Paris Part 2 - Les Lundis de Fulgurances

Les Lundis de Fulgurances, Les Combustibles, 75012 Paris

The whole reason for my Paris trip was tonight, my brother Sam would be cooking at the premier evening of ‘Les Lundis de Fulgurances’ a restaurant concept night run by Hugo Hivernat and Sophie Cornibert which is showcasing up and coming chef’s from around the world. My brother is currently working as sous chef in the fantastic Noma restaurant in Copenhagen with head chef Rene Redzepi which only this week beat El Bulli and became the number one restaurant in the world which is just totally amazing to think about, biggest possible congratulations to all the Noma guys and I can't wait to eat there for my birthday in a couple of weeks! It's through this that Sam's been gaining great exposure in places like Paris and also London where at the beginning of this month he’ll be guesting for three nights at Nuno Mendes’ Loft Project which will be a different experience having only 16 guests compared to the 60 he was doing today.

We went for the €75 menu option which meant we got matching wines with the courses and this seemed like good value compared to what I’d expect to pay for same thing in London.

Bol de radis

Radish Bowl

First up were two snacks with the radish bowl being one of the most strikingly presented dishes I’ve ever seen, the terracotta pots were filled with edible soil and mud which seemed to be made from combination of rye bread, hazlenuts and possible olives – buried just under the soil were the peppery radishes, combined with the soil the radishes tasted nothing like I’d expected and looking at other peoples faces they too were nearly dumb founded with the whole experience.

Salt & Vinegar Crisp

Salt & Vinegar Crisps

The salt of vinegar flavour came at you from all angles here, the sauce had a superb acidic bite to its creaminess and when scouped up with the super crisp crisps it all made perfect sense. The salted flour on the crisps didn’t have any robustness like you’d expect with heavily salted crisps from a packet and I suppose this is a throwback from the light seasoning they use at Noma. To go with the snacks we were given a glass of a unusual sparkling wine, 'Opera des vins, Nuit de Tokyo' appeared to have the flavour depth of a medium to high quality champagne but I’m sure the price was a lot more favorable – I’d buy instantly if I ever come across in a shop in the UK.

Carotte en croute de sel, crème, thym, lingonberry

Carrot in salt crust, cream, thyme, lingonberry

Again the salt wasn’t the driving force in this immaculately presented dish. The texture of the components was contrasting but the ingredients blended together effortlessly to create a rich but delicate flavour. I think the vibrance of a dish such as this is a real eye opener for what raw food can actually taste and look like.

Maquereau cru, lait de noisette, pain de seigle, moutarde

Raw Mackerel, hazelnut milk, rye bread, mustard

I was really excited to see this on the menu because surprisingly I’ve never tried raw mackerel and was intrigued by the combination of this and the hazelnut milk. The milk provided a different than normal type of sweetness with all the heat the dish needed was provided by the mustard coating the mackerel. The mackerel itself just melted in the mouth and tasted like I’d always hoped raw mackerel would. I must mention the tiny balls of cucumber that seemed to freshen your palate with cool liquid as soon as you bite into them and the tiny tapioca balls would brilliantly both for the appearance and added feeling in your mouth. The wine match for this course was a very oaky white ‘Hauts de Madou 2007, Blanc Cheverny, Christian VENIER’, defying what I know about wines this 3 year old white seemed much older due to its colour as well as its strong aroma, a good wine but I doubt I’d buy and I didn’t really feel it was complimenting the food as something simpler and more refreshing would have been better for the raw fish – I would have gone for a Sancerre but then again I’ll always go for a Sancerre with fish or salad, think I’m bit stuck in my ways with that one.

Huitre, algue verte, sabayon de pomme de terre

Oyster, green alga, sabayon potato

Again fantastic presentation like every other dish, it was served just warm and I felt a touch more heat would have benefited it but this didn’t detract from the sublime feeling when popping one of the different textures into your mouth.

Pied de cochon, biere, poireau brule

Pigs Trotters, beer, burnt leek

You knew as soon as you saw this dish that it was something special and it was a total triumph, the intense reduced beer gentle disguised the tender morsels of pig trotter with the burnt leek providing yet another cunning addition to the plate. Now was time for the red wines to come out and the first one was a nice robust one Morgan 2008 Vieilles Vignes, Jean-Paul Thevenet with deep fruitiness but wasn’t anything special. I think it’s interesting you consider what you should drink when the dish contains something like beer – I honestly believe that a well matched beer can match and sometimes beat a wine pairing, I think because you drink beer differently than wines (larger mouthfuls) you can get a more complete taste. I would have loved to have tested a few different beers with the dish especially some slightly darker ales and possibly a mild type bitter, something not over-hopped.

Joue de boeuf, oignon, rose

Beef with Rose Onion

Just wow, really wow – the beef which had been cooked for 24 hours in hay was unlike anything I’ve ever really eaten before, the intensity of deep rich flavour of the meat was unbelievable. Served with three different types of onion every mouthful was slightly different, it needed these contrasting flavours because with just the rose flavoured onions it would have become overpowering before you’d finished the dish, the way it was just did it right. Thinking about this it was very simple dishes compared to some of the others but for me it was the stand out dish due the sheer depth of flavour – the type of food you put in your mouth and instantly want to tell everybody how good it is even before you finished chewing the first morsel, queue lots of people with full desperately trying to swallow to explain what they’ve just tasted.

