French food at Chartier

An absolute must for every visitor in Paris is to have a meal at Chartier. It's a slice of typical Parisian way of eating. Or arguably what used to be typical a long time ago and is now one more "disney-fied" cultural left-overs with the queue to go. But it's still there for you to enjoy and luckily has not made way for some design eatery which you could find in any self respecting city.
Chartier,
7, Rue Fbg Montmartre
Paris 9e

Short Story About Restos du Coeur

The Restos du Cœur is a French charitable organisation which activity is to distribute food and hot meals to the needy.

It was founded by the French comedian Coluche in 1985. The first of the Restos opened on December 21st and soon multiplied all over the country.
The goal of the founders was to give away 200,000 meals per day; 8.5 million alone were distributed the first winter.

The initiative was supported by a song written by the songwriter and singer Jean-Jacques Goldman called 'Les Restos du Cœur'. A televised show allowed the organisation to collect several million euros each year.

In 2007, 81,7 millions meals have been served which is very worrying.

Source: wikipedia.fr

Molecular cuisine in Paris

The term was coined in 1988 by Hungarian physicist Nicholas Kurti and French chemist Hervé This, both vocal advocates of applying modern science to culinary problems.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the term started to be used for a new style of cooking that was unafraid to explore the possibilities of food scientifically. It was used to describe the cooking methods of a number of famous chefs, although several have subsequently repudiated the idea of molecular gastronomy, and say that their cooking is instead a search for excellence.
Here is a selection of restaurant in Paris using this type of cuisine:
- Pierre Gagnaire is a well known French chef, and is the Head Chef and owner of the eponymous Pierre Gagnaire restaurant at 6 rue Balzac in Paris. Gagnaire is an iconoclastic chef who was at the forefront of the fusion movement. His goal for his cooking is to have a lively cuisine which takes risks while respecting the past.
- Léna et Mimile Hervé This’s work is very well applied in this restaurant. Few examples : Velouté chaud de navets de Croissy, émulsion de thé noir -, carotte demi-longue de Guérande cuite à la vapeur, sauce confortable aux fanes de carottes - fondant de joue de bœuf, pommes soufflées… This restaurant looks very « normal » and usual considering its location (Rue Mouffetard) but don’t get fooled by looking at the exterior, the real surprises are in your plates. Bon appetit!
- Les Magnolias and its great chef Jean Chauve is not located in Paris but in the 94 department : Val-de-Marne. Quiet and tranquil small town of Péreux, The Magnolias masters in creativity and originality. The ambiance is classy but not too much and the various dishes will stimulate your taste buds. The restaurant is regularly fully-booked so make sure you call before coming.
- Cooking class with Anne Cazor, engineer in the food-industry and doctor in biotechnology. She will tell you all the “grand chefs” secrets, the ones that innovate and surprise with molecular gastronomy. The next class is on November 16th.

Thank you to angelcore for his photo.

Fallafel My Love

L'As du Fallafel — on Rue des Rosiers, in the heart of what was once Paris's most vibrant Jewish neighborhood — that feeling is compounded, because the falafel is so good that this is the one culinary destination in town I never skip.
The sandwich contains the requisite super-crisp, garlicky chickpea fritters, with creamy hummus, lightly pickled red cabbage (something between slaw and kraut), salted cucumbers, fried eggplant and just-hot-enough harissa. This is all piled into a pita in such quantities that eating it is an adventure in napkin management.
You can make for a slightly neater experience by eating in, but aside from the cramped tables and the brusque though not unfriendly service, there is something about this sandwich that begs for it to be eaten outdoors.
Therefore: You chomp on your pita, harissa and hummus dripping down your cheek — tilting your head to get a good bite, as there's no attacking this gargantuan sandwich head-on — and juggle as many napkins as you can grab, and marvel at the neighborhood.
Although the Marais has been highly gentrified in the course of the last generation — the building of the Pompidou guaranteed that — the Rue des Rosiers and its offshoot streets remain central to a lively district, with its kosher butchers and boulangeries, bookshops and synagogues. From a food perspective, it's unusual in that it features the Jewish food of Eastern Europe alongside that of North Africa and the Middle East. It is the latter, of course, on which L'As du Fallafel bases its cuisine, and although you may find it done better in the southern or eastern Mediterranean, this is the falafel destination in Paris, indeed in Europe.

