Paris Journal 2010 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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After I wrote about our dinner at Le Granite, Lennie, from Hawaii, wrote on my Facebook: “We'll try Le Granite, sounds delicious. Our favorite is L'Oiel Cindée in the 15e. The owner, Olivier, is the host, chef and cordial visitor and there are only 6 small tables so reservations are necessary. His specialty is game and his duck breast is superb. Very rustic food, but delicious and his appetizers are amazing. Large portions, though, so not for faint of heart. He gets quite upset as I can never finish my meal (in a joking fashion). He speaks good English and will remember you on the next visit.” I was intrigued. I dug out the phone books but could not find this restaurant. I searched all through the listings for the 15th then I saw it. I wrote back, “Aha! Found it. L'Oie Cendrée, 51 rue Labrouste, 01-45-31-91-91. We'll check it out.” Like Le Granite, L'Oie Cendrée is also in the depths of the 15th, but a different set of depths. I planned a walk for us to go give it a look-see. I didn’t want to just go without looking it over first. We started out with a familiar walk, down to the lovely park called Square Saint-Lambert, through it to the elegant square in front of the 15th’s stately town hall, uphill through the Square Adolphe Chérioux with its Victorian-era bandstand-gazebo, and then down the rue Alleray into a part of the 15th that we do not know so well. Opening onto the rue Alleray are a couple of charming little dead-end lanes with adorable little row houses – one of these is called the Hameau d’Alleray, the other Villa Hersent. Don’t miss them if you find yourself in the area. The rue Vouille (really a continuation of rue Convention) is actually more of a wide avenue than a rue (street). It took us to the rue Labrouste, where we had no trouble finding the tiny restaurant L'Oie Cendrée. I don’t know why, but I was thinking that this would be a place where one must order all three courses. Thankfully, it is not. The menu looks good and traditional. We will make a reservation and try it sometime. The 15th is a very large arrondissement. Perhaps it is the largest, geographically; I know it is the largest population-wise. I was surprised that it took us a full 50 minutes to walk to rue Labrouste, although I acknowledge that we were not walking fast at all. Coming back, we walked up the rue Vouille and rue Convention. Everything is less expensive in this part of the 15th than in the part where we stay, and consequently, the shops along Vouille/Convention are much more of the practical variety, offering goods and services to meet your everyday needs. I appreciate that. And I also appreciate the mature and maturing trees along this shopping avenue. The wide sidewalks are good for walking, and the many Hausmannian buildings give the area grace and elegance, even if it is economically modest, by Parisian standards. Speaking of modest and honest, we had dinner at Le Minzingue, on Place Étienne Pernet at the intersection of rue de l’Abbé Groult and rue des Entrepreneurs. Featuring the cuisine of the Auvergne, this food probably also qualifies for Lennie’s descriptor “rustic.” It opened in 2006, replacing a longtime resto that specialized in bouillabaise. The owner of Le Minzingue is Jean-Louis Piqueronies, a big man who is evidently gourmand. I ordered the cochon de lait, a country dish that I’ve been meaning to try. Tom urged me off of it when I was about to order it at the Bouillon Racine, saying it was full of fat. The cochon de lait at Le Minzingue, however, is stuffed with foie gras, and this I could not resist. I had to try it, adventurous eater that I am. Tom had the onglet, a beef steak. Both of our main courses arrived with brown, sautéed potato slices sprinkled with herbs, and both had a brown sauce for the meat that tasted to me like it was made with veal stock. Tom’s sauce, however, had more pepper – to the point where you could almost say it was spicy! Au poivre. I’ve seen cochon de lait before, even if I haven’t eaten it, and I must say I was shocked when the dish arrived at the table because of the huge size of the portions! I had been considering ordering the fondant au chocolat for dessert, but as soon as I saw my main course, that idea evaporated into thin, aromatic air. We were seated next to a young, English-speaking couple who ordered everything in English without attempting any French. This seemed to be fine with the young server, but I don’t think that Mr. Piqueronies could have handled it. The wine list at Le Minzingue is extensive for a small resto, and the prices are very, very reasonable. Plus, with most wines, you can get either a glass (14 cl), a quarter-size (25 cl), a demi-size (50cl), or a full bottle. I ordered a quarter-size of Côtes du Rhone, which, the server said, they were out of (non plus). So I ordered the Saumur red, and they were out of that, too. Whereupon the server pointed out a couple others to me, including a Saint Pourçain, which I ordered because, as I told him, “je connais le Saint Pourçain.” (Saint Pourçain is the ONLY kind of wine served at Au Bon Saint Pourçain, on the street where we stay in the 6th.) The wine arrived at the table slightly chilled, which I somewhat expected. Of course, I was not able to finish my cochon de lait, so I spread it around on the plate – a trick I learned from Hillary Clinton’s descriptions of what she’s had to do when served strange food in foreign countries. This way, it looked like I ate more than I did. (Try that with Olivier, Lennie.) I really did like the cochon de lait – it was just so very rich and there was too much of it. It really consisted of a pork roast that had been opened up and scooped out. The well-marbled pork was ground and mixed with the foie gras. Then the roast was stuffed with the mixture, rolled and tied up in a string, and roasted some more. What I was served was merely a slice of a much larger roast. After a pleasant, brief chat with the English-speaking couple, who are from Australia but living for a time in Rotterdam while one of them works at the Hague, we paid up and bade farewall to our server and Mr. Piqueronies. We went home via the calming rue du Commerce, and enjoyed the dying light over the lovely view from the apartment. Sign
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Sunday, July 18, 2010
Flowering
bush in the Square Saint-Lambert.
Looks like a honeysuckle to me, but I am sure that Cynthia will let me
know what it really is. I’m counting
on you, Cynthia . . . .
Some
of the décor at Le Minzingue,
The
top two blackboards in this photo taken at Le Minzingue say, “A day without
wine is a day without sun,” and “If the wine embarrasses you on the job, then
get rid of the job!”
My
cochon de lait, which was larger than it looks here.
“Here,
it is me who’s boss!”
An
old “village-y looking” building on the avenue Félix Faure in the 15th. It was probably part of the village of
Vaugirard, which later became the lower part of the 15th. |
