – Dad’s maternal grandparents emigrated from the tiny town of Altavilla Milicia in the early 1900s – and being together in the place where our ancestors were from is a potent emotional experience connecting us with the past and each other.

Guido’s wife Pina and Francesco’s mother make a feast that includes roasted peppers, sautéed mushrooms and grilled meat a go-go and I’ve smuggled an entire jamón Ibérico – black hoof and all – through customs as a gift from our family to theirs.

Today, however, food (very tasty food at that) was simply a way to bring us together and I’d trade every amazing Sicilian restaurant meal for this one feast.

Being made to feel like family can be as important as finding the real one.

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.

ACED

By Joe Ray

Portland, OR

“What’s that cool hotel you were telling me about in Portland?” I asked a buddy.

He couldn’t remember. Or I was asking the wrong buddy.

I typed ‘portland oregon hip hotel’ into Google and there it was – the Ace Hotel.

My reasons for loving it? Along with the high, ceilings and a clean modern-meets-old-school-cool design, there’s a Stumptown Coffee connected to the lobby. There’s also a snack tray in every room with the beautifully-labeled Lurisia fizzy water and next to it, Dutch stroopwaffels – my favorite cookie to have with coffee. I love the idea that, instead of throwing some Lay’s and Kit Kat bars in there, somebody put the effort into sourcing some really good stuff.

Downside? The secret’s out. Canadian families in North Face Jackets are mixing with the dressed-in-black (and talking loudly about their lives as composers and art directors) crowd. Sitting at the big lobby table the morning I’m there is a bossy chump who looks like an extra from “The Matrix” and his doomed, sweet-as-gold girlfriend.

There’s also a grumpy kid who kicked a chair at me when I asked if anyone was sitting there.

“It’s a free country,” he added.

Until the coffee kicked in, I had fantasies of whapping them all with a rolled-up newspaper.

Ace Hotel Portland MAP
1022 SW Stark St
Portland, OR 97205
P: 503-228-2277
F: 503-228-2297
www.acehotel.com/portland

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.

MOM, THE FOX AND THE JEW'S HARP

CASTELBUONO, SICILY

PRELUDE

Driving through Sicily, Mom asks if there are many foxes roaming the island – a question completely out of left field, and as likely a subject as if she had a sudden interest in stock quotes.

FOOD

Dinner at Nangalarruni in Castelbuono is a snapshot of Sicilian cuisine. A starter salad of blood oranges and pearl onions is served with thin slices of tobacco-smoked pork, sprinkled with salt flakes and dappled with olive oil and deeply-flavored musto cotto from 1987. The dish shows a native love for sweet and savory, reverence for history and an inventive playfulness. Much of that can also be seen in the following course - a bread pie served next to a big, comma-shaped swirl of ricotta cream.

It’s at this point in the meal where chef Peppino Carollo, who I’ve blogged and written about, sits down one table away to have dinner with his brother on a quiet Monday night. Staying undercover would have been nearly impossible, not to mention really awkward. Besides, it’s hard to braise a wild boar shank (our next course) in 10 minutes.

Instead, we talk. The brother is in town from Rome to hunt mushrooms with Chef in the hills above town – Nangalarruni may mean ‘jew’s harp’ but the restaurant is a mushroom-lover’s heaven and the walls here are covered with paintings of fungi and pictures of Chef and friends after successful mushroom hunts.

Who’s manning the kitchen while chef is having dinner with his brother?

“He’s young,” Chef says of sous-chef Giandomenico Lammonica, but it’s not hard to understand why he is Carollo’s right-hand man – Lammonica has a mushroom farm above town that he tends to as a hobby.

A several-course tasting meal at Nangalarruni is a bargain at 30 euros and the great wine list has gentle prices, perhaps owing a bit to Chef’s wife running two small wine shops in town.

FULL CIRCLE

Walking back after a late-night stroll through town, a fox appears in front of our door.

