Magic in La Cordonnerie

If you ever go to Paris, go to La Cordonnerie (20, rue St-Roch, Paris 75001, France ). Here are some tripadvisor reviews - this is where we found out about it, looking for a restaurant close to where we were staying.

In my opinion, La Cordonnerie is outstanding in style, setup, quality, taste, and the art going into each dish. We had a table right next to the chef and his surprisingly tiny kitchen. He told us a little about the daily specials while chopping chives and onions, and when he had more time, came to our table to explain each dish, with emphasis on the specials, and showed the ingredients, and, whenever he had something plated for another table, the final piece.

We decided to try them all - three starters, two entrees:
- Smoked salmon mousse in crispy fried crepes -
- Arugula salad with fried mushrooms (Girolles, similar to chanterelles)
- Pan-fried foie gras with balsamic-cocoa happiness
- Seaered scallops in tarragon sauce with couscous and green beans
- veal stew in mustard sauce with potatoe gratin and pinto beans
All of these dishes had a combination of textures and flavors that made them very exciting and memorable. The most impressive was the crema di balsamico with cocoa surrounding the foie gras - for me the most unexpected combination and amazingly good. The scallops were seared to almost crispy caramelization on one side, much more than we would have thought possible, but tender and perfect inside, and wonderfully tasty with their tarragon sauce.

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The really unusual thing was that although some of the combinations seemed at first thought odd to me (which I definitely go for..) they tasted so well together that it became entirely natural to think of them as made for each other. The combined tastes made perfectly sense.

I found another, really cool food blog telling about La Cordonnerie and chef Hugo - Angela experienced a different special (perch with tarragon) and has more pictures to show (the one on top is linked from that blog, actually..) - we were simply too perplexed and captivated by what we saw and smelled and tasted to even remember taking photos..
Go to Paris! And go have your perfect dinner!

Cheeeeeese...

Cheese is at home here. The best way to taste that is to experience the traditional, deep-rooted specialties Switzerland has to offer, for example in Zuerich. After a day of exploring bridges bridging the Sihl, churches with varying sized clock faces, and brigthly colored glass windows, photographing people and places while roasting in the much hotter sun than we had expected while drinking cool beers, we went to Swiss Chuchi, the "swiss Kitchen", to indulge in Cheese Fondue and Raclette.

The cheese fondue reminded me in flavor very much on what I had tasted 10 years earlier, when my at that time roommate from the swiss canton Wallis made the fondue the way he had eaten it growing up - rubbing the bottom of a clay pot with garlic, mixing starch and kirschwasser (cherry schnaps), grating raclette cheese and appenzeller, if I remember correctly, half and half, and melting the cheese in the clay pot over medium heat, adding starch-schnaps to bind it and stirring patiently, continuously, vigorously, and yes, arm-tiringly. At Swiss Chuchi, you'll be served your clay pot on a little heater full of perfectly molten, creamy cheese happiness, a basket of bread cubes, and a fork to pick up the bread and stir the cheese with it and ... indulge. Yes, I know, I am repeating myself. :)


From what I could find online, I understood that the fondue here, called a traditional Waadtlaender fondue, is made using Greyerzer of various ages. It tasted really good, and like the home-made cheese fondue I knew. There were lots of yummy garlic slices in it as I noticed when finally reaching the pot's bottom, and the "Nonne" was very nice, but just a little crispy as my flame went out a little too early. I could not finish my fondue, the portion is clearly too generous for my stomach (surprising)..
As for the raclette, the restaurant is using the modern raclette approach (here I found a few more options to buy), a little electrical raclette oven with small pans to lay a slice of raclette cheese in and let it melt in the oven - my friend became more and more courageous at extending the cheese melting duration and finally reached a level of bubbliness and light caramelization reminding me of the origins of this dish - imagine the shepherds up on the alm, having a bag of potatoes, and maybe some pickles, and all the dairy they can get from their cattle for the whole summer. They boiled some potatoes, put a quarter cheese round on a stick, held it over the fire and scraped the molten yumminess onto the potatoes. The cheese must have been creamy, maybe lighlty burned at the rinds, dripping of the chunk and smelling just like that raclette cheese from this little raclette oven..
Swiss chuchi serves raclette with a cute Jute-bag of boiled potatoes, pickle slices, pickled little baby corn and mushrooms, and pearl onions. It can be ordered with various meat add-ons - my friend opted for rabbit, that comes in thin slices that can be fried right there at the table on the griddle part of the little raclette oven.
We were, as one would expect, sleepy after this meal and had to take and extended cheese-processing nap...

