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Le Bistro de Pekin

Our favourite Chinese restaurant of the moment is Le Bistro de Pekin. We have been eating there at least 2- 3 times a month, husband goes even more often because he likes to bring homesick work colleagues for a proper Chinese meal. Its location very near the Avenue Champs des Elysees and its 7/7 opening hours are nice factors too.

Despite its name, its specialty is Szechuan (or Sichuan) food because the chef hails from that region. The menu is wide, there is a fantastic selection of "small dishes" that changes often to reflect the traditional 23 flavours that typifies this cuisine. They also offer the usual set menus, including "nems" which I wouldn't advise because I doubt they eat nems in Sichuan.

I always order their hot and sour soup. It is neither starchy nor too one-dimensional. The peppery bite is just right, the sourness from good quality vinegar opens up the appetite and the ingredients are well balanced with finely sliced bamboo shoots and delicate egg "clouds" for contrast and texture. Husband loves their "liang-fen", the vinegary, garlicky sesame dressing is light and refreshing, also their "pidan tofu" which is presented correctly, i.e. with some knifework on the very fragile tofu to show the chef's expertise, with gratifyingly fresh and generously portioned century egg topping instead of the more common slick of chilli oil elsewhere.

From the main dishes of the menu, we love the "water-cooked beef" more than the fish version (the river fish still too fishy for my tastes), lots of beefy slices in that characteristic hot oil broth that is spicy and numbing yet so addictive. The menu includes atypical vegetable dishes such as stir-fried bittergourd as well as the standard tomato omelette and "fish-fragrant" aubergines. Last Sunday we tried their crispy beef, marinated beef covered in rice crackers and deepfried. It tasted more subtle than it appeared, the interest is in the rice-crispy texture, it is a dish to please children, for adults it works more as a respite from their other more assertively flavoured dishes. 

The cooking in general is refined. Some dishes work better than most- the "zhajiangmian" was beyond awful, at least to me, it seemed to be mostly bean paste sauce- but in general they are restrained in their usage of cooking oil, and the seasonings are well-judged so there isn't any muddying of flavours no matter how many dishes we order, and we usually order way too much. 

One standout dish was "pen pen xia" or shrimp hotpot as it is described more prosaically in the menu. Prawns in their shells are cooked in a stunning sauce-broth of sichuan peppercorns, chillies, bean paste and garlic (wild  guesses here). Sweetness, then gentle spiciness, followed by undulating savoury waves from fermented beans and aromatics, and as we continued eating, it gradually peaked with more and more spicy heat and that characteristic lip and palate-numbing high from sichuan peppercorns. Wow. Poking around the pot we discovered tranches of sweet potatoes, their sweetness assuaging the spicy assault. At the end of the meal, we could still taste some lingering notes of something medicinal not unlike Chinese herbal medicines, tingling gently in our mouths.

This dish is listed as #3 on their list of specialty dishes, I say forget #1 and #2 (the "water cooked" fish and beef respectively), go straight to #3. I wonder what #4 is though? 

Le Bistro de Pekin

38 rue de Ponthieu, 8th arr

T: 01 42 56 50 86

M: St Phillipe du Roule (line 9), Franklin Roosevelt (line 1).

Also, we will be away next week, so no blog posts for a while. Bonne vacances à tous!

The Good Life in Provence

We woke up in Orange to find beautiful sky and sunshine smiling on this part of southern Rhone. Instead of going to our winemaker appointment directly we looked for lavender fields in Sault, stopping at a farm to buy organic fruits and juices before finally arriving at their local market to buy lavender soaps and gorgeously dark and perfectly ripe cherries. There was even a truck selling raw milk on tap. Sun, warmth, lavender, cherries, dairy, could life get more beautiful in this part of France? Why yes, it could....

The drive to Château de Beaucastel took longer than we thought, actually we got hopelessly lost, and had to call the château to ask for directions, but we finally arrived, with just enough time for a quick tour of the vineyards and the facilities before being shown to their dining room.

We, as in we and our wine-connected friends Tony and Florence, had also been invited for lunch with Pierre Perrin. He is the fifth generation bearing this illustrious name yet in person he is modest, very approachable, and certainly very generous.

The menu for our "light" lunch (yep, including a 1970 vintage, sure we were squealing with excitement behind our polite facades!). Their personal chef, whom we also had the pleasure to meet and talk to, creates menus to pair the local and seasonal specialties with their own wines for optimum enjoyment. We were in for a real treat.

Before we started, there was a round of Aigo Bouido, a typical Provencal garlic soup.The name literally means boiled water, and it is made up of lots of chopped garlic, toast, olive oil and hot water. I think it is the secret why people in these parts are seldom ill, can one imagine anything more healthful and nutritious? It was very comforting and not too strong-tasting despite the copious amounts of garlic. V really enjoyed this soup and finished most of her bowl, including the tender garlic bits.

