Paris Journal 2013 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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We had something to
celebrate involving a real estate purchase on Sanibel, so we made a
reservation at a festive restaurant, L’Accent Corse. The décor, at least, is very festive. The patron,
Marc-Ange Spinosi, takes his work very seriously. And he does it oh so very well. Marc-Ange is the son of
Corsican restauranteurs. Since 2010,
he has been the boss at L’Accent Corse, located in a former traditional
French bistro at 123 rue de la Convention. The former bistro had the
good fortune of being decorated by the famous Slavik Vassiliev, probably in
the 1970s. Marc-Ange had the wisdom to
retain this fantasmagorical Art Nouveau revival décor. As a result, the restaurant has that
magical Paris ambiance – so beautiful, I must sigh when I enter the place. I later discovered that
even the bathroom is beautiful, with lots of moldings and mirrors in the wall
panels. Wow. Corsican is such a lovely
cuisine because it is different from traditional French cuisine, yet it is a
French cuisine, a passionate cuisine.
Corsica is part of France.
But when you need a break from the classic cuisine of Parisian
bistrots, you can select a fine Corsican resto like L’Accent Corse or L’Abri
Cotier, and you’ll be treated to something different and good. We love the seafood at
L’Abri Cotier (blvd. de Montaparnasse in the 6th
arrondissement). At L’Accent Corse, we
love the Brocciu and lamb. L’Accent Corse cooks with
honey – real Corsican honey provided by Marc-Ange’s cousin, Dominique
Spinosi. We began our Corsican
adventure yesterday evening with rillette
de truite maison – a homemade
trout spread that was so flavorful and well seasoned that it didn’t seem like
French food. We shared it, and I was
pleased that Tom enjoyed it so much because it is not the kind of starter
course he would normally order. I’m
the seafood lover who will eat just about any kind of seafood except
scallops, which, unfortunately, I’m allergic to, alas. The rillette arrived in a slanted, round bowl, beautifully
presented. It came with fresh slices
of particularly good French bread. My main course was the cannelloni au Brocciu. Brocciu
(also called brousse in French) is
a mild cheese made from sheep’s milk.
This is a rich dish, and I could never finish it. In a dish like cannelloni, Brocciu is like Ricotta, but much
better. In a dessert, Brocciu is like cream cheese, only
much, much better. Both of us like Corsican
cheeses. Maybe we’re biased. Tom ordered the côtelettes d'agneau au miel familial –
lamb chops served with that family honey I mentioned already. It came with a rectangular potato
concoction that was especially tasty.
Tom said that the lamb chops, and indeed his entire course, could not
have been better. Tom was ready for dessert
after that, and so he ordered the café
gourmand, which came with a sampling of three desserts. The fiadone
was especially good – a sort of cheesecake that is more cake-like than
cheesecake is, and it is made with that great Brocciu. Beverages deserve a
mention, because at L’Accent Corse, they are special. The sparkling water is Orezzo, from
Corsica. As Marc-Ange explained, the
bubbliness of Orezzo is entirely natural.
It is a superior sparkling water. I ordered a 25-centiliter mini-carafe
of rosé wine, because Corsican rosé is the best rosé. Try it, when you have the opportunity. Rosé wine here in France
generally is much drier and better than American rosé. And in the summertime, rosé is very
popular. One final note about L’Accent
Corse – even the music played on the sound system is authentic – 100 percent
Corsican folk music. That was a
refreshing change, because more often than not, what we hear in Parisian
restaurants is American music. When it
is American jazz, we rather like it, but it is nice to hear more authentic
music of the region, especially when going on an adventure to Corsica. When it was time to go
home, both Marc-Ange and the server (a woman who looked very much like she
could be a relative of Marc’s) were warm and friendly in their good-byes. We’ll be back soon, we
assured them. *** Earlier in the day,
somewhere in the late afternoon, we ventured out after working to do the
mundane: visit the ATM, pick up
laundry at the blanchisserie for
the owner of the apartment, and stop at the bakery on our block to buy a
baguette for toast in the morning. Near that same intersection
where a car-carrying semi-truck flattened the traffic signal pole the other
day, once again, something bad had happened. Emergency vehicles (2
firetrucks and an ambulance) had the intersection blocked. The ladder from one of the firetrucks
angled up to a third-floor apartment. Tom surmised that the
incident had to have been a fire, but we did not smell or see any smoke. Many people gathered around to watch the
rescue workers. We went into the bank’s
entry vestibule to use the ATM, and when we exited, the police had cordoned
off the entire intersection with wide plastic ribbon. The rescue was still
underway. We headed away from the
scene, down the avenue Émile Zola, a short distance to the rue Violet. There, on the corner, was the blanchisserie we wished to visit to
collect the professionally laundered, pressed, folded, and packaged set of
sheets and pillowcases. In Columbus, we used to
have Chinese laundries that did this sort of work. Maybe some of them remain, I don’t
know. But laundries like this,
occupying retail space, are practically nonexistant in southwest
Florida. So such a place seems very
urban and Parisian to us. We entered, and were
cheerfully greeted by Dan, the friendly man that the owner of the apartment
told us is now running the place.
Detecting our accent, he even gave the price of the laundry work in
English, after he’d said it in French.
I said “très bien,” because it obviously was a bit
of an effort to say those foreign numbers, and he did it well. Smiles all around. Even the man who was waiting behind us had
to smile a little. I cradled the laundry
bundle in my arms as we left the friendly blanchisserie. We decided it was time to buy a baguette. Was it ever time! A perfectly timed visit to the bakery on
our block rewarded Tom with a piping hot baguette fresh from the oven. It was so hot, it was difficult for him to
hold it. We weren’t planning on
eating it right away, but some of it had to be consumed while it was
hot. Back to the apartment we went,
where Tom put French butter on his hot baguette pieces, and I put a little
goat cheese on mine. Then we received good news,
via email, from our attorney on Sanibel Island. I’ll tell you more about that later. Onward! |
Friday, July 19, 2013
The
wild and wonderful Art Nouveau décor of the previous restaurant has been
retained at L’Accent Corse.
Rillette de truite
maison.
Cannelloni au Brocciu.
Côtelettes d'agneau au miel familial came with a delicious potato concoction and a slice of some
mysterious but delicious honey-infused charcuterie that involved chestnut
flour, I think.
Café gourmand – an espresso with
three small desserts.
The
beautiful mirror etched with the former restaurant’s traditional French
bistrot menu has been retained.
Refreshing
Corsican naturally sparkling water, Orezza.
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