Lea in Luxembourg

Luxembourg is a beautiful tiny country between France, Germany and Belgium. It's native language sounds like a mix between french and german (here is a sound example with german translation), and is very similar to the local dialect of my home state Saarland, which is immediately bordering Luxembourg. The two languages are actually more similar to each other, than my dialect is to german. Naturally, the food and local traditions I grew up with are also very common to Luxembourg, and all this closeness gives me a sense of family pride when I write about Lea Linster.

Lea Linster received the Bocuse d'Or in 1989 (look at photos from this year's challenge), as the first, and to this day still the only, female chef. My parents recently had the "Menu BOCUSE D'OR" at Lea's restaurant, and my mom described it as "Just perfect." I never heard a rating that simple, almost speechless and admiring from her - she has praised chefs before, but perfect? I'm stunned. It sounds like it is not only worth writing home about, but also very worth looking at the menu a little bit closer. Here are two courses of the Menu Bocuse d'Or, photographed by my parents.

LOBSTER
Cooked in stock, unshelled, served with a small salad, tarragon sauceLAMB
Saddle of lamb in potato crust from the oven, in itss juice perfumed with rosemary

Lea is a very personable warm lady, and inquired about me when my parents told her they would come back with me some day, and that they took pictures of the meal to send them to me - when she heard that I like to cook, and that last time I visited home was especially into all that local traditional food that you cannot get anywhere else, she got excited and gave them a present for me: her cookbook, with a really sweet note she wrote to me:
Here is also a link to some of her recipes. Her cookbook is on the way to me, and she told my parents that there is also a great recipe for kniddelen in it, which are known as "Mehlknepp" or Mehlknoedel in Saarland. I look forward to reading her book, rediscover this dish, and will try it out and report as soon as I got the book in my hands.

Until then, when you go to Luxembourg, visit Lea Linster, give her my best regards and thanks, and have a "perfect" dinner. :)

Apple of many seeds

Sometimes the world is so in admiration of something, that it cannot get enough of it - over and over you encounter this one single item, as if there is nothing else noteworthy in this life. So, you trust the spirits, the vibes, the improbability accumulation and your coincidence detector, and enjoy what is offered to you.

Good choice!

That's how it felt to me last week, when I repeatedly encountered pomegranates in all forms and disguises.A worthy fruit to be detected, discovered, and deliciously combined with flavors, textures and colors.

So, what did I encounter? I'll focus on two only, to not overwhelm the worthy fruit-lover..

First, pomegranate icecream with chocolate chips. DARK chocolate, that is. I know people who cannot stand the combination of fruit & choc, but I really love it. Pomegranate is the perfect candidate for such a mix, because it brings a robust acidity into the marriage, paired with distinct fruitiness - together with the rich aroma of cocoa beans this adds up to something that does not allow not to be eaten up. Entirely. And still, you feel really okay afterwards!
Second: The next wonder of the pomegranate world I met was at "Jayne's gastropub" in San Diego. If you're in the area, check it out - it is a beautiful little restaurant, all european feeling, where me and my two german friends were debating which place in Germany (or France?) (or where?) this looked similar to. Beautiful tile floor (reminding me of my grandparents house), walls half dark wooden, half white, covered with large mirrors, a british flag and other treasures from across the sea.. the kitchen open, visible from the bar, with beautiful stainless steel gas stove in action - sip on your first glass of Cabernet and enjoy the skillful wrist movements of the chef that let the skillet merely wiggle, but every food in it jumps up & down, just like you inside. I'm like a big kid in a toystore in these kind of places.

Here is what I ate:
Oven Roasted Maple Leaf Duck Breast potato gnocchi, savoy cabbage, spinach, pearl onions, shitake & cremini mushrooms, pomegranate balsamic reduction
The picture I found is only similar, I was too focused during dinner to remember taking a picture.. my duck actually was medium rare, nice and red inside, grilled & almost crispy outside - the gnocchi and vegetable were tossed together, a really great combination, gnocchi, savoy cabbage & spinach? Man, so phantastic.. Savoy cabbage is pure magic anyway..
But the pomegranate sauce was really interesting - I'm not entirely convinced that there is something gained from adding balsamico to pomegranate, because they both hit the same spots, fruity, only lightly sweet, acidic.. but that is just me wondering - the result, along with the duck dipped in it, was beautiful and very tasty.