…

When in Castelbuono, stay at the Casa Ilaria B&B. It’s hidden, quiet, beautiful, spacious and run by gracious owners. It’s also a steal at 30 euros per person per night.

Nangalarruni MAP
Via delle Confraternite, 5/7
Castelbuono
+39 0921 671428
www.hostarianangalarruni.it

Casa Ilaria
Piazza Tenente Schicchi, 5
Castelbuono
+39 0921 676268
http://www.casailaria.it/

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.

WILD ROSES

Ragusa Ibla, Sicily

By Joe Ray

We took my friend, almond and olive oil producer Francesco Padova, to lunch at Ragusa Ibla’s Il Duomo restaurant – not an easy feat, considering Sicilians’ amazing hosting skills. It was a great way to see what chef Ciccio Sultano’s been up to – more a check on concepts than a critique.

Chef, who I’ve written about previously, came out to say hello and explained a few dishes, but was almost completely knocked out by a cold.

Highlights from the tasting included fusilli lunghi alle rose – long fusilli supporting rockfish fillets, a bed of fennel and a tiny skewer of sautéed fish liver. The fish was firm, the fusilli floppy, the fennel … feral – at least in the ‘wild’ and more alliterate sense of the word. The liver? That just melts on your tongue.

The secret weapon, however, is in the sauce: rose water. Light, like you’re smelling perfume without drinking it, and, as Sultano says, a wink at Sicily’s history, where it showed up as a luxurious ingredient.

Rose water shows up again at dessert, this time in the sorbet accompanying a ‘pistachio couscous’ dessert. The dish is playful in concept – couscous being another wink at Sicilian history – but serious in execution, giving it a divine, cake-like quality.

At 100 euros including wine, the tasting menu is a splurge but still a great value.

Il Duomo MAP
Via Capitano Bocchieri, 31
Ragusa Ibla, Sicily
+39-0932-651265
www.ristoranteduomo.it

Ceci n’est pas une huître

By Mara Grimm

Is it an herb? Is it a drug? Or is it the newest molecular gimmick? When I first tried one of these thick but perfectly smooth leaves at a party last month I wasn’t quite sure what to think because, quite surprisingly, it tasted exactly like an oyster. Happily, I was not the only one thinking this was too good to be true.

Ferran Adrià from El Bulli (***Rosas, Spain) told me that he serves these so called Oyster Leaves with two pearls of vinaigrette on top, and his guests are so surprised by the taste they think Ferran has come up with a new trick once again. The opposite is true.

The Oyster Leaf is all natural. It has its origin in the Hebrides, North-Scotland, but is now grown by Koppert Cress, a Dutch company that specializes in micro-vegetables. At first, owner Rob Baan grew the leaves exclusively for El Bulli, but he’s decided it’s now time for the rest of the world to share in the joy of eating vegetarian oysters.

Serve them as Ferran does, or as I did last night: on crushed ice with bread, butter and a glass of Chablis. Miss the feeling of a real oyster gently sliding down your throat? Then get some real oysters instead and use the leaves thinly sliced in fish dishes or, since it’s the season, on asparagus.
Check out www.koppertcress.nl for more.

Mara Grimm is the editor of Holland's biggest restaurant guide: Lekker. She also writes about new restaurants, shops and culinary trends in Delicious Magazine and has a monthly column on kids and food.

LET MOM EAT CAKE

  

NOTO, SICILY

I’m back in The Motherland.

It’s a work/play trip that includes bringing my parents to the land of our Sicilian ancestors for the first time. My sister and I are English, Irish, French, Italian, Dutch and German mutts, but it’s always been the Sicilian side – via our paternal grandmother – that we identify with most as a family.

I’m playing tour guide so the induction is based on food and Day One includes a visit to pastry chef Corrado Assenza’s appropriately named Caffè Sicilia.

While Assenza’s ideas and creations can be otherworldly, he’s a product-sourcing freak. If he can’t do it perfectly, he won’t do it.