Saint Pierre fish with girolles and fresh rosemary was very delicate, the delicious girolles in camomile-scented almond milk provided a stunning contrast.

The roasted rack of baby lamb was deliriously good, the meat so tender hardly any chewing was required and the flavour was incredible, you can taste the warm and grassy spring with each bite. Even V wanted my share.

The wines were all, needless to say, totally amazing- complex and beautifully structured with longlasting finish, everything you'll expect in a great wine. 

Dessert was just three little heavenly bites of choux puffs piped with cream and sandwiched with strawberry slices, finished with that very elegant dessert wine of Beaumes de Venice. The conversation flowed as easily as the impressive wines, we talked about everything and nothing, but soon it was time to say goodbye. We thanked our host profusely and floated out of the château on a happy cloud, tipsy with good food, wine and the beautiful life in these parts.

Lyon, the Capital of Organ Meats.

Our first meal in Lyon was dinner in a bouchon which is their version of a bistro. Daniel et Denise was named the best bouchon of 2008 and on a Monday evening it was packed with enthusiastic customers. The menu reads like a cardiologist's nightmare: quenelles of brochet in deliciously rich lobster-bisquey Nantua sauce, cured legs of pork, whole veal kidneys cooked in their own fat, and my favourite, tripes lightly battered and roasted with loads of caramelised shallots. We barely finished half the tripes but I enjoyed every bite of the chewy yet tender tripes, their deep earthy meat flavours offset with some some sweetness from the shallots.

And the kicker? Every table gets the same side dish of sautéed potatoes, thinly sliced and very delicious, their edges golden and crispy. I won't be surprised if they had cooked it in duck or goose fat, in Lyon foie gras seem to be the local butter. At the food hall in Les Halles I would later find dozens of stalls selling the fatty liver in all forms, from the rustic Wellington-esque foie gras baked in pastry to chi-chi little canapés all ready for their turn at an elegant dinner party.

Dinner over, we made our way to the hotel. Our group, for we have been joined by my lovely friends Tony and Florence, will have some great food and wine adventures in the days ahead.

The wines of the Rhone region is a complete mystery to me. I had asked husband to limit our wine excursions to one a day, not wanting to traipse around yeasty-smelling cellars and getting too tipsy too early, so he and our friends had to prioritise their choices. First on the agenda was a drive to northern Rhone to the winemaker and wine distributor E. Guigal. Thanks to our friends' connections we were allowed entry, given a private tour and more importantly, a tasting of some very amazing wines, including one of their three "la la las" or La Turque, La Mouline, La Landonne. Silly me, I should have known that my friends would do things in greater style.

Then it was back to Lyon again for lunch. This time we went to a modern place. La Remanence is a cool and elegant white-tablecloth establishment in the heart of the old town. We passed a very civilised afternoon here over a beautiful lunch and a little bit more wine. Children get either fish or meat, served with gorgeous spring vegetables of artichoke hearts and green asparagus.

I had some more organ meats of course. Ever since I read Hard Times by Charles Dickens I have been fascinated with sweetbreads; one of the many among the not-likeable characters in the book, Mrs Sparsit, likes sweetbreads in brown sauce very much. If I see sweetbreads in a menu, I would likely order it. This was excellent although I found the sweetbread a little too large to be truly delicate. The mushrooms sitting on the bottom of the plate were pure deliciousness.

Later there were desserts, coffee and more treats in the form of delicious little caramels and financiers, but we were too satiated to notice. In the car on the way to Orange, we slept while husband and Tony up in the front drove and navigated their way into Provence. There was a detour to a pretty village and lovely sunny weather and puffy clouds in the sky.

Eventually, we reached Orange and their best lodging they have to offer, which turned out to be a motel run by Campanile. The motel was very clean and comfortable, and we were surprised to find ourselves hungry again, in time for dinner at Le Parvis. The menu is provencal, lots of olives and vegetables and less heavy on red meats and offal. My dinner of duck and a  fruit-based dessert was very good and relatively light. The service was rather cold, but that didn't matter, because down in Provence and all the places in Rhone we visited, people are very nice. Cars actually stop to let you cross the street, even when they saw you from afar. People do not walk into you as if you are invisible, and they smile a lot more. Is it because of the gorgeous weather, the beautiful produce, or their wines? I think it's all three, don't you?

In the next post, we discover the best of Southern Rhone.

Daniel et Denise
156 rue Créqui, 69003 Lyon
Tel: 04 78 60 66 53

La Remanence
31, rue du Bât d’Argent - 69001 Lyon
Tel: 04 72 00 08 08

Le Parvis
55 cours Pourtoules, 84100 Orange
Tel: 04 90 34 82 00