meat loves salt

I made only one restaurant reservation for our week in Paris. I figured our days would be a little unpredictable with a baby, and I didn’t know how many commitments we’d be able to stick to. Thankfully, it was not hard to decide which one restaurant we wanted to be sure to try.

Le Bistrot Paul Bert came up in just about every guide, blog post, and article I came across on recommended restaurants in Paris — and for very good reason. It’s a classic Parisian bistro with excellent food, friendly service, and great prices. We had lunch here on our third day in Paris, when we were joined by my cousin.

Like many restaurants in France, Bistrot Paul Bert has formules (set menus) for lunch and dinner. If I remember correctly, the lunch formule was €18 and the dinner was €38 when we were there, and both came with three courses (appetizer, main, and dessert). The lunch formule is more limited — with only two options for each of the courses, I believe. Luckily, the dinner formule is also available at lunchtime, and that menu is much more extensive. While many places have a separate à la carte menu, here you can order à la carte straight from the formule menus at set prices for starters, mains, and desserts. So between us three adults, we got one full lunch formule and then one appetizer, two mains, and one dessert from the dinner formule.

We were in France during white asparagus season, which we saw at many of the outdoor markets, so we chose the white asparagus soup as one of our starters. It was creamy but not overly rich, and you could pick out the fresh taste of the asparagus.

We also got the foie gras in duck broth, and though this was also rich, it was well balanced. I think I’ve had foie gras at least one other time before, but I don’t have a very good recollection of what it was like. So when I tried it this time, I realized that I was expecting something more paté-like — that is, something more soft and spreadable. But it actually is more like, well, a piece of liver. So this dish was actually a slice of luscious foie gras floating in a clear, light duck consommé. There were also paper-thin slices of mushrooms and radish in the soup. The mushrooms were so flavorful! And the radish added some nice spicy crunch to complement the foie gras.

For my main dish, I chose an onglet de boeuf, a hanger steak, which came with fries and spicy mustard on the side. The steak was excellent, with a crispy exterior. But the highlight of this dish for me was all the wonderful shallots on top. Now, every time I pan-fry shallots, they go pretty much from raw to wilted, and they are tricky not to burn either. These shallots were definitely cooked, so their sweetness came out, but they also retained their shape and even a bit of their crunch. And I loved that the steak was just covered in them, because I definitely liked them with every bite.

The French eat their steak pretty blue and bloody (that is in fact how you order it — bleu for very rare or saignant “bloody” for rare). I asked for à point, which means “just done” but is actually closer to an American medium rare. I think it turned out just as I wanted. The fries that came with my steak were good too, but I didn’t want to fill up too much on them.

My cousin ordered a steak tartare, which she enjoyed immensely. When it came out, the waitress warned us that it would be very spicy and suggested we add some Worcestershire to offset some of that spice. We could not get enough of steak tartare throughout our trip, but this one was definitely the best. It was spicy all right, but not unbearably so. Also, while I am used to steak tartare being an appetizer in the U.S., and proportioned accordingly, it is served as a main dish in France and is pretty sizable. (Although, again, I am almost certain the portion sizes have gone up considerably overall since I was last in France 12 years ago.) The steak tartare also came with a side of fries and a light arugula salad tossed in vinaigrette.

B ordered off the lunch menu and got a blanquette de veau — cubes of tender veal in white sauce accompanied with rice. It was his sort of dish — slow-cooked meat with plenty of sauce for the rice to soak up. It was good, but it wasn’t as special as the other dishes, and I think if we ever went back we’d just go with the dinner menu, as that seems to be where the classic French bistro dishes are.

When we were ordering our desserts, I’d been tempted to get three, as I’d heard Bistrot Paul Bert has a great cheese plate. But we were so stuffed, we decided to share two among the three of us. We got an île flottante “floating island” off the lunch menu, which is meringue floating in crème anglaise (a light custard sauce).

Off the dinner menu, we ordered the bistro’s famous dessert: the Paris-Brest. This was my first Paris-Brest ever, so I’m glad I experienced it here. It is somewhat like a donut-shaped éclair. The outside is choux pastry (like what is used in profitéroles and éclairs) and the inside is a hazelnut cream. It was the perfect end to what we all agree was our favorite meal during our time in France.

