Paris Journal 2014 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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After a long day of working at the computers, having a big city full of evening options is a delight. The lovely island where we really live does not have Asian restaurants. But Paris has every type of Asian restaurant you can imagine – even Uyghur. Last night, we were in the mood for Indian cuisine, so I used Lafourchette.com to reserve a table at the highly rated New Aqib at 47 rue Monsieur le Prince. For starters, the meat Samoussas were excellent, and the onion baja were good. The classic three condiments/chutneys were brought to the table, and as usual, we plowed through all of the super-hot-and-spicy chutney, which seemed to be freshly homemade. We each ordered the really fine lamb korma as a main course, and then shared just one order of simple rice pillau and one order of garlic nan. Even with this sharing of carbs and no dessert, the dinner still seemed copious. New Aqib has improved since we were there in 2010. That summer, I judged it as “quite good.” This year, I’d take it up a couple notches to “excellent.” In 2009, I think I judged the place to be “really good.” When we entered the resto and said “bonsoir,” the patron started to wave us toward a table in the middle. As soon as I’d said “nous avons resérvé” and gave our name, the patron pointed us in another direction, to the same corner table where we sat in 2009’s and 2010’s visits. That must be the table designated for Americans who make reservations? Directly above this table is a portrait of Ghandi. My pastor John Danner looks a lot like Ghandi, I noted. Pastor John has been in Trinidad with his grandson recently. They went there to deliver a shipment of wheelchairs for those in need. That made me think of V.S. Naipaul, who was born in Trinidad to an ethnically Indian/Hindu family. For some reason, I confuse Naipaul with the author of Life of Pi (Yann Martel) because he brings to mind the protagonist of that tale, Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry. Thinking of that reminds me of the Piscine Molitor in the 16th arrondissement, which we’d been planning to go see this summer. Now I realize we probably won’t make it this time because we’re too busy. Tom has had much work to do on the new edition of Back to the Lake, so we’ve had no time for being tourists during the day. The best we can do is go out for an evening stroll and dinner. Yesterday’s evening stroll included our weekly trip to the food market at Saint Germain. I love that routine: stopping first for fruit and veggies at the cheerful Kahdi produce booth, then going on to buy fine cheese and other dairy products at Fromagerie Sanders, where we are always remembered and warmly greeted. Then I go to see the distinguished Georges Casellato at his Bacchus wine shop (click here for video), while Tom gets in line at the famous Serge Caillaud’s butcher stall, called Au Bell Viandier. Georges always wants me to ask him a question or two about the wines, so I always do. And Mr. Caillaud cautioned Tom to put his cash back in his billfold before he started walking away; he was afraid Tom might drop the money. The funny thing is, I get the feeling that these vendors really do care about us. The Marché Saint Germain is a kind and gentle place.
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Thursday, September 18, 2014
Autumn scenes in the Luxembourg Gardens.
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