3 Nov 2006 Le Saint Paul - a michelin starred lunch
Don't the french just know about food.
It's such a cliche I know, but it never fails to amaze me. On holiday in France with me pregnant wife and thumbing through the Michelin guide for a good place to go.
It seems that the "dejeuner en semaine" is the way to go. Many of the Michelin starred places do a weekday lunch. Not only is this a good deal as a way of filling the tables at quiet times, but as you inevitably drink less (particularly with a pregnant wife, and because you have to drive to get to many of these places) it can work out incredibly reasonable.
Our 3 courses with two glasses of wine (for me) and coffees came in at €126. That's about £80. And seeing as my previous experiences of this kind of food have generally hit me for about £200, I consider this to be very cheap.
Cheap but certainly not nasty. I had expected a second rate effort for the lunch crowd but not so. Our set menu was:
- game terrine with rasperry sauce
- risotto with sea bream
- some sort of amazing chocolate dessert
And of course the obligatory amuse bouche/petit fours which these places lay on.
The amuse bouche comprised a small jar with guacamole, with a prawn on top and then some caviar. Lucky for me the wife can't eat that so I ate them all. Very nice start to the meal, though admittedly not the height of creativity. The guacomole was good but nothing to get excited about.
Then came the terrine. I admit, this isn't the sort of thing I'd normally pick off the menu and I remember why. I'm not mad about game terrine and feel that the fat/taste ratio is too high. Sweet savoury contrast is not always something that appeals either. None the less, with the usual amazing bread to spread the pate over, it was tasty enough - again still not anything to really get excited about.
But then the main course comes, and boy is this exciting. OK - so it's just a risotto - some might say a cheapo, use up your ingredients type of dish, something italian peasants eat. But there's risotto and there's risotto. We don't usually make fish risottos at home, possibly because we normally have risotto as a weeknight supper, and also because fish stock doesn't tend to hang around in our freezer (due to the difficulty obtaining fish heads - in contrast to chicken stock, which is usually on hand). And I know that risotto should be served warm on not hot, but when it's the end of the day at work and you are hungry are you really going to stand around for half an hour breathing in the wonderful aroma and waiting for your risotto to cool to the right temperature. But the perfect risotto is to die for. Obviously cooked in some real fish stock, perfectly al dente without being crunchy and served at exactly the right temperature. Then surround it with a "bisque" reductions (lobster shells also don't tend to be going round in my home kitchen) and then put some top class sea bream fillets on top - heaven. The sea bream must have been grilled - the skins was deliciously crunchy - but had not at all dried out.
Just as my gastric juices are starting to flow, they are sent into overdrive by a dessert which sent me to heaven. Rich chocolate goo, crunchy biscuit base with (get this) creme brulee!!!! inside it, and served with a big blob of lavender ice cream. Bang - food heaven - tastebuds start to dance wow.
Then the coffee and petit fours, and finally - the piece de la resistance - a digestible bill.
Time to find the next dejeuner en-semaine - perhaps La Palme D'or at Cannes next time.
It's such a cliche I know, but it never fails to amaze me. On holiday in France with me pregnant wife and thumbing through the Michelin guide for a good place to go.
It seems that the "dejeuner en semaine" is the way to go. Many of the Michelin starred places do a weekday lunch. Not only is this a good deal as a way of filling the tables at quiet times, but as you inevitably drink less (particularly with a pregnant wife, and because you have to drive to get to many of these places) it can work out incredibly reasonable.
Our 3 courses with two glasses of wine (for me) and coffees came in at €126. That's about £80. And seeing as my previous experiences of this kind of food have generally hit me for about £200, I consider this to be very cheap.
Cheap but certainly not nasty. I had expected a second rate effort for the lunch crowd but not so. Our set menu was:
- game terrine with rasperry sauce
- risotto with sea bream
- some sort of amazing chocolate dessert
And of course the obligatory amuse bouche/petit fours which these places lay on.
The amuse bouche comprised a small jar with guacamole, with a prawn on top and then some caviar. Lucky for me the wife can't eat that so I ate them all. Very nice start to the meal, though admittedly not the height of creativity. The guacomole was good but nothing to get excited about.
Then came the terrine. I admit, this isn't the sort of thing I'd normally pick off the menu and I remember why. I'm not mad about game terrine and feel that the fat/taste ratio is too high. Sweet savoury contrast is not always something that appeals either. None the less, with the usual amazing bread to spread the pate over, it was tasty enough - again still not anything to really get excited about.
But then the main course comes, and boy is this exciting. OK - so it's just a risotto - some might say a cheapo, use up your ingredients type of dish, something italian peasants eat. But there's risotto and there's risotto. We don't usually make fish risottos at home, possibly because we normally have risotto as a weeknight supper, and also because fish stock doesn't tend to hang around in our freezer (due to the difficulty obtaining fish heads - in contrast to chicken stock, which is usually on hand). And I know that risotto should be served warm on not hot, but when it's the end of the day at work and you are hungry are you really going to stand around for half an hour breathing in the wonderful aroma and waiting for your risotto to cool to the right temperature. But the perfect risotto is to die for. Obviously cooked in some real fish stock, perfectly al dente without being crunchy and served at exactly the right temperature. Then surround it with a "bisque" reductions (lobster shells also don't tend to be going round in my home kitchen) and then put some top class sea bream fillets on top - heaven. The sea bream must have been grilled - the skins was deliciously crunchy - but had not at all dried out.
Just as my gastric juices are starting to flow, they are sent into overdrive by a dessert which sent me to heaven. Rich chocolate goo, crunchy biscuit base with (get this) creme brulee!!!! inside it, and served with a big blob of lavender ice cream. Bang - food heaven - tastebuds start to dance wow.
Then the coffee and petit fours, and finally - the piece de la resistance - a digestible bill.
Time to find the next dejeuner en-semaine - perhaps La Palme D'or at Cannes next time.
posted by foodpete at 8:19 AM
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