Author: THE HOBBLEDEHOY

Michael Stevenson, aka Dai Bando, Johnny Foreigner, Monsieur Pas De Merde, is a blogger of French and British culture. His blogs "Pas De Merde" and "The Hobbledehoy" have been called "marvelous" by some, and "meh" by others.

New Jersey’s Bobolinks’ Amram, The Little Stinky Cheese That Could, Wins Silver In Lyon

Nina White, a dancer and the co-founder of Bobolink Dairy & Bakehouse in Milford, New Jersey, looked quite chic last June, in her petite robe noire as she waited nervously for the results of the first annual Farm Cheese Awards in Lyon, France. After all, Lyon had been dubbed the world capital of gastronomy back in 1935, and cheese is such an integral part of the French identity that Charles de Gaulle joked in 1962, “How can one govern a country that boasts 258 different cheeses?” [ . . . ]

Source: New Jersey’s Bobolinks’ Amram, The Little Stinky Cheese That Could, Wins Silver In Lyon

Fantastique Wine Restaurants in Paris

 

There’s so much to fall in love with in Paris: the history, the architecture, and of course, the cuisine. The 13 Wine Spectator Restaurant Award winners below enhance the magic of French dining with stellar wine programs that deliver experiences to match the grandeur of the city. From a family-owned bistro to high-end hotel eateries, these wine restaurants shine bright in the city of lights.

Epicure
Epicure is housed in the opulent Le Bristol Paris hotel, which first opened in 1925.

EPICURE
A fine-dining staple in a longstanding hotel
Le Bristol Paris, 112 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré
(33) 1-53-43-43-40
www.lebristolparis.com
Open for lunch and dinner, daily

Grand Award
Wine list selections 3,000
Inventory 95,000
Wine strengths Head sommelier Bernard Neveu manages the wine list, which is entirely French except for a few pages of international labels. Burgundy is the strongest region, with nearly 200 grand cru reds alone. Additional highlights include Champagne, Bordeaux and the Rhône.
Above and beyond The team takes extra steps to ensure the best possible wine experience at Epicure. Each of the hotel’s dining outlets has its own cellar to avoid disturbing the wines with excess movement, and every selection on Epicure’s list is sourced from Neveau’s personal connections with winemakers.
Cuisine Chef Eric Frechon puts a modern spin on dishes firmly grounded in French cuisine, stuffing macaroni with black truffle, artichoke and foie gras, and serving lemon-thyme langoustines with an onion-mango condiment.
Noteworthy neighbors Le Bristol shares the block with the Elysée Palace, the official home of French presidents since 1848, as well as other cultural landmarks like Boutique Pierre Cardin and Christian Lacroix.

Le Taillevent
At Le Taillevent, a seasonal menu complements a world-class collection of French wines.

LE TAILLEVENT
A Parisian institution since 1946
15 Rue Lamennais
(33) 1-44-95-15-01
www.taillevent.com
Open for lunch and dinner, Monday to Friday

Grand Award
Wine list selections 2,300
Inventory 300,000
Going strong André Vrinat opened the restaurant in 1946, and his family maintained ownership until the Gardinier family purchased it in 2011. Seventy-two years after opening, Le Taillevent remains at the top of its food and wine game. It has maintained a Restaurant Award since 1984, longer than any other winner in Paris.
Wine strengths Antoine Pétrus is the general manager and wine director of the overwhelmingly French cellar. The Bordeaux and Burgundy sections are exceptional, with 12 vintages of Château Latour and more than two dozen labels from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. Picks in Champagne, the Rhône, the Loire and Alsace are also outstanding.
Cuisine Chef Alain Solivérès serves seasonal French dishes with creative touches, like tomato jelly with lobster, and garlic flowers atop turbot cooked in butter. Occasionally, Solivérès will create a special tasting menu, like a recent one with a focus on black truffles.
Restaurant Award–winning sibling Le Taillevent’s sister restaurant, Les 110 de Taillevent in London, holds a Best of Award of Excellence for its 1,300-label wine list and 110 wines by the glass. Continue reading “Fantastique Wine Restaurants in Paris” →

Bored appétit! How we all got sick of French food

How and what and where we eat has gone through a seismic change in the past couple of decades. Where once a plate of paella or lasagne would have been seen as quite the sophisticated statement, such dishes are now boringly mainstream freezer-cabinet staples.

If we needed any proof as to how adventurous we have become, along comes the just-released Lonely Planet Ultimate Eatlist, a compilation of the world’s top 500 eating experiences chosen by writers, chefs, bloggers and Lonely Planet staff. Their aim was to create a directory not just of the world’s great dishes, but to evaluate them in terms of the whole gastronomic experience, taking into account not just taste, but cultural importance and location.Top of the list enjoying pintxós (the Basque version of tapas) in San Sebastián, Spain.

The rest of the top ten is a brisk global buffet of laksa, sushi, dim sum, bibimbap, with a bit of Texas brisket thrown in for the outdoorsy sorts, and smørrebrød in Copenhagen for the city break types.

In the French village I visit each summer, one of the most popular restaurants has no square plates, no stiff linen napkins, no blobs or foams. It may be nestled against the walls of an eleventh century church, but its tables are Formica, the chairs mismatched, and its chirpy waiters tattoo’d and lushly bearded

This list obviously reflects the adventurous, backpacking, city-hopping and road-tripping vibe of many Lonely Planet devotees, but – quelle horreur – France doesn’t even make the top ten. There’s noPerigord truffle grated over softly scrambled eggs, a bowl of bouillabaisse on a sunny day in Marseille, nor a cassoulet on a cool Languedocien evening. Yes, a slightly random “cheese in France” is thrown in at Number 14, but it feels like their heart isn’t really in it.

Since my first French lesson with Mrs Snow (Madame la Neige) at the age of eight, I have been such a devoted Francophile that by rights there should probably be a statue of me in a square somewhere, possibly an annual parade. But – it pains me so much to say this – but something bad has happened to French food in the past 20 years [. . . ]

Source: Bored appétit! How we all got sick of French food