Samedi – 26 septembre 2009 (part two)

my Saturday pre-Hidden Kitchen was filled with a trip to the beautiful Marche du President Wilson of which I have some beautiful pictures.  I will save those for a separate post when I get the time.  For now, I will share on my mid-day meal at Breizh Cafe.

I took a short walk from my apartment up the rue Vieille du Temple through the beginning of the trendy part of the Marais filled with designer boutiques and upscale apartments.  You would think that a late lunch and table for one would be an easy order but upon arrival, I was told that the next opening wouldn't be until 3pm which was about 20 minutes later.  Not too bad, so I crossed the street and relaxed in a small park until my time arrived.

 

Samedi – 26 septembre 2009 (part one)

I’m going to skip ahead and post about today ahead of Friday because I’m SO excited about my experience tonight. There are no photos – just my thoughts.

I can’t remember exactly where I read about Hidden Kitchen, but it is essentially a private dinner club held in a private apartment home of two Americans living in Paris. The meal consists of ten courses, each paired with wine as well as a drink upon arrival. Laura & Braden host about 15 individuals in their home (which is an amazing apartment near the Louvre) and the crowd is mixed with both locals and visitors so the guests come from varied walks of life and this makes for a mixed bag.

I’ll sum up the experience in a few short words: this was an extremely memorable meal and an entirely unique experience, which I doubt, will be replicated again during my trip.

Braden is the chef du cuisine and Laura acts as both host & as pastry chef. Nikki helps as server and friendly face throughout the evening. The kitchen this all comes out of is fairly standard. Nothing sprawling or professional grade, however, since both consult for William-Sonoma the kitchen is  certainly well-stocked.  Both of the chefs are completely self-trained. No Le Courdon Bleu training here. As one guest put it, the meal beat out (by far) a 10 course tasting menu she enjoyed recently at a Michelin one star restaurant in France.

Upon arrival, Laura poured glasses of champagne with pomegranate seeds (in this case a light pink color as is often the case here).

The rest of the menu is as follows:

- amuse: green anise flavored doughnut with an apple cider granita
- roasted chicken broth with chicken liver ravioli
- fig and anchovy (deconstructed) tart with mixed herb salad
- mascarpone polenta with mushrooms, candied turnips and braised radicchio
- sautéed see bass with house-made Mexican chorizo stuffed mussels, garlic and lime
- cleanser: HK version of a mint julep – base of bourbon jello, frozen concoction & fresh mint
- pork belly with walnut-celery root puree with spinach and pickled red chilies
- shaved Brussels sprouts salad
- upside-down plum cake with chai ice cream and gruyere crumble
- petites fours: including rice crispy treat, soft peanut brittle, chocolate truffle & other brittle type treat

Laura also posed as sommelier pairing each course with a wine of its own which means a significant amount of wine! Lots of French whites early in the meal and moving into richer reds later in the meal. We finished our petites fours with fresh drawn espresso.

Clearly it would be great to dine here about ten more times before I depart but it isn’t likely. Regardless, if you come to Paris and for certain when I come back, I’ll get on the list again!

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first day!

I made it!  I landed at CDG airport in Paris around 12:30pm local time today and by 3pm I was sitting in my temporary home for the next two weeks - a cute 1 bedroom apartment in the Marais near Hotel de Ville.

After a bit of relaxation - but no nap per my jet lag strategy - I ventured out after planning to hit up 3 must eat places of the more casual style.

L'As du Fallafel.  typical of my recent eating habits - I went straight for the street food.

I then meandered down to the Seine and crossed over on to Ile St-Louis to find the famed Berthillon  ice cream.  I had one scoop of the extra dark cacao and one scoop of almond on a cone - divine!

Lastly, I crossed the Seine again on to the left bank to hunt down a baguette from Eric Kayser's boulangerie.  Unable to just buy one lonely baguette, I also bought some of their rich caneles.  While on the left bank, I also stopped in this cute little organic store (known here as a bio store) and picked up some pears and yogurt for the morning.

bonsoir!

the night before

my packing is about 95% complete.  everything that can be packed tonight is packed.

tomorrow mid-morning i head for SFO to fly to NY JFK and then on to CDG.  i touch down in Paris at about 12:30pm local time on wednesday.

off to go download an app or two for my iPhone and perhaps some podcasts to keep me entertained during my flights.  and then to bed - hopefully i can sleep.

bon voyage!

rough draft

this is a rough draft of a new idea I have about food blogging.  my upcoming trip to Paris is, for me, a starting point and I decided that I might as well start this now so I have some place to post things during my trip as well as future efforts when I return back home to Oakland.