His almond gelato not only tastes like an almond in another state, but even has the slight tannic tang from the almond skin along with a mix of minerals and salt in the skin that makes Sicilian almonds unique.

We also try a “Traversata del Deserto” – a cake that includes mint, black tea, lemon rind, sea salt and “lyophilized” (freeze-dried) algae. It’s the kind of thing that Mom would try but stop after one bite. 

Instead, she makes a funny grunting noise, almost like she’s disappointed.

“I’m sorry for all the cakes that will come after this in my life.”

...

Full disclosure: Assenza, who I’ve interviewed and written about in the past, came out to say hello while we were there, but we paid our bill and you can’t bake a cake or make gelato on the fly.

Caffè Sicilia MAP
Corso Vittorio Emanuele, 125
Noto, Sicily

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.

La Poularde, in down-home France

By François Simon

If you’ve traveled across France, you may have sometimes spent the night in what was formerly a post house.  They’re just about everywhere.  Always in the center of town, right on the main drag, they embody the history of our country, an extraordinary heritage that’s quietly disappearing.
They’re often marvelous places.  Today, these hotels may not have a park, or a heliport, or a spa perfumed with ginseng.  But they’re still there.

Tonight, I’m in Monrond les Bains, near Saint Etienne.  The address is well-known: la Poularde.  The chef is a reference: Gilles Eteocle.  And yet, as the service begins the vast dining room is barely a quarter full. 

I chose the 99 euro prix-fixe menu.  It was truly a privilege.  A remarkable dinner marked by great attentiveness; squab terrine with foie gras, beef, cheeses, and a rather complicated but expertly crafted dessert.

Gastronomy is filled with cynical shooting stars – take the example of Gordon Ramsay at Versailles, skipping town after pocketing his stars and royalties – and that's all the more reason for us to seek out these places which are perhaps a bit outmoded, but which are sensational in their own setting.

It’s high time that you lend your support to these overtly luxurious places, sample their authentic cooking, and hold onto this France that is slipping through our fingers.
Hostellerie la Poularde, in Montrond les Bains 42210.Tel : 04.77.54.40.06.  (Affiliated with the chain Châteaux & hôtels collection)

Hostellerie la Poularde, à Montrond les bains 42210.Tel : 04.77.54.40.06.  Map

Châteaux & hôtels collection

LUNCH BY THE NUMBERS

Paris,

By Joe Ray

Get there before it’s overrun with ministers.

Maybe because it’s brand new and hasn’t been discovered yet. Maybe it’s because it was a vacation week or just a slow day, but four of us had Le 122, smack in the heart of ministry central to ourselves.

Instead of that depressing, feel bad for the owners, ‘why are we whispering?’ feeling, it was perfect. The chef and his wife came over to talk once in a while and the waiter nosed in with an off the cuff crack that had huge crash and burn potential, but instead, he had read us perfectly.

Chef’s pedigree shows in his fish dishes like a toothy and full of flavor smoked sardine and anise-tomato marmelade appetizer and a cod pissaladière – a Provencal pizza cousin, this one doing a wonderful job of respecting the fish.

We share a Coteaux du Vendomois that Chef calls his wine of the month. It’s made by a friend of his and so good and well-priced, I hope everything on the wine list is made by his friends.

Dessert? Strawberries with a tea foam that sits in a glass bowl and looks like a floating flower.

A friend was supposed to leave early, instead, she asked for another spoon.

Le 122 : 122 rue de Grenelle 75007 Paris Map

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.

EastWest, in every sense.

Geneva
 
By Christophe Doré

 

EastWest can be classed among these boutique hotels replicating across the world, none exactly the same, none entirely different, but always sporting little particularities. In the case of EastWest, that means pillow spray and an open-sky patio with a streaming wall of colored water. Another plus: the Pourcel brothers (from Le Jardin des Sens in Montpellier) have put their imprimatur on the restaurant’s menu, from the room service to the breakfast, which was unfortunately inconsistent from one day to the next.
 
