Tag Archives: oysters

Les Nautes: newcomer by the Seine

Les Nautes is one of the latest additions to the Parisian restaurant scene. Located right by the Seine and in front of the Île Saint-Louis, this old customs house has an industrial feel to it. I loved its unusual entrance. Once inside, I admired beautiful wooden tables, 13 pendant Alvar Aalto lamps (golden, like we have at home!) and art pieces (sculpture and paintings) by young artists. Bravo for the original decoration! Recommended by Le Fooding, our food bible to eating in Paris, Les Nautes had been on our list since its opening last October (the bar opened one year earlier). We live a five-minute walk away from the restaurant and believe it is important to support the neighborhood restaurants –that’s how the arrondissements of Paris stay vivant (alive)!

We had the corner table by the window and enjoyed watching touristic boats cruise along the Seine. Bread, butter and Poisson Rouge arrived, and we got to taste this curious, organic white wine from Lanquedoc-Roussillon that actually is red by color! It tasted fruity and had I closed my eyes, I probably wouldn’t have tasted its “color”. It was the most perfect pairing with oysters and our main courses: fish and meat. For starters, we shared six oysters from the Bay of Mont Saint-Michel, Britanny, and they were the best oysters I have eaten for a long time. In fact, as this oyster season (which started last September) has been very mild, I find that oysters have not been at their best this winter. And if you follow my blog, you may remember that I regularly eat these seafood delicacies…For the main course, my husband ate tuna and I had entrecôte. Both dishes were succulent, and the taste of the fish and meat proved that the restaurant goes out of its way to find only the best products. The only regret we had was that the side dishes for both of us was the same (rather ordinary-tasting courgettes with cream).

The bill came to 77€ for two, including a shared starter, two main courses and a bottle of wine (19€). Very reasonable for such great quality I consider, and we will definitely return!

PS: First of all, Les Nautes recently changed the chef, so I would not count too much on the older Tripadvisor reviews. Secondly, Les Nautes also has a bar by the river, and I bet it will be one of the hottest terraces in Paris this summer! Especially during the Paris Plage when the cars cannot circulate nearby.

Restaurant (http://www.lesnautes.com): 1 Quai des Célestins, 75004 Paris. Tel. 01-42745953. Metro: Sully Morland or Pont Marie

Le Fooding review: http://lefooding.com/en/restaurants/restaurant-les-nautes-paris

Wine: http://www.vins-bios.fr/domaine-de-clairac-coteaux-d-enserune-languedoc/471-poisson-rouge-2010-domaine-de-clairac-coteaux-d-enserune-.html

Lamps: Alvar Aalto bell lamps from 1937 find a new home in Paris

Top Ten of 2013

Franco-Finnish Christmas meal

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Last year we spent Christmas in Paris with my parents who flew over from Finland. Traditional Finnish Christmas meal includes ham but I do not eat ham and my parents were curious to eat like the French, so this is what our Franco-Finnish Christmas meal looked like and consisted of:

1. Champagne for apéritif! My father was responsible for opening the bottle and my mother was ready with her glass (Finnish design, naturally).

2. We begun with an Elegant amuse-bouche recipe for Christmas that included Russian caviar and scallops tarama:

3. And continued with oysters from Cancale (oysters are an integral part of French Christmas):

4. From oysters we moved onto foie gras (another integral part of French Christmas!): Until now we had been drinking champagne but this is when we switched to sweet white wine by Maison Lorgeril from Languedoc-Roussillon: Le Rêve de Pennautier, “Vendanges d’Après” Vin de France (BLANC MOELLEUX). An excellent choice, a sublime wine!!

5. After the oysters we enjoyed some Finnish smoked salmon….

6. …before moving to our already very famous French Christmas meal: stuffed goose from Les Provinces: We also opened another fantastic bottle of Maison Lorgeril from Languedoc-Roussillon: Mas des Montagnes, “Terroirs d’Altitude”, AOC Côtes du Roussillon Villages. This extraordinary red went so well with the goose that we could only say “wow”. And continue eating.

7. After the goose it was finally time to dig into cheese and there is no better time to eat Mont d’Or than Christmas: (Unfortunately the wine (red Irancy) was not the most perfect choice to go with the cheese; especially after the previous wine)

8. If you now think we could not eat any more, you are wrong… For dessert, we had marron glacé and calissons:

with some chocolate and vin chaud:

Our Christmas was merry and delicious, and I hope yours was too!

If you want to know more about our cooking ingredients etc., have a look at this post too: Christmas meal essentials!

And to learn more about the wines, please go here:

PS If you liked this post, you may want to check out Pearlspotting’s Facebook page! Especially since I am flying to Venice tonight and will be updating from there too.

Christmas food shopping at the Bastille Market

Oysters – what else?

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What would a birthday be without oysters? Incomplete, in my world!

Yesterday we opened the box of oysters that waited for me in front of our front door last Saturday, on A special day! There were just over three dozens of size two Jean d’Cancale oysters inside and they were fresh as hell. What a lunch. Thank you again those who gave me this lovely present.

Where to find Jean d’Cancale oysters in Paris: http://www.jean-d-cancale.com/deguster-des-huitres-a-paris.php

Description of the white wine: Marriage of oysters and nouveau wine

PS Since some of you have started wondering if oysters are part of my daily nutrition (they are not, I assure you!), I will try to keep a short break from any oyster-related posts and references… at least until Christmas!

A special day!

