(part II.)

Heaps of great press followed throughout the day - obviously, a piece of cake thanks to the palace that surrounded me. I had to do take away for lunch - Hediard for a baguette with ham and cheese: simple, great. It’s interesting - bread in the USA doesn’t seem to have the same iconic importance in every day like it does in Europe and other places in the world. Yeah, we do have bread with most of our meals - but it’s typically some sort of pre-packaged thing, not bakery-fresh recipes of culinary deliciousness passed down through generations. Even a plain French-hunk-of-bread can be a thing of beauty.

When we finished press, it was time to grab dinner. 

We rode over to Warner France (Roadrunner France was one of the territories where most of the entire staff was cut or absorbed by Warner Records (Warner has recently purchased Roadrunner entirely, then was bought entirely by a multi-billionaire Russian man) where we picked up Manon (RR Fr - and the only other RR Fr staff person - everyone else was gone from the previous Roadrunner line-up of staff. Their office building was pretty impressive: an old French building on the outside - with a nice modern lobby, gigantic windows, and a nice, quiet vibe inside. 

A short cab ride over to Le Petit Chatelet, and it was dinner time. It’s pretty rad - this place was recommended to Karine by Randy (Lamb of God), when he randomly stumbled upon it one day and was blown away by the joint. It was a tiny little room on the inside - we sat next to the grill (which is always a good thing); got to see all the chalkboard written menus, and began to order.

Aper (as the ladies called it) came first: Ricard Pastis - an intensely almost menthol/citrus rind/absinthe flavored pre-dinner drink with olives in tomato sauce. Manon, being from the south of France, had an extensive wine knowledge (it seems all romance-country-residents are born with a knowledge of wine and art) so she did the ordering.

Château Moulin La Bergere ‘08 was our red, Chablis Domaine William Fevre '09 our white. Escargots “Petit Chatelet” was a must: escargot soufflé - magical in it’s snail and creamy sauced goodness; Salade d'ecrerrisses aux noisettes (kidneys, chopped, on a bed of greens with some pesto and dressing) was a great salad - any salad with bits of chopped, chewy, gamey-flavored kidneys is a thing that makes me happy; Fois gras maison needed to happen. I love fois. It was interesting to see that here, the fois was done more like a terrine; the foie tasted simple and right - flavors of the liver, with the delicate, buttery top; the citrusy-preserves mixed with the foie on grilled bread were impossibly great. 

(tbc…)