What is the Best in Paris

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What is the Best in Paris
I’m frequently asked and more frequently ask myself – “What is the best Basque resto in Paris?  Where can I get the best cassoulet?  Is there a méchoui that just hits the top?“  Damned if I know, and the French critics don’t help. Oh yah, if you know the ropes (which comes from knowing which rope pulls what sail: not a bad origin) you take your Red Michelin, your Pudlo or your outdated edition of Emmanuel Rubin’s Le Paris des Envies gourmandes: 1 plat, 1 adresse,” and you triangulate, as Bill Clinton used to say (but which also derives from nautical days) with a calculator in hand, and you come up with the answer.  But who has the patience to do that.  Instead, you wait for the occasional appropriate  “Dossier” in Figaroscope or elsewhere and desperately try to read between the lines. Why doesn’t anyone do anymore what the New York Magazine used to do 40 years ago in rating pastrami sandwiches and even Figaro does periodically with pizzas; put them all up and give them rank-ordered numbered ratings?  Because they’re chicken; because they’re afraid of their advertisers’ wrath; and because (in the US) they’re afraid of lawsuits or (in France) afraid of derision. When I was a very young student in Paris, we used to get our cheapest and indeed tastiest, meals, at Viet Namese (that’s right, Viet Nam is two words) places near the Sorbonne. Those were the days when a cheap meal in a French place meant inedible beef, greasy frites, canned petits pois and horrible pastry.  Today, 50 years later, ask me, what’s the best Viet Namese place left standing in town?  Got me! So to my French colleagues, whom I know read my drivel: here’s a challenge for you: in the next two years, come up with two tough analyses/comparisons of the top 5 or 10 X, Y or Z places and rank-order them.  I mean, I’ll tell you where: the best salmon cru can be found – 144 Petrossian with the Copenhague/Flora Danica/Maison du Danemark close behind; the best coq au vin comes from – Chez René , because Recamier rarely had it and now only serves soufflés (mighty good ones though) anyway; and the best ris au lait dwells – not at les Symples de l’Os a Moelle, although it’s not bad, but at l’Ebouchoir (what, where?). So guys, give it a go! As usual I’ll give my faves: 144 Petrossian 18 bd de la Tour Maubourg, 7th (Metro: La Tour Maubourg) T: 01.44.11.32.32 Closed Sundays and Mondays Menu: 45 €, a la carte 120-140 €. Copenhague/Flora Danica/Maison du Danemark 142, Ave Champs Elysees, 8th (Metro: Charles de Gaulle Etoile) T: 01 44 13 86 25 Restaurant currently under renovation but the Boutique is supposed to be open everyday. Chez René 14, boulevard Saint-Germain, 5th (Maubert-Mutualite) T : 01 43 54 30 23 Closed Saturday lunch, Sundays and Mondays Menu is 38 € Cigale- Récamier 4 rue Recamier, 7th (Metro: Sevres-Babylone) T: 01 45 48 87 87 Closed Saturday lunch and Sundays A la carte about 55 € Les Symples de l’Os a Moelle 18 ave de la Republique in Issy-les-Moulineaux, 92nd, (Metro: Mairie d’Issy) T: 01.41.08.02.52 Closed Saturday lunch and Sundays One price meals – 22 €. l’Ebauchoir 43-45 rue de Citeaux, 12th (Metro: Faidherbe Chaligny) T: 01.43.42.49.31 Closed Sunday, Monday lunch Menu at lunch 13.50 and 23 €, a la carte 35 €. ©2007 John A. Talbott
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