simon says french food blog

LEAVE THE WINE. TAKE THE CANNOLI

Paris,

By Joe Ray

A quick pause from Belgian beer to say that when it comes to finding the best Italian in the 11th arrondissement, you win, François.

Last night, taking the advice of locals and friends, a sommelier friend and I went to Casa Vigata for Sicilian on rue Léon Frot for a hit and miss extravaganza.

The hits: The Seafood – a clam and artichoke appetizer full of flavor and sauce made for bread dipping, whole-roasted octopus served with just a slice of lemon and a perfectly-cooked breaded swordfish main. Paris can be disastrous when you’re looking for good fish and these guys nail it.

The Cannoli – Leave the gun. The friendly owner makes these daily using a crispy shell, light, tangy ricotta and just a touch of candied orange peel. If there’s better in Paris I haven’t found it.

The misses:

Consistency: Our neighbors ordered two of the same dishes as we did; their octopus was cooked better (mine was slightly over) and their swordfish/caponata portions were significantly larger. They also got a shot of lemoncello with their check. The last is certainly at the owner’s discretion, but all three together leave a bitter taste.

The worst:

The wine – overpriced and/or not that good. A red Sicilian table wine for 40 euros? I love a good Nero d’Avola, but please. It took us 10 minutes looking at the wine list to essentially decide how we were going to be fleeced and we still lost. My friend was talking about…something when I got distracted by a sip of the white we ordered…

Me: “This is bad.”

Sommelier friend: “Very bad.”

The verdict? I’ll try again in a year. Maybe.

Casa Vigata : 44 rue Léon Frot 75011 Paris +33.1.43.56.38.66 Map 

Brussels, Stoemp & Suds

Brussels,

By Joe Ray

   

My Brussels beer luck holds true at Café La Brocante, found by asking two friendly-looking locals (with all the groceries they were carrying, they couldn’t have been going far) where to go. The café/bar/restaurant is on the square that hosts Brussels’ sprawling and kitschy flea market and all the signs were good – better said, the sign on the front door announces a beer list that included 3 Fonteinen, Oud Beersel and Cantillon – whose brewers I’ve been interviewing in the last few days.

Inside, old regulars play backgammon, there’s a stag’s head on the wall with a pipe in its mouth and a sign that says ‘Please don’t feed the dog’ in three languages. There’s a local dish called stoemp made with mashed potatoes and theirs comes topped with slices of homemade meatloaf; my father would be in heaven.

The barman, Sebastien, coaches us through a couple of beer selections and his knowledge extends not only to what’s on the menu, but what’s not, including a rare kriek lambic (in short, a barrel-aged beer flavored with sour cherries) from 3 Fonteinen.

We order two drinks and when they arrive, he’s got a bit of a doubt so he opens the first, gets both of our opinions on it and, assured, opens the other.

“I love this place and I’ve got plans,” he says, alluding to an idea of taking over the bar when the owners retire. Perfect.

Café La Brocante Blaesstraat 170 Brussels +32 (0) 2 512 13 43 Map

Brussels – God bless a good lead

Brussels,

By Joe Ray

I dropped Copenhagen brewer Anders Kissmeyer a note saying I was en route to Brussels and wanted to know where to go for good beer.

Within a day, Kissmeyer and his two brewers, Shaun Hill and Kasper Larsen, had a list of brewers, beer halls and lambic blenders to contact. 

Shaun recommended the Poechenellekelder bar, a stone’s throw (a short squirt?) from the city’s bizarre Mannekin Pis statue. This close to the touristic center of most cities, it’s generally good to keep your guard up. Instead we were more than impressed by both the selection and the product knowledge.

The list of choices is extensive – even for a beer enthusiast it can be baffling – yet a lot of selection doesn’t mean much without good guidance – "at that point they’re just a stockist" someone said later. Here, however, our waiter - a philosophy student who could easily pass for a sommelier - guided by asking just a couple of questions about what we know and what we like and, without presenting options, simply said, “I’ll be right back.”

He came back with two different beers – one exactly what I asked for, and the other, St. Bernardus wheat beer that – with gentle berry smells and crisp flavors, I’d rank among the top ten beers of my life. I told the waiter so and, with a bit of clever salesmanship, said, "Ah, that’s nothing – if you like that, come back tomorrow and I’ll give you something that’ll knock your socks off." I’m on my way.

Poechenellekelder – Rue du Chêne, 5 Brussels 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

BAD BEER

Paris

By Joe Ray

There are times that I can just wince at a high price others where I just balk.
The other day, I balked.

I met a friend to catch up over a beer in the center of Paris at the bar, Le Montorgueil on the street of the same name. The bar has a great location on a trendy street but a is a dive, complete with a circular Plexiglas aquarium-like thing with swirling glitter on the bar.

