Paris Journal 2013 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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The cool,
drizzly, overcast weather inspired us to work all day at the computers, even
though it was a Sunday. Some people would
wisely just stay in bed on a day like that.
We decided to put noses to the grindstone. When 6PM rolled
around, I checked lafourchette.com to see what was new in the restaurants
near us. Sundays in August used to be
a bit of a challenge in scoping out a good restaurant that is open. That no longer is a problem, it seems. A couple weeks
ago, we walked by a seafood restaurant that we’ve enjoyed in past summers on
the avenue de Suffren: Vin
et Marée (Wine and Tide, or Wine and Seafood). We noticed that it was closed for business,
but doors were wide open as several workers plastered, hammered, and painted. Lafourchette.com
told me last night that Vin et Marée
is not only open for business, but is offering a 40 percent discount (food
items only, minimum two courses per person) on mid-day Saturdays and Sunday
evenings! Tom was
enthusiastic about going there, too. I
liked the idea that it was just far enough away to give us a bit of a walk
before and after dinner, but not so far that if the drizzle turned into a
downpour, we’d be inconvenienced. Vin et Marée has an enticing, and especially
well-written blurb describing the restaurant’s attributes on its lafourchette
page: Grâce à sa capacité d'achat et à sa connaissance des
pêcheurs, Vin et Marée fait venir chaque jour, directement depuis les ports
de Bretagne ou de Normandie, le meilleur des produits de la pêche de la nuit.
C'est pourquoi l'ardoise varie chaque jour en fonction de la pêche de la
veille, ce qui garantit la fraîcheur des produits. La préparation est
savoureuse mais sans chichis, en vue de mettre en valeur la finesse et
l'authenticité de chaque poisson. Les vins sont soigneusement choisis directement auprès des propriétaires,
pour un mariage harmonieux avec les poissons. You see, Vin et Marée is a chain of four
restaurants in Paris. The owners are
claiming here in this blurb that this size gives them more buying/bargaining
capacity with the fishermen. Instead
of buying their fish at the huge market at Rungis or similar, they go
directly to the ports in Brittany and Normandy during the night, to bring us
very fresh fish for the day. This
explains why the restaurant is open on Sunday and Monday, when Rungis is
closed. The blurb goes
on to say that the way they prepare the food is without “chichis,” without pretentious trendiness. The chefs try to emphasize the finesse and
authenticity of each fish. The
restaurant owners also buy their wines directly from the winemakers (there’s
that buying capacity point again). So, yes, I have
to agree that with seafood, and with wine, there is an advantage in having
some size in the restaurant operation.
Smaller is not always better. When we
arrived, we were given a wonderful corner table. Why are we treated so well? It must be the way Tom looks in his dark
blue blazer. After we
settled into our comfy spot, I realized that I had not eaten sole meunière yet this summer! How could that be??? Vin et Marée is a good place to order such a
dish. In Paris, sole meunière is expensive.
I know that it isn’t so expensive elsewhere in France, but we’re in
Paris, and I won’t complain about that.
Anyway,
forty-percent off a higher priced item is more money saved, right? And sole meunière is the dish that
inspired Julia Child to take up French cooking. Plus, according to the menu, this was “sole de petit bateau,” which means it
was caught with on a small boat, and therefore should be very fresh and of
high quality. With those rationalizations, we each ordered sole meunière. When the two
whole fishes arrived at the table, I gasped in appreciation because they
looked so perfect. The server asked if
we wanted her to debone them for us, and I said no thanks, we’re from Florida
and we can do it. Soon, two
skillfully removed fish skeletons lay on the empty plate provided for that
purpose. We both added some of the
velvety smooth, buttery, rich, finely puréed potatoes to the fish, clarified
butter, and chopped seasonal vegetables on the plates before us. Wow. That was the best sole meunière I’ve ever been served. Bravo, Chef Johan Barbedette at Vin et Marée - Suffren! We’d started
with a croustillant de gambas
appetizer that we shared: four large shrimp in a thin, crusty batter, served
with a little salad and a mayonaisse-curry sauce. Very nice. The big
surprise was dessert. Le fameux Baba de Zanzibar au rhum is how it is described on the
menu. You can order it for one, or for
two people. We ordered it for one
person, planning to share it anyway.
The server totally approved.
She said that the baba for one was “gros,” and made a dramatic gesture indicating its size. First, the
bottle of rum arrived. After it was
plunked down on our table, I looked at the label. A very fancy label it was, indicating that
the rum was from Martinique (a regular department of France, in the outre mer). When the baba
arrived, we could not believe our eyes.
It was a semi-circle of baba that was a rich brown on the outside and
deep cream-colored on the inside. It
was a baba of a superior order. A mound of
whipped cream stood next to it, and a plethora of plump, rum-soaked raisons
were scattered all over the plate. The server
cheerfully gave us two empty plates that made sharing easy. She said the baba for two was the complete
circle of cake. Mon dieu, that
would be way too much! As we walked
home, the drizzle intensified into light rain. When we were tucked back into the
apartment, all safe and warm and dry, I began to read Professor Jones’
“biography” of Paris again. Last
night, I finished reading about World War II and the years immediately after
it, and finally quit for the night somewhere in the middle of Giscard
d’Estaing’s presidency. Today,
sunshine. |
Monday, August 26, 2013
A
charming row of buildings on the rue Pierre Mille in the 15th
arrondissement.
Sole
de petit bateau meunière at the Vin et Marée
restaurant on the avenue de Suffren. This sole can also be
ordered grilled instead of meunière, but I don’t know why anyone would want to do
that.
Croustillant
de gambas sauce Tandoori appetizer.
The
famous baba of Zanzibar, with rum to be used to further soak the cake.
Up
on the raised tracks of the Petite Ceinture, you can better examine the decorative
architectural details of buildings like this. |
