chez pim

Les Ambassadeurs: I can't quite make up my mind yet

April 29th, 2004

One of my lunches in Paris last month was at Les Ambassadeurs at L'hôtel Crillon. I wanted to go back to the hotel Crillon to try the new chef, Jean-François Piège, who came from Alain Ducasse at the Plaza Athenée.

He's one of the hottest young chefs in Paris at the moment. I was curious to see how he did outside of chef Ducasse's shadow. Unfortunately, my schedule only permitted a lunch.

The day started out with a lovely walk in the Marais. I intended to show Doug and Tamar the Musée Picasso, but by the time we were done with our walk, which included a few stops at various lovely shops in the Marais and a promenade around the beautiful Place des Vosges to glance longingly toward the general direction of L'Ambroisie, we were so late that we had to skip the museum and jump into a cab to Le Crillon.

Good Bye Lenin and Lola+Billidikid

I've been seeing a lot of German films lately. There are two I particularly like.

One is a somewhat morbid comedy, Good Bye Lenin. A mother in East Germany went into a coma for 8 months, during which time Germany underwent the most drastic change in such a short time period in her long history. Fearing that the shock of all the changes to her way of life might do her in, her children decided to keep the world the way it was, for the time being.

The was one of those classic stories of a little white lie that got a bit out of hand. It was simply hilarious. The film invited us to look into the absurdities in our modern society through the eyes of new comers, yet those insights were so right on, illuminating details that we barely notice anymore as we've become so jaded by them.

And as a foodie, I must say that the bit about the Soviet era packaged food almost killed me!

The second one is heavier, Lola+Billidikid was shown at the Goethe Institute as part of their Young Turks film festival. The director, E. Kutlug Ataman, is a German of Turkish descent. The film is a look into the second-class world of Turks living in the Turkish ghetto in Frankfurt, and at issues like cruelty and prejudice in their many forms, racism, homophobia, incest, even love. Yet it managed to do all those without being at all didactic. The movie was extremely funny and engaging, though at times so incredibly cruel. A fantastic film, really.

The world in 52 bowls of rice: Is My Blog Burning? 4th edition

I am speechless, utterly speechless. I waited until this morning to do a count on Around the world in a bowl of rice entries to make sure I didn't overlook any US West Coast late comers, and the final count is now at 49.(No! It's now 52!!) Well, 49 bowls and 3 cups of rice, to be exact. These entries take us through a fascinating cultural and historical landscape of our world, from dishes rooted in ancient ways of living, to those that exemplify to quilted interconnectedness of our new world. Some of these dishes simply remind us of home, while others take us through a curious journey through the cultures that are foreign to us. I've had such fun putting this list together, now, please join me in this mesmerizing journey around the world in a rice bowl.

Is My Blog Burning?, Khao Nam-prik Long Ruea

It took me a while to decide what to make in honor of my own edition of Is My Blog Burning?. Having grown up in Thailand, rice was ever-present in my childhood. It was present at every meal. Yet rice was rarely a star of the meal, preferring to take a humbler role of a character actor—a key factor in a plot yet out of the lime-light. I finally decided on an old Thai dish called Khao Nam-prik Long Ruea, or rice with “embarking” relish.

Khao Nam-prik Long Ruea is our ancient form of picnic food. Story has it that palace cooks devised a way to make portable food that was easy to take on royal boat trips or picnics by pre-mixing the traditional relish “Nam-prik”, with rice and other accompaniments. Each portion was, then, packed into a banana leaf container, et voila, a to-go form of Royal Thai Cuisine.

Is My Email Burning? Rice entries from email.

Three entries came to me via an email, from my friend Vanessa, an Iraqi Kitchri, from Sher, Shrimp Creole, and from Robyn, his mom's glorified rice.

Autour du monde au riz: are you joining us?

I can't wait. I can't wait. I can't wait. (Yes, Pim has, temporarily—she so hopes, turned into an eight year old who barely could stand waiting two more days for all the fun to begin.)

I hope you are all packed and ready to go on a world tour with us this Sunday May 23. I have been salivating at the thought of all of your delectable rice entries to “Around the world in a bowl of rice”, my edition of Is My Blog Burning?.

If you will be playing with us, but haven't yet left me a comment to let me know, please do so in the comment box here. I don't need a permalink to the post itself, just your blog URL will do. I'll pay your blogs a visit Sunday and collect all the goodies.

If you want to participate, but have no blogs, leave me an email address and I will contact you. I can put them up on Chez Pim.

I simply can't wait!

Mon Vieil Ami, a new old friend

April 29th, 2004

When I was at Le Buerehiesel in February, the maître d told me about chef Westermann's new venture in Paris, Mon Vieil Ami. He highly recommended that I paid them a visit next time I found myself in Paris.

I was very happy with my dinner in Strasbourg, so it didn't take much to convince me to try the new place. The young chef in charge of the Paris operation, Antony Clémot, was previously sous chef at Le Buerehiesel.

We had an early reservation at 7pm, and were asked when we made the reservation to give back the table by 9.30pm. I didn't mind that so much, as they were quite polite about it, and I was just happy to get a table without much advance notice.

Les Fables de la Fontaine: A lovely fishy lunch chez Constant

April 28th, 2004

Another place on my must-try list this week is the newest addition to chef Christian Constant's plan to take over rue St.Dominique. His latest venture is a casual seafood restaurant, just on the other side of his flagship, Le Violon d'Ingres, from his other small place Café Constant.

I really liked Café Constant when I was there in August. I had a lovely plate of calf liver, cooked rare in a vinaigrette sauce with plenty of chopped chives, and a simple yet fantastic tarte aux mirabelles. Mirabelle is a type of tiny yellowish-green prunes from Lorraine that is perfect for fruit tarts as they are sweet, but with a good level of acidity, and extremely fragrant. The mirabelles alone are almost a good enough reason to put up with tourists in France in August.

La Régalade, a forgettable lunch

April 27th, 2004

I had a bit of time before my afternoon meeting, so I skipped out to La Régalade to check out the new chef. I had no reservation but I made sure to get there right at noon to ensure a seat.

The service at la Régalade was as unnecessarily harried as ever. The place was not even half full when I arrived, but the two waitresses flew about the place as though they were on wings, well, or on some kind of pharmaceuticals. Yet, the service and the food were so slow my two-hour window was not even enough to finish my lunch.

Revisiting an old friend, L'Ardoise

April 25th, 2004

Dinner tonight was at L'Ardoise, an old favorite to which I hadn't been for far too long. I was to take Doug and Tamar and meet my friend Maurice at the restaurant for our 9 PM reservation, but getting there proved to be a bit tougher than expected.

I looked in my trusted Plan de Paris, the same one I've used since the early nineties, found my notation in the book for L'Ardoise, and set out to that general direction. I only needed help from the map to get to the street, from there on I knew exactly where my old friend L'Ardoise was. Or so I thought.