Paris Journal 2013 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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When we decided
to walk along the boulevard du Montparnasse, I thought that would be a good opportunity
to pop into L’Abri Côtier and make a reservation for dinner one night this
week. We’ve dined at L’Abri Côtier
many times over the years, and we’ve greatly appreciated its fine Corsican
cuisine. Even from a
distance, I could see that something had changed about the place. The awning was a deep shade of red,
practically maroon. The fact that
there was no longer a tank of live lobsters in the front side window wasn’t new;
that change happened last year. When we were
close to the restaurant, I gasped.
L’Abri Côtier is no more. In
its place is a restaurant that boasts of its Russian and traditional French
cuisine. I guess it is
no surprise; the patronne of L’Abri
Côtier, and her husband the chef, were of retirement age. We’ll miss them, but they worked hard and
deserve a leisurely retirement now. As we stood in
front of the Russian resto, an elderly woman sitting on a bench near us rose
up and approached. She had long, wavy
and frizzy light red and silver hair, and she wore glasses like mine. She was a little stooped, and had a broad
smile. She told us that it is a very
good restaurant. “Et L’Abri
Côtier?” Tom asked. “C’est fini,” the
woman replied. She did not seem to
miss the old place. She embraced the
new. We exchanged a few more pleasantries,
and then said good evening. She walked
a few paces over to meet her friend; they were probably going to dine at the
Russian resto, Vatrouchka.
Absorbing this
change, we walked on, and turned off the boulevard toward the rues Brea and
Vavin. We made it back to the
Luxembourg Gardens in time to enjoy it for a while before its 7:15PM closing
time. I’d been there earlier in the
day, too, to enjoy a few minutes reading in the sunshine. When the park
was about to close, we walked toward the gate nearest our restaurant for the
evening. We had a reservation at Bouillon des Colonies, and new
“world cuisine” resto run by the same kitchen as the venerable art-nouveau
Bouillon Racine on the rue Racine. Many people are
now confused when they arrive for their dinners at both Bouillons, which are
side by side, and share the same address, number 3 rue Racine. When we were
entering the little Bouillon des Colonies, the friendly server heard us say a
few words to each other in English.
Then I turned to her and said (in French), “Good evening. We made a reservation with LaFourchette, in
the name of Cooley.” She was
surprised, she said, because usually it is just French people who use
LaFourchette. She’d been ready to
direct us to the Bouillon Racine, assuming we’d made the same mistake that
many people do. She’d expected
that the Cooley Lafourchette reservation was for a French couple, not an
American couple speaking accented French. I smiled and
replied, “Mais nous parlons Francais aussi.”
She agreed, and correctly brought us the French menu instead of the
English one after she’d shown us to our table. Her name was
Smahan, and she was delightfully cheerful and informative. She spoke French to us, but threw in
English words where she knew them, resulting in a somewhat confusing but fun
mélange. The
restaurant’s “world cuisine” features modern French food that is heavily
influenced and inspired by Asian and African cuisines – a great
combination. The décor was very
simple; one side of the dining room had framed photos and prints from Africa,
and the other side had items from Asia, including a set of wood slats with
Laotian prayers etched on them. Smahan
enthusiastically explained the origins of the art on the walls, and the
ceiling. Chinese lanterns hung over
our heads. On the other side of the
room, large models of old airplanes were suspended from the ceiling. In Smahan’s fun mix of French and English,
the French couple to our left, the American couple on our right, and we, in
the middle, were all able to understand, and be amused. Tom and I
started by sharing an order of four spring rolls, which were freshly made and
very, very good. Then Tom had a Colombo de porc, which was slices of
pork tenderloin that had been marinated and tenderized in coconut milk,
served with a delicious Thai-style coconut curry sauce and fluffy white
rice. My main course
was a chunk of cod with a spicy roasted red pepper cream sauce and a
delicious slaw made of shredded fresh vegetables of a wide variety. Very nice. For dessert,
Tom could not choose just one, so he ordered both the roasted figs with a
little scoop of fig ice cream, and the chocolate entremet (light, mousse-like flourless chocolate cake). Both were heavenly. We met a sharp
couple from Aiken, South Carolina, seated at the table next to us. Chatting with them for a while after dinner
was fun. But then it was time to go. We are liking
this new “world cuisine” trend in Paris.
And I haven’t had one tête de
veau or one andouillette AAAAA
all summer. Interesting. My craving
for food adventure is being satisfied by these tastes from afar. |
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Tango dancers being photographed in the Luxembourg
Gardens.
Simple décor in
Bouillon des Colonies.
Cod steak with veggie slaw and sweet roasted red pepper
cream sauce (spicy!), above, and the Colombo
de porc, below.
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