Paris Journal 2012 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
Find me on Facebook 2011
Paris Journal ← Previous Next
→ Go back to the beginning
|
To celebrate a court victory that upholds the famous Sanibel Plan, I ordered a kir royal and sole meunière. To celebrate the finalization of the chapter on paragraphs in the upcoming 8th edition of The Norton Sampler, Tom ordered a burger. Different strokes for different folks! We dined at Le Granite, a traditional restaurant with an elegant modern décor on the rue Duranton, just off of the avenue Félix Faure. We’ve dined there perhaps 8 to 10 times now, and so I can pronounce that the food at Le Granite is consistently excellent. There weren’t many diners there last night, and come to think of it, on the whole, Parisian restaurants are not so crowded this summer. This is the first time I think that we can say we see some evidence that the economy is struggling here. We were able to choose our table, and Tom suggested the space at the back, which is almost like a separate room, divided from the main part of the dining room with an archway in which heavy red velvet drapes hang. But the drapes are kept open, so the “room” doesn’t seem too closed in. We had that room to ourselves. I felt like we were celebrities, hiding from the paparazzi, back there around the discreetly velvet-curtained corner. Since we had so much privacy, I turned my camera’s flash on for a few shots. We weren’t disturbing any other diners’ serenity as we were tucked back in our own little “room.” Sole meunière is easy to do the wrong way; but Eric Martinez, the chef of Le Granite, seems to always prepare sole meunière correctly. At 28 euros, in Paris this is a good value for sole meunière. Sole meunière is the dish that inspired Julia Child onward into her career in French cuisine. If nothing else makes that dish important, that one fact alone should. Julia brought French cuisine to American household kitchens. I remember that when my dad went through chemotherapy, he said that the bad effects from each treatment didn’t come until a day or so after the treatment. So, wouldn’t it be a good plan to go out for a fine French dinner after each treatment, while one still feels more or less normal, and before the ill effects take place the next day? One could order sole meunière, food for the soul, as well as the body. Tom says I’m an optimist. That may be true, because I believe optimism is good for the soul, too. I felt entitled to celebrate the court victory, and Tom felt entitled to celebrate the finalization of the paragraphs chapter. Nevermind that there is still a thesis chapter to finalize, and nevermind that the court victory only involved the federal law aspects of the case, and that the state law aspects are still to be determined, if the case moves forward. Even so, I see that glass as half full. Speaking of which, after I finished the kir royal (aperitif made with crème de cassis and champagne), while I was savoring the sole meunière, I asked for a glass of chardonnay. Earlier, the server had heard me saying something about celebrating to Tom. So when he brought me that glass of chardonnay, he brought me a big one. It was twice the normal 12- or 14-centiliter size. There must have been 25 centiliters in that glass! Il est sympatique. Tom thoroughly enjoyed his “$20 burger,” as he put it. Well, he’s right. At 17.50 euros, that burger cost $21.87, tax and tip included. In Paris, this is a typical price for such a burger (and it may be in Manhattan as well). But to be fair, this was more than just a burger. The burger arrived on a high-quality sesame seed bun, accompanied by a fresh-as-can-be mixed green salad with balsamic vinaigrette and a nice little bowl of creamy, buttery mashed potatoes. (I say these were not a purée, but definitely mashed.) The same mashed potatoes came as a side dish with my sole meunière. Wikipedia offers an excellent, succinct description of sole meunière: Sole
meunière is a classic French dish consisting of sole, whole or fillet, that is dredged in flour, pan fried in butter and
served with the resulting brown butter sauce and lemon. Sole has a light but
moist texture when cooked and has a mild flavour. .
. . In classic service, the whole sole is sautéed tableside and boned by the
server. I’ve never seen sole sautéed tableside. I’d like to! And I don’t ask anyone to bone my fish. I enjoy doing so myself. I’m sure that if I asked him to, the server would have boned the sole for me. But I know my way around a fish’s body, and I get a feeling of satisfaction as I lift the skeleton away. I took care to remove the fish cheeks from the head before I set the bones aside, however. Those cheeks are the tastiest part of the fish. Tom ordered an espresso to finish off the dinner, while I was still working on that big glass of chardonnay. The espresso arrived accompanied by a little plate with two nougats, two caramels, and two pieces of dark chocolate. Nice. One of the many charms of Le Granite is that the menu is written out on blackboards. A huge, three-panel blackboard stretches along the long, curved wall of the main dining room. The little room where we were sitting has a two-panel blackboard with the appetizers and main courses. The server brought in a long, narrow unattached blackboard to show us the desserts. It occurs to me, after reading that one of the criteria in the maître restaurateur designation was “cleanliness” of the menu, that printed menus probably do host germs. The ardoise, or blackboard, is a tool for avoiding this potential source of disease and infection. Using a blackboard for the menu is a good, if old-fashioned, idea. This would also be beneficial to those chemotherapy patients, avoiding unnecessary assaults on their immune systems. Some of my favorite ardoises are the ones mounted on wheels, like those of the Commerce Café, our neighborhood pub. I was curious about the germs-on-restaurant-menus concern, so I did a little searching. An aarp.org web site says, “If it's a popular restaurant, hundreds of people could be handling the menus — and passing their germs on to you. Never let a menu touch your plate or silverware, and be sure to wash your hands after you place your order.” Hmmm. Here’s an appetizing headline, from abcnews.com: “Dining Out? Do You Know Which Restaurant Tabletop Item Is Germier Than a Toilet Seat?” You guessed it: the menu. “Be sure to wash your hands after you place your order.” Good advice, especially for those who eat out as much as we do! |
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
The
same view from our table, shot with a flash on the left, and without a flash on
the right, demonstrating another reason to forego the flash when you can.
Sole
meunière at Le Granite, 19
Rue Duranton,
An
attractive restaurant on the rue Saint-Simon.
Shop
on the rue de Bac3.
Cute
brasserie on the rue de Bac. |
