Paris

A business trip to Paris provides T with an excellent opportunity for culinary exploits. T, a long time fan of the Italian cuisine, is gradually warming to France – both the wine and food. It does not mean that he did not like it before, just that he had not paid enough attention. Not surprisingly there are many positive experiences waiting for T (and some not so positives ones, too).
The trip provided four occasions for French dining.
Day 1: Auberge Nicolas Flamel
This is a small place at Rue de Montmorency. T has the Menu Degustation which means
Foie Gras on fruited bread - one piece fried and one piece au naturel. Quite nice.
St Jacques (Fried Scallops)
Monkfish
7-hour Lamb
Creme Brulée
The Menu Degustation was good, but time has erased the memory somewhat.
The plan was to have a bottle of white wine and a bottle of red with the meal, so we ordered a bottle of Mont-Redon 2008 Chateauneuf-du-Pape. It was very nice and crisp, but somehow it dried up before the monkfish arrived and so we had to have a bottle of Meursault (T does not recall which one, but it was a favorite in the company). For the Lamb we had a bottle of Chateau Marquis d'Alesme 2005.
Day 2: Le Grand B
With a prominent location on Boulevard des Italiens this place might be what we have otherwise categorized as a tourist trap. The nature of the dinner did nothing to change that prejudice, but it has to be said that serving dinner for 42 people of course is challenging.

Day 3: Chez l'Ami Jean
This little gem is situated in a part of Paris that seemed a bit deserted on the evening. Most of buildings near Rue Malar seemed to be office buildings and it was therefore a bit of a surprise to enter a very crowded small room that buzzed with activity and atmosphere. The staff was extremely busy but still provided good service and in particular humour. They were quick to point out that they were basque, which of course was no surprise as it was announced at the front: "Basque Specialtees"
It was decided that we went for the big 8 course dinner (Le Carte Blanche) in which the chef selected what to serve. T was not really opposed to this. We asked the waiter for recommendations to go with the courses as we did not have a clue as to what we were going to have. They suggested white wine to start and later red wine! Good recommendation, thought T and looked into the wine list.
We started with a bottle of Champagne from Drappier made on Pinot Noir (blanc) and with this we had some slices of iberian ham.

The first course was a parmesan soup served with croutons and chives (and T also thinks there was a little ventreche in there). With  this we had started a bottle of 2004 Vire Clesse which was recommended and well so.

Next up was a terrine of beef (jellied beef, we were told). There were raisins in the terrine, which was surprising, but worked well. It was served with a basil coulis. We had somewhere along the way run out of Vire Clesse and turned to a 2009 Meursault La Barre.

The next course was fresh St Jacques clams served in their their shells and then baked lightly. It was sprinkled with chives and small croutons.
Then it was time for the meat courses and we shifted to a bottle of Coteaux de Languedoc. It was good, but T did not get to see the details properly.
We started with a braised hare on an emulsion of mushrooms and small pieces of turnip.
After this we had a piece of wood pigeon on a base of cresson. It was cooked perfectly in T's opinion and he had so far only had had bad experiences with pigeon. This one was red, but not raw inside.
Finally we had three desserts served together:

Ris au lait with roasted and candied almonds, sablér with pear and a lemon shot. With this we had glass of dessert wine from Jurancon.
Altogether this was an excellent evening.
Day 4: Hippopotamus
The Charles de Gaulle airport does not offer many options when it comes to dinner (maybe it does in some of the other terminals): Either McDonalds or Hippopotamus. Naturally we chose the latter. T did not want to end his foie gras streak early and so had a bloc de foie gras and an Entrecote.
For an airport restaurant this was actually OK and of course drinking a bottle of 2004 Cote Rotîe from Guigal helped a lot.
It is actually quite dangerous for T to go dining in France, because the bottles normally cost the same as he has to pay for them in Denmark... in the retail store.

