Moules Frites and More, July in France

Needless to say we’ve been too busy eating over the past few weeks to put our forks down and type instead. But when a friend let me know she was pimping our blog to Julie Powell of Julie and Julie fame I exclaimed “Merde! I better get on it!”. Ironically, I picked up Julia Child’s “My Life in France” to read on the flight home, and had a fantastic revelation. Having now been lucky enough to travel to Paris many times, as well as other parts of the France, I know firsthand the places she references, the dishes and markets she savors, the ingredients in French that she uses without needing to translate them. That’s what’s so remarkable to me about the city of Paris and of French cooking, the complete timelessness. She reminisces in the book about perfect moules mariniere the way that I wistfully remember one of our most memorable meals this trip, a cozy little restaurant in Normandy on the water with an open grill and big pots of the freshest moules I’ve ever had (the farm was 100 yards away) and vats of dark brown perfect fries to soak up the creme fraiche and shallot sauce. And the heavy rain outside made the live jazz, warm fire, and everyone squished into tables even more cozy.

So let’s talk some more about Normandy. The land of milk products. Where you can go to the market and get creme fraiche that is absolutely nothing like the one option (in the little pink tub) we have here in the US. Where we toured one of the few remaining raw milk camembert makers in France, where everything is still made by hand. I also learned that you can wrap camembert in foil and put it on the BBQ, the rind is delicious and you can dip bread in the warm gooey middle. This is perfect after gold medal winning hand made merguez and onion saucisson made by the boucher down the street. Because our lovely hostess knew my foodie nature she made a point to bring me to the butcher when he was in on Saturday morning, so he could show me the specific cut of pork to use for the roast she had made the other day. When none of us could figure out how what it was between our broken french and english he whipped out a side of pork from the cooler to show me where it was! And this was after a fantastic trip to the market, equipped with our “real” cart like the locals (it was so great to be able to shop and have a kitchen to work in afterwards, a first since we’re normally vacationing and only picking up items for a picnic), picking up fresh oysters at $3.50/dozen, fresh eggs, saucisson from a jovial pot bellied man that made them all himself, and more glorious cheese. I ate cheese at every meal. I do love a country where wine and cheese are encouraged at both lunch and dinner!

This trip offered me my first chance to spy in a real French kitchen, learning and savoring how to properly sugar my yogurt, how to make quiche lorraine (and the roast mentioned above), that all children love Monster Munch, that cleaning off the lovely potatoes des sable (small delicate potatoes grown in the sand) make your hands black, that beurre au sel de guerande with big chunks of sea salt is about the best thing on bread EVER, and that the simplicity and freshness of ingredients is the marquis of French cooking as I suspected. What could be better than heading out at low tide to collect clams, mussels, and snails and then prepare them the same night for dinner? And yes, I received the “eat the snail challenge” which I deftly passed, much to the surprise of my challenger. We were lucky to enjoy all ends of the culinary spectrum, from superbly fresh and innovative food at Itineraires in Paris, to lovely French bistro fare in a starlit courtyard in Bordeaux, to simple superb home cooked meals in Normandy, finishing with an all-souffle meal back in Paris before Fromage returned home.
I stayed on for a few more days to work, hosting a magical dinner at Restaurant Des Ombres at the Musee Quai Branly where the food was mediocre but to be on a terrace under the Eiffel Tower, everything tastes a little bit better.
Unless, that is, you give me ice cream. Like I mentioned in the last post, it’s my nemesis. Caramel beurre sale is my new fave, but I ended on praline speculos and fraises des bois sorbet. Heaven in a cone, while walking on the Seine. The only thing better would have been to have Fromage there with me holding my other hand, or racing with me on the Velibs that we love riding all over town. Something tells me we’ll end up back in Paris together again soon...

