Zach and I in Paris Part Two
Jul 04, 2009 | From the kitchen of Rose
Stépane, Rose, and Zach
When my friend Ariane Daguin of D’Artagnon (who introduced foie gras from her native Gascony to America) invited me to be the judge at a fun contest during the James Beard Awards in May I wrote back telling her how much I would love to have participated but that I would be in Paris at the time and asked her instead for a restaurant recommendation. She suggested her friend Hélène Darroze’s restaurant (of the same name).
It was only my second night in Paris but despite jet lag and fatigue I enjoyed every moment of it and did not for a moment fall asleep at the table ( I have been know to do so when really tired).
Zach invited his Parisian friend Stépane and the three of us were all in agreement to order the eight course dégustation dinner with accompanying wines (Vouvray Clos du Bourg 2007, Meursault Les Tillets 2006, Château Brown Pessac-Léognan 2003 and Jurançon Uroulat 2007.
To sum it up, we walked out of the restaurant best friends forever! Here are some of the details of our delight (I was far too smitten with everything to remember to photographs some of the courses):
Foie gras de canard des Landes with rhubarb chutney, fraises des bois (wild strawberries), and beet juice (what an exquisite dish)
Large langoustine roasted with Tandoori spices and the most amazing mousseline of baby carrots with coriander
Sea bass with poached white asparagus, clam juice, seaweed butter and sturgeon caviar from the Aquitaine
(No photo)
Pigeon breast rubbed with cacao, with bulgar and preserved lemon and wild fennel, with a Mexican mollé sauce
Selection of cheeses
You can tell by the absence of dessert photos that I was beyond the ability to focus with a camera but I can report that they were on par with the rest of the dinner.
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Matthew in reply to comment from Zach Townsend
06/16/2010 03:44 PM
Thanks! They seemed very confused at the store when I asked for it, so they must have stopped carrying this tea.
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Zach Townsend in reply to comment from Matthew
06/16/2010 03:24 PM
Matthew,
I looked on their website and don't see black currant tea specifically either, though I purchased a large amount, so haven't been to the shop in awhile. My tea from them is black tea and is labled "black currant tea."
However, if they don't sell that specific tea anymore, then I would use one that is as close to the black currant/black fruit flavor and aroma as possible that they have. You might have to smell a few to determine which that might be.
What I would/will probably do is also check out Mariage Frères and other tea vendors that have high quality black currant loose leaf tea until I find the best substitute.
In sum, though, I'm just saying that getting as close to the blackberry, black fruit, or black currant flavors and aroma is the goal, so you might try their herbal tea you mentioned. It does say that it's flavors and "blueberry and blackcurrant" so that sounds very close.
Zach
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Matthew in reply to comment from Zach Townsend
06/16/2010 02:57 PM
Hi Zach,
I visited Teavana and asked for black currant tea, but they have a few varieties with black currants. I'm thinking it might be Tao De Fruit Herbal Tea--is that the one you use?
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Zach Townsend in reply to comment from Anonymous
04/26/2010 05:53 PM
Hello,
In regards to the tea for La Bomba, I developed the recipe using black currant loose leaf tea from Teavana. However, for the book, I tested Bavarian Wild Berry from Lipton and that will work just fine.
Best of luck! I'll look forward to reading how it turns out.
Zach
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Anonymous in reply to comment from Zach Townsend
04/26/2010 05:36 PM
Zach, do you have a preferred brand of tea to use for La Bomba? Will Lipton work?
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Norma Marshall
07/15/2009 12:10 PM
I do need new glasses...guess I'll move that up on the list. I will read that later after golf. Thanks
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Rose
07/15/2009 12:09 PM
it was sort of an oximoronic thing for me to do and i couldn't resist (thanking you for putting an end to the grammar stuff and then correcting the word!)
seriously this is a good question for the forums. in india it is used extensively and adds lovely flavor....experimenting would be fun. of course check out the sugar story i did for food arts posted on this blog.
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Norma Marshallll
07/15/2009 12:06 PM
Goodness, now I need an editor...ha ha...rushing to get to the golf course...jaggery
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Rose
07/15/2009 11:55 AM
thanks norma! so jiggery or jaggery?
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Norma Marshall
07/15/2009 11:53 AM
People lighten up with the English...okay, here's today's challenge...how do you incorporate jiggery into your baking
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Zach Townsend
07/15/2009 11:06 AM
Had I not been there, I'm sure she would have been too depressed to write about it anyway - ha!
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Rose
07/15/2009 11:01 AM
the missing words are IT IS as in IT IS ZACH AND I or IT IS I in paris but when it's just one person that's not good writing though correct grammar. if it had been just i, i would have titled it: paris part one, two etc.