L'As du Fallafel, 34 rue des Rosiers
Metro station-> Saint Paul

Thanks to e/qual for the great picture
Source: New York Times

Best pastry places (patisseries) in Paris

One of the best (worst?) sins where you are in Paris is going to pastries because you can never know how many of these delicious little things you are going to buy and no need to tell, how much weight you are going to gain as well.

Here is a selection of six places to die for.

Fauchon: Prices are expensive but the inventories are fascinating. The year was 1886 when Fauchon's first store opened its doors to sell Parisians some of the same delicacies you'll still find there today.
Lenôtre: The pastries are perfect, the cakes immaculate and the breads, fresh and irresistible. Admittedly, it’s heavy but what a sinfully tasty treat.
Pierre Hermé: He is a French pastry chef that Vogue called "the Picasso of Pastry". It’s funny knowing that Pierre Hermé began his career at the age of 14 as an apprentice to Gaston Lenôtre. Did the student surpass the master?
La Maison du Chocolat: One of the premier Paris chocolatiers thanks to its combination of luxe ingredients and decadent but never cloying chocolate, Maison du Chocolat offers as big as tennis ball chocolate macaron.
La Durée: Ladurée is a luxury cakes and pastries brand based in Paris, France. It is known as the inventor of the double-decker macaron (sticking two macaron shells together with a creamy ganache as filling), fifteen thousand of which are sold every day.
Dalloyau: Everything in Dalloyau is luxury personified. The pastries are works of art, each tasting even better than it looks. Forget the calories!

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Cafe-philo in Paris

A “philosophy coffee” is an open to all philosophical discussion, organized in a coffee place or another public area. A café-philo is not an abstract conversation in a bar where one "to set the world to rights", as its name could let it believe, but rather a meeting with organized discussion, with a quite precise schedule, a selected subject and a qualified organizer. The subject is often decided jointly at the beginning of the meeting, on a list of proposals of the participants. Everyone can take part, enter and leave in it to its own way, which contributed to demystify philosophy and encouraged thousands of participants to look further into their thinking, to join again with the philosophical reading and to speak in public.
This phenomenon appeared in Paris and is compared to the literature meetings happening in XVIIIth century with Sartre and his friends.
Le Petit Ney -> It’s a small café-philo created and managed by inhabitants of the area. Opened to everyone who wants to come, traditional family cuisine is served there. All the drinks are fair-trade issued.
Metro station: Porte de Clignancourt
L’Ogre à Plumes -> It’s a place dedicated to literature. One can eat, drink, and read in the middle of comfortable bench seats and bibelots. Le Poisson Soluble is the association which takes care of the animations.
Metro station: Oberkampf
Café des Phares -> Marc Sautet was one of the pioneer of the café-philo, he animated one every Sunday morning, he died in 1998. But the café is still there and is one of the most important one.
Metro station:Bastille
Café des Deux Magots -> Nowadays the coffee place wants to keep the intellectual animation from the past century and organizes some café-philo on Sunday morning. They also organize, each year, a Deux Magots Award in arts, architecture, literature …
Metro station : Saint-Germain-des-Prés
L’Entrepôt -> Saturdays and Sundays are booked for jazz concerts or photo shoots. The café-philo takes place on Sunday mornings; the topic is usually taken from a movie. The food and the drinks are just fine.
Metro station: Pernéty
Thanks you to cdn_in_paris for the great picture

How Americans are seen in France

This report is addressed to all French restaurateurs to understand (and welcome better) tourists in France, according to where they are from. This report if from June 2004 but still interesting to read.
This one concerns American people.
Here are some passages (it's translated from French to English so please excuse the inaccuracy):

What they like
Breakfasts: croissants, baguette, pain au chocolat and expresso coffee
Good value for money
To remain seated for a long time, eating
Service at restaurants, is considered like a "real" work

What they don't like
Rudeness of Parisian waiters
Lack of knowledge of English language
Lack of English menus at restaurants
French etnocentrism concerning their language
Dishes with offals
How red meat is cooked - need a "de-animalised" meat which doesn't remind people where the meat is from.