J'adore la glace

I’ve always loved ice cream. I remember making sundaes with my Grandpa with chocolate sauce and spanish peanuts....I think that’s where my love of salt and sweet began. I remember spending the night with my other Grandparents and having ice cream floats while my Grandpa always had his 3 ice cream scoops in a bowl. The essence of summer was neopolitan ice cream, a cone from Dairy Queen, a Drumstick, Breyers Vanilla, or sometimes even a scoop from Baskin Robbins when my best friend was working. Nowadays BR is not quite my thing, I lean more towards small batch locally made ice cream and gelato (except for Haagen Daas Special Reserve Fleur de Sel Caramel!). I had to laugh at myself as I walked up to the ice cream shop counter here in "B." tonight. The sign outside said “42 glaces”, that’s right 42 ice cream flavors! (Yes, made onsite) Bring on the Speculoos and cream! Bring on whatever that flavor is because I’ve never seen that word before! But really, if it’s fruity and/or something sweet mixed with cream can you go wrong?! I may have ended up eating the flavors I wouldn’t be caught dead devouring at home, à la cookies and cream and snickers, but when he flavors are instead Speculoos and Rocher it’s infinitely more acceptable, non?

Then I sat down on a bench to enjoy the view and my dinner. Yep, there’s that sense of victory when you decide to have ice cream for dinner, or cereal, or anything you were raised to believe was not actually a proper dinner. And the 2nd scoop is what makes it a meal, not a snack. Inevitably I’ll be back tomorrow to have 2 more scoops because I just can’t leave that many flavors behind, and because it’s my French lesson in action. I’ve started discreetly writing words and phrases down that I don’t know, and I look them up at the end of the day. I did brave dinner on my own last night, not willing to give up the chance to experience the cuisine here, and had a lovely roasted vegetable tart with pesto, tapenade crusted cod with basmati rice and roasted tomatoes, baba au rhum with rhum raisin ice cream, and some lovely white bordeaux wine. This morning at the market I picked up some fantastic fruits and cheeses, a petit basque cake, and some absolutely magical roasted potatoes that were cooking at the bottom of the duck rotisserie. So I was only hungry enough for 2 scoops of ice cream for dinner tonight, hope you can understand why...

High cinq

Yep, we high fived each other yesterday when we realized we'd eaten at La Fontaine de Mars where the Obamas dined the other night in Paris. We later realized that it's claim to fame was also hosting Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens last year, which a particular 9 and 12 year old we know will find even more interesting and make us even cooler. We didn't even mean to eat there... admittedly we were headed to one of Christian Constant's restaurants down the street but it seemed too nice outside to eat inside so we ended up there. What's funny to me is one of my quintessential Paris moments happened there, the kind that every American expects to have. I ordered chicken and morels for my main course and while enjoying said dish, I bit into a rock. Yes, one of my very fresh-from-the-market morels had grown around a pebble!! I was still in shock when the waiter walked by and when told what happened shot me a look and mumbled (in French) "so what is the problem???" Nothing, except I almost broke my tooth. Anyway...

So right now, as we speak, Fromage is enjoying a meal at one of my favorite spots in D.C., Central by Michel Richard. Someday I swear we'll make it there together. We both became immediately smitten with Michel in Pebble Beach when we attended one of his cooking classes at the Food Festival. He is ridiculously charming and entertaining, just like Fr, but a little more like Papa Noel in the looks department and with just a few more mad chef skills. He even drew a picture of a crying chef in my cookbook because he was sad that Fromage was my sous chef instead of him! There were words exchanged in French, I'm sure something terribly chivalrous and romantic and not relating to how quickly they were willing to get rid of me for the hot chick that was next in line...right? So, tonight he's at Central enjoying the frisee salad (my favorite thing, on almost any menu for that matter, but especially well done here), lobster burger, and chocolate bar. And the gougeres, small little puffs of cheesy bread perfection that made my top 10 list of favorite restaurant dishes. I wish there was an app that allowed you to transport your favorite foods and drinks through the phone...