Olivier Cousin Grolleau Vieilles Vignes

This wine was perfect match for the rich beef, it was intense with a taste of real quality aged wine and that was the stand out taste, quality. Very ruby in colour I could have drank two bottles of this with the meal instead of any other wine – gorgeous.

Parfait de malt, neige de panais, fraise sechee

Malt Parfait, snow parsnips, dried strawberries

The presentation for this was just awe-inspiring as you can see in the pictures, the malt parfait had such a deep rich malt flavour and with the hint of parsnip and the textural delight that was the dried strawberries this was a totally complete desert and didn’t take long to accept the second one I was offered. The dessert wine Gewurstraminer 2006, Schueller was revelation to me, sweet but not too sweet I really liked it, in fact I can’t think of a dessert wine I’ve ever enjoyed more than this.

I'm very conscious this is quite a long entry and I'm sure you can understand why - thanks for getting this far, most posts will be much shorter I promise!

Big thanks to all other chefs who helped especially Sam & Oliver.

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A meat feast overload in Hackney

First blog entry for Tales of the Undigested, enjoy and digest the contents.....

Pub on the Park, London Fields, Hackney E8 3PE

Sitting in the top right corner of London Fields its an ideally situated pub for the Hackney locals but seems to be missing the point a little, no real atmosphere, staff bit un-bothered and just doesn't really seem to offer much without summer opening up the big terrace leading to the park. Most interesting thing was slightly wired drummer talking to me in bogs after he'd put Enya followed by The Who on jukebox - interesting choice...

Buen Ayre, Broadway Market, Hackney E8 4QJ

Buen Ayre is in the middle of the narrow streets of Broadway Market in Hackney, its an Argentina Grill restaurant that's had terrific reviews especially from Time Out.

Only small (25-30 covers) they use two sittings per table so should be pulling 50 covers on a weekend night if they fill the early slots, but the chance of getting a table without booking on weekend are slim, we luckily managed to book table earlier the same day.

The atmosphere is busy but relaxed, suiting the narrow room with tables very close to each other, this didn't seem intrusive though because of the bustle of the place.

We weren't going to have starters (knowing the amount of main course we'd be faced with) but two starters really sung to me so I thought what hell its my first blog food night (good excuse eh?) and both only £4.50.

Lengua a la vinagreta - Sliced marinated ox tongue

Really wanted to try the Argentinian take on ox tongue, it was served sliced and covered with the marinade. The vinegar marinade was superbly sharp and cut straight through the strong taste of the tongue, which just simply melted in you mouth much more than I thought it possibly could. Wouldn't have thought about a strong vinegar marinade much before but it hit the spot amazingly well.

Jamón con palmitos y salsa golf - Serrano ham with palm hearts and mayo sauce

It was the palm hearts that got me interested in this dish. The hearts seemed from a tin but the blandish taste of them kinda worked with the dark Serrano and the sharp homemade mayo, good but other starter blew it away for me.

Had bit of issue with ordering main course, first there wasn't any rib-eye steak left (my favourite beef steak cut) and after changing that to sweetbreads we were told that had run out too. Fair play though because our Brazilian waitress was very apologetic and offered to upgrade main platter to 2 140z sirloins for no extra charge as replacement for rib-eye, eventually decided to go with this.

Parrillada Deluxe - 14oz prime Argentine Sirloin steak + 11oz grilled Argentine Rib-eye steak, 2 Argentine-style pork sausages + black pudding + provolone cheese

Yep that's a hell of a lot of meat to share between two! The sirloin was thickly cut and cooked medium-rare absolutely perfectly on the grill, possibly nicest steak I've ever eaten but couldn't help think of extra flavour the rib-eye would've had. Black pudding didn't have the same powerful taste of the British made but probably more approachable for the 'ergh blood' people. I feel you'd eat a steak or sausage with little else but a black pudding needs to be a part of lots of different layers of flavours to really shine. Good meaty sausages, quite a course cut but tender meat inside - they were good but not same wow as the steaks, they did work with cheese. The provolone cheese is served on the platter hot plate, although a hard cheese it melts in superb mozzarella style but produces such a deeper more mature flavour. As you could expect we struggled to finish it all especially after we'd munched on the fantastic thick cut chips served with a garlic and parsley butter as a frivolous side order - I was little annoyed that I was so full of meat I couldn't finish the chips.

A doggy bag was offered and gladly excepted, likely a regular occurrence for non-Argentinian carnivorous customers.

We choose an Argentinian 2006 Norton Privada Merlot-based red to drink, it was an excellent match to the strong beef flavours, elsewhere it would have seemed extremely heavy but with the steak and ox tongue the liquorice undertones pushed there way through and worked well, would buy again but only if eating beef and maybe venison.

My only slight annoyance was the fact that most of the tables seemed to get an after dinner shot of some type of Argentinian liqueur and we didn't! Small thing really but these things stick in your mind and suppose added to my slight doubts about the possibly overly relaxed service.

Overall it was a fantastic meal which delivered on what you'd expect - quality thick steaks, robust wine and bit of a buzz. Could have easily eaten and drank for less than the £100 we spent - actually I recommend just getting a steak and the delectable chips and a cheap bottle of Malbec - you'd enjoy it nearly as much for a lot less. Saying that... as good as the steaks were; it was the ox tongue which stood out and what I think I'd like to see elsewhere with a bit of a twist, whether other people would order it is another thing.

I'd love to hear your opinions of this blog entry, if you've been to any of places I talk about let me know if you agree/disagree with things I've written.

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