Let this be enough of my pomegranate encounters. Check out this site here to dive deeper.. enjoy & let me know how your encounters turned out!

From goat cheese cheesecake to salty plums

It's been a while.. business kept me busy, and led me to a trip to Washington D.C., which resulted in me eating my way through the various amazing places there are in that city..

First, DC is a great place for seafood, especially compared to Nashville.. (go figure)I encountered a seafood place that is seriously worth mentioning - very pricy, but a real experience:
DC Coast, with a menu ranging from 'caramelized porcini gnocchi' to 'crab boudin', all very eclectic and creative, but in a very good way. I decided on a tuna dinner, starting with a Tuna tartare, à la ceviche, with lime, cilantro, red onion, and coconut milk, and lightly spicy, an extremely delicious combination that was served in half a coconut on ice. My entrée was 'seared yellowfin tuna', with strips of apple, and a sauce made from foie gras, and one from sweet onions. I'm not sure I tasted foie gras in there, and it therefore had a pretentious touch to it, but the sauces were very tasty and both supported and contrasted the tuna taste really well, very enjoyable dish. As a dessert I chose the 'Chevre cheese cake', made from goat cheese from a local farm, on a pecan cookie crust and sprinkled with caramelized pineapple and kiwi pieces... outstanding.. :)

In the days following this dinner, I mostly pursued my interest in chinese or generally asian food. Right at the entrance to china town, behind the big gate, is Tony Cheng's restaurant; on the first floor, mongolian cuisine, on the second floor, chinese and: Dim Sum. Living in Nashville, I am deprived of the better chinese food, as you will hear from all chinese living here.. one of the few praised exceptions is Golden Coast (on West End Ave) serving Dim Sum on the weekend - knowing that, I had to try the supposedly even more real deal in DC.
Check out Tony Cheng's Dim Sum menu for yourself - it sounds already really good, and is actually very affordable when you share with someone. My choices were a little limited to the carts that came by in the first 20 minutes of me being there - both me and my colleague really were hungry and could not wait for more offers.. so we had spare ribs in black bean sauce, some noodle dish with shrimp and peas in it, roasted duck, and fried sesame balls; I liked it very much, and every time I am astonished how much asian food I can eat and still not feel as stuffed as I feel with most other food styles.

Another chinese restaurant that was really worth going back to was close to Dupont Circle, City lights of China. The best one can do in my experience, is go to a chinese restaurant with chinese friends and colleagues, and let them order a whole bunch of food. With this approach, we ended up eating steamed bass, cantonese style, with ginger and scallions, steamed spinach, ma po tofu, and fried shrimps in their shells. This was a dinner for four, we only almost finished everything, and walked home very happy in the freezing cold night :)

Last on my asian dinner experiences is a little vietnamese place that might not look like much - but the vietnamese wife of my friend was there once, desperately wanted to go back and she sure was right. The place is Pho An in the White Oak shopping center in Silver Spring, at the end of the red metro line. We had garden rolls (with white rice, shrimp, spring onion, rolled into rice paper) for starters, dipped into a peanut sauce that we made spicy by adding pepper paste. Then we ate a big bowl of 'Pho', a noodle soup, in this case with beef slices, that are still red and cooking when it comes to the table, in a broth that has a very complex flavor, and apparently is based on secret recipes that no restaurant shares with anyone. To add into the soup, there is a big plate full with bean sprouts, limes, cilantro, jalapeno pepper slices, and leafy green vegetables that I did not recognize. Who cares, throw it all in, be happy, such a beautiful rich dish to eat at an icy cold winter night.

What was really interesting to me were the drinks - I tried 'salty plum', which appears to be water with salt and sugar and whole and fuzzy pieces of dried plum. Stir it all up, and it looks very ... strange (as you might be able to see on the right). It tastes very strange as well, slightly sour, a little sweet, for my normal taste way too salty, but somehow it is good and refreshing and I kept thinking about what this taste is about and why I cannot tell whether I really like or dislike it.. odd. But.. good. Somehow. :D

Aside from the asian adventures (I had more than the ones I mentioned here): at the First Cup Cafe, right at the convention center, you can sit down in a big armchair, grab one of the books off the window seals, or look at the photograph exhibition they have hanging up, and enjoy the best Avocado-Eggplant sandwich I have ever eaten or imagined.
I went back there and had it a second time. Amazing. Go get it!

