Megabytes by John & Sally McKenna April 2001
Paris in the Winter
Paris, 1927, 'Kertész on Kertész' (BBC)
Susan Holland and Ian Parr have made Baltimore's Customs House restaurant into one of the glories of Irish eating over the last few years, their ruthlessly imagined and executed fish cookery having no peer in the country.
And one of the thrills when they open each season (and they will reopen again on Friday 6th April) is to see what new ideas have been picked up on their winter travels, when the restaurant is closed.
Last year, they sojourned and worked in Paris and Tuscany. Susan's report on Tuscany comes next month, but we kick off here with a beautiful piece on Paris in the wintertime. Are we being sentimental, or does this little essay share that love of, and romantic attachment to, the city and its food, which Hemingway unforgettably captured in A Moveable Feast? Plus ça change, c'est plus la meme.
Customs House Restaurant, Baltimore, West Cork
Tel: (028) 20200
My sister lives in Paris so we are frequent visitors to that city. A favourite restaurant is L'Epi Dupin. The lunch menu costs 115 francs (about IR£13.50) entrée & main, or main & dessert, and a glass of wine included. Dinner is 175 francs with 3 courses. It offers refined modern bistrôt cooking with the prices well reined in.
Dinner in November included a soft goat cheese from the upper Loire called Sancerrois, lightly fried in breadcrumbs, and served on a fricassée of globe artichokes; pâté of cèpes with parsley sauce; squid on a small stew of peppers and tomatoes with a Parmesan biscuit; rascasse (scorpion fish a Mediterranean number no known sightings in these waters) with cannellini beans, balsamic and veal jus; duck with honey and ginger sauce and pancake of potato and spring onion.
Desserts, which require precision and patience, are often a neglected sector in the largely macho world of French restaurants, but not at l'Epi Dupin: roasted pears with raisin ice-cream and Sichuan pepper sauce, and rhubarb feuillantine with mascarpone sorbet were both very good.
Françoise Pasteau, the owner of l'Epi Dupin, is one of a group of chefs who, having worked in the starred establishments, has set up his own place in a former café. Over the last 10 years this group has rejuvenated middle-range Parisien dining by taking classic dishes, mostly from the Mediterranean and South-West France, and executing them elegantly in unpretentious surroundings. As a general rule, when the chef isn't there, the restaurant is closed. Amen!
Other restaurants in the tribe include La Régalade and Au Bascou. The evening menu in these places runs to about 200 francs. Busy. BOOK!
A restaurant that is worth a visit but where you can walk in without a
booking is La Coupole. How come? Because it's so big! La Coupole seats hundreds
of diners simultaneously, and operates all day, every day of the year. This
vast brasserie, with its art-déco columns painted by different artists of
the time, including Braques and Léger, is busy, comfortable, stylish, and
great fun. Without a booking you may wait a short time at the bar, but that's
part of the entertainment.
Waiters of great speed and competence flow around you, with their long aprons,
serving everyone from chic Parisiens, to students, to businessmen, to very
elegant little old ladies. The fare is classic and timeless, including foie
gras, oysters, fish soup, choucroûte, kidneys in mustard sauce, steak and
pommes frites. There are a variety of menus as well as à la carte, and all
budgets and tastes are catered for. I've seen couples come in just to share
a dozen oysters with a glass of wine each. We usually opt for the menu at
189 francs, which offers a selection of starters, mains and desserts, as well
as a half-bottle each of the never-less-than-good house wine. Thus, at around
IR£20, your experiences takes in history and is part of it.
L'Epi Dupin , 11 Rue Dupin, Paris, 6eme
Tel: 01.42226456.
Métro: Sèvres-Babylone La Régalade, 49 av Jean Moulin, 14eme
Tel: 01.43201420
Au Bascou, 38 rue Réaumur, 3eme,
Tel: 01.42726925
La Coupole, 102 bd du Montparnasse, 14eme,
Tel: 01.43201420