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Debbie
07/15/2009 10:53 AM
So Rose, you're saying if Zach hadn't been there that you'd have entitled your post "I in Paris Part Two"? That's what it sounds like from the articles you've been quoting, and I'm curious to know if that's what you mean to say.
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Norma Marshall
07/14/2009 01:45 PM
Well, thanks. Gave up on outside ... a little too cool. Back inside doing the laundry (of which I am not passionate)
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Rose
07/14/2009 11:45 AM
sorry--it's coulis!
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Rose
07/14/2009 10:49 AM
norma--that's amazing! i used raspberry couli to moisten a cake as well a few months ago. i've never heard of that done before but i happened to have some on hand and it worked brilliantly.
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Norma Marshall
07/14/2009 09:07 AM
For those of you who asked about the epic wedding cake, here is the story...my friends, Ryan and Shane, were to be married. They asked me to make the wedding cake. I went to the Cake Bible (this is before it fell apart). Because Shane and Ryan wanted a whimsical cake, I decided to use Rose's spice cake recipe. Baked it in a sandcastle mold. Had to invent a way to decorate it without frosting. Made a raspberry coulee to dredge the warm cake. Allowed it to cool. Invented a gel paste and painted the cake. Bought a kid's wagon at CVS and put the cake in the wagon. Added plastic tools that would make a sandcastle at the beach and two superheroes: Superman and Batman. Missed the wedding but apparently the cake was a hit
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Hector
07/06/2009 08:14 PM
Julie, that is a GREAT guess, and VERY educated one. in fact, i posted the description last night in response to Shimi and Rozanne but went to cyber spam. let me try again:
thx Rozanne, thx Shimi. just quickly, it is near midnight on Sunday night and just came back from night scuba diving plus the long July 4th weekend.
this cake was designed for my 2008 July 4th. it is Oval Biscuit (cake bible), each layer torted. the biscuit was moistened with the recommended amount of syrup (cake bible), but i replaced the liquor by volume with CR strawberry conserve (cake bible). my conserve uses 1 drop of La Cuisine wild strawberry essence per pint prior canning. plus i add 1 drop extra per cup of syrup.
the frosting is Super Stabilized Whipped Cream (cake bible), it really is a great one and doesn't water down for a day or two. the picture of the cake slice on its side with the pool of blueberry topping is near 2 days old and you can still see the shell borders quite vivid.
the Winter Blueberry Topping is also cake bible's.
diced fresh strawberries in the filling (i would do sliced strawberries instead, as when you cut the cake looks prettier).
you need 2 packs of fresh raspberries to decorate the peaks of the cake.
note that my ever always more special vanilla essence is used both on the cake and on the whipped creme. it consists of a mix of vanilla essence, hawaiian vanilla bean, and hawaiian vanilla seeds. it really makes the whipped cream taste almost like creme anglaise!
is a fun cake, the light texture of the butterless biscuit makes all the flavors of the fruit and vanilla very clean.
i must suggest, that it is best to torte, syrup, fill, and crumb coat this cake 48 hours in advance, as to ripen the flavors of the cake and the strawberries more. freezing this part would be a good option, too. then the day of the serving, pipe the shell border, side stars and attach fresh raspberries.
cake must be kept refrigerated at all times.
good night!
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Hanaa
07/06/2009 08:13 PM
Your super strawberry shortcake looks fantastic. So decadent!! Which cake recipe did you use?
My 4th of July dessert was a trifle. I had previously frozen three 6" test cakes (while working on the wedding cake). I thawed them out and used some leftover moistening syrup. fresh fruit and pudding. On top I used strawberry whipped cream. Everybody loved it :o)
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Annie
07/06/2009 02:41 PM
Great article from the NYT. We were taught to drop the other person and see if the sentence or phrase still sounded right. Sometimes it's hard to do that on your feet though!
Annie
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Rose
07/06/2009 12:20 PM
My editor Pam Chirls directed me to this great piece in the NY Times Op Ed section regarding the use of I and Me!!!
The I’s Have It
By PATRICIA T. O’CONNER and STEWART KELLERMAN
WHEN President Obama speaks before Congress and the nation tonight, he will be facing some of his toughest critics.
Grammar junkies.
Since his election, the president has been roundly criticized by bloggers for using “I” instead of “me” in phrases like “a very personal decision for Michelle and I” or “the main disagreement with John and I” or “graciously invited Michelle and I.”
The rule here, according to conventional wisdom, is that we use “I” as a subject and “me” as an object, whether the pronoun appears by itself or in a twosome. Thus every “I” in those quotes ought to be a “me.”
So should the president go stand in a corner of the Oval Office (if he can find one) and contemplate the error of his ways? Not so fast.
