Tonight I was treated to dinner at Brasserie Wepler at Place de Clichy in the 18th. This quintissential Parisian brasserie was founded in 1892 and has transformed itself many times from a bar in the late 19th Century to a café with billard tables, then to a renowned café with shows and dancing to it's current day metamorphosis as a casual restaurant-café and the largest oyster house in Paris. The Brasserie has witnessed the evolution of the neighborhood that began as the home of the "Bohême" lifestyle, cabarets, and artists and writers exemplified by Picasso, Modigliani, Henry Miller who would frequent this café.
We ordered directly off the menu so there were a hodge-podge of plates at the table but I highly recommend the fruits de mer (shellfish) and my oysters were wonderful! Plump, chewy, fresh, tasting of the sea with a splash of the red wine shallot vinegar. Many of the desserts seemed geared more for "visitors" than the local French clientele but I had the tableside-prepared crêpes flambéed with grand marnier and garnished with tiny brunoise (dice) of candied orange peel! Ohh la la! Santé et bonheur...
Oysters, smoked salmon, shrimp and a chevre chaud (warm goat cheese salad).
My main course (plat) was grilled sea bass (bar) with a zucchini (courgette) flan and Scott had a tomato and herb omelette. And some of the desserts....
On the left are my crêpes flambéed with grand marnier and garnished with tiny brunoise (dice) of candied orange peel, and on the right, a "flottant" or a floating meringue in crème anglaise (pastry cream).
ice cream with star fruit and grated coconut, nougat ice cream in raspberry coulis with toffee chunks, ubiquitous profiteroles drowning in chocloate, and a berry parfait.
So through this 3 day extravaganza, we spanned the range of French cuisine... from casual brasserie (Wepler in Montmartre) to traditional French bistro (La Bastide Odeon in St Germain des Pres) to haute-cuisine (Lasserre off the Champs-Elysées). Mon dieu! Quel week-end incroyable! Merci FCI! Merci Scott! :-)
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Posted by: patrick | Friday, 14 November 2008 at 05:07 PM