Apple, 'shrooms & game

It's fall! I've been craving all the good things that come this time of the year

...like my favorite mushrooms, “Steinpilze”, that I've never seen in the US other than dried, but, alas, they don't grow yet in Germany either right now; although I may have encountered a few first pieces in my Risotto funghi di bosco that I had in Saarlouis..

...the apple wine called “Viez” (the Viez wiki is only in german so far), important product of this region with all its fruit trees in meadow orchards, and so good because the local apple scene is unimpressed by the mass-product culture that knows only four apple types or five - Vice Vinum, the substitute wine, as the romans probably named it, is largely made from Viez-apples, sometimes special pears are added as well; it can be very sour but refreshing, but there are also sweet types, dependent on how far along the fermentation has progressed. There is nothing better on a winter or cold fall evening to drink sweet Viez that has been warmed up with a cinnamon stick...

...the very young wine, “Federweisser”, still white and milky looking, and, very early, heavy and sweet as pear juice, but with light foaming and fine bubbles and definitely having some alcohol even if you can't taste it - be aware!...

...and eating dinner in the “Scheune”, in Perl-Nennig, right at the french-german border, I discover the perfect cliché german food on the daily special menu:

fried sausage (like a 'Bratwurst') from wild boar!
with a side of red cabbage, fried potatoes, battered and crispy fried onions, and a pear with Preiselbeeren, the european sibling to cranberries. The mustard appears to be mellowed by an addition of apple sauce to give the fruits in the dish a last chance to provide an enjoyable transition between the seasons...

Asterix & Obelix would have been delighted.

Ironworks

Driving from Saarbruecken, the capital of Saarland, the smallest area-state (as opposed to city-state) of Germany, towards Trier is picturesk – at night you can see only the outline of forests encompanying the autobahn on the left, the Saar flowing quietly alongside on the right, lights of the villages and cities along the way shining dimly.

Greysilver monuments, towers, futuristic constructs, steaming chimneys climbing up high, are glowing in the heat of molten ore, or brightly lit to present themselves as reminders of what this area once was and still is – proud producer of steel.

The Voelklinger Huette is a UNESCO-sponsored world heritage site, representing industrialism and beauty so eery as nowadays only attributed to Fritz Lang and his Metropolis, yet it is here, standing, still alive, this one now supporting, in his postmodern halls of pastmodern constructions, the culture of today, the art exhibitions and Jazz and Rock concerts, while its siblings are still active, blowing sulphurous clouds into the sky, red signals marking chimney tops, blue flames shooting out high.

Currywurst my day

The couple next to me started discussing their meal - theirs was much better, they agreed before getting into the details. The lady here had put way too little sauce on the sausage. And their own buns were much better. And the sausage cutter, the machine you drop in the sausage to have it slice up in evenly sized pieces, at this little stand was not working right, they complained. The pieces were "zerfleddert", ripped apart.

Me, still enjoying this amazing little fastfood feast that has a long tradition in Berlin and is famous way beyond german borders, still think the ketchup-curry-spice mix was pretty well balanced, sweet, fruity, probably from some addition of apple sauce to the ketchup, acidic from something akin to a soysauce-vinegar mix, and curryish, well, from curry. The sausage was decent or, for someone as deprived as me, who had not eaten something like this in a couple of years, even really great, and the buns were good because warmed up on the grill, nice light crust, and warm and soft inside. Of course you can get this better. But then you would not stand right next to the Gedaechtniskirche.

Pigeons and a few oddly grey-black patchy crows were hopping around, waiting for bread to fall. I befriended a crow, after staring at it for a while and being worried it might recognize me, with a piece of bread.



Currywurst stand at the Gedaechtniskirche, Berlin

Authorities

A kid riding his bike on the walkway, encompanied by two young men, is being stopped by a policeman – you can't ride the bike on the sidewalk, you're supposed to walk the bike there. The kid is a little nervous, and the police guy tries, friendly but intensely, to make the boy understand the situation and the gravity of potential consequences of this misbehavior. One more child lost to fear of the authoritarian system, and one more to eternally obey any given rule.

It makes me think of an old TV-show “The hidden camera”, in which situations were manipulated to confuse people while they were, unknowingly, filmed. In one show a traffic light was installed in the middle of a 2-mile long straight street in the middle of far-stretching fields – you could see miles of flat land. You were able to tell a car was approaching long before hearing it. Worse, this street had not seen more than 20 cars a day since years. Yet, now it had traffic light. And the light was set to red.

The average driver waited about 15-25 minutes for the light to change. Some got out of the car to shake and kick the traffic light.