So what do you think of these? It makes sense to me.

Thanks to pariscool.com for the great picture.

Best places to eat and watch rugby at the same time

Rugby World Cup 2007 has started on Friday and it's only the beginning!
Many matches are going to be played, many beers are going to be drunk, many pizzas are going to be eaten, many televisions broken because your favorite team hasn't been as good as you wanted.... If you want to be as close as possible from the matches, here is a selection of restaurants that raise rugby to a state of art (just like you do, hu?!)
Le Frog and Rosbif ->Traditional English pub with a busy little brewery in the cellar. It is a popular & busy live sports venue, and on weekend nights the bar is bursting with a young and international party crowd.
Culture Biere ->Right on the Champs-Elysees, a large screen is at your disposal for all the matches. The cuisine is based on hop.
J'Go ->The Gers is in Paris, it's the whole Sud-Ouest in the French capital. 100% from Toulouse, from the cuisine to the ambiance!
Pena Festayre ->Here the party lasts all night long. The cuisine includes charcuterie, tapas, beer and wine.
Le Panoramique ->Located at the Stade de France, it's the ideal place to watch the match and enjoy a great meal at the same time.

Thanks to L'Internaute and Cor Lems.

Moulin Rouge, a Parisian Myth

This French myth has existed since 1889.

Moulin Rouge is a traditional cabaret, famous world wide. Amazing performers like Josephine Baker, Franck Sinatra or Edith Piaf have attended this stage. The cabaret was also subject of the French painter Toulouse Lautrec.
The French cancan at Le Moulin Rouge includes glitters, stresses, pearls and feathers…everything needed to spend a memorable night.
You also have the opportunity to watch the show while having diner with Champagne of course.
The Moulin Rouge is where you need to go, at least once in your life.

Source: angusleonard

An unique experience restaurant in Paris

Dans le noir? (In the Dark?) is a restaurant located in Paris. They have opened more restaurants in London and Moscow.

Everything is unusual in there but it is really worth going.
The concept is having diner or a drink in a complete darkness, not even a tiny spot of light to help you figuring where is your neighbour.
All the waiters and waitresses are blinded people. If you need to go to the bathroom or anything else, they will be the only ones to ask.
You can either order for a regular menu or you can let yourself go for the "Surprise Menu" which you won't know the composition except that there are a starter, main course and a dessert. You will be able to ask the staff for the elements of the diner/lunch, once you will be done.
In this completely dark room, all your senses will be in alert. You will need to speak loud because you don't know the distance to your next friend, the food will take a totally different taste since you can't see it, some stuff you don't like, will taste pretty good now that you can't see it.
The restaurant is fully-booked every evening, so don't forget to book before going there.

Here are some useful info:
51 rue Quincampoix - Paris 4th
Metro station: Les Halles (lines 1 and 4)

The most famous ice cream maker of Paris

Berthillon is such a famous ice-cream maker in Paris, probably the most famous one. Just by seeing the number of people in the line, you can tell it is a very popular place.

The shop has been in the same family for three generations.
Hygiene and tradional methodes are crutial for the family, that's why you will find only very high quality products there.
You can either take an ice-cream to go and take a walk on the Pont des Arts for example, or either have a seat at their Salon de Thé and enjoy one of their amazing and delicious ice-creams or sorbets.

Here are some useful info:
29-31 rue Saint Louis en l'Ile, Paris 4th
Metro stations -> Pont Marie or Saint Paul or Cardinal Lemoine (lines 1, 7, 9 and 10)
Official website (in french)