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The
rue du Commerce in the 15th arrondissement at night.
A
favorite doorway on the rue de la Chaise, not far from La
The
rugby world cup games are still going on, and will be
The |
Wednesday, September 12 Yesterday evening, a couple errands took us back over
to the 15th arrondissement.
We hopped on the number 10 métro, did our errands, and then treated
ourselves to a dinner at Oh! Duo (54 avenue Émile
Zola. Telephone 01-45-77-28-82; fax
01-45-75-09-31. Closed midday Saturday; closed Sunday and Monday eve.), one
of our all-time favorite restaurants from the past ten years. Much to my dismay, we had not been there
earlier this summer. But at least we
finally made it. For a starter course, Tom had the Burgundy-style
escargot prepared in a roasted tomato.
I had the fromage de tête
(head cheese), a house-made specialty that I had not had the nerve to try
before. According to epicurious.com, head cheese is: Not a cheese at all, but a sausage made from the meaty
bits of the head of a calf or pig (sometimes a sheep or cow) that are
seasoned, combined with a gelatinous meat broth and cooked in a mold. When
cool, the sausage is unmolded and thinly sliced. It's usually eaten at room
temperature. It was actually far better than in sounds in that
definition! But at this restaurant,
the chef, Joel Valero, serves his fromage
de têt cool, and sliced not so thin – almost a centimeter thick. It comes with a little balsamic vinaigrette
with tiny slices of pickles, and a bit of green salad in vinaigrette on the
side. The dish is refreshing, and
would make a perfect lunch all by itself on a warm summer day. For the main course, I had the haddock, which also was
a first for me at this restaurant. It
was served with two cylindrical glass containers of sauce – one a beurre blanc, and the other a homemade
tomato sauce. You pour first the
tomato sauce over the fish, then the beurre
blanc, and wow! What flavor! Tom had, for the third time in the past
five days, lamb chops! The first lamb
chops he had this week were mine, and he pronounced them delicious. The second such dish was at D’Chez Eux, and
that was different because the lamb was roasted, then sliced into chops at
the table. Tom said that one was a bit
too well done. But Joel Valero’s lamb
chops at Oh! Duo were perfect, he said. One of the things we were both looking forward to at
Oh! Duo was the puréed potatoes. Joel
Valero’s are pure and light, very finely seasoned, and with not a lump
anywhere in sight. They’re heavenly. The server made a mistake and brought us each a tarte fine aux pommes for dessert,
instead of just bringing one for Tom.
I was happy with this, however, because I consider this to be the best
such apple tart I’ve ever had. Tom
likes the one at L’Épopee just a bit more, but I think Oh! Duo’s is the best. It is a house-made specialty, with very
thin slices of apples perfectly arranged on a disk of thin, crisp crust. The apples are glazed with something sweet
– I think it is a combination of sugar with just a tiny bit of molasses. With apples in season now, the flavor was
strong. The whole thing is so thin, it
really is not too filling. Think about that saying, “as American as apple
pie.” I think apple pie is really very
French. With that fine meal in us, we had the power to walk all
the way home – about an hour at a very
brisk pace, because it is now down in the 50’s F after dark and we needed to
stay warm! The golden dome of the
Invalides was lit up against the dark, dark blue sky. What a gorgeous city this is! We saw our French friend Patricia yesterday. She again was going on enthusiastically
about how delightful their vacation in Sanibel had been. She told one amusing story about ordering a
hamburger in a restaurant there. She
had to say hamburger about four or five times for the server (who was
Hispanic), who still could not understand her. He had to find someone who could understand
her. (That aspirated “h” sound is very difficult for a
native French speaker to master in English.
Also, the French almost always accent all syllables equally, instead
of, in this case, accenting the first syllable the most: HAM-bur-ger. I remember
once, years ago, ordering es-CAR-go
in Paris and I was not understood by the server until I said es-car-go. Funny how little things like that make a
difference.) Anyway, the Hispanic server told Patricia that she has
an accent, and that’s why he couldn’t understand her. Being Parisian, she whipped out her wit and
haughtily shot back at him, “Well! You
have an accent, too! You’re Spanish
and YOU have an accent!” You go, girl! That server needs to have a lot more experience with
international customers, if you ask me.
Patricia’s English is accented, but perfectly understandable. Friends John and Linda are coming over here again this evening
for drinks, and we’ll walk over to La Petite Chaise for dinner. They like the less crowded restaurants
where the proprietors actually leave a bit of space between tables. The food is good and traditional there, and
the emphasis isn’t too much on fish, so I think they will like it. Our landlord-friends, Ron and Elisabeth, arrived back
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