As for the rest, you can almost feel discouraged from going outside, because everything is here to keep you indoors: smart but comfortable design in the rooms, a welcoming library where you can read and work in complete tranquility, free high speed WIFI, a hopping bar in the evenings….  A bit Japanese in spirit, Mediterranean in its cuisine, and very Swiss in its discretion, you shouldn’t go out of your way to visit Geneva just for EastWest, but if you’re in town, it’s a nice alternative to the Palaces that overlook the lake.  Should you spend the night here?  Yes.
 
From 270 Chf for a standard room to 970 Chf for a duplex suite.
EastWest : 6, rue des paquis Geneva Tél : + 41 22 708 17 17 - Fax : + 41 22 708 17 18 -  Map [email protected]

Kong, only pour la vue...

By François Simon

Granted, Kong has undeniable appeal with its incredible glass-enclosed dining area overlooking Paris and the banks of the Seine – although you’ve got to be seated along the sides (be very sure to specify when making the reservation).  Otherwise, the welcome was a bit cold, the food was fine but rather ordinary (good purée), middling prices – it all works well enough and you wind up with an acceptable evening.  But nothing more.

Kong : 1, rue du Pont neuf, 75001 Paris (01.40.39.09.00). Comptez 60 euros quand même. Map

Photo F Simon

The most expensive potato in the world

By Mara Grimm

 

After working for seven years as a food editor, hardly any restaurant bill surprises me anymore.

But when I heard somebody paid 500 euros for a kilogram of potatoes I was in complete shock. And in desperate need of a taste. The miniature potato La Bonnotte is number 5 on the list of ‘the most expensive foods in the world’, next to saffron, truffle and caviar. It is cultivated exclusively on the Isle of Noirmoutier, where seaweed is added to the soil in which it’s grown. The result is a potato with a complex flavor that includes hints of lemon, earth and, of course, the sea. To make La Bonnotte even more exotic, it’s available only from May 1st to May 10th, and the local farmers produce not more then 20,000 kilos annually.

This explains the ridiculous pricing (actually the €500 turned out to be a one-time amount; at a local delicacy shop you can expect to pay around €70 per kilo), and why La Bonnotte hardly ever leaves France. So is all this just smart marketing or is this really the most special potato in the world? Dutch chef Jos de Groot of Rotterdam’s newest high-end restaurant VIS was so intrigued by La Bonnotte that he drove all the way to Noirmoutier to get some and then invited me for a four course press lunch. Jos served La Bonnotte as chips with a seaweed mayonnaise as an amuse bouche. Then he roasted them and topped them with vongole, crème fraîche and caviar. He also turned La Bonnotte into a delicate mousseline that paired well with super fresh coquilles, asparagus and lemon mayonnaise.

But my personal favorite was a dish with a fondant of La Bonnotte combined with lobster, sea fennel and the Italian sausage stolghino di culatello: an elegant dish in which both land and sea were in perfect harmony. And that’s exactly what La Bonnotte is all about.

You can try La Bonnotte until May 15^th in French top restaurants and in The Netherlands at De Librije (*** Zwolle), Le Ciel Blue (**Amsterdam),'t Brouwerskolkje (**Overveen), De Bokkedoorns (** Overveen) and Savelberg (* Voorburg).

Mara Grimm is the editor of  Holland's biggest restaurant guide: Lekker. She also writes about new restaurants, shops and culinary trends in Delicious Magazine and has a monthly column on kids and food.

IF YOUR SALIVARY GLANDS HAVEN’T KICKED IN, BLOW YOUR NOSE

By Joe Ray

Call me a traitor, but here I go.

Though it might look like pink champagne, the apéro of the summer is a beer, and not one for the faint of heart.

Cantillon’s “Kriek 100% Lambic” is an eye-popper that will stand your taste buds happily on end.

