Still looking for my supper after Theatre des Champs Elysees. They%26#39;ve added a new link formule, to the Relais Plaza Athenee, which might be fun, although I can%26#39;t find many recent reviews.
Could I have a little help with the menu, please? It%26#39;s quite a restricted one for €44, basically a choice of 1 from each section. and those 1s are:
(I%26#39;m following in the grilled wolf with sliced lawyers tradition, forgive me)
Declinaison de tomates anciennes (with mozzarella and pesto).
Declension of ancient tomatoes.
Risotto aux courgettes violon.
Courgettes and violin risotto.
or
Pave de saumon a l%26#39;unilateral
sauce vierge à l’estragon, artichauts sautés.
Slab of unilateral salmon with virgin and tarrogon sauce.
or
Paleron de boeuf braise
cocotte de pommes rattes a la peau facon grandmere.
Braised beef with rat apples, like your grandmother%26#39;s skin.
Then the dessert is various flavoured pots of cream - is that like a brulee without the brulee or a blancmange or a semi-freddo? Just curious.
This sounds like a nice deal, just got to gird up my French and ring the theatre to arrange it.
Thankyou for any help.
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Actually many of the words used in fancy French cuisine have nothing to do with cooking terms and everything with poetry or ..the desire to %26quot;epater le bourgeois%26quot; i.e showing off to the (confused) middle class!
Declinaison is a grammatical or scientific term, not a cooking one.
Might mean that the tomatoes slices are fanning out on the plate or that each slice has a different shade from the others but still in the same basic colour (as in the famous line %26quot;a whiter shade of pale%26quot;
Tomates anciennes refer likely to some special tomatoes that were common centuries ago and are grown again.. some have a white skin, other a black skin, or are green yet ripe etc.
A violon is also a cooking utensil..not just a violin.
Virgin could refer to virgin oil.
Unilateral could mean anything or be 1/2 a salmon steak.
Facon grandmere means cooking grandma style..
Pommes rattes (also spelled râte) is a variety of potatoes. Surely you know that potatoes are NEARLY ALWAYS called %26quot;pommes%26quot; in French restaurants???
%26quot;pommes rattes a la peau%26quot; means that these potatoes are cooked with the skin still on...the way my grandma used to do to save time but also for flavour.
What should matter to you is that the ingredients are fairly basic..nothing like tripe, brains or stomachs...or pasta with black squid ink as I tried once.. even the waitress looked sick as she gave me the plate..it didn%26#39;t taste too horrible but the colour was off putting..
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Never been to a French restaurant so I didn%26#39;t know that the de terre was removed from the potatoes.
The langugage of the menu sounds a bit precious but you%26#39;re right, the food sounds nice and simple.
Thanks for the help.
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Saumon à l%26#39;unilaterale means that the salmon is cooked on one side only (the skin side) until it is brown and the top side is done.
It is served with artichokes sauteed in tarragon-flavored olive oil.
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Hi -
The ancient tomatoes are what we call heirloom ones. After you eat them you%26#39;ll wonder why anyone bothers to grow any of the modern types. The old ones are amazingly flavourful. Pots of Cream are very rich, what we call puddings - smoother and more flavourful than blanc mange, and most often chocolate, in my experience
The menu sounds great, but it also sounds like you could use a phrase book with a good food section so you%26#39;ll have some help deciphering bills of fare when you%26#39;re in Paris. Check out Amazon or drop into a good book store. I%26#39;m sure you%26#39;ll find something that will do the job for you.
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Like the sound of that, I%26#39;m a big tomato fan .
I%26#39;ve got a Berlitz phrasebook, which I%26#39;ve usually found good but it doesn%26#39;t have words like pave, declinaison, paleon and cocotte.
Or the rat apples. I really was just joking about the rats and grandmother%26#39;s skin.
Sounds like a meal to go for!
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A phrase book is not nearly comprehensive enough for translating menus.
There%26#39;s a fairly extensive food glossary on Patricia Wells%26#39; website.
An excellent food glossary is good to have along, not so much for various preparations, but ingredients. If you don%26#39;t care for various animal organ delicacies, or if the addition of curry, for example, would ruin an entire plate for you, a food glossary can help you avoid ordering mistakes.
Note also that menus on websites are not necessarily current and most often are not. So, the %26quot;formule%26quot; could be entirely different by the time you dine.
So often you see, %26quot;It you go there, be sure to order the...%26quot; and it%26#39;s not on the menu when you go.
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Thankyou, that%26#39;s a great site. Found everything apart from the declinaison.
You%26#39;re right, some things are definitely to look out for. I remember quite recently discovering that ris de veau wasn%26#39;t rice..... I wouldn%26#39;t have eaten anything with veau in it anyway but it did remind me how little of French meals I know!
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%26quot;Courgettes violon%26quot; are a variety of courgettes grown in the Provence.
A %26quot;declinaison%26quot; here is a range of (smaller) tidbits, with (in this case) tomato as a common ingredient. You can see an example on this page: latabledesandrine.com/article-23892010.html (and yes, some tomatoes are green or brown).
The word %26quot;declinaison%26quot; is often used to indicate a range of products: a range of sizes, colors, etc.
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