This is just the sort of place I imagined an upmarket New York restaurant would look like. Solid, spacious, salubrious and snobby, and that is a compliment. It is expensive in the evening but if, like me, you are on a budget, there are some great deals at lunchtime. I visited in September 2009 and unlike former customer, Monica Lewinsky, I managed to keep my stains on the tablecloth.
Cafe de Luna, on boulevard de Clichy is a bustling bistro that caught my eye on a cheeky weekend visit. We were staying round the corner in the ninth and needed a reasonably priced dinner. That is a challenge at the moment for Brits in Paris due to the parity of Euro/Sterling.
I started with Bourgogne escargots in garlic and mopped up every last morceau! Eating snails is always a bit like chewing on rolled up condoms but it is the sauce that makes the strange texture so appealing.
Chez Clément has many branches in Paris and one in Nantes. Is this the French version of Chez Gerard? Je pense que oui!
I have some empathy with John Major and his propensity to give her a pubic service. Edwina Currie, in her prime, was almost certainly a foxy chick, and she sure has the personality to entertain a Minister of State. However, her period of public service is not remembered fondly by the British egg trade.
Now though, it seems eggs are safe after all – hoorah! Boiled eggs are one of my staple dishes and I eat far more than the three a week that most of the public (including me) used to think was safe.
But is there a wine that matches my eggy soldiers? Will two bell towers stand proud to the challenge?
Raymond Blanc, founder of high profile restaurant with rooms, Le Manoir aux quat’saisons, and currently starring in the latest culinary reality TV show from the BBC, The Restaurant, has another business interest, a chain of eateries.
I showed up at Brasserie Blanc in Manchester only to discover that Monsieur Blanc has not visited the place in two years. The brasserie looked unloved and was almost completely empty. Would this be a culinary delight, or should Raymond come and close his own restaurant?
We regularly use the plural when we mean the singular. Nowhere is this more true than in Latin derived words used in a business context. For example “can you tell me the single criteria for success?”. Erm no I can’t, but I might be able to enlighten you with the criterion.
A gruff Yorkshireman with mixed ancestry by the name of Marco Pierre White clearly spotted that the single criterion for a good restaurant was to serve good food. This is certainly a baseline, but in my view there are other criteria. For one, there is history. Criterion pre-dates Piccadilly Circus itself by 4 years putting a big red tick in that particular box.
If Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, named this his favourite restaurant, and Adrian Gill, erstwhile restaurant critic of the Sunday Times, also raves about the place (albeit that he is presumably on a retainer for writing about the history of most of the major restos in Caprice Holdings Ltd), then any self respecting wino has to visit. Sunday lunch is just the perfect time to eat oysters, and my rocks were from Malden. I am embarrassed, though, to admit I had to ask the waiter to explain that Essex is where these crustacea were reared. I am such a northern oik!
The service at Scott’s is obviously superb, highly professional and (unusually) English. However, our waiter was having an off day. I had to ask three times for my wine to be topped up. You may be thinking “lazy so and so” but I would have had to walk about 300 yards to get to my bottle of Pouilly Fumé from where they parked it. Talking of which can you spot our car in the photo below?
No I can’t see it either.
Regular readers know that I sampled the Auction service at Virgin Wines with mixed results. I discovered recently that they have started auctioning Cloudy Bay 2007. Fabulous idea! Everyone knows the price of Cloudy Bay. Although Harvey Nichols sells it every year for about £16-18, other retailers struggle to keep it below £20. The Sunday Times Wine Club sells it at a rip-off £26.95! Virgin Wines? You can start bidding at £1 for 6 bottles!
So I raced to the site and discovered with disappointment that, with 18 hours still to go, the bidding was already at £131 for a half case (£21.83 per bottle). It only took me 1 minute on Google to find it at £18.99 at lebonvin.co.uk. I am not saying that £131 for 6 is bad value, though. It just pays to keep an eye on availability elsewhere if you value your coins. Well worth visiting Virgin and placing a bid of £50 or so, just in case! I am going to keep going back for a look.
Anyway, the cricket saison est arrivé, and tomorrow I managed to get a ticket (sold out) for England vs New Zealand at Old Trafford (Manchester). I know what you are thinking, how on earth is he going to tie all this nonsense back into a post about a wine from Touraine? Listen carefully, I am about to begin…..
London restaurants generally have to work harder than in the provinces of the UK. Standards are higher because competition is fiercer, diners are more sophisticated, more choosy, and every other idiot customer is a critic for the Sunday Times, or some amateur blog.
Do you eat ready meals? The UK is one of the world’s leading producers (and consumers) of ready meals, and I mean by volume, not necessarily quality. Is that good or bad? What does it say about our work addicted society that we no longer have time to enjoy a home cooked meal with friends/family at our own tables?
Stumble It!