Making top 10 lists is not that easy, but it's also educational. I clearly favor desserts and edited out some cocktails, so I think lists devoted to these 2 topics may be next. So without further ado, here's

MAC'S TOP TEN(ish) DISHES EVER:

Mango, olives, marcapone cheese dessert and pear- jalapeno cocktail at Vermillion, Chicago

Passionfruit sorbet at Spice Market, NYC

Roasted Chicken at Zuni Cafe, SF

Strawberry Shortcake at Canteen, SF

Chocolate doughnuts at La Mar, SF

Pain au Chocolat at Tartine, SF (yes, even better than any I've had in France!)

Almond cocktail at Aziza, SF

Gougeres at Central Michel Richard, D.C.

Lobster Poutine at Garde-Manger, Montreal

Black Pepper Sorbet with Strawberries Uchi, Austin

Grown up Mac and Cheese Moto, Chicago

Any pizza at Aurelios, Homewood, IL


High Five, High Cinq, Ha Fa, I'm hungry. Going to enjoy my 2 favorites from Whole Foods, Butternut Squash and Crab Bisque with an Olive Oil and Sea Salt Ciabatta roll. It's not Central but it will do!!!

Guilt trip

So I totally pressured Fromage into going out the other night. While in NYC for business he was planning on just going to Whole Foods one night when I exclaimed, "What?! You're in NEW YORK with a million fantastic restaurants, that's blasphemy! We go to WF all the time here!" So he went to Bar Breton and enjoyed a lovely meal and thanked me later. Thankfully neither one of us fears dining alone, either in Austin or on the road. Why miss a great meal just because your dining partner is a magazine and not a person? Naturally we prefer sharing meals together, and spent a few hours the other night compiling a comprehensive list of all the places we've wined and dined at, some noteworthy, some not. It was a really fun exercise, plenty of "mmmmmm's" and "oooooohh, yeah's!!" as we recalled specific dishes and memorable settings (and those that were barely memorable at all). We're still debating on how to share all the information, so in the meantime we're presenting you with the following "menu"- If there's any place on the list below that you'd like to hear about first please place your order. And check back as we'll have a few top 10 lists up soon!

AUSTIN, TX	NEW YORK, NY (Cont'd)
Wink	Yakitori Totto
Uchi	Bowery Hotel bar
Sampaio's	Stanton Social
Mirabelle	Markt ("Fromage" only)
La Condesa	Bar Breton ("Fromage" only)
North	PARIS, FRANCE
Siena	Le Buisson Ardent (5th)
Triumph Café	Restaurant Christophe (5th)
Alborz	Le Comptoir du Relais (6th)
Thai Fresh	La Mediterranee (6th)
Satay	Le Petit Verdot (6th)
Bombay Bistro	Le Bistrot Paul Bert (11th)
Musashino	Ze Kitchen Gallerie (6th)
Kenobi	Chez Omar (3rd)
Manuel's	Toustem - Helene Darroze (5th - closed)
Enoteca	La Ferrandaise (6th)
La Traviata	Aux Lyonnais (2nd)
South Congress Café	Hotel Costes - Bar (1st)
Cissis Market	(Hotel d'Aubusson)
Jo's	Afaria (15th)
Mighty Cones	Alcazar (6th)
Habana	Ribouldingue (5th "Mac" only)
Good Night	Le Coupe Chou (5th)
Uncorked	Les Trois Mailletz (5th)
Paggi House	Le Caveau de la Huchette (5th)
Mulberry	Dalva (2nd)
Cipollina	La Cerisaie (14th)
Kim Phung	La Rotisserie d'en Face - Jacques Cagna (6th)
34th Street Café	Foucher - Fromager (5th)
Teo	Polidor (6th)
P.Terry's	La Fontaine de Mars (7th)
Magnolia Café	PHILADELPHIA, PA
Perla's	Joseph Ambler Inn (North Wales, PA)
BARCELONA, SPAIN	Morimoto
El Quim de la Boqueria at La Boqueria Market ("Mac" only)	PROVENCE, FRANCE
CARMEL, CA	Auberge de Noves
The Cheese Shop	Restaurant "Le Provence" in the hotel "Les Ateliers de l'Image" (Saint-Rémy-de-Provence)
Casanova	SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Dametra Café	Zuni Café ("Mac" only)
Grasing's	AME
CHICAGO, IL	Canteen
Moto	Nopa
Avec	Le Colonial
Blackbird	Slanted Door
Aigre Doux ("Fromage" only)	Tartine
Custom House	La Mar
Zed 451	Aziza
Vermilion	Americano
Sepia	Luce (InterContinental Hotel)
The Gage	SANTA CRUZ, CA
Le Colonial	Café Brasil
Pops For Champagne	SANTA FE, NM
HOUSTON, TX	La Fonda - Bar
Reef	Baleen (The Inn and Spa at Loretto)
LAS VEGAS, NV	Coyote Café
Okada (@ the Wynn)	La Casa Sena (brunch)
Parapluie (@ the Wynn)	SAO PAULO, BRAZIL (All "Fromage" only)
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO	Fogo de Chao
La Pastaga (Fr)	Templo de Bahia
MONTEREY, CA	A Figueira Rubaiyat
Passion Fish	Casa Braz
MONTREAL, CANADA	Tordesilhas
Hotel Le Relais Lyonnais - fantastic hotel worth mentioning	SEATTLE, WA
Garde-Manger	Wild Ginger
Au Pied de Cochon	Qube (closed)
Le Jardin Nelson	Saito Japanese
MIAMI, FL	WASHINGTON D.C.
Blue Door at Delano	IndeBleu
The Hotel bar	Zaytinya
NEW YORK, NY	Central ("Mac" only)
Geisha	Jaleo ("Mac" only)
Spice Market	Komi
BLT Market	Brasserie Beck
Vong