Le Bistrot Paul Bert was everything I could hope for in a French restaurant: cozy atmosphere, classic French food well done, and affordable prices. While it’s not in one of the more popular neighborhoods, it’s actually not far east of the Marais and is less touristy. (We stayed in an apartment just across from the bistro and really enjoyed exploring the Bastille Quarter where it’s located.) Le Bistrot Paul Bert alone is well worth the short metro ride to this area. Dorie Greenspan calls this place one of her “hands-down favorite bistros” and lists its steak frites among her top 10 must-taste foods in Paris. As for me, I can definitely say that this is one meal I will be thinking about for a very, very long time.

Le Bistrot Paul Bert
18 rue Paul Bert, Paris 75011
Metro: Faidherbe-Chaligny (line 8)
Closed Sunday and Monday
Call ahead for reservations: 01 43 72 24 01

For more posts on France, see…
Eating in Paris
Not Eating in Paris
The Bastille Quarter
Markets (Paris)
Oh, the Cheeses We Ate
Markets (Provence)
Aix-en-Provence
(La Vraie) Bouillabaisse in Marseille
Provençal Specialties in Nice

In some ways, I was destined to become a francophile: I was born in post-French-colonial Saigon and then grew up in Canada, where I took French classes from the fourth grade on. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t longing to go France itself — it was somehow a part of my very constitution. In high school, I had a wonderful French teacher who turned me into a full-fledged francophile, and by the time I got to college, I was determined to find a way to finally get there. So I committed to a year-long foreign exchange program, which allowed me to pay regular tuition to my own university but study at its sister school in the south of France. Up until that point, the farthest I had ever lived from my family was 2 hours away.

It was an enlightening year, to say the least — full of lessons learned, many notebooks filled, and dear friends who became like family. What’s more, France is also where I “remet” my husband (we first met when we were kids in Canada but lost touch when our families moved), so it will always be special to the both of us.

Now, almost 12 years have gone by, and B and I have never really had an opportunity to go back. Once baby E arrived, and it also started to look like a lot of our travel will be centered in Asia the next few years (for both work and family), we realized it’d only get more expensive and more difficult to make this trip in the future. So we thought we would have no better opportunity than now.

To put things into a little perspective, the last time I was in France…

• We were still using French francs.
• I saw Amélie in the theatres when it first came out.
• My university in the U.S. did not have wifi yet, and my university in France was actually still on dialup!

I may have dated myself a bit there… But, really, it’s been too long!

So what did I notice this time ’round? Well, for one thing, I really think the meal portions are a whole lot bigger than I remember! The sizes were even a bit daunting at times. And, am I imagining it, but do the streets and subways also seem a whole lot cleaner now?

Finally, Paris was just more incredible than ever this time. Please forgive me for even thinking this, but I actually was not that into Paris the year I was in France. For some reason, it seemed too flashy to me at the time, and I preferred more of the subtle elegance of a city like Vienna. This time, however, I was surprised by how intimate Paris feels. The handsome old buildings, wrought-iron balconies, narrow cobblestone streets. Everything just seems to have been purposefully crafted with the greatest care and attention to detail — from the pastries to the street signs. And, as I mentioned, the city also felt cleaner to me. Yes, Paris was just perfect, and I’ve been missing it terribly since I got back.

I think a large part of my experience this time also has to do with where we stayed. There’s only so much of a big city I can handle (not much). I don’t like the crowds and noise and rush. For this trip, we managed to keep things low-key by renting what turned out to be a dreamy Parisian apartment in a typical European building (it even smelled like Europe upon entering, if that makes sense). The place had all of the historic charm of an old European flat, plus all the benefits of modern living (including a big stove and oven, a dishwasher, and even a dryer — those parts were not typically Parisian but definitely most welcome; and let me not forget the iMac either!). With an almost-7-month-old with us, we really couldn’t have asked for anything better.

The apartment is located in the Bastille quarter, which I knew pretty much nothing about when we arrived. Only after I returned did I stumble upon this article comparing the neighborhood to NYC’s Williamsburg. The area is actually quite residential while at the same time being home to a lot of gems that aren’t mentioned in the piece.

We were lucky to have a kind landlady (did I mention she had the loveliest Parisian breakfast waiting for us when we arrived?) who gave us lots of recommendations for what to see and do in the neighborhood. One of my regrets is simply not spending the entire week in this area alone. (That is actually how I cope if I have to live in a big city — I find a neighborhood I like, and I try not to leave it.) Being in a less touristy area also helped us to feel like we were experiencing more of local life.

We took our first day in Paris really easy. After getting settled in that morning, we took a walk to the nearby Marché Aligre, which includes both a covered market and an open-air market, which, impressively, operates six days a week. It’s where we picked up some groceries for some easy meals at the apartment.

The famed Marché Richard Lenoir is also in this neighborhood, just off the Place de la Bastille, but I will talk more about that in my dedicated market post in the coming weeks.

