Envying ladies who lunch

After an early start with breakfast meetings, and then posting the consequences, I managed to escape to lunch with a friend from Australia, her husband and another Australian. Went to Restaurant Les Ombres on the roof of the new Musée du quai Branly. It's distinguished not only by the view of its next door neighbour, the Eiffel Tower, but by an excellent chef. I had la carte, which today consisted of:

• Salade de mâche en écrin de noix de Saint-Jacques, vinaigrette tiède à l’huile de noisette
• Moules de Bouchot aux chorizo et parmesan, avec grosses frites confites à la graisse d’oie, and
• De Paris à Brest en pâte à choux, crème pralinée à l’ancienne

All accompanied by a lovely Givrey Champs Lalot Vieilles Vignes. I don't know what vegetables were in that salad. Mâche certainly, but also some sort of very crisp round stalk, cut about the size of baby peas. The scallops were raw, and very thinly sliced. The hazelnut oil and the odd toasted nut pulled it all together beautifully.

A couple of hours of good conversation and good food left me motivated to try to walk off some of the calories, and the left bank is a good place to do that, even if it's cold outside. The reports of 30 cm of snow and cold back home takes the edge off even that.

Chaumette

A list of favourite restaurants in Paris I got from a friend came with the notation that Chaumette is the author's family's favourite Paris Bistro, despite its not having a history with Hemmigway. I can see the point. It's a young crew, and chef Tanguy le Gall does an excellent job on classic bistro fare. Near the ever-expanding Radio France HQ, it has only about 30 seats, but a good menu, and the food is well cooked and well presented. One quirky feature is "pommes de mer": little ratté potatoes roasted with a sprinkling of coarse sea salt crystals. A little out of the way but well worth the walk from nearest metro stop. (Wierdly, YouTube has a video of Chaumette, credited to Philippe Noiret.)
Chaumette (16e arrondissement) 7 rue Gros, tel 01 42 88 29 27

Les Cocottes

Taking advantage of a cold, snowy-sleety night in Paris, I was successful in getting a seat at Les Cocottes de Christian Constant. There has to be some advantage to being Canadian, and braving the cold and snow to get a seat in a crowded restaurant seems to be one of them. It's a long, narrow room with a limited menu. Most of the dishes are prepared en cocotte – in small cast-iron lidded pots. Obviously not the excellent roquette salad with a poached egg and lardons coated in something like reduced balsamic vinegar. But the main of a crusty cabillaud sitting atop a bed of well roasted potatoes and carrots in jus de viande acidulée. The special of the day was rabbit in a rosemary broth. I also saw a wonderful looking roast chicken haunch on a bed of risotto. Scallops were served with endive in a bubbling mass of butter foam. As one review said: you can eat healthily here, or not. Take your pick. Well worth the effort of getting there.
133 rue St-Dominique (7th Arr) +33-1-45-50-10-31