Lunch is the new dinner and take out is around the corner

parisdiaRecipes, Restaurants & Hotels5 Comments

Langoustines with thin slices of pig’s ear and truffles and a caviar sauce, Le Clarence Paris

Since curfew at 6 pm has been installed in the whole of France, panic strikes everyone at 5.30 pm. How can we be back by 6 pm when we have so many things to do, buy dinner, pick up the children from school, go swimming, etc… Well everyone seems to react accordingly and lunch is the new dinner and usually lasts until 4 pm.  Apologetic friends call to ask you to come at lunch time because not socializing at all is just too depressing. Is a nervous breakdown better than the pandemic? That is the question at the moment. And good food is, as always, the answer in Paris.

Archi-Noire has great lamps at 19 rue Victor Massé

Yes there are enough scandals in the press to keep everyone chatty on the phone, Bernard Pivot’s book on his love life while aging is fun enough, and traffic jams at 6.05 pm will not discourage the French from running around. I also have a new light at the end of the tunnel for you: the Lebey guide newsletter, run by Gerald de Roquemaurel and Pierre Yves Chupin, where you find new culinary news every week.

This week it’s truffles by Michel Rostang and Guy Savoy. Not cheap of course but once in a while for a birthday, why not?  Michel Rostang creates a truffle sandwich and Guy Savoy a truffle soup. It also gives a list of restaurants which do take out. While they mention online the best food fashions, they give you addresses for Le Sergent Recruteur, Le Clarence, La Réserve but also less expensive bistrots which can give you the illusion of going out while enjoying gourmet food at home.

Truffle soup with artichokes and parmesan by Guy Savoy is served with brioche

I tried truffles this week and decided that the best way to eat them, was thinly sliced on a buttered toast grilled in the oven and it worked. My guests seemed to be suddenly very happy.

I recently came down from “un déjeuner très arrosé” (a very alcoholized lunch) in Montmartre and fell upon the most delightful lamp and glass shop, Archi-Noire, at 19 rue Victor Massé, next to rue des Martyrs. I found there two lamps I had been looking for for months and the most charming lady antiquaire, Dorothée Renault who even offered to deliver…

So open your eyes and you will find beauty and fun… And I promise I will start sampling take outs to recommend a few but you can already order from Papillon which has a no nonsense click and collect menu for 30€ from 11 am to 6 pm at 8 rue Meissonier.

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5 Comments on “Lunch is the new dinner and take out is around the corner”

  1. The truffle piece has brought back very fond memories ! I had my first taste of truffle at the Marché aux Truffes in Menerbes on the eve of the millennium. The wonderful Elisabeth Bourgeois of the Mas Tourteron had a wood -fired grill and made pain grillé with olive oil and truffle. It was absolute heaven, and we were so amazed that we went back to the market to buy a truffle for the New Year’s celebrations. Of course I had no idea how to cook a truffle and there wasn’t much in my cookbooks about them, and I almost certainly didn’t have a laptop to read up. So, I cooked it slowly and lovingly in a red wine sauce to go with a Chateaubriand.
    Needless to say, a champignon de Paris would have had more flavour – but I was convinced that I had been cheated by a wily Provençal dealer. Then the next day I made Alexander a carbonara with an egg that had been stored with the tuber…and it was incredible. The Marche has been a constant – this has been the first year since 1999 that I haven’t been, and the first year that there was no brouillade aux truffes for New Year’s Day lunch…snifff…..But I’ve enjoyed them vicariously through your article !

    And you are right, it is hard to beat them on toast.

    xxxt

  2. Ahhh les truffes! Hubert used to bring them back in little boxes filled with 10 or 12 when he would visit Bizac (lorsque’il etait chez Conitreau) and go to the Marche aux Truffes.. The smell filled the small kitchen at Rue des Bernardins. And yes, sur pain grille, I agree ,c’est formidable. Loved this article. Made me smile as I think it did many!. Archi- Noir me rappelle d’un magasin Rue St. Sulpice qui vendait les objets des annees 30 parmi d’autres. Tu te souviens? Maybe Paris in the fall.. qui le sait? Et nous aurons des dejueners et diner bien arroses!xo

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