It’s also a dive into the deep end of Belgian beer vocabulary. In short, lambics are natural fermentation beers that are aged for at least three years in oak barrels. A kriek, is a lambic (or a gueuze) made with sour cherries known as griottes.

While some companies have turned kriek into a sweet and sticky mess, those worth their salt are bracingly sour.
Cantillon’s kriek has just a hint of creamy suds on top and gets its cooked cherry color from the griottes. Poke your nose into the top of a glass and you’ll get a blast the grapefruit smell that is the hallmark of many good lambics, along with a hint of green apples. If your salivary glands haven’t kicked in by now, blow your nose.

Take a sip and you’ll get a kick of that fantastic sour and acidic grapefruit flavor.

If you can find any way to get your stomach and taste buds more ready for a meal, the comment box is one click away…

...

P.S. In Paris, I found my bottle at Pommier inside the Marché Beauvau - the covered market at Marché d’Aligre in the 11th arrondissement.

Cantillon has a handy place to start your quest with a partial list of wholesalers and places to buy your bottle here.

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.

Three star take-out

By Mara Grimm 

A great idea from an even greater chef: Alain Passard of the restaurant L’Arpege (*** Paris) now makes pastry for take-out. We’re not talking about your ordinary tart, but an innovation that has all the potential for becoming a new French classic: tarte aux pommes Bouquet de Roses. This elegant apple tart consists of sliced and blanched strips of apple rolled into the shape of roses and arranged in a thin pastry shell. Each tart is comprised of about 35 flowers, so it actually looks like a real bouquet.  The result is subtle, fresh, light and – thank God – not too sweet. The King of Vegetables himself calls it ‘a tart, a dessert, but also a way to express love’. We just call it the best bouquet of flowers we’ve ever received. How does it work? Just order by phone and pick up your tart 24 hours later. Prices start at €25,-.  www.alain-passard.com

Mara Grimm is the editor of  Holland's biggest restaurant guide: Lekker. She also writes about new restaurants, shops and culinary trends in Delicious Magazine and has a monthly column on kids and food.

10.50 euros at la Vie en Fruits

Paris,

By François Simon

10 euros for lunch : My little promenade continues, this time with a set menu I discovered at La Vie en Fruits (Saint Germain). The lunch set menu at 7.50 euros does the job with a good carrot-apple-ginger juice and this salad with bulgar, carrots and some chicken. A bit filling, to be honest, but it works. I might have gone a little far by taking the dried fruits and nuts (3 euros). In any case, you receive a very warm welcome in this little place. There’s also frozen yogurt with fresh fruit at 3.50 euros and smoothies from 3 euros.

La Vie en Fruits : 116, Boulevard St Germain Tel : 01 46 33 48 18 Map

Photo F Simon

PARADISE IN SKETCHY-VILLE

Brussels

By Joe Ray

The Brussels taxi driver did a double take when I told him the address in the Saint Gilles neighborhood next to the Gare du Midi.

Arriving, I suggested a nighttime drop-off half a block from the B&B to avoid making a loop of one-way streets.

“You sure?” he asked. “Be careful.”

Not exactly what you want to hear when you’re just down the street from the police station.

Go anyway. The Art de la Fugue wipes away the doubts as soon as you walk in the door. Gracious hosts, high ceilings and big, beautiful spaces that cleverly mix modern design and flea market chic immediately make you forget the outside world.

Each room has a theme: Farinelli for the princess, Indochina for a bit of Zen, and Lawrence of Arabia for the travel writer. Don’t worry: all cool, no kitsch.

There are televisions hidden in each room, but it’s doubtful you’ll watch – the atmosphere makes you want to read, write, play the piano or linger over a very tasty breakfast.

The kicker? The price – around 100 euros per room per night.

L'art de la Fugue - MAP
Bed & Breakfast
Rue de Suède 38
1060 Brussels
+32 478 69 59 44
www.lartdelafugue.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.