Eat your foie gras, now

After a day of driving up and down Le Routes des Chateaux we return to Le Brasserie du Lac. We had reviewed the menu the night before and T would like to try the braised veal shank ("Osso buco style"). The day had been a fine day and we have started filling the trunk with St Julien wines that will be stored away for the next 10-15 years. The drive had led us from Margaux and up north along the west bank. We had had a nice lunch in a seaside restaurant in Pauillac.

K had a salad with smoked ducks breast and T had a basil-infused gazpacho for first course. Then a slice of halibut with thyme and cracked wheat. To this a large Gruyére cracker. The best part of the meal was the cheese, 3 slices of fourmes (french blue cheese). We had a bottle of Moton-Cadet Réserve 2007 to go with the meal.

Back at the brasserie du Lac problems arose when we tried to order a half-bottle of white wine. Yesterday we had settled for the Rochemorin as the only Pessac-Leognan available, but this night even that was out of stock. The waiter came back with a Graves Floridenne 2004 but that had died. At this point our waiter was very embarrassed, as he said. We got the feeling that at this place one of the main criteria for hiring staff was their ability to talk English. That is not to say they were not very polite and overall we clearly recommend the place, but they did seem a bit distressed at times. T had been looking longingly at the golf course which of course is the main attraction of the place and it seems to us that for a golf and wine lover this is clearly a place to stay for a longer period.

Anyway, a new bottle of the 2004 Graves was opened and it was better, but they will not last longer than this season. With the wine we opted to split one of the dishes from the Fish and Risotto section of the menu. This we had also looked at yesterday and decided that it fell into the category of you can have too much of a good thing: Risotto with bacon and foie gras and a gruyére cracker again. The French risotto is often strange to us and so it was also today. It was made of brown rice and the slice of foie gras on top. Predictably the combination did not appeal much to us. In fact K soon finished and left the rest to T with the words, "Eat your foie gras, now".

 For our main course we had the braised veal shank. Even if it was very tender the serving did not agree much with us. It was placed on pile of over-cooked penne pasta and heavily laced with orange and orange zest. With it we had a bottle of 2000 Croizet-Bages, which on the other hand was very nice.
Not dessert for us today, but instead a coffee and a 1982 Cognac XO for T and a an 83 Armagnac for K and so we were glad to have stayed at the hotel as it only left us 200 metres home.

Margaux

After visiting old friends in their lovely home in Luxembourg we drive to Bordeaux in France. We arrive at the Relais de Margaux a little late after driving through heavy rain we had hoped to have left far behind – in Denmark. Luckily we emerge on the other side and even if the weather cannot measure up to the lovely day in Luxembourg and its 28 degrees centigrade and a long evening sitting with good friends and looking down on the small town of Echternach it is still fair weather.

We order (predictably, since we are now in France) foie gras with fruit bread and a rib-eye steak, bearnaise and chips. To this we have half a bottle of Rochemorin and a bottle of Marquis de Terme 2004.

The fois gras was served in two generous slices with some pickled figs and the fruit bread. Coarse salt was sprinkled on top. Very simple and very nice

The bearnaise was served cold – almost as a herbed butter – the chips were good but a bit soft and finally the meat was cooked perfectly – if we had ordered perfectly.

A little lesson in french... saignant is VERY RARE (but not bleu, which is even more raw)
The waiter misunderstood the medium rare ... and we took her word for it....

For future reference –
Rare: saignant

Medium rare: à point

Medium: cuit
Well done: bien cuit

For dessert we had creme brulée and a three-kind-of-chocolate cake and to drink a sauterne.
The sauterne – much to our surprise – went better with the cake than the pudding...

The dinner at the 'Brasserie du Lac' (the restaurant of the hotel) did the trick for the two tired travelers. We are quite satisfied and going back to both the hotel and the restaurant,  not only one more night, but probably in the future as well.

Lasagne

A quiet evening with the kids so it is time for Lasagne. No recipe today as we are using the sauce bolognese leftover from the other day when friends came and visited (and did their own shopping and cooking!)
T bought some Brunello the other day and suggested we try it, but K was more in the mood for meatball wine. So we picked a favourite, the Chateau le Chêne 2009 (Haut Medoc). For 50DKK this is very good value for money.