For centuries, it was perfectly acceptable to use either “I” or “me” as the object of a verb or preposition, especially after “and.” Literature is full of examples. Here’s Shakespeare, in “The Merchant of Venice”: “All debts are cleared between you and I.” And here’s Lord Byron, complaining to his half-sister about the English town of Southwell, “which, between you and I, I wish was swallowed up by an earthquake, provided my eloquent mother was not in it.”
It wasn’t until the mid-1800s that language mavens began kvetching about “I” and “me.” The first kvetch cited in Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage came from a commencement address in 1846. In 1869, Richard Meade Bache included it in his book “Vulgarisms and Other Errors of Speech.”
Why did these 19th-century wordies insist “I” is “I” and “me” is “me”? They were probably influenced by Latin, with its rigid treatment of subject and object pronouns. For whatever reason, their approach stuck — at least in the rule books.
Then, why do so many scofflaws keep using “I” instead of “me”? Perhaps it’s because they were scolded as children for saying things like “Me want candy” instead of “I want candy,” so they began to think “I” was somehow more socially acceptable. Or maybe it’s because they were admonished against “it’s me.” Anybody who’s had “it is I” drummed into his head is likely to avoid “me” on principle, even when it’s right. The term for this linguistic phenomenon is “hypercorrection.”
A related crime that Mr. Obama stands accused of is using “myself” to dodge the “I”-versus-“me” issue, as when he spoke last November of “a substantive conversation between myself and the president.” The standard practice here is to use “myself” for emphasis or to refer to the speaker (“I’ll do it myself”), not merely as a substitute for “me.” But some language authorities accept a looser usage, and point out that “myself” has been regularly used in place of “me” since Anglo-Saxon days.
Our 44th president isn’t the first occupant of the White House to suffer from pronounitis. Nos. 43 and 42 were similarly afflicted. The symptoms: “for Laura and I,” “invited Hillary and I,” and so on. (For the record, Nos. 41 and 40 had no problem with the objective case, regularly using “Barbara and me” or “Nancy and me” when appropriate.)
But an educated speaker is expected to keep his pronouns in line. Here, then, is a tip, Mr. President. Nobody chooses the wrong pronoun when it’s standing on its own. If you’re tempted to say “for Michelle and I” in tonight’s speech, just mentally omit Michelle (sorry, Mrs. Obama), and you’ll get it right. And no one will get on your case.
Patricia T. O’Conner and Stewart Kellerman are the authors of the forthcoming “Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language.”
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Julie
07/06/2009 11:44 AM
Rose and Zach, sounds like a truly memorable dinner, I especially like the sound of the lobster and the pigeon.
Nice cake, hector! Let me guess, Biscuit de savoie, whipped cream, berries, and what kind of syrup? Am I close? We are getting to know you well!
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Shimi
07/05/2009 09:27 PM
Beautiful cake Hector! The blueberry topping looks so luscious.
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Rozanne
07/05/2009 08:42 PM
Gorgeous cake Hector and your pics are stunning. I can almost taste it. What were the components of the cake?
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Hector
07/05/2009 05:48 PM
LOL 2!!!
i was referring to this. enjoy (click on the picture for more photos).
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Zach Townsend
07/05/2009 09:13 AM
LOL
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Rose
07/05/2009 08:40 AM
Hector is this a new kind of Chinese firework?!
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hector
07/04/2009 09:38 PM
Oh mama!!!!! Wish I was there. Happy 4th everyone... I am the last one in the country to firewoks!
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Zach Townsend
07/04/2009 07:50 PM
p.s. dessert was a wonderful chocolate cake / ice cream confection plus a boite of macarons.
Rose's stamina for the evening was beyond what I would have been able to handle on my second night in Paris; I had arrived several days earlier so I was rested to take on the evening. We were at the table from 7:30pm to 12:30 pm but it passed quickly!
Zach
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Zach Townsend
07/04/2009 07:43 PM
A meal and night to remember, Rosie! Me and her had a real good time! :D
Rose, your point about using I and me is exactly right, and I want to scream everytime I hear someone say "for her and I" or "it happened to her and I," to use your example.
And who's this Jack person? My alter ego, maybe.
Zach
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Rose
07/04/2009 06:03 PM
no it is not. it is zach. and it is zach and i not it is zach and me. people often these days misuse i and me for ex. they say it happened to her and i. but think about it--it happened to i?
people always say it's me but the correct grammar is it is i which sounds wrong bc most people say it incorrectly so what is correct is now perceived a wrong!
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Katie K
07/04/2009 02:47 PM
Yum!
BTW, it's Jack and me, not Jack and I.
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ButterYum (Patrincia)
07/04/2009 10:18 AM
Looks divine!
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The Best Ever July 4
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