Joe Ray
Food & Travel / Words & Photos
EATING
THE
MOTHERLAND
Food writer and photographer Joe Ray's gastronomic visits in Europe - the home of his ancestors - and beyond.
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Tuesday, July 20, 2010
HAIL THAT CAB!
PARIS - I’d been back in town for 48 hours, my mental Rolodex a little rusty and trying to think of a good place to meet a friend for lunch. My brain falls on a well-worn card.
Taxi Jaune is a perfect ‘welcome back’ - serving, on this day, radishes with good, sweet, creamy butter and salt flakes - the dish might as well have a little French flag on the top.
Later, Ari and I share mains. A bavette (flank steak) is crunchy on the outside, juicy within - a bite full of flavor, good technique and strong sourcing.
The trout, skin crisp and peeled back like the page of a good book reveals something sensual, a kind of ‘pages turned slowly’ read. There’s a fettucine next to it that’s so good, it causes me to go home and try to make my own pasta.
Outside, the sun is bright. The city shines like a diamond.
Count on about 20€ with a drink at lunch.
Le Taxi Jaune - MAP
13, rue Chapon
Paris
+33 1 42 76 00 40
Monday, July 12, 2010
SUGAR FRENZY
PARIS
“Mmm… Almonds, fleur d’oranger, vanilla…” says Ari dissecting the Pain du Sucre confection I’m sharing.
“What else is in it?” asks her friend.
My only reply is a frenzied chewing sound, similar to the dining animals in “The Fantastic Mr. Fox.”
Both friends have each ordered exactly one mint macaroon with chocolate (girls!) and they taste exactly like the mint that grew in our side yard when I was five.
Yesterday in the patisserie where we got them – Pain de Sucre, run by ex-Pierre Gagnaire partner/dynamic do Didier Mathray and Nathalie Robert – a woman, perhaps intoxicated by the beautiful fumes practically stampedes our threesome.
Today, on our return visit (Ari needed some more for her return to Barcelona), another woman snatches one of her macaroons from the box before the salesman can close the top, pretends to offer it to her infant and acts surprised when, ostensibly, the baby says ‘no.’
The mom wolfs it down in one bite.
I can’t blame her.
Pain de Sucre – MAP
14 rue Rambuteau
75003 Paris
http://www.patisseriepaindesucre.com/
Closed Tuesday & Wednesday
Click here to see my 2007 story on Pain du Sucre and other, emm, mold-breaking patisseries
Follow me on Twitter: @joe_diner.