martes, 15 de mayo de 2012


Louis Philippe – Parisian style scrambled eggs and self indulgence on the Seine.


The Sunday lunch is the highlight of the Paris weekend. Parisians seem to do all they can to avoid Sunday blues, so if you walk around, you'll find that all restaurants and bars are open and packed with people. You can even spend the afternoon dancing and getting trashed on beers at Rosa Bonheur in the 20th if you really are not ready to face the fact that the weekend is over.

If you look for a restaurant for your Sunday lunch and need a bit of disconnection from realtity, you should go to Louis Philippe, near Hôtel de Ville. Unlike most of Paris restaurants, they separate their outside tables from the street lining up some vases with green around them, so you have this cosy little green space to have lunch in the sun. I always feel in a protected world, and somehow allowed to indulge myself, which is exactly what I need on a Sunday morning.

They have a regular bistro menu, with a few interesting détours, which include a gorgeous Parisian version of scrambled eggs, made with the addition of milk cream and mushrooms, and other amenities like tomatoes with goatcheese stuffing or marinated sardines with basil. The rest of the starters is rather standardised, so you won't miss your salade niçoise or an assiette de charcuteries, or some less common endives with blue cheese and chestnuts.

Of course you will find all the three typical French main dishes: salmon, duck and entrecôte, but with a wider-than-usual range of possible preparations, and with a special attention to the quality of the ingredients. The beef, always properly cooked, is tender and juicy, and can come with the typical green pepper or bernaise sauce, but also with a more elaborated and tasty mushroom cream. You can also combine the duck with each of the sauces, whereas the salmon comes in a light version, with baked vegetables aside, and no sauce. I tend to opt for the latter on Sunday, as it is the lightest and healthiest option.


Louis Philippe is the ultimate Paris experience: you have the river and the Ile de la Cité nextdoor, and, in the inside, the old fashioned aesthetics of the traditional bistrots, this may be the reason why the place has been the location of a few movie sets. When you walk through the main door, remember to bend a bit to pass underneath the spiral staircase that swirls to the upper floor.


Louis Philippe
66 Quai de l'Hôtel de Ville, Paris
Phone: +33 (0) 1 42 72 29 42    

sábado, 31 de marzo de 2012

Les Gamins






I am a huge fan of improper use of furniture, and adore doing things like sitting on tables or having aperitives in a bathtub. That's why I fell immediately in love with Les Gamins. While I was waiting for my veggie (!) crocque, I lifted my gaze to the ceiling and noticed a small table and two chairs hanging upside down above me. Les Gamins is an attitude- free casual bar and bistrot with nice and friendly service and veggie options: a true rarity in Paris. Although it is located in the radical chic Canal Saint Martin area, the place seems completely extraneous to the generally irritating posh vibe of other places along the canal, and has a cosy atmosphere, but with a sort of improvised and home-made creative touch.  


The menu is not exceptional, and, as in most of the Paris bars and restaurants, offers a lot of duck, pork and veal dishes, served with the usual range of sauces. They do have salads and sandwiches, though, and they really take the time to prepare the dishes carefully. I had a simple slice of toasted bread with grilled zucchine, aubergines and goatcheese, and it was really well cooked, and served with a fresh and lightly seasoned salad aside. The vegetables were perfectly grilled: not too dry, but soft and still a bit juicy. Simple, healthy, maybe unsexy, but delicate and good. It was Saturday morning and I was hungover anyway, so I really didn't feel in the mood of sexy food, plus my boyfriend had to run away to meet his mother, who was visiting in town. Such a turn off...  

At lunchtime, the crowd is mixed, but definitely not trendy, and can include the old guy that lives nextdoor and has a draft beer for breakfast (j'adore), groups of young friends or families, that seem to be regulars. Check it out. 

viernes, 2 de marzo de 2012

Pizza Hut at Charles de Gaulle airport. Oh, please...


The title says it all... sometimes you just have horrendous food experiences. I seldom complain if shitty food is fairly priced, but 6,6€ for a microscopic slice of disgustingly chewy and plasticky mozzarella pizza and a fake orange juice served in a Pepsi cardboard cup is just crazy. No, really, is there a 0,0something % of real orange in this weird mixture? 

On top of this, my plane is delayed. What's the good news? I am going to Barcelona, and I am home down there, so I will have no bad food surprises! I am already fantasizing about my organic grocery store and my favourite tapas place near the old harbor. Oh, and about a Spritz for aperitive! It' so good to head South!  

lunes, 30 de enero de 2012

Alcazar - Pricy glamour on the Rive Gauche



Where do you take a posh American friend who comes to Paris to celebrate his birthday? Acazar is an option to take into account. I was a bit nervous when I had to pick the place: the guests were flying in from all over the world (Chicago, Florence, Madrid and Barcelona), so it had to turn out well. I have been here just for a few weeks, so I am really no expert about this city, but after a few consultations with my local friends, I found the right place.


Alcazar is a very glamourous and design-oriented restaurant, which is not surprising, as it is owned by the British design guru Terence Conran. Meals and cocktails are served in a stylish environment with a soft and intimate lighting by a super efficient team of waiters in a black monochromatic outfit. Personally, I am a huge fan of understated places that privilege content over form, but I was not disappointed by the experience. It's true, the space is very big and a bit loud, and the menu is not extremely creative, but the buzzy atmosphere of Alcazar was just perfect for our party mood.