After waiting for 20 minutes, one driver backed up, turned around, and took the longer route through a neighbor village.

That is *very* german.

- People watching at Cafe Reinhard, corner Ku'damm & Fasanenstrasse -

Coffee, cake & people-watching

This corner is perfect to sit down, and drink Cafe au lait, served here in two little pots, one with hot milk, and one with espresso, with a cup to mix the milk-coffee after your own liking.

People watching is what you're doing here – Berlin wears black, these days, but also flat, knee-high boots, very long sweaters, or very short sweater-like dresses, and sometimes tights that look like leggins. Strolling by are the young and the formerly youthful, the rich and the wanting, the beautiful and the character-faced, the winners, and yes, you see the other ones too, but not that many here in this part of town.

The poppyseed pie is phantastic, the ground up seeds have developed a flavor like marzipan, it has a good amount of very juicy raisins and chopped almonds, that only increase the illusion of tasting crunchy yet almost creamy amaretto-ish. Besides the coffee I have a 'Apfelschorle' with the pie: apple juice mixed with sparkling mineralwater. If you never had that, and are not too fond of sparkling water, try it here, where they add just a hint of water, giving the juice a refreshing lightness without too much of a zing.

- 'Cafe Reinhard', corner Ku'damm & Fasanenstrasse? Bleibtreu? -

Russian matronas

Two older ladies walk in and are stunning. Truly stunning. Stunningly out of place and just perfectly fitting in, an unusual feat they deserve a prize for. They also deserve the prize for the “best costume”.

The one is a classical russian matrona, very round, not very tall, wide dress and long wide pants underneath in the same very colorful very flowery pattern, with long silver hair, dark eyes full of ease and content and wit, and glowing-red cheeks that look like from the advertisements of the sixties. Her friend wears a cone-shaped hat, like those you see chinese wearing in reports about the life of fishermen along the Yangtze. The hat is black, her hair is silver-white and tied together in one long braid by a black and white striped band. Her black blouse has a simple, straight cut, while the skirt is sporting horizontal black and white stripes, corresponding to the hair band. I can't avert my eyes of these two (but do, well behaved), they combine aged gorgeousness with rule-ignoring individualism in a way I haven't seen before. Outstandingly crazy.

The ladies join the young beauties at the lunch buffet, and laughter and stories told in the beautiful language of Dostoiewsky and Tolstoi and Pushkin, all hanging on the walls and observing the scene, fill the room.

- 'Gruene Lampe', Uhlandstrasse, in Berlin Mitte/Charlottenburg -

Tschanachi - Lunch at "Gruene Lampe"

Russian beauties come to this place. They check, all model-sized, the contents of different platters and heating containers at the buffet, find a table to put down their purses, and then fill up a plate with little canapees for lunch. Then a bowl of Soljanka. A little bit of that beef stew. And, oh, yes, some blini for dessert of course. How do they keep these figures if they eat lunch like this? Clearly, the local russian community feels at home here.

I order from the menu – Herring in a furcoat is, unfortunately, out, I was looking forward to that pie-shaped dish from herring, potato, hard-boiled egg and red beets; I remember it as being almost sweet, with earthy and fresh fish flavors, a very unusual, yet incredibly delicious combination. But they have Tschanachi, a georgian stew which, served in a little clay pot, is simply wonderful: you open the lid, and the fragrant smell of fresh tomatoes and cilantro comes steaming at you. Underneath this summer sunshine layer you find the lamb stew with carrots, potatoes, eggplants, zucchini, just like your georgian uncle used the onset of harvest season to create the culinary incarnation of the last warm days of autumn.

Have some Kwas with it, an old russian fermented drink with very low alcohol content. And then go later to have some Fassbrause at some other, more berlinian place, and compare flavor notes and let me know if it's only me finding these two similar...

- 'Gruene Lampe', Uhlandstrasse, in Berlin Mitte/Charlottenburg -

Handreader at Ku'damm

She has the gift of creating an atmosphere of urgency. Fixating me intently with her green eyes she repeats again and again “ do you understand me, Barbara?”. If not for the information she reads from the lines of my left hand that she barely looks at and half covers with her own, she deserves the 15 euros I give her for this performance – but no, not more. I'm not interested in being helped, and not in knowing the details of my future. If what she sees will happen, so let it happen, let me be surprised.

She tells me the date that I will think of her. I write it down, so I won't forget to do that.

- Slovenian hand reader at Ku'damm, picking up random or not so random people walking by -