Paris Journal 2015 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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Bacco is the new place in the immediate neighborhood. It replaces Le Cristal de Sel, a restaurant started only a few years ago by a couple of young graduates of the École Superiore de la Cuisine Francaise, also known as the Ferrandi, located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. Bacco offers Italian-French cuisine. It does not purport to be Corsican, as one reviewer claimed. The style is thoroughly modern and creative, although the menu is very short (only four main courses are offered). The web site describes the cuisine as “studied but not pretentious.” The woman who would serve us greeted us at the door when we arrived. She was all smiles, and she interspersed Italian words in her French. Her name is Arianna. Nobody else had arrived yet; she gave us a nice corner table in the front window. The web site tells us that the chef, Olivier, “presents to you a menu focused on the products of these two Latin territories that are dear to his heart.” I ordered the escargots as the starter for us to share. These were not your classic French escargots. They were “tortellini aux escargots de Bourgogne et beurre à l’ail, purée de fève, radis et céleri branche croquants, émulsion de céleri rave. » Translation : tortellini stuffed with Burgundy escargots and garlic buttter, purée of fava beans, radishes, and celery slices, with an emulsion of celery root.
It was a small dish, but rich with flavor. I loved it; Tom liked it. Not familiar with fava beans? The Brits call them broad beans. They’re grown in North Africa, and look a little bit like lima beans, except they’re greener, smoother, and plumper. They’re also packed with protein. For his main course, Tom had the Black Angus steak: Cœur d’onglet de bœuf Black Angus,
crème de morilles, gnocchi de Roseval à la moutarde à l’ancienne et légumes printaniers. It came with a morel mushroom sauce, gnocchi made with Roseval potatoes, with an old-fashioned mustard sauce and spring vegetables.
My main course was complex and fascinating: Thon rouge des mers du sud pané aux graines de sésame torréfiées au wasabi, réduction de miel et de vinaigre de framboise, mille-feuille de caponatina et tuiles de parmesan. Translation : slightly seared red tuna medallions encrusted by wasabi-flavored sesame seeds, layered with crisps made of parmesan and a caponata that was much like ratatouille, accompanied by drizzles of a reduction sauce made from honey and raspberry vinegar.
Of the four desserts offered, we selected the Delisiozo to share:
Biscuit Joconde,
ganache au chocolat,
crème praliné et nappage
au chocolat Valrhona Caraïbes 66%. Crème glacée maison au café et au Baileys. This was a chocolate layered « cake » made from Joconde biscuits, chocolate ganache, praline cream, and a bit of dark Valrhona chocolate, accompanied by a homemade ice cream flavored with coffee and Bailey’s irish cream liqueur. The entire dinner was flawless, colorful, beautiful, and delicious. Tom says it was “artful,” or “edible art.” The prices were high, but we did have a 30 percent Lafourchette.com discount. And frankly, for an experience like this, we will pay the price asked. And did I mention that the dining room is air conditioned? It was not so cold that one needs a sweater, like in Florida, but the room was quite comfortable. The heat wasn’t bad yesterday, although the day was very warm. We’d walked over to Marks and Spencer at mid-day, where Tom bought pajamas and slippers. Then we stopped at Muji and he bought one of those special neck support pillows for sleeping. He can also use that on the plane when we go home in September. We were surprised that Marks and Spencer didn’t have more items on sale. This is the big sale season right now for most Paris shops. Shopkeepers typically clear out the merchandise in July, go on vacation in August, and when they return, the Fall clothes and shoes are put on display. Even shops that don’t close in August follow this pattern, except that they get their autumn line on display a little sooner. In the evening, before dinner, we went for another walk, this time to the Parc Saint Lambert. That park is an elegantly landscaped polygon in a neighborhood that is densely populated by families with children. It was built on the site of a former gas works, and so it has multiple levels, with a generous, round, shallow pool and fountain in the central, lowest level. When the weather is warm, like yesterday, little kids are allowed to splash around in the pool. The park is vibrant with life, and has playground amenities as well as a carousel for the kids. It is bordered on one side by a school where Simone de Beauvoir once taught, briefly. Everything has its time and season . . . . |
Saturday, July 18, 2015
The
Parc Saint Lambert (above and below).
Bacco, at 13 rue Mademoiselle, in the 15th arrondissement.
Le
delisiozo, at Bacco.
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