Mirazur Menton

Mirazur is a place filled with talent, and it is easy to understand why Michelin has starred the joint....but the problem is the food just because you can serve someone a vegetable in a dessert, and make it pretty should you?

The table is laid with modern settings, odd shaped cutlery and non-conventional crockery, it's as if the entire rule book of convention has been discarded not because it is outmoded but because the mantra is "different must be better than what has come before" which is often not the case. The place is remarkable value with the food at Eur 55 for the discovery menu (7 courses) however drinks are dramatically overpriced. I ordered a Virgin Mary, tomato juice with Worcestershire sauce, some celery salt and a shake of tabasco that set me back Eur 20.00 NB plain tomato juice is Eur 15.00 when you put that into perspective with the menu at 55 it is a ripoff.

This I likeed alot!! Freebie starter of fennel and other finely sliced greenies, topped with a fragrant infant wild strawberry which was far to young to have been picked from the patch.

2 out of three not bad, let's start with the one dimension onion tart, heavy over-caramelised onion clumped onto dough, greasy, cloying, it did not belong on the same platter with the wonderful cauliflower mousse with roquette pesto.

The thimble of chevre was on a granny smith sliver that was instantly forgettable!

A frothy soup, they said vegetable, (but which) was milky and topped with a Parmesan tuile which was indeed both crispy and parmesanny with a long cheesy aftertaste. No big deal!

One of the best things I ate was the courgette ribbons lassooing asparagus, served with vanilla and honey dressing, which was piqued by pink grapefruit zest and segments. It was delicious.

The bread was innovative, Almond and Cinnamon, Italian flat bread "music sheets" cereal bread, Olive Oil infused foccacia and crusty country rolls came next.

Good idea, mousseline light mashed potatoes with baby fava beans, sauteed Morel mushrooms topped with a garlic foam. Shrooms were dumbly over salted, the garlic foam tasted faintly of a metalic note. 5 out of 10.

The breast of pork was served on a citrus emulsion, but the chef chose to intertwine the decoration with a wasabi sauce which was the equivalent of a sumo wrestler doing a Viennese Waltz. (see the green puddles above) No you shall not go to the dance! The 12 hour Pork was cooked as a low and slow affair at 63C (I'm not making this up, that was what they told us) which was pan seared for crusty crackling. Alas it was not very crisp and rather than melt in the mouth fork tender morsels mine was stringy and too tough!

So capucine flower sorbet with sweetened pea coulis!! In a word....Jabberwocky! The head waiter was very excited for diners to guess the combo...but why???? Unbalanced!

Saffron custard, coconut mousse was slightly better, I kept waiting for the weird combo to hit me and the waiter to announce another strange pairings but this one came and went benign.

This was high strange! Strawberry on a verbena granita, all good so far, then I tried the sugar tuile and which was filled with a Corsican cream cheese known as Brousse, so called because its curd is beaten before being drained. It is ewe's milk cheese sold in plastic cones, it crashed the fruit party with a farmyardy aroma followed closely by a salty mule kick and a lingering dairy barn taste; a gastro train wreck! It triggered an unexpected gag reflex, this was just nasty. I guess turning down the cheese course meant the kitchen had to sneek some in elsewhere.

The last food slate was put before us ushering a final round of guessing, argentinian inspired Mate Macaroons where mated to orange flower marshmallows and Pistachio tuiles. The final humor was iced lollipops that were universally adored.

The restaurant is 50 meters before the Italian border and the parking lot is shared with the French customs inspectors!

Owner Chef Mauro Colagreco was absent on the day I reviewed.

www.mirazur.fr

30 Avenue Aristide Briand
06500 Menton, France

+334 92 41 86 86

Say Cheese!

The next two blogs highlight two corner stores, both in the Marais in Paris and both run by passionate owners. First up Le Fromagerie Trotte - owned and operated by brother Pascal and  Jean Philippe (Trotte) who are thankfully completely submersed in the art of ageing cheese! Experts in the craft!!

