Tag Archives: wine

Special caviar delivery from Kiev to Paris, facilitated by Czech Airlines

La Régalade Conservatoire: consistent “régalade style”

After Mandarin Oriental: when customer service goes that extra mile I took my husband to a fairly new restaurant called La Régalade Conservatoire. Out of four Régalades (three in Paris and one in St Tropez) I have been to two of them, so it was about the time to test this newest Parisian addition.

The menu is extremely reasonably priced: 35€ for a three-course meal. I reckon it is one of the best deals in Paris for sophisticated gourmet cuisine. According to the “régalade style”, you always start with country-style terrine (pork, though) and cornichons. The waiter leaves the pots in front of you, and you go on snacking as long as you desire, or as long as the starter arrives… sympa.

For the starters we had creamy squid and prawn risotto, and asparagus bouillon with foie gras (both starters come with pork (lardon) but it is possible to have them without). Delicious, light, easy to digest, tasty, interesting mixes… this says it all! For the wine we had short-listed a few options (the wine list is VERY impressive!) and following the restaurant’s recommendation chose a bottle of Graves (AOC), Château Haut-Peyrous “Retour de Palombière” (2009), a fabulous merlot & cabernet melange for 30€. Once again, an excellent price-quality ratio I say!For the main course, we ordered tuna and roasted lamb. Since the starters had been soooo delicious, maybe I expected even more from the main courses. They were very good, but that “little bit of something extra” was maybe missing, especially in my lamb. Or was it that I considered the lamb dish to be too winter-like to be eaten in summer? Maybe vegetables instead of potatoes would have ameliorated my dish? We shared a mixed cheese platter and a Grand Marnier soufflé in the end. I loved the cheese, but by the time the soufflé came, I unfortunately had very little room left in the stomach…There is something else that also cut my appetite a tiny bit. When I made the reservation on telephone, I had specifically asked if the restaurant has a habit of doing something for birthday guests. The person on telephone hesitated, so I quickly continued that a candle on my husband’s cake would be a lovely gesture. Apparently she noted it, but when the soufflé arrived, it had nothing on it… Well, this is just a minor detail but could be a more important detail to someone else I am sure.
We got the bill (just over 100€) and returned to rainy streets of Paris. The dinner was pleasant and my husband happy about this surprise discovery, but something gave us a feeling that the next time we will just return to one of the other Régalades, La Régalade Saint-Honoré.

PS The restaurant is located inside a five-star L’Hôtel de NELL, which was designed by a famous architect and designer Jean-Michel Wilmotte.

La Régalade Conservatoire: 7 rue du Conservatoire, Paris 75009. Tel. +33 1 44 83 83 60

Le Fooding review: http://www.lefooding.com/restaurant/restaurant-la-regalade-conservatoire-paris.html

Wine: http://www.discovervin.com.au/shop/item/chteau-haut-peyrous-retour-de-palombires-aoc-graves-rouge-2008/graves (we had a bottle of 2009 but this website has 2008 for sale)

Hotel: http://www.hoteldenell.com

Aux Deux Amis: if heaven was a tapas bar

L’Etoile: restaurant that makes you feel and look good!

1 Reply

How do you recognize an excellent restaurant? From the fact that when you wake up the next morning, you have slept like a baby, and you feel and look as if you have just spent one week in a retreat. Without exaggeration, this is how I felt this morning after a very pleasant dinner at L’Etoile (former L’Etoile Rouge).We were welcomed by la patronne, who offered us two glasses of rosé wine because our table outside was not yet ready –a lovely, rare gesture in Paris, but most of all, the wine was not just any wine. It was excellent Pic Saint Loup from Languedoc. We ordered two starters: a millefeuille of tomatoes & mozzarella, and a squid salad. Both were divine. Based on the restaurant’s recommendation, we ordered a bottle of Le Côte de Provence Rosé Locus Ameno. Delicious.

For the main course I had grilled cod and my husband had rabbit. My cod had a lovely, very intense lemon taste and the rabbit came with a sauce that reminded us very much about mixes you find in the Indian cuisine. It had been a long time since I had such an intriguing culinary experience! I believe that the photos above speak for themselves. The presentation was artistic and beautiful, as you can see.

In the end we shared a dessert. I loved it, even if usually I am not a big dessert fan in France (my husband likes those heavy French-style cakes etc.). This blueberry mousse was great because it was light, reminding me of Finnish desserts. In fact, upon completing cooking classes, this is something my Dad made for us every single Sunday for quite a while! During our dinner, la patronne came to speak to us a few times, and she seemed to know many of the customers. In the end we even had a good talk with the chef, who came to our table. We learned he trained with a very famous Michelin-starred chef Joël Robuchon and in addition, he explained how important it is that the cooking follows the principle of four basic tastes: sweetness, sourness, saltiness, bitterness (he shared some of his tricks on how to make winter tomatoes taste better…..).

