To Consult: Your Guide to Paris Has Updated Her List
For an American visiting Paris and intending to explore the food scene, there is no better guide than Patricia Wells. She moved to Paris in 1980 and wrote her first “Food Lover’s Guide to Paris” in 1984. A new version has been published. I recently spent several hours with Ms. Wells on the Left Bank, prowling shops and cafes, old and new, to gain her insights as to what’s changed in this food-obsessed city in recent years. “The concentration of chocolate shops blows my mind,” she said as we went from Henri Le Roux to Pierre Marcolini to Hugo & Victor. “In general, the new food shops reflect increased availability, quality and personality.”
Our itinerary included boutique butchers gift-wrapping cuts of pork in ivory-hued fat and dazzling little produce shops with jewel-like displays. Casual dining in cafes and wine bars is chic, with many more listings in her book. “Neo-bistros,” with young chefs who shed tradition, have arrived. “These chefs think they have discovered the vegetable,” said Ms. Wells, who writes occasionally for The New York Times. They are often in outlying areas where rents are cheaper, like the 11th Arrondissement, which has three times as many listings in this book as in the 1999 update. “In the past, young chefs had to play the Michelin game and get stars to be known, but that’s no longer the case,” she said. “Bloggers have taken over.” Chefs from Japan, Australia and the United States are now cooking in Paris. There are more ethnic restaurants and food trucks, and more places open on weekends. The least change has occurred in luxury restaurants, she said, and most still deserve their reputations: “The Food Lover’s Guide to Paris” (Workman, $16.95) is also available as an iPhone or iPad app ($4.99) from foodloversparis.com.
To Fill: Shaping the Stout and the Glass for It
Stout, a type of strong, dark ale that was developed in Ireland in the 18th century, most famously by Guinness, has become popular among American craft brewers. Rogue Brewery in Newport, Ore., and Left Hand Brewing in Longmont, Colo., are two of them. And they take their brews seriously enough to have collaborated with Spiegelau, a German glassmaker, on a glass they believe is ideal for stout. It took trial runs with hundreds of configurations to determine a winner, a slightly hourglass shape called Spiegelau’s Stout Glass. It allows an extra-luxurious head of foam to develop as it’s poured. And not just with stout: $24.90 for two glasses from spiegelauusa.com starting April 2. It will also be sold at Crate & Barrel stores.
To Enjoy: A Small Brooklyn Plant Brings Yogurt to Market
Serving Greek yogurt unsweetened, with vegetables or spices, is a trend, one that Angela and John Fout are happily promoting with Sohha Savory Yogurt. Unsatisfied with most supermarket yogurts, Mr. Fout and his wife, whose family is from Lebanon, have started making their own, from whole and 2 percent milk, in a small plant in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. They recently opened a stand in Chelsea Market where you can have plain yogurt seasoned with a touch of sea salt, or topped with cucumbers, olives, radishes, avocado and scallions; seasonings like za’atar, olive oil and “everything” (as in “bagel”); as well as honey and fresh fruit: Sohha Savory Yogurt, Chelsea Market, 75 Ninth Avenue (15th Street), sohhayogurt.com.
To Season: English Mustards Arrive in the U.S.
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Let’s face it, balsamic vinegar is overdone. Yet I fell for a new English mustard seasoned with it. This winey-tasting condiment is suggestive of a French violet mustard made with grape must. It’s from Tracklements, which recently started sending its mustards to American stores. The company also makes a sharp horseradish mustard, an earthy beer mustard and a nubbly whole grain variety: $4.75 for five ounces at Whole Foods and Fairway stores.
To Drizzle: A Pumpkinseed Oil From the Finger Lakes
About four years ago, a company in the Finger Lakes region of New York made its debut with butternut and delicata squash seed oils cold-pressed from local crops. Since then it has expanded its line to include oils from acorn and kabocha squashes. And now it has introduced roasted pumpkinseed oil, which can contribute intense nuttiness with fruity overtones to vegetable dishes, salads, mushrooms, eggs, risottos, pastas and seafood. It’s darker than the typical pumpkinseed oil from Austria: Stony Brook Wholehearted Foods Roasted Pumpkin Seed Oil, $13.95 for 6.3 ounces from wholeheartedfoods.com; also sold at Union Market stores.
To Sizzle: A Line of Sausages Represents a Borough
Saul Bolton, the chef and an owner of Saul at the Brooklyn Museum and Red Gravy, has created Brooklyn Bangers, a line of plump and tasty sausages. Bay Ridge Bratwurst, Wythe Ave. Weisswurst and Kings County Knackwurst are some of them, worth serving on their own or incorporating in casseroles and other dishes. There’s also a sweetly spiced Asian sausage, a Cheddar bratwurst, a kosher hot dog and a skinny smoked-beef hot dog: $39.95 for four packages; the sausages come four to a package, the kosher franks five to a package, the smoked hot dogs eight to a package; shipped fresh, not frozen, from foodydirect.com.
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