We caught up, decided to move on and I went to the bar to pay for a pint and a demi (25 cl draft) of the cheap stuff. “Thirteen twenty,” said the barman, the euro equivalent of more than seventeen bucks. I stared blankly. My eyes started to do that top-left, top-right, while-I do-the-math thing, but with nothing adding up, they went blank again.

 "Thirteen twenty," repeated the barman. Saying nothing, I went over to verify on the little board with the drink prices. Sure enough. My friend had come over by this point to see what was taking so long.
 

"Thirteen twenty," I told him. He turned directly to the barman and without hesitating said, “I’m sorry, sir, but that’s absurd.” I agree. I get the part about paying for the trendy location.
I realize the prices are posted for everyone to see, but give me a break. I’d later bump into a Parisian friend who had the same experience, noting their drinks cost what I’d roughly translate as "the skin off of our rear ends".

" Thirteen euros" is over 17 bucks and there are places where I’ll just wince at a price like that – the big, beautiful and similarly priced Café Beaubourg, right down the street, for example.
Here, however, it’s absurd.

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

Pork Products

By Joe Ray

I’ve always had an aversion to taking antibiotics unless someone could really convince me they were worth it.

A few ex-girlfriends might say otherwise, but it’s a good thing I’m not a pig in the United States.

Nicholas Kristof wrote a recent zinger about big agriculture’s use of antibiotics in animal feed that can lead to an antibiotic-resistant staph infection called MRSA, which, as he notes, “kills more than 18,000 Americans annually, more than AIDS does.”

In an article full of jaw-droppers, he also cites a 2008 article in Medical Clinics of North America that said “more antibiotics were fed to animals in North Carolina alone than were administered to the nation’s entire human population.”

Go get ‘em Tar Heels!

On March 17, New York State congresswoman and microbiologist Louise Slaughter reintroduced legislation to curb the use of antibiotics in agriculture. First read the article, then give your congressperson a call.

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

 

Krug Champagne tasting

Barcelona

By Joe Ray

I wheedled my way into a Krug Champagne tasting in Barcelona the other day – my birthday no less! - getting a chance to sip on some pretty fancy stuff. I can’t say buying a bottle of their bubbly is the first thing I’d do with a few extra c-notes, but I liked LVMH (Krug’s parent company) enologist Xavier Montclús’ back-to-basics, grapes-to-glass approach to the tasting, even in a room full of food-industry pros that included sommeliers and Michelin-starred chefs.

A few highlights:

THE GRAPES: Montclús’ metaphors to understand part of each grape’s role in Champagne…

Pinot Noir – “The backbone and the muscles that hold up the wine” – anti-flab, if you will.

Pinot Meunier – “The bones which give fruit flavors like pear, peach and quince…remember that the best taste in meat is closest to the bone.”

Chardonnay – “The skin.” The skin? Eww. “Like on a peach. It contributes smell (honey, for one) and golden color.” Mmm.

PRESENTATION:

- The Cork - “Loosen the cage that holds the cork, but keep it on top of the bottle, with your hand on it at all times,” he says, reminding me of a moment when I was a waiter on a San Francisco Bay dinner cruise (dressed like Gopher from “The Love Boat,” no less) and put a quarter-inch dent in a ceiling tile with a cork before beaning a woman on the top of her head. Hoo, dear, I couldn’t stop laughing. “Hold the cage & cork in one hand and turn the bottle with the other.”

- The Bucket – “Fill it three-quarters of the way with ice, then halfway up with water.” A bottle that hasn’t been cooled should be kept on ice ½ hour, but not more. “Minimum temperature should be five degrees Celsius (41 F) – lower than that just brings out the defects.”

- The Pour – “Never serve more than half a flute.” Bottoms up!

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

A food / health blog

By Joe Ray

Good news came with this morning’s coffee – while the policies that govern the food produced in the United States are still being spelled out by the Obama administration, the first family is leading by example when it comes to eating well. (Click here or here).

Michelle Obama has been stumping to get America to pay attention to what they’re eating by opening up the White House kitchen, applauding healthy, unprocessed cuisine and promoting locally-grown food.

Want a stomach-turning reason why? Watch the little graphic on the Centers for Disease Control’s ‘Overweight and Obesity’ trend page.

There’s a weird stir going on in the U.S. about whether or not first lady Michelle Obama’s well-toned arms should be on display, but I say more power to her. Gripe about the spare tires that way too many Americans have and applaud the example of someone who eats well and takes care of themselves.

Get involved in U.S. agricultural policy here: fooddemocracynow.org/

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.

 

FAIR VINS AND FOLLOWING SEAS

Paris,

By Joe Ray

Even in Barcelona, word got to me that after decades of running one of my favorite spots for a Paris apéro, Elyette Planchon has hung up her high heels and sold Au Reve, her 18th arrondissement landmark bar, and retired.

