Well, a[nother] precedent is being broken – ethnic food

Remember a third of the way through “Casablanca” when a woman asks Carl: “Will you ask Rick to have a drink with us?” and Carl says: “Madame, he never drinks with the customers, Never.  I have never seen him.” Then Rick Blaine sits down to drink with Ilsa Lund and Victor Laszlo and Capt. Renault says “Well, a precedent is being broken”?  Well, that’s the way I felt recently eating at ethnic restaurants in Paris. For years I’ve had this conceit that I only ate at French French restaurants, eschewing fusion, World and ethnic food because (1) I could do better in their countries or even SF or NY, (2) Life was too short here in Paris to indulge in foreign cuisine and (3) Like all conceits, it was a badge of honor. Of course I broke my self-imposed rule all the time, dining at Mori Venice Bar, Stella Maris and Xang Lao Lane II; but having excuses for all three; Mori had the best French blanquette in the city, Stella was really French food by a Japanese chef and Xang was about all that was open for Sunday lunch. However, this month, I broke my rule big time. Looking at my sheet of foolscap where I’d noted all the places I wanted to eat, I noted only a few that really called to me.  And the top ones were either pure ethnic or so ethnically tinged as to be most non-French. On the spectrum from most non-French to most French, I’d have to say that my local dive Titalina, a Cape Verde/Portuguese place serving only a couple of daily specials now and box wine, is one of the purest.  Certainly not a destination, if it weren’t meters from my apartment I wouldn’t have gone, though, it served genuinely indigenous food. And then there was Shan Gout, whose sign outside was described by Alain Fusion as saying “special Chinese Restaurant,” which he thought was unnecessary, well, sorry Alain, and while my Mandarin is a bit rusty, it is very, very special.  This is the Chinese version of Jadis – old recipes, cooked with modern ingredients, using modern culinary tools (fry pans not woks) and fresh products (so much so, the chef dashed out to pick up the fish about 12h45.)  I’ve never had Chinese food of this quality in Hong Kong or from Chinese chefs in Sai Gon in the 60’s, China in the ‘70’s, San Francisco and New York since the ‘50’s and Paris more recently. Issé on the other hand, is supposed to be a refined and nouvelle cuisined exemplar of Japanese food.  In fact it was so refined and nouvelle that it was nigh tasteless.  If this is the future, like Robert Fulford, I think it doesn’t work.  In some ways nouvelling a cuisine means refining it to its essence and while the molecular boys may succeed much of the time, you can refine too much. On the other end was yam’Tcha, which when I tried to pin my friends/colleagues/critics down about what sort of food was served, finally came up with Asian-influenced.  For instance, the amuse bouche was a salad that could well have been served on a tatami in a Kyoto ryokan; but the foie gras and asparagus was definitely totally French except for the marinade for the asparagus.  Tea, rather than wine was “paired” with the courses but the cheese course of mixed mascarpone and gorgonzola had passed through neither Hong Kong nor the Alps. Or take Passage 53, where the chef, named M. Sato, is said to have worked at both Aida and l’Astrance which apparently resulted in a little of both rubbing off on him, so that Alexandre Cammas of Le Fooding called the result “half-terroir, half-Japanesy” food.  The raw fish was as fine as one could get anywhere in Japan and the meat from Hugo Desnoyer as fine as this butcher to the chefs can do. And then there was the revived Reminet, which used to be a purely French but was described by Emmanuel Rubin as passing from bistro to tourist food after it was taken over (A Nous Paris says) by a “globe-trotting” team who have passed through Polynesia, Madagascar, the Antilles and St Martin.  As far as I’m concerned, their travels or travails have not rubbed off one iota on them, which is OK, because it’s pretty good French chow as is. Places that broke precedent were: Titalina 73, rue Duhesme in the 18th (Metro: Jules Joffrin) T: 01.42.59.33.47 Closed Mondays A la carte 20 €. Shan Gout 22, rue Hector Malo, 12th (Metro: Gare de Lyon) T: 01.43.40.62.14 Closed Mondays A la carte about 30 €. Issé 45, rue de Richelieu, 2nd, (Metro: Pyramides) T: 01.42.96.26.60 Closed Sundays and Mondays Lunch bento 35 €, dinner degustation 55 €, a la carte 25-40 €.   yam’Tcha 4, rue Sauval in the 1st, (Metro: Les Halles, Sentier) T: 01 40 26 08 07 Closed Mondays and Tuesdays Lunch menu at 30 €, tasting menu 65 and dinner 45 €.    Passage 53 53 Passage des Panorama, 2nd, (Metro: Grands Boulevards) T: 01 42 33 04 35 Closed Sundays A la carte 38-44 €. Le Reminet 3, rue des Grands-Degres, 5th (Metro : St Michel, Maubert-Mutualite) T : 01.44.07.04.24 Open 7/7 Lunch menu 14 €, dinner a la carte 40-60 €. Blog: John Talbott’s Paris©by John Talbott 2009