Thank You Moto!

Adult mac and cheese. That’s what I remember reading on the edible menu before we, well, ate it. The dish appeared...truffled dehydrated cheese dusted on rehydrated noodles along with fried quail in a small bowl. The flavor was extraordinary, I still crave it, still remember it exactly. It was one of 10 courses, ending in dessert nachos which, literally, while comprised of sweet flash fried pastry “chips”, kiwi, ground chocolate, creme fraiche, and frozen shredded cantaloupe, looked exactly like savory nachos when set before us. (Photos are banned in the restaurant, so here's their official gallery of photos including the edible menu and “nachos”) I was stupified by the skill, the flavor, the presentation, it was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. I’d been devouring foodie magazines and cookbooks for years, trying new recipes, trying new restaurants when traveling but this night, this restaurant, ironically in my home town, after my first molecular gastronomy experience I began to fully embrace my obsession with food and wine.

Mac and fromage. I grew up in the midwest, the land of orange cheddar cheese and the ubiquitous Kraft Macaroni and Cheese or “mac and cheese” as we all know it. My most frequent and favorite dining partner (and co-author of this blog) grew up around the world but definitely refers to his cheese as fromage and frowns upon any that is the iridescent orange color I just spoke of. But we both agree on adult mac and cheese and most things involving truffles for that matter as well. (We even have a fantastic friend that grows truffles in Tennessee! www.tennesseetruffle.com ) When choosing between Japonais and Moto that evening I didn’t know what a long lasting impact my decision would have. By choosing Moto I gained said dining partner’s trust in restaurant decisions when traveling, I learned that he would enthusiastically sit through a 4 hour 10 course dinner and deconstruct/analyze each course with me, and that he was as much a foodie as I was. We started cooking and experimenting in our kitchen much more often, too, and love to drink wine and dance while we prepare new recipes. Food and wine (and travel and running... a perfect compliment to calorie laden meals...), both inside and outside our home, are our passion.

From Moto to Morimoto, from Spice Market to Slanted Door, from Aziza to Ze Kitchen Gallerie, we have plenty of stories from behind the table, behind the wine glass, as well as from behind the pan in our own kitchen. But the best is yet to come, so join us here on our journey!