In overall, the restaurant L’Etoile merits nearly ten points and we are sure to bring food lovers visiting Paris to this interesting pearl that I believe has a lot of future. Keep watching the name I say. They are already on lefooding.com, but I would not be surprised if more recognitions were on their way….

L’étoile: 75 rue Crozatier 75012 Paris . 01 53 17 02 44

Le Fooding article: http://www.lefooding.com/restaurant/restaurant-l-etoile-rouge-paris.html

Back to work (motivation help from rosé wine)

2 Replies

It was very hot in Paris last week and the heat wave will make its return tomorrow. At the moment, most of my friends are at exotic beach destinations from Elba to Greek islands, and yes, receiving text messages while trying to put together a publication is not easy! I do love my work –do not get me wrong- but there are periods when the beach sounds more tempting than at other times…

So, how do I get myself back to the work routine after three weeks’ holidays? By establishing my own After-Work that consists of drinking rosé and eating good food!

Our caviste, like everyone else, is on holidays, so we have been returning to Monoprix (a French grocery store) for wine purchases. It has been fun experiencing different rosé wines and honestly, I think Monoprix’s price-quality ratio is better for rosé wines than for reds and whites.

Yesterday we tried Les Embruns Gris Sauvage (IGP Sable de Camargue): organic rosé wine from Languedoc. More precisely, this wine comes from the western part of the Camargue region, the largest river delta of the western Europe (if you have a chance to visit it, do not hesitate! It is stunning and very authentic). The wine tasted lovely: agrumes, peach and other fruits. Easy and pleasant to drink. A very good choice for 4 Euros. And it is organic. We also bought a bottle of Eléphant Rose Lubéron for 5.50 Euros but it is in the fridge at the moment, unopened. Perrin family makes excellent, rather affordable wines of all three colors in Provence and Rhône (South and North). This particular rosé we bought comes from Caromb, near Mont Ventoux (north east of Avignon).

If you are curious about these wines, please see the links below, and do not forget to check the new Pearlspotting Facebook page, too!

Les Embruns Gris Sauvage (IGP Sable de Camargue): http://www.jeanjean.com/3_5.cfm?p=18-les-embruns-vin-de-pays-des-sables-du-golfe-du-lion-marque-jeanjean&f=0,0,0,0,171,0

Eléphant Rose Lubéron: http://www.clubperrin.com/product.php4?product=53&category_id=Lub%E9ron

Image copied from here: http://www.vin-sable-camargue.com/vindessables-1-62-Laire-de-production-La-zone-geographique.html#3 (Courtesy to the Union of Vin des Sables)

La Briciola: pizza of “something missing”

4 Replies

La Briciola and Amici Miei are both on the list of “The Best Pizzas of Paris” published by Le Figaro. Yesterday we tested La Briciola, located in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris.

Upon arrival at La Briciola, we were greeted in a really friendly manner and got a nice table by an open window. It was a perfect summer evening in Paris. The place was really cosy and the giant green olives we were offered were extremely tasty. The vegetarian pizzas arrived, and yet they smelled herbs and tomatoes, the dough was thick and not crispy. In fact we both had hard time using our knife to cut it… My husband had ordered extra salami on his pizza and he said that the slices tasted of liquid used to light up the barbeque… My criticism toward the pizza was that the vegetables were not grilled enough and that the predominant taste came from artichokes. I love artichokes, but I think the overall taste was not balanced. We had a bottle of Italian rose for 16 Euros –not a bad price-quality ratio.

When it came to the bill, we left a tip for the lovely service, but there was something missing… I personally love my pizza very crispy and vegetables nearly burnt, and these criteria were not filled. We walked home and said that we should return to Amici Miei.

Note: On Tripadvisor, La Briciola is better rated than Amici Miei. But what does this really mean –only that you should go and see it for yourself! My advice is this: if you prefer good service and soft dough, go for La Briciola, but if you prefer rather rude service but excellent pizza, opt for Amici Miei… Anyhow, they are located (almost) in the same neighborhood.
PS Since summer 2013, there is also Da Vito –an excellent choice!