Pastry-wise, we didn’t fully realize just how good we had it on rue Paul Bert where we were staying until we encountered a few mediocre pastry shops around the city. My husband and I admitted to each other that we had each thought our first breakfast at the apartment was amazing simply because we were in Paris, and all the pastries in Paris are amazing. Alas, this is not true. Our first breakfast at the apartment was amazing because our landlady had purchased the pastries from Cyril Lignac’s La Patisserie, which, unbeknownst to us at the time, is famous for making one of the best croissants in all of Paris. One morning, B got up early, went to La Patisserie, and brought back a little of everything: éclair, croissant, pain au chocolat,and the never-to-be-forgotten pain aux raisins. I know — raisins! I would never have thought to order a pain aux raisins anywhere. But it was just that good — flaky, moist, and… I believe it had coconut in it too. That pain aux raisins will forever haunt B’s dreams.

As the week went on, we also ventured to the Blé Sucré, whose pain au chocolat was apparently voted best in Paris. The pastries were indeed good and comparable to those at La Patisserie. I also got a bag of delicious rose-flavored marshmallows and some of their famous madeleines and financiers. Our landlady also recommended the Blé Sucré’s lunch menu, as well as the bistro just a few doors down called Le Square Trousseau, which has been in several movies and is named for the park it faces (sadly, we never had a chance to check it out).

The other highlight of our stay is certainly no secret, and it happened to be just across from our apartment: the Bistrot Paul Bert. I will devote a separate post to our meal there, so stay tuned for that! [Link updated.]

Finally, one evening we stopped by a nearby Italian market called Soboa and picked up some fresh ravioli: squid ink, lemon, mint, and spicy sundried tomatoes.

There is so much more in the Bastille Quarter that I never got to check out: Le Baron Rouge wine bar, bistros Au Vieux Chene and A la Biche au Bois, Pizza e fichi, Cyril Lignac’s restaurant Le Chardenoux, as well as the Viaduc des Arts and its Promenade Plantee (sounds like a Parisian version of the High Line), the culinary bookstore La Cocotte, and the kids’ shops Lillibulle, Le Petit Pan, and L’Ourson en bois.

In truth, I think you could probably plop yourself down in any neighborhood in Paris and be content just spending a week exploring all the little shops, restaurants, and nooks. Here are a couple great resources for things to see, do, and eat in Paris, organized by neighborhood:

20 Little Cities
Prêt à Voyager

I told B we should try to visit Paris once a decade. But I already want to go back!

For posts on France, see…
Eating in Paris
Not Eating in Paris
Bistrot Paul Bert
Markets (Paris)
Oh, the Cheeses We Ate
Markets (Provence)
Aix-en-Provence
(La Vraie) Bouillabaisse in Marseille
Provençal Specialties in Nice

I just returned from a lovely two-week vacation in France, and I’m already suffering from croissant withdrawal! We spent a week in Paris and a week in the south of France. I have much to share, but for now I’ll leave you with this top-10 list of my favorite memories:

10: The perfect lazy Sunday in Aix-en-Provence.

9: Boeuf bourguignon and cozy seats next to the radiator on a chilly, rainy afternoon in Paris. Plus, hot coffee and molten chocolate cake for dessert!

8: Discovering that I love sheep’s milk cheeses. I’ve really taken to Perail as well as Tomme de brebis (brebis refers to sheep or ewe). (I didn’t happen to get a photo of one, but below is a Reblochon, usually a cow’s milk cheese.)

7: All the amazing markets!

6: La Patisserie by Cyril Lignac, our default patisserie because it was at the corner of our street in Paris. Only now am I realizing that it’s a destination in its own right.

5: Sunday picnic brunch from Marche Richard Lenoir: anchovy-stuffed olives, St. Marcellin cheese, bread, Portuguese custard tarts, and oysters from Normandy.

4: Our landlady had breakfast waiting for us when we arrived in Paris. It was the sweetest welcome, topped off by the fact that the pastries were from La Patisserie.

3: Bistrot Paul Bert, where we had our favorite meal of the trip. (More on this in another post.)

2: Our neighborhood in Paris. We lived in the 12th [update: make that the 11th, aka the Bastille Quarter] and loved it. It was out of the way of the usual tourist sights and was more residential, which is what we wanted. But there were still lots of gems here, as we learned during our stay.

1: Our apartment in Paris. I think I could’ve stayed in the whole week and still felt like I was in Paris. It was my very favorite thing out of the entire trip.

More details to come!