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Once in a while my lifestyle/food/wine blog gets more egocentric and personal, and today is one of those days –it is my birthday!

This is what it looked like in the morning when I woke up:

The first thing I received in the morning was this beautiful bouquet my husband got me. It is on the fire place in the living room next to some Finnish design objects.

Then we paid a visit to Edouard Nahoum who sells excellent and elegant jewellery with friendly service…. and I got to visit his atelier!

Then, as I arrived at home a while ago, this box full of oysters from Cancale was waiting for me in front of our apartment’s door. Merci beaucoup dear Parisian friends!! What a lovely gesture!!

Indeed, une belle journée and it is not even finished yet. We are now heading to a restaurant but I have no idea which one. I have been trying to guess but my husband’s lips are sealed. I guess I will find out soon enough, and you dear followers will know some time next week, too. Until then, have a lovely evening and preferably with some champagne!

What to expect to eat in Roussillon?

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Earlier this month I was in the region called Languedoc-Roussillon and specifically in the southern part of it, Roussillon. This area of France is truly interesting food-wise: it is very Mediterranean but the mountains lurk in the horizon, it borders Spain and it is considered part of Catalonia. It has a strong culture of jambon, sausages, different types of seafood, snails, rabbit, cod, anchovies and tapas plates etc., and one should not forget the local wine and cheese making!

This blog post is about sharing my culinary experiences during the recent five-day trip in Roussillon, and to show you what to expect to see and taste both at restaurants and at markets. Enjoy!

Beautiful garlic! After all, it is the Mediterranean!

Cheese! (mixture of cow and sheep):

Roquefort-flavored sausage:

Sea urchins! Salvador Dali liked them… do you?

Catalan snails in tomato-jambon sauce:

Warm goat cheese salad:

Mussels with aïoli and grilled cuttlefish:

Mushroom with Balearic spicy sausage called soubressade on a toast:

Duck legs:

Beefsteak:

Razor shells (my all-time favorite!!):

“Small tapas assortment”:

My only regret is that we did not have a chance to taste the local oysters, but one always needs to keep a reason to return!

PS Why not to follow Pearlspotting also on Facebook?

Apéritif hour at Le Baron Rouge

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After running errands in Chinatown this afternoon, only two tasks remained: to buy wine and to buy oysters. Direction: Le Baron Rouge!

I really like going to Le Baron Rouge in the late afternoon when the crowds have not yet filled the space. It is nice watching the clients and the life of the barmen. It feels like the time has stopped. And there are those traditional huge oak barrels waiting for customers to choose which wine to take home.

We purchased some Côtes du Rhône (to go with the cheese after the oysters) and had an apéritif at the bar. One of those moments when you say to yourself Vive la France!

Marriage of oysters and nouveau wine

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Fifteen oysters with vin primeur, and my Saturday night is perfect!Oysters: cultivated by Patrick Liron in Normandy. They can be found in three different arrondissements in Paris: 3, 7 and 15. Our favorite oyster type is huître sauvage but I was told yesterday that they will only be available starting November. We purchased 30 oysters in total, three different types but all size two, for 37€.

Where to find Patrick Liron oysters in Paris? http://www.huitres-normandie.fr/points-de-vente-%C3%A0-paris.html

Wine: vin primeur by Domaine La Grave, Coteaux de Peyriac (Hauts de Badens). Vin primeur means new wine, and it is sold the year it was harvested. Sometimes only few weeks later. It is at its best within few months of the release. The most famous vin primeur is obviously Beaujolais nouveau.

The white wine we had yesterday comes from our favorite caviste, Bernard Bouichet who has an outstanding taste in good-quality, healthy-tasting wine. We bought one bottle of vin primeur last weekend and returned yesterday to buy ten more. At 4€80 per bottle, the price-quality ratio is excellent.

Where to find this excellent vin primeur? La Cave du Voyageur, 21 rue de la Croix Nivert (75015). Tel. 01-42 73 07 81.

PS Have you already checked out the Pearlspotting’s facebook page?

Oyster season opening

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Every year it is the same. In the end of the summer, I start eagerly looking forward to September. Why? Doesn’t everyone want summer to last forever? No, I don’t, because I know that September brings something wonderful to my life… It is the first month that contains the famous “r” letter, which according to the common belief indicates that now it is a good time to restart eating oysters!

Eating oysters in months without “r” is something I do, too, especially if I am traveling in oyster-producing regions like Bretagne (Brittany), but I do know that falling temperatures make oysters loose their milkiness. And this is why many consumers prefer to skip eating them in summer.

For almost one month now I have been asking people if they have already tasted this delicious shellfish. I have even recruited my husband to conduct a survey at his work… His boss responded “still milky, wait a bit”. Some others laughed, “I eat oysters all year round, I don’t care about the milkiness!”. A friend, who is a big fan of Bretagne, like us, said “they (oysters) are getting there”…Impatient to wait longer, we headed to Le Cabanon de l’Écailler last Friday to officially open our oyster season. Their oysters come from Charente-Maritime, which is roughly speaking between Bordeaux and Nantes (the southern tip of Bretagne). I ordered nine oysters of fine de claire and my husband ordered the same amount of fine de Ronce. Mine were tiny, too small for my taste, but the ones of my husband were really tasty (and much bigger).

We opened the season with a bottle of white Chablis, and made a toast to a successful and long oyster season. Vive les Huîtres!

Le Cabanon de l’Écailler: 14 place Constantin-Brancusi, 75014 Paris. Tel. 01-43205217

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