Bread and Chocolate in Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Bread (Poilane)



Chocolate (Jean-Charles Rochoux)

An American Meal, with Americans, in Paris

Researching places to eat prior to traveling to Paris, I thought it might be interesting to book a reservation at the Hidden Kitchen, the 'secret' dining club owned by a young couple from Seattle with experience cooking in that city's better restaurants. 'Secret' implies that a supper club which has had gushing praise from food blogs such as this one, as well as a feature in The New York Times, is in fact hardly known to folks who enjoy travel and food enough to research where they will eat while in Paris. In other words, as it relates to HK, the word is out.

Perhaps that is why our dozen or so fellow diners were all Americans. While I had read to the contrary in the Times, apparently Braden and Laura now book evenings based on nationality. One night might be Parisian night, another one booked for travelers from Singapore, and of course there have been, and will continue to be, many more all American dinners.

Here is how it works. You email HK the date you would like to dine (dinners on weekends only), they let you know if it works, and confirm the date with you the week of your dinner. For 80 euros you get a 7 course meal with wine pairings.

The menu, though it varies somewhat, will probably resemble something like this one (not exactly the same as our dinner, but a few courses match and others are very similar). While I really enjoyed a few courses, particularly the toasted peanut soup with roasted eggplant and red onion salad and the seared salmon with toasted spinach, parsnip puree and watercress chimichurri, the others were not as memorable. There was a poached egg, fava bean and frisee salad with green goddess dressing, a somewhat dry pulled pork dish, pan fried mackerel (a strongly flavored fish best enjoyed as sushi, imo). Wines selected for each course were merely ok, no standouts. The one exception would be a wine which stood out for all the wrong reasons, an Argentinean Malbec paired with dessert (yikes!) which on its own was no good, let alone served with a fruit based dessert.

I was on the fence about writing a critical review of what was ultimately an enjoyable evening spent in the apartment of an adventurous, gracious, young American couple in Paris. However, given the merely decent quality of the meal and not inexpensive price tag, I felt as though some constructive criticism was in order.

Don't get me wrong, Hidden Kitchen is a great concept, and for about $110 is not overpriced considering that seven courses - as well as wine - are included. However, if you want better than average French wine, and food that is a bit more exciting, there are many, many other options to explore in Paris.

Group Home - Supa Star

A classic mix show staple, not to mention a great instrumental track to freestyle over. Thanks to David D for reminding me about this one earlier today.

Nas - Illmatic

In 1992 Queens resident and 3rd Bass member MC Serch was busy transforming into EP (executive producer) Serch, having recently undertaken as his newest project a young skinny kid from the Queensbridge projects, located just a short ride across money making Manhattan on the 59th St Bridge, but otherwsie worlds apart. Known as one of the city's toughest projects, QB also has spawned many of hip-hop's elite, starting with the likes of Marley Marl, MC Shan, Roxanne Shante and the Juice Crew in the early 80's, moving through to Capone and Noreaga, Nature, Cormega and Mobb Deep in the '90's.

And then there was Nas, the 19 year-old prodigy who started appearing on tracks, most famously Main Source's 'Live at the BBQ,' and Serch's 'Back to the Grill,' showing that perfect combination of distinctive, instantly recognizable, world weary vocal timbre, narrative talent, and infectious, confident style that only the best MC's possess. Serch had himself a jewel, a once in a lifetime talent (thanks Q-tip) that no doubt would have emerged successfully on his own, but nevertheless was carefully and quickly ushered into the limelight with the success of Illmatic.

Illmatic is a hip-hop purist's holy grail, the ideal synthesis of music, rhythm, and gifted MCing. To make a brief analogy apropos to this site, it was like the perfect combination of terroir, grape variety and winemaking ability. Even further, a vinous equivalent to Illmatic might be putting together and marketing a case of Loire (Loire representing hip-hop here) wine: 3 bottles each of Huet Vouvray, Luneau Papin Muscadet, Olga Raffault Chinon and Clos Roche Blanche Cot.

OK, back to the music. Four of the best producers of the sample based school of hip-hop beat production were set to task to patch together the perfect canvas to inspire and complement Nas. And that they did. Many consider the contributions made by Q-Tip, Pete Rock, Large Professor and DJ Premier to be amongst their most inspired work.

Opening with a brief cinematic interlude, then segueing into the Subway theme from Wild Style, the album begins with Nas and others ad-libbing a hangin' out in the hood type scenario, with Nas' observing that 'Niggas don't listen.' From there, Nas slides into the character of a money hungry, drug dealing resident of a New York ghetto, trying to take care of himself. With lines like 'Beyond the walls of intelligence, life is defined,' and a refrain such as 'I never sleep, 'cause sleep is the cousin of death,' this is some serious, serious writing. Delivered with perfect timing in Nas' inimitable voice, this is MCing of the highest order. Combinining a keen narrative sense with an intensely personal autobiographical perspective, Nas hits homerun after homerun, perhaps culminating with 'One Love,' a letter to an incarcerated friend, updating him on what's going on in the hood, and set to a mellow, jazzy, vibraphone based sample from the Abstract (Q-Tip), who also lends his voice to the chorus.

Never before had a hip-hop record been so anticipated and hyped by the masses as when Illmatic was released. In this rare case, the hype was to be believed and justified. Illmatic is easily one of the three best hip-hop records of all time and amongst the best records released in the 1990's. It remains one of my favorites of all time.

A recommendation

Should you find yourself out and about in the evening, having had only a light lunch, do not start your evening with manzanilla, proceed with a few glasses of other wines, eat some cheese and call it dinner, and then finish the evening off with a pilsner. Even if 1999 Puffeney Vin Jaune is involved, despite it's rare, brilliant combination of nutty oxidization and clear as a bell, bright as the Marfa lights qualities, it is not food and will not protect you from feeling a little bit ragged the next day if you haven't had much of anything to eat. Just some words of advice.

Anyway, my girl just cooked up some delicious scrambled eggs with spinach, and quinoa with toasted coriander, cumin, onions and parsely, so I'm feeling great. I do need to head down to the store to strategize with my man John, though, so this is a short 'sorry for not posting' post. Paris and Champagne adventures to start soon, I promise.

In the meantime, I would look out for the Illmatic review, it's ready to go and scheduled for 4:30pm EDT.

Notre Dame

Louvre on the Lumix

No captions, just photo's, all taken on my Panasonic Lumix LX-3 at the Louvre