Le Figaro list: http://scope.lefigaro.fr/liste/les-meilleures-pizzas-de-paris-24821785/

Other pizza reviews by Pearlspotting: Amici Miei: pizza with attitude and Da Vito: Cool and Affordable Pizzeria

Short stay in Helsinki (my personal highlights)

2 Replies

After the summer house we spent only two full days in Helsinki. It was a brief visit, and it rained very often, so we did not get to visit as much as we had planned. But this short stay was very pleasant and I made a mental note of returning to Helsinki again this autumn (each year I say this, and then by the time the cold weather begins in Paris, we prefer to travel to warmer places. Let’s see about this autumn).

Some highlights of our Helsinki visit were (not in any particular order):

Walking around Kauppatori (The Market Square) and Senaatintori (The Senate Square): watch the luxury cruise ships leave for Tallinn and Stockholm, admire the architecture dating back to the first part of the 19th century (the Russian rule), contemplating at the market by the sea whether to buy a reindeer skin or one kilo of strawberries!
Visiting Artek, the world famous Finnish design and furniture shop (http://www.artek.fi/index.html). A must!
“Grillata“: prepare and eat Finnish barbeque (which includes salmon of course). For cooking ideas, see What does Finnish barbeque look like?
Kappeli (http://www.kappeli.fi/): this restaurant/bar/cafe opened in 1867. It is a Helsinki institution and located in a beautiful, wooden building right by the Market Square. We had just coffee.
Putte’s Bar (http://www.puttes.fi/): I ate a very good Funghi pizza that came with chanterelle mushrooms. I loved the pizza but I have two remarks about the place: I had made a reservation and we were seated downstairs, in the darkest corner. Also the wine is super expensive (like almost everywhere in Finland).
Liberty or Death (http://libertyordeath.fi/): we drunk cocktails with famous ice hockey players. Could it get more Finnish?
Alppitori (http://www.ravintolatori.fi/alppila/): they have excellent hamburgers. My chicken burger came with avocados. My husband’s burger came with crispy bacon. And the best part is that they have French rosé wine for 25€ per bottle.
Siltanen (http://www.siltanen.org/): we had drinks at this club/bar/restaurant that I like very much. It is trendy and hip, and has that industrial feeling. They have DJs and groups playing almost every night.

Time went by very fast and sooner than I realized, I was sitting in an airplane looking at those thousands of tiny islands scattered around Helsinki and its coastline.

Very easy tartiflette

1 Reply

The sun is back and we had tartiflette for lunch at our summerhouse terrace.The recipe I used could not be easier: put sliced potatoes (peeled), onions, garlic and thinly-cut smoked duck into a glass bowl. Mix. Add cream and black & white pepper. Mix again. Add special tartiflette cheese on the top of the ingredients. Cook under aluminum foil for 1h – 1h30 minutes. Enjoy with either red wine or dry white wine (for example AOC Vin de Savoie Apremont).

PS Duck can be replaced by lardon. To give more taste, onions and garlic can be sautéed in a frying pan.

The 24 hour lamb leg

Finnish fish tajine (part 2)

4 Replies

Yesterday’s fish tajine turned out excellent and I thought to write down the recipe before I forget it.

PREPARATION (see also the previous post Finnish fish tajine (part 1)

Peel and cut potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, eggplant, and place them in a large bowl (clay pot gives deeper taste but glass is fine, too)
Add spices: couscous mix, coriander powder and crushed coriander seeds, curcuma (also called turmeric), paprika, cinnamon sticks, lemon pepper and harissa paste
Add olive oil (in addition I used oil from a sundried tomato jar and it gave a lot of taste!)
Add fish broth (I used homemade frozen burbot broth)
Peel a lemon and cut it into thin slices
Add green olives

Mix everything thoroughly. Add fish pieces in the end (I had frozen pieces of burbot, which is an excellent fish for tajines and stews because of its solid texture). Leave the dish to marinate in the fridge for several hours. Heat the oven to 250C. Let the dish cook during one hour. The fact that the dish was cooked under a rather high temperature gave the vegetables a lot of taste (in fact the trick is to let the vegatables to almost-burn! but in order not to burn them totally, you should keep stirring the dish regularly). Enjoy “Finnish fish tajine” with cool rosé wine, for example AOC Côtes du Luberon from the South of France. Serve harissa aside for those who like it hot. I am confident to say that your dinner will be a great success!

PS I was a little bit in a hurry, but to prepare the dish more properly you should probably heat up the spices, garlic and onion in a frying pan (it is important to “open up the spices”with oil). Secondly, if you don’t have burbot, try to find a similar type of fish that has firm texture. Lastly, should you want to save money and do something even easier, try with canned tuna.