This is a miniscule hole in the wall, pictures below, benefits from its own "caves" underneath where chevres and alpages Comté bloom and age uniquely. (More about Alpages later)

Trotte specialty is aged  Gruyère de Comté an unpasteurized cow's milk cheese from the Franche-Comté region of eastern France. Available in 12, 18 and 36 months of age. He chooses Alpages cheeses that have been made when the cows are grazing at altitude during the summer. This makes the best even better, when you then add the "taste" that the cheese gets from the particular bloom of the TROTTE CAVES you got to cheese heaven and back!

The other specialty here is goat cheese. Again, the unique effect on the cheese as it ripens in the Trotte caves is the miracle before you.

I am in love with aged goat cheese, the complexity, length and layers of the flavors linger beyond the bite. The acidity present in a young cheese is almost absent at this point, some of them will flake, chalk others will have incredible waxen depth, almost honeyed with amber notes. With all the consolidation of the various ma and pa shops in Paris, Trotte remains fiercely independent. He works with the farmers directly, visiting them,  meeting the herds on the hoof, working with the producers!!! I have learned so much from him. He introduced me to Le Vieux Berger Roquefort, here on the left below. Forget everything you have ever known about Roquefort cheese, treble it and you have this marvelous cheese. Miniscule quantities are available. It enters the mouth as a salty sharp blue, almost gritty in texture, immediately creamily melting, almost sugar like into an umami fountain of oral pleasure. Roquefort after all has the highest level of naturally occuring glutamates of any food. A world of good!

Trotte also feature Coolea which is the cheese champion of Ireland and Kerry. Stellar unpasteurised Cheddar, Stilton and Manchego complete these offerings!

Fromagerie Trotté 
97, rue St Antoine
Paris 75004

Thoumieux, Oh boy are we gonna have fun!

I'm so glad to have found Thoumieux, radically renovated and updated to becoming the cool eaterie of Le Moment in Paris.

I spoke to the chef (ok, ok, ok I do that without much excuse) Jean Francois Piege, I accused him of culinary robbery, "hands up, I'm guilty, why not take a bit of this and a bit of that from ITALY, FRANCE, and SPAIN, that's what's modern cookery is about" our chef exclaims! Mixing is only one part of the game here what's more awe is the brilliance of Piege's culinary reinvention.

With all the magic on the plates it's no surprise that the joint is mirrors, mirrors and more mirrors everybody is flattered by the lighting and that may explain why there is a distinct difference to the night and day clientele. I went for Lunch and Dinner on the same day so this is what I know.

The lunch crowd is the business end of show and dinner is ....show business. One sexy crowd, people watchers will be rewarded as the place is elbow to elbow with the in-crowd or as the French say tres MONDAIN! Definition belonging to fashionable society. The music at night is a twinge to loungey loud for me though!

I love menus where the choice is complicated and many selections sing to your palate, "choose me!" When you run down the menu you'll wish that you are with at least three good friends who want to share the tastes.

With the menu you are given a DIARY (I'll leave you to discover it) and this:

Here it is from another angle:

The crusty bread, which is outrageous by the way served with a cup of flaky salt, for the raw milk pat of butter and a sardine tin that does in fact contain sardines that have been smushed with "Vache Qui Rit" (Cow Who Laughs brand of French soft white processed cheese) I dare you to resit this! Impossible!

The signature dish is the pizza revisted!

You are going to have fun with this one, a souffled matzo wafer thin crisp crust (that's the pizza part) covered in a dress of wild arugula, nestled on smoked tuna, sprinkled with a Parmesan shower,  all of this cocooning a hidden trove of burrata and calamata olive puree like a secret purse within.  This is  wild to eat,  imploding with the first fork.

The optical delusions just carry on with squid Carbonara... Here is how it looks as it set before you.

Hidden under the Carbs is an egg yolk, the smokiest of crisp bacon, a little creme fraiche, more Parmesan and grind of corse pepper but then when you fork the plate you do a double take.

