By Joe Ray
PARIS
A rainy, hungry cold and dark afternoon in Paris called for something warm and reassuring. We almost went for pho in Belleville but my visiting friend suggested soupe à l’oignon (French onion soup) it seemed perfect.
Le Pied de Cochon is a Paris classic dating back to when Les Halles was the mammoth food market I’d give my pinky to have seen, not the current resident: a subterranean shopping mall that both houses and smells like a swimming pool. Restaurant names from the market period were designed with its oft-illiterate workers in mind. If you were looking for the boss who was cutting a deal for broccoli or tossing a couple back, he would be at the Chicken in The Pot, the Bell, The Drum or…the Pig’s Foot.
I was reassured that though the tourists were making up a majority of the customers - particularly as it was only four in the afternoon - there was was also an older, distinguished looking gentleman eating by himself and reading Le Monde dated the following day.
Waiters and waitresses buzzed around, giving the restaurant a wonderful, busy feeling and when the soup arrived, and we breathed in its wonderful smell - a bit reminiscent of Mom’s chicken pot pie - we felt like happy and lucky little kids.
We should have stopped there. The soup tasted like soap.
At least the broth did. I nibbled my way dutifully through the cheese on top, hit the broth, winced, tried again, tried my friend’s broth and then just stopped eating.
I never stop eating.
What’s worse is that this is the traditional food for served in Les Halles, arguably the birthplace of soupe à l’oignon. I tried distracting myself by thinking of the word Francois might use when confronted with something like this, but in the end it was all mine: atrocious.
We split duck confît that arrived cold and limp and when we sent it back for a warm-up, it came back lukewarm and limp.
That was enough. We left.
Count on around 15-30 euros better spent elsewhere.
Au Pied De Cochon - MAP
6 rue Coquillière
75001 Paris
+33 1 40 13 77 00
PARIS
A rainy, hungry cold and dark afternoon in Paris called for something warm and reassuring. We almost went for pho in Belleville but my visiting friend suggested soupe à l’oignon (French onion soup) it seemed perfect.
Le Pied de Cochon is a Paris classic dating back to when Les Halles was the mammoth food market I’d give my pinky to have seen, not the current resident: a subterranean shopping mall that both houses and smells like a swimming pool. Restaurant names from the market period were designed with its oft-illiterate workers in mind. If you were looking for the boss who was cutting a deal for broccoli or tossing a couple back, he would be at the Chicken in The Pot, the Bell, The Drum or…the Pig’s Foot.
I was reassured that though the tourists were making up a majority of the customers - particularly as it was only four in the afternoon - there was was also an older, distinguished looking gentleman eating by himself and reading Le Monde dated the following day.
Waiters and waitresses buzzed around, giving the restaurant a wonderful, busy feeling and when the soup arrived, and we breathed in its wonderful smell - a bit reminiscent of Mom’s chicken pot pie - we felt like happy and lucky little kids.
We should have stopped there. The soup tasted like soap.
At least the broth did. I nibbled my way dutifully through the cheese on top, hit the broth, winced, tried again, tried my friend’s broth and then just stopped eating.
I never stop eating.
What’s worse is that this is the traditional food for served in Les Halles, arguably the birthplace of soupe à l’oignon. I tried distracting myself by thinking of the word Francois might use when confronted with something like this, but in the end it was all mine: atrocious.
We split duck confît that arrived cold and limp and when we sent it back for a warm-up, it came back lukewarm and limp.
That was enough. We left.
Count on around 15-30 euros better spent elsewhere.
Au Pied De Cochon - MAP
6 rue Coquillière
75001 Paris
+33 1 40 13 77 00
www.pieddecochon.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.
I wish it was an off day, but I don't think so.
A while back, I asked Francois for a favorite brasserie suggestion and he chuckled.
Most Parisian brasseries have been bought up by bigger groups (Les Frères Blanc in the case of Le Pied de Cochon) and quality has taken a nosedive.
I was disappointed to see FS recently had a tough time at Wepler, one of the last of the independents, but I had a worthy onion soup there as part of a quest for a good one last winter...
http://francoissimon.typepad.fr/english/2009/01/knuckles-onions-and-a-man-alone.html
Anyone have a favorite place for soupe à l'oignon?
Joe
Posted by: Joe Ray | 23 December 2009 at 06:43 PM
What a shame! French onion soup is my favorite... and that picture looks pretty tasty. Perhaps it was an off day.
Posted by: Arizona bankruptcy lawyer | 23 December 2009 at 06:03 PM