The cuisine is what you would call fusion/international, although no dish stands out as truly innovative. You can opt for the luxury version of Brit classics like fish and chips or poached eggs, or give your dinner an exotic Latin American touch with a fresh fish ceviche. There are several traditional French brasserie dishes, like the entrecôte, veal kidneys, poultry with vegetables and mushrooms and, of course, a couple of revisited Italian starters, (mozzarella with tomatoes and pesto and the rocket salad with Parmesan). I went for a light vegetable salad for starter, followed by Scottish salmon sashimi with guacamole sauce. Maybe not a groundbreaking culinary invention, but I was very satisfied with the quality of all the ingredients. Speaking of which: they have the best baguette bread, which they serve copiously in wicker baskets.


Alcazar includes two spaces, each on a different level, with slightly different concepts. Apart from the restaurant, on ground level, there is a cocktail and snack bar on the upper floor, called The Mezzanine. Here you can opt for a more frugal -and less pricy- meal, with a fixed price menu including a dish and a glass of wine.


Alcazar
Rue Mazarine, 62 – Paris
Phone: +33 1 53 10 19 99  
Price range (restaurant): 70€-100€. The price depends crucially on wine (more than usual). 

Paris


The Unwanted Gap Year moves to Paris for a few weeks! I am here, checking out a few places, and doing some business. This is a great city with a long culinary tradition, so I am expecting to find interesting venues. Check out the next posts for tips in la Ville-Lumière.  

Federal Café






In spite of its international vocation, Barcelona sticks proudly to its Catalan roots, and this translates into a mixed restaurant scene. Even in the trendiest areas of the city you will find a bar de toda la vida, meaning the traditional (sometimes shabby) tapas bar where people from the neighbourhood go regularly to have a beer and some patatas bravas or to watch the Barça football match. On the other hand, you sometimes find cool and trendy places even in the most godforsaken locations, which is why every area of Barcelona deserves a visit.

In Sant Antoni, a quiet residential area next to the old town centre, a few Australian guys spotted an outstandingly nice low rise corner building and turned it into one of the coolest restaurants in town. You can't miss Federal café if you walk by: there's always a crowd waiting for a table and two huge windows at the ground floor are constantly open, inviting you to take a look inside. This looks pretty much like your typical anglosaxon polyalent place, that integrates a small delicatessen shop, an open kitchen, and a versatile restaurant that offers a menu that goes for a brunch, for dinner, or for an afternoon snack.

Although Federal is open all week and serves lunch and dinner, for some reason it became my favourite destination for the Saturday and Sunday lunch. I figure that a healthy, light and tasty meal is the best choice when you are hungover from a weekend of intense clubbing... This restaurant is very ecofriendly, and they prepare simple dishes using local organic ingredients. The menu is rather anglosaxon, so you will find eggs with toasted bread for breakfast, veal and veggie burgers or cesar salads for lunch. However, they always give it a fusion twist, so the menu also features Italian style bruschettas (toasted bread with cheese, tomato and olive oil), South American yucca chicken or Middle Eastern hummuses. There is a good selection of natural juices and smoothies, and their pastry is exceptional. Except for the cupcakes, all the desserts are home made.

The space, developed on three levels,  is very versatile. If you arrive early, you can choose to stay at the ground level and share the large communitary wooden table with other customers, or you can have an individual table at the upper floor or on the rooftop terrace. The latter is my favouite option in the summer: they have a few tables on a wooden deck and cool music in the background. It feels great to chill out on a glass of white wine, and bring back some nice saturday night mood with a few friends.

The crowd is pretty mixed, but in general the vibe is very young and creative. Last but not least, the staff is extremely nice. You will never have to wait to leave your name if there is no table available, as the manager or a waiter will rapidly come to welcome you at the door.


Federal Café
Carrer Parlament, 39 – Barcelona
Phone: +34 931 87 36 07
Price range: around 25€ 

domingo, 8 de enero de 2012

Me (or the understated sophistication)


Finding a truly innovative fusion restaurant is no easy task nowadays. We are used to all sorts of cuisine combinations, and I think that very few places manage to come up with something really new. However, Barcelona is a workshop of culinary innovation, and there are some really interesting options in the fusion department.

Me is perhaps one of the most brilliant places I have been in Spain, and it proposes a blend of viet-namese and New Orleans creole cuisine, an unusual combination, at least in the Old World. Founded by a viet-namese chef and a Catalan well travelled partner, this restaurant manages to offer a perfect blend of flavours from two different continents. The place feels laid back and sophisticated at the same time, and proposes an understated and stylish decoration. You can see a small collection of paisley patterned ties hanging from some of the wall lamps: that used to be part of the manager's wardrobe. You will doubtless get to meet this guy if you go. He walks around the tables, always in an impeccable dandy outfit, and literally sits with you to explain the dishes, recommend wines and take your order!

The menu features a short list of elaborated dishes that combine the cornerstones of creole cuisine (e.g. crabs, shrimps, dill, citronella) with Asian flavours. Slices of fresh fish sashimi match dill and red onions, Lousiana crabs come in a light tempura crust, and Saigon style entrecôtes marry citronella and tasty grilled potatoes. It is hard to recommend a specific dish, as they all have strong and different personalities, and vary according to season and availability of ingredients. My pick is the cooked tofu with mushrooms, spinach and pomegranate.

Me is a cosmopolitan experience: expats and well travelled locals are the usual crowd. If you have a bunch of friends visiting from abroad, I recommend that you take them here. Intrestingly enough, some of the best cocktail bars in Barcelona are a few blocks away (off the top of my head, Dry Martini and Bar Ideal). My very personal Me dinner ritual begins with a Martini cocktail at Bar Ideal and ends with a glass of amontillado wine right after the main course.

Me
Carrer Paris, 162 - Barcelona
Phone: + 34 934 19 49 33
Price range: 55€ - 60€

Ideal Cocktail Bar
Carrer Aribau, 89 - Barcelona
Phone: +34 934 531 028

Dry Martini
Carrer Aribau, 162 - Barcelona
Phone: +34 932 17 50 80