For the returning traveler, Elyette and Au Reve were the perfect way to feel back at home in the City of Light. Not for lack of trying, but one of my biggest food regrets in Paris is never having had one of her semi-secret Wednesday lunches.

Sniff!

Instead of crying in my beer, let's raise a glass of wine to Elyette, wish her well, and do as it said on her apron – le geste qui sauve les vignerons* – take a sip. * “The gesture that saves winemakers”

Click here to see my Boston Globe Travel article, “Paris dreams of things to come – after an apéro” which features Elyette and Au Reve

SEX FOOD

Girona,

By Joe Ray

I can get caught up in the primordial pleasures of food – a caveman's instinct that can obscure technique, artistry and emotion. A freelancer's budget will also curb the reflex of heading to a fancy restaurant in a hurry, but Mauro Uliassi who runs his two-star restaurant Uliassi in Senigallia, Italy and is the consulting chef for the brand-new Domani in Hong Kong, helped glue the pieces together the other day at the Forum Girona food show.

I originally met Uliassi in Paris where he was showing off a dish called cuttlefish carbonara - shaved ribbons of al dente cuttlefish, cooked sous vide, topped with oven-crisped pancetta and Cryovacked egg yolk – a well thought-out and perfectly executed dish that made a clever wink at the classics.

To bridge the gap between food as fuel and food as inspiration, however, the Italian chef talks about sex.

“There's a huge parallel between food and sex. If you don't eat, you die. If you don't make love, there aren't more people,” he says, with a blunt and curious blend of math and biology, “but when you get past that, eroticism and food are pleasure.”

“If we're just hungry, I take a pig, cut it in half, stick it on a fire and eat it with my hands,” he continues, appealing to the primal needs while augmenting with a bit of spectacle, “but evolved cultures eat for pleasure.

When you eat, you must 'ooh!' and 'ahh!' - it's very important. Musicians have guitars, painters have canvases. Food is a way for me to show enthusiasm for life.”

Ristorante Uliassi - www.uliassi.it
Ristorante Domani - www.domani.hk 

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.

GO ASK ALÍCIA

 Barcelona,

By Joe Ray

I got a whirlwind tour of the Alícia food research center today at Món St. Benet, about an hour outside of Barcelona.

The center, whose name is a mix of the Catalan words alimentació and ciència (food and science) is chef Ferran Adrià's dream child, focusing on gastronomic research, improving eating habits, including pushing for better school and hospital lunches. It’s sort of like an Alice Waters dream project with more test tubes and scientific gear.

It was an unfortunately quick tour, but at first glance, I love the idea that kids come here to learn good eating habits. Instead of a field trip to the museum, you go to the lab of food. Pay attention America.

Another favorite is a quote from Alícia coordinator Pepe Zapata – “We don’t deal with processed food here. You can put vitamins in milk, but why not get them from the products they originally come from?”

Alícia / www.alicia.cat

workshops and guided tours

P.S. - Speaking of Alice and school lunches, Mrs. Waters and collaborator Katrina Heron had a February 19 op-ed piece in the New York Times – “No Lunch Left Behind” – detailing what is needed to help make school lunches better – a worthy read.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/opinion/20waters.html?ref=opinion

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.

CARLO CRACCO – PLAYING WITH EGGS

By Joe Ray 

Carlo Cracco is onstage at Girona's Forum Gastronomic (www.forumgirona.com) holding a deep orangish-red egg yolk in his plastic-gloved hand. He squeezes it, pokes it, talks about it and instead of turning into a gooey mess that drizzles unflatteringly down his arm, it holds firm.

The yolk is part of his 'marinated egg yolk with light Parmesan cream' – a deconstructed egg yolk that is one of the Italian's signature dishes at his eponymous restaurant in Milan. It's a play on textures and preconceptions, a chef having thought-out fun.

Marinated?

Yes. For four or five hours, each yolk in a tin cupcake cup with a mixture of salt, sugar and bean flour that sucks much of the moisture from the yolk, leaving it like putty in his hands.

"Up to now, everyone pushed limits," he tells me later, referring to the long burst of creativity and science that's been coming out of high-end kitchens. "Now, we need to slow down and look at what's worth it and what's not."

I can't help but wonder what the controversial  chef does with all of the extra egg yolks at the end of the day and curiously, he devotes much of the rest of the demonstration to just that.

With most of the liquid pulled from the yolk, he mashes a few of them together creating a thick, bright paste that looks like it's been pimped from his pastry chef. This he spreads between two sheets of oiled wax paper and rolls flat into a translucent pasta that practically glows orange. He runs half the sheet through a pasta machine that turns it into thin noodles which he suggests heating for a minute and serving with a tomato sauce. The other half becomes meat ravioli that look as delicate as a Pierre Herme macaron. This, he serves raw – a mini steak tartare encased in its yolk.

This is worth 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