 Hey that's not spaghetti at all but the calamari in question.  One word Superb!

Even this serving of asparagus takes the ordinary to extraordinary it lifts a perfect spear to new vistas with a hard boiled egg mustard vinaigrette, coating and glistening each mouthful. Pass the bread!

More humor pearl barley Paella with pimenton spanished shrimps and grilled piquillos!

Is this this is all becoming clearer....

Goujonettes of sole here served with an air light whipped tartare sauce that is robust and lifted by the squeeze of fresh limes.

Raw and Cooked Fois Gras, is first pan fried then pressed hot into a terrine to cure. It's plated with raw apple and some spiced apple sauce. A great duo, take notes!!

VITELLO TONNATA is revisited in the Quasi de Veau to brilliant effect. Look at this next picture closely.

If you click on the picture above it will enlarge and I will point out some rather clever twists. In the back of the plate is a tube like pate paste of preserved lemons with tuna which is the tonatto condiment of the veal. The meat has been seasoned with more than salt and pepper and the jus encroaches under the mash potato which is topped by purple spud chips. Serious YUM, YUM

Corn fed chicken, morels, cream and spinach....

 Pork belly crusted in crispy onions and crackling with shredded cabbage!!! Hey I said Crackling!!!

Dessert does not let the side down one jot either.

Churros and Rolls are covered in popping sugar that sets off a noisy clack click in the mouth is served with dipping hot chocolate and turned to order vanilla ice cream. One day we will all have a Paco Jet.

Here Creme Caramel revisited, we have the cream for sure, but imagine a mixture of the best of  genre meets Creme Brulee, Hybrid to be sure, I shot  two angles so you could see the crispy top and the depths of the salted thick salted caramel  base below the vanilla speckled cream.. I  would go back just for this!

If you add great service, valet parking and great value at less than 50 euros a head, then you'll understand why you'll leave as one happy camper!

Thoumieux ... and now for my next trick!!!

http://www.thoumieux.fr/

Open every day lunch and dinner till 23h30

9 RUE SAINT-DOMINIQUE | 75007 PARIS | T 01 47 05 49 75 |

Check out this website

In my top ten Ami Jean in Paris. Check out this stunning photography from the web site.


Click Here!

Drouant, Drouant!!!

Consistency, service and fair pricing must be the touchstone of any great dining establishment, if you also get to add, great food, ambiance, decor and valet parking (Hey this is Paris) one pretty much has the whole package wrapped.

Drouant hits all the above and more. The Euros 43.00 lunch is superb three course value. This is the home of Alsation Antoine Westermann!!

After ordering the chef comes over and nixed my choice, suggesting I avail myself of Paté en croute, I usually steer well clear of brioched mystery meat but decided to follow mine hosts suggestion. Boy was I a happy bunny that I did so too.

From the top of the terrine layers and layers of flavor starting with a super buttery flaky pastry intensely extracted veal jelly, paté, a slice of moist ham, and duck fois gras, peppered throughout with green pistachios. This is so unbelievable good,  the countryside on a plate.  The flavors lingered on my palate for more than a minute of each bite. I was told afterwards that 12 herbs and spices are used to develop the meat flavors. It was on a scale of supergood and yum combined.

For main course: Quasi de Veau,  Veal with carrots and sage.

Was that how you thought it would look?  Mushrooms and wilted spinach anchored the dish skilfully. If you look closely and you can by clicking on the meat above you will see the attention to detail as the meat has been re-seasoned after cutting, there are the grains of salt and pepper invigorating my lunch.

I was sent out two desserts both on the Apple theme, first a Apple melba.

Granny Smith Sorbet, apple sauce and calvados whipped cream topping with a health dose of vanilla for good measure running from north to south.

 

This apple pie was spiffy as well call it a Normande style. The menu is highly seasonal and specials change daily, there is no risk in going here, always at the top of it's game. 

Drouant

18 Rue Gaillon, 75002 Paris, France 0033 1 42 65 15 16‎

drouant.com